OK after all these years, after the car was gone. I stopped by the house. I was met by Al, short for Albert, not Alan, as Al informed me.
I told him that I had always wanted to check on the Grande and he informed I was a bit late. He said he didn’t mind answers a few questions.
So I asked Al how got the car and he said he bought it back in 1972 from some guy. “It was a nice car with an automatic.” Of course my next question was what was under the hood and he said ‘nothing’. “Took it out about 10 years ago and parked on the side of the house.” He told me he never got the engine fixed, ” ’cause it ‘cost too much.” He ended up letting the guy that did some work on it keep. “Ya know, it might have been a 302.” He said he didn’t really know want to do with the body and just ended up hanging on to it.
So I asked him where the car end up, hoping it was sent out to be restored. He said there was this guy from Texas that would stop by every now and then and ask if it was for sale. He drives large pick up and always has an empty trailer attached. This same guy that has stopped by a co-worker of mine, who has her son’s 70 Monte Carlo and her daughter’s 1969 Camaro sitting under her car port – waiting for some TLC and try’s to convince her that she should sell them to him. She chases him off each time, but he’ll swing by a few months later.
A couple of weeks ago, Texas dude, stops by Al’s home and Al decided to get the Grande out of the yard and sold the man from Texas.
We talked a bit longer about my 1970 Mustang coupe and I showed him a couple of pics on my phone and then thanked him for his time.
For the Mustang the studs pass through the track and the nuts are under the car so a little space is need. Since most average guy’s don’t have a lift in their home garage, so I pull out the trusty 2 ton floor jack and a jack stand.
As most Mustang owners know, they were built with subframes. When jacking up the car with a floor jack place it on the frame, or use the standard scissor jack that attached to the seam at the rocker panel. Either way once it’s in the air, DO NOT FORGET to put the jack stand under the car. Yes it actually takes longer to do the set up then to remove the bolts…but take the time to be save.
2 Ton Floor Jack
Floor pan plug that protect the bolts and studs.
These plugs pry out very easily. I was able to get them out with just my fingers. Once they are removed you’ll have access to the nut. The distance between the opening and the nut requires an extension and the length of the stud requires a deep socket. These were 1/2″. The Mustang was raised in Arizona (get it? First reader to drop a comment explaining “get it” wins a DVD.) and all the plugs are in place. This kept all the road grime and what not off the studs and nuts, they separated easily.
When you are done you should have this many parts.
When I purchased the Mustang I was told that the upholstery was replaced at some point. (Keep that in mind for later as well.)
As you can see in the video I wasn’t able to get the seat out of the car. I initially I figured it was because I couldn’t pull out level enough for the studs to clear the holes due to the fact that I was holding the camera. However, after putting it down I still shouldn’t get the seat out. So I climbed back under the car and found that there was a second nut on the right rear stud. I’m guess it was doubled up, when the last installer wasn’t sure whether they already but one on? And of course you can see by the previous picture that those two nuts not the same as the others.
Part III will be coming up in a day or so.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Here’s a lost video from my trip to the Barrett Jackson auction in Scottsdale, AZ this past Jan. All you needed to do was sign up for email notification of deals from Chevy and/or Ford and you could drive these cars or ride them while a professional driver took you for a spin. I opted to drive the Ford Taurus SHO, ( the wait was shorter) I wrote about that in this blog entry http://wp.me/pKHNM-o2
This one was in the parking lot of the a local auto parts store Checker’s or O’Rielly’s….or….all those mergers are making hard to have common name that everyone can related too (remember when there was just NAPA….can’t find them very often).
1969 Chevelle 454 Restored shell
This 1969 Chevelle was merely as shell…oh but is extremely well done restoration. The paint was excellent (makes ya wonder why it was being dragged round uncovered), the inside of the shell had been as expertly sprayed as the exterior..it was almost a shame to put in the interior in there.
Reproduction gauges and not much in the way of interior yet.
The badge on the car shows that this car housed or will house 454. But however, the 454 didn’t show up on the scene until until 1970 so this must be a retro fit.
You can see the big power plant is missing.
It looks absolutely ready to for dropping that monster engine back in and hitting the strip. Hey I don’t even mind the wheels!!!
Didn’t find the owner (or driver) , part store was crowded.
Of course this isn’t a 1970, I’ll update the data a bit later.
Some 1970 Chevelle facts:
– The 454 was produced between 1970 thru 1976.
– It produced 450 hp configured with 4bbl carb
– It was designated the LS6 with 475 ftlbs of torque and 9.0:1 compression ratio
The majority of the Chevelle’s (approx. 13,000) had V8 in 1970 and approx. 10,000 had 6 cylinders.
Having grown up working in my Dad’s body shops, was often given the honorable task of taping (masking) off the areas that weren’t going to get sprayed and areas, like windows and mirrors where you don’t want over-spray landing. I learned a few tricks that help speed up the process, but more importantly help ensure a good clean paint job. Removing over-spray is not a fun process.
I’ve tried the machines that merge the paper and the tape, great for straight lines, like the Coca Cola trucks we painted but for tight corners it just doesn’t work.
To save time, which equals a money saver and to get sharp clean lines, outline the areas with thinner tape, 1/4 inch works best. After that use the tape and paper machine and run that along the previously laid tape.
Here’s one more.
I can’t possibly tell you how much a pain it can be to tape off emblems and name plates and it’s never clean. Do yourself a big favor, figure out how they are attached to the sheet metal and purchase replacement them. You know where I’m going… remove the badges and emblems. That is the only way to do it right.
This is a great show of the main gallery. In this clip they have just placed the AJ Foyt #8 Corvette on display and are setting up a C6 Grand Sport next to it.
At the entrance. Here are two of the cars that are up for raffling. There is also the a vette you can “try on”. In this clip I stated that the vettes at the end of the building were there for customer to sit. No true. That is where the code R is fulfilled. Code R is for delivery at the NCM. You can view a 1984 C4 in the window.
