Nothing's wrong. The 12337/12437 on the VIN denotes a 6 or 8 cylinder car. But on the trim tag, 12437 stands for coupe, and 12467 stands for convertible. Those numbers on the trim tag have nothing to do with the engine. By the way, the other numbers on the trim tag is a Fisher Body production number, it's not a matching number to your VIN, nor are they supposed to match. If they are both the same on your car, it's strictly a coincidence.

 

Fwbsupermoto – piecing in the right and left floorpans can typically be done without removing the front subframe, which makes it more desirable for those doing it at home, especially if you don’t care what it looks like from underneath. However, you will get a better end product by replacing the entire floorpan.
Good luck with the build. We’ll keep watching.

 

happy days... the day you bring it home is awesome. I remember it like it was yesterday. looks like a great car. Enjoy it

 

I’d take the sub frame out too. You’ll want to get a good look at the frame mounts and probably put in a new set of body mount bushings. I’d go disk brakes all the way around since most cars on the road have disk brakes and can stop on a dime you will need to be able to as well. Nice starting point though.

 

Thank you all for your feedback. I guess I will go with the pieces instead of the full pan. It isn't going to be Barrett Jackson quality but hell, those cars are more than my house. ToddB, great point about the body mounts, I guess I never thought that far ahead. And Scooch, thanks for the comment, if only mine turns out half as nice as yours I will be happy.
Well, the good news on the progress is that I made an extensive lists of parts to buy from Classic Industries. The bad news is that I just dropped $1200 on my truck for new tires and replacing practically my entire steering system. Have to postpone the purchase until I figure out how much I can spend. Maybe just buy the pans, mounts, etc. to get started. I was supposed to work on it during the three weeks off from school. Yeah, ok.

 

Well, I have been thinking about this motor. As before, the motor is a non original 327. The prior owner says he believes it was bored .060 over and cams. This was done before him and he ragged on it for about 12 years. He said he was fouling plugs before he quit driving it so I think the block is shot, at a minimum. If I have to rebuild the motor and replace the block, I will be out a small chunk. Throwing around the idea of a big block or an ls motor. I have read that the ls is expensive and difficult but the big block does not need much more than new mounts and a strong enough tranny and rear end. There are a couple of big blocks online for roughly the same price as rebuilding the current motor, I just do not know if there are any pitfalls. I just know that saying you have a 454 would be pretty cool. Any suggestions?

 

572

 

Big blocks are a great option for cheap power and torque. I wouldn't go for a brand new crate engine personally. There's no shortage of good low mileage 454's in my area, and I'd just find a nice used one and start building from there.
My buddy just bought a 454, complete with all the brackets and alternator, starter, etc. for $600 from a running Chevy truck. Got to drive it and hear it run before purchasing. We're pulling the intake, and installing a little more cam, then some paint and dress up items before dropping it in his '68 ragtop. It wont be a rocketship, but it'll definitely have plenty of power, and be reliable.

 

It's gonna be fun watching you build this out over the next couple of years.

When I built mine, I got horse power happy and ended up dropping about $6,000 into parts and machine work for my engine and tranny. Trust me, it's not hard to do and it adds up really quick, and I'm running a 350 with a cast crank if that gives you an idea.

What you're going to find, is the "small" stuff that you don't think about is going to add up really quick. Like the $60 plug wires, $120 gas line, high torque starter, harmonic balancer etc... I'm telling ya, it's easy to overlook $1,000 in misc "stuff" like head bolts or a windage tray, or even a stronger flywheel to take the beating you know you're going to give it. Besides, why take the chance on an old tired flywheel that if it's not cracked yet, it's stressing.

If I were to do it all over again, I think I'd opt for an LS1 and a new tranny to match it. 28 mpg sounds a lot better than the 6-8 I'm getting now, and with a little tweaking, you can still put out some decent rear wheel horse power.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I will enjoy knowing you are watching me build this, haha. You will all be laughing I am sure of it. I have seen a lot of ls swapped Camaros that I loved, especially Tazinhawaii. The ls3 combo in that car is amazing. I just know you are going to start getting into a lot of custom fabrication and mixing old with new. I really would like to have reliable power and yes 28 mpg sounds great. Just throwing around the ideas before I make any purchases.