I figured I'd finally do a writeup about my new car.
It's a spitfire orange '77 Volare 2dr, with a factory super 6, automatic. Power steering, power brakes, front disk
. Black vinyl roof, black interior. The interior is more or less intact, the front seats are torn and the carpet near the pedals is kinda chewed, but other than that, pretty good shape. The body condition is great, there's a small dent on the lip of the trunk lid, and a pretty large dent down on the driver's door, but that I can find there's only one spot where there will be rust (the paint is bubbling a bit on one of the rear tire wells). Otherwise it's clean! Even came with a pristine bumper jack sitting on the trunk liner
Due to that and the lack of pedal wear, I'm guessing the 75k miles showing is the actual milage, I don't think the odometer has turned yet.
The only big modification I'm planning is putting in a 4speed OD, which I'll be able to do once I have the correct clutch pedal assembly. Otherwise, with the exeption of the fuel line mod (I kept vapor locking on the track at Redding) I'm going to leave it alone for a while. I was thinking of converting to manual steering and brakes, but I'm going to wait because until I figure out if I'm getting shoulder surgery or not, power steering is a blessing in disguise, and the power brakes could help if I have to balance three pedals at the track. So we'll see on that.
Unfortunately it looks like the poor car had never been maintained. I'm pretty sure the brakes were never changed. I don't mean just down to the metal, I mean metal IN metal
It was a little insane. The tires were completely bald, the oil looked like it might have been changed once in the 90's, alternator and regulator were bad, plugs and wires were.. well, you get the idea. Oh, and the trans had no fluid left in it. So, did a full tune up, oil change, the alternator and regulator were replaced (and the alternator replaced again,
), new tires, all new brakes (the drums were able to be turned, had to put new rotors on though because they were down to the fins). Filled the trans back up with ATF. Driving it home was an adventure, it was parked at a junkyard, clean title though, talked them from $1200 down to $700. Thanks to THOR for getting it back home for me, while LowerClassYouth (Chris) and I followed. This was the Monday before Redding, so all that work was done in the space of a few days. Thanks to THOR, again, for helping a huge amount with all that.
Chris made a point though.. what with his green Duster, my orange Volare, and my white Dart parked between the two, we own the Irish flag in slant 6 cars.
Right now the only photo I have is the one Aric posted from Redding in the event thread, which is also the same one in my signature (thanks Aric). But more shall come once I finally clean all the dried tree sap off, and generally get it freshened up. I've been thinking about painting it, but I'm sort of attached to the orange color. I guess I'll decide for sure when I get it all cleaned up.
For anybody wondering at the writing on the back windshield, it says "apis cruenta" which roughly translates to "killer bee" in Latin. And the car had pretty good condition original hubcaps, but no caps at the track.. and I'm not a fan of them in general.
