New Pics.

[Derision]

Finally got a chance to get some new pictures of my beastie. I was in a celebratory mood since I just got her through a New Jersey state inspection. She actually passed emissions! And the guy TRIED to get her to fail -- he actually started getting angry when it wouldn't. Ha. I guess the carb rebuild I did wasn't as botched as I thought it was (I was about two screws away from building a birdhouse instead of a carburator).

Anyway. I just pulled the vinyl roof off, so... here's the before picture:

And here she is now, in desperate need of a paint-job but none the worse for the wear:

Riding on the oh-so-sexy, black, un-hub-capped rims. The girls are all drooling.

That's my roommates Mustang in front of me. He was impressed by the fact that I can keep up with him:

There is trim around that back window... it's just blacked out. I'm in the process of blacking out the rest of the chrome because I think it looks nicer (you can see I did the chrome around the tail light enclosures). I also blacked out part of my grille:

I didn't actually intend to black out the grille... but I was touching up some stuff, I had some tape on the grille and when I removed it... it pulled most of the chrome stuff off with it. D'oh. Rather than get some awful chrome spray paint or take it someplace to be professionally (and expensively) redone, I just decided to strip it and paint it black. I think it looks nice; and such began my quest to black out the rest of the trim, ala the 2+2. But without the ugly front or window.

So there she is. I know she's not what you would call a "looker" and that, even with a paint job and new doors (anyone got any doors they want to sell me? Please??!), she's never going to win a car show, but that's okay with me. I like the car because it's fun to drive, not because it's fun to look at.

AJ

 

[STLRegal]

looks well.....the important thing it drives right? What are you running under the hood? Also it looks like it has some rust. Its ok for a car to look run down, but rust is never acceptable.

 

[78mali350]

to each his own i love the blacked out look but my father is into chrome hence why there is some on our car. looks good though nice work

 

[Derision]

looks well.....the important thing it drives right?

Heh. Yeah, the way I see it... cosmetic problems can be repaired later. Whether the paint shines or not is not going to hinder the performance of anything.

What are you running under the hood?

The basic engine is an HO 305 from a Monte Carlo SS. The guy that owned the car before me was a G-body guy (he had at least three MCSS's and a couple of El Caminos) and he swapped out his SS's engine for a 455 or something. The 305 ended up in the Grand Prix, which originally had a Buick 231 in it.

It is surprisingly quick, considering it's just a 305. I have an Oldsmobile 403 in my garage I've been pondering transplanting, but I can't bring myself to do it while the 305 is still running as well as it is (like I said; I just passed New Jersey emissions with it. And that's something of a challenge).

Also it looks like it has some rust. Its ok for a car to look run down, but rust is never acceptable.

The doors do have a fair bit of rust. And by "fair bit", I mean that the bottoms of the doors are totally rusted out. They were like that when I got the car but have gotten progressively worse. I have been trying since 2003 to find new doors for it. And in that time, I have found a total of four Grand Prix's that would be suitable donors. All four of them had the same rust problem on the doors.

This is actually what has kept me from repainting the car. The paint is obviously faded. But I don't want to repaint the thing if I'm going to pull the doors off later on and have to get them painted too. But at the same time, I can't find any doors. Argh.

Anyway... the rest of the car is rust-free. To the point where I actually cut out (and replaced) a sizable portion of the back seat's floor because there was a little rust starting up. The quarter panels are actually in very good shape; there are a few dings here and there, but they are, for the most part, straight and in good condition. There are some spots on the quarter panels that might look like rust, but those are just repairs I made at one point or another and the touch-up paint doesn't quite match. And I was expecting a TON of rust under the vinyl roof (which had been torn and cracked for years), but there wasn't a single spot.

So yeah. I know she's not very pretty. But she gets the job done. And hey... I love seeing the looks on people's faces when they realize they've just gotten beaten by... that thing. Heh.

to each his own i love the blacked out look but my father is into chrome hence why there is some on our car. looks good though nice work

Thanks. Yeah, I'm torn on the chrome thing. I like some, but then, I also like the way that the MCSS looks, with the blacked out trim. I'm trying to strike something of a balance with this between blacked-out and not-blacked-out. It should look nice, if I ever get the actual whole car painted.

AJ

 

[marcar1993]

In jamesburg nj, Red and Black jy, there is at least one gp, I don't know the condition, but they had doors on them last I looked. Or you could go to a bodyshop or a macco and have them fix that problem with sheet metal.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

If you can figure out how to ship them, I can get the doors for you from one of my local junkyards. I saw a set at one of the yards that had a little rust on the pinch weld at the bottom, but no holes. The car was an 81-87. I'd probably want $100-120 each plus shipping, depending on what I have to pay for them. If you want them gutted, it would be cheaper to ship that way. Unlike up north, here in the sunshine state we have plenty of rust free serviceable sheetmetal in low cost junkyards.