DIY & classic cars

[RattyAirSixQueen]

Anyone have any car projects? I like seeing what people are doing with their cars. Post pics if you've got'em, or just describe what you're doing and what kind of car you're doing it to.

[Nips]

washing my car is a 'car project' for me...

[EDogg]

when i get my car im going to have a full graffiti piece of PUNKS on one side of the car and SKINS on the other haha, then ill probably paint half of one of those chalk silhouettes on the bonnet of it haha

im hoping for a van but insurance will probably be a killer, wouldve been fun piling punks into the back tbh haha

[lúidín-corr- cailín]

I have finally finished completely rebuilding my engine and boring it out now im working on the body and electrical in the dash. oh its a 65 T-bird

[RattyAirSixQueen]

I have finally finished completely rebuilding my engine and boring it out now im working on the body and electrical in the dash. oh its a 65 T-bird

Nice. Mid 60s are my favorite T-birds. What are you runnig in it?

[unholy_steve]

i can do body work, but i really lack in the machanical department.

[Carlea Skunkrawk]

I do a mean job with touch up paint. And I'm pretty good at vacuuming my car, too, though I don't think I've vacuumed my current one since I've had it.

[unholy_steve]

I do a mean job with touch up paint.
i can barely do touch up paint, i can spray a whole car, but don't ever ask me to mix touch paint. it will only end in a shitty paint job. lol

[Carlea Skunkrawk]

Touch up paint pretty much only looks good from a certain distance.

[unholy_steve]

if i mixed the paint it whouldn't look any good! the car whould be green and my paint whould be blue!

[Cory Burn]

I have a 65 Buick Special station wagon. I've had it since I was 14 the fucker is and always has been a money sucker. About 3 months ago I trashed the old motor and trans and put in a chevy 396 still I got a do carpet, suspension and tires and wheels a little touch on the paint and maybe I'll start driving it again. I'm 24 now and haven't sank a dime into it since I was 20 I gotta couple kids and haven't been able to afford repairs or maintence. Now that I can I can't wait.

[thehaters714]

Fuck yeah! I'm a wagon man myself.

Currently I have some random ass cars laying around...the only nice one is the '71 Mustang Grande aka The Meth Sled. I also have a '52 Willys Jeep wagon. Its awesome. It had a flathead engine out of a '48 Ford when I bought it...but the damn thing was shot to hell. I have no idea what to do with it. I still have a lot of engine/tranny parts left over from my '72 AMC Javelin (that's right...a Javelin), so I may run the 360/727 in it. My daily driver is bad ass Buick Roadmaster estate wagon from the 90's. Its a BOAT. Its also got some sweet faux-wood paneling. Beauty. Under the hood is an LT1, so it gets up and goes!

[krash138]

right now im working on a 90 plymouth laser i found.. i dumped a third gen mitsi engine in it along with a turbonetics turbo and intercooler package. k&n fuel injection, aem V2 intake, droped three inches with yokohamas

i also have a 59 ford im doin some stuff to, i just got it like 2 weeks ago so i havent done much yet

[thehaters714]

My brother just finished up (and sold) a 59 Ford T-Bird. What engine do you have in your 59?

[Cory Burn]

Fuck yeah! I'm a wagon man myself.

Currently I have some random ass cars laying around...the only nice one is the '71 Mustang Grande aka The Meth Sled. I also have a '52 Willys Jeep wagon. Its awesome. It had a flathead engine out of a '48 Ford when I bought it...but the damn thing was shot to hell. I have no idea what to do with it. I still have a lot of engine/tranny parts left over from my '72 AMC Javelin (that's right...a Javelin), so I may run the 360/727 in it. My daily driver is bad ass Buick Roadmaster estate wagon from the 90's. Its a BOAT. Its also got some sweet faux-wood paneling. Beauty. Under the hood is an LT1, so it gets up and goes!


The Willy's are some of my favorite cars I'm sticking with Buick though I really want a 53 wagon. In highschool my buddy had a 72 Ford Mustang Mach 1 (I think) the think was faded brick red and yellow in a couple spots from the primer showing through but that bastard was fast!

Amc huh. Don't see alot of guys fixing those up but the ones that do are generally fanatics about it. What model was that 48?

[thehaters714]

No idea what model Ford it was...it was just the engine out of a 48, and it was a flathead so it was fucking weird (2 water pumps!). I'm pretty sure the tranny was a 3 speed from a Studebaker, so it was a Frankenstein job for sure. The guy who had the car before me was trying to make it a hot rod back in the early 70's and it sat for nearly 20 years. Sadly the engine was fucked.

I was one of those AMC fanatics! My Javelin was both terrible and beautiful at the same time...yellow with a black top, nicknamed the 'Banana Split'. I miss that bastard.

[RattyAirSixQueen]

No idea what model Ford it was...it was just the engine out of a 48, and it was a flathead so it was fucking weird (2 water pumps!). I'm pretty sure the tranny was a 3 speed from a Studebaker, so it was a Frankenstein job for sure. The guy who had the car before me was trying to make it a hot rod back in the early 70's and it sat for nearly 20 years. Sadly the engine was fucked.

I was one of those AMC fanatics! My Javelin was both terrible and beautiful at the same time...yellow with a black top, nicknamed the 'Banana Split'. I miss that bastard.
AMC made some cool shit. A friend of mine has a Marlin.

And that Willys- I hope you get that thing going. That's good shit.

My projects are 3 Corvairs- a '61 Lakewood (wagon), a '63 Monza coupe and a 64 Monza coupe.

I've been driving the '63 for a couple of years, but haven't done much in the way of restoration. My headliner is safety-pinned together, the interior is all original- not totally shot, but not nice either. I bought it for $400.00, so I can't complain. It needed tires and some carb work when I got it to be a runner. Unfortunately, a year into driving it, a rod nut came loose while I was on the freeway. I threw a rod and the motor siezed so hard that I went into a full on slide at 85mph. It was a bit scary, but I stuck my foot on the clutch and was able to start rolling again to get to the side of the road.

I had just gotten another corvair that week, so we swapped out the motor and I was on the road again within a week. Now I'm collecting the last few parts to build a complete engine. Once I build a new motor, I'm putting it in my 64 (nice older restoration) and parking my 63 for some long overdue customizing. I'm going to put in a new headliner- going to repaint the entire interior, put in new carpet. With the excetion of the driver seat, the seats are decent. I'll probably leave them- just put covers on the fronts. I'm doing a lot of black metal flake in the interior to go and re-doing some of the original turquoise. Putting in a stereo with a speaker box in the back to match the new headliner (which I've got a few yards of black fabric with white skull/crossbones on it for that). The exterior only needs some minor body work. Very little bondo in it. I've sanded it down once and primered it black. I need to re-do that more thorougly after the body work is done. I'll paint it a semi-gloss black and pinstripe it with some of the same turquoise and black metal flake as the inside. The motor has really high compression (someone hot-rodded the hell out of it). It's fast, but might blow up any minute, so I've got to tear it down- possibly replace some bearings, lifters, do a valve job, etc- and dump the compression. It'll still be fast, but it'll be reliable too.

My wagon is a runner, but needs all new interior and needs a few new panels welded in due to cancer. Other than rust, the body is straight. Eventually, it'll be the family car. I have to get that going before my husband and I have kids because a 2 door isn't practical for a baby seat.

Someday I'll have a car that has a radiator- I really like Volvo Amazons. I had a 65, but had to sell it before I ever got it driveable. I've gotten so stuck on vintage that I don't see myself ever driving anything newer than 66 or 67 again.

I'm rambling a bit now, but I can really get going about my cars.

[thehaters714]

I have a buddy who is into the Corvairs...He has one of the rampside pickups, its a head turner. He had a fucked up body for a van also, but it was a lost cause (rust/cancer city). The Lakewood wagons are a real find. Good luck with that! Personally, I'm not a fan of Corvair engines. Kinda like a VW or something. Hard to squeeze a lot of HP out of those too. Do you have one of their turbo engines?

Love the AMC Marlin! They made some quirky vehicles...Gremlin anyone? 1968 AMX is my dream car.

Yeah I would love to get the Willys on the road. Trying to find the time/motivation to work on it is hard as hell. Its just sitting in the garage, neglected. :( My brother is trying to convince me to rat rod it out. I can't see that happening.

I could literally go on for hours about this. Sorry.

[Cory Burn]

Corvairs start on fire. I know I've been in one when it happened. But fuck are they fun to drive. I don't know exacly what it was but I thought it was a Spider. The AMX was one of the meanest cars in muscle car history period.

[Cory Burn]

let me try this out: a pic of the Buick wagon my minichopper and my beat to shit work truck.

[RattyAirSixQueen]

let me try this out: a pic of the Buick wagon my minichopper and my beat to shit work truck.

I've got a lot of love for old wagons. I hope you get that boat on the road again. Good shit. Wagons have become pretty rare because nobody gave 2 shits about them for a long, long time. I hope you do build a sleeper out of it(I think you mentioned that in an earlier post?).

As for fires with Corvairs- just make sure your carbs don't leak. Fuel leaks are teh suxxorz!

I don't have any Spyder motors- but I've got a 140hp in my 63 right now. It's been bored and compression bumped with a Isky270 cam- so it's got some guts.

I've got to say though, whatever any Corvair lacks in hp, it makes up for in torque. And when you've got a car that was just under 2300 lbs off the showroom floor, you don't need a ton of hp. Plus, all the weight is over the drive wheels, so it grabs like a motherfucker- and even with that there's still enough balls to spin the tires.

Oh, also- like VW motor? Yes. Like a Porsche motor? Definately.

And as always, it depends on what you do to your motors. Look up VW drag racing on Youtube- you'll see all kinds of drags where the beetles took it up against Chevy big blocks, etc. Good shit.

I ramble waaaayyyyy too much on this shit. Sorry.

[RattyAirSixQueen]

let me try this out: a pic of the Buick wagon my minichopper and my beat to shit work truck.Did you build that mini chopper? What motor is in that?

[Cory Burn]

Did you build that mini chopper? What motor is in that?


Nah I bought it. It was moldering away in a biker shop. I had seen it sitting there over the years. Originally they wanted $3500 then about a year later still sitting it said $2500 I bought it probably a year later for $1000. It is bad ass

All almunium(sp) frame custom built at Acme Choppers florida. Custom front rim Custom paint, fenders, gastank and drag bars. The Crowning touch is the Motor its a 235cc V-twin Briggs&Stratton Vanguard. This fucker flies I've had it up to 70mph but I don't see any reason(besides extreme danger) that it couldn't hit 85+mph. it's rigid and very close to the ground trust me when I say that 70 felt more like 180 when your riding it.


Ps. sidenote on the Buick it's a late in the year model most of which were sold with giant glass bubble tops mine is 1 out of 1237 made this way with out the glass top and although it's not "valuable" in a collectors sense it is very rare. I've only seen two of them before one out of state online and the other at a carshow and I've been going to car shows since I was born basically.

[RattyAirSixQueen]

I was thinking it looked like a Briggs & Stratton- but I didn't say it because want to look stupid if I was wrong, lol.

As for the Buick- all the more reason to keep it and build it. I like rarities. None of my cars would be worth over $15000 if they were in tits shape, but I like them all the same. I like the fact that they're funky and not something you see every day- or even at most car shows- so I know what you mean.

[rat]

i´ve owned about 60 cars, some old some a bit newer.

and of course i´ve got way too many projects.

project number one is an old 105e ford anglia. right now it has a 1500 gt engine from a mk1 cortina. of course it isn´t all original. that´s not my style. right now i´m fixing up the interior, trunk and engine compartment. shitty work! after that i´ll uppgrade the brakes.

if all goes according to plans it will be ready by late summer 2009.
the plans are: rollcage, sportseats, front brakes and stuts from a mk2 cortina. willwood discrbakes in the back and so on

project number two is a opel olympia 1969. theres no engine or gearbox for the moment. comming up. bmw in-line six with a side mounted tubo and a narrowed rear axle and slicks. but thats a project for the future.

daily driver: ford escort mk1 1970. 1300 crossflow engine. lowered and some oz split wheels.

hopefully one of my friends will buy it this week so i can buy a chevy nova 65:)

and of course i´ve got this beauty:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsehE0IFR94

the texts are in swedish and theres some terrible music in the background (my friend fixed the car up and then i bought it last fall and its his music taste)

you gotta check out that video! :D

[RattyAirSixQueen]

That video is cool. I like cars with original patina as long as serious rust is removed(which they seem to have done). What is it again? It looks similar to a Volvo PV series car.

I just looked up the Ford Anglia- it must've been a Europe only car- I've never seen one in the US. Very neat looking little thing. My dad had a Cortina when I was a kid, so I know what you're talking about there. They were great little rally cars. Are the parts easily interchangable with the Anglia?

[rat]

that´s a russian car, called pobeada (means victory in english). a lot of parts are copys of 40´s american ford. unfotinently i´m having trouble with the cooling system right now but i´m on it, should be fixed before summer:)

here´s a couple of pictures of the anglia:

http://www.pixbox.se/pic_show_id13712460.html

http://www.pixbox.se/pic_show_id13712462.html

http://www.pixbox.se/pic_show_id13712463.html

http://www.pixbox.se/pic_show_id13712464.html

it doesn´t look like this for the moment. the engine is fixed and now i´m working on the interior.

i belive this model is quite rare in the us but the older anglias (the good old gasser model) chould be easier to find.

the engine is bolt on and so are the stuts except for the steering arms gear ratio. but that´s not a problem. time and money is the biggest issue right now, as allways..

[No Cash]

my friend has a twin turbo 300zx. hes taking the motor out some time soon (i think this weekend). im sure picture will be taken. i'll post em up for you peeps to see.

[RattyAirSixQueen]

I have a buddy who is into the Corvairs...He has one of the rampside pickups, its a head turner. He had a fucked up body for a van also, but it was a lost cause (rust/cancer city). The Lakewood wagons are a real find. Good luck with that! Personally, I'm not a fan of Corvair engines. Kinda like a VW or something. Hard to squeeze a lot of HP out of those too. Do you have one of their turbo engines?

Love the AMC Marlin! They made some quirky vehicles...Gremlin anyone? 1968 AMX is my dream car.

Yeah I would love to get the Willys on the road. Trying to find the time/motivation to work on it is hard as hell. Its just sitting in the garage, neglected. :( My brother is trying to convince me to rat rod it out. I can't see that happening.

I could literally go on for hours about this. Sorry.How did I miss this post?

Anyway, rampsides are fucking killer- I'm hoping to eventually add one to my collection.

As for the engines, they're really not that bad. 110hp is pretty good when the car only weighs 2,300 lbs to begin with- and they have torque for days. Opposing air-cooled motors actually do pretty well if configured right. It helps that my husband is an air-cooled engine builder. He blue-prints all of his motors to have a nice balance of power and reliability. He's a VW guy, and we take his motors on long road trips all the time, and keep up with freeway traffic pretty well- it'll cruise 80-90 all day.

Corvairs will do better than that if you've got a tall enough rear-end that you're not over-revving them. Corvairs are really quite addictive once you get into them- though there are some water boxes I wouldn't mind owning. A Willy's would be on that list, and I also really like Volvo Amazons.

You really should get that thing going- ratty or not. That's definately a worthy project. If nothing else, just get it running and drive it with the original putina.

[jonhomeowner]

my friend has a twin turbo 300zx. hes taking the motor out some time soon (i think this weekend). im sure picture will be taken. i'll post em up for you peeps to see.
This is the first post of yours I've ever liked.

[Moxie1]

Let see for me I have the following that I either have on the road or in long term storage,

1964 1/2 Ford Mustang its the #50 Mustang ever build in storage.

1942 Ford Script MB WWII Vet with the 8th Air Force on the road

1945 Willy WC50 WWII Vet 3rd Army in storage

1970 Ford Mustang Fastback with a 401 in it on the road

1927 Model T under restoration

1936 Ford Rumbler in storage

1944 Grumman/Willys/Tucker DUWK in storage

[RattyAirSixQueen]

Let see for me I have the following that I either have on the road or in long term storage,

1964 1/2 Ford Mustang its the #50 Mustang ever build in storage.

1942 Ford Script MB WWII Vet with the 8th Air Force on the road

1945 Willy WC50 WWII Vet 3rd Army in storage

1970 Ford Mustang Fastback with a 401 in it on the road

1927 Model T under restoration

1936 Ford Rumbler in storage

1944 Grumman/Willys/Tucker DUWK in storage
It sounds like you're a Ford man- I don't know if we can be friends. lol

...but seriously, nice collection. Some of my friends have some WW2 vehicles, but I have nearly enough income to support a collection that includes antiques like those. Everything my husband and I have is early to mid 60s with the exception of the oval window beetle we just got- a 57 ragtop.

[jonhomeowner]

You car people can maybe appreciate this macro (a lot of people don't get it!):

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e109/pocketthesaurus/owned/oldschoolfail.jpg

[Moxie1]

You car people can maybe appreciate this macro (a lot of people don't get it!):

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e109/pocketthesaurus/owned/oldschoolfail.jpg

Cool ad Jon and yes I get the joke I know a guy in Nashua NH who is restoring four Edsel.

[Jersey Jake]

I have finally finished completely rebuilding my engine and boring it out now im working on the body and electrical in the dash. oh its a 65 T-bird


I wanted an old muscele car when I was younger and gas was 99 cents a gallon. Now It' just be too pricey to keep on the road. 1970 camaro was the goal.


Now I just got an old bike I work on.

[rat]

hey try to guess how expensive the gas is over here?!

1,55 euro / litre

i think 4 litres is about one gallon = 6 euro a gallon = 9 us dollars approx:eek:

[jonhomeowner]

hey try to guess how expensive the gas is over here?!

1,55 euro / litre

i think 4 litres is about one gallon = 6 euro a gallon = 9 us dollars approx:eek:
Neat. As stated before, you guys drive less.

[Jersey Jake]

hey try to guess how expensive the gas is over here?!

1,55 euro / litre

i think 4 litres is about one gallon = 6 euro a gallon = 9 us dollars approx:eek:

just about 4 USD at the pump now. not ridiculous, but you can't have a car with a 5+ liter engine with those prices.

[RattyAirSixQueen]

just about 4 USD at the pump now. not ridiculous, but you can't have a car with a 5+ liter engine with those prices.

It's amazing how fast the prices are climbing. Already about $4.70 for regular here. 3 weeks, and the average has climbed that much- freaking horrible.

Luckily the hotrodded corvairs still get about 17-20, and if you set everything up for economy, you can get up 27-29. Even an economy set up has enough power and speed to keep up with todays traffic. I'm pretty stoked on that at least.

[RuthlessNate]

I was always jealous of my sister's '63 Corvair Monza Coupe, until she wrecked it and we couldn't afford to redo the front end. Unfortunately, I don't have any classics of my own (I drive an '07 Dodge Caliber), but my grandfather has a 1950 Pontiac Cheiftain that he's had in his garage for 21 years and has been meaning to restore. That car will eventually fall into my father's or my hands, most likely my fathers. But man, I'd drive that tank everywhere if I had it, despite my desire to lower my carbon footprint.

More than anything, I want a 1957 Chevy Bel-Air two-door hard top. Perferably black with red interior or baby blue with white interior. And I'd want that thing stock.

[RattyAirSixQueen]

I was always jealous of my sister's '63 Corvair Monza Coupe, until she wrecked it and we couldn't afford to redo the front end. Unfortunately, I don't have any classics of my own (I drive an '07 Dodge Caliber), but my grandfather has a 1950 Pontiac Cheiftain that he's had in his garage for 21 years and has been meaning to restore. That car will eventually fall into my father's or my hands, most likely my fathers. But man, I'd drive that tank everywhere if I had it, despite my desire to lower my carbon footprint.

More than anything, I want a 1957 Chevy Bel-Air two-door hard top. Perferably black with red interior or baby blue with white interior. And I'd want that thing stock.

Man, a 57 Bel Air 2 dr hardtop is what got me interested in classic cars waaayy back when I was 6 years old. It was red and white exterior, with red and black interior. Fucking gorgeous restoration. After riding in that car as a kid I always wanted (specificly one like it) a classic of my own. My dad always drove classic cars & trucks when I was a kid, so there was that influence too- but nothing he had was restored.

[RuthlessNate]

Man, a 57 Bel Air 2 dr hardtop is what got me interested in classic cars waaayy back when I was 6 years old. It was red and white exterior, with red and black interior. Fucking gorgeous restoration. After riding in that car as a kid I always wanted (specificly one like it) a classic of my own. My dad always drove classic cars & trucks when I was a kid, so there was that influence too- but nothing he had was restored.

Yeah, my grandfather ran an auto shop up until six or seven years ago. He still works at another one, but he doesn't own it. His love of classic cars went along with my father's (though this is my maternal grandfather) and my sister and I got caught up in it. My grandfather has done a lot of restoration work on a lot of cars. He's really getting serious about this '50 Cheiftain, finally, after twenty-one years. I'm excited to see that tank cruising down the road.

[Slipshod]

I've got a Half Brown/ half primer gray 1975 Duster, Got it running bout 1-2 months ago, Only cost me 100 dollers. Got a lot of plans for it, Full roll cage, headers...Gonna do A all black look , with flat black stripes, Flat black hood, Flat Black rims, The interior is currently tan, which I'll replacing with black also, Will post a pic of it in a week, with it starting up...It emits a huge amount of smoke, so I got alot of under the hood work to do.

[Aero Autisim]

some guy on my street is doing some crazy work on this rat rod he has, chopping it up, welding, and painting. it's not done but it looks really awesome, i heard it running once and it was fucking loud.

i think i'll ask him if i can take pictures in a week or two cause i've actually been into photography recently. if i do, i'll put them up.

right now i drive a rusted white 1985 ford work van that gets horrible gas mileage, and sounds like a freight train. not exactly something you make a project.

[Slipshod]

Just got done doing some of the Interior side panel's...Redoing the whole interior... I was amazed by the result's. Did the panels black, they were originaly tan...Now they look Brand new..Looks wicked, Will have pics up soon.