Building cool stuff with junk....

A friend of mine owns a junkyard and we talked about building fun stuff with junkyard parts. His "parts runner" delivery truck is a Chevy pickup with an Escalade front clip on it. You'd be surprised at the number of people that ask how many "Cadillac" pickups were built. It's a fun ride, and he just combined a pickup that had been hit in the front with the front end of an Escalade that had been badly rear-ended. We got to talking and came up with several others that you could build cheaply. # 1. GTO / 442 / GSX El Camino. You find a beater '68-72 El Camino and put a GTO, Cutlass, or Skylark front clip on it. Swapping in a 455 Pontiac or Olds or Buick engine would be easy. '73-77 models you could put a Monte Carlo or Gran Prix or Cutlass front end on them-but they wouldn't be as cool as the earlier models. # 2. 1968-72 GTO / 442 / SS454 Station Wagon. The GTO / 442 wagons would be easy to do because there are a lot of LeMans and Cutlass wagons out there that already have 400 or 455 cubes under the hood. A good number of LeMans models already have the "Endura" ( read GTO ) front end. The Chevelle SS model would be harder because most Chevelle wagons are small-block powered. You'd have to swap in a Rat-but that's relatively easy. Because of their long wheelbase and excellent weight distribution a wagon actually makes a good drag racer. # 3. 1977-79 Lincoln MK V Ranchero. In 1977 Ford moved the Ranchero from the Torino platform that it was on from 1968-76 to the LTD II platform which the downsized Lincoln MK V also shared. You could very easily put the sleek, hidden headlight MK V front clip on a Ranchero of this vintage. # 4. 1968-70 "Super Bee" wagon. Most Coronet wagons of this vintage will have 383 or 440 cubes under the hood. Phoenix Graphics sells the Super Bee graphics. You could even put a Six-Pack setup on it, or if you have more bucks to throw away-you could drop in a Mopar Performance crate Hemi. You could also do a "Road Runner" wagon off a Belvedere / Satellite wagon. # 5. 1972-74 Challenger T/A / 'Cuda AAR. Mopar fans will fight with machetes and give blood and a first-born child for the '70-71 E-Bodies but the '72 and later models are way cheaper to buy, probably becuase the Hemis and big-blocks were dropped after '71. From '72-74 the largest engine was the 340 /360. However-you can buy the Six-Pack manifold and carbs-Edelbrock made the manifold until just a couple years ago-places like PAW and Summitt still stock them. If you can live with a 4bbl-and you have or are considering buying a 318 version-I've said it before there are millions of 360 Magnums in junkyards in '92-2003 Dodge trucks and Vans and Jeep Grand Cherokees that would give you a massive power infusion for low bucks. Edelbrock makes 4bbl intakes that work with the "Magnum" heads, which breathe better than any factory head and many aftermarket ones. The graphics are easy to do. You'd have a cool high-performance, T/A style E-Body for a fraction of what a "real" one would cost. # 6. 1981-87  Grand National clone. Find a 2 dr Buick Regal of this vintage with the 307 Olds V8. A 350 or a 403 is a bolt-in swap. The black paint and trim is easy enough to do, and "Vector" style wheels are easy enough to find. Or you could use Center Lines or something else that was cool in the '80's. Or if you had a 3.8 V6 version you could get the Supercharged 240 hp 3.8 out of a wrecked '90's Bonneville SSEI, Gran Prix or Riviera and drop that in. # 7. 1978-87 Malibu / El Camino SS. Honest Charley and other places sell the '83-87 Monte Carlo SS front clips that would bolt onto the Elky / Malibu bodies. Any other cool ones I overlooked?  Mastermind.