Projects 1962 Biscayne Jr Stocker for the Street Build

Made up the patch's for the trunk.

 

My car has a big wad of fiberglass in those spot.

 

To be honest, I thought about fiberglass or Duraglas on mine. Fitting these small patches has been a pain in the ass. Maybe I should have just cut one large area out on each side but I read an article that said to save as much of the original structure as possible, so here we are.

 

Made some progress on the trunk...
Took some rust prevention measures.
Got the left side tacked in and the right side pretty much welded.
Found a soft spot in the left rear of the pan. Welded in a patch and cleaned it up.

 

Finished the welding and cleaned it up a bit. I'll throw some mud on the seams and get the trunk ready for paint.

 

The trunk is pretty much finished.
The divot on the left side is a deep factory spot weld so I decided to leave it.
I really liked the Eastwood seam sealer. It's really thick and holds brush marks like original. It would have come out better with a stiff brush which I'll be sure to have before I do the floor pans.
I've decided to paint the trunk after the roll bar is installed.

 

Speaking of the roll bar... After 2 months, the S&W Racecars roll bar kit showed up. I own a tig welder and planned on doing the install myself. I have hand tremors that are getting worse so before I screw it up, it goes to the chassis shop next week.

 

Some before and after pics of the trunk repairs from underneath.

 

Putting my FB Marketplace basket case of a seat together in preparation for the roll bar install.

A few well placed zip ties secured the cover. Installed some repop rubber bumpers. I bolted the modified seat tracks on. I now have a mock-up seat.

 

Set out to install urethane body mounts. Six of the eight came loose but of course the two at the box mounts spun the cage nuts. More patching to do but the old mounts are out.

 

Completed a couple of milestones...
Popped the bumper off and cleaned and painted the last couple inches of the frame and floor. I'm going to call painting of the bottom of the car complete.
I've owned this car for 15 years and this is the first time I sat in it. Shortly after this pic was taken, the car was loaded into the trailer and made its way to the chassis shop.

 

I have a set of poly mounts for my 62 on the shelf and I've been avoiding installing them because I'm afraid of this exact thing.

 

Yea, I was avoiding it myself but it wasn't that bad. Had the windows cut and the bolts/nuts out in less than an hour. I still have to figure out how to secure the nuts then patch the windows. Just an FYI, a 1" open end works to hold the nut.

 

I appreciate the info. It's the potential of cutting into my 2-owner original paint car that bothers me

God hates a coward, I guess.

 

Yea, that would suck.
There is a hole and a seam that you can use as access to soak with penetrating oil. Let it sit a few days then gently hit it back and forth with an impact. If it starts to spin you can abandon the project and it will still be tight. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the tip. I'll put it up on the 4 post and try that.

The body mount bushings are pretty much done after 63 years, so they need to be replaced one way or the other. I'll probably hit the end of the bolt with the air chisel to put some vibration through it too, see if that helps break it loose.

 

I have been following your build, great detail on your thread. Here is pic of my Impala
I built a few years back, 327. 4 spd, 4;11, or 4:56 posi rear. Good luck with your project.

 

Wow! very cool, thanks for posting.
I have acquired most of the parts to build a 327/250 horse super stock engine. Not the latest greatest stuff but it should be able to run under the SS/MA index. That will be the final version of my car.

 

Regarding your hand issue, I get the same thing from time to time. I just figure that it gives me an automatic weave to the bead!

 

It does, I just drag the mig gun and my tremors can produce a pretty decent pattern. Might as well make the best of it, lol.

 

Since the car will be at the chassis shop for a while, I'm going to work on the engine and trans setup. I've been playing with this engine build off and on the last couple of years. I bought the large journal 327 block, 461 heads, timing cover, and balancer at a swap meet for $100. The engine is going to be a budget build, legal for NHRA Stock Eliminator but without the trick stuff and toned down for street use. The first pic is after I pulled the plugs and cam bearings before taking it to the machine shop. The second pic is when it came back cleaned, bored .030 over, and line honed. The decks checked out nice and straight so I did not deck the block (budget, lol).

 

After the block came back, I installed the cam bearings, tapped for and installed threaded oil galley plugs, installed the freeze plugs, and gave it a coat of good old chevy orange.

 

That's gotta be more fun than cutting/welding/grinding!
I'm enjoying following your progress. Keep up the good work.

 

Definitely keep up the good work.

 

It sure is! I'm a lifelong mechanic. Thought it would be fun in retirement to learn fab and body. I am pleased with the outcome so far but I'm getting my fill of it, lol. The body guys earn their pay for sure.

Thanks for the kind words and for riding along.

 

I balanced the parts I could do myself, then sent the crank out. Must have been pretty close, only one small drill mark. Probably could have gotten by without doing the crank but you don't know until they chuck it up.

 

The cast crankshaft was a $30 FB Marketplace score. It was sitting in the back of a body shop and had surface rust. It cleaned right up with 0000 steel wool. The machine shop I deal with said all the journals were dead center .010 and .010.


I used a deck bridge to find true TDC.


Degreed the Stock Eliminator legal cam (stock lift). If this was a serious Stocker engine it would have about 25 Degrees more duration on each side. I wanted to advance the cam 4 degree's but this timing set is an old hand me down from my race car and the one notch it had moved the cam 8 degrees so I installed it straight up (108 intake lobe center).

 

Rings are inexpensive Hastings. Great quality, tight end gaps, and the top ring is moly. I would definitely use these again. Bearings are old reliable Clevite 77.


Pistons are Sealed Power forged stock replacements. Rods are reconditioned Chevy with ARP bolts that are hand me downs from my first Stocker race engine.

 

Got the rods and pistons installed today.

 

Got some parts cleaned up and painted. It's kind of satisfying using up old swap meet scores and hand me downs from my Race Car.


A friend sold me this Champ CP-40 oil pan for $75. It has some decent oil control for a low cost pan and it's on the NHRA approved list for Stock Eliminator.


Got some shop time in today. I'll install the oil pan tomorrow and the short block will be complete.