Blerv's Car Chit-Chat

[bdblue]

My father has owned a garage my whole life so I've always been around cars, and worked in the garage during high school and college. One of my co-workers and I built several hotrods. Then I grew up and had to get a real job. Our first project car was a 1957 Chevy that we bought for $25. It had no running gear or interior but the sheet metal was good. I'd like to have that car now.

I get to drive this every day- Chevy LS2 motor with 6-speed Tremec transmission. But OTOH I don't have the money or the time to do any mods to it, and don't have another vehicle to drive anyway.

[farnorthdan]

Here's a project I've been working on for a few years now, 73' Bronco
Typical Bronco rust, but not horrible, mostly just patched that stuff, maybe someday I'll fix it right.
Had to rebuild the drive train from the flywheel back, installed floor shift from the column.
The seats were shot so got the pleasure of reupholstering those, hog rings blow.
I'd like to do a frame off some day, maybe after retirement we'll see.







Great thread by the way, love things with motors, I'll post some pics of my hogs later. :D

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Man, great car pics! I like your guys' skills on this. I have two more questions:

1 Do you remember those "build your own car" kits you'd at times seen in the Popular Mechanics and other magazines? What do you think of them as far as using them to build a practical and fun roadster?

2 Check out this, supposedly this new rule will make it easier for people who want to build their own custom built vintage cars and drive em around: http://www.autoblog.com/2015/12/08/new- ... tage-cars/

3 Would anyone here ever consider driving around in a new copy of a real oldster: A Ford Model T or something like it?

[Evil D]

There are some companies that make really nice car kits, Superformance for example make some nice Cobra kits.

[Blerv]

Here's a project I've been working on for a few years now, 73' Bronco
Typical Bronco rust, but not horrible, mostly just patched that stuff, maybe someday I'll fix it right.
Had to rebuild the drive train from the flywheel back, installed floor shift from the column.
The seats were shot so got the pleasure of reupholstering those, hog rings blow.
I'd like to do a frame off some day, maybe after retirement we'll see.

Very nice Dan :). I had a 73 we patched up. Great fun but oh my some need a bunch of TLC . Years of trying to jump them I guess...

[3rdGenRigger]

This is where I'm at presently.

Been driving this 2000 Tundra as my daily driver for a little over a year. Got it from a friend who needed to get it out of his driveway and it needed a few things so I got it for a steal of a deal. Just rolled over 313,000 km and it still doesn't burn a noticeable amount of oil between changes and I run 10,000 km service intervals. Seatbelt tensioners are on their way out and I need to pull the dash apart to fix the temperature knob (I can still change it by reaching under the dash and pulling the cable manually), the parking brake sticks on so I can't use it and the parking brake light comes on when the temperature is cold enough, and I need to replace the lock on the fuel filler door so it will stay closed all the way. Other than that it has no issues and is a good reliable vehicle I don't need to care too much about. I've never really had a reliable semi-beater before and it is a little refreshing in a lot of ways. I wish it didn't have an open diff in the rear though...no predictable sideways driving in the winter when it starts one wheel peeling.



I also have a 2005 GMC Canyon (Too many mods to list here, most not cosmetic) and I seem to have stretched my timing chain out. It's something that's entirely my fault in hindsight and a new engine is a lot cheaper than replacing the timing chain in my current engine. I have a new engine for it and will be swapping it in soon hopefully when I have the time and shop space. I would love to do a solid axle swap at some point in the fairly near future. I might buy a car to drive as my DD and if so this will be my winter vehicle for a few years until I decide to go all out as far as offroading goes with it, but I've had an enormous amount of fun with it thus far.



I also have a 1977 K5 Blazer that I'm planning to more or less restore. It was tempting to make it an off roading buggy, but it's too nice to tear apart with 59,000 miles and you just don't see many nice ones anymore. My Canyon is going to be the off roading buggy for sure. I bought this Blazer knowing I wouldn't have the funds to do much with it for at least a few years but it has too many of the right options and I couldn't pass it up because I knew I'd never see another like it. No power options whatsoever, but it does have factory A/C (Rare up here), and being a 70's Blazer it has a 12 bolt rear and Dana 44 front axle instead of the 10 bolt pairs that came on later Blazers. It also has the np205 transfer case and the sm465 4 speed manual transmission. The floor and rockers need to be replaced, and the rear quarters need to be redone, but it'll be a sweet weekend cruiser when I'm ready to put some money into it. Oh, and orange plaid interior...'nuff said.



And onto my weekend cruiser. It's a 1964 Impala Convertible in candy apple red. It's not a numbers matching car unfortunately, and has a 283 mated to a 2 speed powerglide. The original engine was a rare 283 with 4 bolt mains (Had the equivalent of the police interceptor package which means the rear also has posi), but the existing 283 is a 2 bolt main engine. I've been toying with swapping a 327 with Corvette fuelie heads into it, but I'm not really sure what I'll do with it because I enjoy it so much how it is. Aside from a non numbers matching engine and different paint colour, it's essentially an unmolested unmodified time capsule.

[jabba359]

I grew up in a car family, with my father owning one 1969 Camaro or another for as long as I can remember. When it came time for me to buy my own car, however, I wanted a 1967 or 68 Mustang. After looking all over and checking out a bunch of them all across Washington and Oregon, I found a 1968 Camaro about two blocks from my house. I ended up taking that car home.

After the first year, decided it needed more power. So my father and I pulled out the engine, got it bored out, and put in a moderate cam and traded out the little 2 barrel carb for a Holley 4 barrel and new intake manifold. I drove it a couple more years before moving, so it went into storage for 5 years. When I took it out, I decided I needed a new Posi rear end, some new wheels/tires, a cowl hood, new front quarter panel (where a parking lot hit and run had left it damaged :mad: ) and I pulled the engine to replace the old turbo 350 for a Muncie 4-speed. After another year, it went back into storage for the last 11 years, waiting for me to get a place with a garage here in California (uggh, why are houses with garages so expensive here?) so that I can continue work on it. Next up is a paint job, as the paint was kind of old when I bought it, as well as a power, 4-wheel disc brake conversion. One day, I'd also like to drop a modern V8 in there, perhaps something like an LS3.

Here are some old pics from 2005. It still looks like this, but just a bit dustier.

[Evil D]

I thought you guys may like this. I'd get in way too much trouble with AWD and that much power.

https://youtu.be/wLA_489zISw

[Blerv]

I thought you guys may like this. I'd get in way too much trouble with AWD and that much power.

That's crazy, haha! At a point I much prefer fun to fast, namely at ludicrous power levels with marginal crash test safety. Even on a closed-road that's gotta be like riding a dragon...

[SpyderEdgeForever]

When it comes to restoring an old muscle car, and there is a lot of severe rust damage, and one needs to actually replace steel body work parts, is it best to have it made custom, if one can do it, or, get old parts at scrap and junkyards and add it on?

[v8r]

Still have my 88 cutlass Supreme after all these years. Can't beat a nice G body in my opinion. My Cutlass sits in the garage mostly these days, because when I take it out for a drive I leave my brain at the house..... I have responsibilities now that are more important than acting a total fool. Cannot resist wrapping a few doughnuts every now and again though.
Blerv, I could have bought a nice GN back about 15 years ago for 8k. Wishing now I would have done that! It would have been a pretty nice return on investment for sure.

[Evil D]

When it comes to restoring an old muscle car, and there is a lot of severe rust damage, and one needs to actually replace steel body work parts, is it best to have it made custom, if one can do it, or, get old parts at scrap and junkyards and add it on?

Well times have changed a lot with this subject. Most of the more popular older cars have reproduction panels now but fitment is always so so. Some people will say it's always beat to get factory original panels off another car when you can, while others say you'll have to make it fit either way. What's interesting is on older cars where for example a fender got stamped into shape by an enormous hydraulic press, over time the shape of the die that stamps the fender actually changes because of wear, so a fender that's made 300,000 in line after the first one may differ enough to cause fitment issues. This became less of an issue as production technology improved though. These days the aftermarket panels can be just as nice as factory depending on who makes them.

[v8r]

Evil, that's a cool fox body. I almost bought a 85 Mercury Capri bubble back. It was a 5.0 with 4 speed manual if I remember right.....with 80s striping down the doors and all! The thing that turned me off to it was it smelled like the bottom of a ashtray inside( instant headache for me).

[Evil D]

Evil, that's a cool fox body. I almost bought a 85 Mercury Capri bubble back. It was a 5.0 with 4 speed manual if I remember right.....with 80s striping down the doors and all! The thing that turned me off to it was it smelled like the bottom of a ashtray inside( instant headache for me).

Man Capris are awesome, you should've bought it and drown the interior in Fabreze lol.

[Scroop]

Man Capris are awesome

:eek: I couldn't resist :p

[Evil D]

Man Capris are awesome

:eek: I couldn't resist :p

lol

[v8r]

Yeah the Capris had the cool flared fenders and quarter panels. A lot of guys around my hometown would swap the nose off a mustang on to them just for the fenders and quarters.
I used to live really close to 3 mustang shops. I bet all were within 20 miles roughly. MPS racing, MV performance, and Dugan racing.

[Blerv]

Yeah the Capris had the cool flared fenders and quarter panels. A lot of guys around my hometown would swap the nose off a mustang on to them just for the fenders and quarters.
I used to live really close to 3 mustang shops. I bet all were within 20 miles roughly. MPS racing, MV performance, and Dugan racing.

I worked part-time as a teenager (parts runner) at Mikes Mustang and Performance Ford in Everett. Such fun times tuning in the 90's...tons of fuel, spark, and trash-talking :).

I'm surprised the Capri's never really caught on. A real shame they went out in the mid 80's just a couple years from the first EFI engine. Out of the box performance would have been quite a bit better.

[Mad Mac]

In the late '60s, I was driving through the hot, gritty town of Victoria, Texas when I spotted a faded, red fender peeking out from under a tarp behind a gas station. It seduced me faster than Angelina Jolie in a slit dress.

The gas station manager did not know much about it except that the owner had put a Corvette engine in it. Then he confessed that vandals had stolen the top and bucket seats. A yellow, wooden Coca-Cola crate was now the driver's seat and he fired it up for me. The body was aluminum and it had only one small badge to help identify it. The asking price was $400.

When I got back to Texas A&M I did some research in the library (the only research I ever did in college) and determined that the sensuously styled sports car was a rare Arnolt Bristol. The Italian designed body was originally wrapped around a British Bristol straight six and they competed in road races like the Mille Miglia in the '50s.

Sadly, I did not have $400 nor the time or place to take on a project. The Army was waiting for me after graduation. Here is an article from 2009 where one sold for $165,000.

http://jalopnik.com/5287718/1956-arnolt ... sic-165000

[Blerv]

...

Sadly, I did not have $400 nor the time or place to take on a project. The Army was waiting for me after graduation. Here is an article from 2009 where one sold for $165,000.

Dang, what a bummer .

My Dad was a car fan over the years and had a few gems. He had a 1967 Shelby GT500 when I was an infant; those are worth a ton of money these days too.

His justification was that it drove like crap at the time and was even slower than most his 5.0 Mustangs in the 80's...plus the fuel smell was horrid. Once it appreciated a few thousand he would have certainly sold it.

Those "buy and hold" people are a different breed. Most are delusional and it doesn't pay off for them or not to the extent they think it will. Spyderco knives are FAR better investments over time, IMHO. There are a few lucky stories or barnyard restorations though that make us happy to read about.

America has always been about the dream and the that lucky lotto ball. Still, the risk is often worth the ride. :D