Feeling a bit nostalgic, i dont really do the social media thing much but still wanted to show what ive been up to. this will probably be long-winded since i havent really been on here actively in quite a while

i built this car back in 2014: see original build thread here: 79 Malibu landau LS conversion
it was great, i drove it all over, raced it in a local 11.50 index. originally i threw it together with a bunch of spare stuff i had. there was a bunch i wanted to change eventually like put AC back in it, swap out the manual valve body TH350 for something with an extra gear, more power, etc.

well i ended up getting engaged, i had this car and my 81 mustang and couldn't keep both because we planned to move from NJ to NC so i sold it in 2015 to a guy in Wisconsin thinking id never see it again. fast forward 10 years and i made a post on a whim to the gbody page seeing if it was still around, about 30 minutes later i was talking to the owner! i text my wife and she tells me i had to buy it back (which ended up taking about 5 months to make happen)

so in may of 2024, it arrived from wisconsin on a transport truck. i drove it back and forth to work, picked my kids up from school and did a few small maintenance things with my son on it. the whole reason i bought it back was to have something a little more family friendly to do stuff with my kids and as a family.

so last weekend i started taking apart a perfectly good running car to do some upgrades. i had been saving up some parts and figured it was time to get going. this car is exactly the way i sold it in 2015 - nothing had been changed, nothing broke, its pretty wild! Phase 1 is to get heat and ac back in it, convert it to a holley setup for engine management and put in a 4L80 trans. i also have an LQ4 6.0 for it that may go in now in place of the LS1 (which is for sale lol) with plans of a power adder later on. so heres some pictures and ill do my best to share what ive learned and what i do as i go. ive also been tinkering with a TIG machine hoping to improve my skills as time allows.

when i got it back it had the same tires i sold it with lol so i swapped on some fresh ebay front runners and regular street tire for the rear. also changed out the stock front suspension for some BMR stuff.

 

What’s the plan for heat and a/c ?

 

for now put the stock G-body hvac case back in (because i already have it and its complete). down the road i may switch to vintage air to allow for more room. i did an 81 malibu a while back with the stock gbody stuff and a holley mount/r4 compressor when it first came out and it really worked well.

 

That's pretty cool / amazing that it came back to you in the same condition you sold it 10 years ago! Was the Wisconsin guy just not driving it much, or is that a testament to the quality of your work?

Looks like a great fun cruiser, perfect clean retro look with the drag wheels on there.

 

the guy raced it alot but i dont know how many miles it has had put on it since i sold it unfortunately. my end goal is a good cruiser/legit sleeper.

 

Nice looking Malibu. I’ve always love those since 86/87

 

Congratulations on getting it back! Clean example. Looks like it was well cared for.

Nice thing about G-bodies there are tons of chassis upgrades for them. Speaking of which, might want to squeeze some dual piston floating front calipers and bigger rotors behind those 15s, before you start upping the power.

 

brakes are in my plans for sure. i had wilwoods on my mustang and it stopped great but it was also 600lbs lighter. ive been looking at the "street" version of the dynalite setup but also considering a dual piston blazer/jimmy setup for cost. the rear is an oddball BOP 8.2 that has factory C-clip elimnators so im not sure what im going to do out back just yet.

 

finally got around to separating my LQ4 and 4L80 last week and tore down the trans to inspect it. definately was rebuilt before (truck this stuff came out of had 300k on it) converter has a tag from 2017, along with a few other things (no walk case bushing, and direct drum looking almost new).
im going to take the empty case and stick it in the car this weekend and make sure it fits (i know tons of people have done this but i dont want any suprises). id also like to see if my current transmission crossmember will work or if ill need to get a new one.

 

Was able to get the 4L80 case up in place tonight, crossmember wont work (which i was 99% sure it wouldnt) so ill have to get one coming.




also started trying to brainstorm where to put the terminator x screen. Not sure i want it in the cluster so im leaning toward the bottom right corner

Another side note: pretty wild whats available for these cars now. This home made headlight switch bracket was in the car when i bought it 10 years ago and i always thought it was janky, well dixie resto sells a new one lol

 

So after looking around and seeing what was available i spent some time laying under the car last night contemplating what life choices got me to this point... started playing around with the crossmember i already have and flipped it around. Looks like i could modify it to make it work by cutting the mounting pad off and welding it back on to the other side so i may try that this week.


Also, since i had them... i bolted the truck ac compressor and bracket on and it clears (i remeber on my blue malibu the f body stuff wouldnt fit due to the lines coming out the back). I dont plan to use it, but i figure it may help someone out.

 

so instead of buying a new trans crossmember i just modified the one i had. cut the mounting tab off and just flipped it to the back side of the tube. this took me about a month to complete because of kids sports and other things. plus i never actually used a tig machine. but with the help of some friends and many youtube videos i was able to spend some time the past couple days messing around with my primeweld machine. I bought this thing on a black friday sale and it took me till about 2 weeks ago to get it unboxed, set up and useable.










Ill preface this by saying im by no means a pro, or even any good lol... but i was able to melt some metal together and i think itll hold. Its wild to think whats available for the average person to use at home these days compared to 10 years ago. This is on 110v in my very basic garage and its pretty cool. apparently i ran this pretty hot and too fast (according to my former boss whom i bother too often about this kind of stuff)

 

Great project, and love the story. So cool you got it back. I wonder all too often whatever happened with my old 1976 Trans Am.

 

Great story and beautiful car. It looks incredible.
What part of NC did you end up in?

 

north of charlotte, we'll be here 9 years in august which is crazy to think

 

ive sold a bunch of my builds, ive pretty much kept in touch with the people that bought them. when i sold this car i never heard from the guy again till last year when i posted in a g-body facebook group to see if anyone had seen it.

 

Started working on some if the engine management harness stuff this past week. I quickly figured out the way the holley harness was laid out was not going to work. So as we do with all new expensive parts we get, i started cutting it apart lol. Trying to put the ecu under the seat or behind the radio and i have miles of wire to do that. Feel like under the seat is a better choice in case later on i want to switch to a dominator.




also i need to decide if i want to keep the fuseblock i had in the car when i originally built it or do something else. It worked fine just looks kinda janky. Also need to make a bracket and mount it somewhere.

 

@lt4malibu,

This is the kind of story that keeps forums alive. Full circle builds like this hit different when there’s family involved. Wild that you not only found it but that it was exactly how you left it. That’s a rare kind of second chance.

Keep the updates coming. We’ll be watching this one.

 

@Summitracing thanks, i had to sell me "fast" car to make it happen but the point was to have something we could actually ride in. plans are to build a turbo kit in the future. my one son asks me every day if im gonna finish my racecar lol

 

Nice, I was in Huntersville for a short while about 16 years ago and we have now settled in Morehead City from Boston.

Man, that Malibu is lookin great, love the detail you put into your work. Top notch