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The story of the 85 Chevy Landau |
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I bought this car at an impound auction.It was the first car the auctioneer came to with any derby potential after Julie got back to me with our bid card.I bid first then the junkman bid up on me and I bid one more time.he looked like he wanted to bid again but I guess he didn't because he already had almost half the cars at the auction.It was one of only 3 cars in the whole auction to come with keys,so I cranked her over and the starter just whirred away.I figured I would need a starter and that would get it running.That Monday we showed up to pick up my new cars and the officer that let us in after them told me that the owner of the car had gone to prison for something and that they got his keys out of his personal effects.I just hope he doesn't come after me when he gets out lookin for his car!!Well after we got them home I did the Mercury first. Got her stripped and pulled off to the side to wait her big day and then we went under the hood of the Chevy.A very strange thing turned up.The starter was spinning so freely because all 8 spark plugs were missing.we plugged in 8 new ones we had lyin around and she fired right up.there wasn't hardly any rust on her anywhere.Just a little bit on the bottom of the driver's door where the aluminum trim was.I am willing to bet Salt got in behind it there.We pulled it into the garage and put the hood up on the roof and then I went to work.This time I stripped out the front cowl first.Then I worked my way back til the tail light section came out.From there it was on to the inside work. Pretty un-exceptional except for the 17 plus dollars I found in change!I've never found that much stripping a car before,nice little bonus.seats out first ,then everything else. I then put the seat back in and plugged it in(power seats) and the darn thing wouldn't work!!no idea why so I left it for the day(after an 8 hour stint on it).While I was gone my brother in law decided to move it so he could get his car in the garage for something.when he backed down the hill and hit the brakes he learned that I hadn't bolted the seat back yet!Damn I wish I had a camera on,that grand prize from Americas funniest videos would have kept me in derby cars for a very long time!So the next day I showed up to work on the car and it's at the bottom of the hill. After laughing for about 15 minutes when I heard the story I put one nut back on and pulled the car back in to finish her off.I started to work on the seat.I plugged the seat in again and hit the switch and this time it worked.Maybe flipping backwards fixed it?.To finish the car I took the shopvac to it and bolted the seat back down(all the way).Last to be done was the heater core came out and we moved the battery and wires in through the hole.Now she sits with her windows in nearly ready for the big ride.I left the windows in because there isn't much point to leaving it exposed to the rain if I don't have to.She will also be running 8/1 this year.She has just a little rust in the floor pan in the driver side.Not much but enough to mention I guess.I will post the after story probably the first week in August, so check back |
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UPDATE |
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Well the car was set up with time to spare and ran awesome.we got to the Chemung county fair and were almost first in the inspect area.after all the trouble we were asked to leave after they asked me for my drivers license.which I did not have at the time.apparently they feel you need a license to drive an unregistered,unlicensed,uninsured non street legal vehicle in a patch of mud.I sold the 305 out of the car for a quick $100.now she sits waiting for her next big chance. |
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Almost there |
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The cars in the inspection area at the CC Fair #150 |
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