Nick is making progress on the gauge and vent panel.

www.v8tvshow.com - Our 1965 Chevelle is finished, and in this video, we surprise the owner by presenting the car at the Chicago Chevy Vettefest! He had no idea it was completed was completely surprised. The car even won an award. Watch and see how it all happened!

www.v8tvshow.com - This is the home stretch for our 1965 Chevelle! In this installment, we're adding the final touches to the outside of the car like the new trim and badges from OPGI . We're also buttoning up the interior with an OPGI Stage III interior restoration kit , which includes the seat covers, door panels, carpeting, headliner, and more. The only change we made from stock was the addition of some Scat Pro-Car seats for added support. These details, along with things like new glass, really make a car stand out. Finally, Nathan masks off the trim for the final buff and hand glaze with 3M Perfect-it III Finishing Glaze , and the car is show ready! Next time, we bring it to the Chicago World Of Wheels show for it's surprise unveiling to the unsuspecting owner, then we'll show you how it drives!

www.v8tvshow.com - Our 1965 Chevelle's paint looked really nice coming right out of the spray booth, but we knew that by wetsanding and buffing the car with 3M's Trizact system, this car would have a perfectly flat show-car finish. The process involves wetsanding the car by hand as well as using air-powered dual-action sanders to level the finish, then a variety of buffing pads and compounds to polish the car to a mirror finish.

www.v8tvshow.com - Our 1965 Chevelle gets a cooling upgrade in the form of a BeCool aluminum radiator, and then we fire it up for the first time as a complete car! We broke-in the engine on the chassis using some Royal Purple Break-In Oil, and now it's time to fire it "for real!"

HTF Part A/C Dash Vent Bezel htfpart.com

www.v8tvshow.com - We're going to break in the new cam on the 1965 Chevelle using the chassis as an engine test stand!

This 1971 Chevelle SS features lots of cool high-tech upgrades, ranging from the LS2 V8 to the paddle shifted 4L60E transmission.

www.v8tvshow.com - Our 1965 Chevelle is designed to be a comfortable driver, so we're installing a load of things to make it a nice driver. In this video, we're installing a new floor shifter from OPGI into the original GM console we scored on eBay, followed by some slick Stewart Warner Performance Green Line gauges in a custom housing. Then it's a new Ididit tilt steering column, followed by a Detroit Speed power steering line set. Then a Detroit Speed delay wiper kit goes in, followed by a new OPGI Dash gauge surround and reproduction factory style tachometer. Then, we added some Hushmat sound and heat shielding to keep the noise down, and installed a Vintage Air A system to keep it cool in the car.

www.v8tvshow.com - Here's a quick look at our MagnaFlow dual 2.5" exhaust system on our '65 Chevelle... these systems install really easily, are good for power, and sound great. We like 'em. Complete install video to come!

www.v8tvshow.com - Our '65 Turns Estoril Blue! Here, painter Nathan Newberry just shot the body and has masked off the jambs for clear.

www.v8tvshow.com - Wheels and tires can make or break a car's looks and performance, and we wanted to choose our wheel and tire combination carefully. We wanted to equip our 1965 Chevelle with wheels that will look good forever, without being too trendy. We also wanted tires that offered great performance without sacrificing ride and comfort. After carefully measuring the Chevelle with a Percy's Wheel Rite tool, we selected a set of Vintage Wheel Works V40 straight-spoke wheels measuring 17x8" with 4 3 of backspace. These wheels are practically made for the car, with their crisp, timeless, and aggressive styling. For tires, we chose a set of BF Goodrich g-Force Super Sport A/S tires in 245/45R17 rear and 225/45R17X/L front sizes. The g-Force Super Sports offer aggressive looks, great all-season traction, and construction stiff enough to handle the autocross without sacrificing comfort.

Cleanly adding a triple gauge set and Vintage Air vents to our 1965 Chevelle.

www.v8tvshow.com - Check out how nice the Estoril Blue lights up on our 1965 Chevelle's door jambs! Can't wait to clear the whole car!

Our '65 Chevelle has been block sanded to perfection, and tonight it got a bath in Hot Hues Hot Prime. The underhood surface was sprayed with DuPont's Hot Rod Black for a durable satin sheen.

www.v8tvshow.com - Our 1965 Chevelle is going to have a Vintage Air a system installed, so we decided to use their FrontRunner serpentine accessory drive system on the engine. This system not only provides a mount for the air conditioning compressor, but it is also a slick mount for the alternator and power steering pump with a new-style serpentine belt for more efficient operation. The main truss mounts to the block and not the heads or intake, so all the belt driven parts line up perfectly. Here's how the system installs.

www.v8tvshow.com - Our 1965 Chevelle project arrived in our shop with a front disc conversion, but we wanted the fade-free stopping power of 4-wheel disc brakes, so we added a rear disc brake kit from OPGI.

www.v8tvshow.com - We took the chassis from the '65 Chevelle SS parts car and blew it apart for a trip to the media blaster. V8TV shop assistant Nick Doerr took some initiative to remove the front springs with a plasma torch... while we would never recommend that anyone do this, it works...

www.v8tvshow.com - Nathan has the pleasure of drilling the quarter panels on the 1965 Chevelle for the new OPGI badges.

www.v8tvshow.com - Here's the first blog on the 1965 Chevelle project. This is a pretty decent driver to start with, but the body is not very solid. We're going to upgrade the engine, body, and suspension without taking this car off the frame...we don't have the budget or time, so this is a great example of a real-world resto.

www.v8tvshow.com - The metalwork is completed on our 1965 Chevelle, and now the car is entering the bodywork phase. The hood displays a unique pattern... like a large weight pushed the hood skin into the inner structure of the hood, which will have to be straightened. In this video, Kelle takes us through some of the items that have been fixed, like the door gaps and panel replacements, before the car enters the dent fix body filler phase of the project.

www.v8tvshow.com - Muscle cars need free-flowing exhaust to make power, but that does not mean the have to be obnoxiously loud. However, we all like that sweet rumble from a healthy engine, but not droning in the cabin. What to do? Check out this install video of a MagnaFlow stainless exhaust system with its flow-through mufflers and True-X crossover tubes. Not only does it look slick, but it installs easy, does not rob power, and sounds great at all the right times.

www.v8tvshow.com - We had our 1965 Chevelle SS frame media blasted and stripped clean, and then it was time to give it a new protective coating. This time, we utilized the new Extreme Chassis Black Epoxy paint from Eastwood. We found it to have an accurate satin appearance, and it seems to have the guts to stand up to the road.

The body of our '65 lands back on the frame.

www.v8tvshow.com - We like to spray a test panel before painting the entire car. This way, we can see how the color reacts in different light and how the light affects the body lines and contours of the car. Our 1965 Chevelle is going to be painted in a factory BMW M series color called Estoril Blue, and we're really excited to see how it comes out. This video shows the test panel we sprayed with DuPont paint as well as a mini-review of the new Eastwood Concours HVLP spray gun. The Concours gun offers high-end features but doesn't cost more than the car did. We liked it.