What is your favorite or most regretted you have made to a classic you owned?
I put seats from a GTI in my Pontiac so I wasn't sliding around in corners anymore. it made the car much more enjoyable to drive.
My most regretted change was the front lowering springs. Car looks great, but I have anxiety about speed bumps (and marks on the exhaust to show for it).
So far no "worst" updates on my Opel GT. Hard to pick the "Best" though. The European Opel brake master cylinder replacing the American version greatly imporved the brakes. European version has larger orfices than the American import version. Pertronix replacing points improved the engine driveability. Replacing the stock steel 13X5 wheels with BBS Basketweaves 14X6 made it ride better.
Nothing bad yet, but the OD transmission in the 64 Spit is da bomb. I just wish it was the correct one.
Well, I was young & dumb, etc., etc. I pulled a well running 4bl. carbed Studabaker 289 with automatic out of a nice looking Starliner Coupe. Put in a 283 Corvette motor with 6 2bls & a floor mounted 3-speed manual. It never ran as well or as quick again. And of course I trashed the fender wells, floor, and fire wall while making everything fit. One of the prettiest parts of the car was the sleek hood. It wouldn't fit over all the carbs and manifold, so I sold it to someone much smarter than I at a steal.
If you don't know what a Starliner Coupe looks like. Check out a 2nd generation Camaro. Inside & out, they seem to have almost copied the lines, seats, and dashboard. Except the Starliner has, in my opinion, a much more attractive C Post.
Well the big block Chrysler sixpack was a delight in my old Jensen CV-8....
The best single mod to any car I ever made was a throttle cam on a 944. It made a huge difference in the way the car drove.
Next in line was not a small one, but a 1500 swap into my '74 X1/9, with a big cam, dual webbers, and a trick 5 speed transaxle. Thanks to Steve Hoelscher for building the motor! Totally transformed the car as you might expect.
There were others, but those are the two that stand out the most.
Rupert wrote: Put in a 283 Corvette motor with 6 2bls & a floor mounted 3-speed manual.
What SBC intake uses 6 2bls? Did you mean 3 2bls?
Disc brakes and a dual master cyl on my '65 F100 were the best by far.
Spending $3500 to gain 20 hp in my Audi GT Coupe was by far the dumbest thing I did. Should have listened to every other person on the planet and swapped in a turbo motor.
Greatest? Don't know yet... I'll get back to you in the Spring after I (hopefully) have a T-9 transmission installed in my GT6.
Worst? Installing a 6" lift kit on my '78 F150. Dumb, dumb, dumb...
In reply to pushrod36:
No I meant six. And I don't remember the brand of the intake now. It came in two halves. (I believe it was called a twin log manifold.) Three carbs per bank of cylinders. And the center carb on each log was the primary or idle carb. The front and rear ones on each log were the secondaries. (Inscky maybe?)
I bought the engine and transmission complete as an assembly with the carbs.already on it. It wasn't the first one I'd seen at the time. If I recall correctly, they did the same set-up with some Chrysler motors then. This was in the mid-60's.
The coolest by far was replacing the 1500cc pre-Xflow Kent with the Cosworth BDA in my Morgan. It fit, it sounds awesome, and can out run almost anything.
The worst was during the swap I "upgraded" to a T-9. I did the research but Im sure that the ratios were not what I was told was in the gearbox and it is a really heavy gearbox.
Ian, I have a late model Spitefire OD gearbox with a D type OD unit I believe, which ever the TR6 had, that I built up to GT6 specs for my GT6. I never got around to putting it in. The G/B is just sitting in the back of my garage needing some love.
Leo
Back in high school I bought a friend's older brother's old '53 Stude Starliner Coupe. Coral red with black and gold pin striping. Those toggles all over the dash. Like driving the future even though it was already more than 15 years old.
It had a 289 engine with a side draft carb. Foolishly thinking that a four barrel from a Mustang 289 would SURELY swap over, I carelessly ripped the Stud carb off of the engine, losing most of the parts and pieces to put it back on and found that NOTHING would actually fit as a replacement.
Sold the car to a different friend, he junked it in the end in favor of a Firebird.
All of my updates and decisions having to do with cars are the worst/stupidest. I've never made one decent decision EVER related to owning a car.
THIS is what I foolishly did to my Karmann Ghia coupe:
Shame shame,Team-Man. You know, I've seen more roof racks on VDubs lately than I ever saw in period. I wonder why? Is somebody now making repros that owners can't resist putting on their cars?
Ah . . . but on the Ghia, I made my OWN roof rack out of an old bed and welded it to the roof . . . for safety.
So I just might not be in the "shame shame" zone after all.
Sweet!
Is that artificial aging patina or the real thing?
Worst mod - botched carbed turbo setup on my Dodge Dart with a too-small turbo. The result would have a nose-over bog whenever you floored it, then about two seconds later you'd get a massive backfire and the car would take off. It's now EFI (much better drivability) but apart for a larger and better engineered turbo setup.
Best mod? Three point seat belts. They give me a lot more peace of mind being on the road with Atlanta traffic. They were a bit of a pain to install in the Dart; went in pretty easily in the truck, which already had mounting points. Second best would be the LS swap on my '72 Chevy pickup.
In reply to TeamEvil:
My '53 Starliner Coupe was painted Sierra Gold, which I think was a '57 Chevy color, by the previous owner. If I'd just driven as it was, I'd have had a much better experience. I still can't believe how ahead of the times Mr. Loewry (sic?) was. It was a very pretty car and the flip up armrest in the back seat was just big enough to hide a cold six pack of beer in cans. That's very important when you're under 21!
In reply to MadScientistMatt:
That seat belt addition was pretty current. I put two point seat belts in a whole bunch of cars which were built with none installed at all.
But then there are always two sides to every story. I got pulled over in the '70s while driving my '56 TR-3. The officer noted I only had one functioning brake light & he was correct. On the early TR's the only brake light was the one mounted on the boot lid (trunk lid). The lights on the rear wings (fenders) were only intended for running lights and turn signals. They never were designed to work with the brakes. Luckily I had the original owner's manual in the car so I showed it to the officer & he let me off.
So the '56 TR-3 was way ahead of it's time. It had a center mounted brake light when first built. The TR-3 owner's manual also had pages explaining what turn signals were & how they worked. (They were controlled by that little chrome lever on the steering wheel by the horn ring.) And that you needed to manually cancel them when you completed your turn.
Does a cassette adaptor count?
On the MGB GT: both the Overdrive gearbox and the 4 link coil-over rear suspension were great mods.
Performing two ground-up restorations on the car might not have been as smart!
"Is that artificial aging patina or the real thing?"
Real !
In reply to NOHOME:
I think two restorations is a great thing! Since you obviously love and use your car, why not put your money and time where your heart is?
Rupert wrote: In reply to NOHOME: I think two restorations is a great thing! Since you obviously love and use your car, why not put your money and time where your heart is?
If by "Use" you mean "constantly tear the thing apart and reassembling it." Then yeah, it is very well used. If you mean "drive the car", that does not seem to play a part in the hobby. I doubt that it has had 36,000 miles in the 36 years that I have owned it.
After 36 years of "improving" the car to the point where I would want to drive it, I have finally given up and parked it for the foreseeable future. Still smitten by the looks of the GT and I can't see ever selling it.
The good ones!
Swapped a 5 speed for the automatic! gave a larger spread of gears that improved acceleration and mileage.
Electronic ignition replaced the points...11 years ago...perfect.
Relay system for the headlights that is much brighter and doesn't roast the headlight switch.
LED tail lights that can now be seen during the day.
Bruce
The best and worst thing I ever did are one in the same. I upgraded from the 1171cc A12 to the 1508cc A15 and while it has made the car faster it has also driven me nuts. I bought a parts car with the larger rear end because the original would not likely hold up, I missed a track day while sorting that. I also ponied up $1300 for a H190 LSD, ouch. It also required a custom driveshaft and I also had to fab new motor mounts. Then because the guy who put together the motor (besides sleeping with my wife) failed to notice the ever so slightly different center head bolt which meant the head wasn't torqued properly and of course the car went 4 corners before burning up the head gasket. This also required welding up the head. The welded head worked out fine but the same crap mechanic (the one my kid calls dad) should have checked the head closer because all that molten head gasket material pitted all the valves and so I missed another event. I bought a spare race head for a mere $750 and bolted it on to the A12 to get me though the next 2 events after which I yanked the motor a third time. After the A15 went in it quickly became apparent that the rear suspension needed sorting as the car had this odd oscillating oversteer, that took a couple of events to sort. Just after I got that sorted the tailshaft bushing in the tranny gave up the ghost 3 laps into the first session of the day. Oh and because the new rear end is 3 inches wider than the old one I had new control arms fabed for the front so the front and rear track are equal. The car had to aligned and set up again, fortunately this is the one job my mechanic does well (maybe it's why my dog likes him). The longer control arms mean the radius rods pulled the spindles forward, added a large amount of castor to the car, which helped the handling but also made the steering effort a bit higher. The car is now 10 MPH faster and the end of the longest straight and the corner speeds are even higher than before so no complaints there but dorking around with it for the past 2 years has been frustrating. I've run the car for 25 years and in years 1-23 I had two breakdowns, in 24 & 25 I've had 3. This past weekend it started misfiring, this of course is unrelated to the upgrade, the 42 year old coil appears to be going south. Now even with the misfire I still was passing cars so even with the motor off song it is still faster than before.
Tom
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