Improvements On A Classic Car

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Cope said:
Taking a car all apart is the single biggest mistake a person can make.

I see it all the time and I often tell people DO NOT TAKE THE CAR APART, work on the small stuff and drive it for a year.
Almost no one has the time, money, space or skill to full take a car apart and re build it. The thing is, some folks have the time, other have the space, some have the cash. That wont cut it. You need to have all 4 or you will regret it.

In my opinion two of the best thing you can do is disk breaks and new bushings. Its much more fun to drive a car that is safe.
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What I did with my 66. I made it start, go, and stop before I brought it home. I have been driving it ever since. There have been some rebuilding like the engine and interior. It needs paint but I don't have a place or the energy to take it apart. I'll let the next guy do that. It's still a fun car.
 
The absolute BEST thing you can do is be honest.

Honest about your budget.

Honest about the way you will use the car.

Be honest to your self.

A 300 HP small tire car is WAY more fun to drive that a 600HP big tire car.


If you cant afford it or heck. You MAY NOT EVEN WANT it. I wanted a race car. I built a race car. I realised I dont like driving a race car on the street.

Oops.
 
Cope said:
The absolute BEST thing you can do is be honest.

Honest about your budget.

Honest about the way you will use the car.

Be honest to your self.

A 300 HP small tire car is WAY more fun to drive that a 600HP big tire car.


If you cant afford it or heck. You MAY NOT EVEN WANT it. I wanted a race car. I built a race car. I realised I dont like driving a race car on the street.

Oops.
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It is so easy to overbuild especially a powerplant. I see it here all the time.
 
Cope said:
The absolute BEST thing you can do is be honest.

Honest about your budget.

Honest about the way you will use the car.

Be honest to your self.

A 300 HP small tire car is WAY more fun to drive that a 600HP big tire car.


If you cant afford it or heck. You MAY NOT EVEN WANT it. I wanted a race car. I built a race car. I realised I dont like driving a race car on the street.

Oops.
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That is excellent advice ^^^^^^ right there.
Be realistic about what you want and can afford, does it need to be daily driver reliable or is it a weekend cruiser. Are you prepared to have to spend hours working on it for every few hours of driving? More importantly what is your own skill set, friends might be more than happy to help you in the early stages, but not many are going to want to be on call every time you need help. I know a few people who have some badass cars but they barely know where to check the oil. Always relying on someone else who has the knowledge and expertise to fix whatever is needed. It gets real old, real fast.
 
Cope said:
The absolute BEST thing you can do is be honest.

Honest about your budget.

Honest about the way you will use the car.

Be honest to your self.

A 300 HP small tire car is WAY more fun to drive that a 600HP big tire car.


If you cant afford it or heck. You MAY NOT EVEN WANT it. I wanted a race car. I built a race car. I realised I dont like driving a race car on the street.

Oops.
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Yup. That's why I am where I am with Vixen and only why. I could have blown it all apart when I first got it, but I actually sat down and thought about it. Now, three years later, she's still runnin and drivin. Had I done it differently, I wouldda lost interest and given her away by now.
 
I wish I would have started from scratch with a new wiring harness instead of chasing the occasional gremlin for 12 years and then installing one. Next car it will be one of the first things on the list.
 
Heck, I thought I was pooping in really tall cotton when I replaced that head pipe leaking at the manifold. Passed out trying to tune it. Its just an AMC Hornet. Mother Mopar's illegidament (OK so I can spell and spell check can't either) stepchild.
 
Cope said:
Taking a car all apart is the single biggest mistake a person can make.

I see it all the time and I often tell people DO NOT TAKE THE CAR APART, work on the small stuff and drive it for a year.
.
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Now you tell me :lol::lol::lol::lol:
 
Cope said:
Im sure you will be just fine. Im much more concerned about your barefoot welding....

:lol:
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As a long time thermo molecular fusion specialist I have solved the eternal quandary of welding barefoot in the heat of summer. See below pix for the proper PPE.

AF303E70-4ED4-425B-A524-15C3FD8050A6.jpeg
 
I have concluded there are no easy fix and go anything with a 50 plus year old car. They are all junk and they were all mostly discarded back in the 80s for good reason.

Anyone who thinks they are going to buy an old car that has been probably been discarded multiple times through its life, and just going to bolt some bullshit on it and be happy on the road with unlimited power and reliability.... is just foolish.

Unless you pay a lot and get something that someone else has already put considerable wrench time into, then maybe.

This bullshit about digging a car out of a barn and driving it like a new car an afternoon later is
... well, bullshit.

Even I bought a car from Arizona and the car is pretty much rust free, not many issues and then I get under it and the freaking torsion bar cross member is rotted.
I don't blame the seller nor any previous owner, that rust probably started before me and the seller were born. That's just life and that's the kind of stuff that you are bound to run into while living in this world where everything is going to decay and die sooner or later.

I'm going to fix it because I'm sick in the head and I am bound and determined to fix. Plus, I think I enjoy working on them more than having a finished car. The last car I finished got really boring, so it ended up getting sold and I used the money and bought 4 more **** boxes that need everything and I'm having a blast with the **** boxes.
 
Sublime one said:
As a long time thermo molecular fusion specialist I have solved the eternal quandary of welding barefoot in the heat of summer. See below pix for the proper PPE.

View attachment 1715868654
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Now that made me laugh.

I have been wearing these cheap saftie shoes that i saw on u tube. You know the ones where the guy stomps on the nails and cuts em with a cut off wheel?

Well any ways. They are good. I like em, BUT..... the dam fire goes RIGHT threw them like they dont exist. The day I took this pic i cant remember what I was working on (a jeep i think) and it was just spitting hot fire every where. My feet kept getting burned so......


:rofl:


That seriously made me laugh. I sent you pic to my pops and now he is laughing his *** off as well.

Thank you for that!
 
Cope said:
Oh, i am familiar.


View attachment 1715868655


:rofl:
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LMAO I knew we were kindred spirits! OMG that is funny. As a welder summer times can be brutal. At least up here in the Dakotas summer is only about two weeks. I am indoors for hopefully sixty more days doing a bunch of SST purge welding on tube. Until it is time to move rail cars then I become the heavy equipment operator! Here is pix of two fermentation tanks I am welding up for. Hundred thousand pound tanks ninety ft tall using a 500 ton crane at night in the rain, what could possibly go wrong?

85607F01-14C5-4694-8DB0-A715A9198285.jpeg


4F68C50C-03B0-4976-984C-6A6CC3C78DDD.jpeg


55275F91-25C5-45EB-9ACB-0C1DACDFB833.jpeg
 
A nice hidden sound system Nothing to crazy but I like music. Add a 4 or 5 speed. Maybe change the wheels and put in factory bucket seats.

20180707_160743 (1).jpg
 
thesiren74 said:
Overdrive would nice.
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It is.
My Charger has 3.55 gears and 28" rear tires. It didn't scream at 75 but it was humming along at 3000 rpms. After swapping to the Tremec 5 speed, that dropped to 2000 rpms. What a huge difference in how the car feels. It is quieter, smoother, it feels far more livable. I don't know the difference in fuel economy but it should have improved by some amount. The final drive in OD for me is 2.27.
I had a Gear Vendors with a 727 for awhile. Axle gearing was 3.91 then so the final was 3.05. Even that was a huge change.
 
We have a local Mopar hot rod shop where the guys involved only work on cars they like. When somebody comes in wanting serious horsepower increases the first thing they tell them is they need a good set of front disc brakes and premium rebuild on the back drums (or discs back there too). They get asked if this will make the car go faster and they say no, but we won't make the car go faster without good brakes...

It is flat out amazing how much difference even a stock front sway bar will make.
 
missing linc said:
Modern brakes, first thing that must go is the single pot master cylinder, disc brakes are a big plus, but may not be an absolute must unless the intention is to significantly increase the power. Improving the handling should be high priority as well. Further down the list is creature comforts like a/c and cruise, but good seats are important for me. Overdrive trans is a good plan, you're already on that road Rob.
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Man, after my 4.0 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo got totalled last Christmas, I got a 07 Dak Slt. . Worse damn seats... oh except for the rental Bowtie truck the ins got me.. after 11 days ( piss on progressive )
 
Big_John said:
The biggest issue I've seen with cars is people making huge projects out of them. They need to sit back a little and take the car out, even if it's not "perfect", and enjoy it.

I've set myself a rule. Anything that I do to my car is going to have a time limit to how long it's going to sit around and not be drivable. Most of that time, I keep my down time to a day or two.

Point is, too many cars sit in the garage in various states of disassembly for years, when if they set their sights just a little more realistic and didn't take on too much at once, the car could be driven and enjoyed.
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Right on Man....don't get bogged down! It's easy to do, then the fun is kinda gone...
 
I prefer the classic styling, but enjoy and feel safer with some of the more modern technology (radial tires, front disc brakes, electronic ignition, etc...).

I have a friend with a '63 Dodge 440 (383, 4-bbl, push button auto, 3.23:1 8 3/4") that refuses to update his braking system (4-wheel drums with single jug master cylinder), bias ply tires, etc... He says it was good enough in 1963, it's good enough now.
 
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