Joe T
Part of things
Posts: 711
|
|
Apr 27, 2013 10:39:10 GMT
|
Now, I know there's a thread already on this car, but seeing as it's now mine..... Firstly some new pics: A couple from the V8UK Launch / Ken's Weekender a couple of weeks ago: And at it's favourite spot! At Ken's Diner, Finedon: And finally, with Bumblebee at Billing last weekend: Spec on the car includes: - Professionally prepared 400ci (6.6-litre) block - Keith Black forged pistons - Eagle H-Beam steel rods - Edelbrock Performer RPM aluminium cylinder heads - Edelbrock Performer RPM aluminium intake manifold - Comp Cams roller rocker conversion - Comp Cams XR276HR performance camshaft - Doug's hot-coated tubular exhaust manifolds - solid engine mounts (!) - Performance exhaust system - HEI distributor with MSD trigger assembly and coil - Edelbrock 750CFM Performer four-barrel carburettor - Rebuilt and uprated TH400 three-speed automatic with Hurst ratchet shifter - 8.5" ten-bolt GM axle with Positraction and 3.08 gears - Hotchkis suspension (2" lower) - Mickey Thompson ET Drag Radials on the rear Work planned is relatively minor. So far we've removed some of the stickers (sorry Lewis!), restuck the carpet on the RHS lower door, and had the carb retuned as it seemed to be running lean. It's now idling around 450-500rpm which I think is a bit low as the vibration at idle is pretty extreme! We'll get it looked at again, and also have a cooler-running thermostat fitted. Other plans including fitting some of the not-yet-on-the-car interior and exterior trim, black & silver number plates, and Pontiac badge for front grille. We also need to fit the boot floor plugs and make some kind of mat for the boot floor. I'd like to sort the tyres too. The Drag Street Radials are not really suitable for wet roads, but to be fair I've had no issues as yet. Ideally I'd like some raised white letter tyres such as Cooper Cobra. However, the rear wheels are 17" and these tyres are almost impossible to find in this size. One option is to go for another pair of Cragar Soft 8 15s (same as the front) and then the same tyres all round. Alternatively I could just change the fronts (which are no-name brand at the moment) and whiten the lettering on the rears..... Anyway, enough babbling! Thanks for looking. (P.s. apologies for the quality of some of the pics - iphone pics always look naff against DSLR ones!)
|
|
Last Edit: Sept 14, 2013 5:53:37 GMT by Joe T
|
|
|
zx
Part of things
Posts: 235
|
|
Apr 27, 2013 10:44:10 GMT
|
Awesome. Totally awesome!
|
|
|
|
Kev
Part of things
Posts: 221
|
|
Apr 27, 2013 15:23:38 GMT
|
WOWZERS!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Apr 27, 2013 16:45:24 GMT
|
Whoah! When i saw you list "drag radials at the rear" I feared you had those wonky looking bicycle tyres in the front, but fortunately that isn't the case Awesome ride! Why solid engine mounts though?
|
|
|
|
Joe T
Part of things
Posts: 711
|
|
Apr 27, 2013 17:19:19 GMT
|
Whoah! When I saw you list "drag radials at the rear" I feared you had those wonky looking bicycle tyres in the front, but fortunately that isn't the case Awesome ride! Why solid engine mounts though? Not sure! I believe the car was built for racing, so maybe that's it. As least the engine aint going anywhere!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Apr 27, 2013 17:28:26 GMT
|
Sure looks like the car was setup to really go..
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Also, as it is customary with any V8 car on this forum, give us a video clip!
|
|
|
|
ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,188
Club RR Member Number: 170
|
|
|
Aha, it is great to see that the car has remained in the Retro Rides circles . TBH, the R888 Semi slicks on the 205 were not 'that' bad in the wet. They were better that almost every budget tyre I have tried when conditions were damp! Standing water however soon made them a cropper.
|
|
|
|
toreno
Part of things
Posts: 385
|
|
|
very very nice looking car
|
|
|
|
Joe T
Part of things
Posts: 711
|
|
Jun 12, 2013 21:05:57 GMT
|
New plates on today.
|
|
|
|
|
Joe T
Part of things
Posts: 711
|
|
|
Poor pic sorry, but we finally got the lower windscreen chrome trim fitted! Needed new clips from the US, but it looks much better now. We've done a bunch of other little jobs such as: - fit rear window winder - use chrome polish to remove rust stains on front bumper (this stuff works wonders!) - fixed the passenger side air vent so it now longer springs open when you put your foot on the gas! - cleaned and polished up bits of trim inside and out. I finally now have the speed nuts to mount the Pontiac badge in the front grill and to replace the 350 hood badges with 400 ones. The bad news is that the car failed the MOT on two things: front headlight switch (full/dipped) - replaced by NAPS in Northampton, and front ball joints. Apparently the wheels were in danger of falling off when they jacked the car up! Replacements were shipped in, only to find when the guys took the front suspension apart that the control arms were worn. New control arms list at ÂŁ300+ VAT each, so we are going to try oversize balljoints instead (apparently this works OK with worn controls arms!). Just waiting on more parts from the USA and then she will have an MOT. We picked up a correct original cigarette lighter at a show the other week, so we now just need the housing and other bits. Other jobs to do include fitting a phenolic spacer on the carb, fitting the rear shock brace and replacing the fire extinguisher that expired in 2008...
|
|
Last Edit: Aug 8, 2013 19:13:49 GMT by Joe T
|
|
Joe T
Part of things
Posts: 711
|
|
Sept 14, 2013 5:53:02 GMT
|
Some updates from a Sunday afternoon spent doing small jobs on the car a few weeks ago. We picked up this stuff at Rally of the Giants a few weeks ago and have been using it on the exterior chrome and the engine bay shiny bits. It's pretty good stuff: New fire extinguisher from B&Q as the old one expired in 2008 We tried to fit the 400 hood badges, only to find the holes are not spaced correctly for a 400 badge on a 350 hood (probably deliberate by Pontiac!). So instead we refurbished the old 350 badges with some nail polish. I wonder how well it will last! Finally got the Pontiac grille badge fitted. I think it looks pretty good. ICE system finally removed! Looks like the amp, HU fascia, & rear speakers had already gone. It even had iPod connection! Not sure the point of any of it in a car as loud as this one! Current research project is new wheels and tyres. The rears are semi-slicks and the fronts are M+S - interesting combination! The rears are in an odd size with not much availability in regular road tyres (Black Circles list a Falken and nothing more). The fronts are Primewell M+S which are not really suitable for a car like this. I'd also like the front wheels to be the diameter as the rears. This leads me to researching four new wheels and tyres! To further the pro-touring look I'd like to go 18" if possible. I'm thinking custom-made American Racing Torq Thrust IIIs...best start saving those pennies!
|
|
|
|
Joe T
Part of things
Posts: 711
|
|
Sept 14, 2013 11:38:30 GMT
|
18"? or 17" Comments welcome!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sept 14, 2013 12:17:38 GMT
|
18"? or 17" Comments welcome! As commented by others, lovely car! My personal taste, is that I don't like modern low-profile tyres on classics. Besides the aesthetics, the suspension just wasn't designed for that level of shock being transmitted through it (IMHO). Having said that, it can be tricky finding full-on performance rubber for smaller rim sizes nowadays. My personal preference would be to go for 16" wheels - still plenty of meat on the rims, plus a great choice of full-on, performance rubber available Once again - a lovely car!
|
|
|
|
MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,954
Club RR Member Number: 29
|
|
Sept 14, 2013 13:52:08 GMT
|
FWIW, to me it doesn't look right with that style of wheel in 18" or 17", as above 16" would look better to me. Maybe a more modern style wheel would look better in a larger size. Maybe too traditional but I'd prefer something like;
|
|
1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
|
|
|
|
Sept 14, 2013 20:43:43 GMT
|
17s look good to me Joe! Beautiful car by the way
|
|
|
|
Joe T
Part of things
Posts: 711
|
|
Dec 24, 2013 11:23:17 GMT
|
We've had the car since February 2013 and have been enjoying it a lot! We have done a whole bunch of little jobs on it in that time, including: - removing most of the stickers - removing what was left of the ICE system - fitting a carb spacer - fitting rear shock brace - polishing up the chrome good n proper - interior detailing - fitting Pontiac badge to front grill - refurbing '350' bonnet emblems - new fire extinguisher - fitted front lower windscreen trim - fitted new black and silver reg plates - fitted cooler-running thermostat - fitted new ball joints and headlight switch (MOT fails) We've enjoyed doing a lot of the work ourselves, but for those bits beyond our (limited!) capabilities thanks to Paragon MOT & Service for all their help! Here's to more progress in 2014!
|
|
|
|
Joe T
Part of things
Posts: 711
|
|
Dec 28, 2013 10:45:20 GMT
|
Using this source we have managed to find out the original colour of the car, which was not what we expected. It turns out it was Nightshade Green (1 year only colour) which is the same as Sequoia Green used on Camaros in the same year. It also had an ivory vinyl roof and rally stripes. It's hard to find many pictures that fit, but so far I've found: A Camaro in Sequoia Green (although it has a black vinyl roof): Another Camaro in Sequoia Green (white vinyl roof): A Pontiac GTO in Nightshade Green: A red Firebird with rally stripes: I'm really tempted to put it back the way it was: Nightshade Green (or close!), white vinyl roof and white rally stripes...
|
|
Last Edit: Dec 28, 2013 16:01:32 GMT by Joe T
|
|
Joe T
Part of things
Posts: 711
|
|
|
Just found this picture of a 68 GTO in Nightshade Green with white roof.....oooooh
|
|
|
|
Paul Y
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,948
|
|
Dec 29, 2013 10:02:18 GMT
|
Green, good..
Rally stripes, good
Vinyl roof, not good.
Nice to see the improvements, and you enjoying it as a car!
P.
|
|
Last Edit: Dec 29, 2013 10:02:51 GMT by Paul Y
|
|
|