I would put a fourth on that. ... View more

Really need a video or two of the track and cars to show what a half mile concrete wide oval looks like. ... View more

Climate hemming and hawing is just politics. The whole Climate Change movement is starting from a bad premise. No one knows what the climate is supposed to be, in any place, on any day. The Climate has always changed, it always will. The planet is dynamic, not static. To think you can control or even steer the planets climate is an ego trip of EPIC proportion. Also, carbon is what plants eat and use to put oxygen back in the air for all of us who breathe oxygen. I seem to remember; when they have taken cores from thousands to millions of years old ice: It showed that the earth was far more lush and green an had much higher levels of carbon and oxygen in the air, then today. Carbon is NOT the enemy, any more then mankind is. ... View more

Kyle; Since no one has offered to assume the role: Let me take the place of the Devin on your shoulder. "Buy it! You'll never see that stuff again. When you have all that you'll be THE Corvair guy! Think of the possibilities to help fellow enthusiasts with their rides as well as your own. It's not a matter of Want Kyle, it's a matter of NEED... Remember... "Build it and they will come". You're welcome. 🙂 ... View more

Hey Kyle; Can't some of that be accidentally dropped off at Jack's new digs? ... View more

Spectacular!!! Vive la France! ... View more

Robert and Sajeev: That is a really cool car and deserves everything you're doing to it. That said; if you're not a pretty good fabricator and really good all around wrench, you'll need to find a good builder. Regarding the fuel injection, because Sajeev went in a bit more on that aspect; I think it would be simpler to use an aftermarket system (MegaSquirt comes to mind) rather than trying to use the original wiring harnesses to run the fuel injection. There are some excellent kits from people like Fatman Fabrications and many others, for putting a new front end on that car. ... View more

Neat car Thomas! There is one, much like that, same color, (but it has the even more rare roll back top option along with the roof rack) that shows up at the annual Back to the 50's Show up here in Minnesota. The show starts on Friday this week if anyone is interested. You can go to the Minnesota Street Rod Association website for details. ... View more

Da Bears! ... View more

Oooooh... AMC = Ain't My Car. 🙂 Told to me by another guy whose family had a lot of AMC's while he was growing up. ... View more

Hey Jack; If you or someone else finds a Mercury Bobcat and turbo etc, I'm in for the wrenching party! Let me know! ... View more

Very cool Paul! I owned a '69 Chrysler 300 a long time ago. Mine was a 350hp 440 and automatic. I too am from Minnesota and it's nice to see an old car like that that's not completely cancerous. My friends and I like to call they Newport an Airport, because the trunk lid is large enough to land an airplane on. We even went so far as to use part of the script from a Bel Air and the other part from a Newport and make a custom emblem for a friends car. ... View more

That's a great idea: Jack you need a Screaming Chicken on that car! 🙂 ... View more

Hey Sajeev; Is that computer named Hal or possibly Colossus? 🙂 ... View more

Bleep on brother Sajeev! Bleep on. 🙂 ... View more

I too am not a huge fan of the '70's El Camino's. Way too big for me. I own a '64 and a '67 currently. I've had the '64 for over 20 years and have done several different types of front ends, disc brakes, upgraded steering box and sway bars, a 5-speed, a healthy 327 engine with a Smokey Ram intake and now EFI. The Smokey Ram seems to by made for EFI. 🙂 The '67 is a 41000 mile original car that was used on a farm, as a farm car, here in Minnesota, so it saw it's **bleep** Machine Nationals in July. ... View more

Yes, you are correct. Although a lot of guys were overboring the 283 blocks to 4 inch bores to create their own 302 engines in the early sixties. A lot of the 283 blocks had really thick walls to allow that large overbore. That may have been where Ford got the idea for over boring their 289 engine to the 302 size. ... View more

MO problem Sajeev. I've been bleeped, for no reason, before. 🙂 ... View more

Wonderful story John! Since the steering box is bad, now might be the time to upgrade it to a nice 12:1 fast steering box. I've done that many times on a lot of A-body GM cars (including several Tempest/Lemans/GTO's) and it makes a huge difference in the driving. An upgrade to KYB **bleep** highway or more speeds. Love the car! Feel free to touch base with me if you need any help. ... View more

That funny right there... "Cutting Edge Thinking.. " 🙂 I tell you what. ... View more

Wow! That is seriously SEXY! If a guy had money; I'd be seriously inclined to have someone build a replica, maybe using a Buick straight 8 for power? Mr. Frankel, you are a very lucky man. Thank you and Mr. Lipman for this story. ... View more

Hey Sajeev; I believe the OP is speaking of the wheel bearing caps. If it's just one side that's coming off; my first suggestion would be to switch sides with the other bearing cap. If that doesn't fix the problem, it might be time to get a new cap from a better manufacturer like Dorman. I have had trouble with some of the bearing caps that come in disc brake kits previously. I suppose, a guy could use some sort of loctite or krazy glue and glue the cap in place. ... View more

Amen! I don't care about EV or ICE, I care about FREEDOM. ... View more

Hey Rob; Good story! I read, a long time ago and many times since, to 'buy what you really like and enjoy and you'll always have somethgin you like and enjoy'. I always thought that was sound thinking and have tried to follow that in many parts of my life. Sometimes I, like you, didn't adhere to that thinking and got kicked in the shins pretty good. Then I, as the saying goes, 'dusted myself off and started over again'. Times like that really hurt, but you hope it might build up the depth of your wisdom, so you might not be quite so naïve in the future. So far it's worked for me. ... View more

Mr. Smith; if that's really your name... 🙂 You're one of my great heroes. I love, understand and would love to be a part of a similar build. I'd do it with one of my Chevelles, but while they are somewhat rusty, they're just too nice to do that with. So, this Summer, I'm looking for a really beat up Chevelle or Tempest to do somethgin similar. Several of my friends are in too. In the mean time, until I find that car, we'll be working on putting a fuel injection system on my buddies '66 Chevelle. Finishing the body off the frame re-build of another buddies '67 El Camino. Doing a six cylinder to v8 swap (the V8 is a 41,000 mile original, from the aforementioned '67 El Camino) on my beat up '64 Chevelle 4-door. I drive it everyday in the warmer months. Now that I think about it, there's a '63 Chevy C10 around the block. It hasn't moved it years... I wonder if it's for sale? ... View more

Those intakes were called the Max Ram. Very cool to see and excellent torque in use. The Ramchargers were doing somethgin like this on their car called "High and Mighty" back in '60 or so. ... View more

Hey Nik; That sounds like the perfect time to paint it black and gold, then put a supercharger on it and let's find out how many pieces we can break the crankshaft into? 🙂 🙂 🙂 ... View more

That's funny right there; I tell you what... 🙂 ... View more

Wow! I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.. UGH! I grew up in an AMC family, but that's just not good looking at all. ... View more

I believer that was a tag line for Ziebart of Rusty Jones, or possibly some other spray on rust preventative company, in the early 70's. Good marketing. 🙂 ... View more

Yes! Heading to Tee Public right now to have one made. 🙂 ... View more

I'm hoping at least some of the racing will be televised! ... View more

Once again Cam, after reading your current essay, I am glad to have never purchased a New car. Many years ago, I had ventured into a Dealer and looked at a new truck, but just couldn't get my arms around the value of a piece of equipment that lost 30-40% of it's value when I drove it off the lot. That's a bit different now, but the current offerings from car manufacturers all combined give me a case of the yawns. I've found, over the years, that I prefer to purchase something older, for a much smaller amount of money, then modify and upgrade to my hearts content and then I have something I really want to drive. I do like the whole boxer concept though, I've never owned a boxer powered car. Maybe it's time to work on a Corvair? ... View more

Good article Rob; Love the pics! I'm more of an American muscle and hot rod guy. I've owned a lot of different makes and models over the years. What I keep ending up with, long term, is GM A-bodies from the mid sixties. I've had my '64 El Camino for over 20 and my '64 Chevelle more door for 17 or so. I have a '67 El Camino in my shop, right now, in two major and a LOT of smaller pieces. It will be back together and running an a couple months. I've owned and worked on a lot of '64-67 Pontiac Lemans, Tempests GTO's, a few Buick Special/Skylarks and even the occasional Olds Cutlass/F85. I've had and built several Camaros and Firebirds and occasionally even a couple Impala's and other larger stablemates, but I keep ending up with A-body cars. I get where you're coming from, I have a huge stash of parts, and accumulated knowledge on these cars and I really enjoy how they drive and work; especially after you update a few things like shocks and springs, sway bars, tires and wheels and even fuel injection on a couple. That makes it easy for me to pull the trigger on a new purchase that's in the monetary ball park. The only problem for me is that monetary ball park is getting smaller and smaller, because too many other people love them also. Still they're really what I like, so I keep going back to them. ... View more

I think synthetic fuels is a great idea. Of course, if anyone can actually make it work, for a reasonable price, the green people will soon come up with a strategy to cancel and/or destroy the industry, because it goes against their strategy of eliminating individual freedom. 🙂 But, that's free enterprise... ... View more

Excellent story! I dig the car too. MY family has a LOT of Ramblers and AMC's when I was growing up, including a '70 Rebel SST. ... View more

The best advice is to speak with the engine builder! Now if you're absolutely set on running a tunnel ram, on the street, I'd go with EFI! Otherwise the cold starts can be a real pain if the ambient temp gets down much below 65f or so. ... View more

I dig it! Love old wagons, especially the wood sided wagons. Thank you Thomas! ... View more

Agreed on the lack of trunk space Adrian. Not their best effort, especially when compared with the Viper and all the good stuff that came later. ... View more

I need one! Real or not I just want one for the Garage wall. 🙂 ... View more

Wow Norman! Who would've thought my '68 Chevy C10, with the 6 cyl and three on the tree had so much in common with a Porsche! 🙂 So, deep down inside, that old truck was really an exotic German Sports Car. Extraordinary. ... View more

Looking at the drawings, pictures etc, of the various vehicles in this article; I see one glaring reason they probably wouldn't sell well. Most of them, with the exception of the 510 and possibly the white convertible, are just not very good looking. (I didn't want to go full negative and call them butt ugly, 'cuz that would just be mean.) The Prowler was ok, but it needed a V8, not a **bleep** little V6. That and better colors and some better looking than the appendages that served as bumpers. The rest are just yuk. ... View more

WOW! I think this just shows how good the chemicals were back in the late 50's. Amazing! ... View more

Ya! Dyno Day is always fun. 😉 ... View more

Dig it! That might be even more fun with a OD 5-speed! ... View more

Love the real wagons! Even better with wood grain sides. In my youth, one of our football coaches would transport most of the team in their Plymouth wagon to games in the area. So their 9-passenger wagon became a 12-14 football player wagon. We were in 3rd or 4th grade at the time, but fully suited up, ready for the game. In a crash I'd take the wagon any day. Particularly if the two machines were in an equal state of non-rust. Those old wagons didn't need a crumple zone. They were strong enough to shrug off any new car like it was a bug. VIVA the 440! ... View more

"Eventually you put childish things aside"; I agree. But, sometimes, later in life, you could be lucky enough to re-discover those early passions and they can transform from childish to child like joys, that entertain and help to inform your perspective; in a way that keeps you young. 🙂 ... View more

Hear, hear! ... View more

Feel free to touch base; if you get into that situation again Sajeev. ... View more

Hey Kyle; Since you start out this missive with; "Cross thread, damaged thread" I think it should be pointed out here that using a tap or die to repair threads is a bad idea. Or as our British friends might put it; "Bad Form". 🙂 Taps and dies are for cutting threads. Many, possibly most, bolts in industry are formed rather than cut . That means the metal of the bolt shank is moved around to create the threads, not cut. One removes the metal and the other simply moves the metal to create a thread. The same is true of female threads, in fewer cases. Formed threads are stronger and tend to last longer. Now if you have a thread that just needs to be straightened, use a re-threader, rather than a tap or die. A quality re-threader will also tend to re-form the threads rather than remove metal. Re-threader sets (they tend to come with both threaders for both male and female threads) are fairly inexpensive and should be in everyone's tool box. Now if you have a bunged up thread, but don't have a re-threader tap or die you can make one. In the case of a bad female thread, just take a new bolt, with good threads, and use a Dremel or similar cutting disc to cut lined along the length of the shank. This will create reliefs that give a place for gunk or loose material to go when you are re-threading a hold. Use some lubricant when re-threading just like when tapping. Any good tapping fluid will work here. Got one that is particularly stubborn? You can always turn the bolt or re-threader into the hole till it gets tight then tap the head with a hammer, then turn a little more. The shock loading will tend to straighten more damaged threads and help them to re-form back into useful threads. Yes, it takes patience and time, but when done properly it will save threads and greater aggravation over time. The same rules and techniques work on trying to straighten out male threads, if you can't find a good new bolt. Now if the female threads are just too far gone, then it's time to break out the Threaded Coil insert as sold under several brand names, but I think that would be another great article at a different time. ... View more