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Looking at all the cars on CL makes me want to put something together dirt cheap and beat the snot of it. But the problem is I have too many cars right now, so buying another is not for me. Looking at what I already have in stock that could be built cheap, this Torino was the choice. I've had it for a few years, found it sitting in a cherry orchard after a tip from a friend. When I was a kid riding the bus to school in the early '80s this car was sitting in a front yard and looked really nice. It sat there for years before disappearing. It's a '68 GT, 289 C-4 car that originally came from Atlanta GA. The front seat was missing and the hood was rusted so bad it folded in half when I tried to close it. It wasn't running, the brakes didn't work, the drivers window was in the trunk and it was being used to store kids pool toys and lawn chairs.
I way overpaid and forked over $1200 for it.
My goal with this car was to build it as cheap as possible and take it to Musclepalooza. I had collected some stuff for it over the last few years and that helped, but it was the small stuff that was frustrating at times. With 10 days to Musclepalooza I decided it was now or never and dove in head first. (I should have checked to see how deep the water was first, LOL)
This is what I started with. I had removed the engine already 2 years ago after getting it running. Don't ask why, it's just how I do things, backwards. I knew I didn't want a 289 anyway.
The interior. The seat is a '69 Torino bucket I pulled right out of a junkyard car. I didn't unbolt it, I just grabbed it and yanked it out of the rusty floor. I couldn't get the other seat out so I paid $50 for the one seat. I'll go back and get the other with a cordless sawzall.
Trunk is pretty clean
I took all the parts and junk out of it.
Found the build sheet under the back seat.
Had to go through the brakes, it had disc spindles on the front that I put on, but needed to be rebuilt, so I swapped the drums back on because it would be cheaper, and since I'm not going to street drive it I figured it would stop fine. I replaced the wheel cylinders, master cylinder, and all the hoses. The hardware, shoes and drums looked good. That stuff cost about $120.
The wheels are the original 14" styled steel wheels and I like them on these cars, but not Mustangs. I was going to use a set of 15" slicks I already had, but I didn't have any wheels with the offset I needed to run them. I looked at all the possibilities and came to the conclusion that running the stock wheels was the cheapest, and it made me happy to use the original wheels. I cleaned them up, sanded and painted a dull aluminum color. I ordered 28x9.0x14" Hoosier Quick Time Pros for the rear, and a friend gave me a free set of new 205-70-14s for the front, and mounted the tires for me. I took them to have them spin balanced at another shop.
Here is the engine, a .030 351W. It was in a '69 Mustang then it was pulled in favor of a 302 when the owner became frustrated the car didn't run up to his expectations. I bought the engine, an Edelbrock Performer intake and a 9" center section with a posi and 380 gears for $250. I sold the intake for $100 and the posi for $100. The engine came with a cam, timing chain, lifters, pushrods front cover and balancer.
I put a used center in I had laying around. It's a 4.11 gear on a spool. I've used it in a few different cars just to play with. It was an Ebay purchase years ago, I think I paid $140 for it shipped.
While I was under there I decided to put in some CE adjustable drag shocks but found out they weren't right for this car, AFTER I had already removed 1 shock, twisting the stud off the bottom. Went into my parts stash and found 2 NOS shocks to put on. I had no $$ in those. Front springs seemed fine, and the front shocks were prettty shot so I decided to leave them alone.
Underbody. Surface rust, nothing real bad.
I had a '73 Montego that I bought as a parts car for this Torino. I had planned on using the engine, disc brakes, the headers, X pipe and dual exhaust that someone did a hell of a job on, and a few other trinkets. I paid $800 for the car, which was running and driving, ripped it apart, then junked what was left. I sold all the stuff I didn't need, and put $1280 back in my pocket. The '73 engine turned out to have scored bearings, but had a rebuilt set of '70 Windsor heads.
I had a C-6 with a B&M converter given to me, and I palnned to use it until I realized I needed a different driveshaft yoke, crossmember, and the driveshaft would need to be shortened. I instead decided to use a C-4 I had picked up at a swapmeet years ago that was supposedly rebuilt. I had paid $75 for it, which was cheaper than what the salvage yards wanted. I opened it up to check it out, and it looked good, so I put in a shift kit $32 and some new seals $17, a used 2800 stall converter for $120, and adjusted the bands.
Here is the engine after it is almost ready to install. It's made from all swap meet, CL or used stuff I had around. It has a Comp 274 Xtreme cam, fully ported '70 heads with 58cc chambers, Manley 1.94/160 valves, Perf. RPM intake. Gaskets are a mix of different kits I had laying around. Not sure how much I have invested in this part yet.
Oops! The converter is a 10.5" bolt pattern unit, and with the proper flexplate, block plate, but larger 11" bellhousing this is what happens. No room for the starter, and it wouldn't engage the flexplate anyway.
Had to pull it apart and come up with something. Dug around in my stash and found the right mix.
It's in there!
Got all the accessories hooked up, ignition is a Duraspark dist, with an old 12V coil and a used free box. Found a wiring diagram online and wired it up. Battery is a $40 blem from Interstate that cost me $10 when I brought back a bunch of cores. The K&N filter and air cleaner were bought at a meet for $10 with 3 other elements that I sold for 10 each. The starter was used, came from my Falcon when I changed to the small late model style used on 3.8/5.0 T-Birds for header clearance. Wires, cap, rotor, plugs I bought new of course, and the carb was a CL find. It's a 650 DP in bolt on condition for $200 Hoses, clamps, lines, gauges and other misc were mostly used items I saved from parts cars.
The radiator was the original, and after hearing the engine run for the first time, it started leaking all over. I ran over to my garage to see if I could find another or pull the one from my Fairlane, but ran into a guy I just built an engine for. He had a recored radiator that was a dead match for mine that came in a 289 Ranger he parted out, and he donated it to my cause.
The floor mat is from the Montego. It isn't a real good fit, but after sitting in the car for a few years it sorta formed itself to the trans tunnel and fit much better than I thought. It was green, so I scrubbed it and sprayed it with some vinyl dye.
I did the same with the seat, but used the classic duct tape repair before spraying it. Not bad right?
Interior coming together. Door panels were off so I could fix the window glasses which had fallen out due to the stupid glue in style windows Ford used in 68-69.
The hood was shot, and they are hard to find, but I got lucky and after posting a wanted sign for 68-69 Torino parts at a swap meet, I followed a guy to his house where while standing on the door sills of a real lightweight 63 Galaxie, we pulled a NOS hood down out of the rafters in his garage. He had restored a '69 Talledega but sold the car with the flat hood. He offered the gut the hood but he didn't want it! It had been stripped and painted satin black and the scoop and badges put on in case he wanted switch them, but it was never put on the car. I bought it for $100 which was a huge score.
Night before the race, about 2am. Still plenty to do, and I haven't even driven the car yet. I had been working on this in the driveway at home, but the night before the race it was going to rain, so I moved everything over to the warehouse so I could work, then test the car on the access road when it was done. I had already lost a nights work to a bad storm that brought lightning like I'd never seen and tornado warnings that told everyone in my area to get in your basement or other safe place.
I worked the last 24 hours straight through before the race, finished what needed to be done, and at 5:30am got the car down the road where I did a few runs through the gears. It performed well, picking the front suspension to full extension and twisting the car to the right slightly, ran strong, shifted good, but the brakes seemed too soft, and there was a vibration in the front end that I didn't like. I decided that it just wasn't a good idea to take it to the track with only half a dozen street runs on it and just because it runs and drives doesn't make it ready to race. I decided to go home and grab a shower and go to the track anyway. By the time I got home that night I had been wake a little more than 40 hours, but it was worth it.
I'm leaving out half the stupid stuff that happened, will add more as I remember. Here's the car as it was the morning I finished it. I put a set of period correct NY plates on it.
I guess the bottom line is that I have one more runner that is real close to being track ready and it only cost me somewhere around 2500-3000. I would like to have come in around 2-2500, but being in a hurry forced me to buy some stuff I would have made, might have already had, or would have searched more to find a better deal. My biggest mistake with regards to budget was the car itself. I should have paid alot less.
Plus I did it all in 10 days!
I way overpaid and forked over $1200 for it.
My goal with this car was to build it as cheap as possible and take it to Musclepalooza. I had collected some stuff for it over the last few years and that helped, but it was the small stuff that was frustrating at times. With 10 days to Musclepalooza I decided it was now or never and dove in head first. (I should have checked to see how deep the water was first, LOL)
This is what I started with. I had removed the engine already 2 years ago after getting it running. Don't ask why, it's just how I do things, backwards. I knew I didn't want a 289 anyway.
The interior. The seat is a '69 Torino bucket I pulled right out of a junkyard car. I didn't unbolt it, I just grabbed it and yanked it out of the rusty floor. I couldn't get the other seat out so I paid $50 for the one seat. I'll go back and get the other with a cordless sawzall.
Trunk is pretty clean
I took all the parts and junk out of it.
Found the build sheet under the back seat.
Had to go through the brakes, it had disc spindles on the front that I put on, but needed to be rebuilt, so I swapped the drums back on because it would be cheaper, and since I'm not going to street drive it I figured it would stop fine. I replaced the wheel cylinders, master cylinder, and all the hoses. The hardware, shoes and drums looked good. That stuff cost about $120.
The wheels are the original 14" styled steel wheels and I like them on these cars, but not Mustangs. I was going to use a set of 15" slicks I already had, but I didn't have any wheels with the offset I needed to run them. I looked at all the possibilities and came to the conclusion that running the stock wheels was the cheapest, and it made me happy to use the original wheels. I cleaned them up, sanded and painted a dull aluminum color. I ordered 28x9.0x14" Hoosier Quick Time Pros for the rear, and a friend gave me a free set of new 205-70-14s for the front, and mounted the tires for me. I took them to have them spin balanced at another shop.
Here is the engine, a .030 351W. It was in a '69 Mustang then it was pulled in favor of a 302 when the owner became frustrated the car didn't run up to his expectations. I bought the engine, an Edelbrock Performer intake and a 9" center section with a posi and 380 gears for $250. I sold the intake for $100 and the posi for $100. The engine came with a cam, timing chain, lifters, pushrods front cover and balancer.
I put a used center in I had laying around. It's a 4.11 gear on a spool. I've used it in a few different cars just to play with. It was an Ebay purchase years ago, I think I paid $140 for it shipped.
While I was under there I decided to put in some CE adjustable drag shocks but found out they weren't right for this car, AFTER I had already removed 1 shock, twisting the stud off the bottom. Went into my parts stash and found 2 NOS shocks to put on. I had no $$ in those. Front springs seemed fine, and the front shocks were prettty shot so I decided to leave them alone.
Underbody. Surface rust, nothing real bad.
I had a '73 Montego that I bought as a parts car for this Torino. I had planned on using the engine, disc brakes, the headers, X pipe and dual exhaust that someone did a hell of a job on, and a few other trinkets. I paid $800 for the car, which was running and driving, ripped it apart, then junked what was left. I sold all the stuff I didn't need, and put $1280 back in my pocket. The '73 engine turned out to have scored bearings, but had a rebuilt set of '70 Windsor heads.
I had a C-6 with a B&M converter given to me, and I palnned to use it until I realized I needed a different driveshaft yoke, crossmember, and the driveshaft would need to be shortened. I instead decided to use a C-4 I had picked up at a swapmeet years ago that was supposedly rebuilt. I had paid $75 for it, which was cheaper than what the salvage yards wanted. I opened it up to check it out, and it looked good, so I put in a shift kit $32 and some new seals $17, a used 2800 stall converter for $120, and adjusted the bands.
Here is the engine after it is almost ready to install. It's made from all swap meet, CL or used stuff I had around. It has a Comp 274 Xtreme cam, fully ported '70 heads with 58cc chambers, Manley 1.94/160 valves, Perf. RPM intake. Gaskets are a mix of different kits I had laying around. Not sure how much I have invested in this part yet.
Oops! The converter is a 10.5" bolt pattern unit, and with the proper flexplate, block plate, but larger 11" bellhousing this is what happens. No room for the starter, and it wouldn't engage the flexplate anyway.
Had to pull it apart and come up with something. Dug around in my stash and found the right mix.
It's in there!
Got all the accessories hooked up, ignition is a Duraspark dist, with an old 12V coil and a used free box. Found a wiring diagram online and wired it up. Battery is a $40 blem from Interstate that cost me $10 when I brought back a bunch of cores. The K&N filter and air cleaner were bought at a meet for $10 with 3 other elements that I sold for 10 each. The starter was used, came from my Falcon when I changed to the small late model style used on 3.8/5.0 T-Birds for header clearance. Wires, cap, rotor, plugs I bought new of course, and the carb was a CL find. It's a 650 DP in bolt on condition for $200 Hoses, clamps, lines, gauges and other misc were mostly used items I saved from parts cars.
The radiator was the original, and after hearing the engine run for the first time, it started leaking all over. I ran over to my garage to see if I could find another or pull the one from my Fairlane, but ran into a guy I just built an engine for. He had a recored radiator that was a dead match for mine that came in a 289 Ranger he parted out, and he donated it to my cause.
The floor mat is from the Montego. It isn't a real good fit, but after sitting in the car for a few years it sorta formed itself to the trans tunnel and fit much better than I thought. It was green, so I scrubbed it and sprayed it with some vinyl dye.
I did the same with the seat, but used the classic duct tape repair before spraying it. Not bad right?
Interior coming together. Door panels were off so I could fix the window glasses which had fallen out due to the stupid glue in style windows Ford used in 68-69.
The hood was shot, and they are hard to find, but I got lucky and after posting a wanted sign for 68-69 Torino parts at a swap meet, I followed a guy to his house where while standing on the door sills of a real lightweight 63 Galaxie, we pulled a NOS hood down out of the rafters in his garage. He had restored a '69 Talledega but sold the car with the flat hood. He offered the gut the hood but he didn't want it! It had been stripped and painted satin black and the scoop and badges put on in case he wanted switch them, but it was never put on the car. I bought it for $100 which was a huge score.
Night before the race, about 2am. Still plenty to do, and I haven't even driven the car yet. I had been working on this in the driveway at home, but the night before the race it was going to rain, so I moved everything over to the warehouse so I could work, then test the car on the access road when it was done. I had already lost a nights work to a bad storm that brought lightning like I'd never seen and tornado warnings that told everyone in my area to get in your basement or other safe place.
I worked the last 24 hours straight through before the race, finished what needed to be done, and at 5:30am got the car down the road where I did a few runs through the gears. It performed well, picking the front suspension to full extension and twisting the car to the right slightly, ran strong, shifted good, but the brakes seemed too soft, and there was a vibration in the front end that I didn't like. I decided that it just wasn't a good idea to take it to the track with only half a dozen street runs on it and just because it runs and drives doesn't make it ready to race. I decided to go home and grab a shower and go to the track anyway. By the time I got home that night I had been wake a little more than 40 hours, but it was worth it.
I'm leaving out half the stupid stuff that happened, will add more as I remember. Here's the car as it was the morning I finished it. I put a set of period correct NY plates on it.
I guess the bottom line is that I have one more runner that is real close to being track ready and it only cost me somewhere around 2500-3000. I would like to have come in around 2-2500, but being in a hurry forced me to buy some stuff I would have made, might have already had, or would have searched more to find a better deal. My biggest mistake with regards to budget was the car itself. I should have paid alot less.
Plus I did it all in 10 days!
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