Although this was a smogger 350 Vette, it was still pretty peppy for what it was when it came in.  The suspension was noticeably worn out, with all the rubber bushings pretty much a ghost of their former selves.

We pulled the motor/trans and had Maloof Racing Engines build a 383 Stroker with Vortec heads and a Vortec style Polished ALuminum Performer Intake. The trans will get, for the most part, a stock rebuild as the owner wants it to still have a nice streetable feel when getting power to the rear wheels. We changed put the Ram Horn Exhaust manifolds for a set of LT-1 Exhaust manifolds from the 90's which are essentially a factory header that we as with all our manifolds had ceramic coated. They look great, flow well, and it's easy to work on the car with them as opposed to headers.

To keep a nice ride, the suspension is getting rebuilt with rubber, as opposed to polyurethane, on both front and rear.  Calipers are going to be O-ring as oppsed to OE lip seals.  As seen in one of the photos below, the front suspension components have been powder coated, loaded w/ new bushings/balljoints and installed, and the front suspension is completed.

The engine compartment has been cleaned up and detailed. The VIR for the A/C has been replaced with a VIR Eliminator, which looks more or less like a receiver/dryer.  The A/C has been charged and is pumping out Ice Cold Air.

While the drive train was being built, the brakes have been rebuilt including all lines, hard and soft, Proportioning Valve, and the parking brake shoes and hardware.  The budget didn't permit for a full rear suspension and rear end rebuild so they were cleaned up as much as possible while remaining in the car as you can see from the photos below. There was alot of hard dirty rust imbedded on all the rear suspension parts and the strut rod to rear shock mounts were not easily changed due to the rust, but finally secommed to our effrts. The parking brake shoe replacement is challenging on a still together rear hub.

The car rides and shifts beautifully, and the owner has had it for about 6 months as of March of 2008 and is very happy with it.

As for the girl, that's one of our female employees who doubles as a model when not helping out around the shop.

Click on each picture below to see a larger version of the image.