First vehicle, or all vehicles owned?
First vehicle was a 1968 Chevrolet 1/2 ton long narrow bed, bought from my grandfather. Had a 307/4 speed, 4.56 gears (he needed it to make that little 307 pull anything more than the truck itself).
That was in 1981........from there:
1974 Monte Carlo
1978 Monte Carlo
1966 El Camino 327/4 speed (bought it my senior year in high school, still got it at my dad's farm)
1983 Chevy 3/4 ton LWB (bought it three days after I graduated high school in 1984. Only reason I got 3/4 ton was that 1/2 tons only had the 305 available. Shoulda got a 1/2 ton and swapped in a 350.......)
1968 Chevy El Camino....bought from a salvage yard for $100, it had no seats, so I drove it home sitting on a milk crate! Converted it from 307/3 speed to 350/TH350. Sold it a year later to a guy in Electra, TX, he put a 402/TH400 in it and last I heard a guy wrapped it around a telephone pole.
1966 Chevy 1/2 ton LWB (screamer.....pulled the 283/Powerglide out and put in a 355/Turbo 350. With 3.90 gears, it ran really hard and surprised a lot of "musclecar" owners. Ugly as heck.)
1979 Z/28 (my Frankenstein car....during the time I owned it, it had 8 different engines in it, ranging from the stock 350 to a 454 with LS6 heads. Also ran numerous transmission combos, everything from the stock TH350 to a Muncie close ratio 4 speed. Sold it to a guy I worked with in 1990 after I tried a full throttle pass on slicks with the LS6/TH400 combo and a NOS Cheater system set to 250 horses. Broke the windshield and twisted the unibody so badly the doors never opened or shut correctly.....subframe connectors or some sort of stiffening are a MUST on those cars when you put that much power into them and get it to hook up!
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1969 Chevelle SS396.......Never could get it to idle smooth, and it smoked some on startup. Pinged like heck on pump gas, I figured it was bad valve seals letting oil get in and decided to pull it out and rebuild it. Surprise, surprise.......machine shop called me and said it wasn't a 396, but a 427......had a friend check the casting numbers and the ID number on the block....crate engine L88 427. No wonder it wouldn't idle below 1200 rpm! Ran like crazy on the highway when you got above 90mph (3.31 gears and all). Sold in 1988 when I got laid off from my factory job)
1972 El Camino SS.....the one I regretted buying the day after I brought it home. Ended up trading it off for engine parts in 1990.
1981 Caprice Classic (bought it for my wife, got the urge to build a sleeper.......didn't know that the TH200-4R had a built in weakness in the input shell.......lol!)
1973 Monte Carlo (bought it in 1990 for $166 from a kid who had gotten it for his graduation present and then he hurt the motor. Turned out he was the 2nd owner, and it only had 60K miles on it. Maintenance receipts from the original owner still in the glove box when I bought it. Lost the damn car the next spring when I got divorced. She got the Monte Carlo AND the Caprice, I got ZILCH. Hated to lose it, had a new engine in it and then she sold it for $400 cause she hated the car and said she just wanted to get back at me
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1983 Olds Cutlass Supreme (Hail dents galore..........but it got me around. Tinted the windows REAL dark so no one could tell it was me driving the POS.)
1980 Z/28......305/TH350, T-tops. Was driving this when I met my wife. She loved it, I loved the T-tops. Stayed sunburned year round when I owned it.
1981 Z/28......canary yellow, never got to drive it. Brought it home, guy across the street offered me twice what I had just paid for it. Wish I had kept it, was the only 2nd generation F-body I owned that didn't have worn out door hinges.
1970 Chevy 1/2 ton LWB.....350/3 speed on the floor.
1969 Chevy 1/2 ton LWB.......396/TH400 from the factory, but no A/C. Put a TH700-R4 in it and drove it til the engine was worn out. Sold her to a guy in Amarillo in 1997.
1984 Z/28.....bought from a guy in Henrietta, TX for $1000 in 1996. First gear was out (5-speed) and he had run it under the back of a flatbed truck, so the hood had two long gouges on it. Had the transmission rebuilt, put in a 355 and headers, proceeded to tear up the rearend and 3.73 gears. Got a salvage yard rearend with 2.73's, hated it after that. Sold to my brother in law in 1998.
1979 Pontiac Trans Am SE........one I should have kept. Came from the factory with the Pontiac 400, 4 speed transmission, 4 wheel discs, all power, T-tops, tan interior, midnight blue color (I forget what Pontiac called it) Supposedly a rare car, but the T-top seals had gone bad and the floor was rusted through. Traded it for......
1986 Monte Carlo SS. Still got this one. Presently has a 12-bolt rear with 4.10's, engine is under construction. It will probably never see street duty again. This is what I call my "stupid" car. Gonna get really stupid with it, kinda wild on the engine I am building for it.
1973 Chevy 1/2 ton LWB.......Put a small block 400 with Sportsman heads in it backed by a TH700-R4. Ugly, ugly, UGLY, but got 20mpg hwy after I put the overdrive in.
1990 Chevy 1/2 ton SWB.....350 TBI and 5 speed........got it from the local bank as a repo. Wish I had never sold it. Paid $2600 in 1998, sold it for $4600 to a guy in Missouri in 1999. Sweet, sweet truck.
1982 Buick Century.......4 doors, V6......YAWN..........but....
..traded it straight across for........
1990 Ford Taurus SHO. Rod knocking, then the engine locked down. Put a salvage yard engine in her and drove it forever, til I had to get rid of it when the oilfield died off a couple years ago.
1981 El Camino.....bought for $150, took it home and put in a battery and set of plugs, then drove it all over Texas while I was roughnecking. Sold this past February for $500 with no engine or transmission.
1997 Saturn , bought new in 1997. Hated it, will not buy or drive another Saturn if I have anything to say about it.
1996 Chevrolet Lumina LTZ One of the finest cars I ever owned. Lost it at the same time I lost the SHO Taurus.
1990 Olds 88.....bought for a song, it got us through just fine. Wife just had to have a van, so she traded it off last week....
1988 Chevrolet 1/2 ton LWB 4x4......still driving it. Has a 1996 Vortec 350 longblock in it right now, soon to be sold without the engine. New TH700 in it, so if anyone wants a good 4-wheel drive truck project........
1980 Chevy SWB 1/2 ton.......bought it for my 13 year old son, so we could have a father-son project. He lost interest, so until he decides he wants to help old Dad work on it, it is mine. 355 with Vortec heads and a TH400 and 3.40 rearend. Just a fun truck to drive around.
1983 Chevrolet Impala.....just bought it a couple months back for CHEAP. Gonna put the engine outta the 4x4 in it and use it for the 300 mile drives I've been having to do lately. The old Caprice I had way back for 22mpg on the highway with a 175K mile engine it, so this low mile 350 should get similiar. With gas prices like they are, and the 4x4 only getting 14mpg, this will be my main ride to and from work.
Lastly.........my wife's new toy, a 1998 Ford Windstar Northwoods conversion. She likes it, so does anything else matter?
That enough vehicles to qualify me as a gearhead?
Jeez......forgot about the 1979 Olds 98 with 403/TH400 I got from my dad.......and the 1987 Pontiac Bonneville. Should have kept the Bonnie........ended up trading it for that POS new Saturn in 1997......
Thirty three vehicles since 1981.....do I get a prize for most vehicles?
