Project Big Coupe
1978 Caprice

Here's my plan:  Take one grandma's (literally!) 1978 Caprice Coupe and turn it into a big, sleek, fast sleeper!  I'm going for a tri-9 Impala look, with Dark Green Grey Metallic paint and the leaping deer badges.  I'm working on a 472 Cadillac motor for it right now, will drop it off at the machine shop this weekend (3/20/04).

Newest entries first, oldest at the bottom.

11/05/03 - Arrived in Hawaii, passed inspection with no problem.  Now my only car, so a stereo went in the same day.  Paid to have it professionally installed (first time I've not installed my own) but wires had to be run since it was originally 1 speaker system, holes had to be cut in the dash and doors, and I wanted it done right.  Also have auxiliary RCA input through the CD changer port, so I can plug in my portable DVD and MP3 player.  Sweet!

10/01/03 - Home from Iraq, dent on the door.  Sigh.  Somebody was poking around in my car while stored at my father's place of business, they opened the pass door onto a pole.  I think they stole the stereo I had waiting to install.

6/16/02 - Made and installed dual snorkel air cleaner.  Neat little mod, not much performance gain.  Sounds better, looks neat.  See the write up here.

5/18/02 - Got my windows tinted.  I went to a shop this time rather than a guy I know because I wanted it perfect and that back window looked tricky.  I paid $150.00 and got 35% tint all the way around.  I think it looks a little light, but maybe that's because it looks darker on my white 9c1.

3/30/02 - Picked up my car from the shop.  It looks pretty darn good.  There's a couple places with a tiny bit of dust in the paint, but I was looking pretty hard.  Here's some temporary pics.  I'll have some better ones as soon as I can get some time to wash it and take pics on a sunny day.  The metallic looks much better in the sun.

3/24/02 - Went to Adam's today, the owner told me "If you tell anybody where you got this done, tell them you spent $2,000.00 on the body work and got the paint for free, because that's about how it works out."  Great guy, the car is beautiful.  The paint is darker than I expected, but I like it.  He put on basecoat and then 3 coats of clear "because we had enough left over," he said.  There are like 3 drips in the whole thing, which will be cleaned up this week.  I'll get the car back next weekend.  I'm regretting doing the paint first, as now I'm going to be scared of letting anybody near enough to do an engine swap!

3/1/02 - Dropped the car off at Adam's and put a deposit down.  I changed my mind and it will now be DGGM which will better match the interior, and not be so harsh on any imperfect spots in the bodywork.

2/23/02 - Got a quote for $2,000.00 to do the bodywork and paint it black, including door jams.  I've used this guy before, and he's very good.  Adam's body shop in Hollywood, Maryland (Southern Maryland).  I'm dropping it off next week!

2/16/02 - Put custom Impala script in grille in place of the "Chevrolet" sign.  I bought this off of ebay for a couple of bucks, and have no idea what it's from, but I made it work with a grinder, some paint and some epoxy.  I'd actually like some feedback on this, as I don't know how it looks and it is easily reversible.

1/6/02 - Put on Grant classic steering wheel.  I hated the big wheel, thin grip of the stock one.  The Grant one is too small, however, and the image doesn't fit the car.  I'll probably sell it as soon as I can afford a nicer, wood wheel.  The power steering assists way too much.  It feels really light compared to my 9c1, and I thought the smaller diameter wheel would make it seem firmer (less leverage, right?), but I'm still not pleased.  I'll wait until I put bigger wheels and tires on before I do anything, as I'm led to believe the bigger contact patch will firm things up quite a bit.  After looking at the picture below, I really need carpet!  What do you think, black carpet? Gray?

10/20/01 - Started to strip off the chrome side striping and running panels. Removed hood ornament. Realized there's some hidden damage on driver's side door under the running panel.  This means more bodywork than I was hoping, but it shouldn't be too much. 

10/6/01 - Bought my 1978 Caprice Classic coupe with just over 54k on the dial.  It handled the couple hundred miles back from Ohio to DC area just fine.