[dgb100]

Hi fellas, been a while since I've been on the board. I got my dad's 70.5 RAIII about one-1/2 years ago, the family has owned it since it was brand new. Needed (needs) a lot of work yet, but I thought I'd run some ideas by y'all.

The engine has been completely rebuilt (oil pump rod snapped and did some horrendous damage) and seated for unleaded gas, got an upgraded crankshaft, fuel pump, oil pump, carb refurbished, and recently readjusted after the engine had a chance to break in a while. It has a 73 block (YT I think) since the original cracked. Installed headers after we discovered one of the manifolds was cracked and super expensive to come up with an original one. This was pretty expensive.

The suspension, springs, breaks, the whole underside of the car, was totally dissassembled, parts replaced, rust issues resolved and welded. This was very expensive. (Unfortunately I don't have the time or space or ablility to do mechanical work)

Right now this thing runs better than new, absolutely sticks to the road, engine running strong, smooth and as responsive.

Now I'm at a crossroads. First, I'm never planning on selling the car, it's really the only thing even remotely resembling a family heirloom. The engine as noted is pretty far from original as far as any collector would be concerned. A "car enthusiast" probably wouldn't be too concerned, but a trailer queen guy would poo-poo it I'm sure. So keep that in mind...

The exterior is in pretty good shape, the only rust throughs are one small 1/8" hole in the hood, and one in the chrome rear bumper (ouch). Trim is a little hazy looking, otherwise pretty solid. Will stick with the original white and blue, love the look, and that's the one area I'm actually capable of dealing with.

I'd like to go with some slightly wider tires. Right now it has 15x7 American racing rims with Kelly Charger tires. I have the original Rally's stored away, all missing their gems. How wide a rim+tire combo will the car take? Any reccomendations? This car handles so well I really would like to maximise that aspect of the car and see about taking it out on SCCA events rather than going the drag route which has never interested me all that much. I've driven several cars from this peroid, Vettes, Mustang GTs, Chargers, Challengers, GTOs, Chevelles and none of them comes close to the handling of the 70TA IMO.

The big problem is the intereor. It's a blue intereor and I'll be dammed if I can find any thing other than black in the repro market. Any help would be appreciated. But I'm thinking of going with a custom interor, just gut the whole thing becuase it's a freaking nightmare. Seats are shot, panels and dash dry rotted and craked, half the belt buckles are cracked off, radio and speaker shot. I'd keep the blue, but probably go for cloth seats, see about some seat belts that wont crush my rib cage if I'm ever in a wreck, and the should belt cuts right across my wife neck, so she won't even ride in the car. Put in nice stereo. Has anyone done this, how easy or hard was it? Any advice?