DynoDave
CO-ADMINISTRATOR
Motown Mopar-Wizard
Posts: 11,167
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Post by DynoDave on Dec 28, 2014 21:27:06 GMT -5
Nice looking car Corey. Tell us more.
Oh, and Welcome aboard!
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corey
New Member
Posts: 14
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Post by corey on Dec 28, 2014 22:28:44 GMT -5
Thank you. I appreciate it.
It is a 1973, 2 door hardtop. Bought it mid May of this year. Originally green with green interior, and a 400 with a heavy duty 4 speed manual transmission. Has some interesting history old and new.
Unfortunately the new was not that pleasant, I found the car on craigslist. Me and the seller talked on the phone quite a bit, texted quite a bit. He sent numerous pics of the car. Reiterated over and over how well it ran, I would be happy, etc, etc. We eventually settled on a price. I made payment and had the car shipped to me.
Ad said the car "ran and drove like a champ". Rebuilt 440, rebuilt 727 trans, newer paint job. Only issues he said were that it was missing the antenna for the radio, missing the driver side mirror and it needed new calipers. And, a small part of the front passenger side grill was missing.
Things started to come to light as a couple days later. After picking up the car, the transport company called and were a little upset that the car did not run and drive like I had been told. I contacted the seller and he said it was a dead battery, I asked why didn't you jump it? He said it had bad gas and wouldn't stay running.
Car shows up, mostly flat driver's side front tire. And dead electronically. The instrument cluster was wholly disconnected, none of the gauges, wiring harnesses, etc were hooked up and the console shifter had not been re-installed after the rebuilt trans had been put back in. I put a battery charger on and it indicated the battery was already charged. I connected up the headlight wiring harness and got nothing. The engine bay wiring was a mess. Someone or someones had monkeyed with it beyond belief. A real rat's nest.
The paint job was ok, looked good from afar and looked good up close. It is only upon real close inspection that you can see some flaws...a couple small paint runs, but no real concerns on my part there as I was not expecting a $10,000 paint job or however much a top notch paint job costs these days.
Anyways, beginning of June, I had the car towed to an automotive repair shop here that I trusted to have it inspected to see what all was wrong and get an estimate. They did some type of workaround to get the car started to make sure the motor even worked. They did get it running briefly and said it seemed to run ok. They wanted to do this before they got started on anything else so as to avoid throwing good money after bad if the motor was junk.
The estimate to re-do/clean up the wiring of the engine bay, re-wiring the instrument cluster and dash, the repair to the steering column, and to re-do the fuel lines, came out to just over $1,900 including taxes and enviro fees. He estimated the car was going to be there for about four months as side work for his shop when slow. I told him to take his time, as after three months, the weather here would be turning to fall and I wouldn't get to drive it until late spring of 2015 anyways.
Of course, the seller was not initally responsive to my calls and texts. I eventually got his attention and he refunded part of the purchase price.
There is some good history to the car. I tracked down the original owner and called him up and we spoke a long time about the car. He was pretty excited to have someone call him about his old car. He bought the car in December 1972 with the express purpose to race it. As mentioned, it was originally a 400 4speed.
According to him, after he bought it, he had the car sent off to Nicholas Engineering in Portland to have the transmission upgraded, off to Jerry Ruth at Northwest Racing in Seattle to have the suspension upgraded, to Keith Black to have the heads upgraded and the Cope Brothers in Tacoma to have the motor upgraded. He said the car ran 2 hundreds of a second off the national record in 1975 (10.76/10.78) He was also afraid of rust so he had a Dupont rust coating applied to the undercarriage of the car.
An interesting story he told me was when the dealership called him up and told him his car was ready for pick up, he got there and the factory had incorrectly installed a vinyl top, he told them to send it back and they instead offered to reduce the purchase price by $500. He took the money and removed the vinyl top himself.
Original owner sold the car in 1990 with just under 20,000 miles on it. The guy I bought it from (third owner) didn't buy it until 2000 and said the car had been sitting for a while when he bought it and he didn't start to do anything with it until around 2013. Sadly, the original motor and 4speed were taken out by the second owner somewhere along the line.
Car has just over 37,000 miles on it now. 440 with an auto trans. The clutch pedal is still there if you can believe that. The upgraded suspension is still there. No rust that I could find or see. Otherwise a nice car but wish it was back to a 4speed. That is something I would like to do, but need to find one first and not sure where to start. Unfortunately, I am not much of a mechanic.
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DynoDave
CO-ADMINISTRATOR
Motown Mopar-Wizard
Posts: 11,167
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Post by DynoDave on Dec 29, 2014 12:08:27 GMT -5
Wow, that is quite a story. Sorry to hear of your ordeal in buying it. But it's a rare, and really cool thing that you got to speak with the original owner.
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gip63
Forum Regular
Posts: 257
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Post by gip63 on Jan 10, 2015 15:53:30 GMT -5
I was doing some work at a boat store and they were throwing these covers away so I got one for the car. Plastic on outside an felt on inside, works great. I make sure car stays dried out though.
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Post by CDN72SE on Jan 16, 2015 13:50:03 GMT -5
Waiting patiently...
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2015 23:49:42 GMT -5
Waiting patiently... Alan, what is the wait for.... motivation, time, or money?
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DynoDave
CO-ADMINISTRATOR
Motown Mopar-Wizard
Posts: 11,167
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Post by DynoDave on Jan 17, 2015 9:29:56 GMT -5
He's in Canada...might be for weather!
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Post by CDN72SE on Jan 20, 2015 13:52:01 GMT -5
Wish it was just the weather Dave; Tom it's a combination of money & time I think, more the money. We will be downsizing/moving this year and this will free up some money (for my hobby according to my wife) for me to get the body and paint done. The downsizing will probably mean going from a double-car garage to a single, that's gonna hurt. Last time I had it on the road was 1999 so the motivation comes and goes, reading others stories helps keep the fire burning though.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2015 18:55:26 GMT -5
Wish it was just the weather Dave; Tom it's a combination of money & time I think, more the money. We will be downsizing/moving this year and this will free up some money (for my hobby according to my wife) for me to get the body and paint done. The downsizing will probably mean going from a double-car garage to a single, that's going to hurt. Last time I had it on the road was 1999 so the motivation comes and goes, reading others stories helps keep the fire burning though. Alan, I am glad to hear that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I don't think I am alone in missing your participation on the site. More than anything else, I enjoy member updates, by people who do their own work. However, I understand that it's not always easy when you are not actively working on your car. I am in the same boat for slightly different reasons. Now...if I could just get your fellow Canadian Steve "Green-Go" to start posting again.
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Post by CDN72SE on Jan 21, 2015 8:53:40 GMT -5
Oh yes Green-Go, I miss his posts, wish I had his painting skill. Maybe I should do a little update, thanks for the comments Tom and lets see the next car in it's shelter!
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