The V8TV 1965 Chevelle

[Kevin O]

This Chevelle is an example of one of those projects that just takes time.     It doesn't have a zillion-dollar bank account tied to it, so the steps have been a little slower than usual, but the pieces are all coming together nicely.

The owner originally bought the maroon '65 seen in the pic, but after we made a couple updates to the engine and were ready to tackle the body, it was discovered that there was major rust hiding below tons of body filler.    Fixing it all would be beyond the desired budget for the car, so we started searching.     This is the part that took some time.    After a while, we discovered a pair of parts cars in Arizona... a '64 4-door, and a '65 coupe that turned out to be a real SS 6-cyl car.   We scored both cars for $900!   This time, waiting paid off.    Now were putting the 3 cars together to make one killer cruiser.  We plan on getting it together with the small block drive line it came with, but beefing it up with some new goodies from Holley, Comp Cams, and Royal Purple.  

You can follow along here and feel free to post your comments and feedback!

[/center]

[Kevin O]

Here's the first blog on the 1965 Chevelle project.   This was a pretty decent driver to start with, but we found the body to be shot.   We're going to upgrade the engine, body, and suspension without breaking  the bank.   

[Kevin O]

We picked up a '65 4-door parts car and a '65 2-door Chevelle SS body with the intentions of building one killer car from the three.    Here's we're sorting through the "yuck" in the 4-door parts car we got to help rebuild our 1965 Chevelle.   It was nasty!

[Kevin O]

Because of the rust on the original '65 2-door hardtop, we elected to pick up a couple parts cars... one turned out to be a real '65 Chevelle SS!   That's the one we're going to use to buld this car.    Here's a preview on how it looks. 

[Kevin O]

While tearing down the parts cars to begin building the good one, we stopped to show how to remove GM c-clip style axles.

[Kevin O]

How to tear down a GM "A" body frame to a pile of bolts in mere minutes.    It actually only takes a couple hours in real time.     We don't recommend using the plasma torch to cut springs, but hey, it works!

[Kevin O]

After the frame was disassembled and media blasted, we sprayed it with a coat of Eastwood's Extreme Chassis Black paint.   This stuff has great adhesion and chemical resistance, and it dries with a nice factory-type sheen.   So far it's been holding up very well to the shop environment where dust and stuff have been allowed to settle on it.    We sprayed the chassis and all the control arms and rear axle with this stuff and we like the way it looks.

[Kevin O]

Time to dive into the '65s body.     The SS body is from Arizona and is pretty clean, but it has some minor rust and major dents.   Here we're gearing up to replace the passenger side quarter panel with a new skin from OPGI using 3M PanelBond adhesive.     We'll post the whole process of bonding a quarter skin when we're finished.

[Kevin O]

Here's the repairs of the '65s main floor and trunk floor areas.   We used parts from a '65 Chevelle parts car on the main floor, and then we got a 3-piece trunk floor kit from OPGI for the trunk repairs. 

[Kevin O]

The quarter panels on our 1965 Chevelle did not look terrible at first glance, but they showed some issues the more we looked.    We elected to attack the passenger side first, as it boasted a botched repair job and a big rust hole over the wheel opening.   We were happy to find that the inner wheelhouses were in great shape.   When we started this project, we could not find replacement complete quarter panels.    Now, of course, OPGI sells complete reproduction "to the roof" panels, but we chose to use their quarter panel skin to make our repairs.    The twist on this repair is that we chose to use 3M's Panelbond adhesive to "glue" the panel in place.    Why?  The Panelbond greatly reduces the chances of warpage and future corrosion.   Watch the video to see more.
 

[Kevin O]

We've been doing lots of work on the '65, and will be posting a video on the driver side quarter panel install soon.     We also just installed a new Comp Cam kit, Holley cylinder heads, and some other engine goodies after spraying the block Chevy Orange.     Lots more to come!

[Kevin O]

We've turned the corner on our 1965 Chevelle build, and we're finally starting to put the car back together.    This time, we're re-assembling the newly painted chassis with a complete Hotchkis Total Vehicle System suspension package, along with some newly restored brake hardware and new brake and fuel lines.     The Hotchkis kit is nice because it comes with all the parts you need to improve the handling performance of you car including tubular rear suspension control arms, Bilstein shock absorbers, oversize front and rear sway bars, and Hotchkis lowering performance springs.    The kit also includes all the hardware you need to put it together.    This car came with a decent disk brake kit installed, so we simply ran the parts through our Eastwood sandblast cabinet and then powdercoated them with an Eastwood Hot Coat kit.     We reassembled the brakes with new pads, bearings, and Royal Purple Synthetic Grease .   Next we installed new bushings and ball joints from OPGI, and then the parts were ready to bolt together.   Our new brake lines were formed with a kit from YearOne .    Finally, we shot the underside of the body with some PPG DP90 Epoxy black primer followed by a coat of 3M Body Shutz for protection.    The wheelhouses were coated with roll on Herculiner truck bed liner to make them bulletproof, and then we mated the body to the chassis with the help of a body mount bushing kit from OPGI . 

[Kevin O]

[Kevin O]

We've chosen a color for the '65... it's going to be a factory BMW M-series color called Estoril Blue.   It's one of those colors that shifts from bright metallic sky blue in sunlight to a purple cast blue in the shadows.   These shots are from a BMW wearing the color.   What do you think?

[99 CUSTOM]

Way back in 1977,my 1st car was a 1965 Chevelle, 283,2 speed auto on the floor bucket seats.That is one Car I wish I had Back.