moorepower

Chris, you have to make it like the Nacho truck...

 

 

...or let me know when you want to sell it and I'll make my own Nacho Truck

 

*Note the badass '61 @ 3:09*

I had one of these as my first car. It was the roll back king. 

I used to envy a Red mirage with a 4G63T VR4 motor who used to race at meremere. He ran pretty good times from memory. Cant remember exactly but I think it was 11 or 12 seconds..

Is the air cleaner in good condition?

 

Could be getting a smell back through that if it is dirty.

How did you test to find out that was the issue?

Man that sounds about spot on for what I want.

Cheers for the reply! Will be looking into it

You will just want to check spring diameters. I know hq springs fit 58-64s but not sure about 65 onwards.

Ill talk to Joel and tell him to make an account on here. He will be willing to do a deal.

The car is sitting on Kings 'low' Holden HQ springs in this photo. The front X member is 80mm off the ground. I cut 40mm roughly off the rear bump stops (still enough meat on them to pass WOFs) so the car was about 10mm or so off the rear bump stops with no one in the car. The result was badass, sore backs and girls suggesting they needed to wear sports bras when riding in the '61

 

I kept the car like this for about 2 months, then put Kings 'standard height' Holden HQ springs in the rear only. This raised the car in the rear about an inch at the most which was enough to roll around with less bump stop action.

 

The car is now about 40-50mm off the front x member with the air ride in it. 

 

A friend of mine has had a '58 since we were teenagers so I was always keen to get my own american car. He's running Hydraulic suspension

These are a few cars which are inspiring the look I'm after. I don't know if I will ever paint my car, I quite like the patina look.

If I did I would take it back to the original colour which is the same as the bottom 4 door hardtop on wire wheels

Nah not this car. There is another one from out west the same colour as mine with 20's on it and a big block 454 in it, but I don't think his one is running at the moment.

I purchased the Accuair set up through Joel at Lowrider NZ. https://www.facebook.com/LowriderNZ

Joel is a friend of mine so I got a good deal, it would be best to talk to him regarding pricing as there are a number of different set ups.

$3000-$4000 is the price range for a basic set up + installation on top of that. I did most of the work myself, its all pretty much bolt in, except NZ certification requires the front shock relocation points and lower a-arm bag brackets in the front to be welded in, rather than bolted.

I got a small 3 gallon tank and single compressor as I wanted it to fit above the fuel tank in the boot, where the spare wheel goes, to keep it out of the way.

It doesn't offer enough air to play around with it but because I only ride low, it gives me enough air to jack it up once to get the car over a speed bump, then it refills again. If you wanted to play around more, I would suggest at least a 5 gallon tank and two compressors. 

I am eventually going to get an engine driven a/c compressor and convert it to fill my air tank. A lot of 4x4 guys do this so they can pump their tyres up.It will pump the tank up in about 10 seconds, rather than about 1 minute it takes at the moment.

The good thing about the Accuair system is that it can be upgraded to a self leveling system quite easily so you can have 3 predetermined ride heights, at the push of a button, and it will self level so if you have three people in the back it will put more air in the rear bags, to level the car. All I need to do is send the 'brain' of it to the states so they can reprogram it, and they send back 4x height sensors with it, which get attached to each corner of the car and measure the A-arm or trailing arm height.

The front brackets and shock mounts were welded in byDKM fabrication. They suggested 4x4 shocks which was a good call. The car rides really well now.

The Air ride is much more practical now as a family car as we can get over bumps and I can ride it low all the time, which is how I like it. (We don't do side to side action!)

So this summer i threw an Accuair setup in the rear of the car while on the family holiday.. using our tent as a workshop. Had it all done in one day and rolled it like that while we were away. Much nicer ride

Put Holden HQ king springs in and rolled it like the past year. Was a bit too low in the end

New door panels went in

Passed the compliance and cert just in time for beach hop 2014

New front windscreen install and replacement of rear rubber while we were at it

Replacing headlights with NZ right hand drive headlights, brake drums and shoes, shocks, power steering setup, bushes, idler arm etc etc etc for Cert

Washworld mission to remove the 53 years of 1/2" thick dirt stuck to the underneath. Mission Failed. Nothing will remove that dirt

Project discussion //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/47720-moorepowers-61-impala/

 

I purchased the car from Tauranga in August 2013 from Trans American shipping. The car is straight out of Las Vegas. It has genuine patina and has been the daily driver of a big guy (drivers seat is worn) who liked football, betting and fast food ( I found hundreds of old receipts which he had lost down the back of the driver's seat) 

 

As anyone who has bought an American car would know, they don't really look after their cars in the same way we do. All in all the car was relatively stock when I bought it. I never intended on keeping it stock as it is not a rare car. If it was an original 409 bubbletop, that would be a different story.

 

As purchased...

Yea I though about the water galleries not sealing properly. I put a thin bead of silicon around each one, then put the gasket down, then another thin layer of silicon on top, then the intake. I put a 1/4" bead across the front and back of the manifold and threw the rubber ones that came with the kit in the bin. I think they were Mr Gasket ones. 

 

Ill put a fuel pressure gauge on. I have heard the stock replacement ones can cause issues. I replaced the Fuel pump the day before beach hop last year, and it has been running rich since, but I put that down to the crappy stock 2 barrel which was on the car.

 

Ill let you know how I get on.

It seems the temp gauge is sitting a 2/3 to 3/4 whereas it was always sitting on half before I had issues. Very rarely it made it to 2/3s if there was a long hill.

 

The gauge didn't get to maximum deflection during our trip from Whangamata to Auckland, but I was cautious and put the heater on up the big hills.

 

Recently I have changed the manifold and carb to Edelbrock performer and Edelbrock 500cfm. I changed the dizzy to HEI, put new 8mm leads and put new spark plugs in on Wednesday last week.

 

The spark plugs were black with carbon on Saturday when I checked them out, but they were not oily. The timing defintely needs to be reset again but my timing light broke before we went away so I haven't got around to it. It is running a bit rich.

 

I did an oil change at the start of Jan and have only done about 400kms since then. The oil was at 3/4 of the dipstick full line on Saturday when I checked it out, so yes it is using oil, but there are a number of oil leaks around the engine so it is hard to say if it is burning more oil than it used to.I think from memory I used the Penrite 25w- 70 classic car oil as well as the Morays oil stabilizer. 

 

I think a compression and leak down test is a good idea. 

While we were away at beach hop my Chevy developed a bit of a problem.

 

When the engine is re started after sitting for at least 5 minutes (even over night) white smoke comes from the exhaust while idling and during acceleration and will last for up to 5 minutes. 

 

Once running for 5 minutes or more the smoke disappears.

 

I suspect my valve stem seals are gone. Can anyone confirm whether this would be the problem. Or if it could be something else?

I better cruise it to beach hop then. I shouldnt have an issue as long as I dont try to set a new land speed record.

I have the intention of getting a 327 or 350 in the future, and put this carb and manifold on it. Dont need big horsepower in this car, just reliability.