My wife and I are finally going to start getting our 2 Wildcat GS's back to their former glory. We have been working on our dragster so much that our Wildcats sit side by side in the drive. That is soon to change:3gears: . We have all the parts to bring these two cars back to what people remember and some. Work out here in the collision industry has gotten so slow, I decided to go back on my own, and stop wasting time sitting on my tool box . I would post pictures of our Wildcats but I am not to happy with their condition. I will post some picture from some years ago so some of you know what cars we are talking about.I have owned the maroon and white dual quad Wildcat GS since 87. My wife (then girlfriend) got her drivers license with it. The Convertible Wildcat GS belonged to our best man at our wedding almost 20 years ago. I got it a few years back for my wife for an anniversary gift. It was our wedding car as I had the engine out of ours waiting for a few parts (thanks Jim). Hopefully with a little push from the V8 board I will stay on track so these 2 cars will be done as soon as possible.
I forgot to mention that we are putting the convertible back to its original color,Platinum mist:TU: .
Its good to see your working on something different. Not many of those around. Look like a couple of nice cars
John you don't know me but I was at the GS Nats in 1994 and remember seeing your maroon Wildcat on the grass in the show. I remember seeing the Maine license plate? The same one in the pic you posted. I remember thinking what a long drive that must have been. Now here I am in Maine and you're in Arizona. Go figure!
Ken we have fun driving our cars to events. That's the reason we like open trailers for the dragster . Interaction with people on the journey is a big part of the fun. I put up a small piece from Tom Shaw back in 90. Dan we are always a little different:laugh:we race Nailheads on Nitro. The reason we went to the dragster to satisfy the racing bug was the damage we were doing to my Wildcat . No cage+ big car+ big torque+hard launch = warped 1/4 panels......
Love the Cats! I've been trying to buy a 66 'vert for about a year now. The owner says he wants me to have it, but I guess just not yet. It's tough building 2 at the same time. Good Luck, cant wait to see them finished :beer
Well it great to see someone build power with the nail. My dad used to take his 66 electra to the drag strip and race it. now that i have it since he passed im still scraping burnt rubber out of the wheel wells.
There's one of each of them wildcats in my yard, neither one will go anywhere soon, without tires that hold air, but there's lot of parts John, if you need any. and some nailhead stuff around too. Let me know!
Tom we did a lot of work to our block and major head work years ago. Most of what was done to the engine was misplaced or forgotten. When we put the new 401 nitro engine in our dragster, I will tear down the 425, and measure all that was done to the block and heads. I would like to copy what we did for my wife car. What ever we did to this block was/is a good combo. Before we put all these parts back in our car around 2001-2002 we had run a best: 60' - low1.9s 1/8 - 9.0s 1/8 - 78.8 mph 1/4 - 13.96 1/4 - 101 mph With all the parts together 1st pass 60' - 1.68 1/8 - 8.01 1/8 - 89.9 mph 1/4 - 13.9 1/4 - 92 mph Yes the numbers don't make much sense with all the good parts. We wiped out the converter on the first pass. We uncapped the exhaust (so you would not hear the converter noise) and made three more passes. Each one just a little slower to the 1/8 and then just lifted and drove down the track. That event we had a trailer so I figured/hoped it would hold up. It did barelyou: . When going up on the trailer it sounded like you had nuts in the converter banging around. The converter ballooned to the point of leaking... Roberta I will be organizing all our parts in the next few weeks. I will let you know. Thanks:beers2:
One hour from now I am on the road to deliver some dragsters and parts to Kansas. I will be going to Tom Hanna's shop as the highlight of my trip. Tom was the guy that hand built TV Tom's 4 engine Wagon Master:TU: and many other awesome cars of drag racing. After that its off to Denver to pick up a Wildcat parts car and extra parts I bought a few years ago. I am very thankful the guy had the space to store it for us. I will post some pictures when I return in a few days.
Would love to see the progress on photos to get the Cats back to their former condition. :kodak: :TU: :TU:
Re: Bringing back our 66 Wildcat GS's Well I made it back from another 3000 plus miles in 3-1/2 days all for the love of our cars:TU: . Here is a shot of one of the parts cars we had gotten years ago. I just now got it home. Just 2 more to go get. I am hoping to bring home the 4dr 66 Wildcat on the next return delivery run in a few weeks. Tracie it was great to get our wedding car after many years of hoping to get it one day. It will need a lot of work but it is all there and some extra's. We are trying to get our dragster together for an event this weekend and I am moving a little slow due to a few broken ribs I will try to post some current pictures of my maroon and white this week. It's snowing right now..........
Quite the photo there John :TU: Broken ribs........dang......those hurt ! Get better soon. Peace WildBill
Ok if I add this info in this thread for the fastest boats, this was with the cat right? http://v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=128608
Kimson yes that was the dual quad no option GS Cat. That is where the phrase "Not all Boats are slow Boats" came from:TU: .
Here are a few shots of the my Cat. I have another 425 dual quad coded block that we will be putting back in the empty engine bay. For the purists we have the factory block stored on a shelf in the shop:grin: . After looking over the cars my Cat will be done first as it has the least amount of work to be done. We should be able to bring it in the shop in a few weeks to begin the comeback....
OK JE: I noticed in the picture of the car with the burgundy hood. The rust seems to be a problem on these cars. Any solutions? Mitch
