348er in Switzerland

[Dä Huäbär]

Now it's time to paint all the parts. All parts are painted by hand with a brush. So it also has color in the furthest corners. I'm not a fan of spray painting over everything, especially painted screws don't work at all... It's normal car paint mixed with harder in Chevy Orange. One time primer and two times paint .
I use heat-resistant paint from a spray can for the exhaust collectors. Without primer directly on the sandblasted surface

 

[Dä Huäbär]

The aircleaner and the valve covers need a little bit more attention and was painted at home on the table in the living room

 

[63impalass409]

Looks great

 

[Dä Huäbär]

And now come the final assembly

 

[Dä Huäbär]

I then welded a holder together , so that I could screw the motor and the automatic together. I retired the Powerglide and bought a TH 350 for it . I wanted to have everything assembled once , so that I didn't have to stand under the car and find out that something wasn't right

 

[32witha409]

Looking awesome!!!
Might I ask where you sourced the paint? Same as you, I want to use a catalyzed automotive paint on my 348. I have looked around but never found one in "Chevy Orange".

 

[Dä Huäbär]

I had my painter mix the paint using a valve cover as a sample

 

[Barry Taylor]

Beautiful work!

 

[Don Jacks]

 

[63 dream'n]

Looks fantastic

 

[Iowa 409 Guy]

What are you using to hoist the engine/trans into the car?

 

[Dä Huäbär]

I installed the engine with a forklift , then the car onto the lift and the trans from below with a transjack

The best of this day was for me , thats the TH 350 fits perfektly on the orginale trans bracket

 

[Dä Huäbär]

Since the TH 350 is longer than the Powerglide , I had to have the cardan shaft shortened . Now that everything was mounted , I could measure them .

I have the down pipes from Show Cars , as well as the rear pipes , that end in front of the rear axle , all in 2.5". Since I didn't want , it sound like a vacuum cleaner , i installed Flowmaster 50 Delta Flow . It has a friend recommended it to me , I also heard it on his 63 galaxies with a 390cid . Unfortunately the tubes didn't really fit . I had to cut the front tubes twice and weld them back together . And i had to cut the rear tubes completely and reassemble them twisted with a clamp .

But when I started the Impala for the first time , my ears almost fell off . It is so brutally loud , that I almost yell at my girlfriend , while driving . I have to install other silencers again

 

[Dä Huäbär]

For the TH 350 I had to make the shift linkage and the shift lever on the gearbox by myself , because I couldn't find anything on the net . Of course , everything was sanded and varnished

 

[Iowa 409 Guy]

Class Act

 

[OkieJoe29]

Looking awesome!

 

[benchseat4speed]

Just looked this thread over from the beginning, I forgot how bad that engine was when you got it! Wow. Also, ignore Goober, he's full of shit, 20-50 had NOTHING to do with that bearing failure. Pretty sure a Chevy oil pump will push 90wt on a hot day if that's what you put in it....

Heck of a job getting that thing back in shape, on the other side of the globe no less. Nice shop, nice car, I love the wires and the 3-bar spinners, post a video of that engine when you get her runnin'

 

[Dä Huäbär]

A few weeks ago , i startet the engine togheter with my girlfriend . After I had sucked fuel from the tank to the carburetor with a pump , it started immediately after 10 seconds to fill the float chamber . We both got a fright at the same time , because we didn't expect it to start right away . After about 20 minutes let it run at about 2000 rpm , to break in the camshaft . I took the valve covers off to tighten the head bolts . As i looking in the Valve cover , i almost had a heart attack - water ! When I tightened the screws , the engine started hissing out on the left side . I had a huge crisis and thought the head gasket was bad .
After consultation with Bob Walla , I re-sealed the middle head bolts and the middle exhaust bolts . Then fortunately the problem was fixed . The center exhaust bolts go into the hole in the center head bolts at the bottom . Since the alternator with flanged servo pump is installed on my 58 Impala , I didn't see where it hissed out and suspected the head gasket . The engine has now done 400 miles and everything is fine

 

[alexm900]

I am really late to the party, thank you so much for sharing.

look at my introduction , there are pics from my car

Do you have any pictures of the inside (i.e. dash, seats, trunk)?

but for the first street registration of the car in switzerland, it must be as original as possible

Indeed, like many other countries. Fond memories of many many failed technical inspections for a '70 Hemi Challenger R/T back in the 80s in Switzerland. More often than not, the mechanically unqualified inspectors have no idea what they are looking at; after all, you passed (?) a car with aluminum heads, stroked engine, and a TH350.

It is also a good example of why its a good idea to install an oil pressure gauge...

It pays to inspect the oil being drained from an engine...

... and cut out the oil filter... Many peeps here would absolutely second those two points.

Since the TH 350 is longer than the Powerglide , I had to have the cardan shaft shortened...

I have gone through the same exercise with my project (59 El Camino 348 Stroker), but substituting to a TH350 required no change to the tailshaft (cardan) nor the trans mount. On this subject I would recommend modifying or changing the tailshaft (and centre support if any) for the beefed up engine/trans combo.

For the TH 350 I had to make the shift linkage and the shift lever

A nice column shift linkage (adjustable) is made by Lokar (summitracing.com/parts/lok-aca-1800), it fitted well on my 59, but could be different on the 58.

I re-sealed the middle head bolts and the middle exhaust bolts

Yes some blind threads in the block are open to the water passages and require sealing.

Again this is a wonderful thread and thank you for sharing this with us. Time to enjoy cruising.

 

[Dä Huäbär]

Enclosed are a few pics from the inseid . I must chanche the speedometer to Kilometers , Swiss rule...

@Alex , do you live in Switzerland one time ?

By every oilchange i also chanche the filter !

The transmount fix perfectly , but the driveshaft was 5" to long

On the pic of the shift linkage , you se its go down 14" and than 90° back for 6" . A normal linkage isnt possible , the firewall is to high