- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Well, weather you like the car or not (and I honestly don't care if you don't and at this point, I don't care to hear about it either) I hauled home the '71 Impala yesterday. My wife paid for the car, so technically it's hers.
The plan is to make it into a fun cruiser/DD for her, something she can pile her friends into and go visit the local wineries.
Loading it up was fun, most of the tires were kinda holding air after filling them... we decided to push the car towards the trailer and use gravity, since it was downhill. The brakes had pressure when it was sitting, but once we got it rolling hitting the brake pedal did NOTHING. I jammed on the parking brake hard enough to bend the pedal sideways and get the car stopped, since the car was picking up speed! Got it loaded with no more excitement using the Warn winch on the Gladiator, and dragged it home.
I started working on it today, first thing was to clean up all the debris under the hood from the packrat that has made the 402 Big Block it's home. That took a hour or so, then I used my leaf blower to clean up the rest of the loose bits.
Once the junk was clear, I picked up a new battery and connected it.... no power. Looked at the battery cables and the positive cable to the starter had been shorting out! Also found that the power wire to the fuse block had melted and the fusable link had popped.
I replaced the battery cables and the fusable link, I connected the battery again and has power!! Cranked the car over and it turned, so I enlisted my wife to run the controls while I poured gas down the Q-Jet. The damn thing almost fired right up, then proceeded to idle perfectly. There's a bit of valve-train clatter, I'd assume the lifters need to pump up. The oil is dirty, so I'll pick up a new filter and change the oil to see if it'll help.
Since we had it running, I worked on cleaning up the interior... there was a LOT of junk inside. Ton's of diet Pepsi cans, a bunch of pesticide in the trunk and a rusted can of gun powder. Also found a sales receipt for a AAMCO rebuild of the TH400 transmission, from 1976 when the car had 70k miles on it!
After cleaning out the interior, I gave it a quick and dirty bath with some degreaser.... it cleaned up alright! That green color inside the trunk is the original color, called 'Cottonwood Green'. It looks awesome, wife loves it so the plan is to repaint it that color in the future.
The plan is to make it into a fun cruiser/DD for her, something she can pile her friends into and go visit the local wineries.
Loading it up was fun, most of the tires were kinda holding air after filling them... we decided to push the car towards the trailer and use gravity, since it was downhill. The brakes had pressure when it was sitting, but once we got it rolling hitting the brake pedal did NOTHING. I jammed on the parking brake hard enough to bend the pedal sideways and get the car stopped, since the car was picking up speed! Got it loaded with no more excitement using the Warn winch on the Gladiator, and dragged it home.
I started working on it today, first thing was to clean up all the debris under the hood from the packrat that has made the 402 Big Block it's home. That took a hour or so, then I used my leaf blower to clean up the rest of the loose bits.
Once the junk was clear, I picked up a new battery and connected it.... no power. Looked at the battery cables and the positive cable to the starter had been shorting out! Also found that the power wire to the fuse block had melted and the fusable link had popped.
I replaced the battery cables and the fusable link, I connected the battery again and has power!! Cranked the car over and it turned, so I enlisted my wife to run the controls while I poured gas down the Q-Jet. The damn thing almost fired right up, then proceeded to idle perfectly. There's a bit of valve-train clatter, I'd assume the lifters need to pump up. The oil is dirty, so I'll pick up a new filter and change the oil to see if it'll help.
Since we had it running, I worked on cleaning up the interior... there was a LOT of junk inside. Ton's of diet Pepsi cans, a bunch of pesticide in the trunk and a rusted can of gun powder. Also found a sales receipt for a AAMCO rebuild of the TH400 transmission, from 1976 when the car had 70k miles on it!
After cleaning out the interior, I gave it a quick and dirty bath with some degreaser.... it cleaned up alright! That green color inside the trunk is the original color, called 'Cottonwood Green'. It looks awesome, wife loves it so the plan is to repaint it that color in the future.
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