Classic Car thread

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

9 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

Probably $20k for paint. And that’s not counting the metal work that will need to be done.

It’s absolutely insane what it costs to redo old cars now.

The biggest problem with a new paint job is then you're worried about every little scratch, nick, road bruise. I drive my car when the temperature, and sun allows. My car has a decent paint job, a little rust bubble on the drivers door, and several slight scratches here, and there, a new one would look amazing, but not gonna think about that for a while. 

That paint job looks like it needs to be re done with the actual peeling paint, and other blemishes.  Painting would be done after I'd taken care of the interior, under the hood, and body.

$20k ?  That still seems a bit high on a small car like that, but of course the quality of the paint, and the skill of the painter would factor in.

[TexasEd 8,067]

1 hour ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

The biggest problem with a new paint job is then you're worried about every little scratch, nick, road bruise. I drive my car when the temperature, and sun allows. My car has a decent paint job, a little rust bubble on the drivers door, and several slight scratches here, and there, a new one would look amazing, but not gonna think about that for a while. 

That paint job looks like it needs to be re done with the actual peeling paint, and other blemishes.  Painting would be done after I'd taken care of the interior, under the hood, and body.

$20k ?  That still seems a bit high on a small car like that, but of course the quality of the paint, and the skill of the painter would factor in.

I have the interior handled.  Done/doing it all myself.  Engine is fine until I am ready to deep dive on it.  It burns a little oil but still is pretty strong for what it was built to do.  I already rebuilt suspension, steering, fuel delivery, and exhaust.  The punch list is:

• Headliner (needs to be done with windows out
• Finish AC install in progress (Upper dash is out now and would be good to have out for painting)
• Recover upholstery (All out and ready to start now)
• Fix window regulators (out and ready to go back in)
• New weather-stripping everywhere
• Paint and body.

I'm just at that point where the paint is the logical thing to do but dropping the money is a psychological barrier for us.

[Assman 1,830]

For reference, it cost $9,300 to completely paint my K5 with very minimal rust repair.  This included installation of new weatherstripping and seals on the entire truck, along with a new windshield. 

[Assman 1,830]

Which I don't think I've even posted pics of since it's come out of paint.  Now that we moved to a new house with a taller garage since these pics were taken, I'm going to go a little bigger on tires to close that gap.  Also note the puddle of coolant there showing the exact moment my heater core decided to shit the bed.  That was a fun project.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Assman

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

36 minutes ago, Assman said:

For reference, it cost $9,300 to completely paint my K5 with very minimal rust repair.  This included installation of new weatherstripping and seals on the entire truck, along with a new windshield. 

Yeah you can get a good paint job for less than $10K on a 60's Mustang, especially a convertible.  The Blazer looks good BTW !

Edited January 20, 2022 by Onboard 2.0

[Native Horn 3,504]

On 1/15/2022 at 5:11 PM, Prepuce of Doom said:

Hard to find more information besides this, but there was a high bid of $20m in 2019 - not sure if that means or did or didn't sell though. 

 

Do y'all not see the price tag of $35,000,000?

[Texzilla58 4,738]

Which I don't think I've even posted pics of since it's come out of paint.  Now that we moved to a new house with a taller garage since these pics were taken, I'm going to go a little bigger on tires to close that gap.  Also note the puddle of coolant there showing the exact moment my heater core decided to shit the bed.  That was a fun project.

Had a girlfriend in college with a K5 and it’s one of my favorites. Good lookin Blazer!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Prepuce of Doom 21,083]

1 hour ago, Native Horn said:

Do y'all not see the price tag of $35,000,000?

No, I sure didn't. But upon enlarging and looking at it (and the fine print) it's pretty clear! 

[utee94 15,834]

27 minutes ago, Texzilla58 said:

Had a girlfriend in college with a K5 and it’s one of my favorites. Good lookin Blazer!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Had a girlfriend in high school with a K5.  I loved that vehicle.

 

[Prepuce of Doom 21,083]

I had a girlfriend in middle school with a K5. I miss that vehicle. 

[Herbie Hancock 7,368]

I have a 1994 K5 that is in the early stages of getting a frame off restoration started. By early stages I mean in the last two months I’ve removed the hood and front grille/core support assembly. I loved it before I started working on it, now I just kinda like it.

[CooterBrown 18,015]

Yeah the numbers matching thing can be a big deal, and there are definitely not as many 64 1/2's running around out there.  
If it's a coupe I personally wouldn't be so worried about the numbers thing unless the car was already in pretty concourse condition, a low production special edition, or that was the direction I was going for restoration.  A V8, disc brakes, power steering, and 3 point belts would be the 4 things I'd do to a car if I was gonna drive it as a semi daily driver.

Watching Hoovie’s Garage and with regards to him buying a classic corvette that had the matching VINs, he said most rebuild shops will stamp whatever VIN you want on an engine or transmission so it matches your car.

[TexasEd 8,067]

I jump into the VIN discussion from August

I'm not an authority on this but everything I have read and my own experience is that classic mustangs did not have the VIN stamped on the engine blocks.  VIN location was/is on the driver side fender apron or inner fender and then there were copies in the dash and on the door tag.  The VIN included an engine code letter to tell you which engine was equipped from the factory.  The block had date codes stamped or cast into various parts so you could look at the block, intake, carb tag, manifolds, etc and see the correct part numbers and date codes for the parts on your car.  Old mustangs are all about the combination of correct part numbers and date codes.  I have most of the original equipment from my car that was built in Jan 1969 and the date codes are mostly from Dec 1968.

 

Picture of date stamp on my dash cluster that is sitting in my office. 

Edited January 21, 2022 by TexasEd

[tbone_ 14,129]

Yea I’d always heard you can’t tell by vin if a Mustang engine was original.

[Anastasis 23,475]

They started adding VINS to the small blocks in 68 model year (Mine is Feb 1968 build and has a partial VIN on the block). The earlier K codes engines had a VIN, but none of the others.  At least that is my understanding. 

[TexasEd 8,067]

So my shop got back to me.  (same one that @Horn of Gabriel took his car to.)  They have a backlog of 8-12 months before they could get me in so I will put my car back together for now so I can drive it this spring/summer and then take the interior out again before I take it to them.  Once they have it it will be 6-12 months of work before I get it back.

 

 

[Anastasis 23,475]

4 minutes ago, TexasEd said:

So my shop got back to me.  (same one that @Horn of Gabriel took his car to.)  They have a backlog of 8-12 months before they could get me in so I will put my car back together for now so I can drive it this spring/summer and then take the interior out again before I take it to them.  Once they have it it will be 6-12 months of work before I get it back.

 

 

Might have missed it, but did they give you a price quote?

[Anastasis 23,475]

This is the location of the VIN on the engine block.  Its a partial, on rear of block, on flat surface near the intake manifold. 

[TexasEd 8,067]

4 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Might have missed it, but did they give you a price quote?

in 2020 they said "about $10K" after looking at it.  He did not confirm that today.  I have a solid car (he mentioned remembering that on the phone) and I already repaired the driver floor pan rust I found (they did not know about) and I'm going to do a lot of the prep work taking out the interior, etc.  So things I know I can do efficiently I'll take care of. Things I don't want to touch are the stainless trim, front & back glass, or headliner.

 

  

1 minute ago, Anastasis said:

This is the location of the VIN on the engine block.  Its a partial, on rear of block, on flat surface near the intake manifold. 

 Yep, mine it blank there.  I think it is the original 302 block.

Edited January 21, 2022 by TexasEd

[Anastasis 23,475]

7 minutes ago, TexasEd said:

 Yep, mine it blank there.  I think it is the original 302 block.

Has the block been rebuilt?  According to some on the forums, it might be machined off during a rebuild. Mine is barely legible as is, it's not a good stamping at all. 

And like all these old cars, there is a lot of variation between the different factories and even within a particular factory. My car was built in San Jose and doesn't have the VIN stamped in the notch in the fender. It is hidden on the apron under the fender. 

 

 

[Horn of Gabriel 1,619]

4 hours ago, TexasEd said:

So my shop got back to me.  (same one that @Horn of Gabriel took his car to.)  They have a backlog of 8-12 months before they could get me in so I will put my car back together for now so I can drive it this spring/summer and then take the interior out again before I take it to them.  Once they have it it will be 6-12 months of work before I get it back.

 

 

They do good work.  I need to take the Cuda back to them to see if we can knock out the overheating issue.  They called me the other day suggesting that the engine rebuilder we outsourced the 383 re-do to may have failed to flush it correctly and a possibility is that there is debris in the water channels impacting flow.  They want to do a power flush and see if they can get anything out.  I'm at a loss right now and will try anything; I hardly drive it because i can't trust it right now

[Mother mopar 3,319]

They do good work.  I need to take the Cuda back to them to see if we can knock out the overheating issue.  They called me the other day suggesting that the engine rebuilder we outsourced the 383 re-do to may have failed to flush it correctly and a possibility is that there is debris in the water channels impacting flow.  They want to do a power flush and see if they can get anything out.  I'm at a loss right now and will try anything; I hardly drive it because i can't trust it right now

How hot is it running? Mopars run on the hot side from experience. I had a challenger that would run 215 no matter what I did to try and keep it cooler.

[Horn of Gabriel 1,619]

Going down the road it’ll settle in at 190-200. Sitting at a light it goes up and up and doesn’t stop. I saw the gauge hit 250 at a long light before I was able to get moving again, freaked me out that it would going to boil over and make some damage. It does burp coolant out of the rad overflow tank.

[Mother mopar 3,319]

Going down the road it’ll settle in at 190-200. Sitting at a light it goes up and up and doesn’t stop. I saw the gauge hit 250 at a long light before I was able to get moving again, freaked me out that it would going to boil over and make some damage. It does burp coolant out of the rad overflow tank.

No doubt 250 is HOT. Something is up, radiator, t-Stat, fan clutch, cooling fan installed backwards.

[Horn of Gabriel 1,619]

20 hours ago, Mother mopar said:

21 hours ago, Horn of Gabriel said:

Going down the road it’ll settle in at 190-200. Sitting at a light it goes up and up and doesn’t stop. I saw the gauge hit 250 at a long light before I was able to get moving again, freaked me out that it would going to boil over and make some damage. It does burp coolant out of the rad overflow tank.

No doubt 250 is HOT. Something is up, radiator, t-Stat, fan clutch, cooling fan installed backwards.

I'm at a loss; we've done so much:

• Engine was rebuilt by a reputable rebuilder (WCH racing engines in Midlothian, TX)
  • Bored over
  • New rings, pistons, seals
  • Broke in and bench dyno'd 
• Replaced undersized x-flow rad with OEM correct sized down flow rad
• Added rad fan shroud
• Removed fan clutch, fan is now direct drive (yes it's facing the correct direction, LOL)
• Added FiTech TBFI system which should in theory run the mix correctly so it's not overly rich or anything
• Removed old headers for ceramic headers
• Also wrapped those headers
• New fluids obviously

Yet it still is having this heat issue.  At this point if the flush doesn't do the trick, I'm wondering if they might have messed up the bore and gotten too aggressive, maybe the cylinder walls got too thin or something?  Seems unlikely but possible?  Any other ideas?

[tbone_ 14,129]

My 68 Firebird 400 would overheat when I got it. Ran about 210 normal and would spike very easy. Here’s a few things I did to get it down to running normally at 170ish:

New thermostat - 165 I think
Heavy duty aluminum oversized dual core radiator. My guy said dual core better than 4 core because the tubes are bigger and you want as much water flow as possible.
Replaced fan blade to a different kind (not sure exactly what)
Replaced a missing sheet metal valance that goes under the nose and forces air through the radiator instead of going under the car

If I read correctly that you have an oe style radiator I’d look to a bigger one.

[Mother mopar 3,319]

I'm at a loss; we've done so much:

• Engine was rebuilt by a reputable rebuilder (WCH racing engines in Midlothian, TX)
  • Bored over
  • New rings, pistons, seals
  • Broke in and bench dyno'd 
• Replaced undersized x-flow rad with OEM correct sized down flow rad
• Added rad fan shroud
• Removed fan clutch, fan is now direct drive (yes it's facing the correct direction, LOL)
• Added FiTech TBFI system which should in theory run the mix correctly so it's not overly rich or anything
• Removed old headers for ceramic headers
• Also wrapped those headers
• New fluids obviously

Yet it still is having this heat issue.  At this point if the flush doesn't do the trick, I'm wondering if they might have messed up the bore and gotten too aggressive, maybe the cylinder walls got too thin or something?  Seems unlikely but possible?  Any other ideas?

To get the cylinder walls to be that thin your machinist would be tempting fate to bore it over 0.060. What was the temp on the dyno? If the temp was good there then it's not the engine. It's something secondary on the car. What is your full in timing? If you are too far advanced/lean the engine will run hot.

If this was built by a reputable builder and the over heating stating during dyno I'd be taking it back.

I'm sure you did a lot of work to find the source of this, just tossing out ideas that I've come across throughout my years.

[TexasEd 8,067]

1 hour ago, tbone_ said:

Replaced a missing sheet metal valance that goes under the nose and forces air through the radiator instead of going under the car

This is what I was going to say. Do you have adequate shrouding to pull air through instead of around the radiator. Fan needs to be in the shroud too. 

When you're driving the motion gets the air through. When you are stopped the fan and shroud have to do it all. 

Will a piece of paper stick to the front when idling?

Edited January 23, 2022 by TexasEd

[Assman 1,830]

When you replaced the engine, did you install a serpentine belt system or change the belt routing at all?  Water pump might be turning the wrong direction now.

Make sure thermostat isn't upside down. (I've done this myself)

Are you sure all the air is out of the system?  Try drilling a small 1/8" hole in the thermostat to let air pass through.  Jack the front of the car up to make sure the radiator cap is the absolute highest point when burping the system.

Like others have said, make sure the shroud in front of the radiator is more or less air tight, not letting air pass around the radiator instead of through it.

[Scooter Monzingo 821]

I took my grandson’s to Mecum last week. They had over 3500 cars, along with road art, motorcycles, and complete engine assemblies from modern cars for use in resto-mods.

If you haven’t attended one of these, give it a try. I actually stopped looking at Hemi Cuda’s, GTX’s, Road Runners, Challangers, because the fucking things were everywhere. You become somewhat desensitized because of the high level of quality. Park any of them at my local Wal-Mart and you would get a crowd of 20 in 30 minutes. Around 100 others…not so much. 

[956 Worldwide 34,715]

I paid a visit to the Czech National Technical Museum.  The whole place is worth a visit but here’s a few of the best pieces on display.

This Tatra 77a was produced in the mid to late 1930s and was the world’s first aerodynamic car to be produced at any scale. As with a lot of Czech stuff, there is some weirdness. A tiny 3.4 liter air cooled V8 is parked out back.  It was not big on power but the slippery nature of the car meant it could cruise at over 90 mph- extremely fast for pre-war. Inside, it was a luxury automobile.  Hitler himself was a fan and declared it the “car for his roads.” After occupation, Nazi officers preferred the car to their own German makes.  All that weight behind the rear axle and high speeds on pre-war tires mean snap oversteer.  The car gained a reputation as a “Nazi-killer.” Ferdinand Porsche “borrowed” a lot of ideas from Tatra with this make and others to build his Volkswagen and after the war had to pay a judgment.

This was the car’s successor, the Tatra 87a.  Powered by a 2.9 liter air cooled V8, it got up to over 100 mph in the immediate postwar era.  It was among the fastest cars of its time.  The build quality on these was incredible.  Two beloved Czech adventurers, Zikmund and Hanzelka, drove one of these across some of the worst roads in the world on a driving tour of Africa and Latin America.  The two of them learned that the Communists took over in a coup while out on their journey. They came back and were allowed to publish (wildly popular) books but eventually bumped up against Commie power and became dissidents. 
 

Maybe one of the most valuable things in the collection, which includes a Supermarine Spitfire.  A 1938 W154 Mercedes Benz Grand Prix car.  This is the make that won the 1939 European championship, when the Auto Union and Mercedes “Silver Arrows” dominated all challengers.  This one is in near original condition and ran a V12 with well over 400 horsepower.

 

[Prepuce of Doom 21,083]

Really cool - thanks for posting! 

[Chad Fuck 17,686]

For you Mustang guys out there - Have any of you redone the instrument cluster with LEDs?  I'm trying to maintain the original green look, but get a little more brightness.  Any suggestions on changes you've made that you've liked?

In that same vein - are there any vintage Mustang forums you find helpful?  

[TexasEd 8,067]

6 hours ago, Chad Fuck said:

For you Mustang guys out there - Have any of you redone the instrument cluster with LEDs?  I'm trying to maintain the original green look, but get a little more brightness.  Any suggestions on changes you've made that you've liked?

In that same vein - are there any vintage Mustang forums you find helpful?  

I have them in my dash cluster that I did some restoration to.  I have not tested it yet but may do that by the end of this week.  The LEDs I used are directional so if they are out you have to flip them 180 degrees and re-install.

Got them here: https://www.mustangproject.com/  Their shop is only a few miles from my house.

For Forums I use Vintage Mustang Forum for general info.  It is a large forum with a lot of activity.

For 69-70 specific I use 1969stang.com which has less traffic but more specific/esoteric information on those model years.

[RMac5 1,551]

On 1/12/2022 at 10:16 AM, elfenix said:

Damn nice looking car!  

[RMac5 1,551]

Not sure why the elfinix quote.  Let’s see if this paste will work.

 

 

[RMac5 1,551]

Mechanic is getting the motor installed in the 65 mustang. He just texted me this video, sounds good to me.

[TexasEd 8,067]

What do you all recommend for a battery booster/jumper to keep in your car?  I’ve looked but there are a bunch of sketchy ones out there. 

[Mother mopar 3,319]

What do you all recommend for a battery booster/jumper to keep in your car?  I’ve looked but there are a bunch of sketchy ones out there. 

A charged battery....I kid, kind of. I've never used any device or than just the stock battery. If it's not holding a charge there is a parasitic drag somewhere. I have never found the need to carry a jumper if the factory/replacement battery is serviceable.
Are you worried about being stranded?

[Armybrat 40,851]

52 minutes ago, TexasEd said:

What do you all recommend for a battery booster/jumper to keep in your car?  I’ve looked but there are a bunch of sketchy ones out there. 

Got this neat little battery booster kit at Costco for $50 several years ago. 
In fact bought several for everyone in the immediate family to keep in their cars.
It will jump start a firetruck with ease.
How do I know that? 
My brother’s grandson is a firefighter, and did just that to jumpstart their biggest ladder firetruck at his Austin fire station.

Also good for using witha lot of your electronic devices.

Edited January 30, 2022 by Armybrat

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

On 1/25/2022 at 10:01 AM, Chad Fuck said:

For you Mustang guys out there - Have any of you redone the instrument cluster with LEDs?  I'm trying to maintain the original green look, but get a little more brightness.  Any suggestions on changes you've made that you've liked?

In that same vein - are there any vintage Mustang forums you find helpful?  

I bought the LED light bulb replacement and went with the coke bottle green. It's a nice upgrade, not game changing, but not difficult to do. Those old bulbs are not bright.

Vintage-mustang.com and allfordmustangs.com are 2 I've gone to from time to time.  There's a thread about LED instrument panel bulbs on the front page at vintage-mustang now.

[fattyflattie 4,639]

3 hours ago, TexasEd said:

What do you all recommend for a battery booster/jumper to keep in your car?  I’ve looked but there are a bunch of sketchy ones out there. 

I use one similar to what @Armybrat posted, but made by Cobra (CB radio guys). I would have never in a million years thought something that size would work, but buddy saved me with one once. They don’t work on fully drawn down batts though. 

[utee94 15,834]

1 minute ago, fattyflattie said:

I use one similar to what @Armybrat posted, but made by Cobra (CB radio guys). I would have never in a million years thought something that size would work, but buddy saved me with one once. They don’t work on fully drawn down batts though. 

What about batteries that have been mostly dead all day?

[fattyflattie 4,639]

11 minutes ago, utee94 said:

What about batteries that have been mostly dead all day?

The times I’ve had issues with it is when I roll down to the camp for the first time in 9 months and try to jump a truck.  It doesn’t do that well.   But on a batt that is dying on the reg and I’m trying to limp along for a bit more, they work great.   The fact they are the size of a large cell phone and can charge your phones/computers/etc as well is a bonus.  They charge on 120v or thru 12v, so one every 90 days or so I plug it into my 12v on the way to work and it’s ready to roll again.  Pretty cool tech for sub $50.  An actual jump box is what it takes for something that’s been long dead. 

[Anton Chigurh 3,319]

I have used my little jump box to help 4 other people out, but haven’t had to use it for myself, yet.

They are great for when you get stranded.

The NOCO ones are good but are also pricey. I have an Audew or some Chinese brand that reviewed well from some guy on YouTube.

[fattyflattie 4,639]

21 minutes ago, Anton Chigurh said:

The NOCO ones are good

NOCO makes some great onboard marine chargers too. @utxmike05 came and saved the day once for me when we first got my wife’s new truck. Totally ruined my margarita buzz I had going    But his was the size of an iPhone and I was like wtf is this. Boom, 6.2L roared to life in about 5 seconds.   Also learned that night that cars have gotten too “smart”.  I had enough batt to limp my way to a start. The electronics were like nah son not even going to let you attempt to.  So we bought one for each of our rides and stow them away. I’ve used it a bunch of times at the camper, etc since. Really cool tech imo. 

[utxmike05 1,828]

Yup the one I have found at Costco. Type-S is the brand I believe.  Usually leave it in wife's car when I’m not saving @fattyflattie from a wild mex food night

[tbone_ 14,129]

How long do the charges in these things last?

[Anton Chigurh 3,319]

How long do the charges in these things last?

A long time, since they are lithium ion.

[TexasEd 8,067]

1 hour ago, utee94 said:

What about batteries that have been mostly dead all day?

You need to go see Miracle Max