I met up with Marty yesterday to go over some details before he leaves for X-Mas break and before I leave for Thailand (the next time I see the car will be mid-Feb). I also got to meet up and chat with Johnny (the gentleman doing to body work on the car). I like working with Marty and his team – very personable folks and they have a passion and care about the work they do; I like that!As Johnny is working on the car, he’s finding issues. The front end of the car pretty much needs to be replaced. The radiator support and lower rad support are both terribly rusted. Combined with the front frame rails, the torque boxes on the car are also mush. For the type of project we are working on (not looking to do; we are doing it), it doesn’t make send not to look at replacing these issues.
As we went over the car in detail, both Marty and Johnny showed me what issues there were with the frame and what that meant. I’m no car restorer, I know houses, but even from what Marty and Johnny showed me, it was evident there were issues. The floor pan can essentially be seen through, even where the feet would be resting near the firewall. The seat area for the back seat bench is mush. The entire underbody near the rear frame rails are also rotten.We’re going to be putting 20” wheels in the rear and are going to widen/tub out the rear frame section in order to support a large wheel width (ie. Porsche size wheels such as 285+). This means that we’re going to rip out the rear frame rails (which are rusted and need replacing anyway) and may go with a whole new rear suspension package that will support what we want to do with the new wheel requirements. To that end, we want to make sure the car has a good ride, travels well on the road, and can provide a good looking stance for the car; we’re looking at the following for a rear suspension: http://www.bearsperformance.com/page65.html
This will mean the entire rear end of the car (trunk floor, etc..) will need to be custom created. This will also mean that customization of a gas tank will be required as well as the stock location for a tank is going to be modified. You can see in the current pics how badly rusted this is:
I also talked to Johnny about the tire sizes and what will work for the car. The 20" wheels for the rear are going to be fine. The size for the front have to be 18" wheels, anything bigger just will not work without changing the body design and look of the front end (this is not what we want). I have emailed Maya Wheels to see if they plan on releasing any 18" versions of their DTM wheels soon or if they would be willing to work with me on creating a custom set of 18" wheels for my car. I'm just waiting right now to hear word. If they say no, we'll have to go to another vendor or may just end up getting a similar look but as one-off wheels for my car.Beyond that, Johnny is going to first work on restoring the car to a solid stock feel. We will then begin work on customizing afterwards. The goal is to get the car on a show circuit and take it on tours both here in Canada and down to the US. The highlight is to do what we can to get the car into a magazine as well as have it recognized at the SEMA show to highlight what us Canucks can do. Next update in Feb upon my return from Thailand and Japan.Harvey
The project is coming along, and just from my perspective, seems to be going at a pretty good pace.When I first started looking for a vehicle, I did some searching for a vehicle on the internet. I did the typical searches for a project car on:- eBay Canada (http://www.ebay.ca/)
- AutoTrader (http://www.autotrader.ca/)
- and even the local Vancouver Buy and Sell (http://www.buysell.com/)
I mostly searched eBay because this site had tones of ‘67/’68 Fastbacks listed for sale. As I’m in Canada, the only issue for me was that most of the vehicles listed were located in the US. I didn’t want to have to have the hassle of buying a car unseen in person and especially having to deal with shipping the car through Canada customs.Canada customs, though I honestly don’t have any issue with supporting or spending money in Canada, has this thing that if you buy a car from outside of Canada, you have to pay for both Federal and Provincial tax on top of any purchase price and taxes paid on a vehicle within the US. As this price can be essentially 14% on top of a total purchase of a vehicle from the US, as well as any customer fees, the cost of the vehicle would add up. To top that off, in order for the local insurance corporation (which is government run, it hasn’t converted over to a private insurance model in BC) requires a vehicle to be inspected and converted into Canadian specifications. I can’t help but feel that this is essentially just another cash grab by the government and I equated that final costs could be anywhere from 16-20% on top of a final purchase; at least, that’s how I see it, reality could be different. In all, I didn’t think purchasing a vehicle out of Canada would be worth it, especially for the hassle.So, what would be fun and what would be an easier way to do what I want to do? “Hello!! McFly!! Why don’t you buy the car locally?! Dumbass!!”Well, that’s easier said than done. There is essentially very few ’67 or ’68 Fastbacks for sale in Canada (at least on listed on the Internet). There are even fewer for sale in my local Province. In fact, I had only found 2 fastbacks for sale in BC and the cheapest one was for a heap of a car in Kelowna for $16,000CDN. “FORGET THAT!!!”, my cheap East-Indian nature was coming out.That’s when I decided to change the model of the vehicle I was looking for and decided on a Notchback instead. That’s when I found my car; a local one that was listed in the Buy and Sell.The car itself was Maroon in color; the interior was Maroon, the whole freakin’ thing was Maroon. What an ugly color! Have you ever seen pickup trucks that have a bed liner in them? Ever see those trucks that have, instead of a plastic bed liner, have this spay coated liner on them (called Rhino hide)? Well, when I got my buddy to check the car out, he could see it had rust, that it had been hit on the passenger side quarter panel, and in the trunk, the trunk had been sprayed with this Rhino Hide spray. Whoever had the car previous to the current seller that I was working with was trying to hide something. And that was rust and water leakage in the trunk. Beyond that, original engine was a straight 6-cylinder engine (at idle it would sputter and stall but when driving it, it performed fine). That was the only saving grace for the car. The car has now been stripped down of all parts (including the engine; nothing is going to be original in the car other than the body and even that we’re going to modify), media blasted of all paint and the Rhino Hide, and as of this week, sections of rusted body parts are being cut out and replaced.The car today has been placed on a movable metal bench. Marty, the owner of the restoration company performing the work mentioned the reason for placing the car on the bench is to make it easier for them to work on the car. That and the bench is completely level. The car, now mounted on the bench, is level to the bench. Any body work done now will ensure that the car work done will be perfect for when the car is rolling down the road or sitting on the street. It’s going to look good.Metal sections of the engine bay that were rusted have been cut out of the car. New section pieces have taken their place and have been temporarily screwed in for placement until they can be welded. The reason for this is that the front frame rails have to be cut out first and replaced. Once the new frame rails are welded in place, the body sections in the engine bay will then be permanently welded in as well.The rest of the body work will also start soon (maybe this week or after the holidays). 
Beyond that, Marty and I went over paint samples for the car, discussed the audio/video install (which I want to b involved in; ie. actually doing the work), talked about the engine and mechanical needs for the car, and even discussed something I never really thought of until now – vehicle maintenance after the car is finished.The restoration is progressing well and as of today, I’m feeling pretty good working with Marty and his team. I’m looking forward to the process.Harvey
Several months ago (Sept/Oct 2005 – I can’t remember exactly when), I bought a 1968 Mustang Coupe (called a Notchback). Up until this point, I had been talking about restoring a vehicle for about 2years. Actually, I had been doing a fair amount of “talking” and not enough “doing”. That all changed in Sept/Oct.I’ll be honest with you – once I had completed the sale, I had the WORST case of buyers remorse I’ve ever had!! Some of you who are viewing this BLOG know who I am and a few of you folks have had the honor of meeting my pops. For those of you that know me, you know that at times I can be headstrong and set in my way when I want to do something (What!?! I’m a Taurus! Did you expect something different??). For those of you who have met my dad, you know he’s very conservative (dare I say “cheap”) when it comes to spending money. Let me put it this way…if my dad goes to the corner gas station to get gas, he’ll barter with the attendant for a better rate…and with livestock no less….forget paying cash! “You like da goat?? Tell you vhat, it’s a good goat!!”;)…I’m kidding of course, my dad is a good guy but he does his best to help me think things through.Anyway, I felt so bad when I bought this thing. I couldn’t even drive it – no power steering, no power brakes, nothing!! I think I gave myself a hernia trying to get this thing to my buddy’s place for storage.Combined with that, I was thinking about the purchase and what my dad would say. “Really, do you need another car??” “Well, no, not really”. It wasn’t until I got the car to the restorers and they started the work that I started to feel better about the project. So, a little history: originally I had hoped for a ’67 or ’68 Fastback to restore (much like the car in the movie “Gone in 60 Seconds") but slowly changed my mind – cost was the factor. That, and the look of the “Eleanor” kit was growing stale for me. Everyone seems to be restoring a Fastback nowadays and for this 40 year old car, good luck trying to find one that is below $16,000CDN. And that’s just for a teardown; ie. not already been restored; just for a heap of a car. I decided on the Notchback as it was under $6,000CDN, it was a local vehicle, and though there was rot in the car that needed to be dealt with, overall the vehicle was in good shape.Here are some pics after teardown and media-blasting\sandblasting (I neglected to get pics prior to the teardown but the restorers have that – will get that shortly):
What is the car going to be like?? Here's an idea of how the body will look:http://www.radrides.com/photogallery.php?sub=fastforwardThis car in this picture is a hatchback, mine is a coup but you can see how clean the car looks (no door handles, no stupid things hanging off the side of the car...it just looks very clean).Here are the wheels I'm thinking about for the car: 
http://www.mayawheels.com/wheels.aspScroll down to the bottom of the page - the Wheels are called 'DTM'.In the Gallery link, you'll see a couple of Mercedes that have the DTM's on them. These wheels will make the car look low to the ground and give it an aggressive stance.The car will be high-tech too:There will be power (doors that open automatically, trunk, windows, heated seats, A/C, etc..) and the car is going to have an integrated computer system that has tonnes of stuff - Touch screen displays, GPS, tracking ability, wireless, CD/DVD playback:http://www.carbotpc.com/http://store.carhacks.org/index.php?action=category&id=2http://store.carhacks.org/index.php?action=category&id=14http://store.carhacks.org/index.php?action=category&id=20I’m a big audiophile (for those that know me, they can attest to this fact) and I want to make sure the car is as much show quality as well as being a driveable car (if the car cannot be driven as a daily driver then there is no point building it). To that end, I want to look at addressing multiple areas for the finished product: the build of the car, the stance, the engine bay, materials and parts used, colors chosen, fabric used in the interior, and finally, electronics and audio.The computer system will provide the source for the audio/video setup and the audio equipment that I have tentatively chosen is as below:http://www.focal.tm.fr/car/en/access1/index.htmhttp://www.phoenixgold.com/2004/amps.htmlI’ve done some amateur audio installations in the past. I enjoyed it; it wasn’t hard to do, just time consuming. I think I’ll be managing this for the car vs. having the restoration do all the work. Don't worry, I know my limits. Where I get stuck, I'll get the restorers to help me but this part of the project is all mine to do.The engine (still working on this) will be a 351 cubic-inch 600-650HP crate engine (brand new) from Ford Racing. http://www.fordracingparts.com/crateengine/main.aspThe goal is to have the engine to be fuel injected as well as supercharged to get the power requirements that I want. That and I want to be able to keep up with motorcycles. So here's my new saying for when the 'stang is completed (I say this about my Bimmer all the time): "You haven't driven a Mustang until you've driven it sideways!!". Hahaha...I'm going to love this car!!Overall, I’m becoming more and more excited about the project everday!! I’m having fun!Thanks for visiting this BLOG. I'll post updates and pics as the project "motors" along.Harvey
