First Car Adventures.... my grandpa's car, parked since 1996

[iMpathetic]

VERY cool!!! Hope you have a blast getting everything in shape!

I will! I already washed the 10-odd years of dust and grime off of it and it looks great!

I was poking through the trunk and found a pair of work boots, a Dremel, and my grandfather's old fedora.

Wow. For a 15 year old, that's about as pimp as it gets! Awesome.

Exactly.

Maybe you should check the carburetor too, as I doubt it has fuel injection. Also I hope all the electric stuff still works. Otherwise that's a really cool car! Don't forget to post pics. Good luck!

I will ASAP. I think it might have FI because that was part of the emissions regulations they did in the 70s, right?

Sounds like an excellent question for Car Talk. Seriously, give 'em a call.

1-888-CAR-TALK

I love those guys!

just think you can cruise from gas station to gas station in style.

Damn straight. I don't care about the mileage, I'm not gonna put more than 5,000 miles on it a year.

I was going to mention this too. Gas gums up pretty quickly. I know old motorcycles more than cars, but when one has been sitting for a few years it usually needs tires, battery, a carburetor cleaning, and sometimes the gas tank needs to be checked for rust.

Will look into that.

Yeah old gas in the tank probably would not help to start the car easily. Don't forget the transmission too, that probably needs to be flushed and checked out.
Also OP- If it's cold where you live during the winter, carb'd cars start differently from modern Fuel Injection cars. Just an FYI.

It's about 65 degrees F now and rarely goes below 23 in the winter.

 

[JG271]

Sounds like a cool car! Lucky you, learning to be able to drive at 15, here you've got to be 17, i've got my test in a few weeks.

I bet the suspension is crazy on that thing.

Odometer reads 41,017.

Not bad - I'm driving my dads 3 year old car which has 81,000 on the clock, already!

Have fun!

 

[iMpathetic]

Sounds like a cool car! Lucky you, learning to be able to drive at 15, here you've got to be 17, i've got my test in a few weeks.

I bet the suspension is crazy on that thing.



Not bad - I'm driving my dads 3 year old car which has 81,000 on the clock, already!

Have fun!

The suspension is crazy, yes. Crazy SOFT. I can almost bottom it out just pushing down hard on the trunk. This thing is going to be slammed for about the first 300 feet after a speed bump.

Call me crazy, but I think I may want to repaint it.... the cream is slightly nauseating. Perhaps orange? Gotta get some new rims too.

 

[iMpathetic]

So, what $$$ does it look like I'm gonna have to pay? Any chance of it being basically driveable for about $1200 or so?

 

[JoeG4]

One of my mom's friends has that exact same car, except in pink-ish brown. You'll be surprised at the amount of weird features (it has power windows and will let you know when you're like "27 miles till empty") XD

This is a fairly high end 75, it might actually have EFI (well, you'd know if you popped the hood pretty much instantly if it has a giant round thing over the engine ) I'm not 100% sure..

Back to the point, seriously I bet if you changed the fluids, spark plugs, and battery you'd be just fine. Hell, I bet if you changed the battery it'd start right up, but don't do that lol.

Do the oil change, maybe crank it, change it again (I dunno), that's the least you can do really since oil is cheap, even when you need like 8L for that big ole' engine. Just use what was required and work from there. Synthetic .. I dunno. Some people would say not to use it on older cars, with only 41,000 miles though? I doubt it'd hurt, it'd just clean it up, in which case you'd be wanting to change that oil.. often!

THERE'S MY THOUGHT: Change the oil a few times when you get it running, maybe the first time at 100-300 miles, the second time at 500, the third at 1000. Take advantage of the oil filters, use some good ones (what, napa wix gold or something?) and change them often. That'll clean up the engine, though I doubt it'll be that bad.

Do the same with your fuel/brakes. Maybe get the gas tank off and drain the crap out, if the fuel pump was easy to replace and you were lazy you could just put new filters on, pour some HEET in, and run it dry, lol. (not recommended).

You'll want to change the fluid several times on the transmission too.. DROP THE PAN do NOT use the pump type machine, especially on the first go, there will probably be a bit of crap sitting on the pan that'd otherwise get sucked up through the tranny and make a mess.

Don't forget the differential!

You might be fine keeping the engine bay hoses (I'd change em just out of precaution, most are cheap and easy such as radiator hoses), but I'd replace the brake lines anyway.. cheap insurance!

PS: I'm not a mechanic or a restorer or any of that, so my opinion isn't very useful XD

 

[iMpathetic]

Sounds easy and like I could do it myself!!!

What do you think it would cost total to do all that? Oh, and the tires are flat, duh

Pics!!!!!

 

[Boneoh]

Cool pics! A true land yacht if I ever saw one

 

[applefan1997]

Wow, nice car, but the trunk is huge!

Most of the advice on here is great. Be sure to do the service to the gas tank/related parts, and do put oil in the cylinders as somebody said, because the pistons or something might damage the wall.

If you can do most of the work by yourself, it should be about ~$150 or so to get it to start/run, but getting it to really drive might be something else.

 

[Sun Baked]

Looks like there is actually enough room in the trunk for 1 jumbo sized american, or 3 french men.

 

[iMpathetic]

Battery is sooo dry it started smoking with jumper cables. Title is valid through Jan 1999. Interesting.

Found a Burger King cup from the early 90s in it. Weird.

Off to buy a siphon, some new gas, and a new battery.

 

[MonksMac]

Battery is sooo dry it started smoking with jumper cables. Title is valid through Jan 1999. Interesting.

Found a Burger King cup from the early 90s in it. Weird.

Off to buy a siphon, some new gas, and a new battery.

Awesome car! re: FI- it may or may not have Fuel Injection. Most domestic and some Euro and Japanese cars had carbs until the mid 1980's. A lot of higher end cars did start getting FI in the 1970's even though I don't think it was part of the emissions regulations. Wish I was gonna get a car that cool...

 

[iMpathetic]

I'll have to figure it out, but this was a very high-end car back in its day... I wouldn't be surprised.

Does this car have high money pit potential? I want it to work well for a long time after I get it running.... I don't have much money at all and I'm actually selling the Hac Pro to do this.

 

[santaji]

Sounds easy and like I could do it myself!!!

What do you think it would cost total to do all that? Oh, and the tires are flat, duh

Pics!!!!!

Nice car, a little bit too new for my tastes, but still is cool

 

[Osarkon]

I actually passed one of these on the road yesterday, first time I've ever seen one. It's not as long as it looks when it's on the road. Nice car.

 

[FX120]

I'll have to figure it out, but this was a very high-end car back in its day... I wouldn't be surprised.

Does this car have high money pit potential? I want it to work well for a long time after I get it running.... I don't have much money at all and I'm actually selling the Hac Pro to do this.

Be prepaired to pay for fuel for that thing. The 460 V8 sucks fuel like there is no tommorow. If you drive *really* easily, you'll be lucky to get 13-14MPG with a tail wind. With a heavy foot it's not hard at all to push it down into the the 6-8MPG range, really race it and you can drain the tank in about 70 miles. Of course the day I did that I also went through a set of tires because I literally burned them off all the way down the block, and repeated that several times before getting pulled over, and then did it again after the cop pulled off.

Because they get such poor mileage, they've got massive fuel tanks, something like 25 gallons, so at minimum you're looking at about $50 (with todays prices) just to fill the thing up. If gas goes back up to $3.00 a gallon, you'll probably be better off selling it for whatever you can, and buying a civic.

 

[iMpathetic]

I actually passed one of these on the road yesterday, first time I've ever seen one. It's not as long as it looks when it's on the road. Nice car.

Haha, thanks. : It actually is VERY long in person, I had trouble getting a side shot of the car because it was so long and there was nowhere to back up.

Be prepaired to pay for fuel for that thing. The 460 V8 sucks fuel like there is no tommorow. If you drive *really* easily, you'll be lucky to get 13-14MPG with a tail wind. With a heavy foot it's not hard at all to push it down into the the 6-8MPG range, really race it and you can drain the tank in about 70 miles. Of course the day I did that I also went through a set of tires because I literally burned them off all the way down the block, and repeated that several times before getting pulled over, and then did it again after the cop pulled off.

Because they get such poor mileage, they've got massive fuel tanks, something like 25 gallons, so at minimum you're looking at about $50 (with todays prices) just to fill the thing up. If gas goes back up to $3.00 a gallon, you'll probably be better off selling it for whatever you can, and buying a civic.

I don't plan on driving THAT much... even when I can, I can just take the bus to school, bike places, etc etc. It's gonna be a "fun" car.... also a "haul sh*t" car.

So you have the same car I do? Even with that monstrously crippled engine it can still spin the tires?

 

[FX120]

Haha, thanks. : It actually is VERY long in person, I had trouble getting a side shot of the car because it was so long and there was nowhere to back up.



I don't plan on driving THAT much... even when I can, I can just take the bus to school, bike places, etc etc. It's gonna be a "fun" car.... also a "haul sh*t" car.

So you have the same car I do? Even with that monstrously crippled engine it can still spin the tires?

I had a black 73 in the mid 90's for a few months.

And since when is 350 ft/lbs of torque crippled?

 

[buzzbee]

Does this car have high money pit potential? I want it to work well for a long time after I get it running.... I don't have much money at all and I'm actually selling the Hac Pro to do this.

You have to remember that this is an American built car from the mid 70's, working well and for a long time were not part of the business model. How do you think Toyota and Honda cam in in the late 70's and early 80's and have gone on to become so dominate.

Reminds me of the 1970 Nova I drove in HS with a 307. There was always something to fix.

 

[Osarkon]

How's the car coming along? Any progress?

 

[nickspohn]

Now just get 24 inch chrome rims, a lime green paint job, and some dice for the rear view mirror and you're set...

 

[iMpathetic]

How's the car coming along? Any progress?

Nah, but I think about it every day

It's not anywhere close to me, but I will get down there ASAP and do work, son.