[72projectbird]

Some of you guys know this car, but some probably don't. I've owned this car since I was 18, and after many years, it's tired. So it's time for a refresh, but not a full blown rotisserie resto!

A brief history:

My Dad stumbled across this 71 listed on Craigslist. There was a few terrible pictures, no real description, and a phone number. It was about 20 minutes away, so we went and looked at it.

The car was frozen to the ground up to the rockers. It had old 28x10.5 slicks on the back that were flat and frozen, a large tree limb that fell and gave the car a slight ass crack on the roof and across the hood and nose. There was a few bullet holes in the glass and I believe the driver door. The car certainly lived an interesting life. The person selling it said that if I didn't buy it, it was being scrapped the next day. They already scheduled a pick up from the local salvage yard. I said I'll give you what the scrap yard will and they agreed.

Once home, work began almost immediately. We sourced a 73 455 out of a Grandville, mated it to a BW ST10 and replaced the rear axle with one out of a 77 with 3:23s. I smashed the roof out with a sledgehammer from the inside, got another hood, fenders and nose, and spray bombed it flat black.

Fast forward a few years, and it's time to make the car look a little more presentable. It received a rather awful single stage paint job (long story), although I guess it looked better than flat black. During that time it went thru another drivetrain swap, and was now a 455 with a TH400.

As the car continued to evolve, various transmissions, converters, exhaust setups, and full interiors cycled in and out. A little while later, the 455 became tired. I was offered decent money for the engine, and another guy wanted the transmission, so I sold them both. With the car now sitting with no drivetrain, I committed a war crime. I found a low mile LS, and slapped it together with a cam, intake, converter and a decent set of headers with a new exhaust. I know, yeah...

Now the journey to making it nice has begun. First up, here's some pics of it over the years. Hopefully the hosting site for the pics doesn't take a dump like last time.