Thread: My "story".

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I actually stumbled across this wonderful forum while doing a research on a prospective car that I may be purchasing to get back to my "roots" so to speak.

Ive been into cars since as far as I can remember. My father only owned big American V8's as I was growing up, my favorite car he owned was a 1971 Oldsmobile 442...I cried when he sold it.
I only started owning/modifying and obsessing over my own cars about 10 years ago when I got my license, though I began working on cars as a child (I should sue my father for child labour ).

It started with my 1st car, a cute lil' 1973 Oldsmobile Omega which I bought as a daily driver - 250 straight 6 and all..... At the time, the thought of building it up never crossed my mind because I was into air-cooled VW's. A Type 3 (1969), and my Street legal dune buggy (1966 - a genuine "Manx" with flames ) took all my time and money.
All my buddies were into domestic muscle, my best friend had a 1969 Camaro with a 406 SB (now a dyno'd 613 Hp BBC), another had a 1967 Cutlass 455, a few Chevelles, one with a 396, another with a 468, and yet another with a 355.... And of course a few modern muscle cars, 5 litres and Irocs. Almost all of them still have their cars actually.

I was, as you can tell, the oddball.

Then one day, I heard of an Olds 455 for sale, really cheap. I was tired of being an oddball, and had always wanted more muscle (My dad only had big V8's when I was a kid), and this was a perfect chance.
Two weeks after I got that 455 Olds up and running in that 3000lb Omega chassis, I lost interest in VW's, sold them and never looked back...... Then I learned that hard way that 455 Olds engines don't like to rev past 5800 Rpm

So, out came that engine - Spun a rod bearing, so I found a 1970 455 to build up as its replacement. During the "build up" period, I started adding up the money I was spending - :O "Damn! this is nuts!" I thought to myself, and at that precise moment, a guy came knocking on my door asking about "that oldsmobile" at the side of the house. He even offered me almost exactly what I had in the car.
I regret to say that I sold good ol' Squeeky (my name for the Omega), and ended up buying something I could drive all year round that had no hope of ever being fast (to avoid any ideas of modifying it and burning more money) - a mint 1984 Jeep CJ-7.

The "Obsession" didn't stop with the Jeep as I hoped, what can I say? I'm a gear-head I spent all my earnings lifting the Jeep, throwing 33's on it, and making it an off-road Tonka truck....But now it had lost its tame street manners.

She got sold too in a fit of sanity. I tried driving "normal" cars for a while, then decided to get something more sporty and fun, an all-wheel-drive, turbo 1992 Plymouth Laser (exactly the same as the Mitsubishi Eclipse or Eagle Talon).

Of course the bug still got me, and the Laser is modified too....But Ive never been able to re-capture the feeling of a nice stout V8 with any of my cars over the years. Don't get me wrong, the DOHC 2.0 Turbo and all-wheel-drive have put many, many, many V8 cars to shame, but...It's just not the same as a big bad American V8.

So here I was, searching for information on swapping a 4.6 litre out of a 2001 Mustang GT into the car I will be selling my laser to (hopefully) buy, a 1940 Mercury Tudor sedan.... And so the obsession continues

Just got to take that first step and your on your way to street rodding again man

I notice a lot of Oldsmobile in your history. Sounds like a happy Childhood to me! I lost a 455 to 6500RPM myself. If you decide to build another 455, i have a few tricks i learned on how to re-inforce the lower end of Olds blocks. Also, the AMC CJ-7 is a nice vehicle. Welcome aboard!

Thanks guys!

Yeah, I miss the torque the 455 made.

I wish I was more informed on Olds motors before I killed the 1st 455, I probably would never have sold it if it never broke down.

On the 1970 455 that I bought for the Omega, I called Mondello and picked up oil restricters, "ported" the block, polished the rods and had the shot peened...Too bad I never got to run it. BUT, Im sure Ill get another Olds 455 eventually

I don't have a direct pic of my Omega scanned, but I do have a pic of my dune buggy with the Omega in the background:


Rear view of the buggy:


Hard to believe it was street legal, eh?
Sorry for the crappy pics, Ill scan pics of my CJ-7 and my Omega later.

And here is a picture of the Mercury that I want to buy:



Its a lot worse than it looks. Its all steel and theres no holes anywhere which is very, very rare in Quebec... I want to buy it and build it so bad.

I DON'T own it yet, because I have to sell this thing first:




I hope I can sell my Laser before the Mercury sells Hopefully some ricer will come along soon....

Welcome to CHR. You'll have a very enjoyable time in here. Plenty of brainiacs reside in this domain that are more than willing to lend their opinions on whatever you do. BTW, you wouldn't happen to have any side pics of that 40, would ya? We could get started on it right away.

Welcome to CHR Blue. Thats a nice lookiing 40 merc. Always liked the 40-41 ford and mercs, but you've got a rare one there and buy it as soon as you can or else someone else is going to.