Category Archive: BangShift Projects, Project Cars, Raven Imperial
Project Raven Imperial: The Last Piece To The Puzzle Is Always A Pain In The…
The formal name for the place I live at, far as anybody needs to know, is simply BangShift Mid-West. It is my house, my land, my domicile. Then there is the small shop right off to the side of the...
Project Raven Imperial: It’s Time To Feed The Raven!
The sun was shining, the weather was clear, and I was on a mission: the 1983 Imperial was going to get it’s 367ci small-block Chrysler engine shoved into the bay come hell or high water. Yeah,...
Project Great Pumpkin Mustang: The Second Sacrifice Has Arrived At The Shop!
No, that is not the Great Pumpkin Mustang. That is not the replacement for the Great Pumpkin Mustang. What you’re looking at is the latest thing to be dragged to BangShift Mid-West’s...
Project Raven Imperial: Engine, Wiring, And The First Bath In A Year!
When I got to work on the new engine for the Imperial at the beginning of the year, I had been hoping that I would be cruising around in the car by now. As you can plainly see, that hasn’t...
Project Angry Grandpa: The Hemi Shootout At The NMCA Bluegrass Nationals
At the end of last year, I made a decision: Project Angry Grandpa, our in-house 2006 Chrysler 300C, was going to take an off year after three solid years of use and abuse. With over 50,000...
Project Raven Imperial: WHY WON’T YOU WORK?! Fighting The Fuel Gauge Again…
Remember my first day on the job nearly four years ago, when I said that joining the BangShift crew might be the most questionable automotive decision I’ve ever made? Scratch that. I’ve...
The Limousine: We Get The U.S.S. D’Elegance Back To A Roadworthy State And Assess What’s Next!
Back in January I went in with a couple of people on the mother of all bad ideas, a 1980 Cadillac Fleetwood Formal limousine that had a three-digit price tag and looked like a five-digit trip to the...
Project Raven Imperial: The 360 Rebuild, Part Two – Work Progresses, Grinds To A Halt, Progresses Again…
When I last left the build on Raven’s 360ci LA Mopar, I had gotten the ugly truth about the piston rings I had on hand: they were junk. Piston #1’s top ring had broken in half and just...
Project Raven Imperial: The 360 Rebuild, Part One: Diving Into The Deep End Head-First
I want to say something like, “I rolled up my sleeves and took the challenge head-on” or something similar here, but here’s the truth: up until yesterday, I was staring at a bare...
Raven Imperial: Cleanup And Early Wiring Work, Because Masochism Is Easy
With the 360 sitting at a machine shop waiting in line to get it’s camshaft bearings installed, there was absolutely no reason to not get to work on the other sections of the 1983 Imperial...
Unhinged: There’s Always A First Time For Everything, And You’re About To See A Lot Of “Firsts”…
The tone of voice that came through the phone was absolutely incredulous. “You’re telling me you’ve never rebuilt a carb before?!” Chad couldn’t believe his ears, but...
Project Angry Grandpa: Putting Old Skills To New Uses (Or, How To Love Fixing Wiring Connectors)
The problems for the Angry Grandpa Chrysler started on the last day of the PRI show. As Lohnes and I were getting our cars warmed up in the morning before heading over to the convention center, two...
The 2017 Summary From BS Mid-West: Where Do Our Project Cars Stand?
It’s about time to start taking stock in what we’ve managed to accomplish this year with the project cars in the stable here in Kentucky. This year has been…well, I guess you could...
