Category Archives: Classic Cars

The Non-Mechincal Hurdles of Restoring and Modifying Cars (cont.)

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So I left off with perhaps one of the worse fears, breaking it yourself.

Having it broken by someone else is only slightly better, YOU didn’t do it, so you can be mad at someone and chances are the signification other will lighten up, especially when they find you sobbing uncontrollably, laying on the hood your classic.

I have had that experience with my Mustang. Since kids might run across this blog I won’t use the language I might normally, when relaying this next incident.

I had just gotten the engine conversion done and I was happy.  Some work on my part and fair amount of money got me to where the car had the power it needed. I’ll talk more about the modification and conversion later on.  I think I had the car back for a couple months and one day…a rainy day….errk………..I live in southern Arizona ….what manner of horrible luck can you have to deserve such crappy timing?  I was only a  mile from home and I stopped at a red light.  10 cars in front me and as I waiting with them, I glanced in my rear view mirror.  There I see a small white pick-up in the distance coming my way.  As I watched, I realized that he was coming pretty fast.  A nano second later I was 100% sure he wasn’t going to stop.  I shoved the clutch in, dropped her in to first, cranked the steering wheel to the right, hit the gas and popped the clutch.  Well, the additional power I longed for, now realized…spun the rear wheels, in what normally would have been an enjoyable manner, but right that minute I was wishing for the straight 6 again…(well..maybe not exactly).   I was just able to nose the Mustang’s front end way from the car in front of me when I looked up and saw…(this was all happening in extremely slow motion – right now just playing it in my head..it seems like ten minutes at least) this white pickup starting to stop and then I felt the slam from behind.  The force pushed the Mustang past the car in front of me by 3/4 of a car length.  If I had not gotten the few precious inches just before the tires began spinning, I would have destroyed my 3 month old bored out 302 and all the hard work that went into the engine bay, electrical, and new AC would have been for naught.

Ok I’m going to stop here for the now.  More tomorrow.

One more day until Corvette Auto X day.  Taking my son with me, he’ll be grabbing some vids and pics that I’ll share.

Thanks for reading and thanks for being able to read!!!!

Tim

The Family and the Cars

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So I’ve “blogged ya” some history, now it’s time for some current stuff.  Of course my Dad is a car guy and my brother is pretty handy with a set of wrenches, but 24.2 years ago I married into a family that pretty much made most of the car guys I had known in my adult life (ok the adult part is debatable) mere tinkerers.

I have three brother-in-laws that were raised in the car business and not just a little bit of a car business, but a full-blown mechanic shop, engine building, stock car sponsoring, car show restoration, towing type business.  These guys knew more about cars by the time they were teenagers, then I did when I was 30 (yeah..I’m over thirty..and not just a little).  This guys know their stuff.  I now have nephews (their kids) that are even giving me a run for my money.

So I’ve set this up, pretty well, and keep it in mind because when I get to the physiological hurdles of restoring a car, you are going to understand my particular issue and you might relate.

(I seem to start a lot of sentences with the word “So”.  So I’ll try to limit the use of it.  You might also notice that I use ‘…..’ between words.  I do that for to give emphasis on a larger more dramatic pause the you get from the run of a mill comma. Nope not grammatically correct…but a habit I might break….if I get enough comments about it from the readers of this blog.)

So here is a quick introduction to my cars.

1.  1970 Ford Mustang Coupe.  I’ve owned it for approximately 4 years and I love it.  This is my first real restoration.

2. 1984 C4 Corvette. First year for that generation, everything is unique.  Although not my dream generation of corvettes, I love this car.  Ever since my uncle put me in his Corvette, I’ve wanted one.  When I joined the Air Force my goal was to finish up by second degree become an officer and by a Corvette.

Ok enough for this evening.  Tomorrow I’ll give you the run down on each.  I have a great story on how I got the Corvette.

Thanks for reading.

Tim