This is my 1972 Caprice 4 door hard top
I bought the car when i was 14 for 100 dollers. i am currently 23 and own numerous other Chevys now. At the time this is all i could afford and i really hated the damn thing thought it was ugly but with time the body lines grew on me and so began my pursuit of junk yard searching and late night hours of working on my baby to bring it to its current condition. I was raised old school in regard to cars and Muscle cars i have tried to make my car as muscular as possible with still keeping its luxery intent well intact. these pics are all of the finished product as of Mid 1998 not much else has been done to it since then when i feel i have finished my job with her and feel there is no more potential left in it to bring out. Now days she parks 10 months year in a warm dry strorage facility with few other of my toys and comes out in summer months for a nominal 2k miles a year for exercise and cruising. For the record it has just turned 80k orginal miles on the spedometer.

The first step in my drivbility process was to redo the entire break systemup front it had stock calipers and in the rear drums. I bought a 1987 camaro z28 rear end froma buddy whos a dumn ass and wrecked it. swapping his rear end got me 3.73 rear gears a a swell rear disc break set up. bring a 5500 pound car to a quick stop is no easy task but with some tunning and trial error work i bringer her to a hault from 60 in 112ft which i am very proud of. If you notice all around the car sits relatively high copared to stock or the common lowered ground scraper relatives we see in the bad areas of town so often, this lifted look is done my repalcing all suspension componets front and rear with new " big block " parts that are heavyer and bigger thus adding more height coupled with the fact the my car has a 400ci small block makes the car sit up and somewhat retr-old school drag strip. My restoration has been all but a frame off . this being at the time did not have the facility to do such work on my own. but all the componets have either been touched up for looks or replaced for new whenever possible. The paint is Mulsain blue and was beleive it or not my first paint job at age 15 base coat clear coat Du Pont products and well it may not be flawless but i have sure gotten many a comploment. The interior stays mostly stock with the addition of new seat covers, carpet, and rear covered dorr panels and rear tray as well as a 50 state search for a perfect non cracked dash pad. the stock stearing wheel was also replaced witht he addition of a 78 camaro 4 spoke wheel which adds abit of muscle to the feel of the interior along with pillar mounted autometer water and temp gauges coupled with a 6k tack mounted in the factory dask clock housing.In all my work i have collected 4 72 caprice donner cars over the years so if anyone needs parts feel free to email me and i may be able to help i have at least 2 complete cars for parts in varied conditions because of course i took the best for myself.. this may be boring by now so here is another pic of the exterior.

The biggest challege through this restoration was lack of production parts in regard to the body and interior. Chevy is Chevy in regard to running gear but that was part of the fun and excitement when I would come home with a new well needed part. Which brings me to the motor and drive train setup

The motor is original in the car it boasts 400ci largest small block produced my Chevrolet ever. ran great for stock with a 2 brl carb for while when I was poor I added a 4br holly and cheap carter intake to get me by. when I saved up enough money I went through the entire motor with to many parts to name all out but its boasts bore.40 over 202 valve heads , balanced cromeoly crank. threaded rocker arm studs. Isky roller rockers and roller cam duration 298" molly rings ported intake and heads matched runners
a very awesome old production dual plenum Edelbrock intake manifold with extra high runners, a rare find from the mid 60s drag race friend of mine this intake boasts awesome street manners and was made to rip up during street strip drag racing with no fall flat effects of the line like so many open plenums do. Accel blueprint distributor and HEI Taylor made wires Accel shorty plugs and some real tinny sounding headers round out the engine itself. I have no idea on its HP or torque but a good guess would be a realistic 300 hp 370 torque low ball but realistic I would think but who cares the car itself does turn out 14.86 @115 mph and varied 0 to60 times of 6.5 to lows of just over 5 depending on how well I can get it to take grip of the line. overall its a fun reliable cruiser and lots of open road or city power. the tranny is a TH350 stock I choose this over a TH 400 that was stock to save weight those damn 400 weigh a ton and really there not much stronger unless you beef them up with big bucks so with the tranny I added a B&M holeshot converter rated 2500rpm stall which is perfect for crisp launches with any camed out small block.
it also has a B&M shift kit for snappy shifts. What set my car apart from other shade tree mechanics cruises is that I have built this car primarily for open road touring and some road racing making sure I will never have a over heat or stall I have added 3 tranny coolers a power steering cooler and a engine oil cooler with sump pump and filter all Moroso products. Most important I added a 6 row aluminum radiator that I found at a local circle track race shop for a killer deal of 400 bucks which I am often told is just totally bad ass in a street car. my opinion is the cooler a car runs the better it runs I don’t buy that hotter motor better spark bullshit I run my car a 160f with no thermostat and it loves it.. I was concerned about overheating considering the cylinders are only a few mm apart after all the boring and that it has half the cooling jackets of a standard small block 350.

To free up a bit more HP and give easy revs as well as awesome cooling I added a dual Flexalite electric fan set up that mounts to the inside of the radiator and draws air inward. To round off the drive train I also added solid engine and tranny mounts because I kept breaking the " high HP" rated ones on a hard launch so I made my own metal to metal.. makes car feel much more powerful when there is no flex or give on a launch and that’s a good thing I think. Let us not forget the exhaust system dual 2.5in pipe Hooker headers and dual single chamber flowmaster mufflers bring a tone that is all muscle to the road.

I have taken the car to several shows in my area and have won a few awards some being rarest 70s, youngest of show and highest revving engine contest which I am proud to say was 6,920 rpm man that was scary let me tell you.

I love this car not because it was my first but because in my teen years it kept me out of trouble and through trial and error I learned so much about automobiles and the respect and appreciation one gains only by doing your own work and putting in your time to get to the end result. Iv laughed because so many A girl friend said I loved my cars more then them and that I would choose my cars over them if I had to pick... and ya know maybe they are right cause this ones lasted through 6 of them so who has the last laugh now

mike, Tacoma, Washington