First off, may I say you folks have a WONDERFUL little joint here! Been spending the past 8 hours or so just searching the archives on info and history! Everything from chrome stripping to hand painting chassis......I can tell ya my girlfriend is about to kill me for spending so much time on the computer! But enough of the rambling...I have a question for those more experienced: I have a 1962 Pontiac Tempest that I'm rebuilding to what I envision as my Kustom dream! So far everything has been going swimmingly: Rebuilt the original carb, found original ignition parts, rewired the fucker finally, evicted the rats, spiders and two rattlesnakes from the interior (video for those so interested in biology), and other such activities. BUT, I've run into a snag now that my motor (a tired old 195cid 4-cylinder) is blowing the death-kneel smoke....my landlord. It seems that when I tore apart the wheel cylinders to rebuild the hydraulics on the car, my apartment complex management had a fit, hauling off my car right behind my back when I went to get fittings!!! Finally got it back, and got a VERY nasty note highlighting the part in my lease where it seems that NO auto work is allowed under ANY circumstances, and with the engine going, me just pulling it out and ploping it in my apartment's kitchen is out of the question else I face eviction. Renting shop space is way out of my budget (broke student), and I'm still lacking tools that would even come CLOSE to doing a full-on engine build up proper such as an engine lift, milling equipment for parts (wich I so would like to have considering Vespas are just as rare for some shit), or even a decent compressor! The question I have: Since I can't do the work here, and I'm moving from restoring Vespa scooters to a full on car with a VERY rare engine that I know NOTHING about when it comes to the tricks and techniques, I'm considering having one of the local shops in Phoenix do it. This is the first time I've had to break down and pay someone to do my mechanical work...so how much would a basic rebuild (seals, rings, blah, blah,) actually RUN me, and if anyone is local do you guys know of a shop willing to even touch a rare bird such as my mill? Rather long winded I know, but thanks for the bandwith and the info that will (hopefully) follow, and thanks for placating the newbie! Here's to keeping the shiny side up (if you have any shiny left on it) Jarrod aka Fullmetal aka me
Very cool little car. I had a 62 Tempest convt. about 25 years ago. The engine is actually a 389 V-8 cut in half. Rebuild parts should be available thru N.A.P.A. But you would probably have to buy a gasket set for a V-8, and only use what you need. Micky Thompson ran one of those engines in a dragster back in the 60's and made huge power. P.M.me your address, I'll send you some articles on it. John
Jarrod, Go talk to Bob Bailey at: Bailey's Machine and Engine Parts 727 N. Country Club Dr. Mesa, AZ 85201 480-962-2758 Go North on Country Club from University and Bob's shop is on the right (East side) just before you get to the traffic signal at 8th St. Its in a brown slump block building. I'll have Bob rebuild my flathead V-8 when I get to that part of the RPU project. Bob has been in the engine rebuild business for about 30 years and knows what he is doing. The first time I was in his shop he had two flatheads in the shop. He has rebuilt just about everything from early Hemi's, to Gen III Corvette engines and everything in between. Oh yeah. And your landlord's reasons for no car maintenance in the parking lot are twofold. One, his insurance probably doesn't allow it (potential fire hazard damage) and two, the City of Mesa is a real stickler about "derelic" (sp?) cars being a fire and crime hazard. He can be fined by the City for your car up on blocks for any length of time. It supposedly degrades the "quality of life" and lowers his neighbors property values.
Heck, you can get some of those parts anywhere, rings, pistons, rod bearings all the same as a 389. Head is the same as a 389, one old cheapo performance trick was to put the 194 heads on a 389 and get a little more compression that way. Your best bet might be to find another motor, rent a storage unit for 30 days if need be (in other words if you can't find a place that's *free*), and change it in there. If you get one that needs a rebuild, build it and swap them. Should be able to do it in a day or so - Of course, a core may be another story, I can get one here for $75 or so if I look a little, but I know the old-car yards out in AZ seem to think the stuff is made of gold. You should be able to install a 326 or even a late 70's 301 engine in there, the mounts would be the same. 301's are garbage but you might find a low milage one fairly cheap and it would get you by for a while. I wouldn't go much bigger than that because you don't want to put too much power into the rope-shaft drive (which is the real unique part to these cars). But the 1963 cars did come with a 326 as the V8 option. One more thing for you - the transaxle in the back is basically a Corvair unit turned 180', so if you can't find parts for that as Pontiac, try under Corvair -
Rusty, are you sure about some of this stuff? I was researching the early A-bodies quite a bit at one time and a couple of your statements set off alarms with me. First, installing a 326 or 301 - I thought the slant-four had a different bellhousing pattern than the V8s. Maybe that changed in '63 when they started installing 326s, though. Second, I know the Corvair and Tempest transaxle designs are related, but I don't think it's so simple as it being the Corvair unit flipped around. For example, I know you can't use Corvair parts to convert a Tempest with an auto to a 3- or 4-speed manual. There's a seriously thorough post on the A-bodies on here in the archives. Maybe you've already read it Fullmetal, but if not, I'd find it. The '61 and '62 Tempest, Special and F-85 are some of my favorite cars. I hope some of the Arizona HAMBsters can help you out with the work/storage space thing. -Dave
Drop out of school and move out to of the city limits. You'll quickly find that with old cars, you won't have time for anything else anyhow. Damn, I remember living in apartments. It was a nightmare. One I do not ever care to repeat. To think that some folks live in apartments their entire life. YUCK. I live outside of the city limits on an acre of land. Right now I have 7 junkers parked outside and stacks of tin and car parts in various corners of my property....hell, I gotta clean it up sometimes just so I CAN STAND IT. hahaha. Good luck on the car and WELCOME to the HAMB.
Awesome! Thanks for the warm welcome guys. AZAV8, that place is practically right around the corner from mine over here in Mesa, so once I've had my requisite caffine allotment I'm headding right over there to see what he can hook me up with. But you are right: Mesa IS a pain in the ass...and to think the city RIGHT next door has metro-wide WiFi internet... Look forward to seeing the other Arizona HAMB'ers around! Jarrod aka Fullmetal aka Me
I want to punk every time I drive by the apartment complex that I used to live in and that was close to 20 years ago. I'll drink to that!! Those are the best standards that I can come up with---mine.
Make freinds with outher Hamber that have some space, barter help in exchange for some workspace, keep a car cover on your old car. If you can deal with it in AZ imagine Los Angeles. I'm moving into a new place this weekend with a small private garage but I am gonna feel out the situation with the neighbors before I start tearing it up.
Another testimonial, I had Bailey's rebuild the 340 in my '73 Challenger when I lived in Tempe. I had a hook-up for getting the parts cheap, and he let me bring in boxes of parts for the build without bitching about using my parts, or complaining about not being able to sell me parts at inflated mark-up (like some other places I have had work done at). Good people.
Went by Baliey's today. Nice folks and rather busy at that, wich is good! He quoted me $1500 for the rebuild (rough estimate, but from the info I gave him and what he saw he said shouldn't be too difficult..just need to hunt for parts). The bad part: He wants the motor out of the car, obviously. Normally this makes sense, but here I run into the same problem: I can't pull the engine where I'm at. Tried convincing the girlfriend, but after the fiasco of me trying to strip all the rust out of my car in her driveway, she's no longer letting me tear up her place and piss off her HOA (they actually got FINED! I felt so bad...). Some of these storage rental places looked promising...but they forbid any kind of motor work (With threats to take all your shit in the unit if they find you messing w/a rebuild). But, I'm still hunting and plotting. Thanks for the advice all!
Good point. The '63-'64 326 should drop in but where you going to find one.... The aluminum 215 should also go in - my dumb question to consider is would that let a Buick 3.8 V6 drop in? Probably same deal, would have to be the 60's version at best. The 301 would need an adapter, seems to me the pattern on the back of the 389 is the same as the 194. They make an adapter to run late trans with early block, but going late to early is a problem. There may be interference where the starter mounts, and I've yet to mess with the various bells and blocks I have floating around to see just what the differences are. I was just thinking what might be cheap and easy to get ahold of and forgot all about the bell pattern change. I did a college paper on the rope drive, just to be different - the transaxle shares some parts between Pontiac and Corvair but it's been too long for me to remember exactly what is different. It could even be the article I took that from was in error. $1500 is cheap for a rebuild - you just need a place to do a motor R&R, it's not like it's internal motor work. This shouldn't be a bad motor to pull, I wouldn't think, I pulled a '59 389 pretty much by myself years ago.
We need sort of an inverted HAMB-thrash for this guy, give him a place to work instead of (or in additon to) help. If he were anywhere in Michigan, I'd volunteer our barn, but Arizona-to-Whitehall in a smoking Tempest would be a long drive.
I bought my uncles old house. We have been building race cars in the garage here for 10+ years. no need to warm up to the neighbors they are used to the noise If you were in WI I could do more for yah but good luck anyways
Have you thought to check and see if they're are in car clubs in your area? The guys in my club are always happy to help each other out, trade labor, swap parts, etc. If you could find some like-minded individuals they'd probably be happy to help you out. Just a thought.
Thinking about that....if I could find a decent new/rebuilt engine to just drop into the Tempest that would be fine! I've been working on trying to get into a place w/a garage...but that seems harder than ever with the land rated in Phoenix righ now! I have a lead on a guy here in Arizona who has quite a few Tempest A-body parts, so I'm going to see if he's got a decent V8 or even a 195 I can have rebuilt elsewhere while the car remains mobile with the dying motor. This way I have a functioning car they can't bust me on and when I get the new motor, bribe my g/f with ...I dunno...somthing....to use her driveway for a day to pop the new mill in. Just a theory at this point...
ya know if you pull the motor, take it to the rebuilder then put the car in the storage garage. your not doing any work there itsjust a motorless car sitting. while the motors being worked on find a freind with a truck to help you bring your stuff somewere you can work on it for a day or two and drop the motor back in. a car sitting in a garage with no motor while the work is being done somewere else shouldnt be a problem i wouldnt think?
get 3 buddy's take it to a old warehouse area strip it and put in storage till its done or ask the shop if you can pull it there at their shop in back and give em 25 or 50 to let the car sit for awhile
Did they even have a right to remove your vehicle? I would think notice would have to be given prior to removal actually happening. This act may get you out of having to pay any early lease break fees. Cause if they towed my car (in any condition) without giving me the chance to right any wrongs first, cops would be involved and not in a good way on my part. Doors would be kicked off hinges, it'd be ugly....ok maybe not that ugly but the cops would be involved. I would refuse to live there and I would refuse to pay any fees for ending my lease early.
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