Customers' cars / Stuff I do

[Don @ Maritime Drag Racing]

Moving a bunch of Spencer's posts from the old board. Just did his posts with the photos - didn't bother with any posts without photos.

I get to work on what I consider some pretty neat old cars; figure I should share a few pics of them. I spent Tuesday & Wednesday on a little road trip; I was out of town working on a regular customer's collection. Chased down a blown fuse and installed a fan shroud on the red 55 Chevy 150 sedan, tightened up a few loose bolts on the Lokar shifter and brake pedal(scary loose!) of the 55 pickup. Spent the majority of time on the black 55 convertible installing a Classic Instruments cluster with all new senders, Custom Autosound stereo & speakers, an oil pressure safety switch for the electric fuel pump, seatbelts(who built this car with no belts?), back up light switch & wiring, LED park/signal lights front & rear, "tri-bar" halogen headlights. Also found(and removed) a ballast resistor hidden down behind the motor restricting voltage to the coil even though it was wired to a Mallory Unilite dizzy.

The 55 "post" has been all over the northeast to dozens of shows and rod runs in the last 10 years; it's well used with a mild 350/TH350 and I've installed lots of creature comforts like cruise control and a big stereo.


The early 55 truck is somewhat deceptive; under the hood is a GM 454 crate motor/TH400; it scoots right along.

The black convert is a recent addition to my customer's collection; it has a ZZ383 GM crate motor, Tremec 5-speed and a new Currie 9". Lots of cool touches; a Demon 3x2bbl setup, a beefy scattershield covering up what looks like a centerforce dual-disc clutch, 4 wheel disc brakes and a real high-end black/white tuck'n'roll interior. I'm pretty sure this one will replace the red sedan as his favorite.


I have to go back in a couple of weeks to finish a few things on the convertible; found a bad rag-joint in the steering column and I'm going to add some more seatbelts for back seat passengers. Plus there's a long list of things to do to his other vehicles; a 40 Willys(all steel with a nasty 468), a 69 SS 396 Camaro(actually now with a 454) and a 71 SS 454 Chevelle. Oh and I forgot the shop truck; a 68 3/4 ton Chev with the original 327 and Tremec 5-speed. Hopefully by then the newest addition will be there; a 55 Nomad with a ZZ502 Ram-Jet in it.

[Don @ Maritime Drag Racing]

Back to my out of town customer for a couple of day work; finished up the seat belts and installed the rag joint on the black 55 Convertible; also discovered about 45 degrees of play in the steering box. Got rid of half of it with some adjustment but it may have to be replaced. Also made and installed some shims to keep the rear sway bar from hitting the rear end housing. Did a bunch more to the gray & white pickup; tore the Ididit column all apart to replace the screw holding the signal lever(literally fell off on the floor), plus tighten all the screws holding the column in and together. Also tightened all the screws on the Lokar throttle linkage; whoever built this truck needs a swift kick in the gonads. I told the owner that if he wants to take it anymore than 10 miles from home we should go over it from end to end; EVERWHERE you look there's stuff falling off.
Installed a set of AirLift bags inside the rear springs of the 1971 Chevelle SS(clone); I previously had put aftermarket control arms and traction bars on it because it wheel hopped so bad it was scary to drive. The bags were the final piece of the puzzle; the car was always a bit too low in the back, and all it needed was 12 psi in the bags to bring it up about 1.5".
I investigated a part to full throttle miss on the 69 3/4 ton shop truck and found the dizzy loose and about 50 degrees total/20+ initial. Dialed it back to a more sensible 36 on the mild 327 plus changed the HEI advance from ported to full vacuum. It sounds a bunch happier, but by the amount of blow by coming out of the valve cover breather I think a rebuild is in my future. Not a bad day's work.
Tomorrow I tackle a bunch of little stuff on the 40 Willys and adjust the 4 wheel drum brakes(!!!!!) on the red 55.
Here's a couple of more pics, including the 69 Camaro SS that I worked on last trip but forgot to include.







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[Don @ Maritime Drag Racing]

Did it again; worked on something really cool and forgot to take pics! :BangHead: I was tasked with getting a vehicle running that's been sitting for 5 or 6 years; always a challenge. 1966 Galaxie 500 convertible; I started to drool when saw the "7-liter" badge as I opened the garage door and thought to myself "If this thing is a 427 I'm going to freak out!". But it was only a 428. The words "only" and "428" don't really belong in the same sentence, do they?
The car is for sale and a potential customer from out of province has agreed to the asking price ($15,000), but only if it runs and drives(at least enough to get it onto a transporter). Sad story, really; owner died 5 years ago and his widow is finally ready to let go of the car collection; the Galaxie, a 66 T-Bird and a 74 Lincoln Town Car. She is keeping(at her late husband's dying request) the 1966 Fairlane GT 390 convertible(more drool) for one of the grandchildren. The Galaxie looks pretty straight and has fresh paint but a ratty interior and is a little crusty underneath. He had it 90% done before he died and never got to drive it.
I dumped a couple og gallons of fuel into the tank and after an initial quick check found a newish but dead battery(expected that); installed one of mine and got it cranking after cleaning the connections on the solenoid. Cranking it for 30 seconds produced no fuel at the carb(no surprise) and no spark; could this get any worse? Popped off the cap and found a Pertronics conversion; the first good sign. Typically, older Fords have a resistance wire from the ignition switch to the coil instead of a ballast resistor; this often can't provide enough voltage to turn on the aftermarket ignition module. A temporary jumper from battery to coil and now we have spark, plus a squirt of fuel down the carb and it flashed right up for a few seconds. Unhooked the fuel line from the carb and fed some fuel into it from a squirt bottle and the thing now starts and idles fine. Still nothing from the fuel pump, so I unhook the line going into it and prime with my squirt bottle a few times. The pump eventually comes to life and actually starts to draw from the bottle by itself, but now I look over at the carb and there's fuel coming out of all 4 vent tubes. The little old widow lady comes to the garage when she hears it running and tells me "no problem; there's another rebuilt carb in that stack of boxes". We find it and decide enough for today, I'll come back in a couple of days with a compressor to try and blow out the fuel line and install the carb.
When I return, I swap the carb and run a new ignition wire from the switch to the coil so now it has spark without the hot wire jumper. Try to blow out the fuel line back to the tank and not a bubble; jack it up and disconnect the like from the tank and blow a bunch of gunk out of the line, but still can't blow into the tank. I discover one more good thing; the sender can be removed without dropping the tank. Pop out the lock ring an pull the sender; YEEECCCHHHH! The line is crustier than you can imagine, the sock is rotted off and the line is plugged with something 100% of the whole length. Actually had to force a fish wire through it to clean in out. Made a new sock out of piece of coarse cloth and stuck it back together. Reprime the fuel pump and it actually picked up the fuel from the tank after 15 seconds. Yay! It runs! Except now I find fuel dripping from the carb inlet fitting; previously stripped and I guess not noticed by the rebuilder. Fixed with some thread sealant and I'm finally ready for a test drive. Whoa!(or rather lack of woah; NO BRAKES!) Ram it back in park before I can hit anything. I'm done; it now runs and drives; no asked me to make it stop. :wink: Seller, buyer and transport driver have all been warned about the brakes.
This week's upcoming projects include a Pro Street 71 Monte Carlo with a 598 in it; I PROMISE to take pics.

Edit: Found a pic of the Galaxie; got it from the broker. It did sell and it 's now somewhere in Ontario

[Don @ Maritime Drag Racing]

Finally got to work on the Nomad; it is indeed spectacular! Probably the nicest vehicle I've ever wrenched on. Full on, no expense spared, "Street Rod" style build. The 502 Ram-Jet breathes through 3" fabricated stainless dual exhaust with Spin-Tech mufflers and sounds almost as good as it looks. The interior is all ultra-leather with custom fabricated polished stainless trim. A trick center console hides all the extra switching(including a Line-Loc!), there's a hidden audio system, power locks, power windows, power seat, Classic Industries cluster, Vintage Air. Saw the bill for it , too; $20,000 for the interior work. Full aftermarket chassis with a power rack up front and 4-link in the rear. Mini-tubbed enough for a 285-40-18 tire in the back and slammed to about a 4" ride height. It's got a shaved hood and gas door, but the coolest body mod: push a button on the dash and the left tail light slides open and rotates sideways out of the way for access to the fuel filler neck. After gassing up, hit the switch again and it closes back over. Flawless black paint that looks a foot deep; customer complains he has a hard time getting a good pic of the car because you can always see what's beside it mirrored on the flat sides. I spent about a day on it installing an alarm system and a back up camera & monitor plus fixing a few little things.
Also cool(but not noticed by the owner) is the fact that it wears the same style Billet Specialties wheels as his black 55 convertible.

[Don @ Maritime Drag Racing]

Man, is it July already? I had great intentions of adding to this thread every week or so, but I've been so busy with both work and racing(or rather repairing the ravages of racing) that I've let it go stale for over two months. There's been a few nice rides to work on, but as usual I don't have pics of them all. A couple of memorable ones this week are both convertibles; a numbers matching 69 SS/RS 325hp 396/TH400 Camaro that is mostly unmolested except for the obvious 17" Torque-Thrusts and a pair of mid length headers. The paint is even 15 years old; that's when it was restored.


The other ragtop is even rarer; a 1966 Impala S/S 396 4-speed(!!!!). It wears 427 fender emblems because the original owner(there's only been two) had a 390hp 427 GM crate motor installed in 1968. This car has had one repaint about 10 years ago, but has never been restored. It is an amazing "survivor".

[Don @ Maritime Drag Racing]

Almost forgot this one; actually worked on it last year, but it's first "outing" was last weekend. It now wears a Fiat Topolino altered body, but underneath is an actual 1976 Ken cox chassis AA/FC Veney's Vega.



This thing has been lovingly restored/updated by my friends Pat & Linda Neal and will eventually have the old Funny Car body reinstalled when it's done.
For now it's getting the bugs out with just the fuel injection, but will have a period-correct blower in it's final completed form.
I believe my brother posted a link to the build of this thing, but I'll post it again. By the way, Pat builds and Linda drives.

www.theaccelerationarchive.co.uk/features/veneys/vega_01.html