Hey all!
I've been on the forum for a few months and figured it was about time I start a thread for my ride. Thanks to all the guys that have already helped me out!!!

Here's a little background info on myself: I am new to the car scene. Until about 8 months ago, the only work I'd ever done under a hood was change my oil. My brother has been into cars for a long time and I guess got me hooked. I've been spending lots of time in the garage ever since.

My brother and I found this car at a dealership in Houston earlier this year. All the dealership could tell us about the car was that it had a "recently rebuilt" motor. I tried getting the dealer to have the previous owner contact us to find out what work had been done to the car, but no luck.

Here is what the car looked like when we got her:

 

From the fender tag, I was able to get this about the original equipment:
318 2bbl
904 auto trans
Lemon Twist exterior
Black on black interior w/ vinyl bucket seats
Black vinyl roof
Electric windshield washers
Monaural Music Master radio

Here is the condition of the car when we bought it:
A 440 4bbl has been swapped in to replace the 318. I wasn't able to figure out if I've still got the 904 or if a 727 has been swapped in. 6R287462 is the casting number on the trans, if anyone can help me out there. The car now has a Lime Light pseudo-AAR style scheme w/ the vinyl roof having been removed. We are planning on painting the car and are still unsure of what we want to do with it. A crappy cd player has been installed to replace the original radio. The interior is in great shape (except for a cracked dash), but I don't know how to tell if its original stuff or if it has been replaced.

As far as mods under the hood, the car has a Weiand 7634 intake, Proform 950 cfm carb, Mopar MSD ignition box, a Crane Cams Fireball LX92 ignition coil, and a 7 qt oil pan which will be mentioned again later.

 

The first thing I did when we got the car was buy some small stuff to make the car look a little more "complete" (window cranks, dome light, glove box liner, bumper bolts, dash decal, etc). The batter tray and strap was completely unsafe and looked ridiculous so I mixed and matched and drilled and made it look a little cleaner and much safer.

The car had lots of go, and zero slow with the four drums, so I decided to upgrade to power brakes, rebuild the rear drums and convert the front drums to disc. I bought a kit from Summit, but haven't installed them yet. Decided to paint the rear drums while I had them off.

 

I stopped at a gas station and made the mistake of driving over one of those man-hole looking covers where they fill the main tanks. Well, the 7 qt oil pan rode very low and didn't clear the stupid mound in the parking lot. I figured this out the next day when I came outside to find my driveway full of oil. I dented the front of the pan and put a small hole in it. The pan was fixable, but we decided to go with a stock oil pan and windage tray. Unfortunately when we drained what was left of the oil, we found it was milky. Good 'ol coolant in the oil!!

SO, with some head gaskets to replace, a crappy looking engine, and zero knowledge of what is hidden inside the block, we decided to pull the engine.

Oh yeah, had the valve covers sent out to get chromed. If there is anyone in the south texas area, DO NOT have anything chromed at South West Chrome in San Antonio. They took way longer than they claimed and the work was sub-par. It looks like they didn't polish the aluminum between the ribs very well.

 

This was my brother and I's first engine pull, so we took our time and made sure we did everything right. Turned out great except that the block is sort of drooping on the 1000 lbs engine stand. How much does a 440 long block weigh?? I thought for sure the 1000 lbs stand would be strong enough

 

more pics

 

That... is.... a..... BEAUTIFUL CAR!

 

beautiful man
the 1000 lb stand should be enough
y would you paint the car?
it looks great!

 

1000lb stand is fine.......unless its Harbor Freight chinese crap. nice ride though.

 

Thanks guys! Unfortunately, it IS Harbor Freight. I didn't realize they had a crappy product.

As for painting the car, there are a lot of spots on the car where rust is starting to pop up. The paint is bubbling up on both rear quarters and rust has eaten away the inner edge, so I'm thinking that I'm going to have to replace those. The hood is lookin pretty shabby (dull and paint chipping), and I'm torn with the AAR style stripes that the car currently has. The AAR stripping is hands down my favorite, but A)the car isn't an AAR B)they were painted pretty sloppily (black overspray around the stripes) C) the stripes size, spacing, and logo are not correct.

Honestly, I'll likely end up keeping the current paint job and just paint the parts I need to. I really do love the AAR stripes though. They were the second biggest reason I decided to buy the car (the first being the monster motor in it).

Thanks again for everyone's help so far. I really didn't know a darn thing about cars until I started working on this baby and everyone has been a huge help.

 

On the plus side, since its just a 318 car, there is nothing keeping you from making it whatever you want it to be.

 

Yeah, thats true. Since a 440 has already been swapped in, I guess I shouldn't be too worried about keeping everything as it should be.

 

car looks great! Keep us posted on the front brakes. I am thinking of doing the same thing.

 

Thanks man! I'll def post how they work out