by Chris402 » Mon Nov 14, 2016 1:37 pm
1977 Mirage Project
I had a mirage back in the 80’s that I beat the crap out of and eventually I sent it off to the wrecking yard. I saved the mirage package and have always wanted to get another. Last fall I found one that was completely disassembled by the previous owner who planned on drag racing it. Already had subframe connectors and roll cage installed, seams stitch welded, s-10 Rear end and front conversion completed.
The interior was mostly complete. The ac had been removed and sold and the engine compartment stripped so a lot of missing parts. The body was in primer and all jams painted white. It came with original auto trans, radiator, motor mounts a disassembled 355 2 bolt long block, hooker headers and motor mounts and complete mirage package. So I bought it and had it hauled from Florida to Texas and have spent the last year chasing down all the missing parts. I found a local wrecking yard that had a mirage and was able to get most of the ac and under hood parts I needed. Then I found a 75 v8 coupe locally and stripped the remaining parts I needed. I also have spent the last year on e-bay picking up additional parts.
My original plan was to convert the mirage back to a street car with some upgrades. The previous owner had put a mini spool in the rear end which I would need to change for the street and I started thinking about the possibility of using a c-4 corvette IRS instead. The problem with that would be having to narrow the vette rear which would involve a lot of money and work. The more I researched it the more I wanted to try it. So the only solution I could come up with to avoid trying to narrow the rear was to go with the imsa package which should give me the track width I need. I have always like the look of the Imsa Monza’s so I ordered the Imsa package from vfn fiberglass and found a complete Vette dana 44. I have been off work for the last year fighting workers comp to get multiple back surgeries form a vehicle wreck so the major work will not happen until I have the surgeries and get healed up, but in the meantime I have kept busy cleaning, bead blasting, and painting all the small parts. I try to do a little every day sometimes only 15 minutes other days a couple hours.