So, here is the back story. In 2000 I was driving around San Diego in the Pacific Beach area when I saw a "grandma green" car with a for sale sign in the window. I wrote down the number and called. The car was all there, 326, powerglide, bench seat, manual drum brakes and the price was 1500. I figured I was going to buy it no matter what because it was exactly what I needed to help me get over my ex-wife. So, we meet, I drive the car, it is a real piece of crap, but it is all there, factory air, power steering, California smog pump! So I say what would you take for her? Dude says: I suppose it needs a lot of work, so how about 1200?? I said "Deal!" and before you know it, I was driving the death trap from hell!!.
Flash forward to the summer of 2001, I decide that I have a little money and buy some suspension goodies: PST front disc brake conversion, poly bushings, hotchkiss springs and KYB shocks. A set of Rally II's in 15x8 gave it a stock car racer stance and I was loving it! But the PG was a leaker, and I was going to order a new engine after I got back from my 2002 deployment, sooooo... I go to a off road shop in El Cajon (Forgot the name, sorry) and they put a TH400 out of an old diesel chevy truck (olds 350 diesel) and I'm set.
Deployment comes and goes, I make a call to Colorado, a very nice guy named Gregg Merrick says he can build me a motor, lots of torque and smooth running. It was exactly what I asked for, and in hindsight, I'm thankful that Gregg is a perfectionist...The motor is salvageable with minor cleanup, and no major repairs!!!
Because after the last flood (Saltwater, Chesapeake Bay in my yard/garage) I didn't have the time or the will to flushe her out again...I had lost hope of ever seeing this car run under it's own power.
The last time the Tempest was started was in 2005 just after I got married for the second and last time. Then she sat through 1 major and 1 minor flood events and I focused on family and loving my new life. Then my wife and her BFF decided that the garage needed "organizing". Things had to go or be put away. I said O.K. and started the cleanout by moving the car into the yard. I could see it every day out the dining room window, calling to me, making me fee guilty for not following through on my promise to the former owner and myself that I would bring the car by after I had her all pretty again.
So that is my story, we are 2 weeks into the new chapter, tear down and clean. I'll update as we go, and I hope to be running and cruising by the end of July.
