Sometimes something "Butchered" can be a deal....

I talk to a lot of people who pass up screaming deals on great stuff because in their opinion the car is "butchered"-i.e. doesn't have the original engine, or has bodywork or modifications that they don't like. On one hand I agree that anyone who even thinks of cutting up the trunk of a Hemi 'Cuda for wheel tubs, or putting a Coyote into a Shelby GT350H, or an LS engine into a '63 Split-Window Stingray ought to be drawn and quartered and have his entrails cut out and burned. Absolutely. But 99% of these cars I hear about and see are not nearly that offensive. In fact-sometimes the "offenses" are so mild I'm scratching my head and thinking-"Your griping about that??"  Really?  Here's some examples. # 1. 1964 LeMans. I thought this car was way cool. It had a sinister black paint job, American Racing Torq-Thrust mags and radiused rear wheelwells to clear big tires. It also had a snarling 425 Olds V8 backed by a TH400 with a transbrake. The guy had timeslips showing that the car ran 11.30's. In my opinion a cool, badass hot rod. The guy that was considering buying it turned up his nose because of the Olds engine and  the radiused rear 1/4s. Puhleeze. I told him-1st off-"It's a LeMans, not a GTO." "So it's modified." "It's totally badass and runs 11.30s!! I'd buy it and drive it the way it is!! "However-"If you want to make it a GTO clone or just convert it back to Pontiac power-it's pretty easy." "Buick-Olds-Pontiac engines have the same bellhousing bolt pattern, so you don't even need a new trans." All you have to do is find a Pontiac-any Pontiac in a junkyard that has a 400 or 455 under the hood and get everything." "By everything I mean the alternator and power steering brakcets, belt pulleys, etc." "It wouldn't be that hard to do." "I Like the radiused rear wheelwells." "Very period correct, gasser style looking." "But if you hate them-Year One and a zillion other companies sell '64 LeMans / GTO 1/4 panels." Not that hard to remedy." "And the price is dirt-cheap". "If that car had a 421 Pontiac in it, you and all the other people who have passed on it would be fighting with machetes to give him double what he's asking." "Recognize a steal when you see it." Nope. He passed it up, and paid way more for a 326 / ST300 powered '66 model that wasn't as nice because it was "original".  #2. 1965 Cutlass. Same deal-a '65 Cutlass with a straight, rust-free body, and a 454 Chevy backed by a Muncie 4-speed. The car was awesome, and quick. Again-it was an F85 / Cutlass post coupe-not a 442. I'd have drove it the way it was. I told the prospective buyer-"If you really want to convert it back to Olds Power-all you'll need is a Lakewood BOP bellhousing, and a flywheel for a 455 Olds." "Again-go to a junkyard and it doesn't have to be a Cutlass or 442-any big Olds 88 or 98 or Vista Cruiser wagon-get the 455 and all the brackets and accessories.". "You can sell the 454 Chevy and make some money back too."  Nope. No deal. # 3. 1987 Buick Grand National. This guy really needed his ass kicked for passing up this car. It was a for-real GN, with a pumped up Turbocharged 4.5 liter motor. The previous owner had spent a ton of money-and located a 252 inch Buick V6 block. He had Kenne-Bell bore and stroke it, and it was 270 inches. Quite a step up from the stock 231. It had a bigger turbo, ported and polished and o-ringed heads, a special wastegate, a Jacobs ignition that was adjustable from inside the car, a Kenne-Bell prepped TH200R4, and it had radiused and flared rear fenders to clear 275/60R15 drag radials, and Lakewood coil spring traction bars. It ran 10.60s in the 1/4. If Darth Vader or Satan drove a car, this would be it!! If I'd had the money at the time, I'd have bought it!! I even tried to get a quickie home-equity loan to buy it, but it didn't work out.  Did the ass-clown buy it? No!! He paid MORE for a stock one because it wasn't "Butchered".  UGH!!  # 4. 1979 Indy 500 Pace Car Mustang. This one was cool. It was originally a 4-banger model. The seller had bought this one not running. He then took the 205 hp Turbo engine, 5-speed tranny, disc-braked 8.8 rear end, 16" wheels and tires, and Recaro seats out of his totalled '86 SVO Turbo Mustang and put them in the '79 body!!  He drove it for a year or two, and when he got married and had kids decided to sell it and get an SUV. But the car was awesome-it had the cool Pace Car Paint Job and graphics, and the badass SVO powertrain. The propective buyer turned up his nose because it wasn't "original". I was incredulous. "Who in the hell wants an "Original" '79 Mustang??!!" "They were dogs!!" "You'd rather have a normally aspirated 2.3 liter 4-banger that wheezes out 85 hp, or a 2bbl 302 that wheezes out 120 backed by that crappy wide-ratio manual 3-speed with an overdrive that Ford gratuitously called a 4-speed or a C4 slushbox-I mean that's the two powertrain options for '79 Pace Cars-instead of the state of the art 205 hp, high-winding SVO / Close-ratio 5-speed setup." "Yes."  Like Ron White says-"You can't fix stupid."  # 5. 1974 Camaro. This car had Minilite wheels on it, and a rip-snorting 396 Rat Motor. It had a two-tone paint job like the Baldwin-Motion cars, although it wasn't a Motion car. It was however, a great looking Camaro that really ripped. It would smoke the tires as long as you wanted to stay on the throttle. The prospective buyer pooh-poohed it because it had an aftermarket flip-up sunroof.  I'm not kidding. That was the major objection. These stupid little flip up sunroofs were immensely popular in the '70's and '80's. I don't particularly like them either-but their are a lot of '70's and '80s Camaros, Chevelles, Firebirds, Mustangs and Dusters, etc that have them, unfortunately. You could live with it, if it doesn't leak-or check with a reputable body shop about patching the roof-if you really love the car otherwise and it's cheap enough. Anyhow-I didn't see any of these previous owner mods as irreversible or a deal-breaker but these other people did. You have to decide for yourself on the individual car. But think hard before you blythely dismiss something that may be deal of the century because of one little thing.  Mastermind                    

Sometimes you just have to trust people...And your gut...

I've had some people agonizing over whether or not to buy really nice cars because they can't fully document them. If your buying a Ford you can send in the vin number and get a Marti Report that will tell you everything. If your buying a Pontiac-you can contact Pontiac Historical Services and get a copy of the original window sticker. Other stuff can be harder to chase down. For example for the entire time they existed-1964-87-El Camino sales weren't tracked separately. They were lumped in with Chevelle / Malibu sales. So if your trying to document an LS6 El Camino SS-or an LS5, or L34 or L35 for that matter-it's going to be hard if the seller doesn't have a build sheet or window sticker. And who does on a 50 year old car that's had 10 or more owners?  You'll just have look at the car carefully. And sometimes hi-performance models were options on the base car. In 1964 the GTO package and the 442 package were options on the LeMans / Tempest and Cutlass / F85.  From 1965 to 1971 the GTO and 442 were separate models. In 1972 they reverted to option status. So if the vin number says your 1972 GTO / 442 is a LeMans / Cutlass-don't panic. Chances are the car's not a "fake". For example-the Z/28 package has always been an option on the Camaro-even in the glory days-1967-72. The Super Bee package was an option on the Coronet, except for 1971-when they based it on the Charger. However-the Road Runner was always a separate model from 1968-72. Most premium GM models built from 1967 on have front disc brakes. I say most-I had a '68 SS396 El Camino that had 4-wheel drum brakes. But for the most part SS Chevelles, GTOs,442s, etc-will have front disc brakes.  Not so with Mopar stuff. I have seen 440 GTX's and Chargers and Road Runners and Super Bees with 4-wheel drum brakes. I saw a 440 / Six-Pack Super Bee once that had drum brakes, and was original and documented. Now who ordered a 4,000 lb car with a 390 hp engine, and didn't get power disc brakes??  There's other little tells to look for. For example-if your considering a 340 Duster-remember the 340 package included an 8 3/4 rear end-an upgrade from the slant-six / 318 models 8 1/4 rear. If it's an automatic 340 models got a 727 Torqueflite; six-cylinder and 318 models got a 904. With GM stuff for the most part big-block cars got TH400s, small-block cars got TH350s. For the most part. However I know for a fact that 350HO Firebirds and LeMans models had TH400s. Corvettes from 1968-72 even 327 and 350 base models got TH400s. Conversely-1975 and later Formula Firebirds and Trans-Ams-even 400 models got TH350s. Partly because the engines weren't as powerful as the older models, but mostly for Catalytic Converter clearance!!  As for GM manuals-except for Z/28 Camaros and W31 Cutlasses-which had M21 or M22 Muncies-small-block cars usually had Saginaw 4-speeds. A lot of the big-block cars 396 Chevelles, 400 GTOs and Firebirds, 400 442s-had M20 Muncie 4-speeds which was considered a wide-ratio and had a 2.52:1 low gear. The M21 and M22 were close-ratios and had a 2.20:1 low gear, and for the most part were used behind Ram Air III and IV Pontiacs,as well as 455HOs, W30 Oldsmobiles, and L78 396s and 427 and 454 Chevys. And a posi was an extra-cost option on most models. My best friend in high school had a 1970 SS396 Chevelle. It was an L34-350 hp model. It had front disc brakes and the cowl induction hood and rally stripes. Yet it had no console, no tachometer and a 3.31:1 open rear end. It did great one-tire burnouts!!  You have to remember that back in the '60's and '70's you could order almost anything you wanted on any model. Their rare-but I have seen Gran Prix's and Monte Carlos with 4-speeds from the factory. Bucket seats were optional on most models. So it's very likely that you will find a 383 Road Runner or 396 Chevelle with bench seats and a column shifter!! ( If it's an automatic ). While there's a lot of strippy Mustangs out there-most Cougars from 1967-73 are going to have cool options like front disc brakes, upgraded interiors, factory A/C, and larger engines. Most non-Mach 1 Mustangs have 289 / 302 motivation. Almost every Cougar I've ever seen has 351W, 351C, or even 390 motivation. The point I'm making is do some research and have common sense. A lifelong Pontiac enthusiast-I've had a guy try to sell me a '70 "Trans-Am" that had a wood dash and no tach and a 350 V8. All 1970 and later T/A's had the brushed aluminum dash panel and full instrumentation-and the standard engine was always 400 cubes, except for '71-73 which all had 455s. This was obvioulsy a base-model or Formula 350 Firebird that he'd put T/A body trim on!!  The same thing-another guy tried to sell me a '68 "GTO" convertible that had a 350 and a 2-speed ST300 trans. Obviously it was a gussied up LeMans. 1968 GTOs all had 400 cubes standard, and if they were automatics, they were TH400s!!  So be careful, and sometimes you have to trust that the seller is on the level.  Mastermind    

More classic flicks that didn't get sequels...or shouldn't have

Part of the problem with doing follow-ups to cult classics goes back to the writer's vision. Back in the '70's everything was existential, and you had to be punished for your misdeeds. How could they do a sequel to "Vanishing Point" when Kowalski went out in a blaze of glory at the end?  Ditto for "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry". The death crash with the train was used in the opening credits of "The Fall Guy"-the hit series with Lee Majors as a stuntman / bounty hunter for years. I wish they'd have went a different direction. What if Vic Morrow's obsessed sheriff caught them and sent them to prison?  Mary could have lied and said they kidnapped and raped her and walked away scot-free. She could have even took the money from the robbery and hidden it.  After a few years in jail Larry and his mechanic could either escape or get paroled. And now they'll seek out Mary to get their money back. She can be living the good life-maybe even have a husband and a kid. And now her past has caught up with her. She can beg for her husband and kids safety and offer to get them the money. Like in the first one-"Mary"-the smokin' hot Susan George-could have spent a lot of the movie scantily clad, and since they don't trust her maybe even drugged and / or bound and gagged. She has to find a way to get away from them or kill them, because she's pretty sure once they get the money they'll kill her. Vic Morrow's obsessed sheriff could be on their trail again-out of his jurisdiction. Maybe Mary even contacted him in the hopes that he'll save her. That would have been a great crime / revenge thriller-except they killed everybody at the end of the first one!  Another one that had room for a sequel if they hadn't killed the sheriff at the end was the "California Kid". If you've seen the movie Martin Sheen's character had a poignant, almost romance with Michelle Phillips who was a lonely waitress working in the town's only diner and living in a trailer behind it. What if she decided to go with him when he left town? He could still outrun the Sheriff on the deadly road. But instead of the sheriff crashing to his death he could put out an apb saying that the "Kid" kidnapped the waitress against her will. The maniacal sheriff-played with glee by Vic Morrow again-could lead the pursuit across state lines. Plenty of opportunity for car chases and "Getaway" style action as Sheen and Phillips try to prove their guilty of nothing but driving too fast. That would have been cool. Or how about "Thunder Road?"  Robert Mitchum's character went out in a blaze of glory-are you seeing a recurring theme here? But his younger brother who he was trying to keep out of the moonshine business could take over. That would have worked. Of course there's others that they definitely shouldn't have tried or thankfully didn't. They tried to do a 3rd "Bandit" movie without Burt Reynolds. It was awful, and it flopped. I thought the "Dukes of Hazzard" movie sucked. The TV show was definitely done tongue-in-cheek, but it was cute. John Schneider and Tom Wopat had good chemistry as good ol' boys living on the edge, Catherine Bach was smokin' hot as cousin Daisy and Denver Pyle was cool as uncle Jesse-a semi-retired moonshiner. The now deceased Sorrell Booke was hilarious as the scheming Boss Hogg, and James Best was likable as the Barney Fife like sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane. And like Kurt Russel's evil stuntman Mike said in Death Proof-the stunts were real, no CGI. They totalled something like 216 '68-70 Chargers during the series run. The casting in the movie was awful. Stifler as Bo Duke??!!!  I can't help it, poor Sean William Scott will always be the horn-dog dipshit with the sexy whory mom from the "American Pie" movies. Johnny Knoxville as Luke?  Again-all I see is "Jackass". Jessica Simpson worked out hard for months to get her body bikini-ready-but her phony southern accent was like fingernails on a blackboard, and her wooden acting made Donna Douglas on the Beverly Hillbillies look like an Oscar winner. Burt Reynolds must have really been in tax trouble to lower himself to play Boss Hogg, and ditto for Willie Nelson doing uncle Jesse-who tee-hee-smokes weed. I can't remember the plot. Thank god it didn't gross enough for the greedy studio to want to do another one. The worst one though was "Drive". This starred Ryan Gosling as a mechanic / race car driver / getaway driver. What was maddening to me is his wooden acting was so bad-he showed no emotion whatsoever. Charles Bronson looks like Tom Hanks compared to this guy. And it's never explained why he wants to be a criminal and risk prison and death when it appears he makes a decent living as a mechanic / auto racer. Even the action sucked. Any others I missed?  Mastermind    

There's a reason some car flicks don't have sequels, or the ones that do fail....

Some people were asking me why some classic action / car chase movies didn't have sequels. ( Some did, but they suck ). One reason is sometimes the actors and producers aren't interested. "Bullitt" the grandaddy of them all that's still thrilling 50 years later was a huge hit. I loved the catch-phrase from the poster. "There are good cops and there are bad cops." "And then there's Bullitt". For whatever reason, Steve McQueen wasn't interested in continuing the adventures of Frank Bullitt, or doing another similar character.  A lot of people don't know it-but Clint Eastwood wasn't the 1st choice for "Dirty Harry".  John Wayne was, and he turned it down, and regretted it when it became a huge hit. It was then offered to Frank Sinatra who turned it down and to Steve McQueen-who said it was "Frank Bullitt" with a different name and he didn't want to do two cop pictures back to back. Eastwood was cast and the rest is history. Seeing the monumental success of "Dirty Harry" John Wayne decided to take a break from westerns and do a couple of modern police thrillers.  Wayne made an excellent "Dirty Harry" type movie in 1974-"McQ"-he played a Seattle detective and he drove a Brewster Green 73 Trans-Am in it. However it came out about the same time "Magnum Force" the "Harry" sequel did-and they had similar plots-dirty cops after the hero. "Magnum Force" was a smash; "McQ" got critical acclaim but didn't do much at the box office, which was why there wasn't a follow-up. Everyone loved "White Lightning". Burt Reynolds was never cooler than Robert "Gator" McLuskey who negotiates his way out of prison to seek revenge on the corrupt sheriff who killed his younger brother. The dialogue was crisp, the action exciting-and Jennifer Billingsley just oozed sex as "Shake-a-Puddin"-spending the entire movie barefoot in tight mini-sundress, her dark brown roots showing in her bleach-blond hair, while she drove Burt and the audience wild. She totally nailed the southern slut that men die and kill for. Others have tried it-Kim Basinger in "No Mercy", Teri Hatcher in "Heavens Prisoners" and most recently Reese Witherspoon in "Mud". Those were noble efforts, but none could top Billingsley for raw sensuality. Gator does kill the sheriff-the Feds take him and Billingsley away at his funeral. People say there should have been a sequel. There was, and it was awful. Made in 1976 Burt Reynolds starred and directed. It was his first time directing, and I think he couldn't decide if he wanted to make a badass revenge flick like the first one, or a dipshit comedy.  Jerry Reed did alright as a sawed-off shotgun toting redneck crime lord. However there were too many characters and subplots. Gator has a teenage daughter?  Where did that come from? In the first movie there's no mention of an ex-wife or kids. And him and the daughter live in a swamp with his dad? In the first movie his dad wasn't speaking to him because Gator was turning "liquor people" in to the Feds. And what happened to the family farm and his mother? There's no mention of her dying or the farm being foreclosed on!!  Gator's handler is an incompetent fat slob named Irving Greenfield who I guess is supposed to be funny, and there's a crazy cat lady that gets involved. The love interest is Lauren Hutton who's acting career peaked years earlier when she spent a lot of time naked in "Little Fauss" and Big Halsey". Since Reynolds was 40 and she was 33 when the movie was made-her "plucky girl reporter" / Nancy Drew act is just annoying, as is their "meet cute" and ill-fated romance. While Burt and Jennifer Bilingsley seemed to have actual heat between them-him and Hutton had no chemistry at all. And it's never explained why "Gator" and "Bama" McCall-Jerry Reed's character have such mutual respect for each other even though their on opposite sides of the law. Did they go to high school together? Serve in the army together? Do time in the same prison?  Their relationship is never explained, so I can't be that invested in it. I usually like Burt Reynolds, but this one's just a mess. Burt had a megamash the following year-"Smokey and the Bandit" out-grossed everything but "Star Wars" in 1977. It was funny, had good car-chase action and sold about a million T/A's for Pontiac in the ensuing years. In 1980 they tried a sequel, and it was awful. If you remember at the end of "Smokey and the Bandit" Big Enos Burdette bets them double or nothing that they can't make a run to Boston for some Clam Chowder. They should have stuck with that, and with Jackie Gleason's maniacal lawman chasing them. Instead they get off on some weird plot about transporting a pregnant elephant, and surprise-Jackie Gleason is a triplet- and his two brothers are cops too! It was just awful with none of the charm of the original. I honestly don't think I laughed once. Another one was one of Quentin Tarantino's favorites-"The Driver" starring Ryan O; Neal as a getaway driver and Bruce Dern as a cop obsessed with catching him. I loved the movie for 90 minutes and then hated the end-O'Neal is chasing a '76 T/A in a '76 Chevy Pickup!!  If the truck was a 454 it might have been a match in a drag race-but around corners?  The T/A would leave it in 3 blocks. And Ironically-earlier in the film-O'Neal was driving a '77 Firebird!!  Why wasn't he chasing the T/A in that?  That would have been believable. Anyhow O'Neal gets away clean and Dern goes to jail. The movie made money, and certainly a follow-up with Dern out of jail and out for vengenace would have been good. I don't know why-maybe O'Neal and Dern weren't interested-but there was never a sequel.  "Drive Angry" was a surprise hit in 2011. Nicolas Cage gives a wonderfully over-the-top performance as a "badass motherfucker" who escaped from hell to save his granddaughter from a Satanic cult. The baddies can't kill him, because he's already dead! Amber Heard is smokin' hot as a woman he hooks ups with-she also has a sinister black 440 powered '69 Charger. William Fitchner is hilarious as the Devil's Bounty Hunter who's trying to bring Cage back to hell. The mayhem is non-stop, and Amber agrees to care for his granddaughter and Cage willingly goes back to hell with Fitchner in an awesome '57 Chevy. Plenty of room for a sequel, and a lot of people have asked. It made a pile of money-so I don't know why the original producers or someone hasn't stepped up. I know Cage desperately needs a hit-he's been doing straight-to-video stuff lately, Amber Heard hasn't done anything noteworthy except divorce Johnny Depp and briefly date Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Come on guys-we'd much rather see "Drive Angry 2"  Than "Fast&Furious" 12 or wherever they are!!  Mastermind

Avoid "Basket Cases" like the plague...

I talk to a lot of people that buy cars they think are a deal, and realize too late that their just money pits. Often they end up selling the car unfinished, at big financial loss. I don't care what it is-nothing is worth restoring from a basket case. Nothing. Because if it's a Hemi 'Cuda or a Boss 302 missing the Hemi or "Boss" engine and other major parts it's a bottomless money pit. 1st off-where are you going to find a Correct, complete, 1969 or 1970 vintage Boss 302 engine for sale, at any price? Chances are you won't. You could build  your own "Boss" using Edelbrock or Trick Flow heads and intake, but that's still not correct is it?  The same for the Hemi-where are you going to find a complete, running or at least rebuildable 426 Hemi engine with 1970 or 71 date codes, for sale, at any price? You could buy a Mopar Performance crate Hemi-but that's still not correct and numbers-matching is it?  Even if by some miracle you located a correct engine and all the other parts you needed to finish the car-I guarantee by the time it's done your dollar investment will be MORE than what you would have had to spend on a complete, correct already restored car!!  I've told this story before but it's worth re-visiting. A guy I know wanted a '70's Firebird for a hot rod. He looked at one that was $500. It was a straight body but that's it. I mean this was an engineless, transmissionless, radiatorless, gas tankless, interiorless hulk. We looked at another one that was $2,500. The body was straight, the paint was oxidized and it needed the front seats recovered, and the vinyl top needed to be removed or replaced. But it started right up,had good oil pressure, didn't smoke,ran good, the transmission shifted smoothly, the brakes were good, the suspension seemed tight. I told him to buy it. He starts talking about the $500 one being a better deal. UGH! "No, this one is the better deal". I said. I pointed out that by the time he chased down an engine and tranny, gas tank and radiator, brackets and hoses, and all the interior parts and trim pieces necessary to get the other one in drivable, registerable condition-which this one already was-he'd have a lot more than $2,500 invested. He came to his senses and agreed that even though the price was 5 times more than the other one, it was the better deal. All he'd need to make the car really nice is some paint and upholstery work, and if he wanted more power-there's tons of speed equipment available for a Pontiac V8. He was going to be way ahead of the game by just starting with a better car. This is not an isolated example. Another guy wanted a "Bullitt / Dukes of Hazzard" 68-70 Charger. He bought an engineless, transmissionless one for $600. He towed it home and when he put it up on a lift-he discovered it had major rust damage-it not only needed new fenders and 1/4 panels and a trunk floor-the floorboards in the interior were practically gone. The guy from the body shop said-it would be so costly to fix that he'd be better off just getting another car. He did find another car-with a running 383, a straight body and good interior, that only needed a trunk floor for $4,000. I told him to buy it. Again-even though the price was nearly 7 times higher-it was a much better deal. Beware of cars missing things besides the engine and tranny. Say you find a not-running 409 Impala or a '64 GTO for a screaming price. The owner says he'll "throw in" a date correct engine. Great! except this "engine" turns out to be a block and heads. An engine is much more than block and heads. Where are you going to find the alternator brackets,power steering pump brackets,belt pulleys, oil pan,timing cover, valve covers,water pump,distributor, fuel pump,exhaust manfolds, intake manifold, etc-for a 1964 409 Chevy or 389 Pontiac? Yes, all that stuff is available through the aftermarket, but you'll have to chase it down or mail-order it or order it online, and it adds up-expenses you didn't plan on. I know a guy who bought a '63 Gran Prix. He didn't like the "Slim Jim" hydro matic trans. They won't shift above about half-throttle. And no one makes a shift kit or valve body for them. He decides to "drop" in a TH400. He can even use the stock shifter in the console-it has the same number of detents-he just has to remember that reverse is now low. Except now he's perplexed-there's no place to mount the starter! Huh? That's right- Pontiacs up until 1963 had the starter mounted on the bellhousing. 1964 and later models had the starter mounted on the engine block! Since the TH400 was introduced in 1965-the bellhousing had no place to mount the starter. Luckily for him-1963 blocks had the pad machined on the block to mount the starter in anticipation of the changeover. All he had to do was have the pad drilled and tapped, and he could use the '64 and later starter, and modern TH400 trans. However-if the car had been a '62 or older model-he'd have been really screwed-the older blocks don't have the machined pad. He'd either have to keep the crappy trans, or get a later model engine to be compatible with the modern trans. The point I'm making is go ahead and restore anything you want-but there has to be something there to restore!  A couple of good examples-a guy bought a '77 T/A that was missing the T-Top panels. He had a hell of a time chasing those down. Because some '76-77 models had Hurst T-Tops, and some '77-78 models had Fisher T-Tops, and their different. And there's no list of VIN numbers or production dates or anything to help you narrow it down. He finally did find some that fit, but it was a bitch and took literally months of searching. Another guy wanted to restore a '64 Cadillac Convertible like Phillip Micheal Thomas drove on "Miami Vice". Except the top was missing. Not just the canvas-all of it-the frame, the folding pieces that hold it up, the electric motor. He had a hell of a time chasing that stuff down. Like I said in an earlier post-if it was a '68 Chevelle-no problem. But a '64 Caddy-sorry Charlie. Just remember that anything missing major components is not a "deal". I know a guy that was restoring a '68 Ford F100 stepside. They may be available now-I don't know-but back in the '80's he could not find replacement rear fenders anywhere, new or used. He finally bought Chevy stepside fenders and re-worked them and welded them to the Ford bed. It actually looked really good-better I think than the stock Ford fenders-but it was a TON of work. Like I said in the previous post be careful to not bite off more than you can chew. Mastermind          

Don't bite off more than you can chew....

I talk to so many people who say they got a great "deal" on some car that they have grand plans for. Usually a year or two later, their totally disillusioned and disgusted and end up selling the car for less than what they paid for it or less than they have invested. There's two reasons for this. One is they picked the wrong kind of car. How can you pick the wrong kind of car?  For example-you can get anything you want for a '55-57 Chevy, up to and including a brand new whole body, authorized by GM. That's great if your restoring a '55 Chevy. But what if you have a '57 Pontiac Bonneville or a '55 Olds 88? Where are you going to find a 1/4 panel or a grille and front bumper for those?  If your restoring a Chevelle, GTO or 442, or a Camaro, Firebird or Mustang you can get anything you need. Dynacorn is selling all-new Mustang and Camaro bodies authorized by GM and Ford. But what if your restoring a '62 Pontiac Gran Prix? Or a '66 Riviera or a '69 T-Bird? Do you know that no one makes a replacement grille for a 1972 Gran Torino? So if you have one, or a same-year Ranchero-( Ford's version of the El Camino that was based on the Torino platform from 1968-76 ) with a broken grille, your shit out of luck-no matter how much money your willing to spend-because no one makes the parts!!  Where are you going to get a replacement rear glass for a '71-73 "Boat Tail" Riviera? The same goes for Mopars. If your restoring a '68-70 Charger or Road Runner or a '70-74 Challenger / Barracuda you can get pretty much anything you want-body parts, suspension and brake parts,interior trim pieces etc. But where are you going to find that big rear glass for a '65 Barracuda? Or a fender or 1/4 panel for a '64 Dodge 330?  What if you want to do a "Christine" tribute or the cop car from the "California Kid?" Where are you going to find anything for a '58 Fury? Or for that matter a '70 Sport Fury or a '75 Road Runner? ( The Road Runner was based on the Sport Fury platform for one year only, 1975 ). What about bigger "niche" cars that are still cool? Where are you going to find a rear door skin for a '61 Continental convertible with the "suicide" doors? Or a grille? Headlight doors for a '66 Toronado or a '67 Eldorado? A 1/4 panel for a '63 "Bullet Bird" Thunderbird?  God help you if your doing an AMC Javelin or Rebel Machine. So if your thinking of buying a car for a project-that's not a Camaro or Mustang or Chevelle, etc.-do some research and check parts availability. A trunk lid for a '70 Mustang is a no-brainer. A '72 Mercury Montego GT-that's some more "unobtanium". Not available at any price. The second mistake people make is they take on projects that are beyond their mechanical ability. If your a bodyman by trade, then something with minor or even major body damage may not faze you at all. You might whistle while you work. Someone who is not a bodyman would be better off passing up that car and just spending more money and getting a better car to start with. Ditto for running gear. If your a professional mechanic-something with a blown engine, or even missing the engine and tranny may not be a big deal to you. You may have say-a 403 Olds V8 and a TH350 that you took out of a wrecked Trans-Am on your garage floor that will bolt right into that engineless '71 Cutlass you just bought. But for "Joe Average" who has never replaced an engine or done any heavy-duty repairs-again it might behoove him to pass on this "deal" and get a running car. And choose running cars wisely. A '77 Firebird Formula with a 350 Pontiac and a 4-speed and T-Tops is a great find. 350 Pontiacs respond well to basic hot-rod tricks-headers, cam, carb and intake. You can make 325-350 hp and 400 lbs of torque pretty easy with bolt-on parts. Beyond that-you'll need a 400 or 455-which is a bolt-in swap. By contrast a '77 Firebird with a 301 V8 is not a good deal no matter how cheap the price is. The reason is the 301 was a lightweight "economy" motor, and except for the tin and the motor mounts, virtually nothing interchanges with the "traditional"-i.e.-326-455 Pontiac engines. Further-there is zero aftermarket parts available for the 301. None. Zero. Now I know people are going to say "Hey just "Drop" in a 400." It's true that a 400 will bolt in place of a 301, but where are you going to find one that hasn't been snapped up by GTO and Firebird restorers?  The last 400 Pontiac rolled off the assembly line in November 1977. That's 41 years ago. ( L78 400's were stockpiled for '78-79 T/A's and Formulas ). Not many people are going to have an engine that's been out of production for 41 years "laying" around. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. If you have or want to buy say a '71 Charger or a '73 'Cuda with a 318, and want to infuse it with big power, then I suggest getting a 360 Magnum out of a '90's Dodge truck or Jeep Grand Cherokee. Edelbrock makes intakes so you can run a carburator. Or if your a little more bucks up-get a Mopar Performance 360 crate motor-they have 390 hp and 445 lbs of torque. But don't think you'll just "Drop" in a 440. 1st off-they've been out of production since 1978-40 years. Secondly-you'd need a big-block front crossmember, you'd need a new transmission-a 904 Torqueflite won't bolt up to or stand up to a 440, so you'll need a 727, you'll need big-block torsion bars so it'll handle properly, a big-block radiator, and if the engine is warmed over you'll probably need a 8 3/4 or Dana 60 rear end. In the long run-you'd be better off just warming up the 318-carb and intake, headers, mild cam. Or swapping in the 360. If you "Gotta Have" a big-block E-body or B-body-then bite the bullet and pay the price for one that has a 383, 400 or 440 from the factory. You'll save yourself a ton of money and grief. Fords are worse. Don't get me wrong-I'm not slamming Fords-I'm just stating an irrefutable fact. Fords have nowhere near the easy parts interchangeability that GM and some Chrysler stuff has. A 390 in a Mustang has a different oil pan,different water pump, different fuel pump,different alternator and power steering pump brackets,different exhaust manifolds and different motor mounts than a 390 in a F100 pickup, and their both different from a 390 in a T-Bird, which is different from a 390 in an LTD!!  A 289 / 302 has a different bellhousing bolt pattern than a 351C. A 390 has a different bellhousing bolt-pattern than a 429 / 460. So no easy engine or tranny swapping. A lot different than buying a TH350 or TH400 out of a Buick and putting it behind any Buick, Olds, Pontiac, or Cadillac V8 from 326 to 500 cubes!!  Or buying a Chevy TH350 or 400 and bolting it place behind anything from a 283 to a 454!!  If no one tells you this stuff-then you don't know. And with later-model stuff-'80's and '90's cars have way more electronic controls and crap on them than '60's and '70's cars had. So if you want an '80's IROC-Z with a 5-speed-keep looking until you find one. Don't buy an automatic and try to convert it to stick. If you want a "5.0" Mustang-there's millions of them out there-don't buy a 4-banger or V6 model and try to swap in a V8. You'll just committ hari-kari in your driveway before you get it done. I'm not trying to piss on anybody's dreams-I'm just saying be honest about your own mechanical capabilities and careful which projects you choose. It'll save you a ton of money and grief in the long run. Mastermind      

A rare turd is still a turd...

Robert Prosky said it in the movie "Christine". "You can't polish a turd". My friend that owned an import / specialty / performance auto parts store had a similar saying-"A rare turd is still just a turd." Of course they were making fun of people who were investing a ton of time and money in cars that would never be worth their effort or dollar investment. Like the '58 Fury in the movie or a Morris Minor. I see a trend on a lot of the classic car for sale websites. A lot of them are featuring ultra-low mileage "survivors"-i.e.-cars that are unrestored, but have been kept in a garage for 40 years, and their asking insane prices for them. I don't know if any of these actually sell for the insane prices, but I laugh at some of them. One was a 1979 Trans-Am with 65 miles on it. That's right 65. Asking price was $150,000. For a 403 Olds / TH350 model!!!  To put this in perspective-Trans-Am specialties of Florida had a 400, 4-speed, WS6, 10th Anniversary model with 25,000 original miles and new paint that they were asking $49,000 for. They had a 400,4-speed red and black '79 model with a killer motor-Edelbrock heads and intake, a Comp Cams cam, Hooker headers, MSD ignition-for $29,999, and for the same price a restored, documented by Dennis Mecham, '78 "Macho T/A" that had a killer 455 in it. They had a numbers-matching frame-off restored, 4-speed, RAIII 1970 model for $59,000, and a 455HO / 4-speed Lucerne Blue '71 model with 33,000 miles on it for $79,000. If you "gotta have" a badass T/A-any of those other cars are much better choices for half or even 1/5 of the money their asking for the "survivor".  Do they really think someone is going pay 150K for a 403 / TH350 model? Let's be real and expand beyond T/A's.   I've seen numbers-matching Hemi Road Runners and LS6 Chevelles going for less than that!! I've seen Boss 302, Boss 351 and Shelby Mustangs selling for less than that!! I've seen Tri-Power, 4-speed, 427 Stingrays selling for less than that. For half that!!  Another had an '86 IROC-Z Camaro with 30,000 miles on it, that they wanted $30,000 for!!. And it was an LG4 model!!! You know the carburated 305 that wheezed out 150 hp!!  Not even the 190 hp L69, or the 215 hp LB9, or the 240 hp L98 350!!!  And even if it had one of those other engines it's still not worth 30 grand!!  Guys I know are still buying '80's and early '90's Camaros and Firebirds dirt-cheap. I have seen rough, but running examples as low as $1,200-and anything over 3 grand is usually pretty nice. But 30K??  To put this in perspective-RK motors in South Carolina is advertising a restored, big-block, '74 Corvette Convertible for $35,000!! Their also showcasing a 350 / 4-speed, 1981 Corvette with 47,000 original miles for $24,000, A 19,000 mile Buick Grand National for $35,000 and a numbers-matching 302, 4-speed, '68 Z/28 for $49,000!!!  But you should pay 30K for an LG4 305 '86 Camaro!!!  Puhleeeze!  Some other offensive ones-some guy was advertising a 350 powered '72 Cutlass for $45,000. Not even a 442, a base-model Cutlass, with bench seats and a column-shifted TH350. By contrast- RK motors has a numbers-matching, frame-off restored 400 / TH400 1969 442 CONVERTIBLE with front disc brakes,power steering, power windows, tilt-wheel, and factory A/C for $62,000. For the same price they have a restored, numbers-matching 1968 4-speed, SS396 Chevelle, and a restored 400 / TH400 '67 GTO Convertible with factory A/C and the Hurst Dual / Gate shifter. Trans-Am specialties has a restored, numbers-matching, triple black loaded-and I mean loaded-the hood tach, power seats, power windows,factory a/c, posi rear end, 400 / TH400 powertrain, 1969 Gran Prix for $25,000!!  But you should pay 45K for this nothing Cutlass coupe? I've seen it in my hometown. A guy was heartbroken because he got no offers on his pristine '68 Chevelle. A bench seat, post coupe, drum braked, strippy 307 model!!  That he was asking $30,000 for!! It was a clean Chevelle body-and would make someone a nice project-but not with a 30K start price!! I know another guy who just sold his '72 Chevelle for 25K-but it was a 454 SS model!!  Another guy was crushed that no one was interested in his strippy automatic, 2bbl 262 V8 powered '76 Camaro. For $12,000. When a local classic car dealer has a pristine, 350 / 4-speed, T-Topped, Cowl Induction equipped 1980 Z/28 for $14,900!!!  See what I'm saying?  I've said it before-"rare" doesn't automatically mean "valuable". Who wants a 305 powered 1980 Corvette? Or a 301 powered '79 Trans-Am? Or a 255 V8 powered '81 Mustang?  My personal, all-time favorite for sheer Chutzpah was the guy whose ad said you could live out your "Kowalski" Vanishing Point fantasies. It was a 1970 Challenger he was selling, but it had 4-wheel drum brakes, no power steering, an automatic, and it was powered by a 225 inch Slant-Six!!!  A far cry from a 440 / 4-speed R/T model, don't you think??  Anyhow-two-barrel step-down engines, column-shifted bucket seat cars, bench seat 4-speed cars, two-speed automatics, 3-speed sticks,heater and radio delete cars aren't valuable-their just weird. Like the guy who was asking something like a $125K for a 1970 Trans-Am becuase it was "one of one". Apparently the only TH400 T/A Pontiac ever built with no console and a column shifter. That's right-this wasn't one of the 88 RAIV models ever built, or one of the 252 '73 SD-455s,or the ONE 455, 4-speed '76 model that Pontiac put a '77 front clip on for promotional purposes, that caused Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham to want a black T/A for "Smokey and the Bandit". No-this one has a crappy, ugly column shifter!! And that's why it's worth more than a condominium!!  Not!! as Wayne and Garth used to say on SNL. So buyer beware-and remember my friend's quote-"A rare turd is still a turd."  Mastermind                  

A badass, cool,low-budget "Junkyard Jewel.....

A guy I know showed he me a toy he's been working on all spring the other day. I was impressed because it's definitely "Old School" and definitely cool, and he doesn't have $3,500 in the whole project!!  He bought a '69 Buick Skylark 2 door from his neighbor for $500. The body was straight and in good shape, but the interior needed work and the 350 was very tired, running on 6 or 7 cylinders and smoking badly. Another friend of his sold him a '75 Pontiac Gran Prix for $1200. The G/P had a body that didn't really have a straight piece of metal on it, but it had a 455 that would smoke the tires at will and a good-shifting TH400. He took the 455 / TH400 powertrain and dropped it in the Buick using the G/P motor mounts. He also used the G/P rear crossmember and trans mount, having to drill a couple holes in the frame. He spent a little at a driveline shop getting the G/P driveshaft shortened and re-balanced. ( Although their both technically "A" bodies, Skylarks have a 112 inch wheelbase and G/P's have a 118 inch wheelbase ). This was and easy and cheap procedure. He took the G/P's front spindles and added the 11" front disc brakes, calipers, master cylinder and booster, which greatly improved the stopping power over the Skylark's 9.5 inch 4-wheel drums! He also transplanted the G/P's wrist-thick front and rear stabilizer bars to the Buick as well as the G/P's steering box and P/S Pump. The Buick had power steering-but it was a 17.5:1 ratio box. The G/P's "Radial Tuned Suspension" box had a 14:1 ratio-which greatly quickened steering response. He added KYB gas shocks as well. A set of Hedman "Shorty" headers and dual exhaust went on as well as an Edelbrock Torker II intake he had laying around topped with a 750 Edelbrock carb. He had the 6X heads milled .060 at a machine shop to raise the compression one full point and new valvesprings installed. He also added a matching Edelbrock Torker cam.  A TransGo shift kit was added as well. The car is awesome. It handles like a '70's Trans-Am, and runs like a '60s GTO!!  It will literally spin it's tires as long as you want to stay on the throttle. He's got about $3,500 in it now. He plans to paint it, and add some 17" wheels and modern ZR rated tires to further improve handling. When he's done, he'll have maybe 6 grand in the whole thing, and it's totally badass. I'd put it up against a new Hemi Charger or a Mustang G/T in a drag race or the twisties any day of the week. Some people will gripe that it's a "Hybrid"-that it doesn't have a Buick powertrain-but the fact remains that it's a cool car that was built for almost nothing. This is the kind of projects my friends and I did all the time back in the '70's and '80's.  Anyhow I thought it was cool, and wanted to share it. Mastermind

There's more choices than ever for engine builders....If your not stuck on date codes!!

I talked to a guy the other day who was trying to build a Z/28 clone. He had secured a nice, solid, '69 Camaro and most of the trim pieces-emblems, spoilers, etc he had gotten from year one. He was griping that he couldn't find a "DZ" code 302 block, and he was having trouble finding an M21 or M22 Muncie 4-speed with 1968 or 69 date codes. You think?  My 1st suggestion since the car is a clone anyway-was to buy a GMPP 425 hp 383 crate engine and back it with a Tremec 5-speed. My 2nd suggestion-if he's just "Gotta Have" a 302 / 4-speed combo was get a 350 block and put a 3.00 inch stroke rotating assembly in it. GMPP, Eagle and other companies sell them. Now you've got 302 inches. I also suggested buying a Richmond Super T10 from Summitt. The 2.64 or 2.88 low-geared model would be much better for acceleration with a 302 than the M21 / M22's 2.20:1 low.  He says-wait for it-"But that's not correct." It's a clone-the whole freaking car isn't correct!!  I understand trying to build something to get the look and feel of your dream car without spending 100k. But honestly when he's winding his car through the gears-is he going to be thinking-"This is awesome, but it'd be so much better if the block had the proper numbers and this tranny was a Muncie instead of a T10."  Puhleeeze. Anyhow-the point I'm trying to make is you can build just about anything with the help of the afrermarket. Dart is offering brand-new 400 inch small-block Chevy blocks. You want to build a 427 Chevy Rat Motor? Get a 454 block out of an old truck and GMPP or Eagle can hook you up with a 3.76 inch stroke rotating assembly. And a new flywheel and balancer of course. ( 454s are externally balanced, 427s are internally balanced ). Want a 421 Pontiac? Eagle and Butler or Kaufmann Performance can hook you up with a 4 inch crank assembly to make your 389 / 400 into a 421. Edelbrock and Trick Flow have aluminum "Cleveland" style heads and intakes that bolt up to Windsor blocks so you can build your own "Boss" 302 or "Boss" 351. With stroker cranks, you could build a "Boss" 347 or a "Boss" 392 or 427!!  How badass would that be?  The point is the stuff is out there to build virtually anything. So stop griping and build that killer motor you've been dreaming of.  Mastermind  

Build the biggest engine that you can afford...The key word being AFFORD!

The buff magazines are constantly featuring mega-inch monster motors, and the manufacturers are in the game as well. GMPP will sell you a 572 inch Rat motor, Mopar Performance will sell you a 528 inch Hemi or a 505 inch wedge, and Ford SVT will sell you a 514 incher. They all have over 600 hp and they all cost 15-20 grand. If you can afford that and want or think you need that much power-by all means buy one. But the reality is a lot of us can't put 20 grand in the whole car-much less just the engine. And a lot of people don't want or need some killer motor-they just want a little more power than stock. I'm going to give some good advice here on how to get the most bang for your buck. The buff magazines always say "Build the biggest engine you can afford". This is generally good advice, with heavy emphasis on the "afford" part. But different engine lines have different characteristics and what applies to one line may be totally wrong for another. Here's a perfect example. If your building a small-block Chevy-a 350 costs no more to buy or build than a 305, yet makes substantially more power and torque. That's a no-brainer. Anyone would say go with the 350. Further-if the engine needs a new crank or pistons-stroker kits are so cheap for small-block Chevys-I've seen 383 crank, rod and piston kits with rings,bearings and the oil pump for as low as $399!!. It would certainly behoove you to build the 383, which is going to have more oomph than the 350. Now let's say you have a 400 Pontiac. The buff magazines all tell you to put a stroker rotating assembly in it and make a 455. ( Or a 461 / 467 if the block is bored .030 or .060 over ). However stroker rotating assemblys for Pontiacs start at $1799!!  For $1800 you could buy a complete cam kit-cam,lifters, springs, timing chain, rockers, pushrods etc-from Comp Cams or Crane or Lunati, an Edelbrock carb and intake, a set of headers, and still have a little left over for rings, bearings and oil pump and maybe minor machine work-i.e.-turning the crank .010 under, re-sizing the rods etc. If the short block was in good shape-you could build your whole engine for that. The 400 in my brothers GTO cost $1900 to build and dyno'd at 381 hp and 430 lbs of torque. Not bad for a junkyard engine with a few bolt-on parts. To make a 400 a 455-you'd have that much in the rotating assembly-and you still have to buy all the other parts you'd need. You'd end up having 4 grand in the motor instead of 2. And it wouldn't make THAT much more power. One of the buff magazines built a 455 that cost "only" $4,400. They were happy that it made 440 hp and 460 lbs of torque. Guess what? If my brother wants another 59 hp and 30 lbs ft of torque-I think we can get it for a lot less than another $2,500!! A 400 can run just as hard as a 455 with the right equipment. The same goes for making a 383 / 400 Mopar into a 451. It requires all kinds of custom machine work,-including relieving the block for clearance- and the parts are expensive. I'd just stick with the 400 cubes and spend the money on heads, cam, carb and intake, ignition, etc. Where your going to get the most gain per dollar. Here's another scenario where like the Pontiac-less is more. Let's say your Mopar project has a 318. The easiest way to big power is swap in a 340 or 360. However, 340s were only built from 1968-73,and are pretty scarce and usually expensive. 360s were used in zillions of Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler cars and trucks and vans from 1971-1991. And there are millions of "Magnum" engines in junkyards in Dodge trucks and vans and Jeep Chrokees from 1992-2004. I'd get a 360 Magnum. The Magnum heads breathe better than any factory head and many aftermarket ones. Edelbrock offers "Magnum" compatible intakes. And the Magnum heads and intake will bolt up to older "LA" blocks. The small-block Mopar is an awesome base for a hi-performance engine. The hot setup for Small-block Chevy racers is 6-inch rods. ( Stock is 5.7 ). A 360 Mopar has 6.123 inch rods from the factory. Now Eagle and other companies sell rotating assemblys to turn a 360 into a 408. I've even seen Blueprint Engines and others selling 408 Mopar crate engines. One made 375 hp; the other made 415. Big Deal. Mopar Performance's 360 crate motor made 380 hp!!  And cost a lot less. You can get 400 hp out of a 360 Magnum pretty easy with the right parts. In my opinion, stroking it isn't worth the extra expense. Now here's another scenario where the shoe is on the other foot. If you have a 350 Olds and want some more "bang" for your buck, I'd get a 403. Everything interchanges with a 350. Although they were only used from 1976-79 they were used in every GM "Big" car-Catalinas, Bonnevilles, Olds 88s and 98s, Buick Rivieras, and Electras and all the wagons, as well as Pontiac Trans-Ams and Formula Firebirds. There are millions of them out there. And 53 extra cubes will certainly help, all other things being equal. Edelbrock claims 397 hp and 400 lbs of torque from their "Performer RPM" package on a 350. 53 more cubes would put you well over the 400 hp mark. Magazine writers spout numbers flippantly; 400 honest hp will make any street car an absolute rocket. Another "Rodney Dangerfield" ( "No respect" ) is the 400C / M Ford used in millions of cars and trucks from 1971-82. The reason they got a rep as "dogs" was they were saddled with 2bbl carburation, single exhaust, a lazy cam, and were put in heavy cars with salt-flats gearing like 2.75:1.  Their "Cleveland" style heads breathe exceptionally well. Give him a decent cam, headers and a 4bbl carb and intake, and swap the gears for something in the 3.23-3.73:1 range and you'll swear it's a 460. Every year in the engine masters challenge someone has a 400 Ford with over 500 hp. If you have or want to buy a car with this engine-you don't need to swap in a 460-just give this one it's vitamins!  So do some research before you start spending your hard-earned money on the latest "it" fad. Just because something is possible doesn't mean it's good. Mastermind

Don't dismiss a great car because it's not all original....

A lot of people pay a lot of money-and many overpay I think for cars that can be documented as "numbers matching". That's well and good-especially if your looking at buying something really special like a Boss 302 Mustang or an LS6 Chevelle or a W31 Cutlass, or whatever where the engine or other major components were something rare and special. But what if your buying say a 69 GTO. Not a Ram Air IV or Judge model, just a basic GTO. The 350 hp 400 in those cars was the same engine used in Gran Prix's, Catalinas, Bonnevilles, etc. Nothing special. So if the car your looking at doesn't have a numbers-matching 400 in it, does it at least have 1968 or 1969 date codes? That would make it "Correct" if not original. You have to remember that musclecars led hard lives. I've told this story before, but it's worth re-visiting. A buddy of mine in high school had a nice '69 440 / Six-pack Super Bee. One night while drag racing it he missed a shift and grenaded the engine. I mean rods out the side of the block, grenaded. We went to a junkyard and got a used 440 out of a '73 Chrysler Imperial for $250. The only reason he did that, instead of taking a free 383 from another friend is he wanted to keep the tri-power on it, and the intakes don't interchange on "B" and "RB" engines. He drove the car another three years before he sold it. If that car still exists today I'm sure the current owner or whoever is restoring it is cursing us for not at least getting a '69 vintage 440 block!! But this was 1978. They were just old gas-guzzlers back then that no one cared about. Why do you think teenagers could afford them?  He paid $1,500 for the car when he bought it. My other friend had a gorgeous 4-speed SS396 Chevelle that he paid $1,300 for. I paid $900 for my '68 SS396 El Camino and $2,400 for my RAIII / 4-speed Judge!!  You have to realize this happened a lot. So a guy with the above mentioned GTO blew the original engine about 1975. Since it's not an RAIII or RAIV or 455HO-what does he do-he goes to a junkyard and gets a 400 out of a wrecked '71 Catalina or whatever-puts it in the car and keeps driving. He doesn't care that the engine's not original because it was nothing special to begin with-400 Pontiacs were a dime a dozen back then. And he certainly doesn't give a shit what someone is going to think 40 years hence!!  No one knew that the market was going to go so shithouse crazy. Especially on base models. If your looking at a '69 Camaro-not a Z/28 or SS396-just a plain old 350 model-does it really matter that the 350 in it came out of a '74 Monte Carlo?  The L48 350 was Chevy's workhorse engine in the '70's. It went in everything from Camaros and Corvettes to Impalas, and Monte Carlos, and 1/2 and 3/4 ton pickups, Blazers and Suburbans, everything. And people bought them both new and used when they needed a replacement engine. The "Targetmaster" crate engine that dealers sold in the '80's and the base model 350 that GMPP sells to this day, in 2018, is the good ol' L48!!  So if your buying any Chevy built from 1968-1986-chances are it's going to have this engine in it, regardless of whether or not it's "numbers-matching". So even if your looking at a '72 Corvette-guess what? If its not a 454 model or an LT-1, it's an L48!!  So does it really matter that this 8.5:1, 1.94 headed 350 with a lazy cam and a Quadrajet on an iron manifold, is a '72 or a '73 or a '79?  Now on the other hand-I saw a 1970 L78 SS396 Chevelle for sale and the owner had reciepts showing that the original engine was replaced under warranty in 1972. He had the warranty booklet for the replacement engine that the dealer installed. So even though it wasn't numbers matching, it certainly was the "correct" engine for the car-especially since the original was blown up in 1972!! I saw a 1971 Trans-Am for sale-with the same deal. It was a for-real 455HO-but it was a warranty block that was installed in 1972-apparently the over-enthusiastic 1st owner had blown the first one in less than 6,000 miles! In these cases the documentation was critical in the owners getting the price they should for the cars. But that's because L78 396s and 455HOs have a lot of special equipment-forged pistons,special heads,cam and intake, etc. Now if the Chevelle was an L34 or L35 model, or the T/A was a non-SD '73 model-I could give a shit what 396 or 455 it has. Because the L34 / 35 was the oval-port headed, hydraulic-cammed Q-jet carbed workhorse 396 / 402 that was put in hundreds of thousands of Impalas, Caprices, Monte Carlos, Chevelle wagons, pickups and suburbans, and just about every Chevrolet model except the Vega from 1965-1972. And the 455 in a '73 T/A that's not a Super Duty is the same one used in every Bonneville, Catalina, Grand Ville, Grand Am, and Gran Prix built that year, and every other year from 1970-74!! See what I'm saying??   ( You could still get a 455 in 1975 and '76, but they had 7.6:1 compression, and a restrictive intake manifold.)  So use your judgement. If your buying a 1970 Challenger T/A I certainly would want it to have the original 340 / Six-Pack engine. But if your buying a '68 383 Road Runner, and it has a 383 from a '71 Sport Fury in it, I wouldn't panic, and not the get the car!!  However-I've seen people pull this shit over minor parts. I saw a guy walk away from a nice LS5 454 Chevelle because it had an HEI distributor!!  I saw a guy turn up his nose at a for-real Boss 351 Mustang because it had a 750 Holley on it!! Which is why it ran good-the Autolite 4300 is the WORST carb ever made!!!  In fact if I ever bought a Boss 351 Mustang-the 1st thing I would do is rip off that Autolite doorstop-( all their good for ) and replace it with an Edelbrock!!  Same thing for those awful Muncie shifters that Camaros and Chevelles had. Forget powershifting at 6,000 rpm; they wouldn't shift at half-throttle, or above 3,000 rpm if you had your foot in it. So I would definitely be installing a Hurst shifter in any Camaro or Chevelle I bought. I guess I could keep the Muncie in case I ever wanted to sell the car to someone really anal. Would you really not buy a pristine SS396 / 454 Chevelle because it had a Competition Plus?  Remember these cars are 40-50 years old. Just like now-stuff breaks and goes bad-and do-it-yourself mechanics and even professional shops sometimes just get a generic replacement part.  So don't deprive yourself of a really cool car because someone didn't keep it "just as it left the factory" 38 years ago!!  Mastermind        

More on recognizing a great deal....

Got a lot of positive feedback on the last post about realizing a screaming bargain is in front of you and having sense enough to grab it. I don't know why, but gearheads always seem to be looking for the bigger better deal and often miss out on great stuff, and then regret it later. Here's a few more stories of what NOT to do. Bonehead # 1 wanted to build a 1969 Trans-Am clone. With only 697 built it's hard to find one for under  100K. But Pontiac sold 115,000 other V8 Firebirds that year and they can be bought reasonably. This guy found one for $2,500. It had a straight body, but the red paint was badly oxidized and the front seats needed recovering and probably new padding, and the dash was cracked. On the upside it had nice Center Line wheels and T/A radials on it, and a 350 and a 4-speed. I suspect it may have originally been a six-cylinder / 3-speed model. I say this because it had a flat hood-no scoops and no "350" or "400" emblems like the V8 models had. It also had a Saginaw 4-speed that was controlled by the terrible Vega shifter with the pull-up trigger for reverse. This wasn't a bad thing-those Saginaw 4-speeds in the late Vegas were tough-they'd stand up to a mild V8 and they had a 3.11 1st gear and a 2.02 second, which really helped you rocket off the line if you swapped one into a Camaro or Nova or Firebird with a V8. And the car had a 350 Pontiac that ran good, didn't smoke, didn't use oil, was pretty solid. I told him to buy it. All he'd need to make a clone T/A would be the hood, fender air extractors and spoilers and a white and blue paint job. I'd scrap the crappy Vega shifter for a Hurst unit.  And maybe a dash pad and seat covers. Including the purchase price of the car he could have had a '69 T/A clone for like six grand!!  He hemmed and hawed, because "real" T/A's had 400s, not 350s!! Puhleeze. It's a fake anyway!!  I pointed out that even if he "HAD" to have a 400 and a Muncie 4-speed-this car was still a great deal because the Saginaw and Muncie 4-speeds are the same length, and use the same rear trans mount and driveshaft yoke. Swapping in a Muncie would be cake. And even if he bought a 400 somewhere that was just a block-Pontiac crank and piston kits are cheap and everything else-the heads, the tin, the water pump, fuel pump, belt pulleys, balancer, intake and exhaust, distributor, alternator, power steering pump, etc off the 350 would bolt right on!! He'd save a ton of money not chasing parts that he already had!!  He passed on it, and never again found another 'Bird close to that price or condition. He never did build his clone '69 T/A. Years later I saw him driving a "Smokey and the Bandit" '77 model-and he pissed and moaned and said he should have bought that '69 way back when!!  Bonehead # 2  Wanted an LT-1 Corvette. A 1970-72 model, not the '92 and later C4 with same moniker. Obviously any decent example was high-priced-25 grand on up, which was a bit above his budget. One day on a used car lot we run across a '76 Corvette with $3999 on the window. We go look at it, it's white, and the paint is kind of crappy. But the interior is in great shape, and it's an L82 / 4-speed model!!. If you don't know-the L82 had everything the LT-1 did-forged crank, rods and pistons, "202" heads, 4-bolt mains. The cam was hydraulic instead of solid-but it was the old L46 "350 hp" cam-that had 224 duration @ .050, and .450 / 460 lift. Actually a little hotter than the famous "Duntov" and "30-30" solid lifter cams used in previous 'Vettes, and about the same as the vaunted LT-1. L82s also used a Quadrajet on an iron manifold instead of a 780 Holley on an aluminum one. We checked the numbers on the block and heads and it was a for-real L82. And it ran good. I told him to buy it, add a set of headers and an Edelbrock Torker II intake and matching 750 carb, and paint it whatever color he wanted. ( It had black interior which goes with anything ). The salesman even said he'd take $3,600 cash!!  Now where in the universe are you going to find a decent, running L82 / 4-speed Corvette for $3,600??!!!!  Dumb ass passed on it, and later paid $7,000 for an L48 / TH350 '79 model!!  That wasn't any nicer!!   Bonehead # 3 wanted a '70-71  Monte Carlo SS with a 454. Hard to find, and pricey when you do. We did find a '72 model ( the bodystyle is identical, except for minor changes to the front grille, and the "SS" package wasn't available in '72, but otherwise the '72 is identical to the '70-71s ). This one had a 402 big-block and a TH400 and was in good shape. He whined that it had a front bench seat. He wanted buckets and a console. I pointed out that Year One, NPD, Legendary and other companies could hook him up with buckets seats and the "horseshoe" shifter console easy enough, if that was the deal breaker. I told him to buy the car, and that a 396 / 402 could make just as much power as a 454 with the right equipment. I told him-Rat-Powered Montes are hard to find. I jokingly suggested a '69-76 Pontiac Gran Prix-they have 400 power standard all years and a fair number of '70-76 "SJ" models have 455s. "I'm a die-hard Chevy guy." he grumbled. Well for a die-hard Chevy guy, he's pretty stupid. He passed up the car. He finally did buy a '70-72 Monte Carlo, but it was a 350 2bbl model! With a bench front seat!  Quite a compromise if you "gotta have" a Rat motor and bucket seats and a console!  Bonehead # 4 was a dyed-in-the wool Mopar guy. He had a nice '70 383 Charger, but he also wanted to get a big Mopar for a daily driver. He passed up a nice '75 Road Runner. For this one year only the Road Runner nameplate was on the Sport Fury platform. This one had bucket seats and a console, the "Tuff" steering wheel, power windows and A/C and a 400 that would smoke the tires at will. Even though it was a one-year model and only about 6,000 were built, it wasn't "Unique" enough. He also passed up a 1979 Chrysler 300. These were based on the Cordoba, but they had a slick pearl white paint job, a gorgeous red leather interior, Rally wheels, the E58 "Police Interceptor" 360 V8, a Torqueflite and a 3.21:1 Sure-Grip rear end. Not a Hemi 'Cuda-but if you want a nice Chrysler "driver"-you can't do much better than these unless you buy a 2005 or later Charger or 300!!  That wasn't good enough either. He eventually bought a '72 Charger with a 318, decided it needed too much work, sold it and bought a Toyota pickup. How is that a "B" body driver??!!  Mastermind        

Be smart enough to recognize a screaming deal when you see it....

In the last post I talked about how to get the car you want at a reasonable price. It involves some compromise. But sometimes you just have to grab a good deal when it's right in front of your face. I get so tired of listening to people complain that they can't find their dream car, yet they've passed up several awesome cars because they weren't "Exactly what they were looking for". I said it in a previous post-there is no used car factory where you can order exactly what you want. The chance of you finding a 40 or 50 year old car that is the exact color you want with the exact color interior you want,the engine, transmission, axle ratio and wheels you want is almost nil. You have a better chance of winning the lottery or being struck by lightning on the golf course. The best you can do is narrow it down to a few key things-say you want a big-block Chevelle-I want a 4-speed, and bucket seats, and front disc brakes. That's easy enough-if your looking for say a 68-72 model-there will be a lot of them that have that equipment. Now if it has to be red with white interior and a white vinyl top and have factory A / C and a tilt steering wheel and power windows, your going to have a much harder time finding one, if at all. And you have to be somewhat flexible. I know a guy that wanted an LT-1 Z/28 Camaro. He passed up an unrestored, but exceptionally well-maintained '70 model because it was an automatic. He passed up a 4-speed '71 model because it had traction bars, Cragar S/S mags, headers, and a 750 double-pumper Holley carb instead of the stock 3310. He said he didn't want a "Butchered" car. Excuse me? How was this car "Butchered?" The traction bars could be unbolted, Year One sells reproduction Rally Wheels if he didn't like the Cragars, Summit, Jeg's and even Pep Boys will sell you a 3310 Holley Carb. If for some insane reason he didn't want the increase in performance that the headers offer-theirs several companies that sell the famous "Ram's Horn" exhaust manifolds. That stuff is so easily fixed-it's laughable. Yet he passed up the car. He also passed up a gorgeous 4-speed '73 model becuase it was an L82. If you don't know-an L82 has a hydraulic cam instead of solid lifters and uses a Quadrajet on an iron manifold instead of the 3310 Holley on an aluminum one. When I suggested he buy the car and that swapping in a solid-lifter cam and the carb and intake would be pretty easy-he sneered "But's still not a real LT-1". I pointed out the other two he turned his nose up at were "Real" LT-1s. That was several years ago, and as far as I know-he still hasn't found a Camaro that meets his exacting standards. Another idiot wanted a '65-66 Shelby Mustang. He passed up a '66 GT that had front disc brakes,the Rally-pac guages, factory air, the "Pony" interior, and the original "California Megaphone exhaust with date-coded mufflers intact, because "It's still not a Shelby". I'm not even a Ford guy-and I bought the damn thing and sold it for a tidy profit a couple months later. Two other idiots I know did the same thing. One wanted a '68-70 GTO with the 400 / 4-speed powertrain. He passed up a gorgeous '68 model because it didn't have the hood tach, and it didn't have front disc brakes. He passed up a nice '70 455 model because it was an automatic. When he turned his nose up at a triple white, 400, 4-speed, '71 LeMans Sport convertible done in full "Judge" regalia-because "It's a fake". I wanted to slap him. The seller freely admitted it was a gussied-up LeMans-he wasn't trying to decieve anyone or get "Judge" money for it. And with or without the spoiler and "Judge" stripes and emblems-the car was worth every penny he was asking. The price was reasonable, the car was gorgeous and it ran like a scalded cat. If I'd had the money at the time I'd have bought it. This guy still doesn't have a GTO, and that was 8 years ago. The other one wanted a 400, 4-speed Disco-era T/A. He passed up a 400, 4-speed, '77 Formula with T-tops-for $2,300 in 1996 dollars-still a screaming bargain-even back then. "Its not a Trans-Am"  UGH!  He also passes on a beautiful, for-real, documented by Dennis Mecham '78 "Macho T/A" that sounded absolutely evil, and would smoke the tires as long as you wanted to stay on the throttle because it was an automatic. What does he do after passing up both of these diamonds?  He buys a 4-speed '81 T/A that has a 305 Chevy in it that wheezes out 145 hp, and will barely smoke the tires 30 feet if you pop the clutch at 4,000 rpm!!  He's severely disappointed in the car's performance.  He poo-poos my take-the-path-of-least-resistance-suggestion of swapping in a stompin' 350 Chevy, finds out how much trouble it would be to put in a 400 Pontiac, and sells the car at a loss. Then dejectedly laments to me-"I should have bought that Formula or that "Macho." You think?  Anyhow-this is the message I'm trying to get across-recognize a screaming deal when it's staring you in the face. Mastermind      

Within reason, just get the car you want!!

I get a lot of things I say quoted back to me, usually when people are pissed off or trying to prove me wrong. "But on July 23, 2012 you said..."  Lately it's been that in some posts I've told prospective first-time musclecar buyers to lower their sights so they can find a car at a reasonable price. In other posts I've said-"Just get the damn car you want."  The question is which way should they go?  The answer is "Both". When I said  "Lower your sights a little" I meant that unless you had Jay Leno's bank account it might behoove you to "settle" for an SS396 Chevelle instead of trying to get an LS6 454 model; If you want a '69-70 Mustang it will be a lot easier and cheaper to get a 351W / 351C model than it will a Boss 302. A '68-'70 GTO with the base model 350 hp 400 is going to be a lot easier to find and much less expensive than a Ram Air IV Judge!! Those are irrefutable facts. A lot of you are probably going-"Well, duh anyone knows that." In addition to initially lowering your sights, my second piece of advice is lower them some more. Here's why. Our Chevelle enthusiast has come to grips with the fact that barring a lottery win, he's never going to get an LS6. But is he still stuck on the 1970 model?  Granted-Chevrolet made 49,826 SS396 Chevelles in 1970; exactly 10 times-( 4478 ) the production of the LS6. However-If he'd consider a '68-69 model he just increased his chances of finding a car by 58,000 ( 1968 ) and 86,000 ( 1969 ) units. And what about '71-72 models? They were basically the same bodystyle, except for the grille and taillights. The only other difference was the 402 and 454s had low-compression engines. But this will make the price substantially lower as well. Would this guy really pass up an LS5 454,M22 4-speed, 3.31:1 posi rear end, cowl induction hood equipped '72 model at a great price because he just "Had" to have a '70 model?  Or an L78, 4-speed, 4.11 geared '68 model? Remember-the L78 396 had everything the LS6 454 does-11:1 compression,forged crank,rods and pistons,hot solid-lifter cam, aluminum intake with a 780 Holley, etc, etc. Is that 1970 front clip that godamnded important???  See what I'm saying?  What about a Mopar guy who's searched far and wide for a "Bullitt" Charger or "Vanishing Point" Challenger?  Because he's "Gotta Have" a 440-how many spectacular deals has he passed up on 383 models?  If you want a 455HO or SD455 Trans-Am your pretty much out of luck without a powerball win. Pontiac only built about 4,000 of them from '71-74. ( 2,116 in '71, 1,286 in '72, 252 in '73 and 943 in '74 ). However from 1974-79 there's over 400,000 Trans-Am and Formula Firebirds out there, nearly all of them with 400 power under the hood, that with very little work-intake and exhaust and an axle-ratio change-could easily equal or surpass the performance of the earlier, much more expensive models. Think about it-a 400, 4-speed, 3.42:1 geared '78 model will rock pretty good with an Edelbrock Performer intake, matching cam and a set of headers. Edelbrock claims 387 hp and 439 lbs of torque with this package on a 400; that's a bit more than the 300 / 310 hp of the vaunted 455HO / SD models!!  I think your getting the drift on "Lower your sights". How do I reconcile that with "Just get the damnded car you want."  Here's how. Let's say you've decided on a "Smokey and the Bandit" era T/A. Ok. If you want T-Tops, why even look at a hardtop model?  I mean if one thing really, truly is a deal-breaker, then don't compromise. If you "Gotta Have" T-tops, then get one with T-Tops. There's enough of them out there that you can find one. Same thing if you wanted a 4-speed. Yes, it'll cost more than an automatic model, but their still affordable. And you definitely don't want to buy an automatic model and try to convert it to stick. Our previously mentioned Chevelle enthusiast-in '71 and '72 for some insane reason the "SS" package was available on any V8 Malibu. Which means you could have a badass-looking machine in full "SS" regalia with a 2bbl, 130 hp 307 or 165 hp 350 under the hood!!  Now here is where the "buck" would stop. I would continue searching for a big-block model. I'm a mechanic with 40 years experience, and I've swapped dozens of engines, and I wouldn't buy a small-block Chevelle, no matter how cheap it was with the intention of  "Someday" "dropping" a 454 into it. Because "someday" will never come. You'll never do it. Our "Vanishing Point" enthusiast-would he accept a 340 Challenger? Many people say the 340 models are the best handling, best balanced, best all-around performing models. If he'll accept a 340 model, he might find happiness for way less money than he'd have spent on a 383 / 440 model. But should he buy a pristine, dirt-cheap 318 model?  No!!!  It won't run near as strong as the 340, he'd have to swap in a 340 / 360 to get that level of performance,and if he wanted a big-block he'd have to change the crossmember, the transmission, the torsion bars etc, etc.  See what I'm getting at?  And be honest about what your going to do with the car. If it's a show car or a race car-then do anything you want. But if your going to drive the car at all-you might want to give some thought to certain options. We've all seen stripped-down, badass street fighters. No power steering, no power brakes, no a/c. That's fine if all your doing is drag racing. If you live in a city and you have to parallel park a lot-you really appreciate power steering!!  If you live somewhere where it gets to be 100 degrees in the summertime, it might behoove you to get a car with working or repairable A/C!!  If you live in a big city like San Francisco or Los Angeles that has a lot of stop and go traffic, an automatic might be a better choice than a 4-speed!  If you live in the country 30 miles from the nearest town, a car with 3.23:1 gears might make a lot more sense than one with 4.10:1s; unless you enjoy the motor buzzing at 3,800 rpm at 75 mph!!  Hope this clears things up. Mastermind                  

Experience is a great teacher.....

I think it was Vince Lombardi who said "Good judgement comes from experience, and experience is usually past bad judgement."  This is so true in the gearhead world. Those of us who have swapped engines and transmissions,have built race cars, and restored cars and trucks definitely have an advantage over those who haven't-we know what NOT to do!!  This can be very important in saving you time, money and frustration. Those of us who have strong opinions on what parts to use or not use, is usually learned the hard way. For example I only recommend Hooker or Hedman Headers to my customers. The reason is this-many moons ago I had a performance shop where we did a lot of high-performance work for people. Sometimes I supplied the parts, sometimes the customers did. Didn't matter if was a Chevy or a Ford, or a Pontiac or an AMC or a Chrysler-"Off-brand" headers leaked and cracked incessantly, the flanges didn't seal, they were awful. Blackjack,Flowtech,Doug Thorley, whatever-they were all terrible. Hooker and Hedman-I never had a problem, they sealed perfectly and never cracked, they were bulletproof. I got to the point where I was so tired of tightening header bolts, and arguing with customers that the problem was not with my installation, but with their sub-par headers that I would refuse to install any header other than Hooker or Hedman. Problem solved. The same with Holley carburators. I know other people have had great success with them, but in 40+ years of hot rodding and racing, I have never had much luck with Holleys. They bleed over, they blow power valves,they do not hold a tune. Even the new "Street Avenger" model that came with a ZZ4 crate engine I bought brand-new-ran good for about three weeks and then became hard to start,stumbled, blew power valves the usual. I replaced it with a Quadrajet and it ran flawlessly until I sold the car five years later.   I have had great luck with Edelbrock carbs. They flat work, usually right out of the box. Ditto for Carter AFB's. There's no gaskets below the float level,jets can be changed without removing or disassembling the carb. On Mopars I've great luck with Carter AVS's, and ( as long as the bakelite body isn't cracked or warped ) I've had good luck with Thermo-Quads. As for Fords-the Autolite 4100 and 4300 are the worst carbs ever built, bar none. My dad and I both worked for Ford back in the '70's and if you had a 351C Mustang or a 460 T-Bird and bitched hard enough about hard starting, crappy gas mileage-I mean 5-8 mpg on a new car-Ford would replace it with a 600 Holley and warranty it. Whenever I did a Ford project for someone I always used a Carter AFB or an Edelbrock. The same for cams. Other than factory cams-i.e.-GMPP, Mopar Performance, Ford SVT- I only use Crane or Lunati cams. The reason is every other brand-and I don't just mean "off-brand" or "house brand" stuff-I've had it happen with Edelbrock, Iskenderian,Competition Cams, Howards, etc-they go flat prematurely and pop and spit, even if you follow the the break-in procedures to the letter. Crane or Lunati-I've never had a problem. Even tune-up parts can cause you to pull your hair out. This is why on GM stuff I only use AC-Delco points or Accel. Ford and Chrysler I use genuine Motorcraft or Mopar or Accel. The reason is these parts have brass contacts and tougher plastic and flat work. Wells-Ampco,Napa,Borg-Warner, and other "parts house" brands use aluminum or pot metal contacts that corrode easily and the plastic is like an eggshell. I've broken distributor caps tightening them down with a 1/4 inch drive socket!!  As for spark plugs I use Autolite in american cars and NGK in foreign cars. Champions, Bosch, Nippondenso-they all foul-especially if the carb(s) are a little rich, or the driver drives it like grandma on prozac. Autolites and NGKs-never a problem. Don't take this wrong-I'm not slamming certain companies products-I'm speaking from experience and avoiding performance problems with sub-par parts. So If you brought your car to my shop and wanted me to build you an engine-I'll tell you up front-your getting Hooker or Hedman headers, a Crane or Lunati cam, and an Edelbrock carb!  And it'll run like a scalded cat for years to come, and we'll both be happy.  The other thing I've learned is you have to look at the entire combination. The whole combination is power to weight ratio,gearing,suspension setup,and traction. A Pontiac enthusiast I know was shocked at a club drag meet when his 455HO,4-speed '71 GTO was beaten in a drag race by a '64 389 GTO. A 325 hp 4-barrel model-not even a Tri-Power. Oh, the pain and humiliation. The '71 GTO's owner was only looking at engine size-455 cubes vs 389-no problem. However-the '64 GTO weighed 3,400 lbs, the '71 weighed 4,070. That's almost 700 lbs of extra weight. They both had Muncie 4-speed trannys, but the '71 model had 3.31:1 gears, and the '64 model had 3.90:1 gears. And the difference in launch. The '64 driver would pop the clutch about 2,800-3,200 rpm. This would give him just enough wheelspin to get the car moving quickly, without frying the tires. Anything over 3,500 rpm and he'd fry the tires. The '71 driver had a tougher time. A 455HO has 480 lbs of torque, at 2,700 rpm. The only way he could avoid frying his tires was to slip the clutch at 1,800-2,200 rpm, walk it off the line, and then still spin most of low gear. What happened was the '64 got a car length or two off the line, and with the mechanical advantage of the 3.90:1 gears and pulling 700 lbs less weight-was able to hang onto that lead until the end of the 1/4. Ironically-even with the extra weight the 455HO should have had enough power to take the win. The big problem was traction. If he'd had drag radials and could launch at 3,500-4,000 rpm-it would have been a different story. If he'd had a TH400 and 3.31:1 gears it might have been different because the traction problem wouldn't have been as severe. Doesn't matter how much power you have if you can't put it to the ground. I remember back in high school I had a '68 SS396 El Camino. Of course, I blew up the 396. Being a kid with very little money but good mechanical skills-I was saved by my cousin. He convinced his mother to give me the 327 out of her wrecked '67 Impala. We put the small-block in that weekend, and I was able to go to school Monday. Funny thing-the Elky was actually quicker with the 275 hp 327 than it was with the 350 hp 396! With the Rat motor-it just fried the tires if you looked at the throttle. With the 327 it would spin the tires if you wanted to, but not excessively. It would lay maybe 30 feet of rubber and then go. And with less weight on the front end it handled better too. It was actually much nicer to drive with the 327 than it was with the 396. I never forgot that. When I was in college I had a '74 Pontiac Ventura-just like the one Roy Scheider drove in the "Seven-Ups". It had the 350 Pontiac / TH350 powertrain. I swapped the 2bbl for a Edelbrock P4B intake and a Quadrajet that my dad had laying around. I also put a B&M shift kit in the trans. The car was really fast. I mean it easily beat a buddy's 327 / 4-speed '66 Chevelle in a drag race, and beat another friends 350 powered '70 Chevelle. I gave another kid in a 454 Monte Carlo a run he'll never forget. My friends and relatives had driven 350 LeMans and Firebirds before-and they weren't nearly as quick as my Ventura. My dad speculated that maybe a previous owner had dropped in a 400. No,I checked the numbers on the block. It was a 350. But I always wondered why my car had a trailer hitch on the rear bumper. Turned out the previous owner had bought the car new and ordered it with a towing package because he intended to tow his fishing boat with it. The towing package included a bigger transmission cooler, a bigger radiator, and a positraction rear end with a "special" towing axle ratio. The reason it was so damn quick was it had a 3.42:1 posi rear end!!  Most other '70's Venturas had 2.56:1 or 2.73:1 gears. The gears were why it ran so good. I honestly think it was quicker than the '71 I had later that got the 400 out of my wrecked '77 T/A. Another thing is don't shy away from Old parts when restoring something. Especially if you want a period correct vibe. Back in the '70's Edelbrock had a line of intakes for small-block Chevys-there was the Torker, the Tarantula and the Scorpion. They were all single-planes. The Torker and Tarantula were street / strip models and the Scorpion was the competition one-kind of like the Victor Jr now. A buddy had a Scorpion on his Nova-and from 3,000-7,000 rpm it was a rocket. Weiand had one called the X-celrator, and Offenhauser had a line they called Port-O-Sonic. As long as their not cracked-they'll work just as well today. A modern Performer RPM might make a few more ponies on a dyno-but won't look nearly as badass on a '66 Corvette or whatever. Mastermind      

Some alternative bodystyles that can be cool...

If you look outside the box, there are still some bargains out there. Here's some that I think offer incredible "bang" for the buck. # 1. 1960-68 Full-Size Pontiacs. While 99% of Impalas, Caprices, and Biscaynes from this era have 283 or 327 small-block motivation, and 396, 409, and 427 models priced in the stratosphere, a Pontiac is a much better buy. Be it a Catalina, Bonneville, or Grand Prix-At least 389 cubes standard all years, with 400,421 or 428 available depending on years. Pontiacs also had nicer interiors. # 2. 1967-71 Ford Thunderbird. I personally think the '67-69 T-Bird is one of the best looking cars Ford ever produced. The hidden headlight, rakish styling is still cool 50 years later. With 390, 428 or 429 cubes under the hood, they move pretty good too. The 1970-71 models have a cool, fastback Nascar style to them, and a 375 hp 429 under the bonnet. 1972 and later models are based on the heavier, and uglier Lincoln MKIV platform.  # 3. 1969-72 Plymouth Sport Fury. Peter Graves drove one on "Mission: Impossible". Cool, fuselage styling, and 383 or 440 cubes under the hood. # 4. 1969-76 Pontiac Gran Prix. While 99% of Monte Carlos are small-block powered, GP's had 400 cubes standard all years, and a fair number had 455s. My sister had a '72 GP in high school. It had power everything, and it felt like a GTO. She showed her taillights to quite a few shocked Camaro, Chevelle and Mustang owners. # 5. 1977-79 Ford Ranchero. After being based on the Fairlane / Torino line from 1968-76, Ford upgraded the "other" El Camino to the longer,lower,wider LTD II platform. Their great looking, and ride and handle like a Cadillac. 460 models are the ones to get, but the 351M / 400 models cab be made to run too. A nice change from the "cookie-cutter" El Caminos you see. # 6. 1976-79 Cadillac Seville. This sounds way outside the box-but back in the '70's Car and Driver did one with Trans-Am sway bars, upgraded wheels and tires and Recaro seats, and made a BMW challenger. Now if you swapped the 350 Olds for a 403 with the 400 hp Edelbrock Performer RPM package under the hood.....you could mess with AMG Mercedes owners.....Mastermind

It doesn't have to be "King Kong" to be cool....

Everyone lusts after the ultra-premium badass musclecars-i.e. LS6 Chevelles, Hemi 'Cudas, Six-Pack Road Runners, W30 442s, 455HO T/A's, Boss 302s, etc etc.  The reality is not many of us can afford them without a powerball win or re-financing the house. Even "base" models i.e-383 Super Bees, 396 Chevelles, 389 GTOs-that even 5 or 10 years ago wouldn't get a second look, are now commanding a King's Ransom. Even in this environment-I'm amazed at the number of people who turn up their noses at very cool cars at reasonable prices,because they aren't the "Big Dog", and then whine how hard it is to find decent car!!.  Here's a few that left me scratching my head and going Huh?  The one guy wanted a '68-70 GTO. So do a lot of people. But he turned up his nose at a beautiful red and black 350 / 4-speed, 1970 LeMans Sport convertible. Why? "It's still not a GTO."  Puhleeze.  Another idiot who wanted a '69-70 Mustang Mach 1 passed up a gorgeous Candy Apple Red '69 model with Ansen Sprint mags and rear window louvers-period-correct '70's cool-because it had a two-barrel carb on the 351W!!  Are you kidding me? An Edelbrock or Weiand intake manifold is about $200 in Summitt, and an Edelbrock or Holley carb is about $400. For $600 and a couple hrs work you could have a huge increase in performance and drivability and have the car the way you want. But he passed on the whole car, because he didn't like the carburator??!!  Another idiot did the same thing with a really nice '68 Charger that had a gorgeous red paint job and new T/A radials on Cragar S/S mags-because it had a 2bbl on the 383!! This boggles my mind. A couple guys I know looking for full-size muscle did the same unthinkable,moronic act of passing up a fabulous car because of some stupid detail. The one guy passed up a beautiful, Tri-Power, 421, 4-speed, 8-lug wheeled '63 Gran Prix, because the car was light blue, and he hated that color!!!  The car had white interior-he could have painted it any color he wanted!!!  If I'd had the cash, I'd have bought it and painted it Pearl White, or Buccaneer Red!!  The other idiot passed up a beautiful '65 Ford Galaxie coupe-it had a gorgeous bucket seat interior,factory A/C, new T/A radials on original style American Racing Torq-Thrust mags, and an awesome black paint job, because it was a 352 and he wanted a 390!!  The 352 and the 390 are both "FE" engines!! I pointed out that heads, intakes, headers etc-anything that fits a 390 will fit a 352-if he's looking for more oomph. I also pointed out that he could get a 390 out of a truck in a junkyard, and continue to drive the car with the 352 while he built a stompin' 390-if that's what he had to have. Nope. Passed up the car altogether. I'm reminded of that Bud Light Super Bowl ad from a couple years ago-two guys go into this bar full of gorgeous, friendly, scantily-clad women. Their the only men in the place and get quite a bit of attention. They leave when they find out the place doesn't serve Bud Light. As their walking away the one guys says-"Too bad, that place had potential". You think?  What is wrong with these people?  I've said it before-there is no "Used Car Factory" for you to place and order with!!  The chance of you finding a 40 or 50 year old car with the exact engine, transmission, axle-ratio,and color combination you want is almost nil. You have a better chance of being struck by lightning on the golf course. However-cars can be painted, seats can be re-upholstered, vinyl tops added or removed,and wheels changed. If you want to find a car and not have to lay out a gazillion bucks for "Exactly what your looking for" then you'll have to compromise on some things, like maybe settle for an automatic instead of a 4-speed, or a 383 instead of a 440, or whatever. Or continue searching for some unobtainable holy grail. Just stop whining about it.  Mastermind        

More on "If it isn't broken, don't fix it".....

Here's some more good advice for first-time restorers. Before you start tearing the car apart, fix the little crap and see where you really are. I've said it before, but it's worth revisiting. I've seen cars with $5,000 paint jobs and $2,000 worth of tires and wheels that can't smoke the tires on dry pavement or pull 5,000 rpm in low gear. You'd be amazed at the number of cars running around with the timing way too slow or way too advanced, the vacuum advance broken or unplugged, with bad plug wires,the points closing up, the carburator way too rich or too lean,the throttle linkage not opening all the way, the automatic trans kickdown not hooked up, the vacuum modulator not hooked up, and other stupid stuff I can't think of off the top of my head. I spoke in an earlier post about a 396 Impala I worked on. The guy brought it in fully expecting me to sell him a new engine, or offer to rebuild the one he had. I did a compression test, and the engine was sound, it didn't have a blown head gasket or a flat cam. It did however-have most of the problems I just listed. After replacing the points and condenser, rotor, distributor cap and wires, and hooking up the vacuum advance and setting the timing to proper specs, I leaned out the carburator, and cleaned and adjusted the throttle linkage so it opened fully. The guy was amazed. It would now fry the tires off the line and lay 10-15 feet of rubber on the 1-2 shift. He was so happy he tipped me $100 over the bill I charged him. The point I'm making is yes,before I looked at it, for a big-block Chevy his car ran like total shit. It didn't have the power of my mom's 305 powered '86 Caprice. But it was just suffering from major neglect. Once I fixed the little problems-we realized there wasn't a big one-like he didn't need his engine rebuilt!!  A similar thing happened with another customer of mine. He had a '78 Trans-Am with the 400 Pontiac / TH350 powertrain. He brought it to me to get a 2nd opinion because another shop told him he needed a new transmission. I drove the car, and it did shift poorly, sometimes not at all-literally sticking in low gear, and then violently shifting to 2nd about 4,000 rpm. Sometimes. If you did get it into high gear-then it wouldn't kick down into 2nd under load. I did some investigation and found multiple problems. 1st off, it was 2 quarts low on fluid. Secondly-the kickdown linkage was completely unhooked. Third, and most importantly-the vacuum modulator was not hooked up and was spewing fluid. I changed the fluid and the filter, and hooked up the kickdown linkage. I also replaced the vacuum modulator and made sure it was hooked up with a new vacuum line. ( The old one was horribly oil-soaked,probably from the fluid leak of the broken modulator.) I took it out for a post-repair test drive. After making sure there were no men in blue around, I punched it when the light turned green. The T/A lit up the tires all the way across the intersection. As the tach swept past 4,500 rpm and neared 5,000, it snapped off a quick 1-2 shift and the tires gave a nice little "rubber in 2nd" screech. I kept my foot in it, and it pulled hard in 2nd and snapped off a crisp 2-3 shift about 4,800 rpm. I slowed down to about 50 mph, and punched it again. It dropped into 2nd easily and accelerated hard. I aired it out a couple more times-now shifting manually. This T/A was bone-stock, and with the 400's tractor-like torque curve I found the car ran quickest if I shifted manually at 4,900 rpm ( 1-2 ) and 4,400 ( 2-3 ). I could hold the tranny in any gear up to 5,400 if I wanted to-but I was just beating up the valve springs. He needed an Edelbrock Performer intake ( or a factory '68-74 unit ) to make any real power. The '75-79 intakes have such a restrictive throttle opening that power above 3,500-4,000 rpm is severely compromised. Anyway-the transmission now worked as it should. The owner was esctatic that he only had to pay me a couple hundred for a couple hours work instead of spending $1,500 or more for a new tranny!!  The point I'm making is-sometimes something that looks like a big expensive problem, is a much smaller, less expensive problem if you do some checking.  The other thing that gripes my ass is magazines always build every engine from scratch. Like I said in the last post-if the engine in the car runs fine, doesn't smoke, doesn't use any oil, has good compression and has good oil pressure-why in the hell would you pull it, tear it down and rebuild it?  If you want more power-then add an aftermarket carb and intake, or headers or a cam, or whatever you want. The other problem I have is magazines have to bore every block .030 or .060 over and replace every single part. I remember back in the '60's and '70's people used to replace "rings& bearings" and the oil pump and consider the engine freshened!! If it needed it-they'd sometimes grind the valves, but not always. I've done it myself, and I've done it for customers. I'd tear an engine down-and nothing would really be wrong with it, it just had 100,000 or more miles on it and needed freshening. You know what I'd do? Polish the crank lightly,replace the rod and main bearings, and the piston rings, and put the pistons back in the same holes. ( They've already got a wear pattern, it'll work fine ). If one of the main or rod journals was damaged-we'd go to a machine shop and have the crank turned .010 over, get .010 over bearings, have the rods re-sized, ( here's a good time to add chrome-moly rod bolts. Even in racing engines 95% of rod failure occurs at the bolt, so this is good insurance ). Replace the oil pump, the cam and lifters and timing chain-do the heads if necessary-button it up and drive it another 50,000-100,000 miles!!  The point I'm making is EVERY single engine doesn't have to be bored .030 over, have a new crank,rods and pistons, and new everything. The 400 in my brother's GTO came out of a '74 Gran Prix. We put one piston in it, rings and bearings and an oil pump, and a set of 6X heads off one of my wrecked T/A's. It also has an Edelbrock Torker II intake and matching cam kit and Hooker Headers. A 750 Edelbrock carb and an MSD HEI distributor. It cost $1,900 to build, and dyno'd at 381 hp and 430 lbs of torque. It's ran 9 years without a problem, uses a quart of oil every 1,200 miles, and will literally spin it's tires as long as he wants to stay on the throttle. One of the buff magazines rebuilt a 455 and were jumping up and down because they made 440 hp and 460 lbs of torque for "only" $4,400. If my brother wanted another 59 hp and 30 lbs of torque, I'm pretty sure we could get it for a lot less than another $2,500!!  Everyone espouses the virtues of "Vortec" heads for small-block Chevys. Iron "Vortecs" cost $700 on up and aluminum ones are well over $1,000. On a tight budget, using junkyard parts?  Did you know that '81-'86 305 "smog" heads will give a 350 a huge power boost?  Huh?  Most 350's have 76cc combustion chambers and 1.94 / 1.50 valves. 305 heads have 58cc combustion chambers and 1.84 / 1.50 valves. The smaller combustion chambers will bump compression from 8.2:1 to about 9.6:1. The power and torque boost from the added compression will more than offset the slight loss of airflow from the smaller intake valves. And any machine shop can install the 1.94 valves if you want to. "Old Standbys" become "Old Standbys" because they just flat work. Here's a couple of examples. Unless your building something really radical-if you've got a 383, 400 or 440 Mopar-the factory 440 Magnum cam is damnded hard to beat. It has great low-end and mid-range torque, and is really long-legged-it'll pull all the way up to 6,000 rpm. It's perfect for an automatic and very pleasant with a 4-speed. Mopar Perfromance sells this cam to this day, and Crane and Lunati offer exact replicas. Aftermarket ones may make more peak hp-but your trading quite a bit of low-end and mid-range torque for top-end rush. Ditto for the small-block Chevy L46 / L82 cam-the "350 hp 350" cam. It idles smooth, makes 15 inches of vacuum at idle and pulls hard to 6,000 rpm. Same for the old "068" Pontiac Ram Air cam. It's really sweet in a 400 and makes gobs of torque in a 455. Even with an automatic and 3.08:1 gears-your Poncho will pull hard up to 5,500 rpm. The original Z/28 / LT1 small-block Chevy manifold makes power from idle-7,200 rpm. GMPP sells both aluminum and iron ( for stock-class racers where an iron manifold is required ). versions of this intake. I'm not slamming Edelbrock or Weiand or Holley intakes-their great-but this one is damded hard to beat for mild or wild engines. What I'm saying is-do some research and you may be able to save yourself quite a bit of money and time and grief. Throwing money at a project isn't always the answer.  Mastermind