Another straggler followed me home!

moparmat2000 · Dec 16, 2018

Looks to be only minor rot. Pretty typical spots, easily fixed.

gdrill · Dec 16, 2018

Yes it is very minor. The fact is, two owners ago, the guy did his own repairs. Good on him for having the ambition to do it. But, he only built exterior patches. The trunk extensions, really aren't too bad, but he did not repair them. The rockers, are a little more involved, but they are repairable. They need a few hours of work and they will be fine. Along with those repairs this car basically needs lower quarter patches in front and behind the wheelhouses and the back end will be great.

Dartnut · Dec 16, 2018

moparmat2000 said:
Very few performance models here in west Texas. This was/is truck country. Anything that was performance oriented here back in the day usually ended up getting used up and destroyed on the dirt track. A lot of the classic stuff i see now on cruise nights or at car shows is probably bought from somewhere else and brought here. Takes forever to piece together anything good out here. Its pretty awesome the stuff your finding up there. I mean a 74 duster 360 4 speed 8.25 sure grip car. That would have been long dead used up on our local dirt circle track circa 1984 and sent to the scrapper as a beat to **** shell with a booger welded well pipe casing roll cage, pipe bumpers, and hacked out wheel wells.

Now you can barely find any GM G bodies out here. Every cutlass, grand prix, regal, and monte carlo it seems ended up there, all of em with a riveted on plastic monte SS nose from speedway motors (how original). My brother flew out to visit, we went to the wrecking yard to get parts for an 87 monte SS he was restoring, couldent find anything, and there were a couple used up dirt track montes in the junkyard, i think i saw him shed a tear over that one.

This is the sad reality that a lot of good cars faced.
In our area, (Western Canada) it's no different.
The odd one was spared the circle track fate or the demo derby fate.
Some were used up as parts cars long ago, and some made it to drag race.
At least the drag race cars had a chance at surviving, on a demo derby or circle track, their fate was sealed.
And the very few left these days are either drivers, show cars, survivors or project cars.
Find 'em and save 'em if you can is the way we do it these days............

moparmat2000 · Dec 16, 2018

Most of what we got here are slant sux A body cars. Nary a B or E body project car either.

sireland67 · Dec 16, 2018

Same here no A or B bodies, I seem to find a lot of E bodies still in decent shape.

moparmat2000 · Dec 16, 2018

Of course w slant sux cars your only buying the body anyways unless its a 74 up and your getting disc brakes, but if not M body brakes work.

75slant6 · Dec 17, 2018

I wish I had your motivation! Good job saving cars!

gdrill · Dec 17, 2018

Thank you Sir. I do enjoy reviving these old girls. I also kind of think we are the last of the ones who will be doing it for the most part. The next gen is moving onto their favorite body / style that intrigues them. Much like the 32 Ford, the tastes and styles change with time.

75slant6 · Dec 17, 2018

gdrill said:
Thank you Sir. I do enjoy reviving these old girls. I also kind of think we are the last of the ones who will be doing it for the most part. The next gen is moving onto their favorite body / style that intrigues them. Much like the 32 Ford, the tastes and styles change with time.

Well, even if we are the last ones who will be fixing these up, they’ll still be getting fixed for a long time. I’m 24, so if I live till 75, at least a few will be getting fixed for another 50 years!
:steering:

gdrill · Dec 17, 2018

Well my friend, that I'm glad to hear! You are what we need. Many people your age don't have an interest in these cars. Fully understandable. But you will help to ensure that future generations see and appreciate them. Thanks for that.

moparmat2000 · Dec 17, 2018

My son is only 6 but has an interest in this stuff, so maybe it will carry on even further than that. We built our first model car together the other day. 1970 chevelle snap together. He loved it, wants to do another one. Maybe i will stop at hobby lobby and pick up another as a Christmas gift. They had a cool split window 63 vette. Not much in the way of mopar snap kits though :-(

moparmat2000 · Dec 17, 2018

He told his mom that he is going to fix cars when he grows up.

moparmat2000 · Dec 17, 2018

Muscle cars will never go out of style. Universal appeal across the ages. Thats why they are making new ones that look similar to the old ones, with even more horsepower and better street manners. Theres still young people out there tinkering with 30s, 40s, and 50s stuff that was built before their parents were even born. This old stuff is simple to work on and simple to understand, that is a big key to its universal appeal.

gdrill · Dec 18, 2018

Matt, I'm glad he has interest. Hopefully it doesn't fade away to other things! OK, girls can work well with cars!
I tugged another straggler home.......ya, I'm ill. It is a 67 Newport. Didn't run but it does now and quite nicely! It is a 383 auto, console car. A little bondo-ed up rust and a crappy vinyl top, but a good cruiser. I have a buddy who want's to buy it so it will move on quickly.

Here is a video of it when I first fired it up.........

moparmat2000 · Dec 18, 2018

I would drive that. Sportsroof newport, automatic console car 383.

gdrill · Jan 5, 2019

And another straggler found a new home. A guy drove from Calgary last week to see the Swinger. He bought it before he left. I delivered it to him today. It sounds like the plan will be 5.7ltr Hemi and a 42r. He didn't want the bench seat as he plans on modern comfortable buckets. I think the Swinger is getting updated! I love giving these old girls a new lease on life.
:thumbsup:

R4Sedan · Jan 5, 2019

Nice. Man every time you do that it's chilly there. lol

gdrill · Jan 5, 2019

LOL, it is Canada! 3deg C is pretty good for January though! And notice the lack of snow.

I forgot to mention. On this trip I met the new owner of my old Scamp "Rex". He acquired him a month or two ago and we have been chatting since. I still had the original 318 under my bench so I delivered it to him to have. He is going to do a little bit of work to it and reinstall it between the inners!
Here is a current pick of Rex, he looks just as happy as the last time I saw him!

Dartnut · Jan 6, 2019

Awesome stuff, George!
And it's good to see ol' Rex is in good hands..............

gdrill · Jan 6, 2019

Dartnut said:
Awesome stuff, George!
And it's good to see ol' Rex is in good hands..............

Yes, Rex ended up with a great guy. He is already playing with things. First will be a 4bbl and some gears in the diff to spice it up a bit. Then next year he plans on building up some form of engine. Probably 350ish HP. Nothing crazy, just fun.

gdrill · Jan 11, 2019

So with the 69 down the road, it was time to take on a bigger necessity. This 70 RT came to me in a trade a while back. It's a cool Challenger, and it's a purple one. But it has rust issues. The overall typical Challenger rust is average if not below. But the worst parts are the frame rails. The front rail ends at the T-bar cross-member were shot from the rusted cross-member. Not any more.

gdrill · Jan 11, 2019

Then it was onto the rear passenger side. It had damage at the drop down curve at the front. I had a parts shell that donated the T-bar cross-member and this section of rail.The back ends still have swelling, but I likely will leave that for the next owner.

gdrill · Jan 12, 2019

Whoever had the car before me had installed a 440 / 4 speed. Installed is a generous term. They hacked a huge hole into the frame to mount the ball stud. I cleaned that up and repaired the damage. I didn't get a before pic, but this is the chunk I cut out. I also repaired a hole in the roof from the vinyl top.

gdrill · Oct 5, 2019

Been a long time since I've posted here. All my 69’s are gone. The 70 Challenger RT went to Quebec. A father and son drove across the country for it. The 76 W300 went to Nova Scotia. The 74 360 Duster came and went, with a lot of driving in between. I have been informed it now has Jet Black paint. Now I just picked up a 78 Ramcharger SE. Too good to pass up. I will be doing work to it, but I'm not home much so it will be drug out for a while. It needs front floor touch ups, quarter / wheel arch work, a hole in the roof repaired and a good clean up. It is basically complete. Hopefully the engine turns over. Looks like it may have been hot. I have not dug too deep into yet, that will be tomorrow. I did discover most if not all of the missing trim inside. Oh, and if you didn't notice, it is Green all over.