Hello All,
Well, it's really time I stopped lurking and did a gallery post. The red car is Betsy. Next to her is Dave Laysons's wife's 65 hardtop. My mother bought this car from a college student in the early eighties. It never gave her any trouble and she ran and ran the car well over 200,000 miles. I loved riding around in it as a kid.
When I was a teenager I made her promise to sell it to me when she was done with it. Well about 5 years ago the rear end started making noise and the engine was pretty weak, although she still started on the first crank!
Mom had changed work to real estate and a beat up old dart wasn't really impressive for clients so she gave me the call and sold me the car for $2500. Which in retrospect was a little steep. But mom knows a bit about supply and demand...
I was in the military at the time so the project took some time to complete. 4 years to be accurate. So here the run down:
Engine rebuilt with steel sleaves. 904 trans rebuilt. Rear end replaced with small bolt pattern 8 3/4 with 3.23 gears non-posi. K-H disc brakes for stopping power. Convertible frame powdercoated and reassembled. Several rust holes in the floor pan, trunk and quarter panels were repaired. New fuel tank. Dash and interior pieces re-chromed. Seats refurbished and covered in black sheep skin. (Ever sat on black leather in 90 degree heat? It's breath taking. Hell the black doors will leave a mark...) New tires. Suspension upgraded with moog rubber and poly where appropriate. New bigger T-bars. Front windshield. Paint. I cut out the old stereo and replace it with a Kenwood deck. The air vents make great speaker boxes! Amps and woofer in the trunk.
Now I'm ready for stage 2 when I get home again. Next step is a gear vendors unit and MPI. More power, better mileage... yum. Still need to fix a sagging drivers side door replace rear springs and get some Cragers. Thanks for looking and sharing all the great info over the years!
-Ned
