The Wife's '65 Chevy II 4 door

[Greg]

Earlier this Summer we picked up a '63 Chevy II that my wife fell in love with, while I was hauling home the C10 & K20 projects. The Chevy II hasn't been on the road for 40 years, doesn't run and has transmission issues, which led to it being parked.

My wife has visions of cruising around with her friends, driving to the local Wineries and loves the idea of a 4 door to pile everyone into. After getting the '63 home and stripping the interior, we found quite a bit more rust than we had hoped, the floor pan is crumbling, rear quarter panels & wheel wells are rough, etc. We rolled the car into storage out back and figured we'd get to it at some point down the road.

Last week a '65 Chevy II 4 door was listed locally with a LOT of new parts, recent work, upgrades... and it ran and drove! The owner had been trying to sell it for months, starting at $5k and lowering the price until he got sick of seeing it sit. I saw a new ad with a price of $1000. Called him up, looked at the car and gave him the cash. I was able to drive it onto the trailer for the short ride home. The body and paint looks to have been a work in progress, the front clip is in primer and the rest of the car has been sanded, has black paint/primer, etc. it looks pretty rough, but the body is pretty straight and rust free.

Here's the list of parts the PO replaced;

• All 4 wheel cylinders replaced
• All rubber brake lines replaced
• Master cylinder replaced and entire system bled
• New Water pump
• New Starter
• New Oil and filter New Fuel pump
• New Spark plugs
• New acc Belt
• New Upper rad hose
• New Lower rad hose
• New aluminum radiator
• New Gm 1 wire mini alternator
• New Clutch kit
• Turned flywheel
• New Hurst shifter with install kit
• New Led headlights
• New electric Radiator fan
• New Front tires
• New Back tires New inner Fender apron
• New right Fender
• New Core support
• New Valve cover gasket
• New Spark plug wires
• New HEI distributor
• 1 new Rear shock installed, 1 new in box because
• New Transmission seal kit
• New Headlight adjustment hardware
• Led headlights

It's missing quite a bit, most of the interior is gone and the front bumper, grill, trim, etc are missing. But.... we have a parts car! The '65 has a bigger truck engine that was swapped in, it now has a Chevy 250 straight six, with a 3 speed manual, which was converted to a floor shifter. It also has been upgraded to HEI ignition, so no points to deal with!

It didn't run well, the timing was off, the carb was gummed up, it had a terrible exhaust leak at the manifold, and overheated quickly. I've spent a little time taking care of the reliability & running issues, trying to get it to start & drive a little better. Set the timing, plugged the exhaust leak, flushed the radiator, added a thermostat, etc. It now starts and runs pretty well, but still gets hot and overheats within 15 min... even though it has a new aluminum radiator and electric pusher fan.

I cleaned out the car and pressure washed it, trying to blast off all the grime. I started swapping front end parts over from the '63 and got the grill kinda on, but the electric fan hits the mount.

This car will go on the back burner as I have more important projects, but I would like to have a loose plan for the future. We want a reliable, safe cruiser... something fun to drive without being a money pit. Catherine's in charge of picking colors and interior material, sounds like she's thinking Teal (factory color in the '65) and a Champagne color paint job. We will see how that goes... lol.

I'd like to convert the sketchy factory front suspension to a Mustang II setup with rack & pinion. My neighbor has a set of 14" aluminum slotted mags that would look killer with a set of BFG's. It's love to put the car on air bags, so you can drop it on the ground, play with the ride height while cruising, etc. Totally unnecessary, but it would be SO FUN!

I like the 250 engine, but it seems to have issues and I don't know that it'll be reliable in the long run. Honestly thinking about ANOTHER LS swap, with a totally stock 4.8 or 5.3 engine and a 5 speed manual w/ OD so it will cruise down the freeway and get good mileage. Using a front sump oil pan, an LS will fit in the Chevy II.

I would love to look into a Ecotec like the 2.5l LCV that comes in the 2015-19 Chevy Colorado. The LCV makes 200 HP and 191 ft/lbs, with a pretty simple turbo it could easily reach 300 HP. Get a engine & manual trans from a 2WD Colorado and we'd be in business! I just don't know how well the Ecotec would fit in the Chevy II with a Mustang II crossmember.

The wife is excited, so we'll probably keep tinkering with it here & there over time... we will see what comes next.

 

[RustEoldtrux]

Chevy II 's are fun little cars. I had a '63 two door hardtop for several years. I swapped in a 283 SBC with Powerglide and that little car would scoot. An LS engine would be nearly uncontrollable in my opinion with the short wheelbase. I also helped a friend do an engine swap on a '64 Chevy II that had a HiPo 427 - that beast would not go in a straight line with any throttle input so the 427 was traded for a 327 to tame it down. Have fun with this project.

 

[Greg]

Chevy II 's are fun little cars. I had a '63 two door hardtop for several years. I swapped in a 283 SBC with Powerglide and that little car would scoot. An LS engine would be nearly uncontrollable in my opinion with the short wheelbase. I also helped a friend do an engine swap on a '64 Chevy II that had a HiPo 427 - that beast would not go in a straight line with any throttle input so the 427 was traded for a 327 to tame it down. Have fun with this project.

I've always liked them, had a friend that had a quick '67 2 door with a built 350. It looked like a riot to drive! If these cars were 2 doors, I'd be way more excited, but they're not... so the wife can have 'em.

I'm hoping a totally stock 4.8 or 5.3 truck LS would be tame enough, they're under 300 HP and make most their power at higher RPM.

 

[Unimog]

I had a friend who had one of these in high school. Hers had a really strange shift pattern on the 4 speed:
2 3
1 4
I never bothered to ask why, but it was kindof fun to drive!

 

[Greg]

I had a friend who had one of these in high school. Hers had a really strange shift pattern on the 4 speed:
2 3
1 4
I never bothered to ask why, but it was kindof fun to drive!

How strange!

Ours is a 3 speed Saginaw, reverse is up and left... could be easy to confuse with first! 😳

 

[Greg]

These cars are/were listed for sale, but I'm going to spend some time & money on them and make them hard to turn down.... I picked up a set of bitchen old school slotted mags over the winter, they're 14x7 wheels. I bolted them onto the car, but the tall 215/70/14 tires hit the front fender and rear quarter. The tall tires looked lame, plus they were dry rotted and 20+ years old. I had the tires dismounted so I could clean up the wheels.

I've really wanted to cleanup and polish these beautiful mag wheels and give them a 2nd chance at life. It was quite the process, lot of time & work. I started with pressure washing them with the Hotsy at work, after soaking them with Simple Green. The Hotsy cranks out 200* water, which really cuts the grime. I sprayed more Simple Green for a 2nd washing, with some Comet scrubbing the remaining brake dust and oxidation off with a green Scotch Brite pad and a brush. For the 3rd cleaning, I hit the wheels with Zep acidic toilet bowl cleaner and scrubbed even more with the Scotch Brite pads. The result was pretty decent, knocking most of the grime off the old wheels.

After 3 rounds of cleaning and scrubbing.... light scratches from the Scotch Brite pads.

Next step was removing the remaining oxidation and deep cleaning with etching using Bondrite C-IC 33. You can't leave it on very long, its very acidic.

Finally, time to get to work! I've never done this kind of polishing before, so I stopped by HF and picked up a 7" HF Bauer DA Polisher, 3 different foam pads (course, medium & fine) and a couple polishing compounds and got to work!

Some of the wheels had curb rash on them, so I hit the outer edge with a 120 grid on the DA sander and cleaned up it up. I didn't take the gouges all the way out, just smoothed them up enough.

The polishing was tiring, 3 different grits of pad & compound and a lot of elbow grease! The final step was the fine polishing pad with Turtle Chrome Polish. It seems to have worked great, there's still a little machine finishing to the wheels but its good enough for this car! Before & after... it's dirty work!

Final product.... looks great, more then enough for this beater car! I'm excited to have saved these set of wheels and cleaned them up for the miles to come!

 

[Greg]

I've wanted a try painting a car with the Rustoleum Turbo cans for awhile, since the poor '65 was multiple ugly colors and I wanted a quick fix, it became the victim of a senseless rattlecan paint job.

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend it after it's all said and done. It took 7 cans to cover the car at $105 and could use another can or two on the roof & trunk. But it's all one color now and looks decent.... from 100' away.

I had to mock up the slotted Mags in place with the new BRIGHT WHITE paint.... tires will be here next week, but they look GOOD!!

 

[Gravy]

Looks way good!👍
That's the same stuff (non turbo) I did my prerunner.
Better pick a good clear. I did a Rust-Oleum clear and it didn't last.

I did this stuff on my old TJ and it held up great.

2K Clear coat - SprayMax

www.spraymax.com

 

[Greg]

She looks GOOD in White!

 

[Stephen]

I kinda want this car....





No... I can't. Too mainstream. 😁

 

[RustEoldtrux]

In the late sixties, I had a1963 Chevy II, 2 door hardtop. I replaced the original 194 ci 6 cylinder with a 283 V8 and Powerglide transmission. I also squeezed E70-14 tires under it. That light little coup would smoke the tires until it shifted into high gear. Should have kept that one.

 

[Greg]

In the late sixties, I had a1963 Chevy II, 2 door hardtop. I replaced the original 194 ci 6 cylinder with a 283 V8 and Powerglide transmission. I also squeezed E70-14 tires under it. That light little coup would smoke the tires until it shifted into high gear. Should have kept that one.

A V8 swap in this car would be so fun! It would transform this little cruiser big time.

 

[Greg]

I kinda want this car....


No... I can't. Too mainstream. 😁

While a shoebox Nova (Chevy II) is mainstream, these cars are rare these days... you can't find a running, driving two door for a reasonable price. Being a 4 door, it's neat as a less expensive cruiser & people hauler. That said, it's quite possible to convert a 4 door to a 2 door, with plenty of fab work and the needed parts.

IMO, a very mild LS (like a truck 4.8 or 5.3) and an overdrive automatic like a 4L60E would completely transform this car into a super fun, reliable driver.

 

[Greg]

I haven't posted interior pics, been working on cleaning it up mostly. When I hauled this car home, it had a single random import car seat poorly bolted down. I pulled the front bench seat out of the '63 parts car and ripped off the weathered cloth and foam, laid some new foam and batting, then found a perfect color Mexican blanket to toss over it. The seat needs to be properly reupholstered, but at least for now it's half decent looking and comfortable.

 

[Greg]

Got the new tires, they're tiny 185/55/14's and they fit the Chevy II perfectly! It's not easy finding low profile 14" tires. The polished Slotted Mag wheels look good! The shiny aluminum and chrome trim really pop against the new white paint. The front end could come down a couple inches since there's a little fender gap, but I'm not going to worry about it. The car really needs the front bumper and headlight bezels to bring it all together.

Time to sell it!

 

[Greg]

The Chevy II had a driveline vibration at over 25 mph and I figured it was a bad u-joint. Put the car up on jack stands and wiggled the driveshaft and the joints, but they were OK.

Decided to pull the DS and noticed that one of the rear u-joint caps was sitting outside of the captured shoulder on the yoke, but the nuts on the strap were tight!

I took the u-joints apart, inspected and cleaned up the caps, put it back in and greased the joints, then took it for a cruise... all good!! It was getting low on gas, so I drove it to my local gas station and filled the tank. Drives decent up to 45 MPH and turns heads as it goes. 😎

 

[Greg]

New carpet today! It's much quieter to drive, which is awesome.

 

[Thursty]

The color is perfect!

 

[Greg]

The color is perfect!

That Teal is beautiful, had to stick with it. May order some covers in the same color and properly recover that front seat.

 

[Thursty]

That Teal is beautiful, had to stick with it. May order some covers in the same color and properly recover that front seat.

Where did you source the carpet?