Favorite classic cars

A guy I know just bought a near mint '73 Mustang Mach 1 with a big block 351 Cleveland in it. 2-barrel carb, points and condenser ignition, no A/C, really cool car!

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Personally, I think there are some good imports. The mid to late 90s Toyota Supra is by far my favorite. Civics aren't bad, subarus are aight, Mazda RX7's are pretty cool with their 2 rotor rotary engines. It's just that most people just don't know how to make them fast. they add a stupid wing, dumb bodykit, add camber, and a "performance" (fart can) exhaust and think their car hauls A$$ when really it just looks stupid. NEVER mistake a tuner for a ricer. The oldies are great, don't get me wrong. But its amazing what you can do with boost, DOHC, EFI, and some tuning.
Think about back when the last generation was modifying their muscle cars. The older guys back then probably stuck with a chopped and dropped model A with a small block chevy. Still cool, but a different era.

That being said, I'm gonna build my 2000 chevy impala. Yes, its front wheel drive and yes, its a v6. But I want to see what it'll do. Isn't that why we all modify stuff? To see what it can do?
It has a 3.4 liter 60 degree v6 in it now that makes 180 horse at the crank. I'm going to put a supercharged 3.8 liter 90 degree v6 in it with forged aluminum pistons, connecting rods, cam, port the heads, bigger throttle body, high flow headers, bigger downpipes, high flow cats, and a full stainless magna flow cat-back. To get it all to the ground, bulletproofed tranny with a shift kit and limited slip differential. The body will remain un-altered.

People can all do their own thing, and thats what's great about building your own machine. whether it's for the drag strip, daily driver, or the mud.

Yah, Toyota Carola was pretty hot back in the day with those 4 bangers in them. Guys from the neighborhood would race them too, they did OK with NOS on them. The Mazda RX7 was a hot car to get. This one family was crazy about that rotory engine. They built up a toyota pickup with a cage, Ford 9 inch rear, and all the trimmings with a built up rotory motor running enough NOS to put the space shuttle in orbit. They wasn't even shy about it because they had one of those sun visor tint strips that go across the top of the windshield with lettering on it. It read in big lettering "NITROUS OXIDE" and the fenders read "ROTORY POWER" LOL. Never seen it race but I heard it was real quick.

The blown 3.8 is a great motor, around 250 hp in stock form. That's a Buick motor. Descendant of the old Buick grand National's with the turbo's on them of the 80's era. Do it right and you got an 11 second car. The bottom end of that motor is all forged from the factory. The transmission I don't know. they are weak. Need the tranny out of a Cadillac 32 valve Northstar car to hold up to some serious abuse but I don't think it will fit because it's big or if it will even bolt up.

I sure wouldn't mind having one of those Cadillac 32v northstar coupedeville's. Those are real quick. Drove those all the time when I worked Valet, Downtown Cleveland in the late 90's. A guy at work just bought one of those and he's like I just bought this classic Caddy. I'm like what!! Classic, man I'm getting old. LOL.

DANG IT!! I was just about to mention the 1987 Buick Grand National GNX but you beat me to it. I wouldn't mind having one of those.......

AllisKidD21 wrote:

A guy I know just bought a near mint '73 Mustang Mach 1 with a big block 351 Cleveland in it. 2-barrel carb, points and condenser ignition, no A/C, really cool car!

Nice!! Ford built that car to run in that 24 hour Le Mans race. Ford always was stingy with the 4 barrels tho, LOL. To run in Le Mans, Ford had to build I think 500 production cars atleast for sale to the public to even qualify for qualifying. That car would corner like it was on rails too.

A few years ago I would go to Rally's on my lunch break. There was this Ford blue 05 Mustang Mach 1 in line always ahead of me. I'd be in my Jeep in line right behind him. I would rev my engine to let him know I was behind him, I'd be looking straight at him in his side mirror, when he seen me looking at him I'd rev it again. He didn't do anything, he just looked ahead, pulled up, got his food and left. It was so funny. I was trying to get him to race. Did that a couple of times.

Hahaha, nice. Yeah he's got a little work to do on it but I'm excited for us to go to some shows with it.

Here's one for you all.

I pull into a parking lot of a grocery store and parked a few spots away from this H2 Hummer. I'm sitting in my Ford Escort looking at it, thinking, "20 years from now, when that thing has 300,000 miles on it, rusted holes, falling apart, I'm going to buy it for $500 and beat the hell out of it, LOL"

Hahaha, I'd be interested to see what kind of abuse one of the H2 or H3's would take before biting the dust.

Yah, Me to. Suppose to be able to do what an H1 can but I don't see it. H2 and H3 are just on Chevy truck frames. H1 has IFS and IRS with the axles inside the A frames.

I almost bought a '66 Fairlane one time, it was a four door sedan, hub caps, white wall bias ply tires, and a 200 cu.i. inline six. No muscle car, but I loved it. Unfortunately it sold before I saved up enough. But if I ever run into it for sale again, I would buy it for sure. I wouldn't swap out the six for a V8 either, I would build it up with MSD ignition, split headers, duals, performance intake manifold, three two-barrel carbs, etc and make a tri-power straight six sleeper!

Here's a car CraftmanQuad19 might like. I'm building or shall I say rebuilding up my wife's 91 Cutlass Supreme, the front wheel drive one. Got a 3.1 Chevy motor in it that I'm rebuilding. Just got done porting the heads and polished the valves. Should flow alot better now. Wife wanted a car that would beat my Jeep, LOL. Don't know what else I'll be doing to the motor but 2 old 97 Ford 2 barrel carbs come to mind if I don't have to take emissions test anymore.
Got a ton of bodywork and paint to do too. Work in progress.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

I almost bought a '66 Fairlane one time, it was a four door sedan, hub caps, white wall bias ply tires, and a 200 cu.i. inline six. No muscle car, but I loved it. Unfortunately it sold before I saved up enough. But if I ever run into it for sale again, I would buy it for sure. I wouldn't swap out the six for a V8 either, I would build it up with MSD ignition, split headers, duals, performance intake manifold, three two-barrel carbs, etc and make a tri-power straight six sleeper!

Those Ford straight 6's are real good motors. My brother-in-law swears by them. Tri power is great. Straight 6's are good for power down low. Forget about the MSD, just run an electronic ignition distributor out of an early 80's mustang 300ci.inline 6.

Yeah they're pretty durable. I suppose I could skip the MSD, as long as I put HEI of some sort in it. It would be a real fun project car.

prancstaman wrote:

Here's a car CraftmanQuad19 might like. I'm building or shall I say rebuilding up my wife's 91 Cutlass Supreme, the front wheel drive one. Got a 3.1 Chevy motor in it that I'm rebuilding. Just got done porting the heads and polished the valves. Should flow alot better now. Wife wanted a car that would beat my Jeep, LOL. Don't know what else I'll be doing to the motor but 2 old 97 Ford 2 barrel carbs come to mind if I don't have to take emissions test anymore.
Got a ton of bodywork and paint to do too. Work in progress.

I believe that 3.1 chevy is a close relative of my 3.4

The newer (mid-late 90s and early 2000s) 3.1, 3.4, and 3.5 were the same basic engine with slightly different displacements...and they all had the chronic intake manifold gasket issues. Make sure that as you put the 3.1 back together, use FelPro gaskets. Much better design than the original.
Thats the problem with my car. I think coolant is getting into my oil and oil into the cooling system. possibly even warped heads. If I have to do all that work, might as well drop in the blown 3.8 out of a junkyard and drive it like that a while while I collect parts.

Holy crap this thread exploded since the last time i was on here

Quote :

I believe that 3.1 chevy is a close relative of my 3.4

The newer (mid-late 90s and early 2000s) 3.1, 3.4, and  3.5 were the same basic engine with slightly different displacements...and they all had the chronic intake manifold gasket issues. Make sure that as you put the 3.1 back together, use FelPro gaskets. Much better design than the original.
 Thats the problem with my car. I think coolant is getting into my oil and oil into the cooling system. possibly even warped heads. If I have to do all that work, might as well drop in the blown 3.8 out of a junkyard and drive it like that a while while I collect parts.

Yah, the 3.4 is in the same engine block family. The 3.5 is a chrysler you mentioned, the other size is 2.8, the smallest one of the 3. Your 3.4, the biggest of the three and had 3 versions. First version was for rear wheel drive with cast iron heads. The second version which is probably what you have in your car is for front wheel drive cars with aluminum heads. The third version is for front wheel drive cars, aluminum heads but the heads are duel overhead cam heads for some heavy breathing. Maybe rebuild your motor with those heads, would put out around the same hp as the supercharged 3.8. Something to think about.

prancstaman wrote:

Quote :

I believe that 3.1 chevy is a close relative of my 3.4

The newer (mid-late 90s and early 2000s) 3.1, 3.4, and  3.5 were the same basic engine with slightly different displacements...and they all had the chronic intake manifold gasket issues. Make sure that as you put the 3.1 back together, use FelPro gaskets. Much better design than the original.
 Thats the problem with my car. I think coolant is getting into my oil and oil into the cooling system. possibly even warped heads. If I have to do all that work, might as well drop in the blown 3.8 out of a junkyard and drive it like that a while while I collect parts.

Yah, the 3.4 is in the same engine block family. The 3.5 is a chrysler you mentioned, the other size is 2.8, the smallest one of the 3. Your 3.4, the biggest of the three and had 3 versions. First version was for rear wheel drive with cast iron heads. The second version which is probably what you have in your car is for front wheel drive cars with aluminum heads. The third version is for front wheel drive cars, aluminum heads but the heads are duel overhead cam heads for some heavy breathing. Maybe rebuild your motor with those heads, would put out around the same hp as the supercharged 3.8. Something to think about.

But then won't I have to deal with a timing chain of some sort? The one I have now is pushrod.

We had a Buick Rendezvous with a gm 3.5 that was pretty much the same as my 3.4 and would probably be an easier swap with a turbo or something, but I love the 3.8

Ok, 3.5 must be new version of the motor.

For the heads, yah, different timing setup but is a bolt on. GM figured all that out. You can use the same block and can bolt on the over head valve heads or the overhead cam heads and all the stuff to do either or just bolts right up to engine. I think you run a chain and a belt for the overhead cam version.

Anybody else got a favorite classic car list?

How's about some trucks? I do love a restomod shop truck. Either a regular cab short bed or regular cab long bed. Don't care which. Lowered, chevy v8 from a wrecked late motel truck, clear coat the patina, new rims, new suspension, etc. They're just cool to me. Especially the f100s that Gas Monkey does. Or the 80s square style chevy. I'm not a big dodge fan though, 2nd gens are the only ones I like and they aren't even very good and too new to qualify for this thread.

Ooh, not a bad idea for a topic! '51 F1 Ford is my favorite, put a 351w in 'er! Hahaha! '65 Chevy C10 fleetside is also a beautiful truck.
'77 Ford F100
'47-'53 Chevy 3100
'48 Mercury
'79 Dodge RAM
'55 Chevy 3100

^^Any particular reason for 79?

Oh. And Power Wagon.

I must admit i am a JDM nut. But i do like some of the old fords and dodges. Though i would want a datsun 240z or Rx-7 fb fc or fd any day. Ive also love classic rally cars from japan and europe. the only clasic amarican cars i would want are

-1960 Thunderbird convertible

-1959 Cadillac eldorado

-1957 Chevy belair

Well Im a mustang nut, my dad having 2 1969 fastbacks (he still has his fist car, a '69 mach 1) and buying and selling a whole bunch over the years, i LOVE these cars but my overall favorite has to be a 68 mustang fastback 428 lightweight dog dish hubcaps and all along with a
'68 charger even though im not a huge mopar man
85 mustang SSP (police car, black with no lights tho)
1967 mustang coupe
but thats just my 2 cents

TheBeal wrote:

^^Any particular reason for 79?

Oh. And Power Wagon.

I dunno, I like the look of the '79 Lil' Red Express trucks.
And oh yeah, '46 Dodge Power Wagon!! Thanks for the reminder Beal hahaha!!

A Mustang nut eh? Smart guy, hahaha! Yeah I like Mustangs as well. A guy I know that just bought a beautiful '73 Mach 1 with a big block 351 Clevland, I'm just a wee bit jealous!

I'd like an old cop car any day. Mid 60's early 70's with the exception of an 80's Caprice Classic. Back then the factory's was making sure they was the hottest thing on the road. The Highway cop cars had the special big motors in them and branded them Interceptors. In the 50's I think if you opened the hood, you would see the word Interceptor painted on the firewall, and you knew you had the fastest car on the road. Not to many people knew but all the muscle cars back then, the factories made sure the cop cars was better. For example, if you had a 70 Chevelle SS with a 396, that cop car chasing you down on the highway was an Impala with a 454 HO Interceptor catching up to you, LOL. I'd love to have one of those cop cars the Blues Brothers drove in the movie, LOL.