my first love..

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5speed
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my first love..

#1

Post by 5speed »

While being new to motorcycles..I've been a wrench spinner my entire adult life. I do most of the maintenance on my own vehicles and have owned my first love for over 15 years.
1986 IROC Camaro. It is from Florida originally, has never been driven in the winter and with the exception of the engine which a previous owner swapped..it's stock.
My happy place is rowing gears and listening to classic rock..

Before the Camaro..was my first "hot rod".
A 1964 Rambler American. I swapped the flathead 6 cylinder for a 283 chevy..
I owned that car for 18 years and drove it legally on the road for 6 months. lol
Attachments
iroc 003.jpg
iroc 003.jpg (169.43 KiB) Viewed 834 times
my son heading to his graduation prom.
my son heading to his graduation prom.
1000171_10151762825940817_967249994_n.jpg (113.71 KiB) Viewed 834 times
what happens when the camshaft gives up the ghost.
what happens when the camshaft gives up the ghost.
357_48180750816_1073_n.jpg (55.64 KiB) Viewed 834 times
rambler copy.jpg
rambler copy.jpg (95.77 KiB) Viewed 834 times
my brother getting rid of the back tires.
my brother getting rid of the back tires.
rambler2 copy.jpg (91.21 KiB) Viewed 834 times
1982 1100 standard. (sold)
1986 Yamaha FJ1200
2000 Yamaha Roadstar
1976 GoldWing. running but not on the road
1978 Goldwing. future cafe project.
2019 Can-Am ryker (boss's new ride)

2002 Shadow American Classic(sold)
1983 Shadow 500. (sold)
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toolbox
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Re: my first love..

#2

Post by toolbox »

Really nice looking Z! F bodies are a lot of fun...my third car was an '83 Camaro, and I went on to buy an '84 Z28 (t-top), a '91 T/A (five speed) that I basically did a complete restoration on, and a 2000 Camaro convertible (lost in a divorce lol). I built a motor for '84, and when I went to sell the car I swapped it with the 350 in my truck...it was a really nice motor and I didn't want to get rid of it lol. Anyway, nice ride!
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sunnbobb
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Re: my first love..

#3

Post by sunnbobb »

You brought back some fond memories. I had the same Rambler. It would not die. With 230K I sold it to a guy in Idaho. 8 years later I got a call from the Idaho State patrol. The car had been abandoned on the side of a road, the guy never transferred the title. I explained this to the patrol, and out of curiosity I asked if he had the odometer reading.. 310K! I paid the $125 towing bill and papered it over to a scrapyard. RIP
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1978 Learning Experience
1980 County Road Hauler "Brain Damage"
1978 Cafe Custom Gl1000 "Vyper"
1977 Bulldog Inspired "Vaincre"
1981 Street Fighter GL1100 "No Quarter"
1983 Supercharged Street Drag "Anubis" (in worx)
1983 gl1100 mint restoration "Kristen"
1985 Aspencade..pondering.
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5speed
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Re: my first love..

#4

Post by 5speed »

sunnbobb wrote:You brought back some fond memories. I had the same Rambler. It would not die. With 230K I sold it to a guy in Idaho. 8 years later I got a call from the Idaho State patrol. The car had been abandoned on the side of a road, the guy never transferred the title. I explained this to the patrol, and out of curiosity I asked if he had the odometer reading.. 310K! I paid the $125 towing bill and papered it over to a scrapyard. RIP
My dad had a 1965 four door. I was only a year old and don't remember it but he didn't have much good to say about it. lol
I took him for a drive in mine and after getting after it on a back street he said "wow..mine never went that fast.. :mrgreen:
I'm kicking myself for selling it but...
1982 1100 standard. (sold)
1986 Yamaha FJ1200
2000 Yamaha Roadstar
1976 GoldWing. running but not on the road
1978 Goldwing. future cafe project.
2019 Can-Am ryker (boss's new ride)

2002 Shadow American Classic(sold)
1983 Shadow 500. (sold)
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5speed
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Location: Nova Scotia Canada

Re: my first love..

#5

Post by 5speed »

toolbox wrote:Really nice looking Z! F bodies are a lot of fun...my third car was an '83 Camaro, and I went on to buy an '84 Z28 (t-top), a '91 T/A (five speed) that I basically did a complete restoration on, and a 2000 Camaro convertible (lost in a divorce lol). I built a motor for '84, and when I went to sell the car I swapped it with the 350 in my truck...it was a really nice motor and I didn't want to get rid of it lol. Anyway, nice ride!
Thanks. I looked for quite a while before I found this one. No rust and a stick where my only 2 "must haves". I drove it for about 6 years then the camshaft "left"due to the oil companies taking zinc phosphate out of their oil.
The pic below is one of the bad lifters that chewed a lobe off the camshaft.
I had the engine professionally done. New roller camshaft, new crank, balanced, blue printed, head work..it dynoed at 387 hp and 422 foot pounds of torque at the crank.
Not big numbers by today's standards but for the way I drive it's perfect. enough power to get down the road in a hurry but not enough to break parts.
While I had the engine out I put polyurethane engine and trans mounts in it, ceramic coated headers, flowmaster exhaust, centerforce clutch, Hurst billet plus shifter, Alston sub frame connectors.. still have some suspension tweaks I want to do and possibly brake upgrades.
third gen Camaro's are starting to come in to their own now..First gen's have been done to death as well as early second gen's..
the aftermarket is growing and the value of them is slowly creeping up.
Attachments
lifters 002.jpg
lifters 002.jpg (127.07 KiB) Viewed 772 times
1982 1100 standard. (sold)
1986 Yamaha FJ1200
2000 Yamaha Roadstar
1976 GoldWing. running but not on the road
1978 Goldwing. future cafe project.
2019 Can-Am ryker (boss's new ride)

2002 Shadow American Classic(sold)
1983 Shadow 500. (sold)
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rjdoles
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Re: my first love..

#6

Post by rjdoles »

When I got out of the Army in 1970 I bought a light blue 67 Rambler American 220 off my dad. It had the 7 main bearing 199 cubic inch engine with 3 on the tree.

I was a hot rod enthusiast and read everything that I could get my hands on related to cars. I was always interested in turbochargers. I happened to walk through a local swap shop and there was a Rajay F flow turbocharger. I went home and checked out my "How to Turbocharge" manual. The F flow capacity was the right size for my 200 cubic inch engine. I went back and purchased it for $35. GM used Rajay turbo's on the corvairs and I got a rebuild kit for it from the Chevy dealer. I rebuilt and blueprinted the all stock 199. I built an exhaust manifold from the engine to the turbocharger, a full 2 1/4" exhaust system with turbo muffler, an adapter from the turbo to the engine intake manifold and a two barrel manifold for the inlet of the turbo with a bolt pattern for a holley 270 cfm 2 barrel.

Turbocharged engines had a pressure retard rather than a vacuum advance mechanism. Since American Motors used Delco distributors, I bought the weights, spring and a pressure retard diaphram for a turbocharged corvair from the Chevy dealer.

Shortly after I put the turbocharger on the car I shelled the transmission. A friend had a 4 door rusted out 57 Chevy 283 ci with a M21 4 speed with Hurst shifter. I bought it for $75 for the transmission and shifter. I removed the Rambler bell housing and took it to a weld shop and had them weld 4 ears on the bell housing where the 4 speed would bolt on. I took the welded up bell housing to a friends machine shop and he faced it off, bored the center hole to match the 4 speed and drilled and tapped for the 4 mounting lugs on the transmission.

While the bell housing was off I went to a local auto shop with the flywheel. I wanted to try and get rid of the 9" pressure plate and found that the flywheel was already drilled and tapped for a 10 1/2" pressure plate. We matched up a corvette pressure plate. So now I had a 4 speed with Hurst shifter and healthy corvette clutch, pressure plate and throwout bearing.

I soon shelled the rear end. The kid across the street from me was a Mopar man and he had a 65 Dodge with a blown 383 that he was going to junk. I convinced him to help me get the rear end out of the Dodge and put it in my Rambler. It had a 3.91 sure grip. I had the driveshaft cut to length to accept the Mopar rear. We put on traction bars during the install so now I had a pretty bullet proof drive train. The car ran great.

I took the car to Turbo Systems. They were a local company that specialized in putting turbochargers on exotic cars. I asked the owner, Bill Laughlin, if he would mind taking a ride with me and give me his opinion of my car. He went for a ride and watched the boost pressure gauge which would peak at about 9 pounds. Afterwards he said that he thought that it ran great. I told him that I was looking for more horsepower. He said that getting rid of the little 2 barrel for something bigger would give me more boost and horsepower but more boost would probably result in detonation that would kill the engine. I immediately ran to the local speed shop and bought a 500 Holley 2 barrel and bolted it on.

I heeded his warning and since they didn't do intercoolers back then I went back to my "How to turbocharge" manual and read up on adding water/alcohol injection. I took an empty bernz-o-matic bottle and brazed a tube into the top of it. I piped it to the intake manifold through a 5 psi one way check valve that I bought from a welding supply store. Anytime the boost was over 5 psi, it would pressurize the bottle. I soldered a second tube into the top of the bottle like a soda straw down to the bottom of the bottle and hooked a rubber hose to that tube. That tube went to an adapter to use carburetor jets to limit the flow that would spray water/alcohol into the throat of the 2 barrel.

I took the car to the track bone stock and it lit up the 1/4 mile with an 18.60 E.T. and 72 mph. The weight/trap speed calculators say a 2600 lb car with a 72 mph trap speed put the beast at 75 rear wheel horsepower. It was rated at 125 gross hp.

With all the changes, I went back to the track. The car ran 13.60 e.t. at 109 mph. The weight/trap speed calculator indicated that I was making about 262 rear wheel horsepower. That is more than triple what the six in stock form put out and with the turbo it felt like it pulled hardest in top gear.

I entered the car in some E.T. bracket races and with wide oval street tires and full turbo exhaust drew an Oldsmobile 442 with slicks and open headers. He beat me out of the hole but I managed to pass him on the big end. He came over puzzled and asked me "What the heck is in that thing?" I told him it was a 199 cubic inch six. I opened the hood and he gazed for a while and then he said "That's not a six cylinder, that's a plumbers nightmare".

It was a real sleeper but it still had the original suspension and drum brakes. I sold it for a down payment on my first home.
Started with an Allstate stooter made by Cushman and then a series of Honda motorcycles. 305 SuperHawk, CB750, VT600DC, VT750CD and then 4 years ago I left motorcycles for scooters with an Elite 125, Reflex 250 and Silverwing 600. Most recent is a barn find 77 GL1000 that I plan to resurect.
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Rednaxs60
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Re: my first love..

#7

Post by Rednaxs60 »

Memory lane. My brother had a Rambler, but he kept dropping drive shafts. I was into Mopars. Had a 2 door '62 Chrysler Windsor, dome dash - colour was the best, and push button automatic. Best for me was a '65 Plymouth Fury II:
1965 Plymouth.jpg
1965 Plymouth.jpg (113.82 KiB) Viewed 698 times
Picture was taken at my friends place in '84 in Meaghers Grant, NS.
"When writing the Story of your life, don't let anyone else hold the pen."

Ernest

1985 GL1200 Limited Edition
2014 Can-Am Spyder RT LE
2021 Royal Enfield Himalayan
1995 GL1500 SE CDN Edition (sold)
2012 Suzuki DL1000 VStrom (sold)
Ontario 1985 GL1200 Limited Edition (sold)
2008 GL1800 (sold)
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5speed
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Re: my first love..

#8

Post by 5speed »

rjdoles..that is an awesome story. Have any pics of the car?
I had a 283 with camel hump heads, ram horn exhaust manifolds, cheap thrush mufflers on the rambler. Bolted a turbo 350 trans to the engine and swapped in a rear axle from a comet grabber (bolted right in) and manged to get a driveshaft that fit without any fab work.
She worked good for what it was..but with sketchy 4 wheel drum brakes I didn't push it much.
It needed a lot of work. the body was in good shape considering the year but one of the sub frame rails on the drivers side was rusted bad and with 2 young kids I didn't have the money to finish it.
this was taken the summer I sold it.
Attachments
cars.jpg
cars.jpg (100.98 KiB) Viewed 686 times
1982 1100 standard. (sold)
1986 Yamaha FJ1200
2000 Yamaha Roadstar
1976 GoldWing. running but not on the road
1978 Goldwing. future cafe project.
2019 Can-Am ryker (boss's new ride)

2002 Shadow American Classic(sold)
1983 Shadow 500. (sold)
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Mike-C
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Location: North Lancaster, Ontario, Canada

Re: my first love..

#9

Post by Mike-C »

Gents;
As yes, V-8's and no computer management systems. That said, my first car was a 1963 Austin Mini panel van which later gave way to several other Minis (at 6-3 and 250 lbs they were a hoot) and then onto a 73 Chevy van, a 1 ton with 400 small block with a 'three on the tree'. That was fun with a broken collarbone ! Anyway lots of vehicles since then. I still love my V-8's but my Mercedes and Dodge Cummins diesels also warm my heart.
Mike Coleman
'84 Wing-Lite (ex-Aspencade)
'84 (un-Terstate)
'84 Standard (as yet un-named)
'96 Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 (The Vulcanator)
Mike Coleman
Mike Coleman
North Lancaster, Ontario
Canada
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