First things to go were the driver’s seat and dash to make work a lot easier.
If you have been visiting our site over the past few weeks, you are aware of our newest Project Car. It is a bright red 1970 Chevelle SS Convertible. We bought the car to be a fun Saturday driver. Initially, it looked like it was a no brainier easy fixer upper. However, like every other project, its scope grew.
This is the new Vintage Air system that will make the convertible cooler in the summer and toasty warm in the winter. While under the dash we found two alarm systems, neither of which worked but one was still “hot”. There was also a kill switch plus some additional wires we are still tracing. All will be completely removed.
You can read about what our plans were by going here.
The good news is, we have all the parts but the bad news we still needed more plus we had to pull the engine! WHAT?
At this point, with the radiator out to make way for the new one, all the factory air system removed plus much more made the decision to remove the engine much easier.
It’s no big deal on the parts. We just decided we wanted a retro look radio that will fit in the correct new factory dash. No big deal. However, pull the engine? We knew there was some excessive oil consumption and some leakage. As a result, rather than get all done and find the oil problem was far worse and then have to pull the engine, we decided to bite the bullet and spend the money now. This also ensured us we will be more likely to enjoy spring driving rather than risk pulling the engine out then.
Another advantage of the Vintage Air system is that it leaves a big flat area where the old factory system was. This helps clean up the engine compartment.
I decided it was far better to spend a little more money and make sure the engine was 100% than to be irritated later on. Most of the engine compartment was already stripped out because of the other improvements being made, so pulling the engine actually was not a lot of extra work or time. As of this minute, the engine is off to the mechanic for a health check and repairs as needed.
The images below are of some parts removed that WILL NOT be going back on the car.
