1977 Aspen SE Project

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Project Car Plans

Hope it's OK to post this on your site.

I am writing this to introduce myself to this group. I have started a project to turn a 77AspenSe into a mild street rod. The following are my plans for the car with a completion date of spring of 2012.

I live in NY 25 miles south of Buffalo in a very rural area called locally the Snow Belt. I have built some cars for NHRA racing in the early 70’s that were very completive in stock & super stock classes(can’t say car make or you will throw me off the site) but family and job requirements put an end to that. Have the time now to build something so I have started the 1977 Aspen SE Project car.

Goals
- This car will be a street car that will be driven on a very limited basis. It will not be a daily driver.
- I will retain the stock interior which is in perfect shape.
- I would like to keep the exterior completely stock with the exception of tires & wheels.
- Retain power steering and power brakes. Car will be stored winters and will run on 93 octane pump gas.
- It should produce 400 to 425 flywheel HP and peak HP at under 6000RPM. Mainly looking for a lot of low end torque.
- I want something that will idle decent, don’t want to have to put it in “N” to keep it running at every traffic light
- Will not be a drag strip car but might want to take it for a couple of passes just to see what it will do. Would like to have a car that can run through exhaust in high 12’s.

Set Up & Schedule

Rear & Front End (Completed)
8 ¼” unit from 78 super coupe with rear sway bar; auburn sure grip and 3.55 gears.
HD springs and eliminate iso-pad assembly Firm Feel Inc. parts
FFI urethane oval & rear bushings for mounting springs
KYB gas-a just shocks front & rear
FFI stage 2 steering box
FFI aluminum body to “K” frame mounts

Transmission(Completed)
998/904 with 2400 to 2600 stall torque converter,

Engine (Fall 2011)
318CI stroked to 390CI.
Compression to be 10 to 1 or less
Edelbrock Magnum aluminum heads (not ported)
Comp cam specs to be determined
Edelbrock Air Gap intake with Holley carb
Machine work and dyno break in by KTR Racing Engines
TTI headers through “X” pipes and Flowmaster mufflers
New wheels and tires. Largest 15” wheels and tires that the car will handle.

Paint(Winter 2012)
Repaint with exactly the same paint scheme

Well that’s about it. This is the first Mopar I have owned so just about everything is new to me.
Pictures of the original car when I found it are attached. I will try to update site as work progresses.

Thanks for your time,
Dave

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Clean Up

I purchased the car the last week of December 2009. Spent the first week of January trying to get it cleaned up,just to see what kind of condition it was in and how much work was needed to get it to pass NYS inspection. Actually very little work was required and in the process of cleaning I found a ribbon under the passanger seat. The young fellow I bought it from was not the original owner so he didn't know much about the car but I did find out it was sold in Maryland and had a ton of ziebart undercoating on everything.

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Super Coupe Rear End

Rear end
Some pictures of us pulling out the 8 1/4" super coupe rear end and rear sway bar in Central Penn. in February. I know the super coupe's are rare so before anyone gets upset that I am violating this car,the only thing left of it was the rearend & rear sway bar,it had already been stripped of it's complete interior, motor,trans,wheels and all body flares.

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Removing 7 1/4" Rear End

Old rear end
Pictures removing 7 1/4" rearend,shocks and springs. Under side was pressure washed , and cleanup as much as possible. Underside was in very good shape the Ziebart undercaoting did it's job.

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Removing 7 1/4" Rear End continued

Here's the rest of the pictures

old tired rebel · Mar 2, 2011

Welcome and keep us updated we love car builds here.

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Install 8 1/4" Rear End

New rear end
Some pictures of the 8 1/4" rearend in the car.
-We installed 3:55 gears with an Auburn Sure-grip unit(some grinding was required to install this unit but you get real good instructions with the unit)
-All new and used parts were blasted and painted.
-New General Springs HD 5 leaf with Firm Feel Industries urethane bushing front & back.
-Rear sway bar with energy suspension end links and front bushings.
-KYB Gas A Just shocks.
-FFI kit to eliminate iso-pads along with top spring plate from Super Coupe.
-Modify driveshaft to fit.
We pressured washed the entire underside and added undercoating just to make sure everything was protected while we had access to it

After the above changes the car handled great,hard to believe these small changes made such a big difference. I drove the car for about one month to make sure everything was OK and then moved on to removing the motor & trans and completed front end work while we had access to clear engine compartment

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Install 8 1/4" Rear End continued

Last Picture of the new rearend install

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Engine Removal

Engine Removal 8/9/10
Well finally took the car off the road for this year. Spend this week removing the engine and transmission and delivering it to the machine shop to begin transforming it into a 390 CI motor. I expect that we will be putting it back together sometime in the early October time frame(Missed this date by a month). Attached are some pictures of the removal. No big problems just time consuming. Now it's time to start cleaning parts to get ready .
I'm saving every part that comes out of the car,just in case I ever decide to put it back to original condition. All the engine parts are in great shape for the car having 78,000 miles on it.

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Remove Undercoating

Engine compartment 8/16/10
Next week will be spent removing the undercoating in the engine compartment and hopefully painting it white to match the car. Attached are some pictures of the undercoating. I hope the next time I post it looks a little better. Trying steam first, if that doesn't work I'm plan on using Eastwood Under Gone to remove it.
We used steam to remove most of the undercoating and then used Under Gone and hand work to get most of it off.

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Remove Undercoating continued

The rest of the undercoating pictures

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Painted Engine Compartment

Prep & Paint
We used steam to remove the undercoating as much as possible. Once we had most of it off we used Eastwood Under Gone to remove the rest around the bolts and all the tight spots. Used a small wire brush about the size of a large tooth brush to finish the job. Then lots of sanding to get ready for paint.
Attached are some pictures of the preped surface and the final paint.

Not trying to invade the site just sharing some progress photos. My SE is not a very special "F" body in fact pretty plain but I have enjoyed working on the car and it has been a great hobby similiar to what you "A" body guys do every day. My hope is that when it is complete it will have some decent preformance, handle better than when I started and be a fun car to drive.

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Painted Engine Compartment continued

The rest of the engine compartment painting pictures

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Front End Work

Front End
Finally finished the front end work.
1. Replaced original steering box with Firm Feel stage 2 steering box
2. Replaced rubber "K" member insulators with solid aluminum.
3. Replaced original shocks with KYB Gas-A-Just units
I have attached some pictures

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Front End Work continued

The last two pictures of the front end work

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

318CI stroked to 390CI Motor Build

Well things are starting to come together with the engine project. All the parts are in and correct this time. I have attached some pictures of the bottom end going together. As of end of day today cam, head & intake are in place but I didn't take any pictures of the complete engine yet. I will have them ready for next week. Kind of see the light at the end of the engine tunnel so pretty soon (end of next week) I hope to begin installing the completed engine back in the car.

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

318CI stroked to 390CI Motor Build continued

The rest of the engine build pictures

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Assembled Motor

Thanks lots of time spent on getting to this point.
Well motor is pretty much together and carb and distributor will be here Monday so it will be going back in the car by end of next week(11/1). Attached are a few pictures of the motor as it stands end of Friday.
Dyno test will happen Monday if all goes as planned.

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Assembled Motor continued

The rest of the Assembled motor pictures

dch-65 · Mar 2, 2011

Dyno Test

Well yesterday it was the day to put the motor on the dyno. I have lost a little sleep this past week getting ready for the test. I have attached some pictures as well as the results. The pictures are not very good especially the one through the bullet proof glass but here they are anyway. I had to take a picture of the dyno results because I don't know how to post a PDF file to the site so that is pretty bad as well. I have tried to complete an overall parts list of what when into the motor but have not completed it yet. Pretty good day yesterday lots of smiles . Now it's time to really take a good look at tires.
I am currently in the process of putting the motor back in the car. Waiting for the torque convertor to be completed once he gets the dyno results. Hope to have it back together by end of November. Next big hurdle is fabricating a dual exhaust system for the "F" body. Big problems at the gas tank unless we go out the side which I don't want to do. Anyone with any suggestions or pictures of a completed system I would sure like to hear from them. Talked to TTI and they said they don't have a system for F bodies

Thanks
Dave