79' Malibu Build Thread

[79loserbluebu]

Hey all, my name is Eric and this is my 79' Malibu build thread. I'm only 19 years old so it's not going to be exactly perfect or run 10s in the 1/4. Basically we found the car on eBay and after seeing a few pictures bid on it and ended up winning the auction. This one was in far better shape then the previous one we were looking to get. It came from WI, but was garaged and rarely driven, and originally came from AZ. To be exact, Midway Chevrolet in Phoenix. Since it was an AZ car, the interior was completely shot. The plus side, no rust. It started with a 350 Goodwrench crate engine with a Carter carb on it and an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake. The original 4.4 was blown up from an oil change place, and the owner I beleive forked up the extra cash to have them throw this in there.

We had the car for about 3 weeks before we swapped in the 355 and TH350 from my dad's 69' Camaro. The car was a rocket, but sadly it spun a bearing about 3 weeks later. The trans leaked pretty bad, so we put the original engine and trans back in. Here's some mods that have been done so far.

Engine
Holley 670 Street Avenger carb
Edelbrock Performer RPM intake
Hooker 2451 Competition longtube headers
Pypes x-pipe exhaust with Street Pro mufflers
Holley fuel pump
Taylor 8mm wires
Accell cap and rotor

Trans
Stock other than a 2000 stall
You may be thinking why I have a stall in the car without a aftermarket cam. Basically it was in the other transmission but we just stuck it on this one.

Rearend
8.5" 442 with 3.73 open carrier
New driveshaft 1.5" shorter than stock (compeltely new)

Suspension
Gas shocks
Iceman trans crossmember
mis-matched torque thrust wheels


Interior
*Sigh*
New headliner and visors
New seat covers
86' Monte Carlo dash
Repro Malibu seat covers
new quarter trim and b-pillars
Mint a-pillars
Cutlass lower quarter trim panels
New carpet painted rear quarter trim inserts
Monte Carlo floor console with shadow box
Monte Carlo 3-speed shifter
Monte Carlo SS steering wheel

Basically it's nothing too great, it's a 79' Malibu that it's my first project car and I'm just trying to get it to the point where I can say I'm happy with the car and wouldn't change anything about it.

Who's ready for pics?

Before tearing it up

Engine and trans swap

Interior
I decided this wasn't working out too well :lol:

Garbage

Nice clean floors!

New color - Shadow blue

Electric fan high speed switch out of an older nissan, fit right in the defroster switch bezel with slight mod

Sorry for the rather large pictures.

Hope you like it and hopefully progress will keep coming!

 

[Blake442]

Lookin' good!

 

[username]

Those floors are uber clean, has that car always lived in Illinois? Looking great so far.

 

[1ATony]

Man Eric, great job on the car.That's coming out great.

 

[O. D. Showtime]

Looks great Eric, nice work!

I'm guessing by seeing that the rear panels are in, that you got that Canadian package you were waiting for?

Kevin

 

[Longroof79]

Nice job, Eric. Keep up the good work.

 

[OldBlue82]

Lookin good! Nice job on the interior, looks like the same color as my monte.

 

[cdg1984]

Nice!!

 

[79loserbluebu]

Looks great Eric, nice work!

I'm guessing by seeing that the rear panels are in, that you got that Canadian package you were waiting for?

Kevin

Sure did Kevin thanks again! The panels were a little chalky but it's hard to find these pieces and probably impossible to find mint ones. Simply cleaned em' up and sprayed them and put them on. No one will notice those anyways :lol: .

username, the car spent most of it's life in Arizona, and 2 years in Wisconsin before coming to the Land of Lincoln. I was so relieved that the floors were clean.

 

[black93]

How did you wire up the Wiper switch?