1966 Biscayne Restoration

This is a car I have been building over the past year and a half for myself. I had three goals, it had to look stock, sound like an animal and run in the 11s. The first two are done but I haven't driven it yet.

I bought the car with a 350, TH400 and Richmond 4.10 posi 12 bolt for $1500. They are super hard to find so I drove 2-1/2 hours away, bought it and drove it home. I sold the 350 out of it right away for $300 and bought a 454 for $600. I didn't know anything about the 454 but when I pulled a spark plug I could read the numbers on the top of the piston as 11:25:1 forged LS-6 pistons. I pulled it down and bought forged rods and an NOS LS-6 crank. The heads were ported and polished with bigger valves and a 238/248 .678" lift roller cam was installed. I put a new 950HP Ultra Holley I top and replaced everything like the starter, radiator, wiring, suspension, brakes, rebuilt the tranny and put in a 3,000 stall converter.

I started the body work in October and I just pulled it out of the paint booth two weeks ago. I just got through painting the interior parts and now it is time to put it all back together. It has been a long road and I did every part of it myself accept for assembling the engine.

Right now I am getting the glass installed and then I have to install the grill and front bumper. After that I have to tackle the interior which isn't going to be easy or cheap because Biscayne parts are next to impossible to find.
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I have had a ton of muscle cars myself but when I was looking for my next project I wanted something that was what a guy would have purchased new for street racing. I had a '66 Impala SS in high school and it was cool but it had bucket seats/console and it was a nice cruiser but it wouldn't have been the car a guy would have bought for racing. When I set out for this car I wanted a stripped down Biscayne with zero options.

 

Very cool. I wanted to go the 4-sp route but it will see a lot of track time and I really don't want to break things everytime I take it out. feel free to post pics of your cars. I will post some other pics of cars I have had and more on this car coming.

It was a radio delete car so I put the delete plate over the radio holes but instead of just bolting it in I installed a hinge on it and a magnet setup to hold it open. When it is parked I will have it shut so it will look dead stock inside but when it is being driven I will open the delete plate and that is where my temp and oil pressure gauges are installed as well as where my line lock button will be. There is also no visible tach. I am going to buy a tach light and install it under the dash where the front speaker was. Now the tach light will turn on at 6,500 rpm and shine through the speaker grill up onto the windshield. That is the idea anyway, I just hope it will be bright enough to see. I will post pics of this tomorrow.

 

No. This is called Aztec Bronze and was a '66 only color. I searched the Internet trying to figure out what color to paint it and I came across this color. I really liked it and when I went out and decoded my trim tag I found it was actually the factory color for this car. I just thought that was red primer not faded paint.

I also found out something else. There is a lot of impalas on the Internet that say Aztec Bronze but they are not and I almost found out the hard way. I noticed these other cars are so maroon looking compared to other cars but they say they are the same color. I went down and bought the paint for my car and opened the can, very dark compared to what I have seen so we called PPG and found out that that paint code actually defaults to '65 Milano Maroon instead. So a bunch of people are painting their cars this '65 color thinking it is Aztec Bronze. I am just lucky I caught it before I painted instead of after.

 

This is what the dash looks like. I still have some cleaning up to do. I painted it all and changed all the bulbs as well as all the switches so I don't have to mess with it again. The radio delete plate just blocks off where the radio would have gone so I attached a hinge at the top with a magnet on the back of it as well as one on the top side (invisible once installed) to hold the plate up when opened. My gauges are installed there as well as where the line lock button and light will go.
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Here are some of my past muscle cars. Not bad for owning many of these in high school during the '90s.

Chevelles
1970 convertible
1971 (2)

Camaros
1967
1969
1970 1/2

Corvettes
1961
1969
1972 LT-1 4-sp

Road Runner
1970

Impala/Biscayne
1966
1966 SS
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I agree, Milano Maroon is a nice looking color but too dark for a muscle car. I just think this color fits what I was wanting to build.

 

The following is some other cool cars I have owned but I didn't list them above because they are outside the muscle car years.

Trans-Am
1977 black/gold
1978 black/gold
1979 4-sp
1995 Firehawk 6-sp

Camaro
1999 SS 6-sp

Corvette
1994 (2)
1998 (2)

Lotus
2006 Elise

 

Welcome to the site. That's yours? Very cool '66. I was thinking about painting it black or white but I went with Aztec Bronze since it is so rare and actually the factory color. Great looking car there.