This 1965 Chevelle is a real-world example of a great project... we're going through the suspension, body, interior, and paint without a zillion dollar budget. Follow the build here!
Our 1965 Chevelle is finished, and in this video, we surprise the owner by presenting the car at the Chicago Chevy Vettefest! He had no idea it was completed was completely surprised. Watch and see how it all happened! The car even won an award. It has been a long journey, but we think the final results were well worth the wait.
This is the home stretch for our 1965 Chevelle! In this installment, we're adding the final touches to the outside of the car like the new trim and badges from OPGI . We're also buttoning up the interior with an OPGI Stage III interior restoration kit , which includes the seat covers, door panels, carpeting, headliner, and more. The only change we made from stock was the addition of some Scat Pro-Car seats for added support. These details, along with things like new glass, really make a car stand out. Finally, Nathan masks off the trim for the final buff and hand glaze with 3M Perfect-it III Finishing Glaze , and the car is show ready! Next time, we bring it to the Chicago World Of Wheels show for it's surprise unveiling to the unsuspecting owner, then we'll show you how it drives!
Our 1965 Chevelle's paint looked really nice coming right out of the spray booth, but we knew that by wetsanding and buffing the car with 3M's Trizact system, this car would have a perfectly flat show-car finish. The process involves wetsanding the car by hand as well as using air-powered dual-action sanders to level the finish, then a variety of buffing pads and compounds to polish the car to a mirror finish.
In this video, we're wet sanding the previous color coat on our 1965 Chevelle with 3M Wetordry 2000 grit sandpaper and masking and prepping it for the final color coats of DuPont Estoril Blue. Painter Nathan Newberry mixes the materials in a 3M PPS cup system for easy measurement and cleanup before entering the downdraft baking booth discusses proper spraying technique when applying metallic colors. Then, the car receives several coats of clear before leaving the spray booth. Next step: wet sand it again, and buff it out!
Our 1965 Chevelle gets a cooling upgrade in the form of a BeCool
aluminum radiator, and then we fire it up for the first time as a
complete car! We broke-in the engine on the chassis using some Royal Purple Break-In Oil, and now it's time to fire it "for real!"
This time, we're installing the sheetmetal on our 1965 Chevelle getting it ready for it's final layers of color and then clearcoats. The jamb areas have all been painted and cleared, but we want to make this a running, driving car before we bring it back to the paint booth for final paint.
Our 1965 Chevelle is designed to be a comfortable driver, so we're installing a load of things to make it a nice driver. In this video, we're installing a new floor shifter from OPGI into the original GM console we scored on eBay, followed by some slick Stewart Warner Performance Green Line gauges in a custom housing. Then it's a new Ididit tilt steering column, followed by a Detroit Speed power steering line set. Then a Detroit Speed delay wiper kit goes in, followed by a new OPGI Dash gauge surround and reproduction factory style tachometer. Then, we added some Hushmat sound and heat shielding to keep the noise down, and installed a Vintage Air A/C system to keep it cool in the car.
Our 1965 Chevelle project arrived in our shop with a front disc conversion, but we wanted the fade-free stopping power of 4-wheel disc brakes, so we added a rear disc brake kit from OPGI. This kit utilizes late-model GM calipers with integrated emergency brakes for a simple install, and it also comes with the matching combination valve and pre-bent hardlines and hoses.
Muscle cars need free-flowing exhaust to make power, but that does not mean the have to be obnoxiously loud. However, we all like that sweet rumble from a healthy engine, but not droning in the cabin. What to do? Check out this install video of a MagnaFlow stainless exhaust system with its flow-through mufflers and True-X crossover tubes. Not only does it look slick, but it installs easy, does not rob power, and sounds great at all the right times.
Wheels and tires can make or break a car's looks and performance, and we wanted to choose our wheel and tire combination carefully. We wanted to equip our 1965 Chevelle with wheels that will look good forever, without being too trendy. We also wanted tires that offered great performance without sacrificing ride and comfort. After carefully measuring the Chevelle with a Percy's Wheel Rite tool, we selected a set of Vintage Wheel Works V40 straight-spoke wheels measuring 17x8" with 4 3/4" of backspace. These wheels are practically made for the car, with their crisp, timeless, and aggressive styling. For tires, we chose a set of BF Goodrich g-Force Super Sport A/S tires in 245/45R17 rear and 225/45R17X/L front sizes. The g-Force Super Sports offer aggressive looks, great all-season traction, and construction stiff enough to handle the autocross without sacrificing comfort.
All the sanding and preparation work is finally complete, and we were ready to spray the DuPont BMW Estoril Blue on our 1965 Chevelle. After all the primer was wetsanded to a 600 grit finish, body technician Nathan Newberry wiped the surface down with wax & grease remover and sprayed the body with DuPont Hot Seal sealer to create a barrier between the basecoat color and the primer. Next came the DuPont Chroma Premiere basecoat. Nathan sprayed several coats to completely cover the body shell, then we masked the outside surfaces and sprayed clear on the door jambs and areas that could not be cleared once the car is reassembled. Next up were the doors, fenders, hood, deck lid, hinges, etc. All were checked with the 3M SunGun for accuracy. We're going to assemble the car in basecoat and clear it assembled... stay tuned for that one!
Once the Standox Sprayable Polyester was block sanded to a 220 grit surface, body tech John Blandford prepped our 1965 Chevelle's body for a couple coats of DuPont Hot Prime primer. The Hot Prime is part of the Hot Hues line, and provides the last sandable layer before final sealer and then color. John sprayed the primer using a SATA KLC spraygun and the 3M PPS cup system. The KLC HVLP low overspray primer and filler gun for its ability to finely atomize heavier materials reducing the amount of sanding needed for a flat surface, and the PPS cup system makes clean-up simple with less solvent waste. The next chapter in the '65 Chevelle story... spraying the color!
After the body filler work was completed, we sprayed the body of our 1965 Chevelle with a high-build polyester filler from Standox . The sprayable polyester will fill all the minor sanding scratches and any pinholes in the body filler below. The polyester will also allow body technician John to refine the car's final shape, making the panels glass-straight and the body lines crisp.
Our 1965 Chevelle is going to have a Vintage Air A/C system installed, so we decided to use their FrontRunner serpentine accessory drive system on the engine. This system not only provides a mount for the air conditioning compressor, but it is also a slick mount for the alternator and power steering pump with a new-style serpentine belt for more efficient operation. The main truss mounts to the block and not the heads or intake, so all the belt driven parts line up perfectly. Here's how the system installs.
We've been doing a lot of work on the '65 Chevelle, and while we have hours of "real" video, we thought a quick iPhone update was in order. Here we're working on the OPGI reproduction shifter, and Kelle shows us some of the installed front sheet metal. More to come!
Here's a quick look at
our MagnaFlow dual 2.5" exhaust system on our '65 Chevelle... these
systems install really easily, are good for power, and sound great. We
like 'em. Complete install video to come!
In this update, we're rounding turn 3 on the '65 Chevelle, and we decided to blow the chassis apart for another coat of paint and to clean up some details. Here, we're putting the suspension and engine in for the last time! The body is in basecoat, and we'll complete the clear when it's installed on the chassis.
We've been waiting for the opportunity to break-in our new Comp Cam and Holley / Weiand upper engine parts we installed on our 1965 Chevelle's 350, and that day finally arrived. To make it go smoothly, we filled the oilpan with Royal Purple Break-In Oil to ensure that the Comp flat-tapped camshaft would break in properly and safely. We then installed the engine and driveline onto the Chevelle's chassis and wired it up so we could use the chassis as a test stand to break in the engine. Here's the video of what happened!
Check out how nice the DuPont Chroma Premier Estoril Blue lights up on our 1965 Chevelle's door jambs using the 3M Sun Gun! Can't wait to clear the whole car!
Our '65 Turns Blue! Here, painter Nathan Newberry just shot the body and has masked off the jambs for clear. Nathan is spraying DuPont Chroma Premier color on this one.. it's a BMW M-series color called Estoril Blue. Wait until you see this one in sunlight!
