Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Vegaman's V8 Vega build

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Vegaman's V8 Vega build

    So some of you have shown an interest in my Vega build so I finally got around to posting up some pics. I didn't actually think to take a lot of pics along the way but here's what I have so far.

    This is what I started out with. You should have seen the look I got from the wife when I pulled up with this on the trailer, lol. I got the "what have you done now" look from her and all 3 kids were laughing like crazy, lol. Can't say I blame them but I saw what she could become ;)









    Here's a few shots of the engine when it was cleaned and getting painted. My smart ass brother dropped the block off for me freshly painted in Ford Blue :o so new paint was needed ;D



    I wanted something different from the typical Chevy orange and I saw a pic once of a block painted silver with some anodized blue sprinkled here and there and thought it looked sharp, so that's what I was going for



    Here's a shot of the initial engine build. It has the wrong water pump and pulley's a carb that was just lying around and an oil pan that won't fit a Vega



    Got some Sanderson Headers for a Vega but couldn't afford to get them coated. Would have loved to have got that done to try and help control the heat somewhat but it cost almost as much as the headers them selves to have that done so naturally I just painted them myself. Turned out pretty good and so far have had a minimum of peeling on them.







    So here we are with the motor and tranny back in the car. It actually went in pretty easy. I figured we would be fighting to drop it in but there really wasn't any drama at all. I thought Vega's were cramped with V8's in them, and they are, but I've seen other cars around now smaller than mine with V8's in them that are a lot more cramped!







    Apparently I got lucky with the header install as well. They basically dropped right in, no problem. On the drivers side you have to pull the steering column out and then slide it back in between the pipes but that was straight forward. Can't remember how long it took but it wasn't much. I've since talked to other Vega owners who have used these headers and some have had a lot of trouble putting them in. Guess I got lucky ;)





    "Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne

  • #2
    Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

    Okay, on to the interior. The front seats were completely trashed for this car. I did meet a guy who does upholstery through another friend but unfortunately he moved away shortly after I met him. Gee, hope I didn't scare him away :D :D

    So, here's the only interior shot I could find of the car when I first bought it



    Here's a shot of the new seats I got for the car for free ;) They were just the seats, no rails, so I took the rails from the stock seats and adapted them to these.



    The stock dash looked like hell and I was planning on redoing it all but one day just for the hell of it I took it apart and trying cleaning it up. It turned out so well I decided to leave it all stock looking



    I chucked all the extra gauges that came with the car, they were junk and cobbled together with a cardboard gauge panel ??? Anyway, here's the new gauges for her



    A friend found a new carpet for me on Ebay for a Vega which we nabbed and I installed that along with new sound deadner. Turned out really nice and wasn't that hard to install. The stock door panels looked like hell and I was going to make my own but remembering how the dash turned out I decided to try one door panel and see how it turned out. I washed and gently scrubbed them with soap and let it dry in the sun then used Dupli coloures interior paint for vinyl and plastic. Wow, was I impressed! Couldn't believe the difference, it was like night and day. I then went to Wal-Mart and bought some mactac and redid the fake wood panels. The chrome trim was long gone so I just touched it up with silver paint. I think they turned out fantastic. I only have a few interior shots where you can really see any of this work.





    The stock steering wheel was gross. If you touched it it left a sticky goo all over your hands so I replaced it with a wheel from Grant.



    The tack in this pick was also a freebie but as I was about to install it I managed to drop it on the concrete floor :o I tried it anyway but it didn't read accurate. It has since been replaced with this one



    I also spent the better part of a day buffing out the sill plates by hand. It was a lot of work but they turned out pretty good I think




    "Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

      So we finally got around to firing the engine. Slapped on that old carb and ran a fuel line to an electric pump and into a jerry can of gas. With fire extinguisher at the ready we cranked her over. No luck. Farted around a bit more and killed the battery. Hooked up the charger and kept trying. Finally success!! Open headers and all at 11 at night, wife was real impressed, lol.



      You can also see in that pic the rad I was using for a while there. Turns out it was a stock rad for a 4 cyl. with air. It barely worked and the car ran very hot, I really had to pay attention to my temp. gauge. I've since installed a custom Griffen rad that so far has worked very well ;D ;D

      Here we are with another freebie, a Carter 650 which turned out to be a bit too big, I now have a 600 and seems to run a bit better.







      "Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

        So tried my hand at body work. Here's one of the panels I tackled



        I spent an entire day on this panel sanding away, at the end of the day I decided I'm no bodyman, not by a long shot :D
        You can't really see it in this pic but trust me, it's better left to the pro's ;)





        I really like the looks of these cars especially from the front doors back. I was undecided about whether or not to put the spoiler on it or not as I think it really changes the way the car looks. I like it both with and without the spoiler. Here's some shots with me just laying it in place trying to decide if I like the look or not

        without the spoiler



        and with the spoiler





        in the end I decided to put the spoiler on.
        you can also see the new/refurbished doors I installed in those pics

        "Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

          Thanks for posting the pics!! Your garage isn't big, but it is sure neat and tidy compared just about everyone else here.
          BS'er formally known as Rebeldryver

          Resident Instigator

          sigpic

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

            $%^&*#@ computer just crapped out and lost a bunch of pics I was going to post!! > >

            Deep sigh, okay, here we go again. I was trying to decide what colour of blue I wanted for the car. I really like the blue that's so popular on 69 Camaro's and thought it would suit the car and I also loved this one



            I wound up taking an old door panel I had and primering it and painting it in panels with different shades of blue I liked. I then took it out into the sun to see how it would look. In the end I decided to go with the blue that you see here.





            This blue is from a Ford SUV. The first can of paint I bought had the Ford part# on it and I used it up and through it away, bought a few more cans and later noticed none of them had the part # on it > >
            Now I'll just have to take it to a body shop and get them to match it as best they can.
            "Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

              Originally posted by Rebeldryver
              Thanks for posting the pics!! Your garage isn't big, but it is sure neat and tidy compared just about everyone else here.
              Thanks Scott, it's tiny but it works. I can't function if my garage is a mess and I'm looking for tools etc. drives me crazy. Of course when my brother comes over to help he makes a point of making a big mess just to piss me off, lolol
              "Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

                Okay, here's a few shots of the car up and running, still has the original rad in it too :o









                "Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

                  Originally posted by Vegaman
                  Originally posted by Rebeldryver
                  Thanks for posting the pics!! Your garage isn't big, but it is sure neat and tidy compared just about everyone else here.
                  Thanks Scott, it's tiny but it works. I can't function if my garage is a mess and I'm looking for tools etc. drives me crazy. Of course when my brother comes over to help he makes a point of making a big mess just to piss me off, lolol
                  Obviously, he knows which button to push. If it wasn't the tools, he'd be pushing your die casts off the shelves. What are brothers for?
                  BS'er formally known as Rebeldryver

                  Resident Instigator

                  sigpic

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

                    So at this point the car was running and the cam broken in. We had been pushing hard to get the car ready for an annual Father's Day show that was approx. 50 miles away. I wanted to get the car ready a week before as I didn't want my maiden voyage to be so far from home as I fully expected there to be some problems.
                    My youngest son had counted seven different colours on the car at this point and although I couldn't afford paint at this point ( I tapped out the budget on the exhaust system) I figured I should at least try and make it all one colour. So out came a case of rattle can primer some masking tape and plastic and the paint mask of course, lol. Got it all done and it didn't seem to bad at all.
                    Here's a video the wife shot as I backed it out of the garage to see how it looked. My youngest boy wanted to go for a "ride" in it which I got a kick out of because he used to laugh and say it would never get done and thought it looked like a wreck. Now he wants to drive the thing :D

                    Here's the vid

                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHGKNlTGrn4
                    "Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

                      The day before the Father's Day show and I got a permit for it and ran it over to a buddy's glass shop where he installed the chrome window trim for me.
                      Here she sits as I got back from his shop





                      After I moved the car back into the garage I found a pool of tranny fluid on the street. Seems after I replaced a faulty starter I bumped/moved the tranny cooler lines enough that they now leaked :-[ Trying to reconnect them properly was a b*tch with the exhaust system now in place, what a chore!!
                      "Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

                        okay, it's late, I'm tired and my computers going wonky so I'm off to bed. Will add more in the morning ;)
                        "Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

                          Looks like a great start. I had a couple of these back in the day and always liked them. Mine handled pretty well, too but I was pushing a LOT less weight in the nose - 215 aluminum Buick. Your pics make me wish I'd kept my good car (rust free from AZ with the Buick). It was a blast.

                          Dan

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

                            Job well done !!! I want a V8 Vega some day ....
                            Whiskey for my men ... and beer for their horses!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Vegaman's V8 Vega build

                              thanks guys, it's still a work in progress. after having it for nearly 5 years I decided I really needed to get it to run again so I could start enjoying it. I still have lots I want to do with it but at least now I can play with it while I'm working on it ;)
                              "Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X