Messages

1066

General Discussion / Re: Vin/Trim number help 69 RS/SS 396

« on: April 04, 2015, 12:26:26 PM »

If this is indeed a fake tag and the car is being represented as something it's not, shouldn't this guy be reported?  That would be a fraudulent sale, and from what I'm reading here this guy has done this several times.  There are (or were??) laws about this stuff....
Not questioning you guys at all, I'm just wondering how he gets away with this and still has 100% positive feedback, or why he's not locked up in the clink.

1067

General Discussion / Re: Why I am worried about Body Work Guys in General

« on: April 03, 2015, 12:27:19 PM »

That is refreshing to hear.

1068

General Discussion / Re: Why I am worried about Body Work Guys in General

« on: April 03, 2015, 03:28:40 AM »

Pretty cool stuff.  Neat to meet others on here with a mix of interests.  Your dad into Fords and you're into 1st gens.  Should be interesting conversation around the dinner table 

1069

General Discussion / Re: Why I am worried about Body Work Guys in General

« on: April 02, 2015, 11:19:37 PM »

I do one car at a time so I can devote 100% of my attention, research correct finishes etc...to avoid those issues.  Not trying to sell myself here, just showing both sides of the coin.  It's not always the body shops fault for certain things.  There is alot more behind the scenes that reflect some of the poor decision making.  I run into it quite often and have actually turned work away if I think the customers decisions are detrimental to the end result.  I don't like my name on something that's going to fall apart in 5 years.

The research is what I find interesting, and it is more for my own knowledge and to ensure the car is accurate, than the insistence of the customer as most don't understand many of the little technical differences restorers find interesting.

X2

It takes a lot of effort to duplicate the controlled chaos of an assembly line.

Agree, I also enjoy finding the differences in assembly plants, and within those there are timeframes during production when changes took place, etc...Takes alot of original unrestored cars to document some of these things.  Ford mustangs are some of the more involved when it comes to this.  3 different assembly plants and all 3 did it differently, along with changes in procedures every 2-3 months.  It can be frustrating sometimes.  One example is how Dearborn used "batch paint" for the bottom side of the car (rather than red oxide like San Jose) but the problem with batch paint is that it's basically left over drums of various colors all mixed together (Ford was frugal), and that batch is constantly changing throughout production as you can imagine, as more left over paint is mixed in.  So you need to find an area on the floor (under a plug or clip) that is preserved to color match it....or....find another original unrestored mustang from the same plant and within a week or so of the build time frame to at least get a close color to the batch paint that may have been used at that time.
   Okay I'll quit babbling.

1070

General Discussion / Re: Delco Energizer Y-55 Battery

« on: April 02, 2015, 01:16:41 PM »

That's what I was thinking.. A trick that you probably all know already, that was taught to Chick, then he recently taught me...Carefully cut the bottom of the battery off, deal with the mess, clean out the case, pull the battery posts out and presto install a Mazda Miata battery in the case. Shim it up tight if need be, nice and clean and seal it up. Pretty cool idea by somebody years ago I'm sure.
 Anyway, I have to think about it and see what to do, but I am leaning towards firing it up, we'll see.. D

  Similar to what the PS and FS and FAST guys do, been doing that for alot of years (to save weight), if you follow that sort of thing.

1071

General Discussion / Re: Why I am worried about Body Work Guys in General

« on: April 01, 2015, 11:17:34 PM »

No, point here is cars being presented as being restored demanding high prices with multi issues covering layers of filler.

If top dollar is being paid for repairs , attention to detail pretty %$# well be a priority of the shop. Now, if the owner wants to cut costs, that's on them. Most legit shops will turn them away not wanting their name associated with the work. More cash in insurance jobs ,that's nothing new.

Not disputing anything posted, but I felt the point I wanted to make is: How can someone miss such noticeable details if they are going to the trouble of painting, and by  the 3 examples, the paint looks pretty good, so how could such egregious errors occur if replicating an original look? More so, how can one side to another get so screwed up on the same car? Just makes me want to cringe. When I see work like this, it only makes me wonder what else is wrong. I would at least like a car to look correct even if the work under the paint is sub-standard. My (speaking for many on here), car may not be a 900+ point MACN resto and more of a "driver", but I want details in every aspect to be correct so there is no doubt the car IS what is claimed or represented. I feel it is a disgrace to put this much work into a resto and have it come out like the examples cited, just inexcusable.

  Understandable and I agree.  That sort of gets back to what I mentioned before about owners not wanting to (or simply can't afford to) spend the coin to do things correctly, so they go to a substandard shops, and corners are cut, things get missed or just flat out done incorrectly.  Unfortunately when that car goes up forsale the owner quickly finds out those mistakes are very expensive to correct after the fact and it reflects the prices that educated buyers are willing to pay.

1072

General Discussion / Re: Why I am worried about Body Work Guys in General

« on: April 01, 2015, 11:11:42 PM »

I wasn't referring to that Janobyte, but okay.  

Buyer's need to do their homework.

1073

General Discussion / Re: Why I am worried about Body Work Guys in General

« on: April 01, 2015, 08:49:25 PM »

Not everyone has loads of money for high caliber restorations.  Most (I'd say 95%) of the cars you see at the local shows and cruises are of nice driver quality.  Lets face it, the high end 6 figure restorations aren't driven and almost never come out unless the owner wants to knock it down to #2 condition.  Actually the driver quality cars have become more and more frequent as more people want to drive and enjoy rather than sit and stare at the car.

Another fad that has really taken off in the last 5-8 years are original unrestored cars.  I own a couple of those here myself.  After 45+ years they can't compete in restored class competition, but they still present very nicely.  That doesn't mean the car should be or needs to be restored.  I guess to some they are cars that haven't had "attention to detail"    But it's actually quite the opposite.  Lately they have become even more desirable than high end restored cars in some cases. 

It's all about what the owner wants out of his/her car, and I'm not going to bad mouth either way.  As long as they enjoy it, that's what it's all about.

1074

General Discussion / Re: Why I am worried about Body Work Guys in General

« on: March 29, 2015, 11:06:59 PM »

Big shops suffer like that because of the volume they handle and the overhead they cover.  It's the insurance work for them that really pays the bills so most shops don't care to take labor intensive restoration work.  Major shops that do take on classic car restoration work and specialize in that can cost $100 an hour labor or more plus parts.  Most people just aren't willing or simply can't afford that.   I do one car at a time so I can devote 100% of my attention, research correct finishes etc...to avoid those issues.  Not trying to sell myself here, just showing both sides of the coin.  It's not always the body shops fault for certain things.  There is alot more behind the scenes that reflect some of the poor decision making.  I run into it quite often and have actually turned work away if I think the customers decisions are detrimental to the end result.  I don't like my name on something that's going to fall apart in 5 years.

1075

General Discussion / Re: Why I am worried about Body Work Guys in General

« on: March 29, 2015, 07:25:58 PM »

Arizona,
shoot me a pm with an email and I'll send some pics of stuff I've done.

1076

General Discussion / Re: Why I am worried about Body Work Guys in General

« on: March 29, 2015, 03:39:04 PM »

I have thumb drives full of before and after pics that I keep on file, not only for the car owner, but also to cover my own butt.   Luckily I own an original paint Mach 1 so I'll use that for measurements on the customer car I mentioned above.  Otherwise you run into issues like I mentioned when customers don't want to spend the money on what's needed.  There are other problems I won't get into with this car as well that the customer doesn't want to fix properly, so I document it again to cover myself.  It's not always the shop,,,,most people just won't or can't spend the coin.  It's not cheap to own these cars anymore.  Unfortunately you spend a small fortune just to buy a basket case nowadays, and then people quickly find out what a "real" restoration costs, so corners are cut, or the project sits and doesn't get finished.   

1077

General Discussion / Re: your going the wrong way! 3.31 gears in a 302 powered 69?

« on: March 29, 2015, 02:37:30 PM »

X33RS how tall is a 245-60-15? Good info on the gears and tires, thanks.

Doing the math they are just over 26" tall.

Maybe this will help you guys, here's the formula

Section width x aspect ratio = section height

Section height x 2 = Combined section height

Combined section height / 25.4 = final diameter

Final diameter + wheel diameter = overal diameter.

So a typical 275-60-15 looks like this....

275 x .60 = 165

165 x 2 = 330

330 / 25.4 = 12.992125

12.992125 + 15 = 27.992

Just have to keep in mind the 25.4 number you divide with is a constant number no matter what tire you use.  Also keep in mind this gives you an accurate measurement but different tire manufactures do vary their heights slightly so one brand could be a tenth or two off from another brand.

Hope that helps.

1078

General Discussion / Re: your going the wrong way! 3.31 gears in a 302 powered 69?

« on: March 29, 2015, 01:07:26 AM »

X33RS, what size tire would that be to get the good mileage without over revving... Danny

If your looking for a 28" tire there are only a couple options that I know of that may or may not fit.
A 275-60-15 is 28" and usually what I'll run on the back of most cars, but it's a tight fit on a 69 camaro and would likely rub unless you got fancy with backspacing and rim width.

Another option would be a 235-70-15 which is 27.9" tall and doesn't have near the width of the 275's, so these would be a much easier fit on the rear with stock wheels.

If you want to go more then BFG makes a 255-70-15 which is 29" tall.   Depending on the car I sometimes mount these tires on extra wheels and can quickly toss them on for a long highway trip.  That way most of the time your regular size tires stay on the car.

Keep in mind an inch added to rear tire height only knocks about ~150-200 rpm off the cruise rpm.  It's not a big change unless you're running 26" tires.

I generally run a 255-60-15 on the back of a 69 camaro which fits snug and fills the wheel wells nicely.  These are 27" tall.  With 3.73's I'll turn 3,000 rpm to go 65 mph.  I've criss crossed the country cruising like this without complaint but could knock that cruise rpm down to 26-2700 with the 255-70's tossed on.

1079

General Discussion / Re: your going the wrong way! 3.31 gears in a 302 powered 69?

« on: March 28, 2015, 10:13:07 PM »

Yeah, that's how I meant to come across, lol.  The M21 and 3.73's are pretty common but I've always felt the M20 with less rear gear gives better drivability all the way around.  I run the M20 fairly often because of that, since I tend to want to drive my cars, sometimes long distances.  Even though 3.73's aren't a bad all around gear if you can get a 28" tire under it (28" tire gives 2800 rpm cruise at 65 mph) and I find that pretty comfortable.  Shorter rear tire then I tend to want to knock some rear gear out of it.

1080

General Discussion / Re: your going the wrong way! 3.31 gears in a 302 powered 69?

« on: March 28, 2015, 08:16:47 PM »

Here's what I meant by that comment.  Sorry I should have explained better.  For some reason I thought the OP had standard 3.73's, that keeps ringing in my head.

3.31 x 2.52 = 8.34
3.31 x 1.88 = 6.22
3.31 x 1.46 = 4.83
3.31 x 1      = 3.31

3.73 x 2.20 = 8.20
3.73 x 1.64 = 6.11
3.73 x 1.28 = 4.77
3.73 x 1      = 3.73