Remember back when buying a car you could have it your way?

[my2¢]

One of the pleasures of watch old shows is seeing the cars that were popular when I was a kid. I remember back then many car models were available in various forms: 2 or 4 door sedan, 2 or 4 door hardtop, along with convertible and station wagon.

 

[TroglocratsRdumb]

1969 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ 428 4 speed

 

[my2¢]

1969 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ 428 4 speed

Pontiac rocked during its DeLorean years.

 

[TroglocratsRdumb]

Pontiac rocked during its DeLorean years.

The Grand Prix was a stretched Lemans.
Chevy's Monte Carlo was a stretch Chevelle.
They were some awesome big cars with big V8 engines.

 

[toobfreak]

One of the pleasures of watch old shows is seeing the cars that were popular when I was a kid. I remember back then many car models were available in various forms: 2 or 4 door sedan, 2 or 4 door hardtop, along with convertible and station wagon.

I prefer coach (suicide) doors, but I thought you would be talking about choice of motor, choice of transmission, choice of rear gear ratio, choice of cam, and things like that.

When I was young, I sold car parts and you had aisles full of choices of cams, lifters, manifold, all kinds of parts for most every make car.

These days, you have little choice other than maybe this or that engine and everything else is basically an electronic enhancement kit.

 

[toobfreak]

The Grand Prix was a stretched Lemans.
Chevy's Monte Carlo was a stretch Chevelle.
They were some awesome big cars with big V8 engines.

I loved the Grand Prix. Pontiac made a fabulous engine in the early 60s called the 421. Best Pontiac motor ever made. But it was replaced by the 400, which was OK, but it could be souped up as I did here in one 1976 Grand Prix I had.

 

[Natural Citizen]

I loved the Grand Prix. Pontiac made a fabulous engine in the early 60s called the 421. Best Pontiac motor ever made. But it was replaced by the 400, which was OK, but it could be souped up as I did here in one 1976 Grand Prix I had.

Nice and clean...

 

[TroglocratsRdumb]

I loved the Grand Prix. Pontiac made a fabulous engine in the early 60s called the 421. Best Pontiac motor ever made. But it was replaced by the 400, which was OK, but it could be souped up as I did here in one 1976 Grand Prix I had.


View attachment 1149152

Cool engine

 

[toobfreak]

Cool engine

3/4 Melling cam. The whole car used to rock at idle. Cam did not come on until about 2500 RPM, then, all of a sudden, it ran like gangbusters.

The car came with AC--- to fit the Hooker headers in so I could run straight glass packs, I had to tear out the AC and redesign the firewall. Then I had to redesign the gear shift linkages from hitting the exhaust underneath (I took out the cat convertor).

The car was filled with gauges including fuel pressure, manifold vacuum, oil temperature and tranny temperature. I ran a straight manual choke.

Shifting out of 1st gear, the tires used to break loose and the rear end would shift sideways from the torque. I was getting about 400 HP: 1:1 volumetric efficiency.

A buddy and I were parked at a Co-Gos one day getting something with the motor running and a guy walked over to us and said: "You either have the worst tuned engine ever or you have a cam in that motor."

Oh, by the way, the modified aluminum manifold and shaved heads (13:1 compression) were originally owned by the Allison Brothers, Bobby and Donnie.

I often could not shut the engine off and had to hold the car in drive with the engine turned off (key out) while pouring Moroso Octane Booster in the tank to finally get the motor to shut off (stop dieseling).

 

[Natural Citizen]

I want to do one more build and restore before I get too old.

I want an old Plymouth.

But it has to be the right one at the right time.

 

[iamwhatiseem]