But it's a Classic! It's Priceless! No, it isn't!!

I talk to people all the time who have over-invested in and over-restored their cars, and are shocked when they try to sell them and find they can't begin to recoup even half their investment. Here's some good tips so you don't fall into this trap. #1 If it isn't broke, don't fix it. I know a guy who didn't follow this rule. I don't begrudge him wanting to rebuild the engine on his car. But he replaced the power steering pump, even though it worked perfectly, didn't make any noise, and didn't leak. He also replaced the alternator and starter, even though they worked perfectly and bench-tested fine. He replaced the radiator, even though the stock one didn't leak, wasn't clogged up, and cooled the old engine just fine, even in 95 degree weather. I could go on, but you get the drift. He spent a lot of money unnecessarily, that drove his restoration cost way up, but didn't increase the value of the car one ounce. #2 A deal isn't always a deal. Sometimes your better off spending more money and just buying a better car. Especially if the car your looking at is missing important and expensive parts, or needs work beyond your capabilities-i.e. a bent frame, or a car with water or fire damage. #3 A Musclecar is a toy, not a retirement plan. There are only a handful of cars that are worth restoring from a "basket case" or that you could actually make money on. Here's the list- in no particular order. #1 Any 1966-71 Hemi powered Chrysler vehicle. #2 Any "Boss" 302 or Boss 429 Mustang. #3 Any 1965-70 "Shelby" Mustang. #4 Any 1969-70 Dodge Charger Daytona or Plymouth Superbird. #5 Any Z16, LS6 or Yenko Chevelle. #6 Any Ram Air IV or Ram Air V Pontiac GTO or Firebird. #7 Any L88 Corvette. #8 Any 1973-74 SD-455 Pontiac Trans-Am or Formula Firebird. #9 Any 1968-69 Hurst/Olds. #10 Any 427  Ford Fairlane or Galaxie. #11 Any 1969-71 Pontiac GTO "Judge". #12 Any 1967-69 Z/28 or Yenko Camaro. #13 Any 1970 Buick "GSX". That's a baker's dozen, and that's about it for cars that are "Investments". The reason being, is a few years ago at the height of the craziness people were paying insane money for clones. Everyone was turning clunker Tempests and Le Mans models into GTOs, small-block two-door Malibus into SS396 and SS454 clones, two-door Satellites and Coronets into Super Bee and Road Runner/GTX's. Numbers matching or not, theres a lot of everything else on the market. No matter how nice it is, you are not going to pay off your house by selling your 340 Road Runner. #4 I just listed most of the desirable super-rare cars. Two-speed automatics, three-speed sticks, four-speed bench seat or column-shifted automatic bucket seat cars, radio or heater-delete cars, two-barrel engines, and so on, aren't collectible, their just weird, and no one but you thinks their cool. #5 A super-rare car missing a critical component-i.e. a Hemi car without the Hemi engine for example, or a Boss 429 without the Boss 429 engine, is not a deal no matter how cheap it is, because the cost and time an trouble involved in procuring a usable original engine and all the brackets, tin, and accesories,-if you could find one for sale at any price-would be just about impossible. #6 Unless you have a lot of money, and want to race it at the Monterey Historics or on the vintage racing circuit, old race cars are a horrible investment. So you find one of the "B.F. Goodrich Tirebirds campaigned in the 1970 Trans-Am series. It's still a gutted 1970 Firebird Race Car. The ultra rare- Ram Air IV Headed 303 Pontiac engines proved unreliable so it won't have that in it. It probably won't have one of the 485 hp 302 Chevys that most of them were campaigned with. Doubtless someone in the past took that to restore a 67-69 Z/28. It'll probably have a junk 350 Chevy or junk 350 or 400 Pontiac in it, if it has an engine at all. The made in england ultra-rare,ultra expensive mini-lite wheels will be long gone. So what are you going to do with it? You can't race it in any modern class, and the cost of returning it to street trim would be so prohibitive, you'd just be better off buying an already restored "Regular" T/A. Hope this helps everyone out. Mastermind      

Can't find your Dream Chevy? Consider a Pontiac!

Can't find the Chevy musclecar of your dreams? Consider a Pontiac. I know GTO's command just as high a price as SS Chevelles. However, every other model is substantially cheaper than the Chevrolet counterpart. Here's some examples supported by auction results and newspaper, internet, and Hemmings motor news listings. Want a big-block Camaro? At the last "Hot August Nights" auction in Reno, Nevada, a nicely restored 1969 SS396 Camaro sold for $15,000. At the very same auction a 1967 400 Firebird in great condition sold for $8,500. For second-generation models ( 1970-81 ) the gap really widens. A big-block was only available in the Camaro until 1972, and were produced in very limited numbers. By contrast, you could get a 400 in a Firebird Esprit, Formula or Trans-Am right up until 1979, and the 455 was available until 1976. Want a Rat-motored Monte Carlo? The Gran Prix is to the Monte Carlo what the Firebird is to the Camaro,-the better buy of the two. For the same reason. Big-block Montes built from 1970-75 are quite rare, and thus priced accordingly. Gran Prix's  from 1969-76 are the exact opposite. 400 power standard all years, and a good number of  "SJ" models had 455s! My sister had a 72 SJ in high school. That car had power everything, and it felt like a GTO! She showed her taillights to quite a few Camaros and Mustangs. The same goes for 1960-68 Full-size models. People fight with machetes to pay blood and a first-born child for 396,409, or 427 Impalas, Caprices, and Biscaynes. Meanwhile Pontiacs, be they Catalinas, Bonnevilles, or Gran Prix, can be bought for 1/3 to half the price. The reason is, most Chevys of this vintage have six-cylinder, or 283 or 327 small-block motivation. By contrast, practically every Pontiac built in this era had the venerable 389 as standard equipment, and a few had 421s. All 1967 and 68 models had 400s or 428s. Ditto for '70's full-size models. 402s and 454s were optional in Impalas and Caprices, but 90% of them had 350 small-block motivation. '70's Catalinas and Bonnevilles on the other hand, had 400 power as standard equipment and a good number had 455s. All through the years the Pontiacs had upgraded interiors and luxury options standard, that are sometimes rare on the Chevys.  I have nothing against Chevys, but the bottom line is they are generally more expensive than their Pontiac cousins.  Something to think about if your looking for a bargain. Mastermind    

It's not original Part Two

I've always been a "Whatever floats your boat" kind of guy, but I get sick of concours enthusiasts turning up their noses at other people's cars that are quite nice, but aren't "Just as it left the factory." I'll say again, for the cheap seats, -THESE WERE CARS PEOPLE! That people used for daily transportation. No one knew that 40 years in the future their would be a "cult-like" following and buying frenzy. If you had a new Mustang GT right now, would you keep it totally stock for the next 30 years?  Chances are you'd add a Hurst shifter, a K&N air filter, a cat-back flowmaster exhaust, or maybe some aftermarket tires and wheels. Even if you didn't modify it, it wouldn't be totally original. Here's a scenario-even brand-new cars have items that aren't covered under warranty. Let's say your Mustang blows a radiator hose on Friday night. Are you going to go to your local Autozone or Pep Boys store and get a replacement, or would you park the car until Monday and go to the dealer and get a genuine Motorcraft hose and clamps?  The battery goes dead the 3rd winter you have it. Are you going to buy a "Die Hard" battery for $89 or go to the dealer and pay $180 for a genuine Motorcraft one? When you get your oil changed at Jiffy Lube or Les Schwab tire, guess what? They use Purolator or Fram or Pennzoil oil filters, not Motorcraft. They use Pennzoil or Chevron, or whoever supplies them with oil, not Motorcraft brand oil. This is what the original owners of these cars did in the '60's and '70's. When the car was out of warranty and something broke, they went got a cheap replacement part. If a guy had say a 68 383 Road Runner in 1975, and the engine spun a main bearing, or threw a rod, chances are the owner wouldn't go to the dealer and demand an absolute factory rebuild. He'd go to a junkyard and buy a used 383 or maybe even a 400 or 440 out of a wrecked Dodge Polara or Chrysler Imperial or other "big" car that no one cared about. 30 years hence, in 2005, some collector is pissed because this otherwise great car doesn't have the original engine. Like I said before anyone who even thinks of cutting up the trunk of a Hemi "Cuda for wheel tubs needs to be summarily executed. On the other hand, An SS396 Chevelle is not "Ruined" because it has halogen headlights, radial tires, an HEI distributor, and an Edelbrock Performer intake manifold and matching carb. I'm all for the preservation of the breed, but when I'm checking the oil on my car at a gas station I don't need some jerk telling me I have the wrong kind of hose clamps!!!  Mastermind        

Your Car isn't as fast as you think it is....or was!

Supercars-every manufacturer had at least one, some had more than one. A car that could lay down 13 second quarters right off the showroom floor, and with maybe just headers and slicks could break into the 12's. LS6 Chevelles, Hemi 'Cudas, 428CJ Mustangs, Ram Air IV GTOs, Hurst/Olds 442s, Buick GSX's and a couple others I probably missed. The truth of the matter is that most of us whether we owned them or rode in our friends or relatives cars, most of our "Musclecar Memories" revolve around what we would now call "Entry Level" musclecars-i.e-389 GTOs, SS396 Chevelles, 383 Road Runners, or "Mini-Musclecars" like 327 Novas or 340 Dusters. Tales of third-gear rubber and being pushed back in the seat seem silly when someone pulls out a yellowed, dog-eared, copy of Car Life, or Motor Trend, and we find that the machine in question ran in the 14.60's. Gearheads love to quote magazine test results, but they don't always take every factor into the equation. Enthusiast mags, especially Hot Rod, or High Performance Cars, or Popular Hot Rodding, would sometimes recurve the distributors, re-jet the carbs, or even add slicks, headers, and traction bars. Not exactly "stock" performance. Pontiac was the master of this Royal Pontiac in Michigan would rejet the carbs, recurve distributors, even mill the heads. Jim Wangers finally admitted some 40 odd years later in his autobiography what everyone else already knew. The GTO than ran a 4.6 second 0-60 time, and a 13.1 second quarter in Car and Driver's May 1964 issue was a ringer. The 389 had been pulled by Royal Pontiac and replaced with a blueprinted 421. I experienced this in high school. I had a Ram Air III, 4-speed, 4.33 geared 69 GTO Judge. ( What were my parents thinking? ) A buddy had a 1969 440 Six-Pack Super Bee. He challenged me and the Judge, swearing on a stack of bibles that his car ran "Very Low 13s or Very high 12s." He gleaned this information from an old Car Life road test where Chrysler engineers had Pro Stock Champion Ronnie Sox pilot a prototype Six-pack Road Runner to a string of 13.0 and 12.9's in the quarter. They wouldn't admit that it had been blueprinted, but said it had been brought to "The top of Specifications." It also was equipped with a 4-speed, 4.30 gears and slicks. My friend, only being 17 years old, would not listen to what I thought were two very important facts. #1- He didn't posess Ronnie Sox's driving skill, and #2- His car, which hadn't had a tune-up or even an oil change in god-knows-when, sporting 3.23 gears, a Torqueflite, and street tires, would probably run substantially slower than the Dyno-tuned, 4-speed, 4.30 geared, drag-slicked test mule. In addition to the mechanical advantage my GTO had-i.e. the four-speed and 4.33 gears,-my father was an expert Pontiac mechanic, and my car was perfectly tuned. My pal was totally shocked when I beat him in a street race. I experienced this twice more, in later years. I had a 403 Olds engined 77 Pontiac Trans-Am. I know they were considered "smog-dogs" that ran 16.3s, but mine had headers and real dual exhausts, a Holley Street Dominator intake manifold, and a TransGo shift kit. It wasn't a rocket, but it ran a best of 14.82, and it would run 14.9's all day, in 90 degree weather. A buddy had a new ( In 1985 ) 5.0 Mustang.  All the road tests I have read on stock 5.0 Mustangs between 1984 and 1993 vary slightly- the slowest was a 15.29, the quickest a 14.72. My buddy was sure his car ran "14 flat" because of a Car Craft road test. Their "Basically Stock" car did run a string of 14.05's,14.03,s and 14.01's, after they swapped the stock 2.73 rear end gears for 3.73s, added a K&N Airbox and air filter, and swapped the 225/60VR15 street radials for some bias-ply, 235/60/15 M&H "DOT Legal" Drag tires. My pal was shocked beyond recognition when my "Slug" T/A gave him a race that was too close to call 3 times in a row. Later, after I bought my 73 Hurst/Olds and "Restified/ Butchered" it -that's another story for another time-i.e.-a ZZ4 GM crate motor, B&M Turbo 400, and swapping the stock 3.08 gears for 4.10s-and running consistent mid to high 13s at my local strip, I was challenged by a neighbor with an all-wheel-drive Turbocharged Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR4. I told him that I liked the cars, but every one I had ever seen ran about 14.5 in the quarter. He was adamant he could beat me, or at least give me a hell of a race, producing factory literature. It said in the brochure that the Mitsubishi test car ran a 13.7 Quarter, with a "Professional driver on a closed course, under controlled conditions." After I blew his doors off, he went on the internet to get the "Controlled Conditions." The Mitsu engineers disabled the knock sensor, disabled the rev limiter, filled the tank with 104 octane gas, lowered the tire pressure to 15 psi in all four tires, and had the "Professional Driver" drop the clutch at 6,200 rpm and shift at 7,000. This netted them the blistering 1/4 mile time they were after, but after three runs, also grenaded the $5749 transaxle! I didn't have to say it-my friend did. "How many people run around with 100 octane gas in the tank, the knock sensor disabled, 15 psi in the tires, and are willing to drop the clutch at 6,200 to jump some punk in a 5.0 Mustang or Screaming-Chicken Firebird from a red light?"  I love muscle machines, but we need to be realistic about what they were and are capable of!!  Mastermind              

Why the rest of the world doesn't understand!

A friend has a 1969 L88 Corvette. That car is an absolute blast to drive. The feeling of power in every gear is unbelievable. I know that a modern Z06 or even a current base model Vette will run off and leave the old Stingray in a drag race or in the twisties. I've driven them too. But the fun factor? Not even close. If I was going to spend 60 grand on a Vette, it would be a restored 427 Stingray, not a new one!!  Ditto for the "Ponycars." I know that a 2010 V6 Camaro or a 2011 V6 Mustang will outrun a 69 Z/28 or 69 Boss 302 in a drag race. But nothing compares to the feeling of running a high-compression, solid-lifter small-block through the gears at full wail. The new Camaro is a great car. But it feels like exactly what it is- a Cadillac CTS with a cool body. Hemi Chargers feel like a BMW 740i. Fast, and more nimble handling than any 4,000 lb car has a right to. That's because their based on the previous generation Mercedes E55-a benefit of the merger with Daimler-Benz. Ditto for the Challenger. They don't make me feel like Bo Duke, or Kowalski on his last ride through the Nevada desert. My Buddy's 70 440 Road Runner does. The 2006 GTO I drove didn't give me the rush my Judge did, even though it was probably faster. It's. like the Harley riders say- If I have to explain it, you won't understand.

It's not original? Say it isn't so!!

Is everyone as sick as I am of so-called "experts" poo-poohing otherwise excellent cars because, even being 40 or 50 years old, they don't have the original engine, transmission, carburator or distributor?  Musclecars led hard lives. People drove them on a daily basis and wrecked and abused them just like you do your 99 Honda Civic or 97 Ford truck. If you find a 67 GTO with a 400 out of a 73 Catalina, don't panic. In high school a friend had a 440/Six-pack 69 Super Bee. He blew the original motor all to hell one night after missing a shift. I mean, rods out the side of the block, grenaded. We went to a junkyard and got a 440 out of a wrecked Chrysler Imperial. The only reason he didn't accept a free 383 from a buddy was that "B" and "RB" engines have a different deck height and the intake manifolds don't interchange, and he wanted to keep the tri-power on it. He drove the car another 3 years with the "unoriginal" engine before he sold it. I had a 68 SS396 El Camino, that blew up. I was short on money and the car was my only transportation. My cousin offered me the 327 out of my aunt's wrecked Impala for $100! The 275hp 327 ran like the proverbial scalded cat, got better gas mileage, spun the wheels less, and the car handled better because of less weight on the front end. I drove it another year before I sold it. Here's another scenario- Grandma buys a 1970 Pontiac Formula 400 Firebird because she wants a "Sports car." She only drives it about 5,000 miles a year. In 1978, even though it only has 45,000 miles on it, it starts running crappy, gets lousy gas mileage and is hard to start. She takes it to her trusted mechanic. He tells her it needs a new carburator. She says fix it. He buys a rebuilt Q-jet from Pep Boys, or Checker, or Napa, or whoever he buys parts from and turns in the numbers-matching carb for a $20 core charge. The car runs good again and granny's happy, not knowing that 30 years hence, when grandma's kids sell the car after she dies, some asshole who wants a concours show car is going to be miffed because not only is the carb wrong, the mechanic 30 years ago used the wrong kind of hose clamps!! Get over yourselves people!! Your Coker tire replacement Firestone Wide Ovals aren't original and neither are your Legendary Interior seat covers or the Autolite battery cover on the Exide or Die Hard battery!. Mastermind

Improving the breed? I don't think so!

Is everyone as sick as I am of every enthusiast magazine on the market featuring vintage GM iron with Chevy LS motors, Vintage Mopars with modern 5.7 or 6.1 liter Hemis or vintage Mustangs and other Fords with fuel-injected 5.0 or 4.6/5.4 liter modular motors? What's cool about an old car is it's different from what's new! I hear the arguments-the modern fuelie motors make more power than the old musclecars, get better gas mileage, have easier cold starting, yadda,yadda,yadda. If you want an LS3 engined Camaro, SRT8 Hemi Challenger, or Supercharged Shelby Mustang, then run down to your local Chevy, Dodge or Ford dealer and buy one!  If you were a gun collector and bought a WWII vintage Colt .45 would you put laser sights on it? If you were a motorcycle enthusiast and bought a 1965 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide, would you swap in a fuel-injected 96 inch Twin-Cam engine and six-speed tranny out of an '09 Softail? Probably not. What drives me insane is the people with more money than brains. I wouldn't care if somebody put a Z06 Vette motor in a 78 Camaro or a 5.7 Hemi in a 72 Duster. No, they have to desecrate priceless muscle. Here's a few examples. Hot Rod magazine ran an article in 2008 called "Crate Motor Shootout." They took 8 GM crate motors-4 small blocks,two LS motors and two big-blocks, and swapped them into the same car and drag-tested them, "Apples to Apples" so to speak. Cool. Except, as they freely admitted in the article-"The car was a for real, numbers-matching, four-speed 68 SS 396." They proceeded to gut the car and install a 10 point roll cage and fiberglass racing seats, Wildwood four-wheel disc brakes, and a Chassisworks four-link rear suspension with a 9 inch Ford rearend. In all of Southern California,they couldn't find a clapped-out, small-block two-door Chevelle or Malibu to butcher? It had to be "A for real, numbers matching, four-speed SS396?" Popular Hot Rodding is even worse. They featured a 69 440 Charger R/T that some idiot had put $180,000 into- that's not a typo-a hundred and eighty grand, in all kinds of "Upgrades". They also featured a guy who destroyed one of the 1,286 1972 Pontiac Trans-Ams ever built. In the article it says the guy bought the car as a pristine "Show car" and then put a late-model LS engine and 4L80E tranny in it, an aftermarket front subframe and Ford 9 inch rearend in it. Another asshole did the same to a 1970 GTO Judge! You can't bastardize one of the millions of non-SS Chevelles and Malibus, Cutlasses, or Tempests and LeMans, no it has to be a pristine, numbers matching Judge!! AAAUUUGGHHH!!!   A few years ago a guy named Rod Saboury was featured in Car Craft. He bought, again, a pristine, completely restored, 1963 Split-window, fuel-injected, four speed Corvette and "Pro-Streeted" it!! I mean, gutted it, and installed a 700hp 454 stroker with nitrous, turbo 400 with five grand converter and a trans-brake, the whole nine yards. And Car Craft raved about how cool it was!!! He couldn't butcher one of the hundreds of thousands of 68-82 Vettes, or buy one of the "Kit Car" 65 Corvette fiberglass bodies on the market, no, he had to destroy a fuel-injected, original 1963 split-window Stingray!!!  Too many assholes with too much money!!  I'm not one of those "Just as it left the factory" Nazis. A 68 GTO with headers, an Edelbrock P4B manifold, and Cragar S/S mags is just as cool now as it was in 1969. But a 69 Camaro with a drive by wire L99,4L80E trans, and 20 inch wheels is not only a sacrilege, it's a waste of vintage iron that someone else might enjoy!  Keep the mods "Period Correct." As long as they don't destroy the value of the car. Halogen headlights aren't a sin. Anyone who even thinks of cutting up the trunk of a Hemi 'Cuda for wheel tubs need to be dragged out into the street and shot, or my personal favorite, entrails cut out and burned.  See what I'm saying?  Mastermind

This Site is brand new!

I just put this site up on Nov 24 so I'm sorry theirs not a ton of content yet. However I will be updating it two or three times a week and responding to posters two or three times a week. So be patient, their will be tons of information posted! Thanks, Mastermind

How to Buy a Musclecar Cheap

I have some advice for people who are having trouble finding their dream car without winning the lottery or selling their house. #1. Lower your sights. Is your dream car a 1970 LS6 Chevelle? You and about 10 million others. Since Chevrolet only built 4,478, finding one for sale, at any price, can be a problem. However, Chevrolet also built 49,826 SS396 models in 1970. Except for the engine, they are the exact same car. This is not an Isolated example. Is a 69 GTO Judge your passion? Of the 72,225 69 GTO's built, only 6,833 were Judge models. Want a Boss 302 Mustang? Good luck, as Ford only built 1,603 69's and 7,113 70 models. However, Ford produced more than 70,000 fastback Mustangs in 1969 alone, most of them with 351W power, which, if your going to drive the car at all, is a much better street engine. By considering less than the ultimate model, you increase your chances of finding a car tenfold, and that's if your stuck on a one or two year model. Which brings up the next point. #2 Consider different model years of the same car. If our Chevelle enthusiast could live with a 68 SS396 (58,000 built) or a 69 model (86,000 built) he just increased his chances of finding a car by 144,000 examples. Ditto for the Pontiac fan. Pontiac built 87,000 GTO"s in 1968 and another 40,000 in 1970. Want a 1970-73 Trans-Am? That's going to be tough because Pontiac only built about 11,000 Trans-Ams in those four years. Partly because of the hit movie Smokey and the Bandit, Pontiac built 269,000 Trans-Ams between 1977-1979. Altogether, Pontiac built more than 350,000 T/A's from 1974-1979. With very little work,-i.e-intake,exhaust,and an axle ratio change, these cars can equal or surpass the performance of the earlier, more sought after models. #3 Consider a base model of the same car. Of the 243,000 1969 Camaros built, only 19,000 were Z/28 models. Most of the rest had 250hp or 300hp 350s in them. These make nice drivers, and since their not rare, people don't feel bad about modifying them-i.e.-putting a 400hp crate engine in them. The same goes for non-SS Chevelles and Malibus, Mustangs that aren't Mach 1s, and 318 Cudas, Challengers and Chargers. #4 Clone it. Purists are reaching for oxygen,but hear me out. Most of us will never be able to afford an original Shelby Mustang. However, with the help of the aftermarket,you could turn a simple 289 Fastback Mustang into a G.T. 350 pretty easily at about a fifth of the price. Ditto for turning a base-model Firebird into a Trans-Am,a Camaro into a Z/28, or a Cutlass into a Hurst/Olds. As long as you don't try to pass it off as original, no harm done. #5 Lower your sights a tad bit more. I know many people who have passed on very cool cars in good condition at fair prices, because they weren't "Exactly what I was looking for." Idiot #1 wanted a 70-72 Z/28 Camaro. He passed up an unrestored, but exceptionally well-maintained 70 model because it was an automatic. He also passed on a gorgeous four-speed 72 model because "It wasn't original." (It had headers on it, and a 750 double-pumper Holley carb instead of the original 780) Idiot number 2 wanted a 68-70 GTO with the 400/4-speed combo. He passed on a gorgeous 68 model because it didn't have the hood tach or disc brakes. He also passed on an utterly immaculate 400/4-speed, 71 LeMans Sport Convertible that was made to look like a Judge, because "It's a fake." When someone whines that he's been looking for a car for three years and hasn't found one, it's because he's too picky.