68' Chevy II build thread

[Crossbreed383]

The next line of business was to clean the block and give it a quick hone along with some new cam bearings.
We could have use the Sunnen to hone the block but I wanted him to get the real hot rodders low budget experience like I did back when I was 18 and had no money ...
So a brush hone and some cylinder lube and here we go ....

[Crossbreed383]

Next up we added some true Hollow stem LS3 intake valves and Ferrea Exhaust valves as wel as a quick lap in to make sure everything seats well.
Then the heads were CC'd to check chamber size, and consequently milled .040" .
Along with a .045 gasket and 61.5 CC chamber we set the compression at 10.75-1
Perfect for pump 93 gas..

[Crossbreed383]

Here ha has all the fancy OEM rotating assy parts cleaned and fresh out of the jet wash tank .
Also had him assemble the heads using our .660 lift dual spring kit w Titanium retainers in preparation for the soon to come new higher rpm camshaft.

[Crossbreed383]

One of my duties here at BTR is doing all of the custom cam work.
So of course had to whip something up for my boy..
Its mild enough to daily drive ,yet has a medium nice lope to it and run hard up to 6800 or so.
Even added some special engraving for him on the snout to help him on his journey ... Also we added his initials ( A.D.) since I always call him by his 1st and middle initials all the time .

[Crossbreed383]

Time to build and engine .
We 1st checked all the clearances ( although nothing needed tweaked thanks to GM doing the work for us
The freshly machined block being delivered home .. lol
Here Alex is final cleaning the cylinders one last time .

[Crossbreed383]

After he checked clearances it was time to set the ring gap .
I must have said something funny at that moment

[Crossbreed383]

Crank is in and here I had him checking end play .

[dykstra]

Originally Posted by Crossbreed383

The next line of business was to clean the block and give it a quick hone along with some new cam bearings.
We could have use the Sunnen to hone the block but I wanted him to get the real hot rodders low budget experience like I did back when I was 18 and had no money ...
So a brush hone and some cylinder lube and here we go ....

The ol “dingle ball hone”.

[Crossbreed383]

So back to our regular scheduled programming ..
Will be updating progress now that I have some time .
So finally was able to get the trunk detailing done .
Added some dark base color . The pics look glossy and sort of Black in color, but it looks much flatter and more Grey when fully dried .
I had purchased some trunk splatter paint from one of the big resto shops for use in a spray gun , but it just would flow right no matter how large tip I used .
I then experimented trying to add the splatter look.
Used this old siphon style wand gun at very low psi ( 5-7 psi) we used for cleaning out heater ducting at the dealership I worked at .
Ended up spraying some epoxy paint from a spray can into a plastic cup and addingsome reducer to thin it out .
The final trick was to HEAVILY over reduce the paint so it flowed out to mimic the factory
spotting style.
Of course I figured it out as I went along so the look I was trying to achieve got better towards the end . But the finished product will work for a non concourse build and honestly back then who knows how well the cars were done from one to the other