Yo, Jeffe', wad ju need to do ees poot some leeft keet and soom veinte quatros and speeners on dat puta. Maybee, for da mujeres, ju need to poot some reely soft belbet inteerrior to keep dem bocas quiet!! Si, si. Das wad ju godda do mang. :grin: :grin: :laugh: :laugh:
Spruce it up a bit, drive it around and have fun with it. I have a friend who did a car as a concours restoration and regreted having to baby it all the time. He finally started driving it occasionally for fun and now that it has a few dings and a few slightly incorrect pieces of rubber under the hood, he feels liberated. Take the car out on special occasions (and that sometimes means a trip to the grocery store on a nice day) and just enjoy the cool car that it is. Eventually it will be worn out enough that a resto is justified, and it might be worth more by then. :beer Ron
I agree with several of the posts. Why does it have to be an all or nothing proposition? Just fix up what gets on your nerves and enjoy it while gas is still available!!! :TU:
Will do, David:TU: I ordered paint for it yesterday to do some touchup work in the jamb areas...and hopefully will be able to get rid of the paintbrush job on the right quarterpanel.ou:
Project small block Here's my suggestion. 1) get it running and mostly stock and take it to the drag strip. 2) Put in one of Dave's small body HEI's and power tune the carb. back to the strip 3) Home port the exhaust manifolds and see what that gives. 4) Have the heads mildly ported, and see what gains you get. It could be the beginnings of a how to build a 350 sticky. Where's the best bang for the buck? I'm guessing that getting the ignition curve right and tuning the carb to match will deliver the most results for the least money/effort. Home porting the exhaust manifolds (removing the butterfly and simple dremel cleaning) is more effort but not much expense. Other posts indicate that the heads are the next weakest link in the chain, but way up the effort and expense scales. It would be very interesting to see how much improvement you can get for under a grand. John
Three words, "Dukes of Hazzard". Orange paint, Hurricane (?) rims, brush guard, doors welded closed, number painted on the side....OOOOh yeah :TU:
Adam, do not spend too much money on that one. Just a minimum for having a nice paint ,a clean interior, and a tuned engine, and drive it every day, as long as your gas price does not reach $6/g as it does in Europe ! Keep your energy for the convertible. :beer
Hey Jean-Luc, Long time no see, mate :TU: What's happening in the engine department ? Still thinking about the rebuilt by JoKo ?
Hi Erick, am like a bear. During winter, I hibernate ! Nothing done yet to the engine. Just adding oil and smelling it.... I keep Joko's solution on top of the list of alternatives !
Okay, Keep our (Rob and I) transportation offer in mind, we're ready to burn a few liter of LPG anytime :3gears: Did you catch my photos of the Marckolsheim meeting, last September, rgion Alsace ? Best meeting I attended in 2005 (and I've been around !) You should try to make it there this year :beer
Erik, I am waiting for you and your engine this summer... And if done, then I can envisage going to the meeting east of France. I won't go with the mule eating 1litre of oil every 100 miles...and leave me aside the road with the crankshaft on the front seat....
Ok, quick update while I wait for lunch to warm up: I've been working on the small paint issues the car has, and I'm really happy with how it's turning out, without repainting the whole car. I took care of the big ol' brush touchups on the passenger side of the car, and now I'm going over the whole thing with 2000 grit paper and buffing with 3M perfect-it 3000. It's taking out all of the orange peel and leaving a really nice shine. Lots of time in getting this paint to look like a fresh job, but it's MUCH easier than doing the whole car from scratch. As soon as I get another garage space freed up, I will be doing the engine compartment and getting it ready for Rochester. Hey, it may actually score well, with the way it's turning out! I do need to replace a few pieces of trim here and there, and totally gut the engine compartment, but it'll be worth it. I will probably leave the engine in the car, and keep the heads on. Before I make that decision, I need ot do a compression test and see if I have any burnt valves. IF I do, then obviously, they are getting removed. I just hate breaking manifold bolts off........part of the job, I suppose. I got the AM/FM Stereo installed, and I'm waiting for the harness from Rob (thanks Rob!) so I can get some tunes in it. What boring ride without tunes!!! NOS front bumper is coming, too. I am in need of the front lower grille inserts now. Mine are bent up from a previous "love tap" in the front end.
Before and after pictures of the two drivers side doors - this shows the level or orange peel in the paint. Oh, when wet sanding the car, I found out that the bottom portion of the car has been repainted, and the upper portion (above the body line) is original paint. I can see the mask line up close going down the sweep spear of the car. Before: (looking at the same reflection in both pics) After: this picture doesn't do it justice. I just threw a coat of wax on it before I came in, and WOW it's SLEEK!!
I should've stepped down to 1500 grit. I just got done with the whole car, and I'm crippled. I can almost not even tell I have sanded it. It's pretty shiny already:laugh: At least the nasty orange peel is gone!! Tomorrow, I hope to get the whole thing buffed. THe machine I have isn't variable speed, so I have the feather it....which makes it a bit of a PITA to get done.
Looking good Adam. :TU: Care to take my Electra in for some paint tlc? o No: Glad I could help with the radio and harness.............I just hope I sent the right wire.
