Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2015 5:59:56 GMT -7
This was mine and my dad's project that we bought in January 2012. This car was built as a Stock Eliminator Drag Car already in the USA in 1979. I found the fella who had built it back then and he gave me lots of good early history on this car. In 1980 he ran AHRA Record with it, and now I can't remember for sure what year he sold the car, but after this guy the car had two different owners in the USA before it was bought to Finland in 1988. This car is 1985-1987 NHRA O/SA Record Holder.
When it arrived in Finland, an 18 year-old lady was put behind the steering wheel and she raced quite actively with it. Last time before us it was seen on the Strip in 2006 though driven by her husband. We bought the car and started working on it immediately.
It was pretty much old technology so it needed lots of updating. We replaced original brakes with Wilwood discs Brake Master Cylinder, original gas tank was replaced by Jazz fuel cell in the trunk, new fuel pumps, filters and fuel lines etc were replaced too as well as all brake lines, Line Lock etc.
The guy who sold it to us, built the rear end. It's a regular 10 Bolt Chevy with 5:13 final gear ratio, but later that final gear was replaced with 5:38. We bought new Global West adjustable upper and lower A-Arms to rear end and modified Edelbrock Anti Hop Bars to fit on place properly. Front suspension was just taken apart, cleaned, painted and assembled. Heater was removed and holes from firewall filled with aluminum. I painted the frame, firewall, radiator wall, inner fenders etc gloss black. Interior was rebuilt too, everything was stripped off, floor and roll cage were painted gloss black, new carpet was ordered and original bench seat was installed back on place. We built new electrics using Painless products that were...Yes, painless to work with!
This car was originally a Chevrolet Chevelle, but it had been modified into Malibu Classic because that way it would fit better in NHRA classifications. So those large rear side windows had been covered with sheet metal and Bondo. Well 30 years later this is how they looked:
So I scrabed old Bondos off and added new filler where needed. Some primer and gloss black paint...Much better!
The previous owner who has more experience in Stock Eliminator engines built our engine as well. Tuning is really limited in Stock Eliminator, it's a 1974 350 block, cylinder heads, intake manifold and carburetor are 1974 too. Carburetor is rebuilt for racing use, but there is not much you're allowed to do with heads and intake... Of course inside of that engine is not that close to stock, but rules don't allow all modifications in there either. I'm not going much into the details here, but it is built just like the NHRA rules say.
Here we are in the dyno.
It made 427 HP with 6100 RPM. After that we took it in our garage, repainted it and installed into the car.
Lower parts of both doors had some old Bondos cracking off as well. So they were fixed same way as I did the rear window areas earlier.
Front fenders and nose were put back on place and then we started doing the final assembly.
Testing if those old Sealed Beam headlights work...Yep they did!
Then it was ready to be test driven!
My dad drove first season with it finishing 6th in Finnish Championship series in Stock & Super Stock (Yeah, they drive as one class here in Finland) and now I've driven two seasons with it. Both times I finished 6th as well. Best ET so far in K/SA (Weights 3902 lbs) is 12.262 and in J/SA (Weights 3747 lbs) is 12.065, both driven by me.
Here are a couple of videos of me behind the wheel.
After this race we added a proper sway bar to rear axle!
When it arrived in Finland, an 18 year-old lady was put behind the steering wheel and she raced quite actively with it. Last time before us it was seen on the Strip in 2006 though driven by her husband. We bought the car and started working on it immediately.
It was pretty much old technology so it needed lots of updating. We replaced original brakes with Wilwood discs Brake Master Cylinder, original gas tank was replaced by Jazz fuel cell in the trunk, new fuel pumps, filters and fuel lines etc were replaced too as well as all brake lines, Line Lock etc.
The guy who sold it to us, built the rear end. It's a regular 10 Bolt Chevy with 5:13 final gear ratio, but later that final gear was replaced with 5:38. We bought new Global West adjustable upper and lower A-Arms to rear end and modified Edelbrock Anti Hop Bars to fit on place properly. Front suspension was just taken apart, cleaned, painted and assembled. Heater was removed and holes from firewall filled with aluminum. I painted the frame, firewall, radiator wall, inner fenders etc gloss black. Interior was rebuilt too, everything was stripped off, floor and roll cage were painted gloss black, new carpet was ordered and original bench seat was installed back on place. We built new electrics using Painless products that were...Yes, painless to work with!
This car was originally a Chevrolet Chevelle, but it had been modified into Malibu Classic because that way it would fit better in NHRA classifications. So those large rear side windows had been covered with sheet metal and Bondo. Well 30 years later this is how they looked:
So I scrabed old Bondos off and added new filler where needed. Some primer and gloss black paint...Much better!
The previous owner who has more experience in Stock Eliminator engines built our engine as well. Tuning is really limited in Stock Eliminator, it's a 1974 350 block, cylinder heads, intake manifold and carburetor are 1974 too. Carburetor is rebuilt for racing use, but there is not much you're allowed to do with heads and intake... Of course inside of that engine is not that close to stock, but rules don't allow all modifications in there either. I'm not going much into the details here, but it is built just like the NHRA rules say.
Here we are in the dyno.
It made 427 HP with 6100 RPM. After that we took it in our garage, repainted it and installed into the car.
Lower parts of both doors had some old Bondos cracking off as well. So they were fixed same way as I did the rear window areas earlier.
Front fenders and nose were put back on place and then we started doing the final assembly.
Testing if those old Sealed Beam headlights work...Yep they did!
Then it was ready to be test driven!
My dad drove first season with it finishing 6th in Finnish Championship series in Stock & Super Stock (Yeah, they drive as one class here in Finland) and now I've driven two seasons with it. Both times I finished 6th as well. Best ET so far in K/SA (Weights 3902 lbs) is 12.262 and in J/SA (Weights 3747 lbs) is 12.065, both driven by me.
Here are a couple of videos of me behind the wheel.
After this race we added a proper sway bar to rear axle!
