You just have to read the entire article and then seem my comments.
I make no judgement (like some of the other commenters) on whether Aaron is a “real car guy”, in fact I’m sure he is a ‘car guy’ – just one of ‘THOSE’ car guys. (If you are a real car guy you’ll know what I mean).
Courtesy of BMW By Aaron Miller @aaron_m_miller
I’m going to take a lot of heat for what I’m about to say. While no manufacturer can expressly admit it, behind closed doors, deep within the bunkers in Detroit, Munich, Stuttgart, and Tokyo, most engineers will nod in agreement. With enough soul searching, quite a few of my fellow automotive writers will find themselves agreeing, too. The visceral allure of the manual transmission as we know and love it isn’t….
There’s not a huge fan club for the 1947 Chrylsers. They were huge cars weighing well over 3,000 lbs, 18ft long and room for the whole family. With names like Town & Country, New Yorker, Windsor, Saratoga – these car did demand respect.
1947 Town and Country – that sub-model name was used a lot by Chrysler
You’d think they’d have huge engines to push these around town but the engine line up for 1947 consisted of only 2, one 6 cylinder and one 8 cylinder.
The 6 cylinder was called the Royal/Windsor engine. It was an L head, cast iron hunk of metal. With a bore and stroke of 3.438 ” x 4.50 “, five main bearings, solid lifter it displaced 250.6 cubic inches. With the compression ratio at 6.6:1 (rather low) and topped with various carbs (B-B EV1 or Ev2 or E7L4 – for the fluid drive and B-BEx-1, EX3 or Ex2 for the manual shift) it managed to put out 114 HP’s.
Flat Head L6 Chrysler engine – powered some of these giants.
The 8 cylinder was labeled Saratoga/New Yorker. It was a flat headed iron blocked L8. The bore was smaller than the 6 cylinder @ 3.25″ and the stroke was slightly higher @ 4.875 (nearly 1/2 an inch higher), creating compression ratio of 6.7:1 and displacing 323.5 cid. It had solid lifters and five main bearings and took in air though a B-B E7A1 carb. This all produced horse power of about 135 @ 3400 RPMSs
1947 Chrysler Saratoga/New Yorker L8 engine
I really enjoy doing Engine Line Up series of blog post. Hopefully you do too!!!!
I love writing Engine Line Up pieces. I learn a lot doing the research. Back in 1946 there wasn’t a lot of imagination when it came to naming cars. Packard either named their cars after the engines that powered them or their engines after their car models plus the cylinder count. …
1949 was the first year after World War II where Chevrolet did a complete maker-over of its offerings, meager in terms of variations as compared to what they would become in the next decade. With only the Special Series 1500 GJ, Deluxe Series GK, each with a Fleetline and Styleline …
Think there was much of a choice of engines back in 1956? Well there were a few for the 1956 Hudson. As was custom back in the 40’s and 50’s, the engines were often named similar to the model of the car they powered. For the 1956 Hudson, the company had …
Ok…how many of you stopped to Google Griffith? Not a commonly mentioned classic car, right? Well the Griffith was developed by a Ford dealer, Jeff Griffith. It was a tubular frame with a British TVR body bolted on. He produce the cars in that configuration, until the source of the TVR bodies …
Is anyone tired of Hybrids? Part car, part generator. and I think it’s a cop-out for not being able to produce an affordable, long distance electric car (not include Tesla.)
But maybe the Cadillac CT6 Hybrid will change your mind or not.
The GM boast that the car produced 449 ponies at the rear wheel. That produced by the 2.0 liter turbocharged 4 cylinder and two electric motors. This will push the car from 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds. If that’s a the good news here’s the worse – only 37 miles on a full charge – DUDES – why bother?!?!?!?!?! They are calling it a (Chevy) Volt (might be because it shares parts with the Volt) on steroids!!! Really? Well, it’ll have comfy seats, I bet!!!!
Underwhelmed? Sure, if it looks just like this 2016
Powered Up.
Toyota used the ‘Scion’ name like software developers the word ‘beta’ – not really ready for prime time. (I still hate the fact the Celica disappeared into that mess.) Frankly nothing much was worth buying under the Scion name until they produced the FR-S in 2011. The car was based on the previous 8-6 (86) concept and was a joint effort between Toyota and Subaru. Toyota was moved the 86 platform back under the Toyota brand and will be giving it a new look. Questions is will is cousin the BRZ get a new look? No one knows yet.
New 86?
Enter stage right – the Elio P5, the new U.S. Car company. With it’s all powerful 60-hp 0.9-liter 3-cylinder front-mounted engine that can lay down 55 ft lb of torque, reach a top speed of over 100 mph and can get from 0 to 60 mph under 10 seconds. Get all this for under $7K.
Kaiser-Fraser formed July 26, 1945 – The Kaiser-Frazer Corporation was the result of a partnership between automobile executive Joseph W. Frazer and business man Henry J. Kaiser. In 1947, the company acquired the automotive assets of Graham-Paige. Interesting enough, Kaiser had no automotive business experience. In 1953 the company became …
Here is your #AutoFactoids and Car News Now for this first full week of September 2015. Auto Factoids Sept. 7, 1954 – Production of Ford Thunderbird begins 1955 T-Bird 2002 Thunderbird Sept. 8, 1903 Preston Tucker was born in Capac, MI. While dubbed “Tucker Torpedo” during production no ‘Torpedoes’ were produced. Beautiful …
Sometimes the Automotive Journalism world is so off track – pun intended – that they cross the line where “reporting” becomes “tabloid babble”. Take the headline “MUSTANG BEATS CORVETTE!!!” “America Meet Your New Sports-Car King”. That is quite a statement gracing the cover of the Feb 2016 issue of Car and …
The last three post we basically a run down of the extent of the rust damage in the floor pan areas on #ProjectSportsRoof. As you saw the right side was bad, especially the under the rear seat on that side and the left side not as bad. Interesting enough it ended up being about the same work for both foot wells and a lot work for the whole under the rear seat. (You’ll notice in at least one of the videos I mentioned that all I needed to do was to buy the panel for under the rear seat – but I was wrong. Those just are reproduced. What I ended up doing was purchasing a 3rd foot well pan and “modifying” that to get the whole patched.)
As this is my first time actually doing floor pans, I did a lot of “making sure” up front work to limited the size of the mistakes I might make. Last thing I needed to do was cut in the wrong place or make the opening to big. As you know the Mustangs of that era only had sub-frames and the floor for the most part were what held them together. A major screw up there and you’ve weakened the structure and then it’s body off complete floor replacement – NOT IN THE BUDGET!!!
Here’s some of the preliminary work.
So of course there isn’t a rear panel (see above) and the drain in the panel is not plugged with a rubber stopper, but with a metal screw down plate – sealed with seam sealer.
I worked the left side first (some I could keep the car mobile – for pulling in and out of the garage) so I left the driver’s seat and most of the carpet in place.
Coming up is the first cuts of the right side floor pan and fitting of the replacement panel.
Thanks for checking in on the 1973 Mustang project. Below is the last part of the discovery process for determining the extent rust damage. Here is the driver’s side.
This shot doesn’t look too bad, especially compared with the right side. Below is a video recap of what needs to happen.
Of course still need to remove the rest of the carpeting. All indications are that everything else is solid!!
Mar 2, 2016 … Among these things are coins and #ProjectSportsRoof had an abundance of lost change. The first coin I found was a nickel. It was under the …
Feb 29, 2016 … Thanks for following along with #ProjectSportsRoof. Over the next couple of weeks (giving myself a lot of time to get this all down in the blog) …
Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. We beginning the actual work on the vacuum system on the projects 351C starting with the valve assembly distributor ( the …
You can see my 2007 C6 and the 1973 Mustang (#ProjectSportsRoof) and my son’s 1991 Chrysler Le Baron vert and good friend’s 2011 Mustang vert(with the nicest seats ever!!!).
Constant reader of this blog Bill and my son Ryan
This was my son Ryan’s first car he’s entered in a car show. The 1991 Le Baron is a true collector and is in excellent survivor condition with over 140k miles he is the only the second owner. Bill (sitting next to my son) was the Le Baron’s first owner – that’s Bill’s 2011 Mustang V6!!!
Besides those cars – here is my favorite late 50’s car at the show.
Clean 282 Engine!!
One of my favorite attributes….a painted dash!!!
The fender skirts are great and the detailed side molding is outstanding!!! (And all original!!)
This 1956 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan has 282 engine, 3 speed column shift and has just over 30k original miles. It all original except the tires (the spare is original). This was an Ebay buy and originated in PA.
There were a couple beautiful pickups and a Lotus and 1988 Shelby Dodge Charger – very cool!!
The voting, interestingly enough, was done by the car owners and everyone that came to view the cars.
Trophies were handed out and one of the winner was this car:
#ProjectSportsRoof took home one in the 1970’s/Under Construction category
Yup lots of love shown to my 1973 Mustang SportsRoof.
It was a small but fun show. Lots of time to have long conversations with the owners and the crowd.
Thanks to Hagerty Insurance, Mothers Wax and Car Guy Garage for supporting the car show. We raised awareness and money for Southern Arizona Autism Society!!
Oh…and if you are in Tucson, AZ there is a walk that raised money for this worthy cause as well.
As with most car restoration projects discovering what needs to be worked on and to what extent is an experience to say the least. Sometimes that discovery is a bit disheartening like the rust to floor pans on the right side, sometimes is a major relief and sometimes it’s cool.
As I began removing carpet – which I’m now sure was 33 years old, it uncovered the normal dirt, pens, papers (no build sheet… bummer) and just about all the normal things that slide between the seat cushions and work their way under the carpet. That can show a lot about its previous owners and how the car was used.
Among these things are coins and #ProjectSportsRoof had an abundance of lost change. The first coin I found was a nickel. It was under the underlayment which I found to be a tough place for nickel to have worked its way. Interesting enough it was dated 1973.
1973 Jefferson Nickel. Placed by a a worker at the factory? hmmmm….
This reminded me of an often told tail of auto workers leaving tokens of some sort in an inconspicuous place. Wouldn’t that be interesting.
Over all nearly $30.00 in coins were found and of those 3 were from 1973 (a nickel, a quarter and a penny). With a huge cap between 1979 and the 2005 (perhaps indicating it’s break in service when the car was left in a field, junked and then saved.
Someone in the Ford factory back in the day leave this 1973 Jefferson nickel so that someone years later might find it? Interest thought!!!
2 days ago … Thanks for following along with #ProjectSportsRoof. Over the next couple of weeks (giving myself a lot of time to get this all down in the blog) …
Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. We beginning the actual work on the vacuum system on the projects 351C starting with the valve assembly distributor ( the …
Thanks for following along with #ProjectSportsRoof. Over the next couple of weeks (giving myself a lot of time to get this all down in the blog) I’m going to take you through my process for repairing the floors in the 1973 Mustang. I’ll be interrupted by (air quotes)REAL (end air quotes) work and a couple of car shows between now and then.
As much as I’d like to say I was aware of the rust on the floor of the Sports Roof, I can’t. I really missed seeing the extent of the damage. Needless to say I was a bit depressed when I brought it home and climbed in the back seat and notices the floor seemed a bit….’crunchy’.
Take a look at these videos:
You might be able to tell by my voice that I wasn’t overjoyed with the condition of the passenger side floor. To make matters worse I eventually found out they don’t reproduce a patch for under the rear seat for the 1973 Sports Roof. More to come on that in a future post.
Just to issue a reminder as you might be wondering why you see the back seat now in the car as in the previous video it was out, but my goal is to have this as a rolling project and able to at least speed on down to the local petrol station fill it up and grab a Pepsi. (You just can’t work on a car without a Pepsi!!! – Hey maybe they’ll sponsor this rebuild and I’ll change the license plate to read “1973DrinkRealSugarPepsi”.)
O.K. so if you were listening closely you’d realize that I started the floors back in Dec (2015) and it’s now the last day of the Feb 2016 and I’m just getting to post this up now. So it’s taken me a good chunk of time to do this all by hand – including all the cutting with just a hand-held dremel and some metal snips.
I appreciate any and all comments so let ’em fly!!!!
BTW day on this Leap Year day – we’ve surpassed 20,000 registered user on this blog, thanks everyone!!!
1 day ago … This will be a longer post as I finish up the vacuum system on #ProjectSportsRoof , the 1973 Mustang Sports Roof. We have to make a repair, …
This will be a longer post as I finish up the vacuum system on #ProjectSportsRoof, the 1973 Mustang Sports Roof. We have to make a repair, hose to the master cylinder, charcoal filter, and the transmission.
Take a look at the broken vacuum “T”:
So from the broken “T” I moved to the master cylinder and then to the transmission and finished off with the charcoal canister.
One final task to finish up the vacuum system and that is the charcoal canister that is supposed to catch the fumes from the gas tank.
Back at the beginning I mentioned that I need to get this done because the Stang was coming due for its renewal and smog check. Just a couple of days after finishing I planned driving over to the emissions testing facility and I got my renewal notice via email. Here in AZ you can register you car online after you pass your smog check. The notices normally tell you that a an emissions test is required. My said “No Emissions” required!!!!!!! Well the vacuum system needed tending too anyway and now it’s check off the list.
Jan 7, 2010 … Thanks for checking back on #ProjectSportsRoof. Progress is being made and I’d like to finish up these post on the install of the Mach 1 grille …
Welcome back to #ProjectSportsRoof. We beginning the actual work on the vacuum system on the projects 351C starting with the valve assembly distributor (the valve on the water pump. Here is a pic:
Here is the video:
As always when I’m holding the camera and recording I miss a few things, like there are only two vacuum connections on the valve assembly distributor and the vacuum hoses I referred to at the end go to the charcoal canister – that supposedly filters gas fumes.
Here are the clamps I used.
I’ve got more coming up on the vacuum system and then we’ll jump into the floor pans.
