Buying a Muscle Car

I would totally adopt you for a 1969 Pontiac "The Judge" GTO.

TW

Fast cars and specifically "muscle cars" have been a passion of mine going all the way back to high school in the 70's.  As you probably know, General Motors made several cars that were sold under the badge of their different brands, for example, Chevy Camaro = Pontiac Firebird, Chevy Chevelle = Oldsmobile Cutlass/442.  I bring that up because I had a '69 Olds 442 which was essentially the Chevelle with a couple slight differences, namely in the front grill and read end designs as well as a '76 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am (think Smokey and the Bandit).  In the GM lineup there was also the Pontiac GTO and the Chevy Nova.  Obviously there were also the Fords and Dodge/Chryslers but you mentioned Chevelle so we'll keep it with GM.  The best known muscle cars came from those I mentioned.  What really made a muscle car however was the engine.  You didn't see any true muscle cars with a stock engine.

GM made what is known as a small block, which included the 327 and 350 (the most common that were built into high performance engines) as well as a number of other displacements.  The engines were all essentially the same block but had different bore and stroke specs.  GM also made what is known as a big block, which included the Chevy 427 and 454 as well as the Olds and Pontiac 455 (like the small block there were also several other displacements made).  The small blocks were regularly rebuilt with greater bore and stroke which commonly took them up to 389 or more.  Likewise the big blocks could also be built and indeed I took the big block in my Olds 442 up to 495 cubic inches.  Which is the better engine?  That is a difficult question.  I could write literally dozens of pages about how to build an engine and which is best.  Generally you will get more low end torque from a big block, but a built small block in front of a high stall torque converter or a manual trans will get you off the line just as fast because of the reduced weight.  It really comes down to personal preference as there are pros and cons with either engine type.  If you are looking for more of a stock engine, the big block will have the advantage of the low end torque and will perform better stop light to stop light.

Next is the transmission.  GM made two different automatic transmissions during the muscle car era.  The turbo 350 and the turbo 400.  I much preferred the gear ratios in the 350 however the 400 was much stronger and stood up to the torque and horsepower put out by a built engine better (stock you found the turbo 350 in front of small blocks and the turbo 400 in front of big blocks).  I had the 350 trans in both my 442 and Trans-Am but the tradeoff was that I was replacing the trans every few months.  At the time you could get a rebuilt turbo 350 for just a couple hundred dollars and changing it out only took a couple hours so it was worth it to have the better gearing.  If you don't go so extreme on the engine then the turbo 350 trans is a good way to go, however, admittedly, I don't know what the current market for the transmission is and have no idea what it would cost to replace one now days.  Like the engine, you can get pretty elaborate with the transmission.  From strengthening the trans to putting high stall converters in front of them (which requires building the engine to take advantage of higher RPM) to building a manual trans to accommodate the high horsepower.  You can easily spend as much money on the trans as you do on the engine.

As to a mechanic checking the car out.  You're talking about a car that is +/- 45 years old.  It is likely that the car no longer has the original engine or transmission, perhaps even rear end.  Regardless of what shape the car is in, it is going to have problems.  Looking at a car like that, I would be more concerned with condition of the frame and body - does it show any corrosion?  What condition is the interior in?  How about the chrome?  Those are all the things that are becoming increasing difficult to find.  I would go in knowing that you will likely have to do some mechanical work on the car.  A simple reality is that you are not going to have a high performance engine that never needs work.  It will not be like the car you drive day to day.  An older built engine needs tender loving care on a regular basis to keep it happy and running well.  Things like the headliner and upholstery are cosmetic and are easily addressed.  You can spend as much or as little as you want.  A headliner from a couple hundred to well over a couple thousand, same with the upholstery.  I have seen some cars with crazy expensive interiors.  If you are interested in an original stock interior that would be in the hundreds of dollars range.

Personally I would remove the air conditioner.  The original AC used R-12 refrigerant which is no longer available so at the least you would need to convert it to R-134.  A true muscle car isn't going to be an every day car.  It will likely be more of a 'weekend warrior.'  Air conditioning is just a nuisance.  Those old systems drew an incredible amount of power away from the engines and they just weren't that reliable.

Hope that all helps.  I finally got rid of my hot-rods because I got tired of dealing with the increasingly restrictive smog laws in California.  I was swapping out the engine of each car every two years with the original stock engine so it would pass smog and then swapping back to the built engine.  That really got old when I got married and started a family.  I had taken my cars to a fairly ridiculous extreme and certainly you don't need to do that which would make passing smog (most states aren't near as restrictive as California has become) quite a lot easier. 

Thanks by the way.  You brought back some really good memories!  Good luck and what a cool thing to do for your dad.

Scott's advice here is great info.  One of the other things to know about older engines is that they were designed to run on leaded gasoline. The lead in addition to increasing the effective octane also made the gas a better lubricant.  Consequently, engine components were made of less hardened parts.  Old engines need to be rebuilt with hardened valve seats to use unleaded gas.  You also have to either run straight gas (without ethanol) or replace every rubber seal in the engine.  Things like valve seals last no time in ethanol.

I graduated from high school in 1970 and read every car magazine available in those days.  I also spent a lot of time maintaining my dad's cars.  He always had nearly junk cars for him and me.  My mother had the one good car.  Whenever I got home from college, at least one of the two junk cars was broken down and I would have to spend a couple of days getting them going again so that I could take Janicewhokeepsmehumble out.  I don't work on cars so much anymore but I remember those days fondly.  

TW

Good advice, although I would be shocked if any Chevelle out there still had OEM heads on it.  I kind of feel the same way about the engine, just doesn't seem that likely that a 69-72 engine has gone all this time and nobody has been inside it.  If someone only drove a 1970 vintage Chevelle 5,000 miles a year that would be well over 200,000 miles and the small blocks of that time weren't known for that kind of longevity.

For the OP, the closer any car you are looking at is to stock, the less ongoing mechanical work you will have to do or have done.  That isn't to say there won't be maintenance, but if you have a high performance engine and/or trans and/or rear end it will require a lot more TLC than if the power-train is stock or near stock.

Nice!  Looks fairly close to stock so that will help with the maintenance.

So are you interested in adopting another dad? 

That's awesome! I worked on a movie a few years ago which featured a Chevelle, but I guess it was too expensive to get several Chevelles, so they just got a bunch of Malibus and stuck the Chevelle logos on them. When filming was over, all the stunt versions with the roll cages were banged up/pretty severely burned but still ran fine, and I really wanted to ask the prop master if I could buy one but I figured it would be way too much. Aaaaaaand then I found out later that he just gave them all away to some local collector....for free....