Another new member from Arizona

Recently picked up a 77 Caprice coupe that will get a full tear down and resto-mod rebuild.

Looking forward to learning more about these cars.

Welcome to the forum! Youve come to the right place. Post some pics sometime so we can see what you got!

Hey!   Welcome to the forum!  

Feel free to help yourself to a copy of the 1977 Fished Body Service Manual.  
It contains a wealth of information that will come in handy during your resto.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/17a248g4blbbbom/1977_Fisher_Body_Manual.pdf

Welcome to the club!  Yes, we'd love to see pics!!  Full tear downs are fun and these cars are relatively easy to take apart!

Thanks for the welcome!  I've wanted an aero coupe for years, found this 77 Caprice on the cheap as the perfect candidate for blank canvas:






Frame, suspension, and drivetrain are solid.  Body is all there, Main panels are dent free and just need some re-alignment and small amount of bondo/paint prep work.  The front header/filler panels need to be replaced, and the entire interior is shot.  Seller said he had a cache of parts in storage which he said came with the sale, but hasn't been very responsive to my follow up messages.

Bringing home and introducing to little brother 96 Caprice that's been modded as well:

Well, after repeatedly contacting the seller for several weeks to get the alleged cache of parts, he's stopped returning my messages.  My main objective with that was to get the trim for the rear beveled window, so I'll be on the hunt for that.  The front windshield trim should be fairly easy to come by.

I did manage to pick up a header panel and front fender extensions from an Impala off a Tucson seller.

Also trying to get my hands on some 77 tail lights.

Outside of those, my exterior needs some minor bondo work and she'll be ready for plasti-dip then I'm done on the outside.

I'm thinking I want to delete/smooth out the locks/handles and go with door poppers.

Are you converting over to an Impala front end? Impala and Caprice header panels, fender extensions, etc. are shaped different.
Do you need the rear window plastic interior trim or metal exterior bright trim?

Yes I am replacing the Caprice header panel and fender extensions with Impala stuff, but am doing a phantom grill so the other Caprice stuff will not be used.  The headlight buckets will be modified to fit behind the phantom grill.

I need the exterior metal trim for the coupe, if you have a source on it that would be awesome.  The build work for the coupe is mostly on hold until February but if the price is right I may just bite.

Right now all I have is the plastic interior pieces. By Feb I'm sure to have a set or two of the exterior moldings.
In the mean time if you need any other impala pieces, coolnyjay just got in a 78 Impala sedan with lots of goodies on it.

The smooth look is pretty cool on these cars. As they are, the door handles almost disappear anyway so why not shave them?
The only problem I have with using poppers is, what if your battery somehow gets drained? How do you get a door open to release the hood?
Is it the norm to use battery tenders when they're not driving the car?

I would use a battery tender on it, and probably drive it at least 1 weekend a month

Sweet Seventy9 wrote:

The smooth look is pretty cool on these cars.  As they are, the door handles almost disappear anyway so why not shave them?
The only problem I have with using poppers is, what if your battery somehow gets drained?  How do you get a door open to release the hood?

That's easy! Okay, not so much. On my first car, everything was shaved, door handles/locks and trunk lock. I too pondered what would happen if the battery died or the remote battery died. If the remote battery died, not too big of a deal since I had extras, but if the car battery dies, there's no way in. I modified another hood release cable (very short) and connected it to the hood latch and stowed it up inside the back of the front bumper. Then, I thought, okay, what if both door solenoids go bad at the same time, highly unlikely, but possible, then there's no way in again. I mean, I can get under the hood now, but no way to get the doors open. So, I had another cable attached to the rod that opens the door fed through the door jam up into the engine bay hidden out of sight. Then, I wondered, how would I get in the trunk if the trunk release solenoid quit? So, I had yet another cable from the trunk latch up under the back seat bottom. So no matter what happened, there would be no breaking of windows or prying with a crowbar to get in the car. Then, I thought what if all my cables broke? I told myself I was thinking too much then.lol

I have moved into a new house which has ample room for me to start the tear down and rebuild of the aerocoupe.

Since my last post I was able to track down most of the exterior parts I was looking for:

- Impala header panel & fender extensions
- Front and rear exterior window trim

I have a hookup on a built motor for the 96 sedan, so the LT1 coming out will be rebuilt and go into the aerocoupe.  I plan on using the GMPP carb intake, and upgrade the cam/rockers (possibly the cc503 or hotcam.)  

My dilemma now is I want to make the leap into a T56 conversion. I think a manual would be a lot of fun in this car, but I'm sure the conversion is not a cake walk.