Car Restoration - what will you rebuild "some day"?

[RTHolmes]

I reckon most car nuts have a shortlist of cars they'd like to resto "some day" when theres time, space, money etc. and I know theres a few here who've done some very nice work on their cars already.

so this is my fantasy, when-I-get-round-to-it resto: an early 70s Toyota Celica.



hey, dont laugh!

mini-mustang style body, double headlights kinda remind me of the early Aston DBS, overall a pretty car. and the 2l engine sounds rather good for a four-pot

a guy in my street had one when I was a kid, and when I saw Hannu Mikkola oversteer his way to 2nd place on the RAC rally in the late 70s (one of the stages was near where I lived) I was sold:



almost all the parts are still available and reasonably easy and cheap to rebuild as a Group 4 rally car ... apart from the 16v head (they only made about 50 race engines.) the difference is ~120hp @6000 for the road engine, 250-300 @9000-9800 for the race engine ... but what a sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v13gpH7zy2U

they look particularly good with the tarmac setup:




so whats your (realistic) fantasy retro?

[Dragon]

'76 Vega just because I miss mine.

[RTHolmes]

can you post a pic? no idea what a vega is 

[bigsky]

a GM POS

[icepac]

I've got 2 nissan Leopard F31/infinti M30 and might paint one in skyline red R31 colors to confuse the sideways baseball cap wearin' street squirrels and going with the JDM nissan leopard appearance for the other.

One has an inline six turbo at this time but it may get a turbodiesel while the other one will either be a turbocharged DOHC infiniti V8.



OR




3 days left!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1974-Chevrolet-Vega-SCCA-NASA-IMSA-Race-Car-Cosworth-Powered-/281026704816?pt=Race_Cars_Not_Street_Legal_&hash=item416e7f35b0#v4-40

[rpm]

Someday...

[morfiend]

 RT

  I rode navi in a celica much like the 1 in your pic...


   But given a choice I'd go with a datsun 510,it has IRS and the celica doesnt.

   However I'd reallt like to have my old capri,73 with the 2.6 V6, had nice lines for it's day.



   

[Plawranc]

Oh baby.... baby baby baby

 

[homersipes]

my father has a 67 fastback that was given to me, but I cant afford to go pick it up let alone restore it as the floorpans are rotted and the whole car is dismantled sitting in his garage collecting dust

[nrshida]

Don't do it. Car restoration will send you mental and make you into an OCD wingnut sitting on the floor in the middle of a huge pile of parts wondering how you ever got into this mess! 

[The Fugitive]

There was this guy that had an old willies couple in his yard. One summer I stopped by everytime I was in the area to see if the guy wanted to sell it. Nope he said, I'm going to rebuild it one of these days. He got tired of seeing me so I stopped going over there. The following summer he sold it to a guy the next town over and he rebuilt it in less than a year and put it on the road. I'm heart broken every time I see it drive by 



that or an old Merc, there is just something about all those curves.

[CAP1]

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(Image removed from quote.)

Oh baby.... baby baby baby

 

 one of these with a coyote under the hood. 

[Masherbrum]

Within the next couple of years it will be an early 70's Ford F100.   I'll fix it up and give to my son when he graduates HS in about seven years.   

[RTHolmes]

RT

  I rode navi in a celica much like the 1 in your pic...


   But given a choice I'd go with a datsun 510,it has IRS and the celica doesnt.

   However I'd reallt like to have my old capri,73 with the 2.6 V6, had nice lines for it's day.

awesome, was it competitive/fun to drive? Ive heard the steering is pretty awful not being rack & pinion.

I looked at the datsun bluebird because it struck me as being like a budget 131 Abarth with its IRS, but they didnt officially import any coupes here, and theres only about 5 left here of any type! If I was in Aus/NZ/US I'd be all over a bluebird.

IRS would be great but I'm not aware of any Grp 1/2 cars homologated with it apart from the datsun, and Grp 4 is just waaaay too expensive to build for (eg. theres a freshly rebuilt 2l 16v abarth engine for sale near me for ... £40,000  ) The escorts seemed to do ok with a live axle, but they are silly money these days.


love the Capri, my dad had one of the first in the UK   they were decent race cars too.

that or an old Merc, there is just something about all those curves.

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agreed, the Mercury is a fantastic design. is that Sly Stallones? he built a chopped one iirc.

[Skuzzy]

57 Thunderbird



or a 62 Corvette