Monthly Archives: January 2010

The Non-Mechincal Hurdles of Restoring and Modifying Cars

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So restoring or modifying a car will have hurdles, no way around it; face ’em and deal with ’em.  I think one could list them for days and still not cover them all.  But let me cover the psychological ones that I’ve encountered. (Besides the dual persona necessary to own and own up to owning a Ford and a Chevy….oh, don’t worry, you read the multiples talk to one other…right?…whatever you say….Yes, they won’t have to read that again…we promise.)

Again, I’m sure there are many, but one by one, I’ll list mine and discuss.  It’ll be good for us…I mean..me!!!

Most of these stem from always longing for that special car and then finally getting one.  Now, if you pick up a “project” car, then chances are you aren’t going to get where I am until at least you have it running, driven it around a while, and developed that special bond.  You know the bond I’m talking about, where you’ll do anything to spend time with it.   Like, take the long way to work even though you might be a couple of minutes late or the “Sure honey, I don’t mind running to the store for you for the 14th time today.  ” I don’t mind missing a little of the game.”    That bond.

I bought both of my cars in very good to excellent condition.  The Mustang was my almost daily driver, even when it was just a 6 banger, and the Vette replaced my Celica as the daily driver..by design.  So, I developed the bond pretty quickly.

This bond drives “fear”,  yes, I said it…”FEAR”.  Fear that something might happen to the car, a crazy fellow driver, a knucklehead in a parking lot, the old guy that leaves his shopping cart in the parking spot next to you on a windy day.  All truly horrible, truly.

But there is one thing worse: breaking the beloved thing yourself.  It’s like accidentally stepping on your pet’s paw or knocking your child down while playing basketball.  It can actually make you feel ill…right?  Are you all following me?  CAN YOU DIG IT? (from the movie Warriors).

Remember, I’m the Average Guy. I have a basic skill set; you won’t find me (Yet) pulling the tearing down an entire working engine.  At least not alone and even then with much trepidation.  I can’t image being deprived of driving my dream due to circumstances within my control; that’s just NUTS!!!!!

If you are on a limited budget, this multiplies the fear 120 fold…AT LEAST.  You break it….you have to wait to get it fixed.  Then your significant other is going to AT LEAST mention how much it might cost (over and over and over). “The commentary in this blog relates to a fictitious individual; any similarities or assumed similarities that might point to an actual person are merely coincidental and not intended to be projected onto my very understanding spouse.”  (Love you..Honey!!!)   (pst..how was that…pretty good, huh?..Yeah, that should cover my butt…JUST fine.  Of course we have a very nice couch!!!)

OK..enough therapy  for today ..more tomorrow.

Thanks for  reading.

Tim

AutoFactoid for 01/06/09

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Sorry for no entries yesterday.  I’ll make up for it today.  We’ll start with a couple notable events that occurred today.

Back in 1925 John DeLorean was born, famous for his name sake car and the work he did with Chevy and contributions to the automotive design industry.

On this day in 1917 a gold-plated Studebaker was displayed at the N.Y. Auto Show.  No, I don’t know why they’d do that!!!

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Auto Factoid for 1/4/2010

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We just passed some milestones in Automotive history over the holiday.

Jan 1, 1966 the Dodge Charger was introduced.

Jan 2, 1923 Chevy shows the world it’s air-cooled engine

Today First use of road signs on major roads – in 1901.

(From my 2010 Hemmings Calendars)

I recommend the Muscle Machine  and the Abandoned Autos calendars.

Notice:  Nope I don’t work for Hemmings, nor receive any compensation for mentioning them or any other publication or references. Just let you all know what I like and/or find useful.

Introduction to the C4

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Two days into 2010 and  everything seems to be going fine, so far.  :^)

I promised some details on my 1984 Corvette, so here ya go.

1984 was the first year for the new, much-awaited body style.  There were no 1983 Corvettes, depending on what you read, there were a few made but not in production and were sold.  Each generation of the Corvette has been placed in to generation categories. These were designated as  C1 (1953-1962), C2 (1963-1967), C3 (1968-1982),  C4 (1984-1996), C5 (1997-2003), and C6 (2004 to ……).

The C4 took a long time to develop, starting in 1978 (we’ll do more details another time), and was very innovative. For example, it had the Z51 racing suspension (a fairly new development), all digital dash with graphs as indicators for mph and rpms, extremely low drag co-efficient, and all electronic shifting transmission.  We’ll cover more later on.

My C4 is red and came equipped with 205 hp 350 Crossfire Engine (more on this engine later on), Z51 suspension, electric driver’s seat, traga top.  Here is a picture:

The story of how I obtained the Vette is a good one.  So go get a beverage and sit back and read.  This is one of those stories that I’ve always read about and said “What luck that guy had…nothing like that would happen to me.”

THE STORY

Actually, it’s a pretty cool story on how I came to own the Vette.

Purchased my 1970 Mustang a while ago (picture attached) and I wanted a fox body Mustang to go with it.

I had a cherry 1995 Toyota Celica with Bella Niche rims and I put it up on Craigs List offering to trade it for a fox body.

I got a call from a lady living here in Tucson that wanted the Celica for her daughter.  I told her I wasn’t interested in selling it and she said didn’t want to purchase it but to trade a 1984 Vette for it.  (I thought “No one trades a Corvette for a Toyota.”)

In the course of 3 months, it was an on again off again deal.  She wanted to give her daughter a car for Christmas, but her daughter wanted the Vette.  But props to Mom, she wasn’t going to give a 16 year old that kind of car. In our conversations it was revealed that the daughter tossed a fit and said she didn’t want the Celica.  Christmas came and went and in January the lady calls me again.

Finally, we set a time to meet, but still I was thinking either the Vette was trashed or something was up.  I was also concerned that the perception might be that I took advantage of her, to me who in their right minds would trade an American icon car for an import?  To my surprise we agreed to meet at her husband’s Auto A/C shop.  So I started feeling a little bit better, at least her husband must know something about cars.  So I showed up and things improved, the husband actually had a restored Ford Galaxy and another in the works.  They got better when he stated that the Vette was his wife’s  car and she wouldn’t drive it and it’s just taking up space.  She bought it but never really drove it.

I was even more pleased when I found the Vette in excellent shape (recent repaint that wasn’t great but not too bad, I grew up in an auto body shop, so I know good paint).  It was all original, only 32k miles with the Crossfire engine (I didn’t know much about the Crossfire..but I sure do now as I’ve recently rebuild the injector towers).  Anyway, both cars went up on the lift and we looked them over and test drove each others.  Vette had very good power, shifted a little hard, but not too bad.  We agreed to sleep on it and within a week I was the 3rd owner of the C4. Title swap only.

Yeah, I know, this was one of those deals you only read about in a car magazine.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Auto Factoid for 1/1/2010

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Did you know that AMC’s AMX (two-seater sports car – muscle version of their Hornet) had a concept version that did away with the trunk and turned it into a rambleseat?  Yeah…they did.  Ya know I always thought the word was “rumble seat”.

Anyway it was part of their Project IV which was 4 concept cars that they took to auto shows.  At the time this particular concept was called “Vignale AMX”.   This was around 1966.  Jim Jeffords was the president of the AMC racing team, called the Javelin Racing Team, Inc. He liked the concept, and even though AMC was not going to produce the AMX with the rear exposed seat, he bought a few AMX’s and offered the rambleseat as a dealership options.  They were officially called, the AMX R  and had his name in badge form on the hood.  So it was known as the AMX R – JEFFORDS. Hemming Muscle Machines has a great article on the car in their Nov 09 issue.

TIP:  I highly recommend the Hemmings magazines.  I subscribe to Muscle Machines, Classic Cars, and Motor News. Good stuff.

Thanks for reading.

Tim