Mods
initial D style paintjob
edelbrock 650 carb
edelbrock intake
valve covers
frankensteined together half melted stock half chrome alternator
botched exhaust
wide tires
led lights
nothing else worth embarassin myself over mentionin
edelbrock 650 carb
edelbrock intake
valve covers
frankensteined together half melted stock half chrome alternator
botched exhaust
wide tires
led lights
nothing else worth embarassin myself over mentionin
Build story
this is my 1983 elcamino i inherited from my grandpa, who passed when i was young. this thing was used by him up until the last few months of his life, then he drove it up himself to our ranch to make sure it wouldn’t be thrown to the highest bidder because he was getting his earthly affairs in order and wanted me to inherit it. when i got into middle school and i started caring about cars, my dad taught me about old engines and we practiced on my f350 farm truck, then when we had the money to afford GOOD stuff, aka the finest oreilly specials edelbrock had to offer, he bought them for my Christmas gift and we started the repair process. it sat in our barn from 2004 till about id say 2013, i forget the year but i was in 8th grade or so, with one window rolled down, the thermostat housing removed, and the air cleaner off. the thermostat housing was off because a ranch hand broke one of the bolts off in the manifold which was the driving cause of pulling it off the road, as it was being used occasionally before that point. we got it out, put some good ol maypop tires on her, and rolled her to the house to assemble the engine. i did it almost all myself except for what i was scared to mess up, which still included a few mess-ups. for one, i melted the alternator when i finally installed the battery because i wired it wrong. you should’ve seen the smoke and heard the noises that alternator was making before i undid the battery. anyways at that point we trailered it to a friend’s shop to undo my electrical mistakes and got it running relatively easily! didn’t even have to drain the tank, no distributor issues, no brake issues, nothin! got it driving somewhat, took it home, and continued to tinker on my weekends all through high school. eventually got the transmission rebuilt and i touched up the tuning because teenagers shouldn’t be trusted to tune a car lol. we even cut the front fenders slightly to fit 15x9 basset rims and some big ol tires to really complete the look. the car still only has 69,000 original miles, im not sure how much that means on a 305 but people always LOVE bragging about low mileage.
my dad passed a few years ago and since then the project stopped, its returned to my barn for safe keeping because i found a water leak on the windshield seal that caused mold on the carpet and forced me to gut it completely. i started filming the car when i started getting more seriously interested in Youtube, and the few people ive interacted with seem to really like the car! ive enjoyed making videos of fixing its wheel studs, trying out seats, driving it to "Mexico" because it hasn’t touched pavement or been registered since 2003, and painting Japanese letters meaning FREE BIRD on the door in tribute to INITIAL D. its been a fun project car that i never had high hopes or expectations for, but has just been a fun bank of memories and a good friend while i test my car knowledge and my filming abilities. its also been very forgiving, with my teenage tuning, bad electrical mishaps, and leaving it in my barn for months or years on end, it has never failed to be more reliable than anyone could ever expect from a lame old GBODY. i venture to bet that a modern lincoln or maybach or whatever couldn’t survive the unintentional torture younger me put this car through while trying to fix it up.
its currently in my barn sitting because id gotten the car to run very reliably back in 2019 and feel like the only next step would be to restore it or ls swap it, but i cant do EITHER of those since im currently pursuing an engineering degree and don’t have a proper shop even if i WASNT a student haha. i just didn’t want to continue to pump money into a car that i know full well i can park for 2 years and drive again when im ready as if nothing happened. if i won something, id definitely use that prize to get freebird some extra power and maybe even begin the process of retiring the old 305. thanks for reading!
my dad passed a few years ago and since then the project stopped, its returned to my barn for safe keeping because i found a water leak on the windshield seal that caused mold on the carpet and forced me to gut it completely. i started filming the car when i started getting more seriously interested in Youtube, and the few people ive interacted with seem to really like the car! ive enjoyed making videos of fixing its wheel studs, trying out seats, driving it to "Mexico" because it hasn’t touched pavement or been registered since 2003, and painting Japanese letters meaning FREE BIRD on the door in tribute to INITIAL D. its been a fun project car that i never had high hopes or expectations for, but has just been a fun bank of memories and a good friend while i test my car knowledge and my filming abilities. its also been very forgiving, with my teenage tuning, bad electrical mishaps, and leaving it in my barn for months or years on end, it has never failed to be more reliable than anyone could ever expect from a lame old GBODY. i venture to bet that a modern lincoln or maybach or whatever couldn’t survive the unintentional torture younger me put this car through while trying to fix it up.
its currently in my barn sitting because id gotten the car to run very reliably back in 2019 and feel like the only next step would be to restore it or ls swap it, but i cant do EITHER of those since im currently pursuing an engineering degree and don’t have a proper shop even if i WASNT a student haha. i just didn’t want to continue to pump money into a car that i know full well i can park for 2 years and drive again when im ready as if nothing happened. if i won something, id definitely use that prize to get freebird some extra power and maybe even begin the process of retiring the old 305. thanks for reading!