1970 LS5 Back To Life

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XFIRE82

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....as I mentioned elsewhere , I was going try put back together a 70 454 Vette a friend of mine bought in 1979, drove it home 50 miles , took it apart with intentions of freshening it up but it never happened. He bought tons of new parts from GM like new grills, complete exhaust system from manifolds to exhaust tips, rocker moldings, rubbers, clips, interior door panels, etc etc , unreal what he has. In short , put a wrench on the crank turned it over no problem so that was good news. I offered to try put it back together and make it the driver that he wanted. Got it towed here, wow, remember this car never seen daylight in 35 years. It is a major job , as I never took it apart and am not familiar with every piece, so it will take me some time
looking at the assemby manual and figuring out what is all in his NOS pile of parts. Hooked up a battery, fresh fuel in the tank , blocked off some vac lines , hooked up a oil pressure and Volt guages , cranked it and got oil pressure. Had to prime it a few times but it kept firing and run short spurts untill it got a steady flow of fuel and the mighty 454 came alive with a strong sounding Heartbeat. It had headers and Thrush outsiders , man what a sound of days gone by.
So in the last week I got it all washed up , the brakes off, replaced a top door hinge and latch , off with the headers and side pipes and some small stuff. Just waiting for some extra parts here and will start the jig-saw-puzzle now.






















 
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Great dash... That's really all ya really need!
LOL

I'm glad it fired. That must have been a special moment!
thanx for the pics.
We all want to follow along on this build.

graham
 
a couple of tips. an oil additive to boost the zddp content is crucial for that flat tappet camshaft, i use delco E.O.S. replace those lip seal brake calipers with the upgraded sleeved "O" ring style. good luck on the restoration, it will be a beatiful car. :D
 
XFIRE82 said:
I offered to try put it back together and make it the driver that he wanted
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Kudos for stepping up for who must be a very good friend.

Great car and a true "torque monster" from back in the day. My Blackbook says that's Donnybrook Green and comprised 19.4% of production and about 4400 opted for the LS5.
The car seems like it has a lot of potential.

Can't wait to see your progress.

Good Luck.

C.
 
buckhorn76 said:
a couple of tips. an oil additive to boost the zddp content is crucial for that flat tappet camshaft, i use delco E.O.S. replace those lip seal brake calipers with the upgraded sleeved "O" ring style. good luck on the restoration, it will be a beatiful car. :D
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.......EOS , yeah good stuff. The owner of this 70 has been using it forever in his vehicles.


Anyways I been working on it as much as I can here. Just waiting for new stainless calipers and lines to arrive any day here. Took off the right door and installed a NOS top hinge , nos outside handle , lined the door up and it really closes nice now. After I took off the headers I ran a tap in all the holes in the head and hung a NOS manifold on for now till the new bolts arrive here, then I'll install all the NOS exhaust system. This is not a show car, just going to be a daily driver so I don't have to detail things painting to perfection.














 
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...Well a sudden change in plans here. The owner called me and says he has a serious buyer coming down to look at the car. Totally unexpected , so I stopped what I was doing and sure enough the man shows up from Alberta and strikes a deal and my job is over. Had to put the other door on yet and all the hubs and wheels to make it roll. Come back with a trailer yesterday , we pushed the 70 in and loaded all the nos parts and said goodbye. It's gone to a good home, he wanted a green 70 big block to match his green 70 LT-1 4spd car. So my Back To Life thread here now ends. Got my shop space back now so my 82 and 49 will get some stuff done to them next. The owner is saddened to see it go after waiting so long to drive it again but that is how things go sometime.













 
Wow that's a shocker. Oh well as you say you now have time for your projects.

Thanks for sharing with us anyway -- hope you share the other projects with us that you mentioned.

Cheers

Colin.
 
Too bad to see the project go. Maybe the new owner can come on here and fill us in on the rebuild? :D
 
oooohhhh man!!!!! I was so looking forward to this build:mad: Oh well, there will always be another one. Is it me or are the early C3's getting more and more popular ???
 
That nose to nose shot is really cool.

Glad the car found a good home although I am sure we would have had a great build thread and a beautifully finished car if you had continued.
 
CCO said:
+1 -- Did you tell the new owner all about us XFire82?

C.
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.....I think I did mention it briefly saying I had a thread on the 70, but I didn't get a chance to talk much with him. From what I know, he has more corvettes than I could count in the picture he showed me on his phone thing, and I'm not talking projects, these were done up cars. I know this 70 here is getting totally stripped and will be better than new when he is done with it .
 
..Well it has been almost a year now since I posted this thread. But there is more to this story than what I finished it off on. About 2 weeks after the 70 left my place for it's new home, a nightmare happened to the new owner. He had a break in, and alot of stuff was taken from his shop, including all the NOS parts and pieces from this 70. The crooks even punched a bunch of holes in his freshly restored 70 LT1. Most of GM NOS parts are unobtainable, we valued them around 20K easy, green door panels, exhaust tips in GM boxes, front grills, etc etc. Just before it left my place we labeled every part what it was, every clip and screw, the exhaust pipes had CN stickers on them when they came from Edmonton. I haven't talked to the man since but I did see the car on kijiji later for a fraction of what he paid, as he said he quit and just had it. As far as I know the thiefs haven't been caught. Don't know if the guys are just sitting on the parts or hitting some swap meet far away, but green NOS interior sticks out. Don't know what happened to this 70, but it won't be easy to restore now with much of the original interior gone and the NOS parts lost.
I had the pleasure of firing it up and hearing the heartbeat of the mighty 454 after it sat since 1979. I hope it lives on someplace now.
 
Alberta..............not a good place to be these days. Just read an article entitled called "Jingle Mail" where people are just giving up on paying their mortgages so they are mailing their house keys to the bank and walking away. A lot of people over extended, way too much easy credit and it is making for desperate times now and pushing people to crime.

A sad story to have the wind taken out of this guys sails like that.

Cheers,

Garry
 
Some kind of anger to damage the motor like that, that takes time to do. Almost get the feeling it was personal.

Really sad, thieves really are low life scum.
 
sad story not only for a classic car but also for the people that loved this classic car.... XFIRE. I can feel your pain in your words.... Graham, Garry and Murray. You're words are much kinder than these thieves deserve. Rational people can not ever understand irrational acts. What XFIRE is relating to us here is an irrational act. These are not over extended people that fell on hard times and turned to crime.These are criminals and vandals that take enjoyment in destroying something sacred as well as the theft. Bums and scums don't even begin to describe. Personally, my comfort lies in the hope that the holes they punched are returned to them ten fold.... Damn.... I may be a red neck if...........
 
Black 03 Z06 said:
Some kind of anger to damage the motor like that, that takes time to do. Almost get the feeling it was personal.

Really sad, thieves really are low life scum.
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......maybe my words weren't clear, they punched holes in the body of his other 70 that he just finished, a green LT1 and is why he bought this green 454 cause he wanted a match. to it. Apparantly there was a piece of rebar lying around and they used it to punch the car. We were just sick when we heard this.
 

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