[sarcastic/cynical mode on] Thanks in advance for destroying those Cadillac bumpers and grill that can't even be found in the Midwest, much less in usable condition. I get to work at the open demo derby this Saturday at a county fair[as a paramedic]. I can hardly wait to see all the GM clamshell wagons and 60s cars with their straight grills still in......
I don't get it myself but I don't have to. I'm glad you're having fun with your cars. Like Chaz said, "go get em!" I've never done a derby myself, (Hmmm how long till September?) but from what I've seen bigger ain't always better. The best I've ever seen was a, get ready to laugh, 63 Falcon. That little 6 cylinder wouldn't stop running and the guy could work the clutch and shift faster than any of the other guys could jerk it back into drive. Also, no transmission lines to brake and leave him dead in the water. Nobody could hit the guy but he could get it moving fast enough to roll up the front end of anything that happened to be behind him. Fun to watch!!!
I used to love demo derbies when I was a little kid. Now I cringe at the thought of almost ANY American rear-drive car being destroyed. They had a segment about it on The Boneyard on The History Channel, and I couldn't even watch it. But if they did it with front-runners, ESPECIALLY foreign ones, I'd be all over it!
Aha! Derby driving has changed a lot since I was last paying attention. I started out watching ABC's Wide World of Sports from the West Islip, Long Island Speedway. Almost no modifications were allowed. Post up some after pics when you are done.
Speaking from first hand knowledge, the caddy will fold up like a wet pretzel. Exhaust tubing for the upright on the cage? The other won't be much better. The grille on the caddy is NOT that good,but I would take it out anyway- to save it from getting poked into the radiator.
The cage is real tubing... covered in a whole can of Krylon chrome paint because my brother is a freak. The 4" tubing running side-to-side is some heavy-wall stuff cut from some big industrial apparatus or another... I wasn't there for the fab work.
damn straight i run 70-72 impalas steerings a little weak but when were done there quick hard ass and can run full out 10 min with out water in them! we were on tnt couple years back blew tranny in final but kick some ass
Check this site out, NOT CRASH DERBY but circle track, some of my friends race vintage style circle track cars, they strip pretty much everything useable and the cars they start out with are pretty much useless junk. I don't know if I could bring myself to build one. anything can be fixed, right! It's a lot of fun to watch though! http://www.okiebowlhardtops.com/
NOW THATS SOME FUNNY SHIT !!! A GUY FROM VERMONT CALLING GUYS THAT LIVE ON THE WEST COAST BEACH ... "REDNECKS" LOLOLOL...... O.K. .... FRAZIER CRANE
when is the derby coming-- at the ventura county fair coming up this weekend? like the car and would love to come out and cheer for its victory. im a demo derby fan. -scott noteboom
that aint shit the guys at jauns down the street did the exhaust on my buick in a tank top shorts and sandles with no welding hood i saw the caddy on the way to pepboys looks badass i saw the motor on a stand a few days earlier with the pipes and wondered what the fuck was going on
Those '62 Chrysler taillights are good for about $100 each in decent driver shape. You could sell the entire tip of the front fender off it with the headlights, too. A guy I know sold a nice park light lens off a '61-2 for around $75 all by itself. None of those lenses ever got repro'ed, so guys who need them pay out the ass for them. A grille with a good shell is a pain in the ass to find, too. The speedo cluster is worth $150 a shot. The powerpack for it if good, at least $100. Rear plate surround is probably good for $75 or $100, I know the one for the '60 is a bitch to find intact. Steering wheel cores they pay stupid money for. The windshield's worth saving. Hell, even a 4-door like that you aught to be able to do $1000 in parts out of, easily, and still have most of the car left. It may not be as much fun as a demo, but it's a damn sight less risky. Caddy grille aught to be worth at least $100. I don't know much on the Caddy stuff, but taillights, good trim, etc etc. I'm sure you could do close to the same money with parts out of that, too. Then again one just like that got crushed here local not so long ago, front cap was off, but it was just as solid from what I could see. Christ, the whole car would sell for good money on this coast, especially the Caddy. I wouldn't give a shit if it had four doors, I've driven those before and they're just as fun as a 2-door. It just never ceases to amaze me when people trip over the money falling out of their wallet to risk their neck for someone else's money instead. Now I do have a '58 Imperial that would make a good demo car - the frame is good and the floors are solid - and best of all it already has the appearance of having been in a demo. Add a few pieces from the '60 we have up there, and your choice of drivetrain and you'd have a car. Whoever pulled the Hemi torched away part of the steering and torsion bars, and it needs the right rocker panel replaced. And since it has the toilet seat deck, I'd put the '60 lid on it. But virtually everything else of value is already stripped off it, or already rotted/ruined/pitted up. I am going to save the dash out of it, though.
Actually, the Derby will be Wednesday (tonight) and Thursday (tomorrow night), along with some modifieds, pony stocks, TQ midgets and some other stuff. They save the weekends for musical performances... I think the Bangles are playing this weekend.. UGH! Yeah - they've got two engine/trans combos they keep in the back of the shop for their annual trip to the derby. That 305 with those pipes is back for its third year, I think. Blowing some oil from #7 though. Those pipes looked a lot taller coming out of the hood of a late '70s Caprice wagon.
DAMN RUSTYNEWYORKER !!!!! IM TRYIN TO HOOK ME UP SOME OF THEM MOPAR LEFTOVERS YER KILLIN ME Serious though.... lemme know on the extras from them cars, I'll drive over to see what ya got .
Maybe He shoulda left them rotting in someones back yard till they sent them to the crusher and NOBODY gets anything from them. At least, Some of the parts may get sold & used, He has ONE HELL OF A TIME AT THE DERBY as does EVERYONE at the derby. Then he can sell of the chassis or scrap it out to its inevidable destonation that they were headed to anyways. And what the hell is a 1991 KUSTOM JELLYBEAN anyway ?
I demo'd a 68' Imperial 2 dr a couple of years ago. it went through 3 demos (won every one) and was still together enough to use to bomb around my friends farm. We pulled the 440 and dropped in a 318. There was a LOT of room surrounding that small block in there.
Ironic that this is on the same page as: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=198850 Why don't people respect old tin?!?!? ...and then there's the one about forcing the owner of a hunk of business property in Downey to keep a money losing old greasy spoon diner intact.. And the threads about; "Yea! cut up that pristine stocker, We're hotrodders!" We can't all have it our own ways, especially when our ways contradict our own ways.
interested to know how this did in the demo derby? (i'd predict it wouldnt do very well, so...... what happened?) btw: i agree that i wouldnt choose to ruin this car in a derby.... instead i'd pick a nice 70's wagon or something. however, there are worse ways of being crushed that we see all the time... -scott noteboom
It did pretty well the first night, but had to retire when the steering became limited and the coolant system turned into "Ol' Face-full". He was trying to save what was left for night #2. The next morning, he cut out the twisted driver's side framerail (looked like a tailpipe where it'd seperated from the crossmember) in the rear and replaced it with some 2x6 channel. He bobbed off the ends of the front bumper, put another radiator in it, and took it back out to play on Thursday night. He ended up fifth or so out of a field of fifteen to twenty cars (I didn't make it out to see Thursday night, so I don't have an exact count). A big hit in the front corner had locked the steering to just a few degrees, so he could only get it to really turn when he got going in reverse, then let off the gas and let the front end hammer-head around. That was working pretty well for him until he lost reverse. After that, he'd just run as fast as he could in a straight line until he hit something, and hope that he was pointed at something else when he came to rest. A few minutes later, the new radiator had all it could take, the engine temp shot way up a couple of minutes after that, and he decided to call it a night. Travis got third in his Newport on Thursday night, after replacing the U-joint he broke in his first hit on Wednesday night.
Man those cars were cool. I wouldn't have run them through a demo. I would've found a friend with a good field and would've had myself a good ol fashioned dirt track race with hittin n side swipin n such.
I do my best work in 72-77 Cadillacs..I can still buy a running car for 150.00..I don't know about where you guys are, here in Texas we have to take all trim off so it doesn't fly off and stab somebody..weld hood and trunklid down for stiffener and cut hole in hood for access to carb etc..
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