I purchased this car in 1997 from an elderly couple.
They were the second owners, and had purchased the car for their
daughter for college in the late 1970's.
It had 83,000 miles on it when I bought it and it had a numbers matching,
never rebuilt engine. It was a completely stock vehicle with a 350 Rocket,
TH350 transmission, and an open-differential 8.5 corporate rear with 2.73 gears.
The interior is still original and the exterior was repainted once in the
early 1990's in the original Flame Orange color. It still looks nice from
20 feet, but is slightly deteriorated upon closer inspection.
I drove it daily until the end of 2002 when the 350 finally gave out.
I started adding speed parts to the 350 and driveline sometime in 2000.
I first added a nice Flowmaster American Thunder 2.5 inch exhaust system
and a B&M stage I shift kit. Next I put in an Engle cam, a Performer
RPM intake and a Performer 750 carburetor.
After driving it hard for two years with the extra horsepower, the bottom
end took it's toll and the engine began smoking like a maniac. After
weighing the options, I elected to build up a 455 instead of rebuilding
the 350. The rest, as they say, is history.
My car was once in Popular Hot Rodding Magazine! It was one of the cars
featured in the Hometown Hot Rodding section of the November 2004 issue.
Click here to see the writeup in PHR.
My most recent modification was the addition of a Glasstek fiberglass hood.
Click here to see the finished product.
Click here to read about the installation of that hood.
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