News: 11

I have always been a Mopar fan and have had many in my lifetime. My family carries on this affair with Mopars. My youngest son, Ben was the motor head in the family, always helping with whatever project I had in the garage. I say was because he passed in Dec. 2015 at 23 years of age. We often would cruise our projects to the cruises and shows. We always agreed to disagree about the 69 and 70 “B” bodies. I preferred 69, he the 70. So as a tribute to Ben I followed up on a 1970 Road Runner that I had know about for over 35 years but never really knew the true whereabouts of it.

I have a 1977 280z datsun that I received in a trade. Got rid of my motorcycle to get back in the z world. While working the car a good friend passed away who had a 280z as well. In his z he had a sbc 383 stroker. His family gave me his vehicle. I took his engine and overhauled it. I found some aftermarket RHS and upgraded to a roller rocker cam. I slapped on a holley efi system with a high rise intake. I took the turbo350 trans out and replaced with a t56 out of a lt1 camaro. I put a new flywheel and McLeod clutch. I put on coilovers and huge wilwood brakes on all 4 corners.

My Daughter just got her license and needed a car to drive. After searching for something cheap being a single father funds are low, we found this 97 jeep wrangler with only 80,000 miles on it sitting in a field. It was owned by a older gentleman that passed away, left it to his daughter that drove it until the transmission went out of it, with not being able to afford to fix it ,it sat for 10 years. After looking at it and noticed it was very clean no rust anywhere , frame was prefect with factory paint still on it, so it was a must buy. I bought it for $1000.

Driving out of the Hawkeye Downs race track, I saw the Dune Cat. It as you can see wasn’t much. The fiberglass body was busted & cracked. The engine with its hard to find clutch set up was all missing. The steering seized up & its linkage broken along with the frame broken & all the tires rotted away. It was rough & tuff no doubt! But as I looked at it I had a vision of it all done up & it looked cool.

It is a 1951 Crosley Super Sport, four cylinder, four-speed convertible. Bruce and his son picked it up from a man who has barns full of antiques, cars, trucks, gas pumps etc. Bruce turned 80 years old this January and he semi-retired only a year or so ago from the family construction business. He got bored a few months into retirement and decided he needed a new project, something fun to tinker on, something different. This has been a 100% frame off restoration Using Bruce’s Yankee value engineering methods. His Crosley has been taken down to its frame right down to the bare metal.

This 1964 Corvette was once a gift for my mom from my dad. As life takes one down roads not anticipated, my parents split and the corvette ended up with my dad. As a young 6 year old, I was so excited every time my dad would take myself and my big brother for a ride. I can remember burn outs and just riding in the coolest car ever…… As life moved on, the car was driven less and less. Over the years, my friends and I remember just watching the car sit and sit and sit in my dad’s garage.

My project vehicle is a 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe LT ‘soccer mom’ special that I bought in 2005. Since then I have been modifying it extensively, ultimately aiming to make it an Expedition vehicle, starting the majority of the mods in 2008.

Watching COPART auto auctions for a father son project, a 2002 Mustang came up with what appeared to be minimal Damage and low… 92K miles. I was lucky and won the auction for $450. My son and I picked it up the next Friday. (Day 1 Pic) He was thrilled. We got home, charged the battery, checked the oil and added gas…. Fired right up!. After a quick neighborhood drive it was apparent it needed work.We repaired the damage to the rear qtr.

The story begins in 1973 when my older brother and dad bought a 1953 M38A1 military Jeep. Dad and I got the Jeep road legal in Ohio then my older brother drove it for his last two years of high school and then joined the Army. Then I drove it for my last two years of high school and then I joined the Army. Dad filled the engine cylinders with oil and the Jeep sat in the barn for the next 34 years and disintegrated. In January of 2010, I completed building my first ever work shop and started the Jeep restoration.

This is My 16 yr old son Garrett’s project. He came to me and said dad I like to do a street/strip car to go drag racing at the track. We found this Camaro without a motor or transmission. He bought the car with money that he had saved and I had a 350 motor and Turbo 400 laying in my garage. HE work over the summer in an engine machine shop to help support his bills for the car which he has paid for everything. The engine is mostly stock except for the heads and the block was bored .060 before I bought the block with a mild 292 comp cam. We put a shift kit in the transmission.

I picked this project because I’m a huge Mopar fan and I previously had a 73 dodge challenger that i sold to buy my wife’s engagement ring. This project is important to me because I wanted to teach my 6 year old son how to use some basic tools and be apart of a project. once it is completed me and my son Mason plan on going to some car shows and maybe a little drag racing as he loves going to New England Dragway. When I got the car 4 years ago it was a shell with no interior and a slant six block that had not run in 7 years.