Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2017 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

 Nothing gets a project moving like a goal and a deadline, a sentiment that certainly applies to old-car efforts. In an all-too-familiar set of excuses, thanks to life’s obligations, I’ve left the ’69 Camaro I’ve owned since my teen years languishing in my garage since moving it there after we bought our house a couple years ago. In terms of security and proximity, it’s probably the best place that car has lived in many years, and it’s probably lulled me into paying less attention to it than I should. “ All those years I’d spent hoarding bits and pieces of cars because ‘I might need this someday’ might finally be poised to pay dividends ”. But then came a text from an old friend proposing a reunion of our group…

STROKER: THE ARTISTIC WORKS OF TOM MEDLEY Gary Medley • www.strokerbymedley.com • $65.00 plus S&H Wally Parks, Karl and Veda Orr, Alex Xydias, Dean Batchelor, Ak Miller, Eddie “Bud” Meyer, “Multy” Aldrich, Vic Edelbrock, and… Stroker McGurk? Yep. That last one belongs on any list of hot rodding’s greats, too. As does his maker, Tom Medley. Stroker is a cartoon car guy, a hand-drawn wrench-turning everyman, who made his first public appearance in Hot Rod magazine in March 1948. Medley had been hired by Robert Petersen after Petersen saw one of his drawings pinned to a bulletin board in Blair’s Speed Shop on Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena, California. In the era when hot rodding still had the stigma of being the activity of raucous and reckless hoodlums, Medley created…

We’ll cut right to the chase and tell you that William and Jamie Bell buck conventional opinions when it comes to the car-collecting hobby. The couple from Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, are staunch American muscle car enthusiasts. Their brand of preference is Pontiac, specifically, the GTO. As proof, by the summer of 2011, they could proudly display the title to no fewer than five “Goats” from across the brand’s decade of decadence, starting with an example from 1964. They also had a pair from ’69, a truly rare ’73 we previously featured (HMM #89, February 2011) and the Lucerne Blue ’71 on these pages. Perhaps it’s not that unusual, you say. A respectable percentage of collectors surely have multiple examples of their preferred make and model. But Bill and Jamie are…

Ah, the basket case. Torn down, maybe partially restored, shoved into a dusty corner with its components piled haphazardly around its bare body and chassis. Then, eventually, offered to the first serious buyer. Basket cases are so tempting, because their prices are often negotiable, yet so scary because it’s anybody’s guess what it will take to get a heap back into running, driving shape. (Do all of those parts even belong to that car?) Of course, the level of temptation has a direct correlation to the desirability of the vehicle. Basket-case, four-door, 1970 Malibu with a Power-glide-backed 250 six that reportedly had some kind of mysterious knock before the engine parts were poured into five-gallon buckets? No thanks. Basket-case 1970 Chevelle SS 454 four-speed, reportedly complete down to its original,…

If you read enough vintage car magazines, you’ll get the distinct impression that Street Hemis idled poorly in traffic, fouled spark plugs, and needed weekly valve-lash adjustment. Don’t believe a word of it. Your author owned this 1968 Hemi Charger (XS29J8B119772) from April 1987 through July 1989. Though stored during New England winters, I otherwise drove the TorqueFliteequipped J-car every day for nearly 10,000 miles. When I got it, the numbers-matching Hemi was stock except for Hooker headers, 650-cfm Carter Competition Series AFBs and the same 0.484-inch flat-tappet solid cam used in this engine test story. And, yes, the late-model Carters prevented use of the factory “chrome-dome” air cleaner. I ran a pair of goofy little six-inchers. Though it ran 13.226 ET @ 101.8 mph at Lebanon Valley Dragway (current…

LITTLE GTO Q:I have an original 1968 GTO with a 400 engine that has a cold cranking problem. I have been giving it a two-second shot of ether for cold starts. After cranking, it runs great, the choke works and the engine restarts fine. I was afraid I might be washing the oil off the rings during startup, so I took the Quadrajet to the local Q-Jet man, and he rebuilt it and added the “heart plug” in the fuel bowl. It was no help. I checked the fuel line at the carb, and it is getting gas in three turns of the engine. I normally drive it once a week, so I tried cranking it after three days of sitting, and it started without ether, but still had the…

THE NUMBERS TOTAL SALES: $3,343,913 TOP MUSCLE CAR SALE: 2007 Ford Shelby GT/SC, $65,000 UPCOMING AUCTIONS BY SILVER AUCTIONS DATE: June 17, 2017 LOCATION: Coeur d’Alene, Idaho CONTACT: www.silverauctions.com LEGEND CONDITION: 1 = Excellent; 2 = Very Good; 3 = Average; 4 = Poor; 5 = Major Project RESERVE: Minimum price owner will accept TOP BID: The highest offer made (but vehicle did not sell) SELLING PRICE: What the vehicle sold for AVERAGE SELLING PRICE: Average market value of vehicles in similar condition During the chaotic annual Scottsdale auction week, buyers can escape the fanfare of some of the larger venues to enjoy a more relaxed atmosphere and somewhat lower prices at the Silver Auction, held at the Fort Mc-Dowell Resort & Casino. It has become a go-to place to…

July 1-2 Silver Auction Jackson Hole, Wyoming . . . . . 800-255-4485 July 7-8 York Nostalgia Weekend York, Pennsylvania . . . . . . . . . .717-757-2720 July 7-9 Goodguys PPG Nationals Columbus, Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . 925-838-9876 July 8 Vicari Auction New Orleans, Louisiana . . . . . 504-264-2277 July 9 Long Beach Hi-Performance Swap Meet Long Beach, California . . . . . . 800-762-9785 July 11-15 Pontiac-Oakland Club International Convention Fort Worth, Texas . . . . . . . . . . 877-368-3454 July 14 Hemmings Collector Car Appreciation Cruise-In Bennington, Vermont . . . . . . . 800-227-4373 July 14-16 Rock ’n Rods on Route 66 Weekender Bloomington, Illinois . . .…

As Mercury’s Cougar burst onto the pony car scene in the fall of 1966, the genre was exploding into a full-blown market segment, with hundreds of thousands of sales at stake. Cougar was accompanied by fellow 1967 newcomers Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, while redesigns for Ford’s Mustang and Plymouth’s Barracuda promised to make a big splash, as well. The result was a pony car market that now had something for almost any buyer. You want sporty? Got it. Economical? Got that, too. How about muscle? Check. And luxury? Yes, covered as well. Regardless of brand, history shows that each of these cars was a success story in its own right — popular then, and revered now. But rather than revisit the entire field of ’67s over the next few…

ENGINE The 383 and 440-6 had 2.08/1.74-inch valves in wedge-chambered heads and cam specs of 268/284 degrees advertised duration (milder cam with 330-hp 383). A single four-barrel adorned the 383, and the 440-6 was fed by three Holley two-barrels, most on a new Chrysler cast-iron intake that replaced the prior year’s aluminum Edelbrock piece. The 426 Hemi had hemispherical chambers, 2.25/1.94-inch valves, dual rocker shafts, and two Carter AFBs on an aluminum intake. Its 284/284-degrees duration cam was hydraulic for 1970. TRANSMISSION A new fully synchronized three-speed manual became standard, as the previously included A-833 four-speed joined the 727 TorqueFlite on the option list. The three-speed wasn’t available with the 440-6 or Hemi. An A-833 with a 23-spline input shaft backed the 383, but a stronger 18-spline variant was employed…

“ Like professional baseball, football, basketball, and so on, it’s no longer about loyalty to a single team ”... If you’ve been following the developments in the NHRA fuel classes lately, you may have heard that John Force and fellow team owner Don Schumacher got into a war of words not long ago, accusing each other of hiring away some of each other’s star players. Other teams have also been shuffling their personnel around, trying to find that magic “chemistry” that makes everything click when the race is on the line. This nitro-powered game of musical chairs reminds me of how the roles, responsibilities, importance, and impact of today’s crew chiefs are an entire world away from what we saw in those wild and restless drag racing days 40 or…

Ford dubbed its commitment to racing in the Sixties as “Total Performance.” Before the decade was out, Ford would be sitting on a pile of trophies from NASCAR, Le Mans, Formula 1, sports cars — you name a competitive motorsport on four wheels and Ford was there. How “total” was Total Performance? In 1964, Ford went out of its way to build not one, but two drag-race specials with mighty, race-bred 427-cu.in. engines under the hood. The Fairlane-based Thunderbolt represented the Blue Oval in Super Stock, while the lighter Mercury Comet Caliente special wreaked havoc on the Factory Experimental class. Ford partnered with the small-volume and concept car specialists at the Dearborn Steel Tubing Company to fabricate both models. Dearborn made just enough Thunderbolts — 100 in all — to…

HMM PRODUCT TEST: OC SUN SHADE Sunny days are great for brightening our mood and putting pep in our step, but excessive exposure to the ultraviolet light in that sunshine isn’t healthy for human skin, or for the interior of your car. And as you protect yourself by wearing sunglasses and sunscreen, you can protect your car’s interior by using a windshield sun shade. Even if you store your classic muscle car and daily driver in the garage, you park it outside whenever you take it for a drive, so it makes sense to shield the dashboard, steering wheel, seat upholstery, and the rest of the interior, to prevent the plastics, vinyl, leather, and other materials from color-fading, drying out and getting brittle, and simply becoming too hot to comfortably…

AUCTIONS AMERICA AT FORT LAUDERDALE The Fairlane found a new home for $62,700—beating its estimate. Not quite living up to its anticipated sale price was that first-year Mach 1, equipped with a 428 Cobra Jet and an automatic transmission, which changed hands for $58,300. The Mach 1 wasn’t the only 1969 Mustang on hand, nor the only Mach 1. Other sales included a Mach 1 that brought $41,800, a Mach 1 that sold for $47,850, and a BOSS 429 that found a new home at $231,000. Of the Corvettes we previewed, all sold. The 1961 with the single four-barrel and three-speed changed hands for $78,100; the Recall from April that we took an ad- vance look at Auctions America’s Fort Lauderdale, Florida, sale, held March 31-April 2 and highlighted several…

“ It’s a crushing blow to finally realize that there is no way possible for you to finish the project ”... There comes a time when it becomes necessary to throw in the towel, admit that you’ve been defeated by your current muscle machine project, and look for a way out. We’ve all known novice hobbyists who were seriously under-funded to begin with, allowing their desire to own a muscle car override their better judgment. The usual cause is buying a cheap project car that should only have been used as a parts donor, and this kind of vehicle quickly becomes a money pit without a bottom. This becomes particularly true if the buyer is that novice restorer without the skills to do the bulk of the restoration work personally.…

TWO OF THE OLDEST UNRESTORED MUSTANGS ANCHOR MUSEUM’S NEW PONY CAR EXHIBIT Both were built to entice the public into buying a Ford Mustang. Both have gone 50-plus years without a restoration. And both the 1963 Mustang II concept and one of the earliest production Mustangs will share the spotlight in America on Wheels’ upcoming pony car exhibition in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The Tropical Turquoise convertible seen here has been owned since new by Ron Hermann, who remembers seeing the Mustang before its official on-sale date at Philadelphia’s Barr Ford thanks to his father’s connections there. A $100 on-the-spot deposit earned him the right to buy the V-8 and automatic-equipped convertible, but he had to wait at least another month while it toured eastern Pennsylvania Ford dealerships before he could take…

STILL IN THE FAMILY When my oldest son, Mike, was 15, I bought him a 1977 MG Midget — not long after which he rolled it on a dirt road. He was thrown out through the top, with only a cut on his head. A fence post was imbedded into the driver’s seat. In 1985, being a good responsible parent, I went shopping for another car for him. I looked in Jewell, Kansas, but I didn’t like the car. As I was leaving town that night, I spotted a 1968 Camaro SS 396. Though it was dark outside, I stopped, went up to the door and offered the guy $2,500 without even opening the hood. The guy said he hadn’t planned to sell it, but he would for that money.…

The muscle car era saw plenty of exciting big-block engines with advertised horsepower ratings in the 280 to 375-hp zone. In midsize vehicle platforms, they delivered above average power-to-weight ratios and an exciting driving experience. But in the realm of engines rated above 400 horsepower, the selection was rather slim. There, multiple carburetion, solid lifters, specially cast big-port heads and elevated compression were needed to boost output into the 1 hp-per-cu.in. zone. In this realm, several Detroit V-8s touted a full 425-horsepower rating, starting with the Ford 427 8-V and Chevrolet L80 409 of 1963. Though the 430-cu.in. 1958 Mercury Marauder — with its dual-quads and Heron-type combustion-chamber architecture — was the first American V-8 to claim 400 hp, it was a product of the hyped-up horsepower race of the…

SPECIFICATIONS ENGINE Block type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ford FE OHV V-8, cast-iron block Cylinder heads . . . . . . . . . . Ford C4AE-6049-F, cast-iron Displacement . . . . . . . . . . . 425.8 cubic inches Bore x stroke. . . . . . . . . . . . 4.232 inches x 3.784 inches Compression ratio . . . . . . . . 14:1 Pistons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ford C4AE-6110-S Crankshaft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ford C4AE-6303-G Horsepower @ rpm . . . . . . . 500…

Run whatcha brung,” is a classic phrase in hot rodding, describing the impetus to use materials on hand in the search for speed. Sometimes those out-of-the-ordinary combinations result in duds and sometimes they really take off. This, obviously, is the latter. Doug Grieve and Frank Morris have been friends for decades, since their childhood in Livingston, Montana—today they live only a quarter-mile apart in Columbus, Montana. “This year,” Doug says, “is our 59th year of doing car stuff together.” Like many young guys in that era, they started out with drag racing, circa 1965. They successfully campaigned a 1972 Buick GSX replica in the mid-sedan. With 100,000 miles on the clock, the sedan was in good shape except for the engine, which had expired after a hose had ruptured. “At…

CHEVROLET REAR MAIN SEAL REMOVAL Q: In the past you have referenced split rear-main seals. Does that mean that you are talking about only replacing the seal? I heard that most of the time, you want to change the rear main bearing also. Can this be done without removing the transmission by just pushing it back enough to get the round one-piece bearing to be replaced? Peter Guckenheimer Via email A: You can’t change the rear main bearing without removing the oil pan and the rear main bearing cap. On the Chevrolet small-block and big-block V-8, the rear main bearing is also the thrust bearing, so you really have to remove the crankshaft to change the upper bearing shell. You can, however, change a two-piece rope-type rear main seal by…