1978 Caprice, the new on-going project! (Yes, I'm still alive!)

[packman]

That is a nice looking cruiser. Take your time and have fun with it.

Just take your forefinger and thumb and squish that Caprice down a little; then you have my old Malibu. Same options, engine, trans, and rear (gears as well). Same rust in the same spots too! The trunk lid rust was the proverbial nail in the coffin for my Malibu. I just lost all motivation when I saw the holes. At least you're doing what my friends were telling me to do and storing that car away. Daily driving mine was a big mistake. At some point, you need to stuff a big block in there.

[DerekTheGreat]

Sounds like a custom ordered car. Neat. 2.41's??? Jeez, with that you don't even need over drive. Wonder what RPM's it's turning at 80... Acceleration must be non existent but it's a cruiser. Would like to see how it fares against a box in a drag race though haha.

[packman]

I had Goodrich P275 60R15 in the back of my Malibu with the 2.41 gear; at 75mph she was spinning 1700 rpm. I'm approximating the mph because I discovered off of my friend's speedo, I was doing 75 according to him when my speedo was only reading 60 mph. If the toll booths were damp; I could burn a little rubber nailing the throttle. Loved that car; but it definitely needed TLC...............and a big block. When I see this Caprice; it reminds me of my Malibu; just in far better shape.

[murphmobile2]

It definitely takes off like a slug on pot... Once it's rolling it does fine, it pulls better with the new engine at least, haha. My old Ford could out accelerate it, but the Chevy could have outrun it.

It runs right around 2k at 60 mph, estimated speed with the 255/60's lol.

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[DerekTheGreat]

LoL, we'll be rolling through Ohio in early January, too bad you put her away. Be fun to race my Town car against the Caprice to see what does better. If left in "D" the Townie pulls great on the freeway, in OD it sucks something fierce. In comparison, the 305 in my Bird does much better on the freeway in OD. It is lighter and modded though. Even before the mods it was better that the LoPo.

You ever verify your speedometer with GPS? My Firebird's is off despite talking to the guys over at Thirdgen.org about my swap, tiresize and all that before buying & changing the speedogears. Needle says I'm going faster than I actually am.

[purplebomb302]

Car looks great! The ride height looks nice on it. Did you change springs and shocks? My deltas got a rake to it. I think the front springs are worn. Not sure if I want to keep the rake look or go for a slightly taller ride height.

This car is optioned very strangely. It's a very low optioned Classic model, it doesn't even have rear defrost. However it has big front and rear sway bars and underbody braces... At the same time, it only has a 7.5 rear with 2.41's. Then it has power locks and tilt wheel.

It's like a clusterfudge of options...

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All 77-90 B-bodies got the 7.5 rear except the wagons, cop cars and anything optioned with heavy duty brakes. Those cars got the 8.5 with the different lug pattern.

The last Delta I had was optioned with power locks and tilt. Also had 1 side mirror.

[murphmobile2]

Once again, I suck at keeping on up this thread! Haha.

I did change my shocks, but I haven't changed my springs yet. The front shocks are Gabriel Ultra's for police / taxi models, and the rears are Hi-Jackers. I'll eventually switch the fronts to KYB Gas-A-Just's, but the police spec Ultra's are pretty stiff for dual piston shocks! I may lower the car down a bit in the far, far future... But I guess we'll see. I still need to change about every other piece of the suspension anyways...

It was in the 60's last Saturday, so I finally got to get back to it for a few hours!

The rear end cover has been resealed, I rushed it the first time and it had started leaking from doing so. The fluid was black as the night already anyways... I picked up some Lucas 80W90 for it this time instead of the Castrol I had in it. I also used Grade 8 bolts on it this time!



I also picked up some black headlamps! Good Lord they require some fabrication to fit. The headlamp buckets need opened up more, and the metal trim around the headlights need shaved, along with installing new headlamp connectors to adapt to the 9003's. I only had time to do one before it started getting dark though!





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[87gtVIC]

Looking mean with the new light.

[murphmobile2]

One down, three to go! Haha.

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[87gtVIC]

Niteshade the parking lamps in the bumpers to match the 'dark' theme?

[murphmobile2]

That's the plan! I'll probably do the tails and side markers as well.

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[murphmobile2]

Gettin' fancy! It leaks pretty badly anyways...



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[murphmobile2]

Did a little more work on the turd today since it was t-shirt weather. I finished cutting out the openings in the headlamp housings so that the new headlamps would fit, and did a quick spray on them with satin black. All but one of my new headlamp harnesses disappeared, so that stopped progress fairly quickly. One of the headlamp adjusters snapped too, so it was time to stop anyways.

I also finally topped off the rear end with my Lucas 80W90, so that's done!

I also ordered a Superior K350 valve body kit for when I change my tranny filter, so I can switch out the worn out springs inside of it.

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[murphmobile2]

Shifting better, and looking better while doing it? Or something like that...



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[murphmobile2]

Much more detailed than my B&M AOD kit!





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