Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2018 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

REPRODUCTION DECALS Canned Ham Decals 541-390-0224 www.cannedhamdecals.com$9.60 and up, free s&h When we embark on the restoration of an automobile, we’re worrying about where we’re going to source parts for the transmission, who is going to do the bodywork, and whether we should replace the cracked dash pad. We typically don’t think about the decals on the air cleaner or the toolbox that we put in the trunk until the end. But, thankfully, Jim Lovelace in Bend, Oregon, has. Jim began reproducing decals on an as-needed basis in 2001, when he had a small-engine repair business specializing in antique Briggs & Stratton motors. Since then, his inventory has grown to include over 650 decals for everything from basic components to performance parts, from minibikes and go-karts to travel trailers and…

“What I really wanted as a kid grow-ing up was a 1970 Chevelle SS,” said Mike Vogel of his earliest automotive desires. “I walked to school, and every day I passed a red SS with a black interior and black stripes. I knew it was a big-block car, but back then I couldn’t tell you if it was an LS6 or the base 396. I just loved the design.” It was an influence that would not soon let go of the school kid, then still years from getting his license. Now living in Belchertown, Massachusetts, Mike grew up in a Chevy family. During the Seventies, while Mike was making the 100-yard trek from house to class, his father made his own commute in the family’s ’67 Impala, which had been…

PRODUCTION Nova Super Sport production totaled 17,654 for 1969. The L34 396/350-hp big-block was installed in 1,947 of them, and another 5,262 were fitted with the L78 396/375-hp engine. How many if any 1969 L78/396 Nova SSs were built with the optional L89 aluminum heads is still debated, since a verified factory-built example has yet to surface. ENGINE The 300-hp 350 used a Quadrajet on a cast-iron intake, 1.94/1.50-inch valves, a 280/288-degree cam, and a four-bolt-main block assembled with forged rods and cast pistons and crank. The 350-hp 396 had a Q-Jet on an iron intake, 2.065/1.72-inch canted-valve oval-port heads, a 350/352-degree cam, cast pistons, forged rods and crank, and two-bolt mains. Stepping up to the L78 396 brought a Holley carb mounted to an aluminum intake mated to rectangle-port…

In the grand scheme of a restoration, from welding in new floorpans to adjusting the valve lash on a freshly rebuilt solid-lifter engine, few projects cause as much frustration or anxiety as installing replacement stripes or graphics. The pressure to get them straight and centered is intense enough, but ripped, wrinkled, or bubbled vinyl piles on exasperation to the stress of getting it right. That pressure increases exponentially when it comes to the reflective graphics that were used on many muscle cars, because they don’t behave like conventional vinyl graphics. “The 3M material used for repro reflective graphics has different properties and it’s much less forgiving than vinyl graphics,” says Bill Jagenow, the owner of Brothers Custom Automotive in Troy, Michigan. “You can’t simply lift it up and reposition the…

THE NUMBERS BONHAMS’ TOTAL SALES: $57,537,700 TOP MUSCLE-CAR SALE: 1964 Shelby Cobra 289; $1,089,000 GOODING & COMPANY’S TOTAL SALES: $91,593,700 TOP MUSCLE-CAR SALE: 1962 Chevrolet Corvette; $352,000 UPCOMING AUCTIONS BONHAMS: March 8, 2018; Amelia Island, Florida; 415-391-4000; www.bonhams.com GOODING & COMPANY: March 8-9, 2018; Amelia Island, Florida; 310-899-1960; www.goodingco.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 This month we present our final installment of Monterey auction coverage from Bonhams and Gooding & Company. Both companies are noted for bringing a stunning array of…

March 1-3 GAA Classic Cars Auction Greensboro, North Carolina . . 855-862-2257 March 2-3 Smoky Mountain Indoor Swap Meet White Pine, Tennessee . . . . . . 423-608-4519 March 3-4 Dave & Ed’s Pro-Formance Swap Meet Canfield, Ohio . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330-477-8506 March 4 Pomona Swap & Classic Car Show Pomona, California . . . . . . . . . 714-538-7091 March 4 Sumter Swap Meet Bushnell, Florida . . . . . . . . . . . 727-848-7171 March 9-10 Carolina Collector Auto Fest Raleigh, North Carolina. . . . . . 919-215-3351 March 9-11 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance Amelia Island, Florida . . . . . . .904-636-0027 March 9-11 Boise Roadster Show Boise, Idaho…

ZR1 GOES TOPLESS Over 200 mph, $124,000, still really orange Hot on the heels of last month’s report about the new 2018 Chevy Corvette ZR1 (on sale now!) comes news of the first Corvette ZR1 convertible since the C3 generation back in the early 1970s. The weight difference between coupe and convertible is just a 60-pound penalty for the soft-top, mostly accounting for the roof-folding mechanism and some bracing. Everything that comes on the ZR1 coupe, save for the fixed roof, comes on the ZR1 convertible. You’ll recall that the new ZR1’s supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 puts out 755 hp, and 714 lb-ft of torque — officially the most powerful passenger-car engine Chevy has ever built. (That’s more than two horses per cubic inch ... and nearly 122 horsepower per liter.)…

No one buys a car expecting it to last their entire life. Shoot, when you get in multiple wrecks in your first few years of driving, you don’t generally go get yourself a high-performance machine to replace it. “I had a ’61 Corvair when I got my license in 1965,” says Dennis Baker of Dover, Pennsylvania. “I had five wrecks in three years with that car—including a rollover. You remember Ralph Nader, and how the rear wheels went under? Well, after my fifth wreck, the insurance company totaled the car.” Somehow, the demise of that Corvair indicated to Dennis that it might be a good idea to go look into a Chevelle. “The dealer had a ’67 SS 396 four-speed, bench-seat car, in red. I bought it, and took a…

Every March, after wintering in Argentina, the cliff swallows return to their mud nests at the mission in San Juan Capistrano. And just like the swallows, each year, muscle-car mavens from all over the world flock to Rosemont, Illinois, in an annual horsepower pilgrimage. The draw is the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN), housed in the Donald E. Stevens Convention Center the weekend before Thanksgiving. Some claim it’s the biggest and best assemblage of cool cars and hot horsepower… anywhere! Who are we to disagree? According to Bob Ashton, who organizes, promotes, and produces (with a staff of very capable team members) this amazing assortment of machinery, “MCACN is the great equalizer. By that, I mean that no matter what your background, your religion, your politics, or anything else,…

I received a subscription to your magazine a few years ago as a Christmas gift, and I must say that I really look forward to getting every issue. I read it completely, unlike others that I have looked at over the years. I like the variety of cars that you cover and like that you also cover reader’s rides, as that is the real world for most of us. Many of us can’t afford all the work that some people undertake. I personally do most of my own stuff, but then again, not everybody is so talented that they can do it all. I’m not going to claim to be either. I’ve had Firebirds, Camaros, Cutlasses, and stuff like that over the years, but it wasn’t until 1999 that I…

Ford Motor Company was a little late to the classic muscle-car formula of full-size engine in a midsize package. Chrysler Corporation arguably rediscovered the form with the ill-advised downsizing of its 1962 Plymouth and Dodge cars, which sold poorly but dominated the drag strips thanks to their outstanding power-to-weight ratios. A 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury, for example, rode a 116-inch wheelbase and weighed just 3,235 pounds. Add in the Golden Commando 383 with 330 horsepower and you had a potent package. Pontiac saw the opportunity and ran with it, slipping powerful 389s into the similarly sized 1964 Tempest to create the GTO. Chevrolet was right behind with its own A-body, creating the Z-16 1965 Chevelle, which became the SS 396 Chevelle the very next year. In ’64, Ford couldn’t have…

MEGUIAR’S WHOLE CAR AIR RE-FRESHER Among the items we discovered at the big SEMA Convention in Las Vegas back in November was Meguiar’s Whole Car Air Re-Fresher, which comes packaged in an short aerosol can and uses a locking spray nozzle similar to those “bug bomb” fumigators that allow the entire contents of the can to be discharged in one use. Meguiar’s staff explained that this product was primarily designed to actually eliminate odors, not mask them, though the product is scented. The instructions say to start the car that will be treated, then close the windows and turn on the A/C. This will circulate the product throughout the interior and through the HVAC ducting. We tried a can of the Re-Fresher in New Car Scent on a 10-year-old Mustang…

LATE-YEAR AUCTION RECAPS In the city that spans two states, Mecum Auctions sold 391 vehicles over three days, from November 30 through December 2, with a total sales figure reported at $8.2 million. Held at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Missouri, the event featured a loaded (all four options!) 2006 Ford GT as the top seller at $265,000. The rest of the top 10 that followed on the leader board were all American iron with V-8 or V-10 power, save for a 1986 Ferrari Testarossa that crashed the party. The number-two sale went to a 1968 Ford Mustang resto-mod that sported a 650-hp, 427-cu.in. small-block V-8 along with all sorts of other trick parts, that brought in $95,000. A far more original 1971 Mustang Boss 351, with…

Buyers considering either of the 1970 Plymouth GTX’s optional engines probably skipped the fine print in the brochure regarding the 440 Six Barrel and 426 Hemi: “Recommended for Sanctioned Events.” Considerably cheaper than the top-dog and sometimes-fickle Hemi, the 390-hp Six Barrel engine still proved enough to get the GTX into the 13s. We wanted to write that Darcy and David Regala learned that the hard way, but we’d be wrong if we did. The twin brothers, recent retirees from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and proprietors of a martial-arts studio, have owned this GTX since 1977, not really knowing what they were getting into other than that it was fast. That first summer, “It just made short work of everything it went up against,” according to Darcy. Originally ordered…

If you were shopping for a discount fare on Plymouth’s Rapid Transit System in 1972, the hot ticket would’ve been the Duster 340. The sleepy-but-swift Duster joined the RTS in 1970 as a low-buck, loud-bang rival to the Dodge Dart Swinger 340 or Chevrolet’s Nova Super Sport. Plymouth’s stylists created this all-new and enduring design by adding a swoopy roof and fastback rear end to the formal-looking Valiant. Then, the free-breathing wedge-headed 340 was added to turn the Duster into a quarter-mile contender. The package weighed in at 3,265 pounds — 300 pounds less than the ’Cuda — and Plymouth claimed 14.07-second ETs at 100 mph (with, ahem, Ronnie Sox stirring the four-speed in a Duster 340 equipped with deep-ish 3.91:1 gears). The base price was attractively low, especially by…

TROUBLESOME FUEL TANK Q: I’ve been having trouble with my 1969 Road Runner’s fuel tank, ever since I got the car in 2009. The fuel tank was a brand-new unit when I got the car. It has the original vent lines from the factory, meaning it has one short vent line just coming out of the tank, then going up in a curve and then down again. Then there is a second vent line, which is much longer and goes into the trunk compartment to the passenger side of the car and then out again to go into the right-side rear frame rail. The problem I have is that every time I fill up on fuel, the vent lines will spill out fuel when the car is sitting. It doesn’t…

Being a farm boy, cars didn’t interest me until high school. Men were returning from Vietnam by then, and though I was not old enough to legally drive yet, it started my interest in cars. One of these returning vets had a 1968 Shelby G.T. 350 and another a ’67 Mustang GT with a 390. I was the pit crew during this time, and learned how little room there was under the hood of a ’67 Mustang with an FE engine. By 1974, my education route was completed, and I landed my first real paying job, so I started looking for a Shelby, but could not find a small-block. Later that year, I found a 1966 Cobra 427 for $6,600. I gave this serious thought, but having no place to…

MUSTANG REAR-FRAME RAIL ROT Q: Help! My 1966 Mustang has a cancer. While driving it a few weekends back, I hit a pothole and the driver’s-side leaf spring punched through the trunk at the rear shackle. Do I need to scrap the car or replace the frame? Surely there is some company out there that offers a fix for this problem without my having to source an unrusted frame from some Southwestern salvage yard and switching over the body and drivetrain. Do those short coil springs that mount on top of the axle work? Kate O’Brien Via hemmings.com A:I had the exact same thing happen to my 1965 Mustang a few decades ago, and I can admit to using those “helper” coil springs that clamp to…