HombreCalgarian
Member
Hello from a classic car Nub.
Under a strong urging from my infinitely better half (the plot is similar to one presented here) – alone I would unlikely pull this kind of trigger – we acquired a 1978 Newport hardtop.
400 cid with Lean Burn computer delete; red on red cloth, good set of bells and whistles for the model, either 21,000 or 121,000 km on the odo. Not having enough experience with these I cannot be certain, but tend to pick the second number.
It was a BC and Alberta car that appears to be rarely driven in winter, if ever – no rust except for some red coating on the front subframe, rear drums, rear axle and such. Even modern cars with all the recent developments in rust protection start looking like this after 2 winters in the Salt belt.
To match the overall insanity of buying a car same as my age to use it as a summertime daily driver, we decided to drive it back home from Vancouver to Calgary under its own power, with our ‘04 Dodge Ram serving as a back-up loaded with a large set of tools, cans of gas, oil, ATF, power steering and brake fluids, antifreeze; and Class 5 tow hitch.
Happy to report that (probably because of all that gear and preparation, like it never rains when you have an umbrella) the trip went uneventfully, with the average speed for the whole route being a tick over 60 mph and fuel appetite hovering around 15 mpg. The big block had no problem pulling up the mountain passes and keeping up steady 70-75 mph with occasional bursts to 80-85.
Now due for the Out of Province inspection, I would like to ask the fellow Calgarians here if they know of a worthy place to go to for this, where mechanics are more sapient that your average grease monkey, will not dent, leave greasy stains all over the interior and will not bend anything underneath mounting it on the lift.
The "corks and features" as one popular blogger likes to say, are to follow in the next couple of posts. In the past it was a regular at the Reynolds museum history road, so if anybody knows any details about the car and its past, please share.
Stay tuned and thank you for all comments, advices and hat tips. It is my first real classic and one from the BFI era (Before Fuel Injection), so any useful information will be greatly appreciated.
Under a strong urging from my infinitely better half (the plot is similar to one presented here) – alone I would unlikely pull this kind of trigger – we acquired a 1978 Newport hardtop.
400 cid with Lean Burn computer delete; red on red cloth, good set of bells and whistles for the model, either 21,000 or 121,000 km on the odo. Not having enough experience with these I cannot be certain, but tend to pick the second number.
It was a BC and Alberta car that appears to be rarely driven in winter, if ever – no rust except for some red coating on the front subframe, rear drums, rear axle and such. Even modern cars with all the recent developments in rust protection start looking like this after 2 winters in the Salt belt.
To match the overall insanity of buying a car same as my age to use it as a summertime daily driver, we decided to drive it back home from Vancouver to Calgary under its own power, with our ‘04 Dodge Ram serving as a back-up loaded with a large set of tools, cans of gas, oil, ATF, power steering and brake fluids, antifreeze; and Class 5 tow hitch.
Happy to report that (probably because of all that gear and preparation, like it never rains when you have an umbrella) the trip went uneventfully, with the average speed for the whole route being a tick over 60 mph and fuel appetite hovering around 15 mpg. The big block had no problem pulling up the mountain passes and keeping up steady 70-75 mph with occasional bursts to 80-85.
Now due for the Out of Province inspection, I would like to ask the fellow Calgarians here if they know of a worthy place to go to for this, where mechanics are more sapient that your average grease monkey, will not dent, leave greasy stains all over the interior and will not bend anything underneath mounting it on the lift.
The "corks and features" as one popular blogger likes to say, are to follow in the next couple of posts. In the past it was a regular at the Reynolds museum history road, so if anybody knows any details about the car and its past, please share.
Stay tuned and thank you for all comments, advices and hat tips. It is my first real classic and one from the BFI era (Before Fuel Injection), so any useful information will be greatly appreciated.