Pictures of my friends' and families cars and their descriptions.  My Monte is at the bottom of the homepage.

 

Dad's Custom '51 Chevy Sedan, featured in American Rodder and seen in other nationwide magazines.

 

It's a '51 Chevy Sedan that he bought in 1983 and totally reworked and customized.  He did most of the work himself and made the car as if it were from the '50s.  The other picture is his and my car sitting side by side at our yearly car show in Gettysburg, PA.  He first started out with the car seen below:

As you can see, the car looks like a totally different car and has come a long way from being original looking.  Here are the many modifications:

• '55 Chevy Headlight rings                                                           •   '50 Ford taillights
• '55 Buick side chrome                                                                  •   Shaved, peaked and decked hood
• '59 Chrysler Imperial Grille                                                         •   Shaved door handles
• '53 Chevy Grille shell                                                                    •  Sunken antenna                                                               
• The custom scoops in front of the rear quarters                     •  '55 Dodge Lancer Hubcaps
• '50s style flat turquoise paint                                                   •  Roll and pleat white interior
• Lowered about 8'' in front and about 5'' in rear                        •  White scallops pinstriped in magenta
• Peach pin striping Von Dutch style                                            •   Teardrop Spotlights

Dad's latest project was removing the old '62 235 six cylinder and three speed to make room for the 305/312 that was suppose to go in my '94 S-10.   He sold the 235 and trans to a guy and bought a cross member and motor mount kit for a SBC.  

Jimbo's  '69 El Camino

Its got a 355 four bolt main  with the same heads as my car, aluminum roller rockers, domed pistons, Edelbrock Air Gap intake, ceramic coated headers, Holley 750 double pumper, TH400 trans with a 3500 converter and to top it off with a 12 bolt posi Monte Carlo rear.  Also, he's got an Super Sport hood.  He's running 2 chamber Flowmasters and 3'' exhaust that sounds amazing with the compression.  

Mikes '66 Mustang Convertible

This 1966 Ford Mustang has been sitting in the back of Mikes garage for about 15 years and then one day we decided to get it running and made plans to get it back on the road.  So we pulled it from the back of the garage and I took pictures you see here.  The car was originally blue as we found out later while replacing the gas tank but as you can see now it is white.  It has the original 200 inline six with a auto trans.  So I told him it was definitely worth fixing up.  All I did to get it running was buy a set of new points and condenser for the distributor and it fired right up.  We replaced the gas tank since the old one had gummed-up gas in it for years.  I'll work on getting better pictures.

My '94 S-10

This was actually my first car...that I drove on the road.  My Monte couldn't make it on the road in time.  This was a sweet truck, bought it from my cousin Wes, who had the body shop where I worked one summer.  This truck had a little 2.2 four banger, 5-speed, which I loved.  I bought it with everything you see, Bulliett drop spindles in the front, 3'' blocks in the rear, welded-in roll pan, tonneau cover, and SS mirrors. There was nothing "import" about it, no clear taillights or fart pipe, which I liked.  A nice clean look.   Not bad for over 200,000 miles!

While my motor was knocking like crazy, a friend from work and I began building a engine for it.  He had a 305 out of a Monte Carlo that was already remanufactured.  So it was pretty fresh, only 40,000 miles and bored .040 over already which makes it a 312 c.i.d.  We put in new bearings and gaskets and he showed me how to port and polish the heads and intake, just the intake ports.  We put a mild cam in it that came out of my Monte's first engine re-build when my dad did it and the Edelbrock S.P.2.P. intake manifold.  We painted the engine red and silver and I bought special S-10 V8 conversion headers and motor mounts for $250 and the T.H. 350 trans out of the same Monte Carlo the engine came out of. Everything I had had a little Monte Carlo in it! ...but not quite.  Two days after we finished building this engine...

Ouch.

A few days before my birthday, after I just put in new S-10 seats with my bald tires going around a turn a little too fast a tree popped out of nowhere! Totaled the truck and I ended up with 20 stitches in my chin where my teeth went through.  I was hurt and so was my truck.  I bought it back from the insurance company for $500 and gave my parents the money they gave me for the truck.  Yet I still owe money on it even today and the worst part is, I'm not even driving it! Right now it is sitting in my driveway with a car cover over it.  I took my S-15 and pulled the front end out and it still runs! I guess that's a good example of a Chevy, huh? I still have plans on fixing it and putting that motor and trans in, only after the Monte.

My New 88 S-15 Truck!

             

After I wrecked the S-10, I needed a vehicle to get to work since my work release in school was coming up soon.  My friend Mike's family had this little GMC S-15 at their farm in Deep Creek and they offered to give it me!  So the same day the insurance company called us about the S-10, I called my friend with a trailer and we went and picked up the red S-10 from the wrecking yard and towed it back to my house and the same day went up to Deep Creek to pick up this S-15.  Thanks Willie!  And thank you Mr. and Mrs. Willingham a bunch! 

Its an 88 with a 2.5 4 cylinder, incredibly slower than the ole' S-10 and guess what--5 speed! She smoked the quarter mile in 19.50 seconds with Willie driving!!! Gotta love that, slow or not.  Anyway, it still needed a lot of work to get it on the road since it was sitting so long.  The entire underside and frame were just flaking off rust.  I ended up putting brake lines on it, rotors, drums, brake pads, shoes, brake hardware, a tune up, trans seal, and more.  The rear end cover actually rusted through so I took the one off my red S-10 to put on.  I took all the brake parts and gas tank from the red S-10 too as the gas tank started leaking through a rust hole when I was driving it.  I bought a set of deep Cragers for $100 from a junkyard and some bigger tires and its looking pretty good now.  Its a beater, nothing more.  I had to put front brake lines on it after one busted luckily while sitting at a traffic light.  I also put in a radio a friend I work with at Miller Brothers gave me and threw a CB in it dad had laying around.  Look for me around town with all kinds of stickers on the tailgate from manufacturers from parts for the Monte!  Not import stickers, but American part stickers.

Ryan's 88 Buick Reatta

         

This is what my buddy Mike and I drove back from Las Vegas and my graduation gift from my Aunt & Uncle.  Our trip was awesome.  This car took us over 3,000 miles to see the Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Bodera Volcano, Nashville, Memphis, Amarillo, Albuquerque, and all over the U.S.!  This is somewhat of a rare car, only being made 4 years (88-91) and in 88, the year mine is, they only made 4,708 of them and in 1991 they made a lot less than that.  It is a really unique and awesome car.  This is a two seater, two door, front wheel drive Buick! When we think of Buick we think of a big Grandma's car.  This is Buick's sports car.  In 90 and 91 they came in convertibles, very nice.  In 88 and 89, they had a touch screen CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitor in the dash that includes the climate control, radio, gas mileage information, gauges and more.  You may say, okay well new cars have all of this but this is a 1988 we're talking about! The car was $26,000 new in 88!  It has fully power seats, cruise control of course, pop-up headlights, 4 wheel disc brakes, digital dash, heated mirrors and plenty more.  It has a 3.8 V6 that does pretty good too.  With 115,000 miles and counting, it's a great car and is surprisingly comfortable for a small car.  I love it, thank you Uncle Mike and Aunt Dotti!

John's 1986 Buick T-Type and Fathers 2005 C6 Corvette

This car belongs to a friend from college.  The bottom picture shows his 3.8 Turbo which propels the 8.5 T-Type posi rear to do sweet buuhrnouts.  Mods are 3'' exhaust with a 3'' downpipe and Flowmaster original 40 Series with high flow cat.  Poston ceramic headers get that exhaust flowiing where the ATR 14'' intake sucks air in.  John's bank account is bracing itself for the performance rebuild for the summer of 2006.  He plans on Comp Cam, all new valve train, forged pistons, rods & crank.  The only thing after this is a new 2004-R trans which should put this car down in the 12s with the right set of tires.  This was a garage kept car bought new by his dad in '86 and wasn't afraid to be driven with almost 130,000 miles and going on it. 

The new Corvette next to the T-Type is Mr. Tringali's retirement gift to himself.  It has the 400HP LS2 backed by a 6 speed.  He got the Z51 package which includes cross drilled rotors, performance suspension, and the independent 3.42 rear.   The paint is LeMans blue and was one of the first to leave the factory line in Bowling Green, Kentucky for the new body style. 

Dan's '79 Malibu

I went to high school with the guy in near lane.  His Malibu has a 350 and new posi rear.  Above, myself and Dan are just finishing up our burnout to get ready to stage.  He sprayed his car in black primer with gold hockey stripes.  He added the Corvette hood scoop and spoiler.  We had some good times cruising in the rain in Ocean City, can't wait until next time.