Vintage cars, restomods and how to execute correctly (and poorly) THANKS BOOMERS

Yaj Yak

Gladys
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May 24, 2007
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STOP PUTTING NEWER BEDS ON OLDER TRUCKS JUST STOP


ALSO was this faded with a rattle can?

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zenriddles

Guns don't kill people, 'vaccines' do
Aug 18, 2005
4,953
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Holiday Inn
So for those who are just looking for attention, old muscle cars are perfect.
Just as bad as the Harley revvers at the stop lights.

hey....look at me I’m cool. I didn’t buy this for me, I bought it for others to covet me.

Exactly. Because if you bought it to accelerate blindingly fast and corner crisply you're an idiot.
 
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Yaj Yak

Gladys
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Yaj Yak Yaj Yak those are some....awful resto mods, lol

I'm thinking more like this, without the "nice" paint necessarily

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So there, it's going to be in the derails, is it tuned properly? Can it and will it start each and every rime without a hiccup, is there any wiring surprises? Did we ditch the heater core to fit something? Bullshit like that.
 

Kensington

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So there, it's going to be in the derails, is it tuned properly? Can it and will it start each and every rime without a hiccup, is there any wiring surprises? Did we ditch the heater core to fit something? Bullshit like that.

I get what you're layin down. I'm hoping with the Holley, the guesswork on tuning is eliminated. You're paying for that though...The wiring would be a mystery... so it'll probably be a mishmosh of both....probably be too much of a pain to completely ditch the old harness? If I have too much money and time on my hands, maybe I'd do it, but new garage will be too small, and I don't think i'll have the time or money to do it in the near future. Plus hopefully I can wait until the market to crash on muscle cars a bit.
 
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jason05gt

TCG Elite Member
Jan 17, 2007
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Meh, the only thing old muscle cars do well, is look cool. They literally do nothing else.

Depends on the build. My buddy and his dad just finished a 69 Vette that should meet or exceed modern Vettes. I bet with them driving, there would be very few stock C8, ZR1 and Z06 owners that would be able to pass them on a road course.
 

blakbearddelite

I'm not one of your 'shit-hole' buddies!
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Jun 28, 2007
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I really only would have interest in owning my dad's '68 GTO. I don't think I'd drop $50k to own one, but I'd gladly take my dad's when he's no longer able to drive it. I would just have to be prepared to spend good money on the car to keep it in shape. I don't know how much rust has been Bondo'd over.
 

Bru

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I was just driving my pop’s 64 Vette the other day and started daydreaming about all the little things I’d like to do to it one day while keeping it looking stock, but performing a whole lot better. It’s a roadster so it cowl shakes like a mo-fo, has four drum brakes, period correct replacement sloppy suspension, slow ratio manual steering. Don’t get me wrong, I love driving it and wringing out the 327/365, especially with a legit 60s/70s Hurst shifter, and would never LS swap this car, but man it’s a sketchfest to drive. Dudes who raced these cars back in the day deserve all the credit.
 

cap42

Restoration Hell
Mar 22, 2005
2,764
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Man I must be a boomer based on some of the comments here.

I think old cars (any old cars) are cool, regardless of it's a I6 and 4 wheel drum. These cars are sought after for their styling and in other cases the nostalgia. I'm a nut for history too so that does play into my personal viewpoints. If those cars didn't exist we wouldn't have 400+hp cars getting 20-25mpg today.

I'm doing a restomod but I'm doing it only for the styling and not really the nostalgia. I personally think (and I know a lot of you will disagree here) that the majority of older cars look 1000x's better than some of the plastic junk rolling around on the streets today. Let me take a minute to expand upon that. My 3rd gen nova was classified as a compact, economy/budget car. Take how that looks and compare it to any cars made in the last few years in the same category. To me that nova is a lot sexier, granted a camry would have blown it's doors off in every aspect. That's why a restomod fixes the technology gap of a 50 year old car and looks a whole hell of lot better.

Granted there are some sexy sports cars out there now and I do like a good number of them. But if I am going to drop 50k+ on a car it better tick every fricken box of what I want. Otherwise I'll do what I am doing now and build my own for less.
 

b4black

before black
Jun 6, 2008
1,331
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Oswego
Everybody wants the cars they dreamt of in high school. Boomers wanted muscle cars and now they can afford them. The late '70s sucked, and now '80s cars are taking off. GN prices are going through the roof. For some reason IROCs are too. The pinnacle muscle cars (i.e. Hemicuda) will always stay collectible, the others will drop off or become restomods, or donks or whatever.

Old musclecars can handle and stop well if you put a little work into them. You have to use your garage for more than just keeping snow off you car.

As a smart pre-boomer, I have cars from a wide variety of decades. All serve different purposes. You need a collection of cars, not just one. (y)
 

Great White Drake

You used to call me on my cell phone
Jun 23, 2010
6,094
8,246
I don’t care how nice it looks and sits. You really don’t know if it’s built right until you DRIVE IT. In traffic and an open highway. My daughter has fallen asleep in mine while I was doing 80 on 355. And if it’s really been restored, ask for a picture of the car in bare metal. No patches ect.


I built mine with the idea to have little to no hints of the modernization as possible. But perform well and drive anywhere like a modern car should. Thanks again Yaj Yak Yaj Yak for the compliment.

Anyone that’s driven an old car knows the feeling. It’s different. You either love it or hate it.

I drive mine an hour to 41 listening to a loud ass stereo, hike a tire, and drive home. But that’s what I wanted. Some might hate the manual brakes, steering, bench seat and no a/c but that’s the stuff that I love feeling about an old car.

Edit:and having tailpipes make it so much more enjoyable I should’ve done it 2 years ago.


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Kensington

TCG Elite Member
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Aug 14, 2017
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Man I must be a boomer based on some of the comments here.

I think old cars (any old cars) are cool, regardless of it's a I6 and 4 wheel drum. These cars are sought after for their styling and in other cases the nostalgia. I'm a nut for history too so that does play into my personal viewpoints. If those cars didn't exist we wouldn't have 400+hp cars getting 20-25mpg today.

I'm doing a restomod but I'm doing it only for the styling and not really the nostalgia. I personally think (and I know a lot of you will disagree here) that the majority of older cars look 1000x's better than some of the plastic junk rolling around on the streets today. Let me take a minute to expand upon that. My 3rd gen nova was classified as a compact, economy/budget car. Take how that looks and compare it to any cars made in the last few years in the same category. To me that nova is a lot sexier, granted a camry would have blown it's doors off in every aspect. That's why a restomod fixes the technology gap of a 50 year old car and looks a whole hell of lot better.

Granted there are some sexy sports cars out there now and I do like a good number of them. But if I am going to drop 50k+ on a car it better tick every fricken box of what I want. Otherwise I'll do what I am doing now and build my own for less.

I think a restomod done right can be really cool, but the modern cars will almost always out perform it, in nearly every measureable category. Looks are subjective, yeah I think some of the old muscle cars are really awesome, but I think there were quite a few duds too. I guess the big question is what are you going to do with the car? If it's just a cool cruiser, that you won't take on appreciable distances, a non-restomod would be fine. Anything over a couple hours in the car or ANY track duty (auto-x, drag strip, road course), I'd probably start digging into suspension and a cage at the very least.

But honestly, I don't know enough about carbs to be able to properly tune one, and the same goes with a distributor, so as heinous as it sounds, an LS swap (even a base iron block truck swap) is preferable. It'll almost assuredly have more power, torque, and efficiency than whatever motor is being taken out, the computer figures out all the BS, and it should just run. Slap a sloppy cam at it to make it burble and some valve springs, and call it a day.
 

guspech750

Guspech Superdriller
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Jan 23, 2010
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I love all things cars. But typically people in the car hobby are more interested in what they grew up with. Hence why I have a soft spot for 80’s and up. Not an easy decision when I want a car from the 90’s to early 2000’s but cars of the last 10 years are pretty damn awesome and hard to pass up.
 

Intel

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Oct 28, 2009
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Restomod interiors are where most people go terribly wrong. If you aren't having a really good upholstery shop do the work. Just keep it stock/stock radio and have a bluetooth controlled amp power your tunes. Technically what I am doing to my 510 is a restomod but on the Japanese side. All stock restored dash with speedhut gauges and a hidden stereo. Finding the right seats has been the worst part.
 
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dberz94

Professional Slacker
Feb 14, 2015
1,225
367
Sadly my generation is slowly ridding the market of cars because BRODOZERS bro. I personally love cars and I see the value in restomods. Newer engines, brakes, and transmissions on older cars make sense now but in 20 years my generation will try to sell the old muscle cars they inherited to anyone that will buy them. Sadly most my age just don't have the nostalgia that comes with the smell of old gas, cam rumbling, bench seats and so on. But I will gladly buy it from them and use whatver platform becomes the biggest in 10 years out of junk yard engines. I'm waiting for the SUV bubble to pop but it's going to be a long time.
 
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