I like that video!


I did an LS1 swap into a little Chevy II station wagon. Someone in its past had done a pretty damn good restoration and that thing was a real cream puff, but it had that anemic little 6CYLINDER.
Originally, it was going to be a very simple swap with relatively minor suspension mods to handle the increase in power.
The client came into a quite considerable size chunk of money, I think he got an inheritance, and he totally took the build to a completely different level. The biggest change he does, was actually the most beneficial and easiest for me! He bought a Chevy II custom frame from Art Morrison that was modified for the station wagon. Once I spec'ed the exact parts, The suspension and braking was basically a bolt on! The only custom fabrication I had to do was enlarge the tunnel and a little bit of firewall modifications. and a mini-tub in the rear.
When finished, it looked like just a plain old stock Chevy II station wagon that had been lowered. I worked with a local wheel company to manufacture some custom aluminum wheels that I painted body color and put on the plain dog dish hubcaps.
What a badass car it turned out to be! He spent a little money on the engine too! It was a Texas Speed built 427 stroker. Even through the automatic, it still made just a hair over 500 horsepower on the dyno! That's rear wheel horsepower! Even with the Art Morrison chassis, that was plenty of horsepower to push that light little package around!
All that power was absolutely fantastic, but the best part about the build was how the car drove! I think I hit the perfect compromise between a smooth ride and one that handled. It was one of the few cars that I built for other people that didn't have a performance orientated suspension, either road race or drag race. One of the few interior modifications were to add to C4 Corvette seats that had been rebuilt and re upholstered to look like something that could be stock in this car. With the seats and that suspension, you could easily drive across the country and not be dead tired and beat to death when you got to your destination!
A few months after delivering the vehicle, the owner invited me to go with him up to Flagstaff to a big car meet they had in the springtime. We took the
scenic route up to Flagstaff from Phoenix. There's lots of twisties when you get into the mountains! I was really surprised on how hard he could drive into the corners with ridiculous amount of stability
and smoothness!
I heard from the owner late last year and he still has the car and has put over 50,000 miles on it since the build. The only thing he has done is maintenance. I think it's been 14 or 15 years since I built that car!