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.

Its Been Awhile...

Its been a while since I wrote anything for the blog or even looked at the Club Website to see if it needs an update. I have been focusing on our Facebook presence more lately but that seems to be more of a "right now" sort of interaction. Lets re-post the post someone else posted along with the occasional fresh content. Its good for a few things but not for lengthy posts, tech articles or reference guides.

That's where the website comes in. We have a lot of good reference material available as well as ways to stay connected to our members world wide that it can be a very daunting task to keep it all focused and organized.

In the coming months I will be completely overhauling the Club website to better represent all of the things we've done, all of the projects we've accomplished and all of the reference materials we've accumulated.

I hope to have a better online reference for all things Early Valiant and Barracuda for many years to come. Stay Tuned!