Project Cars--You Get to Vote on "Hold 'em or Fold 'em"

fintail

That 450SL is really tarted up - chrome fender flares, spoiler, 3rd brakelight, etc...those really make me want to keep away.

andre1969

Not positive, but I think the 454 had 270 hp net.

I always liked the taillight treatment of the 1973 Monte Carlo. The way the taillights are recessed a bit, and with the more form-fitting bumper, the rear almost looks a bit custom/exotic. For '74 i was a bit more formal/frumpy looking.

That Mark IV actually looks nice in the pictures, but I'd be curious to see how bad the rust really is, up close. And I can handle no working a/c, but a non-working heater bothers me. Heater cores can be a real pain, depending on the car. And if the problem is in the control unit inside, I imagine that could be pretty hard to find replacement parts for.

tjc78

That Mark IV actually looks nice in the pictures

I thought the same thing. I wonder why he doesn't elaborate about the heat and A/C. Does it blow any air at all? Is the heater core bypassed? Is the compressor there? I'll never understand these ads where people put so little info. In reality it would certainly save a lot of emailing/phone calls back and forth.

jlflemmons

We used to call the '72-'73 454's "Oil Pumpers" because of their propensity to blow oil past the rings. The other joke was to refer to them as "self changers" because you didn't have to change the oil, just the filter and keep adding as needed. :P

michaellno

Burn Notice wannabe

This looks nice, but are they the right carbs?

A classic or a fake?

fintail

"cool classic"

Andre truck

"has the muscle to back it up"....mhmm

VW's worst

Pricier personal battleship cruiser
.
Last of the old school...these were sold alongside W116 for a short time

"Needs Battery and Fuel Pump"....uuh I think it needs a little more than that

Survivor

gsemike

I wouldn't mind that Maverick for a grand although I prefer the 72s with the smaller bumper. I think that a Maverick can make a decent hor rod.

jlflemmons

MGB, Weber substitution was somewhat common. Not the original setup. Funny how these ads use the term MGB and reliable in the same ad.

'73 H/O, oh, yeah, that's not even a good clone. Interior is wrong. Shifter is wrong, steering wheel wrong. Note that the serial number is not listed? Also that "11000" all that were made? Try 1097. Also note no mention of the special engine that was used, the W30 modified 455ci?

H/O stripe kit for cloning

gsemike

With that 73 Cutlass, what is the deal with that little opera window? I've never seen that before. Was that how a Hrust was?

andre1969

I'd never noticed that odd little opera window before. I'd always pictured them in my mind as having the big triangular windows, but maybe that was just the 4-4-2, and the Hurst gave you that padded roof with the strange little window.

I wonder if any of those later Hursts used the more formal Cutlass Supreme roofline...the one that was shared with the Monte, Grand Prix, and Regal?

jlflemmons

Yeah, that ugly heavily padded roof was an option. I knew they had it, but never saw one. The '73 was not a particularly pretty thing. The '79 was classier looking, but just used the 350ci.

michaellno

Are heated garages all the rage in Seattle? Two of the ads mention that the cars were / are stored in them.

I've never, not once, known anyone to have a heated garage here in Denver, and it gets WAAAAYYYY colder here than in does in the Pacific NW.

[Deleted User]

HP rating for the 454 in the 73 Corvette is 275 (oddly enough, the 72 and 74 were 270)... I recently had a 73 454 4 speed convertible with 53K miles on it when I sold it. 1971-1974 454s were actually pretty similar, horsepower wise, but the rating was changed from gross to net in 1972. 1971 used the gross rating, which was 365 HP. 1970 was 390 HP, because it had high compression heads.

ghulet

....in high school had a '73 Corvette convertible w/a 454 (automatic, white w/red interior, tilt, power windows, A/C) that he allegedly 'bought for his wife' for an anniversary or something, LOL. Funny, she never drove it (she had a Fleetwood Brougham, 'twas a bit more her style). He did let me drive it once, though, that was kinda fun. I don't think I've ever accelerated quite as fast before getting out of a strip-mall parking lot before or since.

texases

I don't know about Seattle, but I was happy my Anchorage home had a heated garage. Just a bit colder than Seattle, of course! But aren't heated garages actually bad for a car, encouraging rust?

andre1969

But aren't heated garages actually bad for a car, encouraging rust?

I've heard that a heated garage can be bad if you take your car out in the snow and get ice and rock salt all over it. The rock salt isn't TOO brutal on the car when the temps are cold, but warm it up, plus the melting of the ice, and it goes to work on your car.

I guess if heating a garage adds to the humidity somehow, that could be bad. But maybe if you heated it with a fairly dry source, such as a heat pump, it might not be too bad.

fintail

I think people in this area are a little optimistic with their terms - a "heated garage" is most often just an attached garage, which absorbs a little heat from the house. I can't remember seeing ductwork or anything like that made to heat a garage either.

texases

You can get gas-fired heaters, that's what we had in Anchorage, and in the house I grew up in (Cincinnati). Pretty compact, hang from the ceiling, and warmed it up pretty quick. Just the thin for those January tune ups!

lemko

...is integrated into the building. It's right below my kitchen in the rear of the building.

michaellno

OK, that makes sense.

By saying "heated", they mean attached, rather than detached.

fintail

That's what I think, anyway. It just sounds fancier.

I can't see anyone on the west side of the mountains needing one of those gas heaters - it doesn't get that cold here. In eastern areas though...it could be handy.

Mr_Shiftright

Weber Conversion --

1. Throw away 2 SU carbs with 3 moving parts

2. Write a check for $750 + labor

3. Install 2 Weber carbs with 100,485 moving parts and enough volume to run a Ferrari V-12

4. Lose 5-8 mpg

5. Gain 3 HP at extreme RPM

6. Tune for low speed or high speed--you can't have both.

xwesx

When I lived in Oregon, I never saw a heated garage either. Our garages were always attached to the house and insulated, but they still were not heated. In Fairbanks, most garages are heated. In fact, there is very little point to one if it is not! The typical garage around here has radiant hydronic heating through the concrete pad itself. These system are great, as they rewarm the air in the garage very quickly once the doors are shut (versus a gas heater or some other form of direct-air heating system), and they keep both the floor and the undercarriage of the vehicle dry. In an air-heated garage, you might park your car and come back eight hours later to find no snow/ice on the car, but it is still all wet and there are chunks of ice/slush on the floor. With radiant slab system, both the floor and the underside of the car are dry in very short order.

Up here, vehicles that are garage-kept suffer quite a bit less wear-and-tear during the winter months than those that live outdoors year-round. Snow and ice build up, both inside and outside the car, is the primary culprit as it does not fall/melt off regularly as it does any/everywhere in the lower 48. Other than an occasional Chinook, the weather is well below freezing for at least four months straight (November through February) and often longer.

In addition, very little salting of roads is done. My preference would be none, but I have noticed early (October) and late (April) snowfalls receiving salt rather than sand/gravel in recent years at intersections.

fintail

That radiant garage floor would be nice...I am weird, and for some reason I don't like my car sitting on wet pavement like that.

Here, we either get chemicals that are hard to clean off a dark colored car, or we get "sand" the diameter of a dime that makes windshields and front bumpers look awesome after a long winter :sick:

srs_49

I've heard that a heated garage can be bad if you take your car out in the snow and get ice and rock salt all over it. The rock salt isn't TOO brutal on the car when the temps are cold, but warm it up, plus the melting of the ice, and it goes to work on your car.

Yeah, that's what I've always heard too. You keep things frozen most of the time and there's less of a problem with corrosion from road salt than if the ice/snow melts and mixes with the salt.

I have no idea why garages would be needed in Seattle. Hardly ever gets cold enough there to snow anyway.

My son lives in Rochester, MN, which I think gets a lot colder than Denver, and for longer. His garage, while attached, is not heated. I don't think may of them are actually heated. Neither is mine, which is not a problem unless I have to do some work in the middle of January :P .

fintail

It's nice to keep your car out of the rain - and although the rain doesn't create the same issues as snow and salt...it still can harm glass and trim over time, and cars in this region will rust too if they sit outside long enough.

michaellno

It's nice to keep your car out of the rain - and although the rain doesn't create the same issues as snow and salt...

Ditto for here in Colorado. In the winter, it just s**ks to have to remove the snow from your car; in the summer, the occasional hailstorm will blow through, wreaking havoc with cars that are outside.

Even though our house doesn't have a basement (a rarity around here), we have always kept enough room in our garage to store both our cars. The daughter's car, sadly, has to live outside - perhaps the next house will have a 3 car garage.

explorerx4

crown imperial

the plate says joy

too new?

more my style

gotta throw one in for lemko

not andre, but am i reading this right?

are they throwing in the cider block?

worth more in ct?

stickguy

mr. Shifty has mentioned seeing a RX7 engine swap into a B before. Seems like a neat idea, since the original 4 was nothing special.

but my god, why use a '77 with the awful bumpers? Probably a better engine to ditch, but the rest of the car sucks.

If you are spending that much coin, how hard is it to ditch the rubber snout and loer the suspension?

fintail

I like the hubcaps on that Imperial :sick:

Mr_Shiftright

MGB--you can lower the suspension and make a pretty fair handling car out of it, but you can't ditch the rubber bumpers. Those are "forever".

The MGB/RX-7 conversion is a great combination, but not with a rubber snout car.

gsemike

That ad is awesome:

1975 Buick Regal with a V-8 350hp Engine - 350 horse... really?

power window on both doors - You guys have seen a lot more oddball cars than me, but has anyone ever seen a car with only one power window from the factory?

The front seats consist of the driver seat and a two thirds seat for the middle and right side passenger. - Split bench, enough said

seats are extremely comfturable from years of seating. - Thanks for breaking them in

When driving down the street, you will get the "whip lash" glare - Does this car somehow anger people when they see it?

needs to get it's timing realigned - What?????

comfturable
carborator
its' self

An ad for a car is like a resume. You should write it and let it sit for a day and then proofread it and then have someone else look it over.

andre1969

1975 Buick Regal with a V-8 350hp Engine - 350 horse... really?

I've seen that abbreviation before. I think he meant to say "350 high performance", which could mean the engine's been built up or, more likely, it has a 4-bbl carb. If it's stock, I doubt if it's very "high performance". Probably no more than 170-180 hp I'm guessing.

For the most part, GM used a tall 2.56:1 axle ratio in cars like this, so unless that's been changed, the car isn't going to be a screamer, no matter what's been done to the engine. But it would only get worse for 1976, when they went to a 2.41:1 axle in an attempt to improve fuel economy. I dunno if that worked, but I did see about 17.5 mpg out of my '76 LeMans. Once.

Still, kind of a cool car...except for being brown. I think it's kind of bad luck to have a 1970's car in brown or yellow. Because then when it breaks down, it sort of leaves itself way too open to the turd or lemon references. :P

andre1969

I can't do a reply because the pic is too big, but yeah, that's a pretty sweet looking car! The color makes a big difference, too. I think the red on that car is what Pontiac calls "Firethorne", and what was the original color on my '76 LeMans.

I think for the most part, I preferred the style of the '76-77 version of all of GM's intermediates to the '73-75 models. I know many people don't like the big, bulky bumpers, but I prefer the quad headlights of the later models to the single headlights of the earlier models. I think these cars were just too big for single headlights. Plus, I guess I looked at quads as a bit of a status thing, since among the domestics at least, it was mainly smaller, cheaper cars that had singles, at least from 1958 on.

My Mom had a 1975 LeMans coupe, and at the time I thought that was a hideous looking thing, with its big single headlights and garish eggcrate grille with rounded corners and the beak. But then I thought the '76-77, with its quad headlights and squared-off grille, and just the slightest hint of a beak, was simply gorgeous.

fortee9er

In 1976 I bought a 1976 Buick Regal, my second new car purchase and the last one, it was a deep burgundy red that GM call Firemist or something like that. It was a decent car for the period what I did not like was the fake wood trim on the dash that looked and felt like it was made of the same material as those fancy disposable paper plates with images engraved on them and a glossy finish. The other thing was the lack of room. Yes the two front passengers had plenty of room but as far as carrying any kind of packages or dirty laundry it was tight. My other car at the time was a 1971 VW Fastback Type III and it could carry more stuff than the Buick.
I kept the car for about two years before I sold it, we had our first child on the way and I was not going to be able to keep up with the note.
Years later I had a 1975 Buick Electra 225 Limited that was great a great car lots of room for anything you wanted, very comfortable lots of torque. My last Buick was a 1986 Grand National another great car the quickest car I have ever owned.

andre1969

The other thing was the lack of room. Yes the two front passengers had plenty of room but as far as carrying any kind of packages or dirty laundry it was tight.

Yeah, they weren't the most space-efficient cars in the world. My '76 LeMans has a power seat, so it can get into some pretty obscene positions, and I actually find it roomier up front than most cars made today! And with the small transmission hump, fairly high seating position, and dash that's fairly out of the way, you could actually get a third person up front...although I don't like driving like that. The back seat is horrible when it comes to legroom, but I'm surprised that I have decent headroom back there. And footroom under the seat is good, once you figure a way to contort your body to get your foot under there. And then, just don't expect to hop out in a hurry.

And trunk space is downright embarrassing for a midsized car, but I think it was about the norm for the time. I've taken my LeMans to the GM show in Carlisle a few times and I have to position my beverage cooler at just the right spot in the trunk, and just the right angle, in order for the trunk to close. And i have to put a towel over the top to keep it from rubbing on the trunk lid!

I've thought about getting a compact spare tire for it, because I swear the full-sized spare seems to take up half the trunk.

The '75-76 Electra and LeSabre is another car I've long admired. I guess the one to have would be a '75 LeSabre convertible, but I also like the 4-door hardtops, and the LeSabre hardtop coupe that had the odd roofline with the small roll-down window in front of the stationary rear window. Like this...

Mr_Shiftright

Hey Guys, sorry for the page screw up. Next time, download a simple image resizer and check your photo sizing before posting. I'll get the tech people to fix the page but we may lose the photo.

thanks

Shifty

lemko

That Imperial is actually a 1967 model. What's with the Polish flags on the doors?

british_rover

Oh man I think I know where that Bronco is parked. That area and house looks real familiar so does that little stone wall.

That Bonneville is in the worst color for that car. That body style looks good in dark, green, blue or black but horrible in most lighter colors. Might be ok in white.

The SSEI was the supercharged model not the SSE. Its an easy thing to screw up and an even easier thing to check but no way I would buy any SSEI no matter how nice in that gold ughh.

tjc78

Might be ok in white.

IIRC the SSE/SSEi iin white came with painted white alloy wheels. A bit much IMO.

EDIT: heres a pic (a '92 Model)

gsemike

12 vents on dash = luxury

Especially when the AC went right after the end of the 36 month warranty

boomchek

When the SSEIs first came out in 1991 or so I thought it was one of the coolest sedans ever. Especially for a 14 year old like me, it had a million buttons inside! I still have a copy of the Road & Track I bought with the SSEI on the cover.

fintail

I never liked those puffy seats.

An old co-worker of mine had a 91 SSE, the old style - burgundy with gold lacy wheels, of course. It was in pretty immaculate shape, but the interior was just weird, and the leather reminded me of football leather...same color too.

steine13

the old style - burgundy with gold lacy wheels, of course.

fintail,

i don't mean to nag but i have to take issue with your spelling.

when it's a car it's "burgandy."

you can easily check this at craigslist, or anywhere fine automobiles are sold.

cheers -Mathias

210delray

You mean like "convertable" and "Camero?"

Regarding lacy alloy wheels, I had them back in the day on my Sable. They looked nice but were a real pain to keep clean. I do not miss them.

gsemike

I think that this trip cost a little more than he planned

Has a salvage title and needs airbag reset but wasn't in an accident

Professional stereo installation

Looks cleaner than most I see That dash layout looks weird

Outside looks ratty but inside looks nice

Anyone making a mob movie?

Half the size of a new Civic

If it looks good in person, this could be good

Mr_Shiftright

1985 Cadillac Eldo -- one zero too many I fear.

gsemike

To be fair, I'd say if you removed the 1 from the front of the price, that could be correct.

andre1969

That Eldorado does look nice, but I've just always been afraid of the Caddy 4.1. I guess if it's that low-mileage though, and if you take very good care of it, it should last awhile. I've always preferred the Olds Toronado and Buick Riviera versions though.

That '66 Impala does look nice, and I guess the price ain't bad, if it looks really good in person. I have a feeling that having just the 283 might hurt its value, compared to a 327 or, even better, a 396. Also, I don't think it's an SS, just a plain Impala. I dunno if being an SS really means much though, if doesn't have a high-performance engine to go with it.

fintail

Has it snowed lately in the Bronx?

Eldo is at least 200% higher than it should be...and I only like those if they lack the vinyl top and other destructive addons.

The old 5er "may" need a window relay? Isn't it kind of a yes or no problem?