BangShift.com


Project Buford T Justice Will Be Saved For About A 100 Bucks With a 15 Year Old Transmission

Project Cars

May 10, 2012
 
trans2
Posted by

By now you know that I blew up my Project Buford T Justice Caprice on the dyno at Performance Auto and Dyno in Plymouth, Massachusetts on Monday. After the car spit the driveshaft at us, broke the transmission housing in multiple places and generally Ike Turnered itself, I figured it was a good time to pull the small block and work on the prep for our upcoming big block swap. Then a funny thing happened. The BangShift forums went nuts for calls to fix the car to continue our torture tests of the 185,000 mile stock 350 currently providing the power. Initially, I was not interested in this, because what type of lunatic would break his nuts yanking a junkyard trans that may or may not work for those kind of slow-mo hi-jinks? I didn’t see it being worth the money or the effort.

Then I was driving along in my soul-less DD, thinking about the car when I had a 100% BangShift approved revelation. I remembered back to the summer of 1998 when me and three of my high school buddies put together a rat-tastic 1984 Pontiac Firebird drag car for about $1200 bucks. We raced the thing all summer with a mild small block, IROC Camaro posi-rear, and a Turbo350 modified with a longer output, spacer, and longer tail housing to bolt in place of the factory 700R4. When the summer was over we parted the car out and one guy got the motor, another got the body and rear end, another kid wanted nothing, and I got the transmission. Wait a second….I got the transmission…the one modified to bolt into the spot of a  700R4! I remember carrying it down into the basement and sticking it behind the heating system of my parent’s house. That being 1998, the thing had to have been sold, scrapped, or used by now, right? Wrong! I called my pop and he confirmed that the transmission was sitting in the same spot we parked it when Bill Clinton was President. WIN!

I plan on draining the fluid, replacing the pan gasket, refilling the thing and bolting it into the Caprice lickety split. That will cost a couple of bucks and I will have to buy a new driveshaft and universal joints, as well as a torque converter but I should be able to have the car up and running again for around $100 which is kind of a miracle. Yes, the Caprice will be getting the big block by the middle of the summer, and yes, this is a stop gap to continue stupid fun, but I really don’t care. It will be an awesome driveway thrash with friends and beer. Plus, the thing may even be quicker with the three speed in it and a BangShifty el cheapo performance converter solution from the old days.

There are definite benefits to the gearhead pack rat mentality. We’ll be doing burnouts again in no time with this awesome trans in the car! Call me and my buds hacks, dirt bags, dirtballs, idiots, or fools and we’ll clink cans to your honor when this transmission brings Buford back to life!

Stay tuned kids, this is going to RULE!