You start to go to the track to watch the world nationals and you go, wow I want to do that then it started. This is way back in the early 80's So you go out and buy yourself a cam, put some headers on and get a carb or two.
Tear it apart I put in a Comp Cam 268 in about 1983 and added a 650 Holley spread bore carb Ran like this with my 256 gear and ran like 15.80 or so. I put in a 373 gear and got down to 14,89. Then found some Buick vendors and started to look for some more power. This is how we looked back then. Like that lift there, it is for real and it works. My grandfather found it at a old gas station and had it put in and it is in the ground and I do not think there is any cement around it, at least as for as I know. We used it all the time to work on our cars. I have no idea when it was put in. My grandfather owned the house and my parents bought it back in 1965. I was 8 years old then It will still go up today but I would not trust it now. We used to put a large piece of wood under it a 4x12. in case it decided to come down. It took an hour for the compressor to pump enough air in to get it up to 6 feet. The air compressor still works today picture later on. I found a Kenne Bell Cat. and then found Poston was selling parts too but the Kenne Bell book was the one I was looking at then, sis not hear of TA performance then this was around 85-86. But what cam that 118 looks good. Well this went away for a while and decided to get the car repainted I stripped the car all down tore everything off and had it repainted, The car sat from about 1986-1988 in 88 I had the car repainted and the color is from a 1988 Fiero. More pics on this tomorrow. From 1983 to 1986 or there about I raced all kinds of people on the street and wiped a lot of butt then. My computer is too hot have to stop here.
I wanted to buy this carb but I ended up getting this one, who would have known should have bought the TQ yep should have bought it. but got this instead from Poston Picked this one up at the junkyard to try and it ended the motor. Was flooding while going down the track That TQ rocked wish I had bought the new one and the motor would have been ok This happened in 93 I jumped ahead a little I have to upload the pics from when I had the car painted I will get those tomorrow
I am hoping what I show here will help you to get your project under way and don't let anything stop you. If you have a dream keep going foreword. In 1986 I parked my car in a friends garage and he was going to help me paint the car so I bought some books to learn how to paint a car. So what I did was begin to sand all the paint off the car and what happened as always when someone says they are going to help you it comes down to I will show and you will do all the work. Well I did not know what I was doing on painting a car so I found someone to paint the car and took it out of my friends garage. This is where I was at when I brought the car home, this was in 1988 .
In Sept. 1988 I got the car painted using a 1988 Fiero GT color. I replaced all the rubber around all the doors and trunk from SoftSeal and put on new chrome on the doors where it meets the windows with new felt. I probably got this from either Poston or Bob's Pontiac parts. I also replace the vinyl roof too. The paint job cost me around 2500$ bucks. I had the body shop put the bumpers and window trim back on and I did the door handles which I bought new also. At this time I still have that Comp Cam 268 with a completely stock engine, the interior looks like crap and I can't drive the car since I have no rubber on it and it sat out the winter till 1989. In the meantime I was looking at a article in Hot Rod on building a suspension that can handle corners like a Corvette and this is what I came up with...
Awesome! Thanks for sharing your story and the wonderful eye candy, Guy. Brings back some memories, though I didn't document everything with pictures like you did. Wish I had.
More to come... I can't believe I have this much on this. I like promoting this since this thing has run for 23 years now. Hopefully someone here will follow suit and do the same as me. Build one that is, this only took me 6 years to complete.
The next thing I did was put this great handling package on my car. I had to go to the junkyard and get 1977 spindles from a Camaro or a Firebird this let me put big disc brakes up front and this changed the center of gravity and lower the car to help with cornering and that it did. I did both the front and rear and the cost was 750$ for the front and about 750$ for the rear set up I also put a TA girdle on the rear end too I got springs that were heavy on both front and rear totally adjustable shocks, I put new brakes and all the hardware along with all new brake lines on both front and rear. Here is the set up I used for this.
Thanks for posting this. I remember reading the same articles on the suspension modification back in the 80's. And like you, I also went to all the local junk yards searching for the same parts and found a 1978 Trans Am with the 4-wheel disc brake package and heaver sway bars. I installed the taller front spindles and the disc brakes (front and rear) along with the sway bar. It all went under a '71 GS that I built for my son to drive in High School and on to College. He is still driving the same GS today. Marv.
Hell yeah that's what I'm talking about. Suspension mods! Not just a quarter mile track car, but one that will eat up the curves as well. You know, those 80's G body and even B body cars (Regal/Century and Lesabre) have lots of options for suspension, with the G body Grand Nationals and Law Enforcement B body Caprices/Impalas. This isn't' something that would be only limited to older A body cars that are getting pretty rare now, this thread could spark some ideas or encouragement for others with the body styles I just mentioned. Many 80's B body cars (and some G body cars) already had the 200-4r trans in them from the factory too. Don't forget that the Buick 350 is pretty much a bolt-in swap into one of those cars, especially if it came with a Buick v6 from the factory. All accessories and even motor mount pads and location wouldn't even need to be moved. This is another subject though and I don't want to distract too heavily from your thread theme, Guy--but you know how I am with my tangents. Thanks again for posting all this.
This suspension is what is slowing me down in the 1/4 otherwise it would be a lot faster. My 60 ft reflects this. More to come on all this.
Here is my next installment on what I had done next with my car. I redid the entire interior I got the seats reupholstered I painted the insides with rustproof paint I painted the black parts on the dashboard glove compartment, side posts, etc. I replaced the door sills. The seat in the front I got from a junkyard that had the leaner in the center. Painted the trunk and then added a new mat. I still have not driven the car on the street yet my paint job got to sit for a year at least while I was getting this stuff done. Some of the things I bought for the interior came from Poston enterprises. TA did not sell this kind of parts then they were all motor at that time. I can't even find a catalog that I thought I might have then. Lot of small interior parts came from Poston. I know I had the carpet sitting in my attic for almost a year and it had started to fade from the sun getting through the window. It is not as bad as in the pics but you can sure see it there. By the time you got the seats in there and the floor mats it is not that noticeable. I think I paid about 600$ to get the seats redone. 1989-1990 Here are the pics from that project.
Very nice. You really went through a lot on this car. I can dig the suspension mods for real. I'd give up some quarter mile time, which I don't care much for anyway (lol) for better handling around curves and stopping power. It makes for a better all-around package.
and I haven't even built the motor yet as it sits today. I see in some I am a little off on my story as I don;t think I put the TA girdle on till a later date. I have a small binder that has it all documented so I will have to take a look at it. I have been sitting on my butt all week in a chair baby sitting this kidney stone problem, Tuesday I get the stent out, and you know what they have to go thru to get it, yeah ouch.
