Figured I would give this a whole new thread. As some of you remember, I bought this car almost exactly 2 years ago. When I got it, it a real POS with an auto on the column with a 10 bolt Chevelle rear in it. I had planned a bunch of "winter upgrades" but that turned into spring and a good part of the summer upgrades. But, its finally done. The master plan was to utilize all the parts I have scattered in the basement. What good is a complete 4 speed set up sitting on the floor? Or a 3.42 rear sitting on a dolly in the corner of my garage?? The beater was the perfect recipient. Its drivetrain was completely non original anyway so I wasn't altering an original car. So out came the engine, turbo 400 and Chevelle rear. So its now still a POS but a 4 speed with a 3.42 rear. I replaced all the rear control arm bushings in the process, boxed the rear arms and added a rear sway. I used all original parts down to an original BB fork, 5335 handle, reverse lockout and backdrive, and even installed the original speedo cable clips. You would be hard pressed to tell that it wasn't an original 4 speed car. I even went so far as to use original fasteners as new hardware would of looked out of place. I took it out for its first shake down run about 2 weeks ago. I have it pretty much dialed in now. Next up is a set of Wide Ovals I have piled up in the corner of my basement.... I love this car because I don't feel bad having it sit outside, it doesn't have to be a nice day for me to drive it and it gets more attention than my other cars at the car nights believe it or not
Did you install the speedo cable / 90* adapter on the transmission? Is your speedometer reading correctly?
No adapter, not needed. I used a 70" cable. Speedo reads correctly. You just need to install the right driven gear. My other 70 with a 3.64 gear and G60's took a speedo reducer. I installed a gray gear on that and it reads correctly without the reducer
Yes, there is a chart in the assembly manual to choose the right gear for your tire size and rear axle ratio
Do a POR restoration on it! Paint with POR then clear coat the POR, done! Or seeing how its a white car, do the one night one stage white over the POR and done! If you want to get fancy, a little bondo after the POR to fill the holes then the one night white overcoat and done! Who said restoring a car takes a lot of time and effort?
That was for if you ever get sick of the white on rust look. I like patina but not so much on a white car.
In 1991 I bought a rust free but rough multicolored (primer spots everywhere) '68 GS400 coupe. Eight or ten cans of Duplicolor 'Van Brown' (really! it was called that!) and some 'Buckskin' for the roof it was no longer calico. I parked it where ever I felt like. Some asshat keyed it once, and I was like, 'Damn, that's going to take me three or four minutes to fix!'. Ya gotta love a beater! Patrick
Its basically one of those cars that was too nice to part out but not nice enough to warrant a restoration. I want to start (or restart) new segment of the hobby- daily driver muscle cars.
