Rockatansky's Bold, Brash and Blocky 1978 Malibu Build

[Mrockatansky]

Hi Everyone,

This is my 78 Malibu Coupe Build Thread.

Let me preface this by saying I have creeped this forum for some time and am absolutely amazed and astounded by what a lot of you guys have accomplished. I can't even fathom how talented you are in some of your builds. Wish I had that natural aptitude and skill to do some of the work and fabrication many of you have done in your builds right at home in your garage. I wish I had these skill sets but unfortunately I am a week-end warrior at best with my tools and skill set.

Luckily for me, with the absence of a great mechanical skill set, I happen to have some really good friends and connections which will (hopefully) allow me to get my build done to the high standard that seems to be set here at the Gbody Forum.

Now, drum roll please.. here is the car:

$T2eC16VHJHwE9n8iiIhcBRZFTPVE5!--48_27

• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

$T2eC16ZHJGkE9no8iL8lBRZFTBL!mg--48_27

• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

Please note, that this is the car at its very BEST and in its PRIME.

Many years have passed since the car looked this way and my build will hopefully bring the "ol magic" back to this glorious piece of steel.

A little note on the car and the condition I got it in, which is a great story I think you all should know.

I found the car online on Kijiji (Ebay classifieds to our brethren in the States United). It was owned by a great old Austrian guy (accent and everything) named Peter since 1990. He purchased the car from the original owner when the car was silver in colour and equipped with a rather anemic 6 banger.

Also, as a note: Buying an old car from a mechanically inclined old Austrian guy is a literal dream scenario.

He built the car as I would build a car, sparing no expense for premium parts and wonderfully thoughtful finishing touches in many respects. Peter, indeed did an incredible job putting the car together way back when (I will detail his contributions to the car in a minute), but unfortunately due to some ill health and a competing hobby with motorcycles, this Malibu has been languishing in his driveway and garage since 2006-the last year the car was plated and driven regularly in the summer.

Now being an engaged owner, Peter told me he still started the car once a month, changed the oil every year and drove it around the block without plates fairly regularly in the summer-all music to my ears when I first came to check out the car and from what I saw, believable. Peter the old Austrian guy truly showed himself to be an absolute gentleman and a real neat guy.

Here is The Good, The Bad and the Ugly:

The Good:

-Targetmaster (4 bolt) 350 small block V8 crate motor swap
-Gear drive
-Long tube headers
-Full stainless dual exhaust with flow master mufflers
-TCI (Built) Turbo 350 Trans with stall converter (2800) and Line Lock
-Auburn POSI rear end with 3.42 gears
-Full Grand National Suspension
-INCREDIBLE 17" Centre Line fluted 5 star chrome wheels
-Braided lines and premium parts
-Upgraded later model steering column
-Interior door skins and dash in excellent condition
-Body of car all sheet metal and straight as an arrow
-Frame in fantastic shape
-Bucket Seat upgrade
-Gauge pod mounted on A pillar and Tach installed
-Complete car and tons of spare parts

The Bad:

-Interior very sun faded and old (but very tasteful)
-Cracked windshield
-Needs a bloody good clean
-Front brakes need attention
-No interior carpet (Floor gets so hot when car is driven I could fry an egg on it)
-Cheap window crank handles from an early 90's era Mazda
-Few leaks and drips from engine and trans tail shaft seal
-Years of neglect shows and the car and mechanicals are tired

The Ugly:

-Floors are shot to sh*t and look like a B-17 bomber that has been gunned up by an old ME109
-Passenger side rocker panel destroyed
-Body needs attention, no rot but many area of surface rust and blemishes
-Full paint job needed (last respray car had was mediocre at best)
-Previous owner painted over almost all brightwork with black paint
-Interior needs complete replacement
-Engine needs attention and possible re build

The Verdict:

Get in way over my head and tear the car down completely. Restore as I see fit and spend way too much time and money on this vehicle. What is the worst that can happen?

 

[Mrockatansky]

So update #1

With some minor attention car is deemed road worthy and is driven well for the remainder of the summer (2015). I picked up the car in July 2015 so it was nice to get to know the car and drive her regularly.

IMG_20150821_113802

• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

Then I decide to change the spark plugs which are very rusty and need some love.

Passenger side goes great, no problem at all.

Drivers side results in one spark plug broken off in the head as well as the thread of another spark plug broken off in the very same head.

What to do one wonders?

Answer: Put on some shop rims and tow the car to the shop as I have a feeling its going to be there for a very long time,

20151103_112907

• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

Also,

Buy and read this book cover to cover 8 times:

GBPU

• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

 

[Mrockatansky]

Update #2

Car gets to shop in about September and sits for about a month and change outside whilst I figure out how far down this rabbit hole I want to go.

A note on the "shop" which for etiquette reasons shall remain nameless.

Misha, one of the owners of this shop is one of my very dear friends. I love him as if he were a brother and have known him from the time he was renting a hoist out of some skeezy-*ss industrial unit in some weird nebulous commercial park. I trust him very much. He is a car guy and gear head just like me and has worked on all of my long list of cars for over a decade. Some of which include:

-C5 Z06
-Mercedes ML Truck
-Mercedes Supercharged C Class
-1990 Buick Riviera

Misha now has a partner, Ilya and they own a very busy 6 hoist shop working on everything from Subaru's (Misha is a Subaru guy in his heart of hearts) to BMW, Audi, Porsche, Mercedes to all sorts of Japanese and JDM vehicles. In fact, my daily driver, a just under 300hp 2004 Subaru Forester XT (AWD) with a manual box, was built for me by them. If you haven't had the pleasure of driving a Forester wagon with an factory equipped STI 2.5L top fed intercooled and turbo charged engine... I suggest you do so at once. It is a brilliant car and one I plan on keeping for a long time. My car looks and sounds stock but is modified and tastefully enhanced to kick *ss and take names at a moments notice.

Misha and Ilya if you haven't been able to tell from their names are from the former Soviet Union. They both really love cars and have a real affinity and penchant for European and Japanese engineering. So its only natural that when I show up with my 1978 Malibu they both scratch their heads and unanimously say 'What the F is that".

"This" I proclaim loudly, "Will be a learning experience for the both of us!"

Now I must tell you that after they checked out the car they got pretty excited to have a real "Americanski" muscle car in the shop.

"Yes, it really is that simple" I say as they gaze in amazement once I pop the hood.

Car enters into the shop and we get started right away. I have absolute faith in these guys and myself so we start the tear down in earnest and plan on figuring the rest out later.

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• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

IMG_0054

• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

 

[Mrockatansky]

Update #3

OR

I got 99 Problems and an interior is a MAJOR one.

So Powertrain is out. Need to address the floors but in order to do that I need to take out the interior.

Really wish I could keep the interior as it as I absolutely love the fabric used to upholster the seats:

IMG_20150804_115425

• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

Not only as you can see, is it total rock and roll, but I love the colour combination and that really cool tweed. It just seems to scream 'Old School" at me. Which is when I think about it, what I want this build to be-The best things of a bygone era. A tribute to days gone by.

But

As the course of true love never did run smooth, the sun damage and age are just too much of a factor.

As evidenced here:

IMG_20150815_162951

• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

And yes, that colour was actually Black at some point many moons ago.

Not sure how I can duplicate something so cool.

Decisions, decisions.

 

[Streetbu]

Looks to be a good start on a great car!

 

[ssn696]

An epic in the making!

Get to know Kevin (ODshowtime). He's in your far west, but finds lots of bits all the time.

If Misha and Ilya are not too far down the rabbit hole, see how worn the cylinder bores are. If you can pick up a pair of Vortec heads, a GM 24502476 cam, a single roller timing kit, and a set of pistons that bring the compression to 9.1:1 - this is the basis for a GM 330HP 350 using your block, crank and rods. GM used 12361371 pistons, which had a dish of about 11.5cc (these are discontinued). A few more parts are required, but I won't flog the additional data at you unless you are interested.

Keep up the good work! Look forward to (re) build progress!

 

[Garrett1982]

Looks like it was a nice car. Glad you are going to get it back to its glory.

 

[Mrockatansky]

Build update #4

Called my friend Jen an upholsterer by trade and a good friend and told her the look I was going for. Sent her some pics of the existing interior and left it up to her professional opinion to interpret the aesthetic I was going for on the seats.

She came back with this:

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• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

Aptly named, Rock and Roll Tweed-Black Marble by a company out of Ohio called Miami Corp.

Asked her to order this and some other goodies and scheduled an interior drop off at her shop.

Now I won't bore you with details on the damaged floors, I am sure all of us have seen enough pics of chewed up floor pans here on the site.

Suffice to say my friend Misha who is a fantastic welder did me proud on my floors. We then painted the entire floor, trunk and chassis with a brilliant product called chassis saver-quite expensive but well worth it.

Here is the final result which I am pleased with.

IMG_0669

• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

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• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

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• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

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• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

I also took the liberty to get my fairly rusted and pitted long tube headers blasted and ceramic coated (Cera kote) by a local and really cool blasting shop here in Toronto.

Very pleased with this result as well:

IMG_0697

• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

Engine is out and all apart and am heading in the direction recommended by SSN696-this is to say some Vortecs, cam and goodies.

More about this on my next post.

IMG_0090

• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

IMG_0269

• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

Stay tuned. Some exciting things happening.

 

[Mrockatansky]

Update # 5 Paint colour chosen!!!

I really am thinking carefully about the colour and have decided to paint it something darker than silver yet lighter than a nice gunmetal grey.

Spent hours and hours sorting through paint chips, codes and colours. Researched the F out of it on the inter webs and finally found my unicorn. The colour I have chosen is called Opalescent Silver Grey and is a old school Jaguar colour that they used to paint factory XKE and E types with from 1958-1968 . Found the colour codes too! Please do tell me what you think! Here is the colour in all its glory.

IMG_0092

• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

So this was an interesting experience. I have a good and old friend who is the General Manager at a large auto body supply place here in town. They were bought out recently by the company that owns GOODMARK so he has mentioned he can get some discounts for me here which is great news (I promptly ordered sill plates, window crank handles, weather stripping for car and a new grille). Started telling him about my colour choice and he said "great, give me the codes"

I read the codes to him over the phone and he typed them into his system.

"Bad news" he says, "these colour codes are showing different colours not at all relating to the name you told me".

He tells me that the paint colour/mix is so old that the major paint producers often reuse their codes every so often-literally dead dealing colours every so often.

SOL I am, thinks I.

He then says on a long shot he will search the year make and model the paint colour came from and see what comes up.

EUREKA

I must have a golden horseshoe lodged somewhere in my rectum because low and behold: In about June of 1994 a customer had come in and ordered Opalescent Silver Grey to restore his old E type Jag. Exact paint mix still on file and as they say in England "Bob's your uncle".

My friend mixed me my paint, gave me a great clear, reducer and all materials I needed for paint-Thanks Alfredo (Fred)!

Really excited to get some body work done and get things started. Called around about 25 paint shops and get quotes ranging from $3k to $15k-more on this later.

 

[Mrockatansky]

Update #6

SHOPPING

I really am so good at spending money-I wish I had more of it.

Found a really cool race engine shop out near Hamilton, Ontario. Was calling a bunch of places and people trying to source some parts and I finally find this little shop. I speak to a guy named Stan who shoots the sh*t with me for about an hour and listens to me about my project and give me a lecture on engine building and parts, spitting all kinds of mad knowledge at me-for free I might add, which is rare these days.

I decide he is the kinda guy I want to work with so I drive out to see him. Fantastic little shop/machine shop and really cool that it is full to the rafters of old news clippings and pictures of cars/engines they have built from the 60's to current plastered all over the walls. Really my kind of place.

I order from the old school race engine builder:

-062 Casting Vortec cylinder heads, hot tanked, positive seals, 3 angle grind, valve springs, bowl ported and brilliant
-GM performance aluminium intake-port matched to heads
-Quick fuel Slayer carb
-Pro Billet Distributor
-Elgin "Cheater: Camshaft 298 duration .224 @ 0.50 with a 466 lift
-Scorpion self-aligning roller rockers SCP 1035

I also manage to source (Kijiji again) a Jeep Cherokee steering shaft, high speed/quick ratio steering box and Blazer S10 rear brake callipers for a conversion from drum to disc.

Ordered from summit racing:

-Griffin Aluminum Race Radiator and Cap
-Adjustable proportioning valve
-TCI Aluminum transmission cooler
-Energy Engine and Transmission POLY mounts
-Stainless Steel Rad hose
-Summit Pro Torque starter motor

Order from Stock Interiors.com

-Retro Plaid trunk mat in Black and grey
-Original Thick Plush Black carpet for cabin

Order from Lobucrod.com

-Thermal insulation for floors to keep my feet from roasting

Dropped off seats at upholsterer and bench seat is well on its way to being finished with half already done. She is also doing my sun visors for me in a really cool marine grade vinyl that I picked-I think it should add a cool touch to the car.


Please let me know your thoughts.

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• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

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• Mrockatansky
• Feb 15, 2016

I am pretty much caught up on the (re) build I have done this far.

So most postings from here on forward should be in real time.

Going to see the painter and body guy tomorrow to finalize that stuff and schedule the car going in. Also now broke as a joke after my spending spree. I plan on licking my financial wounds over a few Gin and Tonics forthwith.