1967 Belvedere II Build

[ardentind]

Hey all,
Been wanting to start a build thread but it’s a little overwhelming when you have so many damn pictures and things you want to share. This was something I promised I wouldn’t “take too far, I just want a clean driver”…as you’ll see that’s completely out the window at this point.

I bought this May of ‘25 from a guy in California. I’m in Idaho and this car actually had an Idaho title and Idaho plates in the trunk from way back when. Our plates indicate what county the car was registered in and it was at some point in the same county that my business is in…small world.

Had family members go pick it up then went down to CA a few weeks later to get the car and a pile of parts from my dad who has been a Mopar guy all of his life.
Car had no motor or transmission but my dad gifted me a 440 with very low miles that he’s had under a work bench since I was a kid.

Plans:
Repaint (originally light blue, going to Winchester gray)
Build 440 and 727
Improve things for handling purposes
Have a very nice cruiser that is fun to beat on.

Unfortunately my dad passed away in July of ‘25 so this is sentimental to me at this point. He’d call me all the time and those last couple months of his life, we always had “how’s the car coming?” conversations.

In clicking a few pics to add, I thought I’d come back here and share a story of hauling it back to Idaho. We were an hour past the last big town and this was Memorial Day. Had a trailer blow out (trailer is a family hand me down and sentimental at this point as well). No spare, dummy me. Decided to pull all 4 off and drive them the hour back to the city with a Walmart. The one pic shows the car on the trailer, trailer disconnected on some farmers dirt road and while removing the last tire, the trailer decided to shift and fell onto its drums. Decided to leave it while we were gone…more secure that way, is what I told myself. An 8 hr trip turned into about 11 hours but we made it.

I’ll follow up with a ton more pictures and descriptions along the way.

 

[Dave6T4]

Thanks for your story and your pictures. That looks like it will be a great project. Sorry to hear of your Dad's passing. Merry Christmas.

 

[Cranky]

I never carried a spare with my trailer either but one time I thought I'd better carry a couple on a 180 mile round trip run because the tires that were on the trailer were getting old....or should I say were old already to the tune of 20 years! One let go when I was almost home on the second run. Anyways, I have a 66 2dr sedan with a solid body. Took it apart after driving it for 10 years and just when I was starting to go back together, my dad passed on and over the next 3 years, 10 more relatives passed on. Got to where I thought the car was jinxed.....

 

[ardentind]

I have a manufacturing company located in a good sized building. I’ve had projects there before but they tend to get in the way or more so, take up my time when I should be working. That said, I decided to force myself to do as much of this at home in our little 2 car garage. Minimal tools, no air compressor, etc. I did get a little 30G compressor from dad’s stuff after he passed…another sentimental piece.

 

[ardentind]

Brought a little baby MIG welder home to do some subframe connectors, torque boxes and any body sheet metal needed.
Someone had previously sanding all the paint off the lower rear quarters and verified it was solid metal with no rust or filler.
Overall, there was about a 4”x6” rectangle I replaced in the driver rear quarter and two small areas in the trunk floor. Top rear corner of each quarter had a bit of corrosion in them too but otherwise no major metal work. Floor pans, trunk pan, all that was really nice.

 

[ardentind]

More of the subframe connectors (thanks USCT), and stripping undercoating off the floor pans. I have nightmares of the torch and putty knife still…

 

[ardentind]

Some will say it was a dumb move but as an homage to my dad, who my brothers & I called the Michelangelo of Rustoleum, I sprayed the bottom floor pans with Hammered Rustoleum, after way too many hours of scraping undercoating. It isn’t perfect but I’m happy with it.

 

[ardentind]

The business I run does precision sheetmetal, machining, welding, powder coating, etc.
So while this is a “at home small garage” build it’s difficult to not take advantage of these assets along the way.
Along with the frame connectors and torque boxes, I added some seam stitch welding, gussets in certain areas and a new upper rear shock mount (I couldn’t believe how cheap and thin the factory one was and if you’re going to put money into shocks, they need to be mounted in a way that allows them to work correctly).

It’s fun to lay on my back welding. Back to where I started. No schooling just self taught and motivated to constantly improving. I have a huge precision fixture table at the shop…welding on the concrete again was a good reminder of how far Ive come.

 

[MWbirdLOVER70]

Hey all,
Been wanting to start a build thread but it’s a little overwhelming when you have so many damn pictures and things you want to share. This was something I promised I wouldn’t “take too far, I just want a clean driver”…as you’ll see that’s completely out the window at this point. View attachment 1967845View attachment 1967846View attachment 1967847View attachment 1967848View attachment 1967849View attachment 1967850View attachment 1967851View attachment 1967852

I bought this May of ‘25 from a guy in California. I’m in Idaho and this car actually had an Idaho title and Idaho plates in the trunk from way back when. Our plates indicate what county the car was registered in and it was at some point in the same county that my business is in…small world.

Had family members go pick it up then went down to CA a few weeks later to get the car and a pile of parts from my dad who has been a Mopar guy all of his life.
Car had no motor or transmission but my dad gifted me a 440 with very low miles that he’s had under a work bench since I was a kid.

Plans:
Repaint (originally light blue, going to Winchester gray)
Build 440 and 727
Improve things for handling purposes
Have a very nice cruiser that is fun to beat on.

Unfortunately my dad passed away in July of ‘25 so this is sentimental to me at this point. He’d call me all the time and those last couple months of his life, we always had “how’s the car coming?” conversations.

In clicking a few pics to add, I thought I’d come back here and share a story of hauling it back to Idaho. We were an hour past the last big town and this was Memorial Day. Had a trailer blow out (trailer is a family hand me down and sentimental at this point as well). No spare, dummy me. Decided to pull all 4 off and drive them the hour back to the city with a Walmart. The one pic shows the car on the trailer, trailer disconnected on some farmers dirt road and while removing the last tire, the trailer decided to shift and fell onto its drums. Decided to leave it while we were gone…more secure that way, is what I told myself. An 8 hr trip turned into about 11 hours but we made it.

I’ll follow up with a ton more pictures and descriptions along the way.

Def gonna be a really nice ride when your finished and those welds looking great

 

[ckessel]

Nice work you're doing. Saw a couple of things to add to my rides.

 

[ardentind]

My “don’t over do this one” mindset went away around this time. Stripped everything to bare metal.

 

[ardentind]

Seam welding in various points.

 

[ardentind]

Pedal assembly rebuild. As I said, having access to a blast cabinet and powder coating is dangerous…

 

[ardentind]

More powder coated parts…

 

[ardentind]

Engine rebuild. This was the engine I got from my dad that I remember as a kid. Keeping the block even though it isn’t perfect, and keeping the crankshaft. Tried to keep as much of the accessories and such as possible since dad’s hands touched these things.

.060” over 440 ‘69 HP Block
Stock crank and refurbed LY rods.
Reasonably mild cam
Stealth Aluminum Heads
New pistons bringing it to about 10:1

 

[ardentind]

Lower control arm rebuild. Need to order new pins and going to go with Delrin bushings.
Added lower gussets and sway bar tabs.

 

[ardentind]

K member rebuild.
Seam welding, fabricated a new idler arm mount for the ‘68 and up style arm, gussets added to areas that I’ve noticed others do (though I’m not convinced much of any of them are needed), etc

 

[ardentind]

 

[ardentind]

New 26” radiator installed with tubular lower mount to stiffen up the front end a bit.

 

[ardentind]

Epoxy primer from SPI. I’m no paint or body guy but have painted a couple in the past. This one I am hoping will be my best yet.

Floor pans got a good spraying of rustoleum.