What to do? Build or shop for another?

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1983calais

Master Mechanic
Feb 26, 2015
278
337
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Tiffin, OH
Ok, I have been wanting to get the 83 calais out of storage for the last couple months but the GREAT Ohio weather and work have been preventing me from doing so. I finally got the time and sunshine this afternoon to go get it and bring it back home. My plans for this car was a moderate to full resto depending on the time and funds. I rescued this car from the local junkyard 2 years ago. The previous owner had this car a long long time and drove it all the time. He put a 350 chevy in it and always took care of it. He had a run of bad luck with the economy a few years back and then the car sat. He finally decided to just junk the car instead of selling it just to get some money. I saw it at the yard the day they hauled it in and bought it before it was scrapped with a clean title! I put a battery in it and some gas and drove it home. I put a new intake and carb on it, new kickdown cable, changed the fuel tank, took all the interior out of it and washed everything to get the bad mouse urine smell out of it, (the maple interior in it is in great shape except for the cracked up dash) and drove it for that summer all over. I didn't get it out last year because all the transmission fluid leaked out of it and the engine started leaking oil real bad. I have been collecting parts for it and started rebuilding a 327 chevy out of a 65 Impala for it as well. I even bought a parts car for it last summer that has no engine and transmission but has great sheet metal and rust free doors! The interior in the donor car is perfect to but not the same color and is a column shift car and not buckets and console like the 83. It also has no title. But its a parts car so who cares. Anyways back to the problem at hand, I started tearing the trim and dry rotted landau roof off the car and there is alot af metal rotted away under them. Very big holes! Now I dont know what to do. The trunk has alot of rust all the way through too. I am thinking about redoing the donor car now as there is alot less body work but now I will have to change the steering column and I'm not sure about the wiring as this was a 6 cylinder car with the sweep speedo with the idiot lights and the 83 has the rally pack gauges and was a 307 car. And once again it has no title. I have my 87 brougham that I drive all over and is untouched. I want to leave that one alone but I also like to go a little faster once in a while and thats the reason for the build. Not to mention these cars are awesome and I have always wanted to restore a car myself. Thanks for listening and any input would be great!
 

Rktpwrd

Builder of Cool Shjt
Supporting Member
Feb 2, 2015
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Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Time not spent repairing rust is time towards the things you really want IMO.
The trick is then going to be getting a clean title for the car. I wouldn't worry too much about the wiring, if you're going to tear it down that far anyways, I would just swap the entire wiring harnesses between the two. Not really that hard when you get into it. Just my $0.02...
 
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Alerch

Master Mechanic
Jul 15, 2013
285
171
43
Goose creek SC
I also agree on starting a project with very little to no rust. I live in northwestern Pa and I found my clean rust free one owner cutlass in south Carolina with just 73k on the clock. It was so nice working on the car since nothing was rusted up still had most of the factory black paint on the frame..
 
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