Muscle Car Trends of the 70's

[Rusty Heap]

Somehow,



I got tangented to a Chevelle car web forum via a search on vintage Pioneer Super Tuner Auto-reverse car stereos and Jensen Tri-axles 6x9's.............but I digress.



Some of these comments really make my cheeks hurt from an ear to ear grins, as 2/3rds of them hit way deep home. good times.

thought I'd take a few of you down memory lane:





yes, I'm talking about "you" as most of you can relate..........



Muscle Car trends of the 70's. [Archive] - Chevelle Tech

[Nostril Cheese]

My dad had a shag van that doubled as a dirt bike hauler. Crazy foot pedal, KC lights, the whole deal.

[Ayles]

Always loved a Chevelle, even after a bad crash in one...

I always liked them with a nice raked stance, big traction bars, glass packs and maybe some turbine wheels.

[pavulon]

This please!

[wdfifteen]

I'm a little too old for that. I do remember when mag wheels became popular, a kid at our school painted the steel wheels on his '56 Plymouth to look sorta like mags. The local "pro" hot rodder had a '62 Chevy 409. He got a '63 Plymouth 426 wedge when it came out, then bought a new '64 Plymouth with a hemi when they came out. He took the hemi out of the '64 and put it in the '63 for some reason. My cousin was way down the food chain with a '57 Chevy, 283 Powerglide. I was off the radar with a '60 Volkswagen. My best friend took his Bugeye Sprite in to have an 8-track professionally installed. They hooked it up and fried it immediately. Positive ground doncha know.

[creaturecat]

i took my 1970 Z-28 in for a repair. the car was jacked up, air shocks, g'60's, cragars.
I took it to world famous Hudson restorer Jack Smith.
He started laughing like a madman. "looks like a dog f'n a football".

[Steve Carlton]

My uncle had a bugeye sprite when I was a little kid in the 60s. He put on a mail order supercharger and said it went like a bat out of hell for a year, then blew up.

[74-911]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I'm a little too old for that. I do remember when mag wheels became popular, a kid at our school painted the steel wheels on his '56 Plymouth to look sorta like mags. The local "pro" hot rodder had a '62 Chevy 409. He got a '63 Plymouth 426 wedge when it came out, then bought a new '64 Plymouth with a hemi when they came out. He took the hemi out of the '64 and put it in the '63 for some reason. My cousin was way down the food chain with a '57 Chevy, 283 Powerglide. I was off the radar with a '60 Volkswagen. My best friend took his Bugeye Sprite in to have an 8-track professionally installed. They hooked it up and fried it immediately. Positive ground doncha know.

Similar to my time. Power around our little town in N. TX was a '62 Impala SS 409 and a stripped '55 Chevy 210 2 dr: 327 with power pack heads, pink stripe corvette cam, solid lifters, headman headers, etc running either 3 dueces or 2 Carter AFBs and no telling what compression ratio. You talk about a car that "loped" at idle, it loped... and it would haul ass.

Personally, I had a 57 Chevy 210 2dr sedan with a 235 straight 6 and 3 on the column... well it got good gas mileage anyway....

AFter wrecking the 210 got a '57 Bel Air coupe, 283 with Powerglide... like an idiot I sold it when i graduated from college...

[intakexhaust]

Learned in a hurry that no muscle car could handle a corner.
First bolt-on was always an Addco sway bar!

aah yes, shiny brand new Cragar's, Hurst shifters and CHERRY BOMBS. Right there in itself made any car faster..hah

[sammyg2]

[VINMAN]

Remember those days well. I probably did every one of those mods listed!

[HardDrive]

Love it, but raise the suspension 3 inches please.

Originally Posted by pavulon

This please!

[motion]

Originally Posted by Rusty Heap

Pioneer Super Tuner Auto-reverse car stereos and Jensen Tri-axles 6x9's.

Wow, does that ever bring back the memories!

[pavulon]

Originally Posted by intakexhaust

Learned in a hurry that no muscle car could handle a corner.
First bolt-on was always an Addco sway bar!

Of course, the aftermarket has gone gonzo since then. Bolt-under frames (some with with IRS), coil-overs on engineered suspensions...even muscle car barges can be made to corner as they were never imagined...crazy cool stuff!!

[pavulon]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

Love it, but raise the suspension 3 inches please.

That one is low for good reason.

[Rusty Heap]

while I loved living the memories of my friends muscle cars and the 70's, I'm proud to say on the pelican board that I was "the other guy" with a 1970 bug as his first car, and yes I'm double proud to say it was lime green, red velour interior, flared fiberglass fenders, did my own tuck and roll door panels, and was a big bore 1835 with dual webers and a god awful loud cherry bomb type exhaust.

Me and buddies would time our engine changes, (I went through 3 clutches and 2 trannies in a couple years learning to fish tail it) and had an engine drop down to about 10-12 minutes till I put on the dual carbs which slowed us down some.

Skateboard was my engine stand. Pulled the engine every couple months just for another coat of Krylon paint.

Ran it down the strip a couple times, good memories of a VW engine blow contest at a car show drag track event, where they drained all the oil out and wired the throttle wide open, and he who guessed most close to when it blew or seized, won a prize.

Gene Berg rocked the VW world with 2180's and 2235? cc big bore engines, and he beat a 427 V8 stuffed into the back of a bug, with an Eldorado FWD engine swap.

lime green and red velour, and yes it had fuzzy dice.


grins, don't make me pull out photos of it.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

My uncle had a bugeye sprite when I was a little kid in the 60s. He put on a mail order supercharger and said it went like a bat out of hell for a year, then blew up.

Judson superchargers!

[Nostril Cheese]

Originally Posted by Rusty Heap

lime green and red velour, and yes it had fuzzy dice.


grins, don't make me pull out photos of it.

Please do.

[nota]

cars of the guys I knew in 67
vin had a 67 gto conv with 4 sp and tripower just a st ride
D had a 57 chevy two door with 327/4sp swap paid 500 for it done by another kid
bob had a F/stock NHRA race legal 65 mustang 289/4 raced every week
G had a 56 alloy body race healy 100 with v8 chevy swaped in won$$$$$ st racer
O had a 56 ford 2 door wagon with a 406 tri-power swap Q ship st racer
R had a 59 anglia with 289 that was mostly in the front seat area a little to much

a year or so later
mark had a hemi-cuda 4sp that he got on a take over payments deal from a drafted buddy

my dad had a facel II with a 413 that he traded a 58 hk500 with a hemi for +$$$$


other dads had a 427 cobra
and a 300sl gullwing

I had a bridgestone 2 stoke 175 then

[Heel n Toe]

My bud Dennis reminiscing about the muscle car days...

"The first thing every guy did to his car... whether it was a muscle car or a four-door Ford Maverick... was to take the hood off, lean it against a tree, and paint it flat black."