Elvis T
08-11-2014, 03:48 PM
I had been searching for a good car to build a pro-touring style car with and after finding several cheap rust buckets and expensive rolling chassis, I came across one that seemed like a good candidate. It was a 1974 Camaro. I was told that it needed a new timing chain, barely ran and that it had no rust. I pulled got the cash, rented a trailer and drove 3 hours. When I saw it, the first thing I noticed was that the wheel arch was rusted through. It had been fixed with bondo, then had been driven around with too large of tire and now there was rust and bondo showing.
It turns out there wasn't very much rust otherwise, so that wasn't too much of an issue. The listing did say it had two 12" subs and an amp, but that was removed. I'm not a huge stereo guy, but I do know the value of a good stereo system. None of the gauges seemed to work, but I hadn't found out the worst part yet.
I was told it was running, but needed a timing chain. Well, after getting there I was told that it no longer ran at all. For the price it was being sold for, it could have come with no engine and transmission and I still would have bought it. Because it wouldn't turn start, he lowered the price down to $1,600. It had a 350 in it, and in his attempt to get it running, he replaced, the radiator, fuel pump, alternator, distributor, carburetor (it's a Holley, but I'm not sure the size), and water pump. The body was pretty straight, and it had minimal rust. I figured, even if I had to put in a new engine and trans, I was still getting a good deal, especially with all the new parts he put on it. So I paid him the money, loaded it up and drove three hours back home.
The next day I unloaded it and tried starting it. It sounded the same as before. I tried spraying a little starting fluid (I wasn't sure how much to use, so I used a small amount) to see if I could even hear it fire at all....nothing. He did say that it wasn't getting fuel, so I figured that would be the first problem I would tackle. Well, I had hauled my girlfriends 1967 Mercedes 200d from storage, so that we could both work on our cars together. I mentioned the gas problem to her and she said to me "Why don't you go get some new gas? Who knows how long it was sitting there?" She's pretty smart, she has dual masters degrees, I figured that some good gas wouldn't hurt, the gauges didn't work and I had no idea how much gas was in it. So I got 5 gallons of gas, put it in and it started right up. All it took to get it to go from a non-running car to running was gas.
I had to complement my girlfriend on solving the problem before I had a chance to really even look at it. Sometimes I get too focused on the details of something and end up missing the bigger picture. For example, I design circuit boards for home automation systems. When troubleshooting the issues, quite often people will go really far down the troubleshooting road trying to make sure the software drivers are good, the linux kernel is the correct version, the right correct design file is loaded....and after spending hours or days figuring something out, it's just a bad connection somewhere.
Now I figured the timing chain needed to be replaced. I figured I would look up how to troubleshoot timing issues. At that point, I knew very little about working on carbureted engines, let alone a Chevy small block. I read a few things, watched a few videos and it came to me. The car runs, not very well, like it dies if you give it too much gas, but it runs. So I thought, maybe the timing just needs to be adjusted. It turns out the distributor wasn't tightened down very well and I could easily turn it by hand. I started it up, turned it one direction and then the other and the car went from running like crap to idling nice and smooth.
The result of this weekend was purchasing a non-running 74 Camaro for dirt cheap, adding gas, adjusting the timing and now I have a decent running Camaro. Now...there isn't room for luck, it's putting work into the car that will get it into the condition that I want.
Here are some pictures of it:
This is the place that I picked it up from
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
Back at home with Gerty. That's the name my girlfriend gave the 67 Mercedes.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
Even though there is only one body in it right now, you can fit several bodies in the trunk of the 67.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
It turns out there wasn't very much rust otherwise, so that wasn't too much of an issue. The listing did say it had two 12" subs and an amp, but that was removed. I'm not a huge stereo guy, but I do know the value of a good stereo system. None of the gauges seemed to work, but I hadn't found out the worst part yet.
I was told it was running, but needed a timing chain. Well, after getting there I was told that it no longer ran at all. For the price it was being sold for, it could have come with no engine and transmission and I still would have bought it. Because it wouldn't turn start, he lowered the price down to $1,600. It had a 350 in it, and in his attempt to get it running, he replaced, the radiator, fuel pump, alternator, distributor, carburetor (it's a Holley, but I'm not sure the size), and water pump. The body was pretty straight, and it had minimal rust. I figured, even if I had to put in a new engine and trans, I was still getting a good deal, especially with all the new parts he put on it. So I paid him the money, loaded it up and drove three hours back home.
The next day I unloaded it and tried starting it. It sounded the same as before. I tried spraying a little starting fluid (I wasn't sure how much to use, so I used a small amount) to see if I could even hear it fire at all....nothing. He did say that it wasn't getting fuel, so I figured that would be the first problem I would tackle. Well, I had hauled my girlfriends 1967 Mercedes 200d from storage, so that we could both work on our cars together. I mentioned the gas problem to her and she said to me "Why don't you go get some new gas? Who knows how long it was sitting there?" She's pretty smart, she has dual masters degrees, I figured that some good gas wouldn't hurt, the gauges didn't work and I had no idea how much gas was in it. So I got 5 gallons of gas, put it in and it started right up. All it took to get it to go from a non-running car to running was gas.
I had to complement my girlfriend on solving the problem before I had a chance to really even look at it. Sometimes I get too focused on the details of something and end up missing the bigger picture. For example, I design circuit boards for home automation systems. When troubleshooting the issues, quite often people will go really far down the troubleshooting road trying to make sure the software drivers are good, the linux kernel is the correct version, the right correct design file is loaded....and after spending hours or days figuring something out, it's just a bad connection somewhere.
Now I figured the timing chain needed to be replaced. I figured I would look up how to troubleshoot timing issues. At that point, I knew very little about working on carbureted engines, let alone a Chevy small block. I read a few things, watched a few videos and it came to me. The car runs, not very well, like it dies if you give it too much gas, but it runs. So I thought, maybe the timing just needs to be adjusted. It turns out the distributor wasn't tightened down very well and I could easily turn it by hand. I started it up, turned it one direction and then the other and the car went from running like crap to idling nice and smooth.
The result of this weekend was purchasing a non-running 74 Camaro for dirt cheap, adding gas, adjusting the timing and now I have a decent running Camaro. Now...there isn't room for luck, it's putting work into the car that will get it into the condition that I want.
Here are some pictures of it:
This is the place that I picked it up from
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
Back at home with Gerty. That's the name my girlfriend gave the 67 Mercedes.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
Even though there is only one body in it right now, you can fit several bodies in the trunk of the 67.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif