1973 Chevelle SS, 350, 4spd. build

Joe, looks great as usual. I'm telling you guys I've seen this car up close. None of the pics do it justice. Can't wait to see finished product.

Thanks Ant.

Ok, a little update.  Been chiseling away at the car a bit.  I have the dash, cluster, radio and auto meter gauges installed.  All plastic interior trim is installed with the exception of the door panels.  I still have to adjust the door glass before I put the door panels on.  New ACC 4 speed carpet and sill plates are waiting to go in.  Still have to upholster the bench seat.  Spent two days cleaning and detailing the front plastic wheel wells.  When done, I put on two coats of Turtle wax Graphene black trim restorer.  Stuff works excellent and you only use a very small amount.  Wanted to go with Cerakote but found a side by side test of four different restorers and the new Turtle wax stuff had good reviews.  $11 on amazon.  

Today I installed the new wheel well dust shields.  Wasnt too bad of an install.  People complain about the heavy gauge staples and how hard they are to bend over and still be tight.  I installed all the staples in the fenders original dust shield staple holes.  I then took needle nose pliers and bent one leg of the staple just a bit towards the other leg.  Then I took a body dolly and body hammer and bent it over.  It snugs up real nice.  Then I needle nose bend over the other one and hammer and dolly it down snug.  Not too bad of a job and it came out nice.  

Then I took off the front wheels and installed the wheel wells.  Had to remove the battery and tray on the passenger side for some extra room.  Everything lined up and tightened up nice.  All the bolts and washers had been previously blasted and epoxied so they were ready to go.

Then I installed the under hood firewall to rad support braces.  I took them off the car back in the early 80s, stored them, blasted and epoxied them when I did the frame and stored them again.  Now they're back on.  

Rad overflow bottle wasnt too bad but I scrubbed it good and coated it with hair dressers hydrogen peroxide gel and put it in a plastic bag.  It really didnt do much to remove the yellowness but its in good shape.  Clips and screws for the bottle were lying in wait for a couple years and they were finally used.  Found out that my original yellow hose clamps were sitting in a bag, blasted waiting for paint.  Guess I lost track of them years ago.  Just have to hit them with some yellow and install.  

Thanks for the tip about the Turtle wax trim restorer. As for " adjust the door glass before I put the door panels on" this can be a bit of a bear given the frameless setup.

Looking good Joe getting alot closer !!

Wheel wells look great. If you don't have the clip/clamp for the radiator overflow hose that goes to the ground I may have one.

73ss wrote:Wheel wells look great. If you don't have the clip/clamp for the radiator overflow hose that goes to the ground I may have one.

Thanks Matt. Question. Is there a clip for it? I dont recall one. My buddies 73 doesnt have one nor did the one I saw at a show a few weeks ago. I do have a down clip of the hose off the bottom of the charcoal canister.

If you can shoot me a pic of the down hose and the clip, I'd appreciate it. Thanks

Little clip that goes between the fender well and the overflow jug. Not nearly as fancy as your engine bay but you get the idea. . Now I just gotta find it. I'll PM you when I find it. It's yours.

Thanks for the pic. Wait before you look. Let me check my parts bags. I should have it. I'll let you know. Thanks.

Ok, getting closer to done.  Few more things to do.  Have an appointment for a wheel alignment first week of April.  Then I should be ready for some shows.

Finished up the carpet and sill plate install along with the Hurst super boot.  Done upholstering the factory front bench seat, came out pretty good.  Vinyl was made by Acme Headliner and I bought it through Rockauto.com.  Same with the rear seat and headliner.  Front seat and seat belts are installed.  Still to do is adjust the pass. door glass and install the door panels.  Install hood, put it up on the lift and check line and cable routing just to make sure everything it good to go.

Took a quick video when I rolled it out of the garage.   https://www.youtube.com/shorts/bW6uDMgJ7_Q

Also have to figure out where to put the MSD box. Not supposed to put it in the glove box but Id have to find a spot above the glove box. Was also thinking of extending the wires and putting it under the passenger side seat for good airflow. Anyone have any other ideas?

Joe that 73 is sure coming together nicely my friend Proud moment getting ever so closer for you

Seats turned out great! I used ACME Headliner seat covers in my Laguna. They fit really well. Not a big fan of PUI stuff.

Thank you fellas.

The car is looking fantastic Joe. I put my 6AL on my inner fender. By the sounds of it, you're trying to keep yours hidden. So, this might not be the place for yours. Gotta love a Hurst shifter. Is yours a Super ShifterII or a Ram Rod?

Shifter is a Hurst Super Shifter III. The shifter itself mounts quite a bit higher than a normal manual trans shifter and its also offsets a bit closer to your leg to allow for the completely straight shifter rods. Rods have a sleeve over them for extra stiffness. The shifter hump has to be modded a bit to allow fitment.

As for the MSD, I just didnt want it in the engine bay. It was an easy run to get everything inside the car. Im going to leave the mounting of it til the end. Not a priority, just want everything where it needs to be and running well.

Joe I wouldn't mount under the seat. I would be concerned with the mag pickup wires picking up interference, especially if you extend them. They say to try and isolate these from the rest of the wiring.

I had the 6AL box for years mounted on the inner fender well. Never did like it there but my car has AC and there is not much room under the hood to mount anything. I recently got the new 6AL ultra on sale. I was thinking of mounting it where the floor meets the firewall on the passenger side. I found a nice spot but decided against it because it was hard to get to. I found a good spot on the core support. Made a bracket out of aluminum & used existing holes in the core support. Ran the wiring along the inner fender and it lays out very nicely. It should get good airflow where it is at.

This box is pretty slick. Has 3 rev limiters and controls all of the timing. Even has a map sensor to create a virtual vacuum advance curve. You can make timing changes down to 0.5 degrees. Has a phone app to make changes on your phone and or home computer. I still need to lock out the distributor and make the final few connections.

The bad: Horrible customer support. The instructions were horrible. Example, a small paragraph on how to use the MAP sensor functions. One service tech admitted he knew nothing about it. It is too new to the market. They couldn't even tell me what type of USB cable to use to interface with a PC, Turns out a phone charge cable works. Didn't come with a cable. I have most of it figured out now but was on the verge of returning it.

Very interested. I thought about the core support but Im trying not to extend the harness. Im thinking since its so easy to remove the glove box, I might make a bracket behind it.

You should have more room in the glove box area since yours is non AC. I have about 2 inches slack in the mag pickup wires ran along the fenderwell. I may have to extend the coil wires just a bit.

Also, Question for you & Fasrnur, The switch on your shifter. Is it momentary on, (pushbutton) Or can you turn it on and leave it on? It was thinking of a switch like that for convertor lock-up, but everything I have found has been momentary as long as you hold it.

FWIW, I haven't seen that hose clip for the coolant since I sent you the pics.

Yes, its momentary on for the line lock. I have to hold it to keep it on. Im thinking of putting a red light on the gauge panel between the two gauges. That way I have a visual that its on.

LOL on the clip.

73ss my button is also momentary. Although it is in fact a roll control button, it is my horn button. I swapped column a few years back and couldn't get my horn button on the steering wheel to work correctly. So, this is what I came up with.

Joe73 wrote:As for the MSD, I just didnt want it in the engine bay.  It was an easy run to get everything inside the car.  Im going to leave the mounting of it til the end.  Not a priority, just want everything where it needs to be and running well.

Just throwing this out there…

The optional stereo AM/FM-tape player used an external amplifier that was mounted to the dash above the glove box. The dash actually has mounting studs molded into it just for that. Perhaps you could mount the MSD box in that location?

Hmmm, thats very interesting. I knew there was an amp option but never encountered one. I will have to take a look up there for the studs. I really like that idea. Thank you very much!!!!!

I checked above the glove box for any studs. No luck. But there is a good amount of room up there. Im leaning towards making a bracket up there for mounting the box. Thanks again for the idea.

Here is what Zucchi is referring to. I removed this from my car many years ago when I did a dash swap. I do not remember where it was mounted behind there. I included a pic of the mounting holes, You would still need to fab a bracket to make use of them. My car must have had the optional stereo. It still has the dual speaker mount for the dash that was shown recently on another post, and it still has the factory wiring for the rear 6X9's in the trunk to this day. I still have the speaker covers for the underside of the speakers in the trunk. The factory radio was long gone when I got the car.

Does anyone have a pic of what the correct factory radio looks like, for a 73? I have several Delco radios but would like to see a pic of the correct one.