Who remembers the Bonneville?
Jim
Jim
Car ****
- Thread starter threetango
- Start date
Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2020
- Messages
- 10,748
Skirts were a really weird phase for cars. As if they were trying to hide the fact cars had 4 wheels.
Ben
Awh, 59 was the year of the fins...
Plymouth had to follow suit.
Jim
Plymouth had to follow suit.
Jim
How about a gasser? This guy is always at the Labor Day car show in my county.
"Danger Ride"
"Danger Ride"
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2017
- Messages
- 5,023
Would love to hear that run
At the end of the Labor Day car show, there's a kind of an unofficial burnout contest. The cars will be in line at a stop sign, taking turns pulling onto the main drag. Somebody will do a brakestand at the stop sign, and then everybody else has to join the fun. The cops always let the boys have their fun so long as nobody goes to crazy. Danger Ride doesn't go too crazy - I'm guessing that those tires are too expensive to send up in smoke - but that motor is so cammed up that it'll barely stay running until he puts his foot into it. When he does, watch out!
I bet it runs like crap below 3000 rpm
The fastest big car I've ever owned was a Chrysler 300G, originally it had a cross ram intake system with two Carter AFB carbs, by the time I got the car the carbs were worn out and since they were sold as matched pairs I couldn't afford to buy new ones, because of this the engine ran like crap, anyway I ended up finding a single four barrel manifold, I installed it and a good four barrel carb and it ran great, had it to 140 mph one time, scary because after I did that, in inspecting the tires, I found one with a chunk of rubber missing from the tread, if I would have had a blow out at the speeds I had done, I might have died. Thing is there were many things I didn't like about Mopars, hated the E-brake, Chrysler products had that dang brake mounted on the back of the transmission far too many years, my dad had a 48' Plymouth coupe that he had burnt out that brake from leaving in on for miles, he said he finally figured something was wrong when he saw smoke coming out from under the back of the car as he was driving down the road, there were many other problems as well, the one that plagued me for a long time was the starter, a rebuild was no better than the one that was on the engine when I got it, I finally found a starter that came from a 383 that came out of a Dodge truck, it had a Bendix centrifugal engagement rather than a solenoid engagement. One of the other things that I ran across was that one time when I did an oil change, the oil pump wouldn't prime, the only thing that saved me from dropping the oil pan was that the oil pump had a bottom cover that was on the outside of the engine, I pulled it off, slopped oil in the impellers, closed it back up and the pump began pumping oil. Probably the best feature those wedge head engine had was the distributor was on the front of the engine, I always disliked fooling around with rear distributors. In my hot rodding years, my favorite engines were a Ford 289 I put together and a 1959 Lincoln Continental 430, stock that 430 had nearly 400 hp and 500 ft.pounds of torque. Those days, sad to say, are long gone and now my hot rod is a 2007 Tundra PU with the 5.7 V-8, yeah it can burn more rubber than I can afford but it's good for hauling soil, gravel and building supplies.
Just hauling some stuff with my recently acquired chevy 3/4 ton 1975. Talked to a real car nut at breakfast and he was interested to see my truck. Out in the parking lot we popped the glove box and there was a spec sheet.
Turns out I have a camper special which originally came with the 454, lower gearing, oversized sway bar and a host of other things. The factory tach is in the large dial next to the speedo on mine but in the standard non tach one the gas gauge is there and from what I hear it is disconcerting to watch it go down so quick.
The truck came with two fuel tanks and it needs them even tho someone took out the big block and replaced it with a 350 (which is fine with me).
It sure can haul a lot of garden dirt home. And the other day I was hauling some green firewood that weighed 2000 pds and the truck barely noticed.
The funest little hot rod i ever owned was a beat up looking VW bug back in the day. A top line VW mechanic had built a sweet bug for his son and the kid promptly rolled it so dad pulled the engine and plugged it into a chassis to sell it. The guy who bought it didn't know what it was and lugged it around town till a plug fouled and he ended up selling it to me. i tuned it up and it was scary. Twin carbs and a bunch of other goodies on a big bore engine would light up the tires on take off and blow past 80mph so fast. All in a bad handling old bug.
Turns out I have a camper special which originally came with the 454, lower gearing, oversized sway bar and a host of other things. The factory tach is in the large dial next to the speedo on mine but in the standard non tach one the gas gauge is there and from what I hear it is disconcerting to watch it go down so quick.
The truck came with two fuel tanks and it needs them even tho someone took out the big block and replaced it with a 350 (which is fine with me).
It sure can haul a lot of garden dirt home. And the other day I was hauling some green firewood that weighed 2000 pds and the truck barely noticed.
The funest little hot rod i ever owned was a beat up looking VW bug back in the day. A top line VW mechanic had built a sweet bug for his son and the kid promptly rolled it so dad pulled the engine and plugged it into a chassis to sell it. The guy who bought it didn't know what it was and lugged it around town till a plug fouled and he ended up selling it to me. i tuned it up and it was scary. Twin carbs and a bunch of other goodies on a big bore engine would light up the tires on take off and blow past 80mph so fast. All in a bad handling old bug.
Hey @Spikedriver Does this look familiar? I know nothing about the car, swiped the photos from gab weeks ago.
Never seen that exact car, is it an Olds? Whatever it is, it's righteous!
Edit: I see it's got a blue oval on it. Still righteous!
It looks like a Mercury Comet, or Ford Fairlane 64-66 model. Could well be wrong. Looks like the engine badge says 390. One BAAD motor if thats what it is.
They look like they are all from the same era.
That looks like a Dodge Cornet, probably the same year group
Falcon Sprint, 1965, I would have liked to have had one, originally came with a 260 in what they called the 1963 1/2, when the Sprint first came out, in 65' they went to a 289, serious guys dropped in a 427, those cars and the Thunderbolt /Fairlane were nasty due to being so light.
289's were a serious motor for as small as they were. Very fast revving.
I once pulled a 289 out of a '64 or '65 Gallaxie. Put it in a '69 ford pickup(6cyl). I pulled motor mounts out of old ford/mercury's for 2 days trying to find a set that would work. Of course it was august and in bama. Hot as hades and snakes love junkyards. We killed several that week, copperheads and one small velvet tail rattler. And wasps!!! I never want to do that again!
This is the truck, powder puff blue and rust. It was sitting on blocks behind my nieghbor's barn, he'd hauled hogs in it. A real farm truck, think I paid $200. The mains in 6 cylinder were so bad they'd rattle under acceleration. It leaked twice the oil it burned.
But I needed a vehicle and didn't have a lot of cash. It was a war horse after I got done with the drive train, spent about $1K total. I drove it to Chicago for a year, then CA for another, then to Norfolk VA. Still looked like crap though. I had it 7 years and never washed it. I used to leave the keys in it, no one would steal it.
I sold it to an old fisherman in Elizabeth City NC. He probably hauled fish in it til he retired.
This is the truck, powder puff blue and rust. It was sitting on blocks behind my nieghbor's barn, he'd hauled hogs in it. A real farm truck, think I paid $200. The mains in 6 cylinder were so bad they'd rattle under acceleration. It leaked twice the oil it burned.
But I needed a vehicle and didn't have a lot of cash. It was a war horse after I got done with the drive train, spent about $1K total. I drove it to Chicago for a year, then CA for another, then to Norfolk VA. Still looked like crap though. I had it 7 years and never washed it. I used to leave the keys in it, no one would steal it.
I sold it to an old fisherman in Elizabeth City NC. He probably hauled fish in it til he retired.
Last edited:
Of all of the engines I've run over the years, the 289 was one of the best starting and economic V-8s I've ever owned, also had a great power to weight ratio, they were very light because of precision castings, the only negative about that was that they couldn't be bored out all that much and because of such a short stroke they didn't develop that much torque, the stroke was 2.78", but boy could they ever turn the rpm's, one time when I was at the drag strip a 289 powered dragster was making runs at up to 10,800 rpm.
I still have a set of 10.5:1 flat top pistons for a 289 up at my parents sitting in a tub of oil.
How about a 72 boat tail ??
Man I loved those things.
Jim
Man I loved those things.
Jim
BATMOBILE
Over the years I gained a liking to some of the Buick models and wish I had some of the big block engines that were around, I didn't care much for the 'nail head", earlier year engines, but when they came out with their 430 cu. in., it would have been fun to drop that engine in a light vehicle.
Exactly. Just because an engine didn't have your favorite logo on the valve cover did not mean it was junk.
The big engines they put in Oldsmobiles were a perfect example.
They cranked those things out like cotton-candy and put them in everything they made
.They were everywhere!
And they slung those 6,000 pound hunks they were put in around like they were nothing too.
The Olds 455 was a prime example.
With just a mild cam stuck in them, they could make over 430hp without even breaking a sweat.
Last edited:
I forgot to post a car pic.The Olds 455 was a prime example.
With just a mild cam stuck in them, they could make over 430hp without even breaking a sweat.
Who woulda thought this ugly monster would be hiding a totally awesome racing engine and you could buy it for just peanuts?
We did!
The bone yard...
OK, no pictures at this time, or maybe at all, but I remember my dad talking about a new Ford he had, probably in the late 40's or early 50's. Anyways the engine went bad and Ford replaced it under warranty (I think) but dad opted to pay something like $20 or $30 more for the Mercury motor that had 10 more horsepower. He said the power increase was significant and he could take off in 2nd gear, and when racing people and taking off in 2nd they would leave the line first but as soon as they shifted to 2nd he passed them and pulled away and never looked back. Ehhh, it's a good story, and I don't recall seeing a picture of an old Ford in the photos I have, so I may never know what car it was. I know he had a new car in '53 and a new Bel Aire in '56, but he and mom were married in '53 so I think it was before that.
