Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Favorite Muscle Car...

67 Chevy 2 Nova 327

Lot's of cool rides shown and mentioned here.

I had the good fortune to have a Dad that owned and operated an engine rebuilding shop back in Erie, Pa, W.E. Smith & Sons on w. 12th St. My Grandfather started the business much earlier in his garage and later had the very large building built on W. 12th ST. Gramps designed and built machinery among which were a very large crankshaft grinder and boring bar for really big marine and industrial engines. Most of the "small" engine (upto about 5" bore) tooling was Kwik Way, Sioux and Lempco.

I started working there when I was 11, not 'cuz I had to but because it was interesting and I also got paid a good bit for a kid as it freed my Dad up to concentrate the machining and reassembly. We worked on ANY internal combustion engine but specialized in the older cars. We only worked on engines and didn't do any R&Ring of engines from the cars with the exception of our own vehicles and our racing dirtbikes (but that is a whole 'nother story). I suffered from "PD" (permanantly dirty) fingers and hands. Go Joe was helpful but carving out the grease and sludge out from under my fingernails was a losing battle.

Many, many hundreds if not a thousand model A's, T's, flathead V & Straight 8's and sixes of all sorts. From Ford to Franklin, Dodge to Delahaye, Chevrolet to Cord, on and on. We did Chevy small block heads by the ton and model A Ford engines by the literal semi truck load (a group deal with a Model A club somewhere that escapes me now)... We had a massive stock of pistons, valves, timing gears, gasket sets, clutch & pressure plate assy's and much more for a lot of really obscure marques.

Started as a engine dismantler grunt playing in the grease tray getting the engines and components ready for the hot tank. As time went on I was taught how to grind valves & tappets, cylinder boring, pouring babbit mains and rods and align boring, crankshaft grinding along with final fitting and reassembly.... At the time we one of not too many places that cast babbit bearings. It was amazing to recall literally sledge hammering the pistons and rods out of a engine that had sat for years with the cylinder head off and 3 days later it was ready to install and run again. No replacement pistons or valves to be found? No problem, Jahn's would scratch make you a set of slugs, Perfect Circle would supply a set of rings and another company that escapes me would whip up the valves to spec. Cracked cylinder wall? We can prolly sleeve it. Knackered valve guides? A cinch to either slide or hog old ones out and stuff new ones and ream them.

Dad passed on in 1975, and the shop eventually closed as I didn't have the total skill set and business acumen to operate the shop and both of my older brothers worked in other fields of endeavor. I sure miss those days and dear old Dad. I was very luck indeed but miss those days with very real pain. I have recently toyed with the idea of re-acquiring some machinery to do engines again. 'Prolly a genetic predisposition towards working on all things mechanical.

After the shop was closed we were trying to sell my grand fathers special order 1953 Buick Roadmaster (Have to see if I can scan a pix of that and post it). In 1976 it had 12,000 original miles. I had a chance to keep it but had no place to keep it so eventually it was sold. I still regularly scour through Hemmings and other car ad's hoping to find it. I would love to find that car and buy it if possible. Ideas on finding it are welcome and appreciated by the way...

Keep the cars coming, it brings back great memories or many I had forgotten about.


Be safe
Patty

Cobra, bad to the bone:

Not mine but it looks like the one I owned.

Shot at 2008-12-23

1974 Roadrunner

My Dad had one.

I had a highly modified 1970 Mustang with a 351 Cleveland in it, followed by a 1976 Trans Am with the 455 in it. I raced them in slalom races and at some tracks. In the day, I thought they were mighty fast.

Funny though - some four bangers now have faster 0-60 times, faster 1/4 mile times, and corner and stop much quicker.

A lot of cars today, can stomp on the best of the old muscle cars, by virtually any measure you want to compare - and get twice the gas-mileage doing it.

Cars have come a long way.

427 camero ss

Now why would you have to go pollutin' such a nice nostalgia thread with such cold reality!

Seriously, at some level we all know what you say, but there is still something special about cars that got their horsepower with big thumping pistons, not computers and other high tech stuff.

John

Yes and they are far more efficient when it comes to cleaning up after an accident as well. Shoebox will suffice...

And all that supertuner chipped up front wheel drive TRASH will never garner the respect of 40+ year old Detroit sheet metal.
I thought we were discussing REAL cars here.

Gunner

It's not so much the horsepower of the old powerplants....rather the sound of that big V8 engine. Even the old flathead Fords had better sound than the mosquito buzzing 4-bangers.

How about 556 hp Cadillac CTS-V's that not only go fast in a straight line but also can lap the 13 mile Nurburgring in under 8 minutes?

That sure gets my respect!

Wes has been messing with that dang thing for probably 10 years now. He started with a tri power 390, and finally found the 427 side oiler he wanted.
I believe he says it is putting out about 600 HP, running the same tri power set up.

This one appears pretty muscular...








427 cubes of bad ass-ness. Same motor as the one Sam posted above but with dual quad set up. She'll eat Dodges and chit Chevy's.

You know it Tom, give me a 66 0r 67 Fairlane GTA with a 427/4 speed.

An obtainable dream.


now the same car with a SOHC/4 speed....

droool...

fairly unobtainable though, for a po-boy like me.

and the SOUND!!!!!

turn up the speakers, and watch this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzkEviShBUw

The one that sits in my garage and I have owned since I was 17, still all original, no rust, only been in snow twice in all it's life, never a daily driver. 1970 Chevelle SS 396 complete with cowl induction. 54,000 original miles.

I love that car!

Cadillac's were designed to haul mamaw and papaw to the dang grocery store, not a true muscle car.
My wife has a 600 HP Dodge Viper, waaay to much of a good thing. But its not a muscle car either IMO, just another modern day blvd. brawler and curve straitner if thats what You wanna use it for.
Try as they may, any newly manufactured engine will never come remotly close to soundin like a 426 hemi or most any big block from the sixties to early seventies.

Gunner

boogity-boogity.