Girlfriend's dream car - Pontiac Astre

Okay so after a long wait I finally convinced the girlfriend to join my hobby... Cars. She's always wanted a Chevy Vega and after about year of looking we found a 1975 Pontiac Astre for $900 canadian in Burns Lake BC (About 2-3 hour drive).  

Her plans is to 350 swap it, build it to mainly drag race but also be capable of being fun at autocross with me. Probably going to modify the rear inner fenders, homemade mini tub as well as attempt to flare the fenders out so we can use a bunch of stock car take offs (265 wide slicks) on a set of 15" wheels. It'll look kinda cool like a mini 70's nascar look.

When we got it home

I got given a 1984 chevy camper van in exchange for cleaning it out of the guys yard. It has a chevy 350 and a 700r4 transmission which kinda decided for her. Its going to remain an automatic.

The slow task for her to pull the factory motor piece by piece. currently my engine hoist is buried in a shed thats surrounded by about 4-5 feet of snow and no pathways nearby. So piece by piece the little vega 2.3L comes out

about every half hour lately you have to sweep off the car of snow, shovel around the car to the tool shed. Its a slow progress but she wants it done by july. she'll get it done

She be doing this E36 M3 in the cold!

I mean, back up...she be doing her own wrenching? 

In reply to NOHOME :

I'm not allowed to wrench "Unattended" haha! its her car, her build shes doing the work. Im only their to help and guide her so that she doesn't make the same mistakes as I have

UPDATE:

Winter thaw has begun! prepped car for the motor to be pulled this weekend together

I love the old school flat speedo

Man I love the Canadian models. One day I'm coming to there to get some weird Pontiac/Buick/Chevy mixed up car that no one down here will know. 

That car looks really solid, which is surprising for a Canada car - I think all of the ones here in Minnesota were totally rusted out and junked by about 1980.  :)

It's too bad the Vega/Astre had so many fundamental flaws, I always thought they were really nice looking cars.

I don't even need to ask what the temperature was when you got started- it had to be butt cold!

Cool car, I look forward to seeing the progress!

I built a '75 Astre with a 350/Saginaw back in my BCIT days.

The rear 4-link is rather weak at the frame, especially rusty - a bit of hot-rodding down Marine and the driver's side trailing arm worked free from the floor and started realigning the back axle .  I went ladder bars which HOOKED, but didn't handle.

http://www.gwellwood.com/project-cars/the-v8-vega/

SkinnyG said:

I built a '75 Astre with a 350/Saginaw back in my BCIT days.

The rear 4-link is rather weak at the frame, especially rusty - a bit of hot-rodding down Marine and the driver's side trailing arm worked free from the floor and started realigning the back axle .  I went ladder bars which HOOKED, but didn't handle.

http://www.gwellwood.com/project-cars/the-v8-vega/

Wow man tons of info their thanks! Ive been struggling finding Monza V8 motor mounts so we've opted to the transdapt front mount ones. hopefully itll line up for more space for headers and steering. Where abouts in BC are you from?

Forget importing JDMs, I'm starting to think I should set up a business bringing beaters across the mountains from BC and getting them registered in Alberta.

Looking forward to this coming together.

Does she want a big dealer poster to go along with it?

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/201x-classifieds/chevy-vega-dealer-poster/126079/page1/

I do love me some H-bodies. The only reason I don't have one right now is the short wheelbase. It puts it in CAM-S instead of CAM-T.

Props to Ruchcanuck and your girlfriend.  I feel really, really inferior when reading this thread and thinking about the years I lived in Upstate NY and didn't have a project car because I didn't have a place to work on it.  No mater how the car turns out I'm impressed and I think the car is going to be cool.

Rushcanuck said:

Wow man tons of info their thanks! Ive been struggling finding Monza V8 motor mounts so we've opted to the transdapt front mount ones. hopefully itll line up for more space for headers and steering. Where abouts in BC are you from?

I'm in the Okanagan.

Contact "Dave's Vega Village" near Port Moody. Yes, it exists; I was surprised too. He'll have whatever you need to do whatever you want. 

Rushcanuck said:

Wow man tons of info their thanks! Ive been struggling finding Monza V8 motor mounts so we've opted to the transdapt front mount ones. hopefully itll line up for more space for headers and steering. Where abouts in BC are you from?

I'm in the Okanagan.

Contact "Dave's Vega Village" near Port Moody. Yes, it exists; I was surprised too. He'll have whatever you need to do whatever you want. 

Thanks man Ill give him a shout

APEowner said:

Props to Ruchcanuck and your girlfriend.  I feel really, really inferior when reading this thread and thinking about the years I lived in Upstate NY and didn't have a project car because I didn't have a place to work on it.  No mater how the car turns out I'm impressed and I think the car is going to be cool.

When we lived on vancouver island it was a struggle to find a place to store my car, truck and the gf daily. Now we've got two trucks, her daily, my mustang, and her Astre....its a busy place lol! 

UPDATE:

Engine is out! took a little man handling and turns out the engine block is quite light as long as you dont forget to remove the dipstick which is still attached to the car. Now the real work begins

Still have the trans to pull out but that involves laying in the mud which is not desirable for us at this time haha

When would be a desirable time to lay in the mud? LOL 

Holy E36 M3 the Canadian Engine Hoist is awesome!

Crackers said:

When would be a desirable time to lay in the mud? LOL 

Family site ...

In reply to Crackers :

Might wait til it freezes again or dries up. Or go get another sheet of plywood lol. Unfortunately "fun in the mud" is ruined by the mud is damn cold haha

I once found out it takes very little sand to ruin a good time while playing in a creek. 

Getting muddy just sounds like a bad time. 

UPDATE:
 

So she rebuilt the carburetor I picked up a few weeks for free. Someone had painted it gold without really paying attention you know.... masking anything off.... so we soaked it in some brake fluid that came out of my car, some extra stuff as well and then took a toothbrush to it all, got it all nice and clean

After that we painted the float bowls and I ran out and bought a carb kit for $37 canadian and a $27 bracket for the kickdown on the 700R4.

She rebuilt thecarb, put all new gaskets in it which had all mostly disintegrated or been tossed out when we first took it apart to soak it in brake fluid. Became a bit of a chore figuring out what went where

And I got the intake from a guy in town for $100 

So if we are counting money spent so far. 

Car $900

Intake $100

Carb kit $37

700R4 Kickdown bracket $27

Carb $Freebie

Vega swap Headers $276

Vega swap mounts $167

1988 350 SBC and 700R4 trans $Freebie for scrapping his van after we pull the motor and trans out

Total $1507 canadian

I dont know the exact rules for the $2018 challenge but I feel if this was truly to goal we could make something happen. but being we are quite North of the challenge we are just doing it on the cheap for fun.

The next few weeks Ive gotta focus on getting my Mustang finished and out to a buddies as we are going to fix my paint mess ups. Hopefully by the time we get that done the GF can get started pulling that 350 and trans out of the van.

Awesome. I have that same towel.

I have found that when Canadians say "its getting a little too cold outside" people from Florida are already dead.  

Cool ride though, can't wait to see how it all turns out.  

That's not a kickdown cable on the 700r4. It's the throttle valve cable.  Set it wrong and burn up the trans in NO TIME at all.  

Oh yeah,  jealous. Have always wanted a Vega GT with a turbo Buick v6 in it.