Eastside Cruisers

My Chevy


Note: this car has been built on a very tight budget & time frame, mostly at my house by myself, with a lot of help from Dave J.

Car - 1963 Chevrolet Impala Sports Coupe

Drive line - Mild 350 chev rebuilt at home (Hot tank then new rings, bearings, cam & lifters. Reseat valves, etc), turbo 400 auto (as is from e-bay), custom tail shaft, 3.55 standard diff. Exhaust by TruFit in Cheltenham (thanks Garry!)

Brakes - Off the shelf US disc brake conversion (inc. master cyl, booster, proportioning valve, calipers, discs, pads, bearings & stub axles) on the front & rebuilt standard rear drum brakes. All new brake lines & flexible hoses. Custom handbrake brackets to use factory cable around the custom gearbox cross member (T400 is not factory).

Wheels - Standard 14 x 6" steel rims, white walled Dunlop tyres & Genuine Dodge Lancer hubcaps

Suspension - 2" drop stubs in the front, custom lowered springs front & rear, all bushes & ball joints replaced.

Steering - Standard manual steering, pitman arm, idler arm, tie rods & links all replaced. I wheel aligned it using an old school bubble gauge cause no one can get the car onto their expensive machines!

Body - Extensive rust repairs before i took posession of the car. Relocation of most things from the engine bay (battery, washer bottle, wiper motor, wiring), removal of inner guards. Smooth firewall, modification of brake booster & steering column (appearance & practicallity). Bare metal respray of the entire body, including underneath. Removal of bonnet & boot badges & side chrome strips.

Paint - I painted the body in DeBears black base & flattening clear - satain black (first ever paint job), a mate of mine came & painted the roof in House of kolor Candy Apple Red. (all painted in my garage)

Chrome - Where i had it, the original chrome work has been reused, with badly rusted bits being replaced. new chrome had to be sourced for around the grille as well as the front & rear quater badges, as it was missing or incomplete.

Lighting - All new lenses & new wiring

Interior - This job was handed to Car Trims in Camberwell. they did the lot! Silver & Gun metal brushed alloy vinal tuck n roll seats with the theme carried onto door trims & rear shelf. Baby bolt in the shelf for our little boy to come cruising too!

Sound - Currently incomplete - Kenwood head unit, Hertz front splits & 6.5" rears currently running off head unit with 2 x 12" hertz subs & Audison amp waiting for my time to be fitted. Boot to be trimed similar to the interior at the same time.

Wiring - The whole car has been rewired by me, including hiding all the engine bay wiring.

Over all theme - Neat & simple. Lots of mods, but nothing to appear unnecessary, trying for a potential factory type look, with a little rough diamond appeal!

Build time - 1 year & 11 months from purchase to rego (including time off for a broken arm & the birth of our child).

Massive thanks - Kath (my wife) & Dave J



I will post up some build up pics as i get time

Cheers
Simon

lookin forward to pics!

sound like a cool cruiser

this thing is one of the neatest cruisers going round...
Its a credit to both simon and also Dave J for all the hard work put into it....

Can wait for the bags to go in!!!!

Way cool bring on the pics

This is one awesome cruiser. It just screams Thank you for the ride.

Well here is what we started with in November 2008.

I purchased the car sight unseen (except for a hand full of photos) off E-bay in Sydney. The deal was the body on one chassis, plus the drive line on another chassis, plus bits to make it a car...... apparently!

So i drove to Sydney (twice) and picked it all up! Here is what i got!

Some of my friends thought i was a little ambitious, i thought i was damn well mad!

This thing is awesome. Looking forward to seeing more pics throughout the build-up.

Not a bad build time Sime, less than 2 years. I think you've pulled off the look very nicely too... candy roof over the satin body (it could have gone either way, but as it turns out it looks sweet!!).

Nice work.

So once the car was home & i had been through all the stuff that i had, we stopped & made a plan!

The concept was - Build the rolling chassis, then add the drive line and put all this to one side. Then build the body on the spare chassis & mate the two together once this is done. After that finish it off.... easy, right?!?

So i removed all the hanging panels & took the car & gave it a good clean up (it was well dirty under there). Then we took the body off the good chassis & put it on the spare one. The chassis was then fully stripped & painted along with the diff & all suspension components. Then we reassembled the chassis with all new bushes, ball joints, tierods, pitman & idler arms & a reco steering box. While i was at it i recoed the rear drum brakes with new wheel cylinders, linings & a new spring and retainer kit. One rolling chassis to go!

Well done on a great backyard build.

Its certanly come along way, lots of elbow grease thats for sure well done.
Love your shed setup and hoist too thats got to make life a little easyier to work,