Project: Ultimate Daily Driver, Underway

[Cogs]

I've been wanting to start working on my Vic for a little while now, I'm going to use it as a daily driver, but before I can really do that without really getting annoyed by the car again, some work needs to be taken care of.

First off, body work. There are very many scratches, blemishes and dings and body panels that are not aligned correctly. This will be taken care of, as well as removal of the vinyl top.

Next thing on the list, the car is rediculously SLOW. Some HO parts being swapped is in order. I'll get some used HO heads, cam, and intake, and of course ECM and injectors, this with my headers and mustang H pipe, should make for some half way decent power.

And perhaps the most important thing on the list is the exhaust, I'm going to take Scott's advice, and leave the off road H pipe on, but have a shop weld in some universal cats, some S10 mid pipes, dynomax super turbo mufflers on to some Vic tail pipes. Gotta do things on the cheap,but this seems like a very good setup.

To start my journey, I removed all of the granny chrome and the wheel well trim and of course tossed all of that into the garbage. (Pics soon to follow) Next on the list is to grind off all of the rust, and get some body filler and primer on there.

I'm going to be doing little things, until I can buy the HO parts and exhaust parts, and most likely I will do the body and prep myself, but then bring it halfway disassembled to Maaco.

That's my story and I'm stickin to it.

And btw, to all who think it wont happen, I'm makin $30.15/hour now, I can make it happen.

[Southern_Pride]

Sounds like a great idea. I wish mine had more balls as well. That will have to wait though

[mrltd]

At the current rate a powerstroke diesel might be a better swap...do a 1:1 rear gear and use all the torque and get great fuel economy.

[Cogs]

At the current rate a powerstroke diesel might be a better swap...do a 1:1 rear gear and use all the torque and get great fuel economy.

No thanks. lol.

[mrltd]

It'd walk most of the panthers that are around...If I could afford the engine I'd do it.

[TommyN]

What kind of job do you have?

[Cogs]

Construction.

[Lincolnmania]

cogs the mid pipe part # is napa 43-281

[Cogs]

Well, I got a little bit more done today. There was a rust hole in the quarter panel under where the chrome was, so I patched that up, and it's lookin good. I also tried to fix the tension rod on the trunk, but that didnt really work out as I had hoped. Oh well, I'll try again later. After I gave up doing that I used my grinder to take off the surface rust on the trunk floor, then I sprayed some of that multi colored trunk paint on. I need a couple more cans of it, but it's lookin good so far. I also took my car in to the exhaust place and they wanted $500 to do my complete exhaust. I might just bring it there instead of doing it myself. It will be close to $400 if I do it myself, plus then hours of cursing and then Id still have to bring it to the exhaust shop to have them put the cats on. Oh well, we'll see. I also had to put a new battery in, cause the old one was about finished, so I threw a new interstate battery in. Still no pics tho, till I get new batteries for my camera. If I didn't need the stupid special batteries, there would be pictures by now, but no.

[Cogs]

Well, the exhaust portion is almost complete. I have a full exhaust system right now, so thats a plus. Headers, off road H, custom bent mid pipes to connect the mustang H to new 'turbo' mufflers, and stock tails. Sounds decent, could be better. Now you can hear the rod knock when the car starts though, so thats not good, and also, the engine and fan noise is more obvious now. Oh well, electric fan is coming soon, so thats a little less bad noise. Only thing left for the exhaust is one of two options, either get a mustang catted H pipe or have the current one modified to put cats on. The current one is looking very rusy though, which is weird since its only been on a little over a year.

Also, I got new batteries for the camera, the pics are on my computer, now i just need some time to resize them so i can post them. I only have enough time to post the update for now though, so, pics later.

[85crownHPP]

werd.......... i wanna see the trim reduction on a dark box...

I bet the pegs arent as noticable on a dark car as they are on mine. Mine cast shadows on the white paint, so they stand out a little.

[boXman]

I took my dremel to the pegs on my Vic...

[Cogs]

Update...replaced the radiator hoses and fixed the leaky thermostat housing. Also replaced the belt with a gator back belt. I left off the belt for the A/C and smog pump tho...mostly cause I forgot to buy a new one, but also gave myself like 5-10 more hp. lol. Anyway, here's some pics...

[Mercracer]

It'd walk most of the panthers that are around...If I could afford the engine I'd do it.

That isn't saying much seeing as most of the Panthers around are slower than 16 seconds. The best you could hope for.....assuming you could afford to do just the swap would be a 14 second car. Not too impressive. That is also assuming that you gave up on the idea of having a 1:1 axle ratio.

[Cogs]

New news, I screwed up...I didnt get the lower radiator hose tight enough and all of my coolant leaked out...car over heated...I tried to make it home and the car started knocking real bad and making a loud ticking. Sounds like the engine is effed. Also, looks like I'll be needing a new radiator. It had a ton of stop leak in it and I flushed it out. So, that sucks. Now I need to decide whether I want to rebuild the block that's sitting in my garage or buy a complete HO engine. Also, need to find time to swap a whole damn engine now.