I'm going to go ahead and start a full thread on it here once I get it home! Thanks, it should be a lot of fun! Jim
He said he started buying them (after his divorce) mostly out of the nickle adds, in the mid 80's thought 90's. I don't think he's buying much now.
Nice find, I'm going go look up and old friend and get some pics of his GT project, you know how sometimes called "mini vettes", he went a step further and squared the headlight covers, moved the fuel filler, changed the spoiler and other body parts to make it look more vette like. It was a great runner and looker, then years ago he started to put a V6 turbo in it and never finished it
I found this 71' Yamaha U7E on the side of a garage. It came with a title and 1,000 miles. Haven't started to work on it mechanically, but cleaned it up with some elbow grease.[/IMG] [/IMG]
Teranfon, I think you and JimVonBaden are complete opposites. I picture him getting the car running by throwing in a battery from an old motorcycle and shooting some ether into the carb, filling the door with bondo, and painting it using that method where you thin down latex paint and apply about 15 coats with a roller! I do know this, though: Jim actually WILL get it on the road, unlike my numerous projects.
Ah, I'm just messing with Jim anyway. I guarantee that Jim will obsess on this thing like a dog on a bone, and probably won't sleep more than an hour a night until it's done. And it'll look good!
That's the one, thanks for the link. It actually sold to a guy in Germany a little over a year ago but he has still not made arrangements to pick it up yet.
Fix up that old Opel, when I got the car that I turned into the race car, it was so rusted out you could not open both doors without it sagging in the middle. Looks good now tho.
Cool car Terry! Greg Donahue Collector Car Restorations has a lot of the parts. Since the car has heavy duty suspension (way cool!), you need to make sure to get the right parts, especially the lower control arm mounts. The heavy duty brake drums are very hard to find, so hopefully yours are good. Oh- In case you're getting ready to buy parts for the transmission, it's a CruisoMatic (Merc-o-Matic - same thing) and not a C-4. Sounds like a fun project. Did the car come from a cold climate? That looks like a block heater in that engine stand pic. You may also want to consider a stroker kit for that 390.. Survival Motorsports offers a nice setup that will add gobs of low-end torque, for not much more than the cost of rebuilding your stock rotating assembly. With a 3.00 gear you will need all the torque you can get! - Bill
Beautiful! I did some SCCA parking lot racing back in Vegas in the early 90s with my GT. Nothing like yours, just the stock class. Jim
Another 100 mile stock GT undriven for 38 years. http://www.opelgt.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/10138/title/drivers-side-rear-view/cat/503 Look through the photo album for more. Amazing car! Jim
Hi Terry - The C-4 transmission was never put behind an FE engine. The bellhousing pattern is completely different. C-4's came behind 6-cylinders and small blocks only. Here's a page showing powertrain choices for '64 Fords (same as Mercury that year) : http://www.1964ford.com/us-powerteam.aspx Also the Cruisomatic is the only Ford automatic trans from that era with a cast iron center case. The C-4 and C-6 units are all-aluminum. If you're keeping the car close to stock, the Cruiso will be fine. A torque or "RV" cam with more lift than stock will work just fine with those headers. That's the combo I ran in my 390 Galaxie (four-speed with 3.00 Detroit Locker) for years and it was happy. Stay away from a lumpy cam because that will kill the low end. A Pertronix ignition in the stock distributor will boost reliability and I have to admit I prefer Holley carburetors over the stock Autolites. They're easier to tune. With headers on that engine a 600 CFM will do the job. I ran a blueprinted 735 CFM Holley and my car LOVED it. Keep us posted on your progress! - Bill
