Had some fun with a 4th gen F body...

[Duke5A]

...last night driving through town. I swear I need to start using a dash cam.

I got caught at a light in a left turn lane. This is a big intersection with two left-hand turn lanes and I was in the outside. A real nice red 4th gen Camaro pulls up beside me and clearly isn't factory. Had a nasty rumble to the exhaust with lots of lope. Windows were tinted, but you could see enough that it was a guy in his 20's and probably his GF in the passenger seat. I gave him a thumbs up, but he ignored me.

After the light turned we both turned left and the double lane road ahead of us was nice and clear. Coming out of the turn he was about a fender length ahead of me then he got on it. I couldn't say no, so laid into it too and not only caught him, but was pulling away from him.

Don't want to know how fast we got up to.

He still wouldn't look over at me after we slowed back down. Got to imagine it was embarrassing being beat by a four door, grandfather's car whilst having your girl ride shotgun.

 

[Mikes5thAve]

And that's why 4 door cars are fun

 

[M_Body_Coupe]

Ha ha...sorry, late to that party, but oh yeah, I live for these moments.

4 door or 2 door, does not matter, what's rewarding is handing these new-tech folks a bit of a lesson from the crowd that did the hard work to learn and figure out this stuff in the first place.

Not saying there are no guys in our hobby who just spend the $$$ to get into a nice older ride but know nothing about what makes the beast tick...but I would wager a guess that this ratio is much smaller than what you'd run into when it comes to the new car crowd.

 

[Duke5A]

Ha ha...sorry, late to that party, but oh yeah, I live for these moments.

4 door or 2 door, does not matter, what's rewarding is handing these new-tech folks a bit of a lesson from the crowd that did the hard work to learn and figure out this stuff in the first place.

Not saying there are no guys in our hobby who just spend the $$$ to get into a nice older ride but know nothing about what makes the beast tick...but I would wager a guess that this ratio is much smaller than what you'd run into when it comes to the new car crowd.

You know, I see this a lot with the LX guys at car shows. Nice new Challengers with NOS systems and forced induction. You get to talking to them and they 'have a guy' they take it to to make it work. Last time at the drag strip there was three of them.

 

[Aspen500]

We get quite a few regular customers in with old cars that really don't know much about them other than they like the car, like driving it in nice weather, had one when they were younger and wanted one again, etc. Even a couple street rods come in during the summer also. They pay us to work on their cars. I think a couple of them KNOW about the car and how to work on it but due to their age or physical disability, simply CAN'T anymore.

 

[ZieglerSpeed]

You hit the nail on the head Aspen, and it's a tough transittion. It hit me at 61... and 300 years worth of work to do yet

 

[Mr C]

Yes, I am getting to that point too. Don't know how long I'll be able to keep crawling around old cars.

But I will as long as I'm able.

 

[XfbodyX]

Thats great, dude was probably on google trying to figure out how 185 adv hp dogged his sub 400hp chevy.

 

[XfbodyX]

Look guys not everyone takes there junk to the shops weather old or new. If I didnt need my one leg to limp on as it was in the way the other day and dam near useless id have it whacked. In my case if I had to pay a modern shop id have to cut things down alot.

I took 5 new rims and 5 new tires to a shop a few weeks ago, had all the stick on weights and tps units and still $125 to the tire jockey.... I swear if I had much more tire work id just buy a used machine and balancer. But hey, every burger flipper has to got to make $15 an hour so everything just goes higher.

The new junk is just that imo, plastic junk, but fun to learn and work on. Im putting a turbo kit on a newer modern mopar and some other things and can say wrenchin is still wrenchin but just a bit different. I just cant see some of this newer junk having a long shelf life overall like our good older cars have.

Just makes me appreciate my older stuff more.

When I got to start taking my rigs to shops, im done.

 

[LSM360]

I was reminded why I love the older stuff so much a couple weeks ago when I removed the grille from my '79 Power Wagon. With my power screw driver, I swear I had the grille off in maybe a minute and a half, and all metal of course!

There are things to love about technology, but sometimes you just have to go back to the old stuff for your sanity.

And great story Duke!

 

[ZieglerSpeed]

a Pacer wagon with a 401 built to the MAX...

 

[Aspen500]

XfbodyX, what do they charge for labor where you're at? DANG! The shop I work in, 5 tires mounted and balanced would be $50 with 5.5% tax (or $25 if you bought the tires from us). New TPMS sensor programming (if needed) included.

 

[kkritsilas]

a Pacer wagon with a 401 built to the MAX...

When the Pacer was out, there was a company that made exactly that. You could get either the standard car, or the wagon. They were called the Flying Fishbowls.

 

[Aspen500]

Here ya go

 

[XfbodyX]

XfbodyX, what do they charge for labor where you're at? DANG! The shop I work in, 5 tires mounted and balanced would be $50 with 5.5% tax (or $25 if you bought the tires from us). New TPMS sensor programming (if needed) included.

Well its a 35 mile drive each way, another 30 to the other close tire shop. So ive limited options.

Ive always been confused with there prices but if one googles what I had done its semi in line with some places and it seems the tire shops all have some "std" prices.

In some ways I didnt mind paying that much in this case because if they want the big money I expect and need a work order and a pre mount rim inspection on all 5 vs just dumping it all on there floor and drive off to come back and find a $300 rim jacked and them playing stupid.

But they ding me semi hard on steel wheels too if I dont buy the tires from them.

I didnt even have to be my polite self to get a high quote, but I did ask them really nice not to f--k up my new rims as I dropped them off in there shop.

Mopars will self program the tps units after a couple minutes, at least mine will.

They did a swell job.

 

[Mikes5thAve]

Yep, 4 door cars are fun for stuff like that. No one expects them. Well unless it's a charger.
I'll admit even tho I've driven them my whole life I still stereotype old people cars. Even tho the people who drive them rarely drive slow enough to make it worth getting around them. It's the small cars that are usually the problem now.

 

[LSM360]

Yep, 4 door cars are fun for stuff like that. No one expects them. Well unless it's a charger.
I'll admit even tho I've driven them my whole life I still stereotype old people cars. Even tho the people who drive them rarely drive slow enough to make it worth getting around them. It's the small cars that are usually the problem now.

Yes, they are very busy texting

 

[Shorty Thompson]

Okay Duke5A, nobody'll ask but I will. What do you have in it?

 

[Duke5A]

Okay Duke5A, nobody'll ask but I will. What do you have in it?

I've got a build thread somewhere on this forum from a couple years ago, although it's a bit out of date now.

It's a stroked 512 based on a 400B with a 4.25" rotating kit from 440 Source. 10.5:1, Eddie heads, 230 roller cam, Sniper EFI. Rest of it is a 518 and a Dana 60 with 3.54 gears.

 

[Aspen500]

Sort of on topic, back in the early to mid '90's a friend of mine had a '65 Olds Starfire with the Starfire 425 that he had blueprinted, balanced, port matched, etc.......That thing was so smooth and would go all the way to 7,000 rpm and still feel like an electric motor. He loved surprising brand X drivers from the light. It would be second off the line but then the switch pitch converter would switch about half way across the intersection and then ,,,,,,,,,,HOLY SCHNIKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Felt like hitting a nitrous button. Great big car in plain white, with whitewall tires and full wheel covers, who'd a thunk it?

XfbodyX, you must have gotten OEM Mopar TPMS sensors? I was refering to aftermarket sensors (like Shraeder) where they need to be programmed to the year, make and model of car they're going on before installation in most cases (not always though) since they're more or less generic and the same, other than the Hertz, which there's 2 different ones. No big deal with the TPMS tool though.