Topic: What did you do to your non-motorcycle vehicle today?

[Terry in Australia]

That is excellent news, the A model deserves to be kept as Henry designed it, and that van will be great as a patina car. I love hotrods too, but nowadays you don't need to destroy a piece of history to build one.

[BenelliSEI]

Terry....... I agree! The collection I’m helping to clear rarely got used. I love it when they go back into regular use........ great to know they are being driven/ridden!

[bear]

Please refer to my post on the Pissed Off thread.

[spotty]

Please refer to my post on the Pissed Off thread.

i have and i'm a little worried by it

[bear]

My apologies Spott, an unfortunate turn of phrase on my part.

[BenelliSEI]

Charged the battery, started instantly, plowed my driveway.

P.S. no plow, but the best picture I have of the “old girl” (the truck!).

[Terry in Australia]

That's a beautiful truck mate, I'm not envious of your snow, but I love a Ford truck.

[BenelliSEI]

Terry...... 1980 F350. Fenders have been replaced a few times and are falling off again. Unfortunately the sand and salt, thrown down on our roads this time of year, takes it’s toll. One of these days it will break some major part, but just soldiers on for now. A few summers ago, I drove it 3-4 thousand miles, hauling my Legend car to the races. Now it’s a real “farm truck”, and doesn’t leave the property!

[Terry in Australia]

Beautiful! Tell me more about the "Legend Car" mate?

[BenelliSEI]

Terry..... I road raced for 45+ seasons. A few years ago, decided to try 1/3 mile oval track racing with the locals. Legend Cars are spec built by a firm in Charlotte. Thousands racing all over North America and Europe. Very small, strong roll cage, powered by a Yamaha FJR1200 engine. Turned sideways in the front, driveshaft hooked to the output shaft. Toyota corolla rear axle, 18 event season. Got my butt kicked by real experts, but managed to win “Rookie of the Year”! I was 30 years older than just about all the competitors. Had a lot of fun..,...... sold it at the end of the Season.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks mate, that is cool! I had an FJ1200 and those engines were magnificent, but I imagine supplies of engines would be drying up by now, afe they still using them? I have an FJR13000 now, but it's an entirely different engine.

[BenelliSEI]

It was a few years ago when I sold it and they were talking about a change. Monster motor and what a lovely howl! On both the 1/3 mile ovals we ran, used a 3.41 diff and left them in 4th gear all the way around. A great lap was under 15 seconds....... do the math!

[Don R]

 I hauled home an Art Morrison front subframe for my bought in 1970 '69 Firebird. It has new real C6 Vette a arms and spindle hubs. I'm shopping for disc brakes, they range in price from $400 for rebuilt GM iron to $17,000 for carbon/carbon. I'm in the middle of installing new front and trunk floor pans with rear frame rails. The frame rails will just be screwed on for now because I'm cutting it for new mini tubs so it can fit 10" rims. The rear frame will be custom too, whether the Morrison tri- 4 link or home made
 I built a Hossfeld tubing bender so there will be a 2x3" frame connector with round tube braces and gussets. We tweaked an "old joint jigger" for making tube miter joints. It has an extension to make it easy to duplicate tubes.
 At some point Motorcycles will be sold off to help pay for it. I'll keep my brothers one owner K4 and the Oldwing. I gave a parts kawasaki to the guy that helps me with EFI yesterday to make some room. 

[RAFster122s]

Don, friend who lives in Tempe now has several old cars. His '65 Studebaker Cruiser has a modified built up SXCA road race car Todd? Donahue spec motor in it. The Donahue Camaro against the Mustangs of that time were dicing it up on the SCCA tracks back in the day. It had more work by a customs and hot rod shop in LA that does super expensive street rods and customs as well as some street rods undergarment under an original restored shell. He is one top names and builders in the LA area.  Tim had him put the Corvette front suspension in and replace the old ball and pinion steering system while in there. It became a remarkably quick er car then. It was already fast when he put the Donahue design 327 motor in it with the. High output beast of a motor made it fast and quick and that was done while he lived in Tucson. A few years later when living in Torrance the motor developed an issue. That's when he uprated the motor even more and had the Corvette front suspension and new steering design engineered and installed.

[72 yellow]

Sent my 2004 S-10 Blazer to be turned into a new vehicle.   Watched the old girl being loaded on a flatbed.  253,000 miles.  Michigan salt finally rotted everything important. 

[Don R]

  David, I was a big fan of Mark Donohue back when the trans am race series was popular. I was a slot car racer back then and read everything I could find on them. I dug my slot cars out a few years ago and most of them are Lola T70's. with one Camaro.
 
  This old firebird isn't worth restoring except I have owned it since 1970 and it got me through the lean years, times when I didn't feel comfortable any where else I could sit in my car. We drove it in Illinois winters and salt. Later, I realized my wife would only put oil in it when the gauge started twitching. No wonder it spit out a rod bearing years later.  Today I cut out the rear bumper mounts, they're different than a camaro so I need to re-cycle them. I may stop cutting until I put the floor back in at least enough to screw it tight, then I'll weld it later.
 72, if you're like me you get attached to a vehicle, I feel like I owe this car more than parting it out and sending it to a crusher.

[strynboen]

my son use the 96 hilux..so got a 2006 so i can get to Work.. ...the "new"car...have elektric diff Lock..turbo...but still a snail on the road..but if it just are as solid,and stabil starter.. as the old red...im happy..

[Kelly E]

Don, are you staying with Pontiac power or going the LS route? I hear you about an old vehicle that you can't get rid of. I have a 93' F-250 diesel 4x4 that served me well for a long time and now it needs some major attention that it will get soon. I don't want a new truck, I like my big beast that has a bunch of upgrades and couldn't bear to part with it.

[bear]

I envy the relationship you blokes seem to have with your truck's.
My truck and I are going through a rough patch at the moment and I'm not sure our relationship will survive.
I'm not sure if I need a wreaker or a counselor.

[Don R]

  Kelly,  I'm using a 1972 Pontiac 400 with ported ram air 3 heads, I've had a new comp 282H cam, lifters and timing set with my old 455 Super duty oil pan waiting for years. The motor only has 52,000 miles on it but I'd like to stroke it to 428.
  I've been googling Pontiac motor mounts and 95% of what comes up are LS adapters and little information what chassis they fit. The subframe I got has Chevy mounts already welded in so I'll probably set the trans mount on center from the body mount holes and hang the motor/trans where it needs to be, then weld up some adapters.

[Kelly E]

That's cool Don. I like to stick with original type motors. I have an 85' GMC S-15 with the original 2.8L V6 block that I leaned on a little. It makes about 240hp out of 3.1L now. Stock was 110hp. With a 2"/3" suspension drop and a 5 speed it is really fun to drive. Nobody suspects a thing till I start it.

[Don R]

 WoW that's a hot little V6. I had a new 81 Pontiac Phoenix with the 2.8 and a 5 speed. It was a blast to drive but torque steered like crazy.  What all did you do to it? I'd assume efi and a power adder of some sort.
  My buddy had a 3.8 blown grand prix. It ran faster than it should have, he did a home made cold air intake and bought a power pulley. When he got to the track he took the headlight out so it could get more air. It was a big hit at the Pontiac drags but hard on the auto trans.

[Kelly E]

Sorry Don, you assume wrong, no EFI or power adders. It's bored, stroked, balanced, ported, port matched and polished heads with 1.6 roller tip rockers, 282 cam, 9 to 1 compression, headers, reworked distributor, Edelbrock intake manifold and a Holley 390cfm 4 barrel carb all assembled with ARP studs. I have been beating on this motor since 06' and it has a great torque curve, it pulls hard from about 1200rpm all the way to 5500rpm. It's a little loud with a Flowmaster 40 series muffler. It sounds like a V8 at idle and more like something foreign when I wind it up. My father in law bought the truck new in 85' and gave it to me instead of his two sons that didn't care about it. I built the motor and did everything but the valve grind, boring and balancing and the distributor. I used to run big blocks but it cost's too much and people including the machine shop were giving away 2.8L parts. My friend has a twin motor to mine but with forged pistons and runs a 100hp shot of nitrious. It's surprisingly quick.

[Don R]

 Kelly, that's some impressive stuff. My Pontiac will be pretty mild compared to that. We had a 383 small block that made 684 horsepower until the chevy block gave up, then we got a 567" Steve Schmidt big block is just shy of a thousand but they're all out race engines that need constant maintenance.

[Kelly E]

Thanks Don. The truck is my daily driver, it is a sleeper. It has the original paint and looks all stock except for the old Sun tach on the steering column. It is a blast to drive out in the country where I live.