2017 was a LONG time ago!

 

Holy Crap, it's been a long time since I posted anything here! 

Lets start at 2019 and the 50th Anniversary of the Barracuda. About Jan of that year I pinged Ed Buczeski from Carlisle Events and asked if they were doing anything special to commemorate the occasion. Well, we worked with Ed and were able to put three of our club members cars in Building T, along with other Barracudas, one car representing each year of production, with a Mr. Norms Barracuda built from a modern Challenger to show what might have been. That was a good year.

In 2020, the Club celebrated its 20th anniversary and to celebrate we had new logos designed.

It's July 26th, 2023 as I write this, so we're back from the Carlisle Chrysler Nationals. Each year since 2013 I've had the privilege of giving a Celebrity Choice Award by Carlisle Events to any car I felt was deserving. For the past 10 years, this has been the highlight of my visit. This years recipient was a beautiful 1961 Valiant V200 4 door. 

My last post in 2017 was the kickoff of me beginning the complete rebuild of my 1966 Barracuda. It's still not finished! LOL! But, it is painted and being assembled! Woo Hoo! That's me finishing the engine bay the day before leaving for Carlisle.

You'll fine much more from Carlisle, my car and other fun things on the YouTube Channel @EarlyValiantBarracudaClub, so go check them out and I'll try not to be a stranger here.

Project Rallye 'Cuda Kicks off

I bought my Barracuda in 1996 and slowly repaired everything needed to get the car road worthy. I was able to get the car registered in 2007 and drove the car to Carlisle the first time in 2008 and have been driving ever since performing a few upgrades and modifications along the way.

Much of the rust repair has been done, but it was done outside and covered with cheap primer, the original paint was primed over in spots with cheap primer too. The cowl rust was never addressed and there are a few spots in the corners of both the windshield and the rear window that need attention.

Its time to take the car off the road and finally strip the car down to bare metal, one section at a time, and properly treat the metal with epoxy primer. Then finish any welding and rust repair an move on the filler work and block sanding in preparation to get the car painted.

I've been putting off all of this. I didn't want to take the car off the road, I was having too much fun driving it. But it needs too much repair work before I can drive it safely. The tires are now over 10 years old and unsafe, the engine rear main seal leaks badly, the driveshaft needs balancing and a few dozen smaller issues that need working out.

Its time. Time to begin restoration 2.0 and finish my car. All the above issues will be worked out over the same time frame the bodywork is being done. Besides, the engine has to come out anyway to paint the engine compartment anyway.

Follow the progress on the Project Rallye 'Cuda page here http://evbcblog.blogspot.com/p/project-rally-cuda.html

Cars, a "lifestyle choice"

Car people. Gear heads. Grease monkeys. Automotive aficionados.

The collector car hobby, in its many forms, and the people who are part of it have been called by many names and titles over the years. It’s been described as both a passion and a sickness all in the same breath, but how does one explain it to a “non-car person”?

It came to me listening to the radio when a commercial came on for the Barrett-Jackson auction. They described it as a “lifestyle event”.  It got me thinking about all the people in the hobby I’ve meet at car shows, cruise nights, the internet and the various events I’ve attended over the years, and the work and effort they put into their cars. Whether they have just one project or many, whether they purchased their cars fully restored or they own the shop doing the restorations, this is a lifestyle. They choose to do this.

To me it was something I did in my spare time, tinkering around with cars over the years, but cars have always been part of my life. No matter where I was on the planet, no matter what my job was, no matter what car I drove, I was always doing something to make that car look better or perform better. 

It’s a large part of who I am and I’m guessing it’s a large part of many of you reading this. I could not stop being interested in cars any more than I could stop breathing. I have many different interests, as many of you do, but owning a muscle car, rebuilding it, modifying it, looking at other possible projects and planning a fictitious build in my head is what I choose to do.

It’s my lifestyle.

If you restore, if you resto-mod, if you drag race, if you circle track race, if you do antique, if you do muscle car, if you do exotics, if you do steam engine, if you do low rider, if you do tuner, if you do rat rod, if you do…anything with a car, if you do it because you can’t not do it, then it’s a lifestyle choice.

I’ll see many of you at the upcoming “Lifestyle event”, The Chrysler Nationals in Carlisle, PA. where I'll revel in all that is my automotive world as part of my ongoing lifestyle.