2/15/1944 Graham Hill was born in London – In 1972 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Matra with Henri Pescarolo. With this win he finished the so-called Triple Crown of motor sport: winning the F1 World Championship, the Indy 500 and the Le Mans 24 Hours. Till today he is the only person ever to have achieved this.
2/16/1951 Nash-Healey’s début in the US
2/17/1934 The first high school drivers ed classes in Pa.
2/18/1952 Studebaker turned 100. Stopped production in the US in 1963 and finished up in Canada in 1966.
Anyone have this problems? I love my two cars (the Mustang and the Vette), but I like a lot of other cars as well and the only thing stopping from owning a few more is a 5ft 100lbs lady and of course a place to keep them and of course $$$$ and believe it or not what little bit of common sense I a scrape up…which isn’t easy when it comes to cars.
So every now and then, I go through this cycle. I want another Vette or 2011 Mustang or a vintage Mopar (wouldn’t it be cool to have one of each brand??), but the only way to get another car is to get rid of one of my existing cars. Man..that’s a tough call to make. So I guess I’ll have to sell my wife’s Lexus..yeah..that’s the ticket….of course I’ll need a place to live after that….No problem…I can live in my cars!!! Yeah..that’s a good plan.
I’ve gone back and forth with “trading the Mustang for a Vette”. I actually had a guy willing do just that. (If you read one of my earliest post, that’s how I got my Corvette in the first place – traded my Celica title for title for the Corvette). I’ve toyed with “selling the Mustang on online and buying a vette” or “selling the both and buying a new vette.” It seems to be a constant dilemma, at least for me.
But I get to thinking about value. Can I get the money I’ve put into them back? What should I sell them for? (Next post will be about determining value.) Will I be sorry after words
The last time I went through this cycle, I had the Mustang almost sold and I when outside to start it and as I sat in it I realized ‘I can’t sell this, it’s my first Muscle car that I’ve built from the ground up (as an adult)!!’ I knew that later on when I’m old… I’d be saying “I wish I still had that one!”
There is something about them that sticks to you (those of us that own them). I think it’s character. They have character. I read an article where the author said they had “soul”….a bit of a stretch for me to get behind, but it’s something.
So I good. For now!!!! Oh but I’d love an old Plymouth with fins, and 1950’s Ford and big old Chevy wagon….and..oh yea…a 1966 T-bird….sigh!!!!!
2/7/1942 Our government order the production of cars halted and production lines converted for producing wartime functionality. ( Hemmings had a great series of articles a couple years ago that covered what each car manufacture produced for the war-time effort. If you can find them they are a great read.)
2/7/1958 – The Dutch DAF 600 automatic transmission was intro’ed.
2/10/1942 – Pontiac physically halts car production for war-time effort
2/11/1932 – Ford introduced this new flathead V8. It had a good run through 1953
This ties in very well with the discussion of restoration or restromods…almost. I reading one of Hemmings Classic Cars mags (March 2010)…..erk…how the heck can it be a March 2010 and I got it two weeks ago ..that would be January…never mind. The theme running through the edition was cars that are unrestored originals, basically cars that are old and haven’t been….well … restored.
First the main kick-off article (that’s one that explains the “theme” of the issue) was written by one of my favorite Hemming’s editors, Rich Lentinello- hopefully he won’t mind me call him Rich. He touches on the idea of preservation and not restoration. A repeated phrase used in the other articles is “it’s only original once” and of course you can’t argue with that. (Oh..that is also the name of Rich’s book…I haven’t picked it up yet, but I intent do.)
As I read the articles covering 1932 Ford, 1937 Packard, 1971 Cuda, 1930 Oakland, 1948 Chrysler, ’60 Corvette (needs paint…really), ’67 Eldorado and a few more, I enjoyed the stories..all car guys love “the story”. But each car had something changed about it. There was the 1954 Hudson the car had dents repaired, gas tank dropped and boiled(common practice when a car has sat for years), window cylinders replaces and brakes all redone. The ’60 vette had the engine rebuild and all the upholstery replaced. The fact that the paint is pealing off makes it more original? I don’t know.
Now does that hold up against replacing the control arms on the Mustang or the upholstery being redone (using original materials..I might add.) Restromod? Restored? Original? How about drivable, race- able (yes the Mustang makes it to the drags at least twice a year) and fun…yup that’s the ticket.
I guess I’m still not comfortable with the “restromod” moniker that guy stuck on my car. (I bet you could tell, could ya?) More therapy coming up.
I’m always reading where a guy had replace every part on his car and saved all the old parts. As with all things there is line of demarcation. What made me think of this was the new front end of the Mustang and a previous conversation when I was needed to rebuild the transmission for the 2nd time in the Corvette.
I was pretty fed up with the T400R (I’ll share the story when I talk about the mods for the Vette in another post). I had trouble with it when I first got it —only 32K miles, and then a horrible rebuild and on the second rebuild I was considering just replacing with another level 2. A fee of the guys from the Corvette club (ACE) that I belong to encouraged me to keep the old trans because it would be important at some point to have the matching number trans.
I’ve read were some have even kept old sheet metal because of the part number and the new after market ones don’t have that. But there can’t be much value in having an old front valance for my Mustang laying around..ya think? (Ok..fine I do still have it and it does have the original part number on it..but I wouldn’t put it on again.)
So saw no reason to keep the old control arms no value in that.
BTW I had the Corvette transmission rebuilt. This really leads me to another topic I read about in a car magazine. The topic was survivor cars or the most original. That one later.
We all love closure and especially when it ends well.
Mustang is back from the shop. Buying the control arms ahead time saved a few dollars. HINT: If you know you need a part, but not right away, but you have the funds (too many buts???) look for a sale. I’m continually sent emails with discounts from Mustang parts places. I purchased these on an email and got free shipping. What I didn’t have was the spring perches. Luckily I found them at a local place that specializes in muscle cars and in particular Mustangs. They ran about $80 for the pair.
While they had a part I splurged for a set of shocks…no labor because they had it apart already. (Hint: More savings!!)
So I drove over to pick it up and drive it around the corner to the tire place and got two new tires tossed on. I can’t believe the difference the new front end makes. Took it out for a drive. This car is nearly done.
Side note: I’m enjoying this Blogging thing. Although we are light on the comments..Mr. Sears is always helping out there, it’s good fun.
Got to give a shout out to a loyal reader…HEY PDAWG!!! Get me that pic of your garage!!!!
There has never been a clear understanding between these two ways keeping a car alive. Perhaps is not so much an understanding issue as to a delineation of the fine line between the two.
I do agree that there is a difference. Clearly if one were to take a 1970 Camaro and put 1989 front end on it, or a Ford 8 bolt rear end and 351 Cleveland that’s a restro-mod. A couple of car shows ago I saw a 1967 Ford Mustang with a Corvette engine (LS1) shoved under the hood. Oh..hey..I have pics…here’s one and there on at the bottom of this post.
I spoke to the owner and asked him “why” to which he responded “Because I could.”
Sometimes it’s pretty easy to know when to call it a restoration or a restromod. But what about finer changes, cosmetic, or safety changes.
I mentioned, in a previous posting, that a judge called my Mustang a restromod. Which I was take back a bit by. I started thinking about after I posted that and I’m going to have to agree with him and here is why.
I believe the swapping of the 250 for a 302 wasn’t the problem (unless your definition includes a requirement for a matching year block …I’m sure mine isn’t from 1970 at least not the short block) or the dual exhaust. The Center Line wheels…. maybe. Now the rear spoiler and the Mach I mirrors might be where I crossed the line. You couldn’t have purchased a coupe with those items, as far as I can tell with the research I’ve done. But aren’t we now just talking about accessories, like dice hanging from the mirror or a locking gas cap?
Now what if there was just a brake change (drum to disk) for upgrade for safety, or seat belts added or something as simple as steel belted tires.
Where would you draw the line? Drop me a comment and let me know.
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!!!!
