George Barris, the “King of Kustomizers” best-known today for the original Batmobile of the 1960s TV show, died Thursday at his Encino home. He was 89.
LOS ANGELES — George Barris, who created television’s original Batmobile, along with scores of other beautifully customized, instantly recognizable vehicles that helped define California car culture, has died at age 89. Barris Kustom Industries …
So after inspecting the head further, I noticed a few more reasons to have them reconditioned. Take a look:
Gonna Need some touching up.
As you can see there a lot of rust and old stuff plugging up some of the water passages.
The heads were sent out to a local machine shop run by an old hot rodder.
Here’s a quick video of the valves that were removed. You can see the build up as the oil (from the tappet hole) and the gas was continually ignited by the spark plug.
The good news the heads are back and installed. The bad news in my haste to get the car back together, I forget to get some shots of the completed heads. By the time I realized it was too late to go back.
The Cleveland is running strong, but needs a lot of work on the vacuum system and – I’m thinking of replacing the carb. Send me your on what to replace it with.
Thanks for check in on #ProjectSportsRoof. If you remember a of couple months back, shortly after bringing the ’73 Mustang home, I conducted a compression test on all.
Next up will be the install Pertronix system and cap and rotor, then plug and wires. Thanks for reading and drop me a note. Tim. #ProjectSportsRoof. projectsportsroof. 1973 Mustang Project SportsRoof – Interior Walk-Through.
Here are your Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids) for the first week of Nov. 2015. I’m going to call this Packard Week (like Shark Week only on wheels)!!! Here is why:
Starting right off on the Nov. 1st 1955 Studebaker’s Hawk showed up on the car scene.
They when on sale in 1956 and came in the Flight Hawk, Golden Hawk and Power Hawk and Sky Hawk. As you may know these were tough time for Studebaker/Packard so the Flight, Power and Sky Hawk models were only available in 1956. The power plants for these cars ranged from Studebaker’s old straight 6 cylinder bored and stoked to displace 185 CIDs for the Flight Hawk, and their OHV 259″ V8, which came in a 2bbl and 4bbl configuration (180 HP and 195 HP ) for the Power Hawk to the Sky Hawk’s OHV 289 CID with the Golden Hawk sporting Packard’s 352 CID (5.8 L – V8) that managed to produce 275 BHP. That is pretty good power in fairly light car.
Sky Hawk
Flight Hawk
Golden Hawk
Power Hawk
On Nov. 2, 1935 we have two events.
Cord’s 810 debuted as did the Fords’ (Lincoln’s) Zephyr. Cord 810 was a beautiful and advanced car. It was the first US designed and built front wheel drive car with independent suspension and sported a set of very cool hidden headlights (operated with a crank on the dash-board) – another US first!! It was power by a Lycoming 289 V8 (125HP) and had a 4 speed overdrive transmission.
1935 Cord 810. This is the Sportsmen Convertible
The Zephyr was produced under the Lincoln sub-brand and was powered by 267 cu in (4.4 L) L-Head with 110 HP. It sold 15,000 units in its first with was over 50% of all Lincoln sales for 1936.
1936 Zephyr
Continuing on with Packard Week, on Nov. 5, 1863 John Ward Package was born.
Before building his first automobile in 1899, he successfully operated his own business, Packard Electric
John Ward Packard
On Nov. 6 is a very busy day in Automotive history we have 3 major mile stones.
On this day in Carlo (a.k.a. Karl) Abarth was born in Austria in 1908. He was ultimate gear-headed business man!!! Started out designing bicycle and motorcycle frames in Italy as a teenager for Castanga, then back to Austria and motorcycle racing where he managed to become 5 times European champion. After begin seriously injured in a racing accident he gave up racing, designed a sidecar and started a company with Ferry Porsche (and couple other guys) that was eventually called Cisitalia. They produced the Tipo 360 F1 prototype – which was a flop. Later on he founded the Abarth & C company that eventually produced racing cars with the scorpion logo then moved into the production of performance exhaust now called Abarth. He should the company to Fiat and they named a car after him.
Abarth Race Car
Logo
Edsel Ford was born in 1883 in Detroit, MI on this same day. Often only known for the Edsel sub brand he was instrumental in design and development of the Lincoln as well. But we all love the Edsel.
To finish up Packard Week the first Packard car was test driven on Nov. 6, 1899.
Here is this weeks AutoFactoids (#AutoFactoids). May 10, 1923 – GM names Alfred P. Sloan as president. They didn’t just pick from the streets. He was actually, a draftsman for a bearing company, Hyatt Roller Bearing.
Here are your Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids) for the week. Actually, I’ve combined two weeks because I forgot last weeks and this week’s was limited. So let’s start off with the week of the 15th (’cause going in chronological …
With still some adjustments need on the fenders, I need to tackle the fender extensions. If you recall the first video at the beginning of the fender fitment series of post you can see that the there’s no way it will fit (view the link HERE).
As I fitted them up here is what the left site looked like (this is after the altering the hole):
Gap
Pretty large gap.
The right side was better with almost no adjustments to the holes.
Not to bad right out of the box.
Almost acceptably gap.
This video clearly shows the difference in quality of the fenders. Quality control measures are that great.
Clearly the right side was much better formed then the left.
With a little more adjustments with a body dolly I was able to close the gaps.
Thanks for reading. Next up “What caused the compression issue?”
Nothing But Curves – Should have packed the Vette!!!!! Welcome back to Project Sports Roof (#ProjectSportsRoof). We stripped the old fender and retained all the usable parts. Next we are going to fit the new fenders up to the …
In case you didn’t notice, the fenders that were on #ProjectSportsRoof look as though car had driven into a half pipe at a skate park. Left Fender – major.
Thanks for check back with #ProjectSportsRoof. While I’m headed off on vacation I’ve scheduled a few post to get published while I’m out.
As a note the progress is moving well and I’m posting these in order, but they are delayed by a couple of weeks. I’ve nearly completed the fender install – still have a few adjustments to make and you’ll see these posts coming up. Taking advantage of various opportunity in the course of a project some times has you stop on task so to take an opening to get another task done. This is the case here with the 351C engine. I had a chance to get the some engine work done at a great price so I’ve jumped to that task and put the others on hold. Those post will be coming up soon.
To remove the fenders you, of course have to pull off the front valance. This one happened to be a new after-market piece.
When you swapping out any original parts or components, you want to try to salvage any sub-components or parts that are still functional and look good. Stripping these old fenders included saving the fender extensions, side makers, bolts, badging etc.
When I’ve capturing these on my Android, I trying to keep them short and often use the wrong name for some of the parts, hence Fender Ends = Fender Extensions.
🙂
Here is a look at the fender extensions.
If you’ve seen any of my other project you’ll notice that I try to keep things – organized – some what.
There’s more coming up on the fenders and the cause of the low compression on cylinder #2 – it’s not what I thought!!!
In case you didn’t notice, the fenders that were on #ProjectSportsRoof look as though car had driven into a half pipe at a skate park. Left Fender – major.
Thanks for reading. Tim. #ProjectSportsRoof. projectsportsroof. 1973 Mustang Project Sportsroof – Engine Walk-Through. There is a quick walk-through of the 351C tucked between the fenders of the 1973 Mustang Sportsroof.
#ProjectSportsRoof. projectsportsroof. 1973 Mustang – Project SportsRoof – Compression Test Part I. I’ve done all the clean up and all the adjustments necessary to get a good reading on the health of the ’72 351C engine in …
In case you didn’t notice, the fenders that were on #ProjectSportsRoof look as though car had driven into a half pipe at a skate park.
Left Fender – major dent a lot of rebuilding necessary
Right Side Fender – lots of crinkles, a few creases and good size dent.
Now, these are fixable, with a lot of heating and dolly work and bondo – but I’m trying my luck with re-pops and that’s what is coming up in the next few post.
Drop me a know if you have a project you are working on.
#ProjectSportsRoof will be the way I want it, which I haven’t nailed down yet, so suggest way by dropping me a comment (got your crate motor idea swimming around in my head, Bill) and that will happen fast or slow and cost …
Our 1973 Mustang is 42 years old, which means the gas tank has seen 42 years worth of various qualities of gasoline, sludge, condensation, residue, and most likely rust. Since we’re upgrading the engine to a blown and injected (Holley Terminator EFI) …
Just a quick howdy to all my readers from outside the U.S.
Love to hear from you – in any language!
Thanks – Canada Danke – Germany Good Day Mate – Thanks Australia Thanks UK folks!! Благодарности Люди – Russian Federation Merci Folks – French gracias amigos – Brazil Tack Folks – Sweden Folks Grazie . Ci vediamo tra qualche giorno Italy Bedankt mensen – Netherlands
Get you pics or videos to us either on our FB page https://www.facebook.com/AGCarRestoration or email them to AGCarRestoration@cox.net or timsweet@cox.net. This should be fun!!!! Tim Sweet. AGCarRestoration@cox.net …
It’s almost like Christmas every time part come in for #ProjectSportsRoof. Here’s what came in this week: Fresh from North of our border are these wood insert for.
I get asked often how our restoration service at Average Guy’s Car Restorations works.
This is a great question so I thought I’d lay out the basic steps, keeping in mind that each car and each customer is different and we do our best to accommodate those differences.
From a full-blown frame off restoration – like we have going on with the rare 1975 Model 110 VW bug, to a customized ride, to a simple refresh to keep the family classic safe and reliable, we make it happen. Whether you are going to keep it, sell it at the next Barrett Jackson auction or hand it down, we’ll get it to the level of perfection you desire and it deserves.
To start we’ll sit down and discuss your goals. This is a critical step for us to understand your goal. As you know a key component of any restoration is budget, so we’ll have that discussion too, including your budget range, initial deposit and billing/payment arrangements. Based on this interview we lay out the next steps and you’ll know what to expect every step of the way.
After we completed the administrative tasks, we get to the exciting part. We’ll arrange to get you vehicle transported, safely and secure. Our rare Model 110 VW was brought to us all the way from the great state of Iowa. We select only reliable transportation contractors to move your car, so it won’t be jammed on the back of livestock truck, which just happens to be coming this way. Once we have the car in our possession it remains safe and secure at all times including when it’s with any of our subcontractors.
We begin with a complete inspection of the car, keeping in mind the customers goals, to decide the logical progression for the restore, refresh or customization. We call this the ‘Project Plan’ and we give you that step by step document. You can then compare that to your objective.
One of things we love to do is document the restoration process and you’ll be given updates, including pictures, on a regular basis and comprehensive documentation when the project is completed. Our Model 110 VW’s owner has visited from Chicago several times to personally inspect her “Buggy”. We love that interaction.
So that’s the framework of our restoration process and to just show you the quality, here are a couple of examples.
From this:
To this:
The 302
From this
To this:
Let me show you one more.
From this rusted out VW:
To this:
That’s the expected out come – not just our customers want but we demand.
Of course getting these types of results isn’t by chance, you have to start with skilled professionals and you have to manage each car like a complicated project with personal oversight. Not a bolt get’s replaces or polished or a dollar spent without my knowledge. With two double “Best In Class” trophy winners to my recent credit, you know the attention to detail will be there.
If you are interested in the process or have questions, feel free to contact us at AGCarRestoration@cox.net or call us at 520-405-5314.
The final part of this install of the window felt on 1973 Sports Roof was as easy as it gets. This outside piece just snaps in – with a small adjustment.
Take a look:
The goal is to get the car sealed up and keep any more water damage from occurring to the floor pans by rain leaking into the car.
Here’s the kind of seal you want to see on the windows.
I was asked an a couple of forums about why I bothered with this task, when I’m just going to paint the car. That’s a good question, especially when we car enthusiasts are bombarded with car shows that turn cars around in 3 days and strip a car to bare bones and send it off to the paint boot. Well that how’s they do in T.V. land but the Average Guy isn’t going to be able to make that happen.
So yes the car is going to be painted and yes I am fairly certain that the engine is going to get rebuilt, but that’s not going to happen in a week (which I’m very dubious actually occurs in real life – T.V. or not T.V. cameras.) But I’m going to fix we what I can now and drive it before all the big $$$ stuff has to happen. Although the car may take a different direction, I still want it to be a drive-able project car – keeping it fun.
Thanks for reading and as always – drop me a note with your opinion.
Just picked up my second classic Mustang and I’ve got my Marti Report in hand…love those guys!!! I had a couple questions and perhaps someone here knows. Car was ordered with forged aluminum wheels – any one know that they would have looked like …
Continuing on with the felt install for the 1973 Mustang (#ProjectSportsRoof), I’ve already removed the old felt and we are about to replace it with the new piece from.
#ProjectSportsRoof will be the way I want it, which I haven’t nailed down yet, so suggest way by dropping me a comment (got your crate motor idea swimming around in my head, Bill) and that will happen fast or slow and cost …
George Barris, the “King of Kustomizers” best-known today for the original Batmobile of the 1960s TV show, died Thursday at his Encino home. He was 89.
