Pro Touring '69 Chevelle build thread

[Derek69SS]

After all the fab work and paint was done, I made some steady progress on reassembly for a little while, but then hit a wall again when it came to wiring and plumbing. I don't enjoy that type of work, and couldn't stay motivated to work on it. I had also made a career move into a position with high stress and little free time, but decent enough pay that I didn't need to be such a tightwad anymore... So, in 2017, I dropped the car off with Steven Kiehne, and picked it up a couple months later with the fuel system and wiring completed, and the car was yard-drivable. It still needed a lot of work to be roadworthy, but I could hear it run, and that was enough to motivate me to keep working on it.

[Derek69SS]

Over the winter of 2017/2018 I finished assembly of most of the car, and bought another new set of wheels, this time finally buying the expensive ones that I had wanted for many years, 18x9.5" and 18x11" CCW Classics. I had to make a little extra clearance in the rear, but I was able to stuff 315/30s in with no rubbing.

By spring of 2018 the car was nearly complete, and finally looked to be ready for the road...

[Derek69SS]

Custom made carpet to fit the floor by Steve Augustin, and Cale cleaning for reassembly...

[Derek69SS]

Summer of 2018 was full of expensive mistakes and lessons...

I wanted to run full 3" exhaust out the back, but needed to complete the install of the Watts Link first before I could do the exhaust, but I had trouble getting the Watts set up correctly. (Turns out I couldn't get the exhaust over the axle with the watts in the way, and had to dump it before the axle, so that was all wasted effort anyway)

I ran the car a little bit with open headers, but without exhaust on the car, the oxygen sensors were too close to the end of the pipe, so it was reading lean at lower RPM, and dumping in enough extra fuel to start fouling plugs. I cleaned the plugs, installed exhaust, and took the car to the Lyle car show for it's first trip out on the road. I didn't realize all that extra fuel had thinned out the oil, and was destroying the bearings.

I bought a cheap junkyard 5.3L to replace the damaged 383 just to get by for the rest of the summer. I then signed up for an autocross at DCTC, where a tensioner pulley seized and shredded the belt. Easy fix at least there.

At Street Machine Nationals, my season was ended with a loose lower balljoint coming apart, jamming the tire into the fender. In all my late-night thrashes, I had forgotten that I left the lower balljoint nuts loose so that I could adjust ride-height.

[Derek69SS]

more pics from 2018 failures...

[Derek69SS]

Over the winter of 2018/2019, I had Dad replace the fender and repaint the whole right front corner of the car, and took the wounded 383" LS1 in to Baier's Engine Service for a rebuild. I pulled the junkyard 5.3 and while I had extra room to work, I cut the frame pockets out and installed Speedtech Chicane upper coilover mounts to change from the old dirt-track spring/weight-jacks to VariShock DA coilovers. I got it all back together and had it tuned by Steven Kiehne, making 434hp to the wheels peaking at 5650rpm.

[Derek69SS]

2019 autocross season was humbling. I had somewhat expected to get right back into it and to be a contender in some bigger events, but after 8 years away from the sport, a lot had changed. The competition had gotten a lot faster, and I wasn't driving as well as I could. I fought brake lock-up on corner entry all season and just couldn't get the feel for that edge with a hydroboost.

I did quite a bit of local autocross, and a little travelling with it. Goodguys Des Moines was its first event of the year. We drove it to the Northern Ohio Chevelle Show 1400mi round trip, averaging about 18-19mpg running 80-85mph. I was awarded a "top 50" at that show of about 300 Chevelles. The car stayed mostly together all season, with only minor issues... I did have to replace the water-pump in the middle of the Northern Ohio Chevelle Show after it had started leaking at Dragway 42 the night before. I trailered it to LS Fest in Bowling Green, but had kind of disappointing results there.

At the end of the season, I started to focus on just having fun, and stopped putting pressure on myself to be fast... and that's exactly what I needed to finally start getting faster.

[Derek69SS]

I didn't change much over the winter of 2019/2020 other than removing the hydroboost and changing to manual brakes. First time out for a cruise in spring of 2020, my 8:1 Sweet Mfg. steering box (new previous fall) had developed a pretty significant leak, and while looking at that, I noticed that I corded the inside edges of the front tires. I re-checked alignment and everything had moved. Less camber, and a lot of toe out led to discovering my lower A arms were just starting to collapse. Thankfully, SPC replaced them with their newer beefier version.

My first event of the year was, again, Goodguys Des Moines.

[Derek69SS]

2020, all things considered, turned out to be a pretty awesome season. The change to manual brakes resulted in more consistency, and with more focus on driving better I made noticeable gains against the laptimes some of my faster friends. At the beginning of the 2020 season, with things getting shut down due to COVID, I was unsure how many events I would be able to attend, so I made the decision to run cheap tires (Federal 595RS-PRO) By the end of the season, I was finally within range where better tires might have made up the rest of the difference. I had a few hiccups and breakdowns, but got lucky with some easy repairs and only needing the trailer once for less than 60 miles.

We also spent a lot of time with some really fun people...

[Derek69SS]

With no karting league at the beginning of winter due to covid, and waiting for parts to come in I made a decision to cut up the rear suspension and change the converging 4-link to a parallel 3-link. Getting decent geometry while keeping the back seat is a challenge. The result is an 11" upper link, offset 9" from center, and a lot of adjustability for anti-squat.

Instant center location is improved a lot over stock, all roll-bind is eliminated, and I have full freedom to adjust roll-center height. The only unknown is whether the 9" offset will work... I'm not smart enough to figure out the math needed to calculate that, so I will just try it and if it doesn't work, I will add a link to the other side and turn it into a parallel 4-link.

I also added a drain plug while it was apart... If you ever put a Ford 9" in anything, get the drain plug option. You're welcome.