"Lifetime" T/A project?
#260227
03/20/09 09:32 PM
03/20/09 09:32 PM
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,341 Crook County, ILL
Mastershake340
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Crook County, ILL
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I've been meaning to post some info and pix of my long term T/A project. I could probably write a novel about the car since I've had it over 30 years now , but I'll try to keep the ancient history of it brief and concentrate more on its current restoration. I bought the car when I was a junior in high school, in late 1978, after looking for a T/A or an AAR. Just in time for the worst winter around here in history! What a dumb choice for a car... Its motor had just been rebuilt, it had a little rust, and the rear tires were bald, but it looked nice and it was in my price range. Luckily it died a few weeks after I bought it (fouled plugs, no thermostat). So it sat under a snowbank until spring, otherwise I probably would have destroyed it in short order. Around the time I graduated HS, I had some rust repair done and a repaint, and not long after that I replaced the cragars with a set of ralley wheels. A guy pulled up next to me at an intersection one day and offered to sell me a set of window louvers for it, which was an option I really wanted on my car.
Check out my car show and cruise photo albums here: Show PicsSeeking info on a Mr Norms sold T/A VIN JH23J0B308737. Does it still exist?
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Re: "Lifetime" T/A project?
[Re: Mastershake340]
#260229
03/20/09 09:45 PM
03/20/09 09:45 PM
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,341 Crook County, ILL
Mastershake340
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After college I was pretty tied up with starting my career, going out with friends, etc, and the car wasn't high on my priorities. I bought a house in '89 and a garage was a high priority, living at my parents, their 1 car garage always had too much in it to get my car in there, so it lived outside with a car cover on it. I don't know that it had ever been garaged, and unfortunately I came to find it had a lot of leaks. My interest in Mopars got renewed in the early 90's and in '97 I bought a Challenger convertible. Buying that car and taking it to local shows got me thinking about starting a full restoration of my T/A, by now the trunk floor was pretty rusty and some bubbles were popping up here and there. A guy at my work who had lived in MI and had a small collection of Shelby Mustangs and Ford race cars gave me the name of a guy over there in MI who he claimed "was the best in the world in fixing rust". Who knows more than a "Rustang" guy about the old "tin worm" right??? Although he was mainly a Mustang guy, he had recently finished a restoration of a '68 Charger that ended up getting best of show at its first show (Mopars at the Red Barn) and placed at the Nats. So I took the plunge and got on his waiting list. This was '99, I think. I started disassembling and documenting the car, and a few months later he called and said he was ready to have it. He drove over with a trailer and picked it up. I figured I'd have it back in a year or so. Little did I know!!
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Re: "Lifetime" T/A project?
[Re: Mastershake340]
#260230
03/20/09 09:54 PM
03/20/09 09:54 PM
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,341 Crook County, ILL
Mastershake340
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Not long after my car got to the shop, his one employee left to take on another career. He was trying to make it as a one man show, but it became apparent after awhile he wasn't making much progress. I wasn't all that upset, I had just lost a ton in my investments during the "tech wreck" and was sort of glad not to be getting bills from the shop. He got sick and couldn't work for a while, my employer started going downhill and I found myself worrying about getting laid off. Months turned to years, and by early 2005 I got laid off, but lucked out and found a better job in a month. I was really feeling pretty good for the first time in years, and really wanted my project to get back going now that I felt more secure in my career. I traveled out to MI that summer to see my car and see if he might get going on it again, or if I needed to try to find somewhere else to take it. Here it is after over 5 years at the shop.
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Re: "Lifetime" T/A project?
[Re: Mastershake340]
#260231
03/20/09 10:09 PM
03/20/09 10:09 PM
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,341 Crook County, ILL
Mastershake340
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He was back working full time at the shop by now, and was finishing up a car that had been there since before mine. It took him a year or so to get that one wrapped up but then he finally started working on my car extensively. I had thought to myself over the years that I wondered what I had got myself into, but once he really got going with the car, I really wondered what I had got myself into! The car had been a good "10 footer", I knew the trunk floor was shot because the rear window leaked. But I came to find that rear window was only one of many places that had leaked probably back to the day the car first hit the dealer's lot. The interior floor was almost "day one" except for an area below the clutch pedal area, because the A pillar leaked and water had seeped in and pooled under the carpet. Leaves had clogged the drain holes in the cowl and because of that the firewall had some rusty areas. Rust under the vinyl top, several holes in the rear wheel housings and more. Scott was going to send the car out the the media blaster early on, but decided it would be better to do some metal repairs before stripping the car, so it would be structurally sound during the process. I had bought a trunk floor from AZ, he installed that. The frame was in mint shape except for the rear spring perch area. So he had to replace the last 4 or 5 inches of the rear frame. Pictures he sent of the progress were pretty depressing at some point, with the amount that had to be cut away.
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Re: "Lifetime" T/A project?
[Re: Mastershake340]
#260236
03/20/09 10:38 PM
03/20/09 10:38 PM
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,341 Crook County, ILL
Mastershake340
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So, here we are in March 2009, around 10 years after I had put a deposit down to have Scott restore my car. I have managed to track down a lot of rare parts for my car over the years that I have stashed away waiting the day I can install them on my car, steel wheels, original E and G 60 polyglas tires, NOS mufflers, mint trim, I redid my seats with a Legendary kit, etc. I never expected I'd have to replace so much sheet metal. I have a pair of mint '70 fenders, a mint rear tail light panel, an mint AZ trunk floor, 2 repro quarters, NOS front valence,and now 2 nice used doors. Plus all the patching of the cowl, the floor, the rear wheel housings. Just to complicate life further, I lost my full time job late last year and have been getting by on unemployment and income from a side job. Last summer I refinanced to take money out to build a bigger new garage so I'd have room for my T/A when it comes home along with an '09 Challenger R/T I had planned to get this year. The '09 dream is on hold, but since Scott is making so much progress the last thing I want to do is tell him to put it on hold. I opened a new HELOC when I did that refinance, I wrote my first check drawing from it a few weeks ago to put down another deposit on the resto work. I hate to take on any debt, but fortunately other than my mortgage I had no debt going into my unemployment. And the interest rate is only 2.25% on the equity line right now so interest payments are tiny. Hopefully I will get back to full time work again sometime in the near future, I don't want to take on a lot of debt but I don't want to have this project go on indefinite hold after it has dragged on for so long already. Somehow this car needs to be finished before I die of old age!!!
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Re: "Lifetime" T/A project?
[Re: Mastershake340]
#260237
03/20/09 10:47 PM
03/20/09 10:47 PM
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 8,089 Sorrento, BC, Canada
4speeds4me
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Man...that's almost a happy ending. Usually stories that start like yours end with "I went to see my car and the guy told me most of the parts were lost/stolen/sold and he wouldn't be able to finish it so I should take it home the way it is." It looks like it'll be pretty sweet when it's finished. Is the engine #'s?
2 Demons...no, not my kids!
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Re: "Lifetime" T/A project?
[Re: Moparman440]
#260242
03/21/09 10:56 AM
03/21/09 10:56 AM
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 8,341 Crook County, ILL
Mastershake340
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Quote:
Very cool story and glad to see you still have it. Are you in the Burbs or City ? You don't have to say in the open forum but I'm in the Western burbs. I've had 3 T/A's but none currently. I have a few projects I need to finish but hope to get into another very soon. Hopefully I'll bump into you and your T/A in the near future. I would love to see it.
I'm in the near NW burbs. When I bought the T/A it was in Arlington Heights, a mile or two down the road from where I live now. The sales paperwork showed the original owner (who I thought I tracked down through online snooping but have been unable to contact) lived in Rolling Meadows about 3 miles from my house. I lived in Glenview with my parents when I bought it, and the Mr. Norms sticker was actually a newer one, as it showed his second location in Buffalo Grove in addition to his chi town address. It must have been sold used at Mr. Norms in the early 70's after being sold there new . It didn't sell at Mr. Norms new until February of '71 and the original owner traded in a Challenger 340 on it! Other than these years it has been MI at the restoration shop it has always lived in a pretty small area geographically. I took it out to the Koller Dodge show once, probably in '99, just prior to when I started taking it apart. If you attend local shows and cruises you've probably seen my convertible. A FK5 383 car with a flat hood. It's at the CMC Belvidere show most every year, I used to take it to the Naperville show until that show turned into a Neon and new car fest with the vintage muscle stuck out in the far reaches of the grounds like red headed step children. I take the vert to several local cruises like Rolling Meadows too, so if you see me stop by and say "hi" and we can chat about T/A's
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