'69 Malibu 4-Door Project

[Raoul Ross]

More update. Putting all the other little things together.

Found a steering shaft in a junkyard and the owner thought it looked a little close to the upper control arm so he cut a bit of it off... the control arm, *not* the steering shaft, lol


Got the brakes in, had a hella time bleeding them. Ended up making one line to match the fitting for the rears.


Radiator, trans cooling lines, fuel line. I wanted the filter ahead of the pump, just makes sense to me.





Added coolant, trans fluid and gas.... and it fired up! I made a vid but it's too big to fit here.



Put the front bumper on and we're just about ready to take her out but found out the junkyard driveshaft we got was bent so a new one is being made. Brake pedal also goes to the floor so moar bleeding in our future but it's really close to driving. Fenderwells are ordered and on their way!


Does that air cleaner look a little high? Hope the hood closes, lol

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

Hood should close just fine.

 

[cheveslakr]

I see no problems.

 

[Shovelrick]

Looking Good to me too might want to loosely ball up a wad of alum foil about the size of a baseball, lay it on the air cleaner and slowly close the hood then measure the height of the ball after to see just how much clearance you have

 

[Raoul Ross]

Good Idea!

 

[JohnC]

Your fast work puts me to shame. Looks great. Is that a stock size radiator and shroud? Radiator looks like a monster. You shouldn’t have any problems staying cool.

I like your work on bending the lines. I’d be proud to have those on my car.

 

[Raoul Ross]

Thanx John! Because it's an A/C car we put the big radiator in and that's the stock A/C fan shroud, it's supposed to be that way!

Am really having a time getting the brakes to bleed. I think I'll need to get the MC off and bench bleed it again. No air outta the lines but they're really mushy and go almost to the floor before it stops but didn't stop us taking it for a ride tonite!



And yours truly putting the top end together.

 

[Raoul Ross]

Well, for the most part IT'S DONE! A couple of little things left, turn signal housings for the front, a couple bulb sockets for the rear and a throttle cable is about it.... oh yea, and inner fenders. Kinda important with winter coming, lol.

Figured out the long brake pedal issue, which was entirely my fault. I put nuts between the brake booster and the firewall because of how far the seal stuck out. Took those out and the brakes are perfect now!


Getting the front anti-sway bar in was a bear. It was hitting the steering box and we couldn't get the brackets to go all the way up to the frame. Luckily the owner has a metal shop in his basement (he makes knifes and swords) and he made-up a pair of 3/8" spacers.



Once that front bar was in and we now had good brakes we took it for another ride. Wow, what a difference having a front bar makes! Put about 20 miles on it.



Gawd I dig those El Camino tailpipes! I had put a set on my '67 Biscayne 427 squad car I had back in the day and always liked the look.

Brought her back and put the hood on... Looks like a civilized car now!



Now Alignment shop (I told him to do that before we put the fender wells in. The alignment guy will love that!) and then a body shop to take care of the windshield and the rot under it... but that's all above my pay grade.

I've really had a ball doing this and I hope you'all enjoyed following along!

 

[Raoul Ross]

Last update for a while, having part of my right lung removed tomorrow(which is the reason this was a hurry-up job). But now it's windshield time!

The owner went to MAACO to have his windshield put in and they said $1000! I mean, he already had the windshield but it was a little rotted out and they said it was gonna be a lot of work. So because he already had some metal to use he made his own patches and had our friendly local mobile welder come over and MIG weld it all together. I was really impressed by his workmanship on making the strips and the welder had no problem getting it all right.




Next, the worker at the MAACO shop he'd come over and put it in for 2 bills... fair enough! We had already ground down the welds and painted it all up with POR15 Rust paint.



He also painted some UV resistant paint around the edge to protect the adhesive and it makes it look nicer too!


So now the windshield is in and we put the wipers on. Dang near a fully functional car! Alignment shop tomorrow and then the rear window, which is gonna be much more difficult as someone put some sort of glue around it and then installed the chrome trim on top of it.

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

I am glad you about have her ready. Prayers being sent for you to get better soon.

 

[cheveslakr]

'Ditto on that, I'm sure everything will go well.

 

[kmakar]

Best advice is to give yourself time to heal, but you'll need to push yourself when it's time. I had part of my left lung removed and I was up and about after 2 weeks but was very limited. Not sure if it's your upper or lower being removed, but I had part of my upper and while the initial surgery left shortness of breath and it hurt, 3 of my ribs were cracked at the sternum and that hurt worse than anything else when laying down, so I had to sit up and sleep for almost 2 months while they healed.

I'm here if you need to talk. We'll be praying for you.

 

[Alwhite00]

Looks a million times better than that morphadite you started with, good job what's the difference between elcamino tails and chevelle tails?

Good luck with your surgery.

 

[Raoul Ross]

I am glad you about have her ready. Prayers being sent for you to get better soon.

'Ditto on that, I'm sure everything will go well.

Best advice is to give yourself time to heal, but you'll need to push yourself when it's time. I had part of my left lung removed and I was up and about after 2 weeks but was very limited. Not sure if it's your upper or lower being removed, but I had part of my upper and while the initial surgery left shortness of breath and it hurt, 3 of my ribs were cracked at the sternum and that hurt worse than anything else when laying down, so I had to sit up and sleep for almost 2 months while they healed.

I'm here if you need to talk. We'll be praying for you.

Thanx All for the kind words. Surgery was Thursday morning and came home Saturday afternoon. 5 incisions on my right back plus a chest drain tube... no cracking ribs here, thank goodness. They used a robot to sneak-up on the upper part of my lung and snipped a bit off the top. There was a 1cm pebble they wanted to remove and test. Evidently they tested it right then and there and found that it was cancerous. Then they took out a couple of lymph nodes for later testing to see if the cancer had spread... don't have those results yet. 50 years of smokin cigs and I haven't wanted one since. Well... just a little craving here and there, lol.

Here's me at 0530 Friday morning. Dilbert's boss's hairdresser stopped by.... lol

Looks a million times better than that morphadite you started with, good job what's the difference between elcamino tails and chevelle tails?

Good luck with your surgery.

No kiddin, what a diffrence! El Camino/Station Wagon pipes exit horizontally just behind the rear wheels instead of going all the way back to the bumper.

 

[kmakar]

Sorry to hear that. Are they starting radiation / chemo soon?

 

[Raoul Ross]

I haven't heard anything yet as they're still testing the lymph nodes they took out to see if it spread anywhere else... I'm hoping we caught it in time.

My next appointment is Monday where they're taking another X-Ray to see if it all went as planned. Maybe they'll tell me then.

 

[kmakar]

We'll keep praying everything turns out okay.

 

[Nashville Cat]

I haven't heard anything yet as they're still testing the lymph nodes they took out to see if it spread anywhere else... I'm hoping we caught it in time.

My next appointment is Monday where they're taking another X-Ray to see if it all went as planned. Maybe they'll tell me then.

Check out the post about ivermectin and cancer. It's a cheap generic that would be excellent to take as a supplement.
My brother-in-law has prostate cancer and is on a supplement protocol in addition to whatever the Dr is doing.
He started it 2 weeks ago and he just had a visit to the DR. He was amazed that his liver had shrunk almost back to normal (it had been inflamed).
The Dr asked if he had been doing anything special ?
So it can't hurt to try it.
God bless !

 

[77cruiser]

Prayers sent for a speedy recovery.

 

[JohnC]

I had missed the last few days posts and see you’ve had a lot going on. Get well. Hope you are back on your feet and better than ever soon.