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I was given the car by my mother prior to going to College in 1979. It
originally had 28,000 miles on it but was in rough shape and was purchased
from Matteson Pontiac in upstate Malone N.Y. The previous owner apparently
had a large dog and the interior was completely covered in dog hair. The
window side louvers were missing , the car had 3 different types of snow
tires on it, and the stripes were peeling. Still I knew it had great
potential.
I nearly lost the car in an ice storm later that year as a large
oak tree fell over it , totally encompassing the vehicle . Upon carefully
trimming selective limbs and gradually freeing the car to where it could be
towed out from under the tree, it miraculously had escaped even a scratch. I
found the pair of side louvers on a wrecked Cobra and purchased the rear
window louvers shortly after. Then I proceeded to add the Crager S/S rims and
Cooper Cobra tires. I replaced the original Cobra II hood scoop with an
earlier 1970 boss version with the built in turn signals. The wooden
steering wheel was a gift from my sister purchased from J.C. Whitney. I
built the wooden console on Christmas vacation from College in 1981 and
later added the wooden dash inlays using cardboard to create templates and
fabricated them from birch 1/32" plywood. The wood accent window crank
handles and instrument knobs are actually VW accessories. The gear shift
knob was created by machining a Hurst knob and adding the wood insets and
the plastic brake handle has been replaced with a real wood one I hand
formed. The matching speaker boxes complete the wood theme. The front bucket
seats have been replaced with 79 model ones mounted on the 76 slide rails as
I preferred the styling and the original ones were badly worn.
I drove the
car to Texas in 1982 and used it as my daily transportation into the 1990's.
I then had the car repaired from minor quarter panel rust and replaced the
rear deck lid. I had intended to restore the paint to the original color
scheme but was convinced to go with the new stripping after reviewing the
concept. The paint is Imron polyurethane with clear coat and was designed
and applied by a 17 year old in Baytown Texas. The motor has gone through 3
generations from the OEM version to a rebuilt highly radical 1966 Hi-Po 289
motor which proved a little too much for the street and delivered its share
of traffic tickets, to a slightly mellowed cross breed utilizing the
original block with the earlier high combustion 289 heads and factory 4
barrel intake manifold. The engine was completed with addition of a
competition cam shaft , Hooker headers, Holley carb and fuel pump. I have
continued to add many chrome extras including the alternator, oil filter,
power steering pump, fan pulleys and miscellaneous brackets, etc. I designed
the custom dash cover and made it from leather to help protect it from the
excessive Texas sun and created the custom gas cap and steering wheel center
cap on a computerized engraving machine.
The car now has 107,000 original
miles on it and about 7,000 on the re-built motor. It presently spends most
of it's days nestled in the protection of my Garage except for an occasional
weekend romp around town. I plan to begin showing the car at local events in
the area .
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