Project Creep: (noun) when changes turn what was supposed to be a simple fix into a convoluted and time-consuming process. It’s the old joke…you pull the car into the garage to change the plugs and the oil and the next thing you know you are halfway done with a restoration. Or, in the case of forum member “blackZ”, you have a second car in the garage, a gaping hole in the original project car’s engine bay, and a lot of catching up to do. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

From “blackZ”:  “I took the engine out to freshen it up and clean the engine bay and it turned into new floor pans, new redesigned rear suspension and some updates so I could take a few laps at our local track. In my mind I was just going to tinker around with it in the garage this winter while I put togather my new engine, an 11.5:1, 4.04 X 3.875 350 with AFR 227 heads, and a 6.26 lift solid roller cam. So to make a long story short, my wife sent me an ad while I was at work two weeks ago for a 1976 Vega wagon and now I have another project in my garage.”

If you have never experienced a small-block Vega, it’s a life-altering experience…as in, when you breathe at the throttle pedal and the car spins around like a dreidel with an exhaust note, you alter your life to either make the Vega safer or you end up reconsidering your idea in the first place. They are sketchy, they are quick and they are loads of fun. A 4.3L V8 from some smog-choked Nova could make a Vega something interesting, let alone a warmed-up 350 that was great fun in a rubber-bumper Camaro. Stay tuned to this one, folks, and take note of those stock-ish wheels.

BangShift Project Files: blackZ’s 350 Vega Project