HOTTROD, is your 62 two-toned, or is just the lighting that makes it look that way to me? I have to say that is one beautiful car. It is kind of what I have in mind for my 62 Electra if the Marine Corps ever keeps me in one place long enough to do a good resto on it. ray: Here is a pic of my Electra...
Brian, long time no see :beer ! It's good to have another '62 back on the board! And yes, HOTTROD's '62 is two-toned (blue on the top, silver on the bottom).
Yeah, I had to take a little vacation to Iraq. :beer Made it back safe and sound, now I need to fix the stuff that went bad on the car while it sat in storage.
Wow, I had no idea! Thanks for your service, it's very much appreciated :beer . Glad you made it back safe and sound! I know what you mean about storage. I got really busy a while back and because of a few pesky problems I put less than 200 miles on the car over the course of 2-3 years. Now that neglect has come back to bite me in the butt! I'm going to drop about $1k to get it road-worthy and another $1k to get her back into "cruising" shape. It'll all be worth it in the end though :3gears: !
Storage is a real killer. I bought my 62 over 13 years ago, about two months before I went to boot camp. When I went to boot camp it went into storage at my father-in-law's farm in MN and spent all but three weeks of the next 8 years there. Then I got it out, spent $1k getting it road-worthy and cruiseable (that was when I was in Wisconsin as a recruiter). When I got transferred to CA it went back into storage at my father-in-law's for about 9 months until I was able to get into a house with a garage to park it in. Then I put it in storage again (here in CA this time) a year ago when I was getting ready to leave for Iraq. Now I'm back and it needs the heater core, fuel pump? (leaking fuel from around the pump somewhere...haven't figured out exactly where yet), and exhaust work. Then I can get the rust in the trunk that it developed when it was in storage the first time repaired. Anyway, the best thing I think we can do for these cars is get them out and drive them.
Yep, I'm basically dealing with all that as well (heater core, exhaust, leaky carb). Kinda funny that we both have 62's and are dealing with the same problems :laugh: ! Just curious, what kind of shape is your radiator in? Like I said in the other thread, shoot me a PM or email if you want any help or advice when your doing the heater core. And yes, you will have to have it re-cored since nobody makes replacements. As far as the fuel pump; if it's leaking from that general vicinity and it's not a loose line at the pump, filter, or carb, then I'd bet it was the pump. That should be a fairly cheap and easy fix. My exhaust is shot as well. I was going to try and salvage the factory system but it was just too far gone. Right now I'm in the process of restoring my factory manifolds (couldn't justify headers) and fabbing up my own system with flexible exhaust tubing. I'm going to end up with a dual system for under $100 :TU: !
My radiator is in good shape...it is the original radiator so, trust me, I just knocked on wood. I had to do some exhaust work on mine when I got it out of storage the first time. I replaced everything from a couple feet behind the y-pipe back. To get the dual exhaust look I used a crossflow muffler from a third-gen Camaro with one inlet and two outlets mounted in the stock 62 location. Now, the connector where the y-pipe connects to the rest of the exhaust is broke and the y-pipe itself is pretty weak.
I hope your radiator lasts. I don't know what happened to mine. I had it recored about 10 years ago and now it's all green/corroded again. Plus the top tank has developed a bunch of pin hole leaks. Ideally I'd use some of Steve's "Nailheaders" and a full 2.5in system with a Dynomax Ultra-Flo X muffler mounted in the stock location. That would set me back a pretty penny though. Right now I'm planning on just using the factory manifolds (which I've ported and made flow better) which dump into about 6in of 2in pipe right after the collector. Then after the 2in pipe sections I'm using 2.25in flex-pipe which run back to Flowmaster 40 series mufflers. It should flow ALOT better than the stock setup and should sound pretty badass too :3gears: !
