Well, just getting the frame ready to go turned into quite an ordeal. I had the frame and related parts all sandblasted and everything turned out great. Once it was stripped clean I hauled it to a welding shop and had the suspension brackets rewelded and had them also add some additional welds to the frame anywhere the factory welds looked a little weak. I was amazed at how poorly most of the factory welds actually were. I also had the welder fix a few holes that had been drilled into it over the years.
The next chore was to paint the frame. While the frame was on the trailer waiting for some friends to arrive to help me set it up for painting I decided to measure it for straightness. It was supposedly checked and slightly straightened before I bought it. I found it was NOT completely straight. Well, with a freshly blasted frame I was rather committed to painting it now. I painted it with an epoxy primer and while the primer was still just a bit tacky I sprayed the semi-flat black. I painted the frame, suspension components, frame related brackets and the bumper brackets.
After the paint cured I arranged to get it into the frame shop for more straightening. My body shop got it all taken care of but the process scraped up the fresh paint quite a bit. It's actually a good thing I had it straightened (again) as my body man found three separate issues with the frame and corrected them all while he had it.
Just the other day I gave the frame another coat of paint. I also touched up all the smaller parts as I realized I missed quite a few spots the first time around. This time I set up a whole lot more lights so I wouldn't miss any more spots.
Here's the frame fresh after the latest paint job. The wooden brace you see attached to the front suspension mounting holes will be used to keep the frame off the floor while it sits waiting for the front suspension rebuild. The brace is bolted to the frame and works better than jack stands that can mar the paint. The work space looks a little crowded only because I had to jam things back into the garage to allow room to park my summertime driver in the other side. I had things much more spread out while I was working! In the last photo in this segment you can see some of the control arms, brackets and other items hanging from their paint racks.
Well, I've managed to finally get the chassis built enough to roll. Even the last step (rolling) was a challenge. I found that the 14-inch wheels I had lying around everywhere would not clear the disc brakes! I had to borrow a set of 15-inch wheels with tires from a friend or this thing would still be on jack stands. In the photos below you can clearly see the AGR quick ratio steering box, the larger front and rear anti-sway bars, the new brake lines and the gas tank. All Chevelle coupes and sedans have the tank strapped to the body, but El Caminos and wagons have the tank strapped to the frame with braces unique to these frames which are about 4 inches longer from the rear axle to the rear bumper.
The suspension upgrades you cannot see are polyurethane bushings in the front suspension, poly bushings in the rear lower control arms, a combination of poly (front) and rubber (rear) bushings in the rear upper control arms, poly bushings in the sway bar brackets and end links, rear air bags and a rebuilt rag joint for the steering box. I did modify my rear lower control arms so they are now boxed instead of open c-channels and the rear sway bar did not require shims. To mount the front sway bar I did have to grind a nub of iron off the steering box which was causing an interference issue.
