The Caveman project!

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The Caveman project!

Postby Caveman » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:38 pm

My friend and I are building a 1973 Vega GT. My friend has had this car for a long time. I am not sure but, I would say he has had it for about 26 years or more. He is an H-Body member and, loves the H body line of cars.

We started building a 350 V 8 for a truck and, after building the engine we thought it would be a better power plant for his Vega. So, after some planning we started working. I really don't think we did any planning we just got the bug.

The Car. This Vega was a stock Vega GT for some years prior to my friends purchase of the Vega. He has done some stuff to the car. Such as, he hade the stock engine rebuilt with steel sleeves a bigger cam, side draft Webber carburetor, headers, suspension kit and some good tires for the day. It was a lot of fun in its day.

After some years of running the car around in the hills of the south bay area, it got a little tired. The rear end was having problems and the engine smoked a little from time to time. So it sat for several years.

Now the V 8 engine is done and, we tested it on an engine stand. Then, we started building the car. We have worked on this project for a year now and, we thought it would be fun to post are project on this site.

I will start posting the steps of the project and I hope to catch up to the current stage of the build. I was going to post a picture to start with then, I realized, I don't have any pictures of the car at the start of the build or of the engine in my computer. As soon as my friend sends me some pictures of those items I will post them.

Thanks for looking!

P. S. I don't know how to add pictures yet so, I was able to add some picks to my garage I think. Please look in my garage.
Help me to understand how to add pics.

Thanks
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Last edited by Caveman on Tue Sep 04, 2007 4:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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1973 Chevrolet Vega GT


Postby monzamess » Thu Apr 19, 2007 7:57 am

Looks like an interesting project! I see you've uploaded pictures so I guess you figured it out OK?
Dennis
1980 Monza Coupe--collector of cob webs and kids' toys
2006 Honda Odyssey--daily driver
2011 Toyota Sienna--wife's
1995 Dodge Ram--for creating oil spots on the street
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Postby flracer » Thu Apr 19, 2007 5:43 pm

I like the test stand.Does it bolt to your hoist?
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Postby Caveman » Thu Apr 19, 2007 8:18 pm

flracer wrote; "I like the test stand.Does it bolt to your hoist?"

Yes it does.
We wanted to test the engine before we put it in the car. We have had some problems in the past, having to pull the engine from the car or trucks after startup. This will hopefully put an end to that.

I will post more pictures of it if I can figure it out. I don't understand why my pictures only show up if I am logged into the site. In other words people not logged in can't see my pictures.

Caveman
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1973 Chevrolet Vega GT

Postby ColinOpseth » Fri Apr 20, 2007 12:30 am

nice project..

Yes, we have turned off image viewing for Guests.. sorry, but it's to save bandwidth

take care and welcome to the site :)
Colin
'72 Vega with '93 Camaro LT1/M29 T56/12 bolt 3.31. 16" IROCs all around. Sanderson headers into duals with an H-pipe and Flowmasters. It's loud but at least it's faster than your grandma's Buick. pwned.
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Postby Caveman » Fri Apr 20, 2007 1:37 am

Okay

Thanks for the info. I thought I was doing something wrong.

This is the car back in the old days

Caveman
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1973 Chevrolet Vega GT

Postby greg72 » Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:08 am

That is (was?) a nice looking original Vega.

When is that picture from, early 80's? If it looks half that good now it is still a nice car!

Your test stand is pretty cool too!
Greg
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Postby Caveman » Sat Apr 21, 2007 10:49 am

Hi greg72
You are correct it a picture from the 80's. thanks for the comments on the Test stand. This is a picture from the start of the current rebuild.
The car had some questionable body work in the rear end. It had a couple of rear end accidents. We want to change the color of the car too.
John
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Postby Caveman » Sun Apr 22, 2007 2:18 pm

This is the start of the teardown.

The plan for this car is to have something we can run at the track once or twice. We will be driving it on the street so, we don't want a crazy motor in it.

The V 8 is something like 300 hp to 350 hp. It will get a four speed automatic transmission and a nine inch rear end.

Safety is first on our list and strength is second. With all this in mind we put in an eight point roll bar, we plan to put in A 4 seats with five point belts and disk breaks on all four wheels.

We have most of the stuff now minus the rear end and transmission and some other nickel and dime stuff. Its just a matter of time to do all of the work. We only work on it on Saturdays so, it wont be a fast build.

I will post some engine pictures too.
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Postby Caveman » Sun Apr 22, 2007 6:45 pm

The roll cage.
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Postby Caveman » Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:19 pm

Just thought I would add the A-arm pictures.
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Postby Caveman » Sat Apr 28, 2007 8:41 pm

New dash what Is different?
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Postby jon72vega » Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:03 am

Caveman wrote:New dash what Is different?


What is the dash from, or is it custom made?
Tell us more.
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Postby rpoz-29 » Sun Apr 29, 2007 9:04 am

Is that dash from an early '60 Chevy, or GMC truck? What ever it's from, it looks good.
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Postby Caveman » Sun Apr 29, 2007 1:03 pm

This Is totally custom made and, it has taken my friend and I some time to get to this stage. I am surprised that our wife's have not divorced us with all the time we spent on it. We try to keep it to one day a week.

It is modeled after a car from the 60's. Lets see if someone can guess what car we used.

Thanks for looking.

John
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