Reader Projects Wanted!

And by the way, I have recieved zero packages (CD and letter) from any interested parties, and it's almost a month later.  

Johnny Hunkins:
Nobody needs permission to send us a CD and a letter of their project. Honestly, you can really just send it in.

Email is a very bad way to communicate your new car project. You'll always put your best foot forward by following the directions we outline here on the site, and in the mag.

No kidding.

Duly noted, thanks.  If I can get just a little bit of time tomorrow (Sunday), I'll get the info burned onto a CD so that I can send it out early in the week.

I also had a couple of ideas for editorials, figured I'd bounce 'em off of you here, if you like 'em, cool, if not, no worries.

First, it might be humorous to recount some of the dumb/stupid things that have happened (or that you've done) while working on a car - I'll give an example that happened to me today:

Helping a buddy replace the clutch & timing belt on his sister's (expletive-deleted) Escort today - I needed to access a bolt on the bottom of the block, so I leaned back with a wrench in my hand & promptly got a squirt of brake cleaner on the back of my ear (I'd forgotten that I'd cleaned off the flywheel just shortly before).  My buddy saw it & busted out laughing, I did the same.  (What else are you going to do besides laugh, wipe it off, move the can of brake cleaner & try again???)  (A while ago, I found a thread on a bulletin board containing this type of stories, & some of 'em had my ribs hurting...)

Second, if you ever feel like generating a bit of reader feedback, you could ask how many of your readers (because generally speaking they're probably much more experienced/car-savvy than the general public) get roped into projects like changing timing belts & clutches on cars like (expletive-deleted) Escorts...

I told my buddy that there's a *reason* that Ford is a 4-letter word that starts with the letter ***  

MAJOR Barn find!  Is it a barn find if it is a daily driver too? Here is my son Conner(14years old)in his new 73 Duster after coming back down the freeway from Pollok Pines, CA (near Lake Tahoe), 57 miles away where we bought it for $2500. Luckily the defroster and the windshield wipers worked and we made it fine. We started out looking for a 69-74 chevy camaro,chevelle,el camino, etc. because in CA you need to get pre-75 for no smog. After 6 months of looking on craigslist for a project to work on, mostly found junk or rust for way too much *** Then we started looking into the mopars and we found more available in the under 5K range.  This car was an aircraft pilots daily driver and he kept every thing in a log from 1992 until August of 08 when he passed away.He got it from parents who are original owner. After decoding the fender tag we found it is a code A64 Gold Duster package with power disc brakes, big bolt pattern, working AC/heater, AM musicmaster radio, power steering,(even the seat belt buzzer works) and an edelbrock manifold with a carter AFB 4BBL.  Seems to be a 318 though. Also M/T valve covers, and these exhaust manifolds looked weird but they are the 340 part numbers.  The log documents the motor change in 02, at about 110K. It has 141K now.  It was painted about 5 years ago, and is still pretty shiny. They changed the stripes to a black pinstripe and a vinyl door strip. Note the wild alligator vinyl top. At some point he put on air shocks as well. We want to make it into a 340 clone but just use the black stripe and not the 340 number under it. Plans are to figure out what exactly the motor is and do some upgrades like a dual exhaust, tune in the carb, but it does run great right now. It really needs some new tires and rims, so for now we changed the hubcaps to a set of 5 spoke covers and we took off the bumperettes. It needs new front end bushings and we would like to get a posi for the rearend.
I will be sending you the CD of pics  

Michael B. from the North.
Rebuilding a 76 400 Chevy smallblock to put back in my restored 71 GMC shortbox.

The engine has never been redone and the rebuild includes putting on vortec heads,rpm air gap, 9.3 : 1 compression to a 700R4.
This is going to be completed by the end of March 2009.
Looking for over 450 pounds and if all works well to be able to say I've got over 400hp.
Looking for the valve covers that David W. Kauffung installed on the 305 Chevy found in the Spring of 2008 volume 11 issue. Similar to the old stye Vette covers.
Any ideas?
Mike  

I will keep this in mind for your 2010 reader projects issue.  I am still thousands of miles from home but when we get our two project cars and some of the fabrication going I will be sure to make use of my new Nikon that as served me will while deployed.

The first project of puting a modern LS engine and transmission in a 1976 Camaro SS clone should be a fun project that has many things a beginner can help me with. It is going to be the car on the front burner.

The second project is a 1st gen protouring tempest. The more I research it the more doable it seems. The stock early tempest track width is 56.8.  Art morison makes a 57 1/2" track C6 weld in subframe.  http://artmorrison.com/layout.php?y=frontclip/c5vette/&x=index

The tempest has a shorter wheel base than the C5 but a longer hood and a firewall that does not tuck the engine into it.  Hopefully I wont have to mess around with altering the vette tq tube.  

It's D-day today, the last day to submit your project. I think I got mine in just in the nick of time. Poor Johnny is probably buried in mailers. I can't wait for the August issue. How about some teaser photos?  
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Frank the Crank
www.amberlightgarage.com

The deadline for submission has passed. Thanks to all of you who sent a package in!  

Johnny,
Do I need to feed the crew when they come to shot my Mustang for the cover?LOL!

Lance
(Blue Mustang in Texas)  

HA!  I've already got food *and* microbrews ready for *my* cover shoot!

Thanks for the opportunity Johnny.  On the off-chance that you guys are at all interested in my project, I've gotten the domain name (that was mentioned in my letter) registered, & a new hosting service paid for, just need to do a bit more web development work & my site will be up & available.  Hopefully I'll have the basics up within a day or so.

Thanks again.