Hey everyone, like the title says I am new to the forum, but not to cars. I will try to be brief about myself.

I am 22 years old and have been working on cars since I was about 15. Right now I live in Millbrook, IL. I work in an auto-body shop a few towns over doing mechanical work. When I am not there I work as a volunteer firefighter and EMT-Basic, and am working towards getting some time on our ambulance.

I joined the thread to seek some advice on my dad's and mine project car, a 1969 Chevy Impala. Some day it may be slotted for a frame-off if I ever get the money, but for now we are just fixing the main issues and doing a few upgrades to it.

I am working on getting the fenders fixed (rust at bottoms) and a few spots here and there. I am also planning to replace the springs and shocks all around, and put new ball joints and any bad bushings up front, ETC.

Drivetrain wise, it has a 350 V8 (255hp 4 barrel) stock except for an added MSD module; and a TH350 Automatic. I recently ordered a B&M shift improver kit with the plans to install it in the street/strip mode. It has a full new exhaust system on it with the exception of headers, which will be coming next (an item I will post on another thread). I also plan to replace the rear gear with a 3.55 and limited slip... because it has an open rear with a highway gear with NO off the line guts at all.

Hopefully I can get some of the more experienced GM guys to share the knowledge!

Thanks!

George

 

Welcome to the Chevrolet Forum! Sounds like a cool project. Got any more rides?
If you don't mind, check in on our ride of the month contest and vote on the best ride. Also, don't be shy about posting something in the general discussion sections

 

George thanks for joining. Keep up the EMT and firefighter work too. It's nice to see a young person volunteer and I'm sure your Dad is proud. Post some pics of that Impala.

 

Actually yeah we have a few other vehicles in the stable.

My primary ride is a 2004 Honda Civic. I love this car. Got it three years ago. I had a custom muffler made for it that is not a fart can... it is a Magnaflow that is setup to look stock. I just put some upgraded front brakes on it, and other than that the only upgrades to it are all the blue lights I put in for my fire/ems work.

I share another vehicle with my dad. A 1991 Jeep Cherokee 4x4 4.0L Automatic. It is very rough around the edges but it runs great. Only upgrade there are a few blue lights as well.

One other vehicle we share is a 1975 Honda CB500T Motorcycle. Neat old bike that still runs pretty good.

My dad's car is a 2003 PT Cruiser GT Turbo. K&N Drop in filter upgrade only and religious maintenance. He loves it, I tolerate it.

My mom drives a 2001 Explorer Sport trac which is starting to show its age at 120k.

I will see about starting up some threads on my mechanical questions and such. Thanks for the welcome!!!!

 

Welcome to the forum, glad to have ya. Let us know if you need any help on the forum with anything, and yes we do have GM techs, ASE & Master Mechanics here to help when they can, ask away.

 

Before any work...




Currently how she sits... It will be easy to do the suspension work and install the headers at this point...



My ride...



All lit up... I recently added a light identical to the one in the window to the REAR window, but I don't have a video of that yet...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...V+lights&hl=en



Thanks again for the welcome!!</EMBED>

For anyone interested this is me at a training burn we had not too long ago.

 

Very nice! thanks for sharing the pics. Thats sure a big project you got going there, we look forward to seeing the progress.

The lights look slick too

Man we need you in california right now, our mountains are burning up, over 50 some thousand acres already.

 

Thanks thanks. For now we just want to get it a little more presentable. Maybe if i land a good firefighting job with more steady pay than the mechanic gig I can afford to take the time and lift the body off the frame and give her a real goings through... thanks for the compliments on my lights. I spent a lot of time doing a detailed hard wired install to two switches in my center console.

Well ima hit the hay for tonight. Thanks for the welcomes, i will check back soon!

 

Ya know... "California Wildfires" and "California Emissions Standards" are subjects that make each other redundant. lol

gasteffens, the Impala really looks like it is a good car from the beginning of the restoration. Nice project!

 

The air here is so nasty right now , the moon looks brown.