I’ve been think about doing this but the rules seem a bit tough to come up with. But I’ll give this a try.
I’m looking for some project car posts from the readers. Your projects. Anything from a huge wreck of car project to something smaller (bigger then an oil change). It has to be your car and you are doing “some” of the work on it. That the only hard and fast rule.
I’ll need a couple photos and some brief details. You can post them up here or find me on Facebook and post the them up or email them to me (timsweet@cox.net). I’ll post them here and then on my website (www.tucsoncarevents.com) for everyone to look at.
If I get enough entries I’m pick a car of the week the week and then out of the we’ll vote on the car of the month (if I don’t get votes posted up I’ll have one of my regular readers pick it. The winner the car of the month gets a $100.00 online gift card as an auto parts dealer (Summit Racing or even on tailored to your car). Simple as that.
So let’s get started. Remember anything from a total wreck to just a transmission swap, body work, paint, interior upgrade, hood swap. That all works. Sorry Pdawg giving Burt a bath and vac isn’t going to cut it (but he could use one!!!…just kidding). It doesn’t have to be done and I don’t need a before and after, just what you are working on.
I’ll this run until I get at least for to choose from, then we’ll vote.
Note: If you noticed my site is not commercial, there are no ads, no click through links, no pop ups. It’s just me type to hear myself type and a few of you reading it. I like it that way.
Ok, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while. I have a couple of muscle cars and cars that aren’t but get “dressed up” like muscle car peeves.
So here are three right off the bat.
1. Don’t put Yanko strips on your 2003 Dodge Neon. It doesn’t look right, and you aren’t fooling anyone.
2. I have nothing against body kits added to a car. I, personally, wouldn’t do it to the two I have, but I’ve seen some pretty nice jobs done on Corvettes, especially. I’ve even seen a lot of imports that look good with body kits. But here’s my peeve, don’t put them on the car if you aren’t going to paint them the right way. Save up the cash and get it all done at once. And one more note on body kits, why would you want to take your Honda Accord and make it look like a 1946 pickup truck? (OK, I’ve never seen one, but you know what I mean).
3. I recently saw a 1970-something Camaro, mounted on the frame of a raised Chevy pickup…almost monster truck size. Why people…WHY???!!!
Okay, there are a couple of mine muscle car want-ta-be peeves.
Post up some of yours. Come on, I know you’ve got them!!!!!
Now, I keep saying I’m an average guy with an average skill set and frankly there’s no one I know that will argue the point. That being the current situation, it doesn’t mean that I don’t try to pick up new skills, I do.
So since I also have an average guy’s budget (selling cans back to the recycler for car parts…ok…just kidding there) I don’t have what I’d really like to have for “training purposes”. If I did however, I have two of each car (in this case a 84 Vette with a Crossfire engine –has to be exact there and a second Mustang with a V8) and I’d experiment with parts cars until I get it right and then I’d work on its twin. Of course that’s not affordable, so I next like to have a spare Crossfire engine to mess with and a Ford V8 do to the same. Now that might be possible, budget wise (I know a couple of guys that will let me pick up a an old engine for free) but I have an average garage, with my cabinets and work bench, I can only get one car in there–nope no 3 bay garage for me.
My garage with the Vette in it.
(Was I kidding???? NOPE!!!) Errrk…..And don’t think I haven’t approached the subject…but the misses doesn’t see the need to move to a larger house just so I can have a place in the garage to play. So having two engines on stands won’t work out too well. So how do I get around this……I purchase a part to “study”. Back in the day you’d have to go to the junk yard and pick your part and you can pretty much do that today as well. There are drawbacks to that, though… here in a AZ during the summer time…taking the parts off the a hot car is a killer…not stolen…but a car that’s been sitting in the sun when it’s 110 degrees out. Those metal part will be a bit warm…trust me. But the Internet is a great thing and I’d like to take a minute and personally thank former Vice President Al Gore for inventing it…nicely done sir!!! I’ve found most of my training parts online. But don’t over look the local car clubs either, you can get help and I can assure there’s one or two guys there that have or know a guy that knows a guy that has the part you are looking for.
When I first got my Mustang, it had a 1 barrel Weber carb, so I purchased an old one online to take it apart and look it over. Then I order the kit and rebuilt the usable one. I’ve done the same thing for my C4. I needed a rebuild of the fuel injector towers, so I went online and found a set for $20 plus shipping and took them apart and back together and used them as a model for when I did the real set. Worked perfectly.
Here is my next piece:
84 Vette Crossfire Intake Manifold
Which is seen here on the Vette:
Corvette Crossfire Engine
The manifold is unique enough that I wanted to learn more about it before messing with it. Now if you’ve been reading my blog since the beginning or are new and went back through my older posts, you’ll know about my psychological issue with breaking it myself. So the test part makes it even odds…ok..fine 40 – 60 that I won’t screw it up. (That’s a 60% chance that I’ll eventually have to take to someone and have it fixed when I’m done fixing it myself.) Now I’ve mentioned that an up and coming mod will be to put on a newly designed manifold for the Vette, but I need to keep the original and will eventually rebuild it myself…or attempt too. Look this picture over and you’ll see why I love working on my C4:
Hood up.
Yeah..no fenders to lean over!!!! It’s great. Easy access to the engine. Just toss an old blanket (STOP..NOT THE ONE ON THE BED..NO NO..BAD….) over the wheel and you are home free.
Thanks for reading. Always up for a comment or two.
This is a new thread that I’ll post from time to time, similar to the Auto Factoid. Wrench’in Tips will some help hint, short cuts and even some alternative ways to help finish the job.
The key here is that these are coming from a guy with average skills and knowledge so to you ‘hardend’ professional they may seem lame or you’ll have a ‘well….duh, OMG, like everyone knows that!!!’ In which case…KEEP IT TO YOURSELF!!!! <GRIN> Kidding of course, always let me know what you think.
So here is the first one.
I hate electricity, not the benefits of being able to use it, it’s super when it stays where it’s suppose to and goes where it’s suppose too. What I hate is when it stops being or doing what is should. I absolutely hate working on electrical problem anywhere, homes, appliances and cars.
I can say that I once had a bad experience and that would be true, but the other problem I have (besides the physics of it all) is that I’m color blind. Anyone who has looked at a wiring harness in a car will know what I’m talking about. The are all kinds of colors, but unless they are only black and white – like the extension cord and light I made back in 4-H, 1.5 billion years ago, I’m stuck.
Now older cars like my ’70 Mustang aren’t too bad, they pretty much conform to black, white and one or two other color, but the ’84 C4 it has wires everywhere….hey…I’m not kidding EVERY WHERE!!! There are no less that 10 pairs of wires you have to remove just to take the door panel off. In the 84 Vette, the adjustable windshield wipers are on the drives door and if I remember correctly it has at least 6 wires. Then the are the wires for the door lock 4 there and there are the wires for the electric window that might be 4 more. Add to that the wires for the door courtesy light and the speaker and amp wires (the awesome BOSE stereo system had 5 speakers with individual amps). errrk….here’s a factoid the 1984 Corvette and Cadillac were the first cars to have a custom BOSE stereo system. The story goes that GM asked if they would put BOSE radios (back then just AM/FM and Cassette) in the cars and label them Delco. BOSE wasn’t crazy about the idea so instead offered to design a system for the cars….end of errkk.
So one of the first problems I had with the Corvette was the electric window stopped working on the driver’s side. So I assumed that I would have to replace the motor. So I get home early from work one day and I decided that I’d knock this out real quick. I began by taking the panel off and found all the pairs of wires and I sure I used a four-letter word didn’t start with a D or S. I noticed that a couple of the wires were a bit worse for wear and need some attention, I also noticed that the wires were short and you had to balance the door panel on something to be able to disconnect a couple components. Being the genius that I am, I figure that if I made the wires a bit longer I would haven’t to disconnect the components every time I need to remove the panel, I’d only remove the screws and the door panel would rest on a towel or something on the floor.
NOTE: Don’t worry, not every one of my tips will be attached to a long story….umm…I don’t think.
Of course the wires I needed to repair and additionally make longer weren’t your basic black and white, I’m not sure but I think one was sea-foam green and one was burnt sienna (I don’t really know…but I remember that burnt sienna was a crayon color when I was a kid- before Microsoft Paint.
Oh…so here is what I did.
I took about 1/2″ strips of white duck tape and a marker and folded one each side of the wire that I was going to splice to repair and lengthen. I labeled the first wire A and A and the second B and B (pretty sure you could have figured out the pattern). Then I cut and spliced them with wire connectors.
It worked out great and I left them labeled when put the door back together.
Oh..just so you can have some closure, I did all that work and the problem wasn’t with electric window motor, was really just the switch on the middle console…4 screws and pop in the new $15.00 switch. It’s that the way it always goes? Seems like it.
In a previous post I talked about psychological hurdles that an average guy, with average skill, average tools and an average budget has to deal with when he owns a classic car (ok…doesn’t have to be a classic…just “loved”). One of those was the fear of something breaking, either while you driving it or working on it. Can I fix it? Do I have the right tool? What if I can’t? Do I know anyone that can? For free? Can I afford to get it fixed? Even worse – long will I be deprived of driving it?
These are my concerns–always.
So with these worries..what in H….E. double L (does everyone get the H..E double L??) am I doing drag racing!?!?!?! Where’s my head at?!??!?!?!!
I hope you aren’t sitting there waiting for an answer!!!! ‘Cause I don’t know. I just do it.
But dude….you are so average….especially in the budget….heck..in all the areas listed above…oh and BTW….how about SWMBO (she who must be obeyed)…how’s that going to go…..”Hey honey guess what? I was at the tree and the light turned green and I got a huge jump on the V.W. next to me and the darndest thing happend…little pieces of my u-joint flew everywhere. Would you mind moving your car so the tow truck back into the driveway…thanks snookems!!!”….Um…sure…… good luck with that!!!
So over the next few post, I’m going to give some average guy tips for handling a little test and tune drag racing.
Next up…do I need different tires?????
Thanks for reading.
My Coupe taking of from the line. Before the new paint!!!
Just about every auto blog, has a place where the reader can upload their cars. I think that’s great but I’d like to take it a bit further. If you have a project car, no matter the condition or state of restoration it’s in….erk….even if it’s just sitting out in the backyard and you’re thinking about restoring…let me know. I want to feature it on the front page this blog. There is a following for the Average Guy’s Car Restoration, Mods and Racing blog, (over 60 view in one day) and it’s followed on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
So become part of the Average Car Guy’s Nation. Drop me a comment and we’ll get your car featured. If we can muster up a good flow of cars, we’ll have a car of the month contest with a gift card give away.
I received a couple emails referring to the images on the blog. Generally, I can’t get copies of the Robert Hooper’s prints, but I can get copies of the Mustang interior.
If you are interested let me know…sorry..they aren’t free…but very reasonable.
Thanks for the interest. Remember, a blog’s life’s blood are comments. Drop me some.
I love car art…anything from poster, to quality prints to cartoonish drawings.
On my wall in my office here at home I have 4 beautiful pieces done by Robert Hooper. We ran into him in Prescott, Az and at a street fair and, I just have to have these pieces.
I can’t them off the wall and scan them. So you’ll just have to stop by and see them….little joke there. I tried to capture them with the digital. Not great…but here ya go.
Next
Next
And the last of Mr. Hooper’s
I like these.
I really like this next one in particular…why? It’s an image of the interior of my Mustang. Let me know what you think. This one hangs up in my office at work. Little washed out as posted here but much better in person.
You have a piece of car art? Let’s hear about. Drop a note, post a pic or email an image to me and I’ll put up on the blog.
As I slowly start to bring this blog back to the core of why I created this blog (Restoration, Modifying, Race..etc) I’ll begin to post some restoration tips. This will be things I’ve actually done, or friends have done that I know worked.
So here is one:
Most of the old cars with manually roll down windows have felt window seals. You know, the two cushions on either side of the door that the window slide up between. Those are normally rubber with felt covering and over time they get hard and shrink. The next thing you now you have water in the bottom of your door. That water will rust your car, even in Tucson, AZ where I live.
I don’t know if you are like me but I drive my cars, no garage babies or trailer queens and I drive them while they are in the middle of being restored…..erk…as long as they are safe to do so (had to through that in there…just in case!!!). This means they get wet, although here in AZ, it’s mainly from a weekly washing, it’s still water. I bring this up because, besides the door felt leaking, other rubber areas can leak as well. The very thing that makes AZ so great, the abundance of sunshine, can be harmful to your car. Sure it’s great for getting a tan and raising cactus… not so great for plastic and rubber parts of your car.
I know this because I had a problem with my Mustang and a rear window leak. Water would puddle up (slightly) in the trunk. If you are familiar with the older cars you’ll know that many of the trunks have a drop off on each side of the trunk floor that leads to the side lamps. This forms a nice little well in the bottom of the rear quarter panels and water collects there. Where water collects, water rusts….ya don’t need a degree in chemistry to figure that out.
So now I have water in both my doors and both of my quarter panels. NOT GOOD!!!!! Some cars were built with in drains in the quarter panels…my Mustang has them. However, if you remember back a few post (errkkk….Hey if you are new to my blog…go back and read the older posts..there’s some good stuff there…) I mentioned that my Mustang was rear ended. During the major reconstruction the body shop left debris in the quarters and it plugged the drain. Unprofessional, for sure (we’ll talk more about picking the right place to have the work done in another post), and dangerous.
So make sure you check this area out and keep the drains unplugged.
Now I went a step further…I took an 1/8 inch drill bit and added a couple extra holes in the doors and quarter to ensure that air gets in there and the water can get out.
Ok..anyone freaking out yet?? Good!!! I placed these where they can’t be seen (unless you are laying on your back with the door open in the very bottom of the door between the weather-stripping and the outside of the door, where it meets the rocker panel. And in the quarter panels I just drilled in the 1/4 space that is the width of the bottom.
I took a very small round file and smoothed the holes up and then took a little touch up paint to them.
Works like a dream and but you still have to check them and ensure they don’t plug up.
