It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s….an Acura Integra
February 20, 2012 | Posted in Corvettes, Mazda | By fastwrecks
We wanted to get some quick cash through the business, so we picked up an Acura Integra for $350 and are going to finish taking it apart over the next day or two. The engine, transmission, and wiring harness are spoken for, but the car is complete otherwise. NICE interior…other than smelling of Axe Body Spray 🙂 Body is mostly in good shape. We started listing the items we’ve taken off on eBay. Best of all, I don’t have to switch between metric and standard tools. Those of you dealing with C4 Corvettes can feel my pain, I’m sure.
Still working at the 1984 Corvette and the 1985 Rx-7. Have I mentioned how much I can’t stand half-assed “fixes” lately? If not, here it is. If I reached for a sawzall, torches, or a drill every time I couldn’t immediately figure out how to get something in or around something else, I’d have cars that looked like Swiss cheese. It may be the easy way at the time, but I’ve seen these decidedly non-factory cuts and holes get rusty and start falling apart, or wiring harnesses that look like a fire waiting to happen. These kinds of repairs can make things suck worse in the long run. Let’s not get started on not paying attention to mundane but necessary details, like, oh, I dunno….tightening up lug nuts before moving a car around. Grrrr.
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More Shiny Corvette Goodness
February 1, 2012 | Posted in Corvettes | By fastwrecks
A big improvement
I spent some time polishing the Corvette. After dealing with old cars, some of which are not taken care of well, I’ve learned that a little polish can go a long way. Instead of re-painting the whole car, we are looking at re-painting sections of it. We bought a C4 Corvette parts car and will be picking it up sometime next week. It has most of the interior goodies (including a dash, WOO HOO!) and we can sell the rest of the parts.
As far as the wiring harness….That might be a bit of a challenge. The ’84 was in the process of being converted into a race car. The dash and console were removed, and the wiring harness has some….shall we say, interesting….shortcuts. Most of the wiring harness is sitting in a pile where the passenger seat should be. Glad that somebody left a Haynes manual behind. I have a dash/body interior wiring harness from a 1987, plus the rest of the 1984 wiring harness (that was removed) so here’s hoping we can figure something out.
1984 Corvette restoration project pictures
January 21, 2012 | Posted in Corvettes | By fastwrecks
This is what we’ve been up to lately! After getting our bundle of red joy home from Texas, we looked through it in detail and decided that this was going to be our most recent Corvette restoration project. It runs nicely and is structurally sound. It appears that somebody was going to turn this car into a race car project, but switched gears. Let’s take a look.
These pictures are the “BEFORE” pictures. This is what I have after a few trips around our parking lot in it and after giving it a bath. Right now, I am in the process of going over the whole car with polishing compound to see what I have. It’s looking like the amount of repainting that needs to be done is much less than originally anticipated.
(ASIDE: It just so happens that we are running an eBay sale through this weekend to make room for our next donor C4 Corvette. We’ll use the parts we can use and sell the rest. Shop our eBay store for more.)
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- The bumper! What people are going to see the most of when this car is fully restored 🙂
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- More of the ’84 Vette we are restoring.
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- A red 1984 C4 Corvette before being restored. It’s been repainted in places at least once.
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- A red 1984 C4 Corvette before being restored. At this point, all I’ve done is wash the car.
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- Not much interior is left on this car.
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- A pile of rainbow noodles where a dash should be
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- Carpet and rear compartment from a 1984 C4 Corvette before being restored
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- Interior of a 1984 Corvette before being restored
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1984 Corvette is here!
January 10, 2012 | Posted in Corvettes, Humor, Travel Stories | By fastwrecks
We just got back from a road trip to Texas, where we picked up a recent purchase – a 1984 C4 Corvette. It just so happened that we came back a different way, allowing me to stop by the National Corvette Museum with the ’84 in tow.
Ooooh, pick me, pick me!
I finally took it for a drive out in the parking lot of our garage today. Although it probably still has the original shocks (bouncy bounce bounce….) and no power steering, it was actually kind of fun! It doesn’t have a dash (in fact, it has a pile of rainbow spaghetti where the dash should be) so I used my musical training in tempo and pitch to shift gears by ear. I’m sure my piano teacher would be proud.
VROOOOOM! (or not)
Still not sure if I’m going to restore it or part it out….We shall see.
Does this bathroom make my rear end look fat?
While I was at the National Corvette Museum, I picked up some goodies to throw into the packages we send out 🙂
Special delivery!
December 11, 2011 | Posted in Shipping, Travel Stories, Uncategorized | By fastwrecks
Well, for those of you who don’t know, I’m expecting.
Expecting great things…
What kind of great things, you ask? Well, it’s a 1984 Corvette from out of state and all I had to do was let my fingers do the walking on uShip. For shorter trips, it’s nice to get out of the house and out of the area for an afternoon or so. For longer trips, well…
There’s the issue of renting a UHaul trailer. Sounds easy enough, considering that we rent from our local Uhaul quite a bit without any problems. However, I have booked reservations online, only to arrive to a destination several hours (and sometimes, several states) away just to be told, “I’m sorry, but your 2wd Dodge will just NOT haul a Corvette properly. I can’t let you rent this.” The last time this happened, I spent two hours at a Michigan Uhaul convincing two separate stores that, yes, I *have* hauled Corvettes before without any problems. They then scared up a lighter (but much OLDER and previously wrecked) auto transport with a VERY bent safety latch. (Manager had the nerve to give us attitude after receiving our honest “anonymous” review, but that is another story for another day.)
Really? REALLY? Can’t haul a Corvette? That’s how I did it three times…with a pocketful of Jack’s magic beanstalk beans. *whatever*
Then, there’s the whole food and lodging thing. I can deal with fast food every once in a while. I also don’t mind spending the night out of town every so often. However, packing for several days, eating on the road, and that sort of thing get old. I also can’t ship out any packages or do most of my other work when I’m gone. It becomes a big deal when we suddenly receive a spike in sales when we are out of town. I like getting shipments out quickly; I am not so thrilled by a huge backlog of shipments. I am not super picky about hotels, but I don’t want to choose one hotel over another for its “AWESOME continental breakfast” to find only weak coffee and carrot-raisin-nut muffins and stale bagels set out. This might have happened once or twice.
Gas is expensive, too. I know, I just heard a collective “DUH” from the audience, but hauling a trailer with a Corvette isn’t great for the gas mileage. Tolls can be pesky, too…the two extra axles from an auto transport can sometimes raise tolls by 1000%. <-- Not a typo. And if you don't believe me, cross over the George Washington Bridge with one of these in tow. I could have made a small grocery run with the money I paid for that little trip. I miss the cats when we're gone. I have three moderately spoiled cats who provide a lot of comic relief, especially when they want attention while everybody at home is busy. (Lucky for me, Spanky is asleep on a recliner as I write this post, NOT purring in my face.) Sometimes, loading and unloading cars from a trailer is not a big deal. However, the cars we pick up are not always picture perfect in somebody's garage.It's Sports Car Salvage, not OMG Shiny Perfect Sports Car Corporation. Having one with all 4 wheels pointing the same direction *and* brakes *and* runs and drives all at the same time is kinda rare. Not having to be the one primarily responsible for loading unloading these cars can be a big strain off my shoulders. Literally. Strain on the shoulders. 🙂
After a 4-state, 5-day trip earlier this year, during which we purchased another salvage car on eBay, I wasn’t in a big hurry to make the lengthy trip to pick up this Corvette in Georgia. Because the trip we had just made was as long as this trip to Georgia and back would be, I totaled up the receipts for our travel expenses. Wow….those $5 and $10 purchases start adding up after a while, around the tune of $600. So, I figured that if we could have it transported for around that amount, it would be worth it. Sure enough, a few weeks later….another Corvette in the garage without all of the travel headaches.
The cats thank me, too.
It is almost C4 parts time, folks!
June 6, 2011 | Posted in Corvettes, Humor, Mazda | By fastwrecks
We’re down to 3 parts to remove from the 1990 Miata (Engine/Transmisison, wiring harness and seat belts.) This means it’s time for the 1987 Chevrolet C4 Corvette to be torn down, which has begun. We’re starting to put the parts on our eBay store and are going to get this torn down a wee bit faster than previous cars. Lots of good parts on this, including the bonnet and hard-to-find passenger right front items. We’ll also be selling the complete suspension and frame with a title and VIN tag for those looking for a project platform!
We’ve also hit 100 Facebook friends this week, which makes us happy! If you all would be so kind as to spread the work it’ll spread like the old shampoo commercials!
Thanks for your support, folks!
Busy in the garage, slacking online…
May 3, 2011 | Posted in Corvettes, Mazda | By fastwrecks
We’ve been busily tearing down the 1990 Miata and getting the parts available for sale… In the process, kinda ignoring our blog, so here’s a quick run down of our current projects:
1990 Mazda Miata NA: Being dismantled and sold piece by piece.
1987 Chevrolet Corvette: We had originally thought we were going to put this back together into a runner. Sadly, C4’s just aren’t worth restoring from this level of disrepair at this time. We’re going to dismantle it and get the parts out to people repairing and restoring their cars. It DOES have a fantastic Doug Nash 4+3 transmission, and many other parts which will be sold. We’re going to use the engine in another project.
1977 Chevrolet Corvette: The rebuild is in progress and Ron is just about ready to install the front body from our 1978 donor. We’re also going to pull the 305 out and install the L98 350 from the 1987 Corvette. Since the TPI was removed by the 87’s previous owner, this should yield a nice running 350 for our project C3. We’ve also decided to return the car to it’s original color, RPO 10, Classic White, and the interior will be RPO 64C, which is Buckskin.
1982 Mazda RX-7: This is currently at Schumanns Roadside & Towing to have its new gas tank, fuel lines and fuel pump installed.
We also just picked up a 1991 Jeep Cherokee, theoretically we’re going to use it as a shop mule. It fits with what we do, right? After all “The Jeep is America’s only real sports car!” – Enzo Ferrari 🙂
Hope all is well with everyone, our thoughts and prayers have been with the people of the Southern US effected by the tornado’s and storms.
Oops, I did it again…
April 18, 2011 | Posted in Corvettes, Family | By fastwrecks
The majority of the cars we’ve bought lately have ended up being too nice to part out. Today’s is no exception.
We bought a 1987 C4 Corvette from Georgia this past week, which we had delivered earlier today. It’s teal with a matching interior (The 80s look will be all the rage on Barrett Jackson in 20 years.) We were told that it was in rough shape. It needs some work, but is much nicer than we were expecting.
It hasn’t been wrecked. This is a rarity in and of itself….do you have any idea how many front passenger-side hits we’ve encountered in this line of work? 🙂 Plus, all of the pieces parts are there, including the Torx wrench for removing the targa top.
It’s had some rather, um, “interesting” paint modifications done. We had Johnna wash the car in hopes of her finding pink paint underneath. Just kidding! No Barbie pink here, but I did acquire a nice helper out of the deal 😉 (A video is forthcoming)
In every Corvette lurks a pink Cadillac waiting to leap out....or not.
Stop….Mazda Time!
April 10, 2011 | Posted in Corvettes, Mazda, Travel Stories | By fastwrecks
So, this past week has been extremely productive.
ZOOM ZOOM (pop pop pop)
We started out our road trip to pick up a gas tank (can’t ship those!) and some other parts to restore this FB RX-7 with. Then we headed to load up our truck with an assortment C3 and C5 Corvette items. (Thank God for cargo nets.)
This 1990 Miata will be parted out and the parts will be featured on eBay.
After acquiring the RX-7 and Corvette parts, we picked up a 1990 Mazda Miata. It runs! It drives! I had way too much fun driving it around our shop parking lot. This one will be parted out and the parts sold on eBay.
Is it orange or is it red? The answer: It won’t be either one for long!
March 30, 2011 | Posted in Corvettes, Mazda | By fastwrecks
Greetings! We blogged in a previous post about our 77 Vette project. After buying a donor car with a good front clip, and partnering with a local Corvette restoration enthusiast, this car is going to get a BIG makeover 🙂 She will be restored to the original factory white, plus the interior will be reconditioned. Can’t wait to show before and after pictures (you mean, before or after I take that beast all over town? hee hee)
Our next donor car will be another Mazda. A 1990 Mazda Miata, to be exact. That will be picked up early to mid next week and brought back to our shop. It has a running motor and is complete, for the most part, so this definitely has a lot of potential! Speaking of Mazda, we will also be picking up some parts to restore the 1982 Mazda RX-7 we picked up last month. Looks like April is going to be an exciting month for us!
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