Originally Posted by harbone66

Well the new ride is home and I spent about 6 hours last night going over the car top to bottom. Brian said he bought it 3 years ago out of Grand Rapids Michigan, his home town. When he bought the car it had a small block and a 4-speed. He thought it lacked power so he bought a 454 rotating assembly from a friend, got some 781 big block heads, all new stainless valves and some new springs, rockers and hardware. Stuck a shop prepped Turbo 400 behind it and took it to some car shows and the track a few times. Had a bunch of timeslips running anywhere between a 12.03 to 12.20's. The car is geared with a 3:08 so she would easily be in the 11's with different gearing. He hadnt driven it much this year (to busy winning a Top Fuel championship for Del Worsham I quess!) so the wife told him to sell it. Looks like somebody tore this car all apart about 10-15 years ago, installed a 1 piece floorpan, painted the car properly. I can find very minumal filler at the bottom of one of the doors and at the top of a wheel well. Powder coated the subframe and all the front suspension and put it all back together. The interior is tired but thats gravy work. The paint looks great and it is a super bright Hugger Orange. Brian custom built the exhaust after installing the big block and its a work of art! He obliged my wife and signed the bottom of the trunk deck for me and said to keep in touch. It was the coolest thing to happen to me this year and I think he was kind of humbled that the wife and I knew so much about him and the NHRA. I am going to restore the warped dash and inoperative cluster. Recover the seats and some misc interior trim. The under hood is perfect and he did a great job on the install of tucking everything away nice and clean. Now when he bought the car it had a "By Berger" dealer emblem on the rear panel and a Berger Performance sticker on the bottom of the hood. Might have to check with them to see if they have any history on the car. The paint has a scratch on the left fender that he did when reinstalling the hood and a small crack above a wheel well that looks like a tire rubbed, beside that its gorgeous! The bottom of the steel cowl hood, door jambs, inner trunk deck and everything was done very nice.



























I am going to remove the Z28 emblem from the grille since its not a true Z. Put the full bumper on the front since I dont think it looks right without the proper parklamps and urethane nose. Finish running a set of tailpipes out the back. Ditch the airshocks. Get all that done and I will be ready for some cruising in the spring. Merry Christmas to me!!! [/img]