chief geek
New Member
Hi all,
New member, and first post. This Winter, I dug this car out of a snow bank (it had been abandoned at the seller's parent's house, and suffered through a rough New England winter unprotected) with the intention of building a street rod out of it. As we clean it up and reveal it's true condition, along with some research into just what it is (they only produced 3133 of these), I feel obligated to reach out to a community like this and pose the question: should this car be left as is and placed in the hands of someone interested in restoring it, or can I (without guilt) use it as the basis for a street rod?
It appears that the car was very well cared for up until about 15 years ago, was barn kept for 14, and then (unfortunately) left out in the yard unprotected during this last Winter. I had very low expectations for the car's condition, but have been shocked both by the overall condition, and by the completeness and originality. It seems that except for two missing hubcaps, and a few broken pieces of trim the car is "complete", and remarkably NOT rusted. All I've done to the car so far is clean it up (it was full of snow and pine needles), clean out the gas tank (frozen water), rebuilt the carb (full of gum), changed the fluids and......... she fired right up ! The power top "just worked", the power seats just "worked", three of the four power windows "just worked", etc...
Now, I'm staring into that engine compartment visualizing a set of headers and an Edelbrock intake w/ a good 4-barrel on that 383 Commando engine, and I pause to ask you all:
Should I ?
Here are a few pictures, I'll add more as I get it cleaned up.
New member, and first post. This Winter, I dug this car out of a snow bank (it had been abandoned at the seller's parent's house, and suffered through a rough New England winter unprotected) with the intention of building a street rod out of it. As we clean it up and reveal it's true condition, along with some research into just what it is (they only produced 3133 of these), I feel obligated to reach out to a community like this and pose the question: should this car be left as is and placed in the hands of someone interested in restoring it, or can I (without guilt) use it as the basis for a street rod?
It appears that the car was very well cared for up until about 15 years ago, was barn kept for 14, and then (unfortunately) left out in the yard unprotected during this last Winter. I had very low expectations for the car's condition, but have been shocked both by the overall condition, and by the completeness and originality. It seems that except for two missing hubcaps, and a few broken pieces of trim the car is "complete", and remarkably NOT rusted. All I've done to the car so far is clean it up (it was full of snow and pine needles), clean out the gas tank (frozen water), rebuilt the carb (full of gum), changed the fluids and......... she fired right up ! The power top "just worked", the power seats just "worked", three of the four power windows "just worked", etc...
Now, I'm staring into that engine compartment visualizing a set of headers and an Edelbrock intake w/ a good 4-barrel on that 383 Commando engine, and I pause to ask you all:
Should I ?
Here are a few pictures, I'll add more as I get it cleaned up.
