My plan is to duplicate the car driven by the character John Milner, played by Paul Le Mat in the movie "American Graffiti".
I've been researching the car and as of July 23, 2026 I'm finding a lot of conflicting data about the engine. A few websites state that the engine was a Chevy 283 and other websites state that it was a Chevy small block 327. The Chevy 283 was introduced in 1957 and the Chevy small block 327 was introduced in 1962. Either Milner had a brand new engine or it was a 283? The other thing I noticed from the car in the movie is that it has Manafre Intake/Rochester 2 jet carburetors/Frog mouth scoops. That fact is telling me that the car in the movie had a Chevy 327 small block. The 327 will most likely be the engine I use because I have:
I'm also going to try using Kaleido paints for the first time. As of this writing I ordered:
Note: I am one of the worst painters in the world and because of that I did learn one very important thing. Always use thinners, retarder and flow improver/levelers from the same manufacturer as the paint. If you watch my videos of the "Back to the Future" DeLorean build , you will see what I learned about mixing chemistries, even within the same paint brand.
