'66 Belvedere II Hemi Car - Northern Bel Project

I am building this car to compete in the F.A.S.T. drag racing events. My website for this project is northernbel.com It is an original 426 Hemi car that was wrecked and parked in 1972. I bought it in 2007 on ebay out of North Carolina.







As you can see, it was in rough shape but restorable. It is missing the engine, trans, and rear. It does still have a title, VIN tag, build sheet, fender tag, and certicard.

I bought a clean nearly rust free donor car in 2008. Then after a false start with one restoration shop, I sent it to US Car Tool back in NC for their Body in White (BIW) program. They got both of the cars dipped in Oct. 2009


Then cut the dented and rusted parts off of the Hemi car in Dec. 2009. As you can see we are saving the core of the Hemi car including: all frame rails, full floor, roof, right front inner fender, firewall, and core support.


The plan is to have the car painted by the end of March and then begin putting it back together again. It may take longer than that to get it painted if I decide to send it back out for dip and e-coat after all of the metal work is done.

After that, it is back to Iowa for my Dad to begin reassembly. I expect the project to take another 3-5 years to complete, due to time and cash flow. I have put my vision of the completed car on this site before, but here it is again.

Nice project. FAST means NO heavy bondo!

Sheldon

Glad to see that you're saving the car. My brother has an original Hemi, 4spd Belvie II and I have a 66 Satellite survivor. if you need any parts, pictures or info just ask.

Good luck!

Great to see it here also. Been following your progress and posts over on For B Bodies Only. Keep us posted....

Looks great. Can't wait to see it

Thats very close to my 66 Belvedere II Hemi in dark metallic blue I purchased new in 1965. Its long gone...
But when I jumped back into Mopars a few years ago I looked around didn't find many 66s or 67s.. So I built my 70 RR B5, but I still like the look/lines of the 66/67. Here is shot of my 70 RR.

Good luck on your project!!

Just my $0.01...

The crew at US CAR TOOL has made a lot of progress. All of the necessary sheet metal is cut from the donor car and prepped for welding back on to the Hemi car. They are doing test fits now and making any necessary adjustments.



They have really done a fine job of carefully cutting both cars apart. No more was cut from the Hemi car than absolutely necessary. No shortcuts were taken cutting the good parts from the donor car. Notice how they removed the entire trunk including the quarter panel drops from the donor car in one piece! They cut it off frame rails and all and drilled out all of the spot welds from the underside!





I have updated my web page northernbel.com with all of the latest photos. You can also see them at uscartool.com .

There has been a lot more progress. Nearly all of the good sheet metal is mocked up on the car to make sure everything fits right and it is square and level.

All of this metal will be welded in place over the next couple of weeks. The next step after that is the Chrome-moly roll cage.

To see more pictures click the title of this post or go to:
northernbel.com and click on Photos in the menu or just click:
http://www.northernbel.com/images/photos

RSNAKE, very cool Hemi project!

US Car Tool has nearly completed the roll cage. The main cross bar behind the front seat still has to be installed. All of the joints will be fully welded. There will be some gussets added and features such as swing-out / removable door bars and a window net.

I hate having to put one in this car. However, to be able to use it as I intend, it is required. This cage is constructed out of TIG welded chrome-moly tubing and will be NHRA and IHRA legal to a quarter mile time as fast 8.50.

A lot of care was taken to try to hide the cage as much as possible while still remaining a legal cage. The front down bars run along the A-pillars and through the top of the dash. The top bars are tucked up very close to the roof while still leaving room for a headliner. The main hoop is positioned behind the chrome strips that seal the front and rear side windows. The rear down bars follow the c-pillars as close as possible while still going through factory openings in the package tray. The door bars are shaped to meet the rules and go over the top of the factory door mounted arm rests. The car will be fitted with electric windows so there won't be any interference with the cranks. Additionally the door bars will be fitted with hinges and latches that allow the bars to either swing open or be removed entirely for street use.

In addition to the cage, these pictures show the installation of the US Car Tool sub-frame connectors. These connectors are laser cut to follow the contour of the underside of the factory floor. The combination of the roll cage and these connectors should make the unibody very stiff, at least compared to how it left the factory.

Check out more information at northernbel.com or uscartool.com

Northern Bel has completed the US Car Tool Body-in-White (BIW) program. There are updated photos on Northernbel.com showing the details. All of the metal work is done. The body is now straight and rust free. The roll cage is done and sub-frame connectors are installed.

The next step on my project is to send the car out for an e-coat dip. It was not easy to find a place to dip a car this size but I did find one. A jig is being built and then the body will be mounted sidways in the jig and dipped.

One of the requirements for dip is that there be no sealed areas where vapor can get trapped. Due to this, 3/16 inch holes will be drilled at both ends of all roll cage tubes to allow the liquids in all of the tanks to enter and leave each tube. This will prevent potential explosions going from one tank to another. It will also assure that liquid doesn't collect during dip and then harden in the tubes during bake.

After e-coat, it is finally time for paint. Included in the updated photos are some paint samples shown against the inside of the original trunk lid. The darker sample was shot with paint that is supposed to match the correct factory paint code. The lighter sample was shot with paint created by scanning the trunk lid. I need to decide on the shade and who will paint the car.

Northern Bel has been e-coated! To recap... the car was acid dipped. All the metal work was done. Now the car has been e-coat dipped at an industrial facility using PPG Powercron 590.

This process submerges the entire car in a series of tanks that clean, prepare, and coat the metal. The entire car is coated, inside and out. Every crack and crevice, in which water can go, has now been coated. This process should provide excellent corrosion protection and a good surface for final body work and paint.





Double click the video below to watch the process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9zh3nZMVFE

WOW= that is very cool.I wonder how many gallons of primer must be in that tank? Did it then get baked dry?That is fun to watch I would love to go watch that happen sometime.Wher is that place? Did you decide on a color? It took me a while to settle on a color of blue for my dads car,now it is almost back together.Looks like a very cool project , I have a 69 RR to do I would love to hav that thing dipped like that.How much does that process cost?

Now thats what I call redoing a car properly. I say dipping the car is the only way to really clean the whole car and then dunk and prime.......that's 100% in my book. Awesome!

That is very cool, would love to do
my Demon like that.
Only thing I see wrong with that process is
how do they get full coverage,when they don't
rotate or flip the parts around while submerged.
It seems like there would be air pockets that
don't get covered.

Quote:

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That is very cool, would love to do
my Demon like that.
Only thing I see wrong with that process is
how do they get full coverage,when they don't
rotate or flip the parts around while submerged.
It seems like there would be air pockets that
don't get covered.

---

Small holes are required to be drilled on any closed areas that you are not absolutely sure are air tight. Otherwise, the air could escape in a big bubble in the process and send chemical flying.

For example, inspection size holes were drilled on all of the roll cage tubes to allow the coating to flow into and out of the tubes in the process.