Right on the verge of the gas crisis, the ’74 models were a mixed bag of old school horsepower and new school power choking fog reduction hardware. This Impala was in fact still a V8 with the power of the a 1960’s 6 cylinder.
Now I love the Impala models and if you’ve read a recent post I wrote I think 4 doors are under valued and with the right tweaks can achieve the power desired to make them a muscle car.
This Chevy was sitting outside a local CVS store with a for sale sign.
4 door with stamped steel wheels and poverty hub caps
This one is for the C4 crowd (You digging this one Tony Z.?) There will be two winners one from Corvette Pals and one from my blog. Here is what I’m looking for. I use to auto cross my 1984 Crossfire (still do SCCA with my C6) and I love to see the C4 in action.
So post of a video of your C4 in action (action photos are ok too!) – Nothing illegal (snicker) or unsafe, mind you. Burn outs, auto cross, drag strip…Looking for some action shots. Post them up at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Average-Guys-Car-Restoration-Mods-and-Racing/185827701454279 and mention The Average Guy’s Car Restoration, Mods and Racing blog.
OH…what’s the prize? How about a 1984 Red Corvette promo model in the original box or a 1984 Silver C4? These are the model cars the dealerships give away. Can’t win if you don’t play…can’t win if you ain’t got a C4!!!! Game on!!!
1984 Silver C4 Promo Model - Yes those are Mustangs in the back ground!!!
You are going to like this pics from Red Stripe Adventure’s blog. The lowered Lincoln in stealth black and you have to agree that Hudson looks great – in spite of the WWII aircraft theme.
Thanks for reading.
Not only is there a ton of beautiful cars at Barrett-Jacksonauctions, there are also a lot of venders. Anything from car care products, to engine builders to custom building shops.
One of those was Karl Kustom Corvettes located in Des Moines, Ia. I had a chance to speak with Jim Hidy one of the reps for Karl Kustom at the auction this past January.
SWEET!!!!
Nice looking car, yes? HELL YES. But there some interesting things I didn’t know about these custom Vettes and how they are made.
I spoke with Jim at length and I have to tell you that how I thought these were made wasn’t even close and how they are made was pretty surprising to me. Jim set me straight.
Great Creation
These are of course C6 machines with the look of the 60’s Vettes. All the great handling and power of the C6 underpinning and classic looks. I thought ‘how cool they manufacture a body that snaps on the C6 frame. But that’s not how it’s done.
So I’ve gotten the new electrical connection installed on the switch. I now need to cut off the old switch and strip the wires.
Ya know it’s hard to take a video while you a squeezed under a car on jack-stands!!!
In this video you can see the striped wires.
Installing the bracket was easy enough except that it wasn’t formed properly and had to be bent. Keep in mind this is not ‘harden’ steel and too much bending will weaken it and when the reverse lever comes back will just push the bracket backward and not allow the button to be depressed enough to make contact and complete the circuit and turn the backup lights on.
Here it is all installed.
Here it is with the car in the reverse position. You can see the button depressed.
Here is a video shot.
And the intended results:
Now I’d love to tell you that all was well, however remember the bolt and the Sharpie mark I made on it so that I could gauge how far to screw it back in?
Well I was still pretty happy with the progress and I took the car off the jack-stand and started her up and backed out of the garage. That went well, but there didn’t seem to be a first gear once I decided to pull the car forward, nor second gear. She isn’t going to move.
So I’ve got the car out of the garage and right at the edge of the drive on the driver’s side. I have to get under the car and tighten that bold a few more turns. I end up laying partially on the drive way, partially on the rocks (we don’t have grass in your yards here..we have small, gather in you pants when you are laying on them, sharp rocks) and partially on one of your shrubs. Ok, lets not forget the glowing hot Hooker header pipes..yeah…just back out of the garage…no worries the hair on my arm will grow back. Any way, I tighten it just enough to get the car to go into second gear and pull it back into garage.
It had to go back up on the jack-stands for more adjustments, and I had to the switch off once to make adjustments to the bracket. But success was achieved!!!!!
A quick recap, I had a 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby manual 4 speed transmission rebuilt and installed it in my 1970 coupe. This included a Hurst Competition Plus Shift Kit. Of course the configuration isn’t even close to the original 3 speed and the old bracket for the reverse light switch won’t go back on.
I didn’t really think of this as the time of the installation so I just zip-tied the wiring and old switch up until I picked up the conversion part for the Hurst kit. This included a reverse light switch and a properly formed bracket. Cost was about $29.00 at the same local hot rod shop I bought the shift kit from – they are car guys not salesmen, which is why they didn’t mention the light switch bracket.
Don’t asks me why I felt the need to take video of the kit still in the package but here it is:
As you can see in the video below. The switch had two screws as posts for the wiring, new switch..old school technology. Basically you’d wrap the end of a wire around the screw and tighten, not a great connection for hanging under a car, nor for the amount of vibration the 302 dishes out. Used the screws and the small ‘lock” washer to hold the electrical connectors in place. That will last.
If you paid attention to the recent Barrett-Jackson auction or read my blog (http://wp.me/pKHNM-QF), you might have seen this car and know that it was sold for $100k.
You can research and find out a lot of information. But as Paul Harvey use to say…”And now…….the rest of the story.”
The Crow Lakester
Headlights are from a 1937 Packard
Steering wheel is a yoke from a 1948 Rockwell Aero Commander.
Looking over my morning emails, I come across my Hemmings daily email. Love getting these and sometimes I share an article from them.
On the right hand side they spotlight (or maybe as a seller you have to pay extra for the placement) some of the cars that are listed with them for sale. Today there is this 1963 Corvette:
For just over $15K you can pick this up. Worth it? Tires and rims look new!!!
