Joys of an Old Car

[Jeremy]

I thought I would share/vent.

So my car has been down since last October or so due to a ticking noise in the motor.  We got the motor out and disassembled fairly quick and then spent until March of last year finding a machine shop that would work on it.  It needed everything checked since a cam lobe went flat sending metal through out the motor.

The machine shop was slow and I think I finally got all of the pieces back around October/November of this year.  The motor survived pretty well.  The crank needed ground .010 to clean it up and I replaced all of the bearings.  It really needed minimal machining.  The heads needed some work to get the pressures that the company I bought the roller cam from wanted.  Then I couldn't find anyone to assemble the motor.

So I figured I would take the time to learn how to assemble the motor.  I'm glad I did as I tried a Roller lifter set up from a Pontiac Vendor and never could get it into spec.  I would have had lifters that would have spun on the bore.  Unfortunately the customer support vanished after I made the purchase.  I ended up getting linked lifters from Butler.

My wife and I fired it up two weeks ago and its tuning up nicely.  The Roller cam is outstanding.  Great vacuum, smooth idle with just a hint of lope, and pulls incredibly hard.  It may even gain RPM's like my old Hemi 6.1, which I never thought a 455 Pontiac would.

Now to the rest of the story.  While the motor was out, I took the HVAC apart and dash out to optimize the HVAC while things were apart.  I worked it over thoroughly and had great air flow and checked everything while it was apart.  While driving with the dash out these last two weeks, the blower fan quite working in the last couple of days.  Preliminary checking shows that the fan went out.  You get so close to getting it done, check everything while its easy to get to, and something goes out days after it gets reassembled.

Some things I learned through the last year.  Butler and BOP are great companies to work with.  They helped a lot getting everything sorted out.

The Double DIN bezel from Restore a Muscle Car is a really nice piece.  I'll post a review in the interior section shortly.

I was going to repair the dash and it was more gone than I wanted to mess with.  I bought a dash cover from Accuform and am very pleased with it.  I'll post a review of the dash cover as well.

Its been a journey.  Car is so close to where I want it to be and you have to laugh at 2 steps forward and 1 step back.

My son got my mom's 1979 Camaro and its been fun having mine running again so we can cruise to restaurants and such.  He's a junior so I don't have much time for the father son cruises before college.

[roadking77]

Glad you got things worked out and are back on the road. My motor is currently sitting at 15 months in the shop But I have been told its almost finished  I too wanted to take on the rebuild myself but in the end I chickened out. I have a 6 cylinder I may try my luck with on a future project.
Have fun.

[rkellerjr]

Yep, can attest to the "journey". Sounds like things are shaping up nicely though. Hang in there, it will be done before you know it.

[Casey]

It definitely takes a special type of person to deal with the nonsense involved with an old car, especially one that's before computer designed parts.  I am not that person I learned, so I stick with 90s and early 00s cars that to me balances reliability and ease to work on.

I still appreciate older cars and like them, I just don't want another one until I can afford to go through every last nut and bolt.

[Jeremy]

I learned more about motors than I set out wanting to.  The How to Build max performance pontiacs by Jim Hand was a great resource.  The machine shop that did my work did walk me through how to check the push rod length.

Firing up the motor the first time was so exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

[Jack]

Firing up the motor the first time was so exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

I go through that every few months and during start up after the car sits for few months.

when it comes to old cars and engine work, it's very simply, you need three things: 1) time, 2) money, 3) patients. 

[79GoldnTan]

(4 beer.  Just my 2 cents.

[Jeremy]

Somewhere I've been told that you generally have time or money but very rarely both at the same time.

When I first restored the car almost 20 years ago, I definitely was shorter on the money.

Now with having a teenage son and starting my own small construction company, time is at premium.  Not having the time to enjoy my hobby and then having to redo things weeks after buttoning them up, really stretches the patience.

Fortunately or unfortunately I never acquired the taste for beer or other spirits!!!

[5th T/A]

Nice write up Jeremy,

I am not sure if you are every completely done when you have an old car, but that's part of the fun.

It would be great to see some pictures if you have any.

[Jeremy]

Here's some pics of the family trio from a couple of weeks ago.  We had all of them out and my son just got his car back from the body shop adding the rally stripes.  Little pic heavy on a Camaro on a Trans Am site but we all love how the rally stripes turned out.  We had the body shop lay them out as close to the factory 70-73 diagram as we could allowing for the body difference.  We used the latest GM White Tricolor Pearl for the color.  They look traditional white be depending on the angle and or lighting can look silver.  Really tie the grey centers of the wheels into the car.

[kentucky yeti]

The stripes turned out really well.  They look good!

[Jack]

All three look really nice.

[Jeremy]

Thanks.  All 3 are super solid drivers.  3 different paths to getting here.

My Trans Am my wife and I built in a little one car garage over 20 years ago now.  We literally took every nut and bolt apart and rebuilt it.  It took over 6 Trans Am's to get it back together.  It started off as a 1979 hardtop 400 4 speed car that looked great in the dark when I bought it and it ran but after working on it for a year or so, it was too far gone with rust and was not a T Top car.  We found the rust free 1980 body shell just outside of Atlanta and after a road trip dragged it home on a tow dolly.  All of the useable parts from the 79 went onto the 80 shell to make it.  It still looks great after all of these years.

The Firehawk we were able to buy with 42K miles.  It is mostly all original and just needed some TLC from sitting.

The Camaro was my mom's and she gave it to our son.  She was the second owner and it had pretty well sat since around 1999.  The paint and body was in great shape still and only needed a buffing.  Since I save a lot of useable Trans Am parts, TA sway bars got transplanted and a TA steering box is due up this week or next.  We've done some interior work such as new gauges, carpet, and door panels and added a stereo.  A new headliner is on hand but needs to be installed.  Pretty solid little driver.