[b-man]

Thanks for the control arm info Andrew, I just may decide to buy a set like yours.

At this point I will have to run the 12" B-body front brakes that are already on the car for a while, I really need to focus my funds on the trans/converter/wiring/air conditioning before I can do anything at all to the front end.

I really never plannned on the rear end upgrade along with a set of new wheels and tires, but things have a way of snowballing on you when you're attempting to build something that's really nice.

When it's time to call KORE3 again I'll be putting my new 14" front disc brakes on a set of ATS spindles for sure.

[b-man]

.....were waiting for me in my driveway when I came home from work today.

They are finished in a very nice matte black paint, just a slight amount of gloss. Painted wheels are really easy to care for, just a quick going over with the wash mitt and you're done.

I really like the way the 12 spokes protrude just past the edge of the rim near the wheel center. The casting quality on these wheels is second to none in my opinion.

I bought a set of General Exclaim UHP tires, mainly because I could afford them. A very good tire for the price, I have set of them (225/40-18) on one of my daily drivers too and I've been quite happy with them.

245/40-18 for the front, same size as a C6 Corvette front tire.





275/40-18 for the rear, plenty of tire for my needs. Not much smaller than the 285/35-19 used on the C6 and almost the same height.





New front wheel adapters, 1.063" thick (27 mm). I had them made both hub-centric and wheel-centric. I'll need to put the front hubs on a lathe and slightly turn down the O.D. of the rough cast part closest to the dust cap, the I.D. of the wheel-centric lip on the adapter interferes by just a hair. A tapered-seat OEM 7/16-20 lugnut will attach them to the 12" B-body front hub/rotor, M12X1.5 is the stud thread size on these adapters.

These are definitely top-quality parts, I'll sleep just fine knowing these are on my car.

[wheelspin]

Hey Bart,

Looks like I'm falling behind in the G machine competition . Impressive chassis, rolling stock, and braking setup. Those wheel adapters are way too pretty to hide behind those killer OZ hoops .

Les

[b-man]

Originally Posted by wheelspin

Hey Bart,

Looks like I'm falling behind in the G machine competition . Impressive chassis, rolling stock, and braking setup. Those wheel adapters are way too pretty to hide behind those killer OZ hoops .

Les

Hey Les,

I'm doing my best with my limited budget and the amount of time I have to invest in the Tempest project. More than anything I just want a cool car that will at least do some things well.

While the weather's still warm (mid-'70s) I'm spending today sanding down the floorpans with 180 grit wet paper so the POR-15 will stick to the non-rusted areas. After I finish eating lunch I'll be applying some Metal Prep to etch the rusty areas in preparation for tomorrow's all-day POR-15 application marathon.

With any luck after these mods to my car I'll be able to keep up with you in your T/A or Spyder on one of our canyon runs.

Thanks for the kind words.

Bart

[fgs0347]

First off, I would like to say I LOVE the concept that you're going for with the resto-mod '64. I'm preparing to do the same with my '69 LeMans. Needless to say I'll be watching this one very closely.

On that note I've got a couple of philisophocal questions for you:

1) Why did you choose to go with the crate motor instead of (for example) a used truck motor or a used LS-2.
2) I noticed that you're making provisions to use the original-era mechanical guages. Are there vendors that convert original style guages to electronic such that they would work with a newer PCM? Or is that not an option..
3) For the wheel/tire combo, have you considered (although they are pricey) the wheel vintiques steel or aluminum aftermarket wheels? They have the original look, but come in 17" and larger for better handling.

I'll probably have more as time moves on, but again, I love what you're doing!

[b-man]

Originally Posted by fgs0347

First off, I would like to say I LOVE the concept that you're going for with the resto-mod '64. I'm preparing to do the same with my '69 LeMans. Needless to say I'll be watching this one very closely.

On that note I've got a couple of philisophocal questions for you:

1) Why did you choose to go with the crate motor instead of (for example) a used truck motor or a used LS-2.
2) I noticed that you're making provisions to use the original-era mechanical guages. Are there vendors that convert original style guages to electronic such that they would work with a newer PCM? Or is that not an option..
3) For the wheel/tire combo, have you considered (although they are pricey) the wheel vintiques steel or aluminum aftermarket wheels? They have the original look, but come in 17" and larger for better handling.

I'll probably have more as time moves on, but again, I love what you're doing!

Thanks for the kind words friend.

1) I chose a spankin' new LS3 engine because for one thing I know where it's been, and it comes with a 24 month/24K mile warranty. A lot of salvage yards want way too much for these 6.2 liter engines. If you don't buy a Corvette version you'll still have to spend a fair amount of dough to undo all of the truck stuff that won't fit in with the swap parameters.

2) At this point I'm not sure of my gauging options, I really haven't researched that one important detail as of right now.

3) The steel wheels are just too heavy, period. My current 17X8s weigh 37# bare, with a 235/45-17 tire they weigh 56# . I considered having a new pair of 17X9" rear steelies made to match my current set so I could continue the same look. However after looking at the cost ($209 each plus painting) and the need for new tires I was already halfway to a set a new lightweight 18X9s and tires.

I'd bet the 18" wheels I bought are far lighter than any of the Wheel Vintiques aluminum 17" wheels, plus I just don't care for the styling of them anyways.

My Tempest really needs a set of black wheels for it to look 'right' to me, I really couldn't be any happier with ones I bought. They were somewhat pricey at $358 each, I bought 5 of them. Not a bad price for a very nice-looking high-quality cast wheel that weighs only 20.8# bare, 45.8# total w/tire for each front and 47.8# for the rear.

[Mr_GTO]

Simply awesome. I am also taking notes...

[455HOGT37]

Bart,

Glad you went with the "correct" bolt circle. Lots of the Holden "GTO" guys (5 x 120mm) run Corvette or other 4.75 BC wheels and just hope for the best... Just because no one has lost a wheel (yet) doesn't mean its a good idea to force the studs sideways. Wrong is wrong.

Great progress BTW!

[b-man]

Picked up the seats from the upholstery shop today.

I'm pretty happy with the work, the original colors and fabric patterns were fairly closely duplicated. I had the work done by a small one-man shop that's local to me.

I know the stock front bench seat is far from ideal for a lot of hard cornering, but it has the look I want for the car and I won't be changing it anytime soon.

[marauder]

I really like what you are doing with your Tempest and now find myself looking at '64 Tempests and LeMans verts for sales and pondering a future project. I should probably unsubscribe from this thread right now!!!

[b-man]

.....to the front hubs so the wheel adapters would fit.

The outermost portion of the hub needed to be ground down a bit so the wheel-centric ring that's machined on the wheel side of the adapter would slip over the hub.

I did most of the material removal with a die grinder, if the 12" rotor would have fit on one of the lathes we have at work I would have used that method instead. Doing it this way was more labor-intensive, but it did save me the trouble of taking the rotors off and the cost of replacing the wheel bearing seals.



The rough cast surface (a spare rotor is shown here) needed to be dressed down about .040" on the diameter, so around .020" of material needed to be removed all around. The outer hub strength was not compromised in any way, the end result looks like it was done only for the sake of cosmetics.



Another small but important job out of the way.

[Stuart]

The seats turned out really nice!

[68Prix]

I agree those seats look great. I am enjoying the progress you are making on the car. Pat

[Overkillphil]

Is that fiberglass mesh the same stuff used for spackling drywall joints?

[b-man]

Originally Posted by Stuart

The seats turned out really nice!

Originally Posted by 68Prix

I agree those seats look great. I am enjoying the progress you are making on the car. Pat

Thanks guys, I really like the way the original Tempest upholstery looks. The front bench will look just right with the beautiful slender chrome column shift lever these cars came with. Other than the wide wheels and tires this car will look fairly sedate overall, and even then the black 18" wheels won't really stand out too much at first glance.

Originally Posted by Overkillphil

Is that fiberglass mesh the same stuff used for spackling drywall joints?

Not that I'm aware of. I bought this fiberglass cloth from a hardware store about 20 years ago and it was cut off of a pretty wide roll. It's the same type of cloth you'd use to repair a fiberglass boat.

On the same subject, after pulling all of the duct tape off the bottom of the floorpans I noticed a few small holes had opened up. It's hard to get a patch down in every single bad spot. The very smallest holes that didn't have any duct tape at all underneath them filled up just fine due to the high solids content of the silver POR-15.

It's easy to miss a couple of holes here and there due to the convoluted shape of the floorpan stamping. Once you get going with the thick silver POR-15 it covers up some of the holes that would have needed a little patch, the duct tape did a great job keeping the POR-15 from coming through.

I'll go back and sand the spots that need touching up and apply a little more POR-15 and add a few more small patches. A couple of the already hardened patches need another coat of POR-15 to fill them in all the way, you just can't tell until the duct tape on the back side has been pulled off.

Overall still an excellent repair job, the POR-15 paint is a great product.

[b-man]

.....will be required to get the LS3 engine in the car.

So I spent some more money, what else?

Ordered up a new SS3600 245 mm (9.5") lock-up converter from YANK Performance Converters: http://www.converter.cc/converters/street/GM/1/ They're on sale right now for $725 with free shipping. This one should flash to about 3200 behind the LS3 according to Dave at YANK, it's their most popular converter.

Street/Strip Super Stock 3600 Converter description from the YANK site:

245mm very high stall torque ratio. 3600 stall, 2.50 STR
Lightweight billet cover

Rather than swap to a bigger cam I spent about the same money on a torque converter. A good converter is an absolute must for anyone with a performance car running an automatic trans.

I had them send the new converter over to Finish Line Transmissions:http://www.finishlinetrans.com/trans...meDuty4L65.htm When the new 4L70E trans is finished they can put the trans and converter combo on their dyno for testing before shipment.

The 4L70E-5 Extreme Duty – Level 5 trans is on sale for 10% off right now, for $2,295 plus $150 shipping (core return shipping is free). I'll have my trans here in about 4 weeks.

I spoke with Andy at FLT and he helped me figure out exactly what I needed before placing my order, a big thanks to PY member Karch for steering me towards this fine trans shop.

I'll have it configured as a Trail Blazer SS trans rather than an F-body unit so the correct speed sensor will be installed to 'talk' to the Speartech computer/wiring harness that I still need to buy. Right now I need to find a trans core to send them.

New 4L70E description from the FLT site:

4L65/70E-5 Extreme Duty – Level 5

FLT performance built pump ( Includes machined pump halfs to ensure flat surfaces, New delco 13 vain pump/rotor/slide kit )
Media blast case, bell housing, and tail housing to restore a new aluminum finish. Prep case for assembly.
FLT sleeved input drum
FLT beast shell kit w/bearing
GM 5 pinion input carrier
GM 5 pinion reaction carrier
Bearing style reaction shaft
New reverse input drum
Alto wide 2-4 carbon lined band with reinforced anchor
8 B/W hi-energy clutches w/koleen steels in 3-4 clutch
B/W 29 element sprag
4L65 low roller clutch
Transgo HD-2 shift kit
Corvette Servo
Sonnax super hold 4th servo
Bushing kit
New solenoids
New Internal wire harness ( If needed on 4L70E )
New GM Spacer plate
B/W clutches
Seal & gasket kit
Filter
GM deep pan
Updated aluminum accumulator pistons
FLT prepped valvebody
Set end play to FLT specs
Install new cooler fittings

Previous (swap-related only) total - $9,903

Cost of the today's installment - $3,170

Total swap-related expenditures at this point - $13,073

New seat upholstery, wheels, tires, wheel adapters and rear brakes not included.

Short list of needed items:

Vintage Air setup
Speartech engine/trans controller and harness
Driveshaft
Corporate 8.5" 10-bolt rear end (still on order)
New windshield
Floor insulation

This hobby can be expensive if you're trying to build something nice.

[krisr]

Bart, dont care what anyone says, this is one of the most enjoyable threads i've read on PY in a while and I can without hesitation say that I would be doing the same swap in my current car (equipped with a multiport EFI 400" Pontiac) if someone bought the engine or god forbid something broke inside it.

Hat goes off to you sir.

Please, continue

[Karch]

Originally Posted by krisr

Bart, dont care what anyone says, this is one of the most enjoyable threads i've read on PY in a while and I can without hesitation say that I would be doing the same swap in my current car (equipped with a multiport EFI 400" Pontiac) if someone bought the engine or god forbid something broke inside it.

Hat goes off to you sir.

Please, continue

First in line on your efi/spark setup

PS: Can you help with Stobin's efi needs?

[b-man]

.....that I needed for the 4L70E trans and the rear suspension upgrade.

Ordered a Shiftworks tailhousing that will allow me to run the original cable-driven speedometer along with the electronic speed sensor. They get $495 for this plus $15 shipping, I had it sent directly to FLT so they could install it during the trans build.

I had my choice of this or an electric motor to drive the speedo for a couple hundred dollars less, I figured the mechanical drive would be more trouble-free in the long run.



I also decided to buy a set of Currie Currectrac® control arms for the rear suspension. These feature Currie's Johnny Joint® which allow a full 30 degrees of articulation on the chassis end of the arms. This joint is fully greasable and rebuildable.

The upper arms will allow me to adjust the pinion angle.



The lower arms are made from lightweight billet aluminum, both the urethane bushing and Johnny Joint® are greaseable.



Today's swap-related expenditure - $510

New swap-related total - $13,583

It's going to be a lot of fun when it's time to get this all put together.

[Karch]

Originally Posted by b-man

... I had it sent directly to FLT so they could install it during the trans build.

Probably a great move!