As most of you know, I went ahead and bought the twin of the car I had as a senior in high school. My high school car had a prior salvaged title, and some rust on the hatch. This car is rust free with a clean title, but still needs plenty of attention to get back to where I want it. Plans for this car are to keep it mostly stock, with upgrades here and there as I have time and extra cash. I want to get it restored to good clean condition before really doing any modifications. With that being said, I will not restore some factory parts knowing I will be upgrading them.
First thing is first though, here is the car.
Next, to explain the title of the thread, the Iowa DOT issued me license plates "EVA 681." To keep random dudes from flying up to check me out thinking I am some chick named Eva, I splurged on personalized plates. But what to get?
The first order of business was to address the humming front wheel bearings and pathetic brakes. This is an area where I am not going to repack the front bearings, and put new pads/rotors on. After hopping out of my SRT8 Charger with giant brembos, it was immediately clear that the stock brakes were not going to work for me on this fox. This car is never going to be anything more than a nice weekend cruiser for my reminiscing though, so PBR calipers and 13" front rotors should be sufficient. For now I am converting to 5 lug drums, and will see how that feels for a bit.
The used spindles came to me painted bright red (just refurbished with new hubs), my PBR calipers were bright silver, and caliper brackets dark gray. I decided to go all black to start with, since my car is two toned on the exterior, and I dont really want my front brakes to stand out since I am keeping the rear drums.
Can you tell this car came from an Iowa farm?
Since this resto will be on a budget, for now I am cutting one coil off the front springs, and keeping the super high performance Monroe struts. I cleaned and painted the springs, and reused the stock isos believe it or not.
Once the car is rolling, I will hit a car wash and spray the remaining dirt out of the wheels wells before attempting to paint anything else. So for now, here is the driver's side all wrapped up.
The passenger side is torn apart, I have the spring cut and painted, but ran out of time to start reassembly. I will update once I have the front wrapped up, and then again once the rear axles and drums are swapped. At that point you will be able to see its new stance and temporary wheel set up.
First thing is first though, here is the car.
Next, to explain the title of the thread, the Iowa DOT issued me license plates "EVA 681." To keep random dudes from flying up to check me out thinking I am some chick named Eva, I splurged on personalized plates. But what to get?
The first order of business was to address the humming front wheel bearings and pathetic brakes. This is an area where I am not going to repack the front bearings, and put new pads/rotors on. After hopping out of my SRT8 Charger with giant brembos, it was immediately clear that the stock brakes were not going to work for me on this fox. This car is never going to be anything more than a nice weekend cruiser for my reminiscing though, so PBR calipers and 13" front rotors should be sufficient. For now I am converting to 5 lug drums, and will see how that feels for a bit.
The used spindles came to me painted bright red (just refurbished with new hubs), my PBR calipers were bright silver, and caliper brackets dark gray. I decided to go all black to start with, since my car is two toned on the exterior, and I dont really want my front brakes to stand out since I am keeping the rear drums.
Can you tell this car came from an Iowa farm?
Since this resto will be on a budget, for now I am cutting one coil off the front springs, and keeping the super high performance Monroe struts. I cleaned and painted the springs, and reused the stock isos believe it or not.
Once the car is rolling, I will hit a car wash and spray the remaining dirt out of the wheels wells before attempting to paint anything else. So for now, here is the driver's side all wrapped up.
The passenger side is torn apart, I have the spring cut and painted, but ran out of time to start reassembly. I will update once I have the front wrapped up, and then again once the rear axles and drums are swapped. At that point you will be able to see its new stance and temporary wheel set up.
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