here comes a moment in every buildup where you need to address the status of the body. Many times it can be when all of the mechanical and chassis fabrication upgrades are finally completed. It’s always good to have a plan of action regardless of whether you’re going from ground-zero or taking it on in steps to reach your goals. Regular readers of All Chevy Performance will recognize the ’71 Camaro laid out across our pages as having started its journey as a picked-down shell that was totally bare bones and barely a roller. It’s certainly come a long way through past articles addressing the suspension, brakes, LS driveline, cooling, and exhaust.

We recently followed up at Procision Industries in Taunton, Massachusetts, where shop owner Pat O’Brien was preparing to move forward on the next step of addressing the body. Seeing that the car was void of any front sheetmetal, it was a perfect time to look into options and address ideas of how he would like the styling of the car to look. O’Brien contacted Auto Metal Direct (AMD) to check out their vast catalog of sheetmetal components as well as everything needed to complete the full assembly of the front end. Any particular needs for your restoration project, from body components to glass, electrical, trim, and everything else you could imagine, they’ve got it covered.

ne of the common upgrades made to improve the stopping ability of a drum brake–equipped Chevrolet is a disc brake swap. In our particular case, the car needing better binders was a ’63 Corvette, so we turned to Wilwood for help.

Wilwood has been a leading manufacturer of high-performance brake system components since 1977, and among their long list of products are a variety of disc brake conversions. For our application we wanted more modern brakes, but we also wanted to keep our vintage five-spoke wheels. That meant two things: the new brakes had to accommodate 15-inch-diameter wheels with a minimum tread width increase due to the wheel’s 7-inch width. To meet our needs, we decided on Wilwood’s Classic Series Dynalite front disc brake kit (PN 140-14663-R, the R indicates red powdercoated calipers). This new kit fits ’55-64 fullsize Chevrolets and ’63-64 Corvettes. It comes with large 11.5-inch rotors, forged Dynalite-M calipers, caliper mounting brackets, hardware, and complete bearing kits.

t’s a common scenario. You’ve just added a larger radiator with a pair of performance electric fans to help cool that hot small-block. Everything is working great until you take your Camaro out for an evening cruise at the local hangout. That’s when you notice that at idle with the headlights on and both fans running the voltmeter is sitting on 11.5 V instead of the 14 it used to read at idle. Plus, the headlights get brighter when you rev the engine. Something is amiss.

In the early days of muscle cars, alternator output was in the range of 40 to 60 amps. There just weren’t that many electrical accessories that required more than perhaps 30 amps. But today, we have a ton of electrical components that place an increasing demand on the charging system. Today’s new vehicles are commonly equipped with 140- to 160-amp alternators. The same is true for modern muscle cars running items like electric fans, a high-pressure fuel pump, A/C, electric vacuum pump for power brakes, heated and cooled seats, and a host of other amenities.

By Ryan Manson Photography by The Author

f you’re a regular reader of All Chevy Performance, you’ll probably recognize our ’57 Chevy 210 wagon that we’ve been building in the Clampdown Competition workshop for our buddy Bruce Valley. So far, we’ve replaced the front and rear suspension and added power steering, among other things. We also did a serpentine pulley system install on the LS3 Connect & Cruise engine kit in anticipation of its installation between the ’rails, which is where we’ve now found ourselves.

For a quick recap, Valley wanted to upgrade the old wagon with power steering, A/C, and an overdrive transmission. Quickly going over what was involved to make said upgrades to the existing 350ci small-block Chevy/Muncie four-speed combo, it was an easy decision to shift gears and proceed with an LS upgrade. Since all the components needed to be purchased, whether the 350 was used or we went the LS route, Valley was quickly convinced that what he really wanted was a more comfortable, reliable, user-friendly experience, with whatever that required—which meant we were going the LS route.

With that in mind, we recommended the Chevrolet Performance Connect & Cruise LS3 package. Rated at 430 hp, the 6.2L powerplant would be more than capable of hauling Bruce’s big wagon around town, and thanks to the 4L65-E transmission and its 0.70:1 final drive, it will be even more suited to efficiently cruise down the highway than with the old Muncie. Years of use and millions of miles traveled in nearly every marque made by GM make the LS and their relative electronic components dead reliable when compared to the electronics of yore.