MRWEST's 1964 Chevrolet SS Impala Vert

[MRWEST 2,418]

Heres a heap of assembly photos that i didnt put up during the build due to the colour being under wraps haha

 

Final paint prep

 

Out of the booth and first time in the sun!

 

Off to fit up the chassis to the body

 

Freshly painted underside

 

Body going back on chassis

[MRWEST 2,418]

2 more new posts tonight above ^

 

Fitting up the panels

 

Back home to assemble

 

 

2.5" Stainless exhaust fitment

[MRWEST 2,418]

3 more new posts above tonight ^ 

 

Fitment of the freshly chromed bumper and tail light bases, and rear trim etc

 

 

First wedding for my mate, was best man so mrs  drove the bridal party in it

 

Talk among yourselfs

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/34313-the-westpala/page-9

[MRWEST 2,418]

Drove the car over to Hamilton on Saturday to leave with Greg @ Midnight Upholstery for his shop open day.

Couldnt make it on the day but looks like it was a good one!

 

Few pics taken by Earl @ Popeye Pics

 

Talk among yourselfs

http://oldschool.co....westpala/page-9

[MRWEST 2,418]

So have been busy getting through the cert list and nearly ready to go for a final check and hopefully a cert plate!

 

Did a before and after comparison of the engine bay from when i bought to now:

Massive thanks to Toby at BOP Polishers for the polishing, Mikey for the painting, Spun by Hutty for the trumpets, Eze Auto Electrics for the wiring job as well as Lakes Automotive in TGA for the hours at night helping me get shit sorted!

 

Also Greg aka 64Valiant aka Midnight Upholstery was working for every hour possible before beach hop to get my car done amongst others,

But wouldnt let me leave the shop till he gave the boot a quick trim.

 

This is only temporary as have made a panel to go around the airbag tank and will trim this and the side panels to match the seats,

Have bent up some 3/8 alloy hardlines for all lines going into the valve box to tidy that up and theyll be off to Toby for some polishing also.

Should be sharp in theory!

 

 

Talk among yourselfs

http://oldschool.co....westpala/page-9

[MRWEST 2,418]

So good news!

 

Has passed the Certification for all the mods late last week!

Booked in/going for a VIN check today.

Cert Plate should be here by the end of the week and need to take back to the repair certifier now its a complete car for his final tick of approval.

Once thats done and any stuff the VIN man wants done then we should be gooooodddd to go!

 

So close now!

 

Yarns down here:

http://oldschool.co....westpala/page-9

[MRWEST 2,418]

So VIN check went swimmingly thanks to David and the team at Automotive Advantage in Hamilton! Top notch.

 

Fail list was pretty small

 

- No cert plate (had been ticked off and was awaiting plate)

- No repair cert paper work (hadnt taken back for final check)

- No horn (Had taken off as was faulty and VIN was spur of the moment)

- Issue with 2 headlights dipping the wrong way

 

Have sorted it all and will hopefully get it back this week for a VIN/WOF and drive home legally!

 

http://oldschool.co....westpala/page-9

[MRWEST 2,418]

So Friday was a pretty massive day in the life of the 64!

 

Took her back to Hamilton, Neal fitted my Cert plate, took it back to the VIN inspector and got the minor items ticked off and a WOF issued!

4 Years and 2 months after buying shes legal to be on the road!

 

First job after this was to head in to town and meet up with Kenny in his latest acquisition (Thunderbird) and Nick (In his freshly juiced Buick) for a beer at Little George.

Shot of us parked up on Hood St Friday Afternoon.

 

Still a few little bits and pieces to do and what not but we were able to spend the weekend cruising to the mount and clocking up some miles!

Shot off the deck having a beer on Sat night!

 

 

Yarns down here

http://oldschool.co....westpala/page-9

[MRWEST 2,418]

So has been a busy month for the Impala.

 

Had been meaning to take the ITB's off and balance them on the bench as well as service the injectors.

Whipped them off and did that, found the idle screws and been locktighted shut so might explain a bit of a funny idle, 

Also got injectors serviced which turned out to have 3 a bit chocked up which may explain a couple of things also!

 

While i had the intake off we thought we would do the valve stem seals as i had a set and some new head gaskets lying around,

Whipped the heads off got them faced, got some LS7 lifters and new head bolts and put back together. 

 

Went to start and it was smoking out one bank, turns out one of the injectors got stuck wide open and was pissing fuel out the exhaust,

Got another set of injectors which turned out to be off a later LS1 and 240cc instead off 300cc -.- cant bloody win.

Anyways have chucked them back in and car is running and best it ever has.

 

Mates wiring in a Link ECU this weekend and its off for a dyno tune at DTech next Monday so that should cross off all the motor work and have her 100% for summer!!

 

Couple of pics below:

 

 

 

 

Weekend just gone went hard with Mr Midnight Upholstery and finally  got around to doing my boot upholstery how i always intended.

Real happy with the result, just got some polished hard lines for the airbags to go in and its complete!

 

 

Sharn down here

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/34313-the-westpala/page-10

[MRWEST 2,418]

Well has been a busy few weeks for the MRWEST 64,

 

Have got it back from the Dyno after a few hickups but shes all tuned and running better than ever,

The misses, pops and cackles and hesitation has all gone now we have the Link G3+ with G4 Extreme firmware wired in and tuned!

Runs a heap better.

 

Have also added balance pipe and it sounds a shiiiittt load better, less 2 hondas drag racing and more v8! 

Stoked on that one as wasnt overly stoked on its sound before.

Has a nice idle now everythings been tuned up and adjusted and sounds decent enough with the hammer down,

 

List of shit to do before xmas is long enough ill be busy but nothing major,

Bring on some summer cruising!!

 

Pic for fred

 

Yarning down here

http://oldschool.co....estpala/page-10

[MRWEST 2,418]

10,000km clocked up in the last 3 and a bit years since its been on the road.

https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/34313-the-westpala/page/10/#comments

 

[MRWEST 2,418]

NZV8 mag feature, Beach Hop mag cover car 2018 and has been driven all over the show and doesnt seem to miss a beat!

https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/34313-the-westpala/page/10/#comments

[MRWEST 2,418]

Have been using the old girl a fair bit,

The Mrs got me a epic pencil drawing done for my birthday of the car last year.

 

The brother took a mad shot of it a while back i just found again, one night.

 

Bent a axle a couple of beach hops back some how so ended up getting some dutchman axles out of the states that were a bit beefier than standard, nice bits of kit and reasonable price

Late last year had a bit of a hick up,
Was jumpstarting the truck out of the boot of the Impala on a hot summers day, 
All of a sudden there was a huuuggeeeee bank, a cloud of steam/smoke and the car stopped.
Run round to the open bonnet and found a big puddle of coolant, and a burst pipe,
Turns out the fans must of tripped out for some reason, the car got so hot idling that somehow the top hose blew before the radiator or cap let go.
Made a hell of a bang, and ended up on a tow truck home!
Chucked a new hose on with some coolant and we were away again somehow!!

\

 

 

 

[MRWEST 2,418]

Eventful few months for the Impala.

Gave her a bit of a once over before the wedding

Doctor Cuts in the Mount gave her a good spruce up full cut/polish and groom before our wedding. And damn it came up good. A bit of much needed love after 12,000 + km of abuse.

 

The grill i got from the states when i built the car was supposedly "triple chromed", looks more to have been "flash chromed" as had no copper coating underneath etc. It has flaked off over the years of driving.  Thought id fix that up. Had Toby from BOP Polishers strip and polish the factory grill off the car and it came up mint. Bit of a comparision bit hard to tell in the photo but a good improvement

Made it to the wedding in one piece then up to Beach Hop where we burned a shit load of gas and cruised all week.

Not without its issues. Day 1 had a wheel bearing shit the bed catastrophically . Thankfully Ben (red 61 cant remember his user on here) rolled past and seen it on stands and gave me a message, turns out he had a new wheel bearing in his boot so shot round and the legend ended up doing half the job for me as well, we were back cruising within an hour which was awesome!

Parked up watching the Thames cruise she was humming in the sun

She needs a bit of love over winter, got a list of things iv wanted to sort out and tidy up that i never get to so going to pull her to bits next few months and get a few things sorted on her.