5.3L LS swap and overall restoration – Reference photos with descriptions
…arranged newest to oldest…
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First bath of the season
First bath of the season
First bath of the season
one man non-cruise in
one man non-cruise in
Good to have the complete dash back and working
Changing the blue Viton seals on the heads to Fel Pro Premium.
Tapping for Helicoil
Stripped the threads in the head. Will need to install a Helicoil to repair.
Stripped the threads in the head. Will need to install a Helicoil to repair.
Using boroscope to check out the cylinders
Ready to change some valve seals.
Preparing to return the Speedo and Temp gauge for repair
More speedo LED segments out. The temp gauge finally went out completely.
A little tuning with LSDroid and ODBLink LX
1" wheel spacers added to rear.
Before 1" spacers on rear.
18x8 Torq Thrust Ms with 245/40s all around.
New 18" Torq Thrust Ms with 245/40s compared to 15" Rallys 235/60s (front).
Drums painted with Duplicolor Caliper paint
Cleaned drum using various sizes of wire wheels.
Crusty rear brake drums need some help.
Cleaned and painted caliper with Duplicolor Caliper paint.
Freshened up caliper
Freshened up caliper
Slightly rusted and dirty front calipers need some care.
Slightly rusted and dirty front calipers need some care.
AR wheel caps
American Racing Torque Thrust M in Anthracite color.
Rallys with RWL tires
Finally got a rear wing I've been searching for for well over a year. A little damage, but very repairable.
New tires...
Rallys with blackwalls before new tires
New cheap Temp gauge temporarily installed.
Cruise in Harrodsburg, KY sponsored by Auto Kustoms
A little fresh silver paint always helps.
Freshened up the side emblems with some semi-gloss black and a Molotow chrome pen.
Condenser connections
Condenser connections
Sanden 508 compressor with "K" had installed.
Local car cruise
Checking wheel fitment. Swapped my front 7" with my rear 8" to verify there was no issue with 8" wheels on front.
First oil change. Mobile 1 10W-30 Full Synthetic... because I got a free half-case from a friend. Wix filter 57502.
fresh coat of color on the seat back also.
back together with the carpet in place
Malibu logo from the junkyard collection.
body color speaker grilles turned out well.
You can see the original color of interior here on the spare tire lid. The color I used closely matched much of the faded vinyl. The original color was no where to be found while the chosen replacement color is plentiful.
getting closer.
The humidity was messing with my gloss, so I clear coated these and brought them indoors out of humidity while drying.
A couple of coats into it.
Gotta prime these speaker mounts because the paint will soak right into them otherwise.
Here we go. Masked and ready for spraying.
Another Friday night cruise at the Castle.
electric fan/shroud bracket.
electric fan/shroud bracket.
electric fan/shroud bracket.
small details are where I spend much of my time.
Thanks to doityourselflettering.com
Thanks to doityourselflettering.com
Weather strip fixed?
I carefully cut a small slit in the bottom of the weatherstrip to insert some foam caulking backer rod to bulk up the area that was flattening.
I think this will work...
I carefully cut a small slit in the bottom of the weatherstrip to insert some foam caulking backer rod to bulk up the area that was flattening.
New Soffseal weatherstrip is nice, but seems to fall flat on both front door upper corners. Doesn't allow it to seal as well as it should.
Showing air intake location and AC line routing. There is enough room for a cold air box, but it will take some time to get a pattern for the box.
Somernites Cruise
Somernites Cruise
Blacked out dash cluster off.
Blacked out dash cluster on.
AC lines fabricated and installed.
First bath of the season.
First bath of the season.
First bath of the season.
First bath of the season.
Cargo carpet in.
Original door handles out.
Rear cargo needs paint and carpet.
Using S10 seat upholstery clips to attach carpet to rear seat back.
Carpet pattern
Cargo carpet cut and bound.
Painted door panels.
New outer door handles.
Cleaning and lubricating original Door locks. Replacing the gaskets also.
New inner door handles installed.
New outer door handles. Original gaskets installed.
oops. Got a leak on the rear. Break the bead and add bead sealer.
What type of ac condenser did you use ? I see that your lines are on the passenger side of vehicle . Also what did you use for the intake fitting for your power brakes ?
I used the Gbody Cutlass Condenser for AC to keep the install cleaner. It has connections on passenger-side whereas Malibu has driver-side connections. Intake fitting for power brakes? Everything on the brakes, from booster to lines to calipers/wheel cylinders are all OEM replacement. Hard lines and proportioning valve are from inlinetube.com
Do you have any part numbers for the ac hoses along with fittings ?
Hoses are custom fit and made. Even a couple fittings were custom made.
The tv bracket and cable ? Are they custom or replacements ? Do you have part numbers
The TV cable was oem, but I broke the housing and replaced it with an adjustable cable. The bracket was custom fabbed and the connector arm was custom fabbed. There’s a bit if information about how I did this in the write-up. See the menu for the URL.