The Car Thread

[gyre]

Nice mileage.
I had a 318 in that van with the four speed I used to have.
I'd like to put a richmond five in my truck.

I saw a TR7 with the body crease removed, few other alterations.
Car looked completely different. More upscale.
Really liked it.

I came very close to buying a Spitfire with a V8 conversion.
Actually tried.
The owners wouldn't let me test drive it before I made an offer.
i drove 400 miles to see it and told them i would have to drive it first.
They were just overly impressed with their car, and assholes.
And drunk.
I fanned cash across the trunk, put it in my pocket and left.
Bought the Tbird.
Had a chance at a V8 Lotus 7 that was number two in class in scca.
The owners bought the number one car that had beaten them.
Even I couldn't pretend that car made any sense for me though.
The peel off bodywork allowed them to get that big engine in there.

[gyre]

I'm not in any hurry to prove anything to anyone, capt.
Never said I was running a race team anywhere.
The Lola part is half an hour out of town.
I'm not driving out there for your amusement.
Would a Lola T333 snorkel make you happy?
How about the rod ended watts link on the ford?
That's close by.
So is the abarth intake, though the ferrari style factory air cleaner is at a friend's.
All the other interesting stuff was italian.
Zagato Lancia, Beta Lancia and the very rare Lada style Wagon with the dohc hemi, only sold in the usa.
Still looking, but probably scrapped.
Needed the cash from those.
I'm still pissed.
Reward posted.

There are photos of me on the playa with the man shaved into my head, purple hair.
i don't have a copy.
Camp Armageddon did the work, very nice too.
i don't take many pictures on the playa.
Too distracting.
i went to the hotrod nationals once and didn't take a single photo.
Just forgot.
That weekend changed my life, carwise.
The damascus road for me.
Nothing has ever been the same.

[gyre]

Back in the everyday world of trucks, turns out an exhaust that comes out in two pieces is much harder to wrangle from underneath.
Everyone says you have to remove the crossmember, but I wiggled it in upside down from the rear.
About forty pounds or so, tough until it's hung.
Already quieter with the cat welded.
I have to replace the two sensors, maybe the cat.
That horseshit adds up.
I'm now getting contradictory information as to whether the rear cat sensor is a feedback loop or not.
I have been assured it is not, now the local guy says it is.
Fuck fuck fuckety fuck fuck!
I have to replace a bolt I cut off that I shouldn't have and I'll be on the road again anyway.

Goddamn smog crap.

Back to something interesting.
Capt, did you recognize the blue car I posted?

[ygmir]

[mgb327]

Green Jeebus, I have never heard so much BS....anywho, I have been building things all my life. This is a 1977 MGB rubber bumper, 327/375 horse out of a '64 'Vette, Saginaw 3 speed, posi. Insane ride, "kinda fast". I was beaten once by a Viper...in the rain. Took a third in the Super Chevy Show here in Dinwiddie, Va. in 2004. Long car is a 454 FED, 2 seater, "street legal" tube frame. Couldn't run SS Show, as NHRA would not pass it, as it was a 2 seater. Way too much fun. I made this half a vee-dub powered single seat deathtrap, a farm-field flyer. My girlfriend at the time was so scared I was going to die, her pressure finally made me sell it. I am not going to bore you all with techie bullshit, you car guys know exactly how crazy these all are. I am still alive, and still have a license.

[mgb327]

Da Plane...

[Box Burner]

Chevy astro cargo vans are eveywhere and you could customize it into a mini RV.

My RV is built on a Chevy Astro.

[ygmir]

cool stuff Mgb327..........and yeah, go ahead and TRY to bore us with techie stuff......no, really. Even if I don't know WTF you're talking about, I love to read about it.

[MikeGyver]

Green Jeebus, I have never heard so much BS....anywho, I have been building things all my life. This is a 1977 MGB rubber bumper, 327/375 horse out of a '64 'Vette, Saginaw 3 speed, posi. Insane ride, "kinda fast". I was beaten once by a Viper...in the rain. Took a third in the Super Chevy Show here in Dinwiddie, Va. in 2004. Long car is a 454 FED, 2 seater, "street legal" tube frame. Couldn't run SS Show, as NHRA would not pass it, as it was a 2 seater. Way too much fun. I made this half a vee-dub powered single seat deathtrap, a farm-field flyer. My girlfriend at the time was so scared I was going to die, her pressure finally made me sell it. I am not going to bore you all with techie bullshit, you car guys know exactly how crazy these all are. I am still alive, and still have a license.

Gotta love the quotation marks on "Street Legal" and same as Yggy, I like the techie stuff, sounds like you've had some fun cars.

One of my crazier ideas involve a AWD porsche 993 C4 and a VW Squareback. Got half a notebook filled with research and plans that say it should work out. The easiest way would basically be a tube frame with a Squareback on top but since when is the easy way fun?

[gyre]

Beautiful cars, MGB.
Really like the drag car.

Mike, no reason that project wouldn't work.
They have built a bunch of bug bodied Porsches.
Porsche made a production run of turbo vanagons too.
Gotta love those.

I got to see one of the 917 Lemans cars and Canam cars at Collier's Museum.
Worth the trip if you can go.
They are so small in the flesh for 1400 hp.

[gyre]

cool stuff Mgb327..........and yeah, go ahead and TRY to bore us with techie stuff......no, really. Even if I don't know WTF you're talking about, I love to read about it.

Can't agree more.
i'll talk to anyone that will let me ask questions.

[MikeGyver]

Beautiful cars, MGB.
Really like the drag car.

Mike, no reason that project wouldn't work.
They have built a bunch of bug bodied Porsches.
Porsche made a production run of turbo vanagons too.
Gotta love those.

I got to see one of the 917 Lemans cars and Canam cars at Collier's Museum.
Worth the trip if you can go.
They are so small in the flesh for 1400 hp.

Porsche powered is the easy part, the hard part will be getting the AWD system under the front end

[Captain Goddammit]

I'm not in any hurry to prove anything to anyone, capt.

That part sounds true!

Yes, the blue car is the one I bought last week. I converted it to electric power, and it goes 2000 miles on a single overnight charge.
I had photos of the conversion process, but my dog ate them. And then a Vietnamese guy ate my dog.

[ygmir]

I'm not in any hurry to prove anything to anyone, capt.

That part sounds true!

Yes, the blue car is the one I bought last week. I converted it to electric power, and it goes 2000 miles on a single overnight charge.
I had photos of the conversion process, but my dog ate them. And then a Vietnamese guy ate my dog.

nothing like Gin and Tonic, with extra key lime in it, coming out my nose, to make a nice evening............

[gyre]

Yeah, it's been done though.
There should be room.
My cousin had a 412? and a few others similar and talked about doing a swap.
He has a 356 and won't keep it running.

I have no experience driving the awd stuff, but a burner drove me around in his normal transportation in San Francisco, an audi S6 wagon.
Flung everything out of my pockets cornering, fairly impressive.
Active everything, about 450 hp.

Capt, I've met you on the playa.
I think you poked me with a boat hook when I got close to the boat.

[MikeGyver]

Never liked the 412's, front end looks too french. 356 should be no problem keeping running, pretty simple system. Never been in a AWD car but alot of 4x4's

[gyre]

It does look french.

He just won't spend money on it.
Nothing wrong with it.

[BBadger]

Sometimes only a forklift can provide enough down-force.

[MikeGyver]

Gotta love seeing rear spoilers on FWD cars

[name redacted]

Every car guy has pictures of their cars. Those that dont, dont have the cars they speak of.

I have more pictures of cars in my phone than of my wife and son.

I too call shenanigans on the mileage thing....

[Elliot]

Fiberglass body from swap meet, $40. Running 1963 Biscayne, $300.
This was my second such car, built in the late 1980s. 283 Chevy and Powerglide. Own design of frame and much else. Stick welder.






Mocked up on blocks of wood and whatnot.






First drivable version.






Cowl extended for legroom and hood.






Designing hood with help of temporary masking tape lines. That black nose wound up widened and otherwise reworked to fit right. Built buck and hand-laid fiberglass in one with nose.

I have a picture that shows a glimpse of the finished hood, but it’s a slide and I cannot get my scanner to take it.


Drove this car a bit over 6,000 miles. I built several rear suspensions for it, not because it didn’t work all right, but because I wanted to try different methods. Thus it was sitting with no rear suspension when I moved to Clearlake in 2002, and my interests evolved in other directions, and I parted it out. Don't seem to have any picture of the essentially completed car -- but I never did paint the new hood, so no great loss.






Got written up for “speed contest” at “100+”, but the officer was outside his own jurisdiction, which means extra paperwork for the court, and the case evaporated by itself. Same with my buddy in a similar car (hence “speed contest”). The officer’s parting shot: “Cool car, but your buddy’s car is quicker.”

[MikeGyver]

I've always wanted a 73-75 Blazer.

[Captain Goddammit]

Yes, I was gonna say something about the full-removable-top '73-'75 in the background too! Always liked those.
There were TWO extremely cool rides in your driveway!
Hey Elliot does it still count as a "chopped top" when you cut off your bus roof and add more?

[tatonka]

Fiberglass body from swap meet, $40. Running 1963 Biscayne, $300.
This was my second such car, built in the late 1980s. 283 Chevy and Powerglide. Own design of frame and much else. Stick welder.






Mocked up on blocks of wood and whatnot.





First drivable version.






Cowl extended for legroom and hood.






Designing hood with help of temporary masking tape lines. That black nose wound up widened and otherwise reworked to fit right. Built buck and hand-laid fiberglass in one with nose.

I have a picture that shows a glimpse of the finished hood, but it’s a slide and I cannot get my scanner to take it.


Drove this car a bit over 6,000 miles. I built several rear suspensions for it, not because it didn’t work all right, but because I wanted to try different methods. Thus it was sitting with no rear suspension when I moved to Clearlake in 2002, and my interests evolved in other directions, and I parted it out. Don't seem to have any picture of the essentially completed car -- but I never did paint the new hood, so no great loss.






Got written up for “speed contest” at “100+”, but the officer was outside his own jurisdiction, which means extra paperwork for the court, and the case evaporated by itself. Same with my buddy in a similar car (hence “speed contest”). The officer’s parting shot: “Cool car, but your buddy’s car is quicker.”

cool build

[Roberto Dobbisano]

"i don't need no steenkin' license".

[ygmir]

very cool Elliot!!
Another good "topless" 4x4 is a Ramcharger. Like the Blazer, but of course "Mopar".........

[AntiM]

License is on the front of the car, officer.

[Elliot]

My white Blazer was a 1974 -- a GMC Jimmy, which of course is exactly the same car except for the grille. Bought it for a song out of the back row of a bottom-of-the-barrel used car lot -- they had given up on selling it and had set it aside to be scrapped. Amazing, since the 2-wheel-drives are generally highly sought after. It needed a bit of work, yes, to put it mildly. And it had come from the factory without the top, with a regular pickup tailgate. So I had to find those, and the back seat. Had my painter do a complete color change, in and out. Luckily, every piece of weather stripping was still available from the factory.

In the refurbishing process, I cleaned it up a little. The best improvement was the smaller bumpers -- from a Ford Econoline van. And I was quite meticulous with wheel-and-tire fitment, to fill the wheel wells just right. And I lowered it a tad.

I drove it every day for 17 years, and accumulated a long list of folks who wanted to buy it. They came up to me at filling stations and everywhere. So when it finally wore out to the point that the rivets in the frame were coming loose, and the car drove like the frame was rubber, I sold it for decent money. I told him about the loose rivets, of course, but he did not seem concerned. I suspect he just wanted to flip it for a profit to a lowrider in Los Angeles or some such.

I had a winch-and-pulleys arrangement in the garage, so I could take the top on and off in a few minutes. Loved that car. Still miss it sometimes.

What is the question about a license plate? The Blazer's rear plate is below the bumper on the left side -- obscured by the trailer hitch in this photo.

[Elliot]

So, after selling the Blazer and before I had found a pickup, I needed to move The Two Ton Tricycle a short distance. So I slapped a trailer hitch on my Mazda Miata. The Miata is another car I wish I had kept. This seems to be the only picture I have of (half of) it.

[Elliot]

This is the first car I built, in the late 1970s. Fresh 390 Ford with Super Cobra Jet innards, C6 tranny. Power steering and brakes. The bulky master-cylinder/booster was hidden behind the seats, operated thru a long pull-rod.

A fellow who is quite an authority on cars took it for a spin and declared it drove much better than it looked. I’m still proud of that.

But the body lines were all wrong. I deliberately made a 5 degree kink in the frame below the cowl to give the body more rake, and it turned out awful. It looks like the Jolly Green Giant stepped on it and broke it at the firewall. So I learned from this, and you saw the masking tape lines during the design of the hood on the second car.

Drove this car over 6,000 miles in just a couple of years, and sold it in connection with my divorce.

I took these pictures, but now I had to recover them from a website of hot rod history. They must have gone thru about ten generations of copying!