Gearheads

[RedMaw]

Count me in, I love to look at stuff I can't even hope to afford lol. Haven't had the time to watch any top gear yet; probably will get around to it after my PC is stable again.

[Jamie]

Originally Posted by Lanxdata

In the furture Im planning to do a full restoration of a 1970 Mustang Fastback from the ground up. I have the bare bones chassis sitting up a my grandfathers house right now. I know I will be able to handle mostly everything that it involves. Though I have no idea how long something like this would take. Has anyone done something of the sort? Any major hangups you encountered while in the restoration process?

Yeah, I've spent plenty of time restoring a few cars. In the long run how "perfect" you want it to be to original will determine how much money you spend. And the big hang up, the things that will take the longest are rust repair, paint and body work and running down the rare and hard to get original parts that are not reproduced.

Rust repair can be as simple as grinding off simple surface rust to as extensive as complete panel replacement. Bolt on things like hoods, fenders and doors and such aren't too bad, but things like floor & trunk pans, quarter panels and various other patch work is much more extensive. And if there's not reproduction patch panels or full panels available you will either need to make the pieces your self or find another car where the piece you need is in better condition. But you shouldn't have much worry of that. You said a '70 Mustang, should be almost any thing and every thing you need available as a reproduction piece.

The paint & body work just takes time. The rougher the body the more time it will take. But the more time you take on doing the body and paint work the better it'll come on. It takes the most patience of any thing when it comes to working on cars. Impatience here will do you so much harm you will hate yourself for not taking your time. Because the first thing that anyone sees when they see your car for the first time is the paint and body. And the last thing you want your car to do is wave hello to every one with it's body work.

And as for the hard to get parts, there's a few routes. Maybe you will find a NOS (new old stock) part. That's a part that was made at the same time the car was and was meant to be a factory replacement part. Then there are people who sell original parts off of other cars. And you will find them plenty of places. From car show swap meets to online auctions to who knows. But again, you said a '70 Mustang, you shouldn't have to much trouble with this.

Now, if you've never done this kind of work it is going to be a learning experience. And a lot of fun if you let it be. It can take years to restore a car depending on how bad the starting point is and how far down you want to take it. If you want to do a "frame off" restoration it will take a looong time. That's the kind of thing where you will go over every single nut and bolt taking the car apart and restoring it as you put it back together. A typical "frame on" restoration typically start off with a car that is either running and driving or almost doing so. It involves going over every thing on the car and making it a good bit better than it was. Such as maybe the chrome needed to be replated, the interior reupholstered and the engine just needs sprucing up and the such. But you said you were starting with a "bare bones chassis" so you do have a lot of work ahead of you. I don't know how much of the car you have. But if all you have is the chassis then have a lot of parts to chase down.

Either way, if you take your time and put everything you have into it, you will love the result.

[Lan]

Wow thanks for in depth reply!

As for the parts I have.. Frame w/o axles and suspension ( had to junk them. they were completely ruined beyond any kind of repair), A working engine ( 351ci /300hp ) / no tranny, and the body ( w/ only minor rust ). So I have a big list of parts to get.

[Jamie]

Originally Posted by Lanxdata

Wow thanks for in depth reply!

No problem. I live for cars, so I can talk about them at ease for days.

[Lan]

What have you done resto wise?

[Jamie]

Originally Posted by Lanxdata

What have you done resto wise?

Well, I learned to work on cars on a '57 210 Chevy 2dr sedan. For those that don't know what a '57 210 Chevy is, it's a a BelAir but a lower trim model. It's the middle of 3 possible choices you had in 1957, 150 being the lowest and BelAir being the highest. Though you could get the same options on all 3 except the Nomad and Convertible bodies were limited to the BelAir trim.

I've done just about anything and everything that needs to be done on a frame off resto on that car. Egine & trans rebuild, rust repair, reupholstery, body work, trim work, suspensions work and on and on. It's all simple and fun stuff and it really doesn't vary too much from one car to the next. Sure each car has it's specifics, but for the most part you are still working on a 4 wheeled, engine powered vehicle.

I've also gone through a '55 BelAir Chevy 4dr seadan. And I've been going through my '56 Belair Chevy 4dr sedan off and on for a few years now. But unlike the '55 and '57 the '56 is goping to be a hot rod. I'm planning air ride suspension, a blown small block chevy running multiple carbs, hopefully 8 singlae barrels for that nostalgia look and feel. A basic tuck and roll interior and the same red & white exterior paint but with a little pinstriping here and there. As far as the transmission, I'm not sure. I want it to be a bitchin' cruiser but I also want to drive the hell out of it. So I don't know if I'm going to go with a manual or auto yet. I've also got the wheels and tires figured out, mostly. I'm going with Radir 5 spokes front and rear, wider in the rear. The tires will be radial white walls and the rear will hopfully be cheater slick whitewalls.

And I'm just about always having to do some kind of resto work on my '67 rs Camaro 'Vert since I drive it on a normal basis and things do break on it since a lot of it is still original parts (after 43 years of being on the road what do you expect?). Such as the driver's door latch broke about two weeks ago. So I've got to get a replacement and while I'm at it I'm going to replace all the door opening components from the latch all the way to the interior door opening mechanism. And man it broke at an annoying time too. Broke when I tried to get out of the car at Sonics to throw my trash away. if you've ever had a car door that wouldn't open and had to climb over to the other seat to get out, you know how much of a PITA it is.

By the way for any one that's in the US, am I the only one that enjoys Spike TV's Power Block? All four shows too, Horse Power TV, Muscle Car, Trucks! and Xtreme 4x4. If you haven't heard of these show they are how to shows that also do some show and event coverage. They come on just about every Saturday at 11am and run until 1pm east coast US time. They also come on Sunday but it's just Saturday's episodes re-aired.

Here's the site for the shows: PowerblockTV

[KnoxSe7eN]

So whats the fastest car you all have been in?

For me it would be a 600+ wheel horsepower Mustang Cobra. That thing was quick ^_^

[KiraRin]

My friend has a TVR Cerbera. Ugly as sin, but quick as hell. It costs £2000 per regular service at the TVR garage, and it overheats like a bitch if not moving. We were sat at some traffic lights once, and steam started coming through the handbrake >.<

H.

[Jamie]

A '79 Camaro.

Doesn't sound like much, but it hasn't been street legal in years. Makes only around 750HP at the crank but it only weighs 2,300lbs. Runs a 468 big block Chevy backed by a race built powerglide trans. And you know what they say about the powerglide, it's got two speeds, fast and faster. Every body panel that bolts to the main body shell is fiber glass. The entire front clip, doors, deck lid and rear bumper are fiberglass. All the glass except the back glass is Plexiglas. The interior is striped and lined with sheet aluminum. Full 8-point roll cage, tubbed rear chassis and tubular front chassis.

Runs the 1/8 mile on average in the 5.40's@132mph range. The 1/4 on average in the 8.80's@165mph range.

And what, Kira, don't like the cars that break down consistently and have a high chance of killing you? I mean, that is what all TVRs are. It's why I like'em so much.

On a side note, this past weekend I started working on my nitro RC car again. Been awhile, and it stares me in the face every time I walk up the stairs. It's a HPI RS4 Racer 2 with an O.S. Engines RX .15. I built it to be as light as possible, so no pull start. Now it's just down to getting the battery charged for the chassis bump starter. My friend with the equipment that'll charge it is getting up with me after he gets off of work. So hopefully by this coming weekend I'll be hearing 33,000RPMs and smelling burnt nitro-methane.

[KnoxSe7eN]

Originally Posted by CMC

Runs a 468 big block Chevy

Nothing like a big block for torque.

As the saying goes "horsepower sells cars, torque wins races"