My Dad (Dave) bought
me my first car, a 1976 Chevy Malibu, in March, 2004. The car
was only $200! Ok, so it needed some work, but we already did
a lot to it. The driver's window was smashed, so we put a junk
yard window in for $35. The weatherstripping for the driver's
window was gone. Nobody sells a replacement piece for this car,
so Dad used a piece of garage door weatherstripping; cut it to
just the right shape and glued it in there. Now it's almost waterproof!
The upper control arm bushings were completely shot, but the
guy who sold us the car supplied the replacement parts. Dad installed
those. He also replaced the radiator, spark plugs, plug wires,
distributor cap, rotor, vacuum advance, upper radiator hose,
thermostat, thermostat housing, pcv valve, air filter, fuel filter
and breather filter. Had a new set of tires put on. Took the
car to RufRoad Brakes & Mufflers to have them replace the
broken muffler. Also had them check the catalytic converter.
They said it's fine, even though it's almost 30 years old. Then
they said how some new cars already have problems with them...and
some new cars have as many as 5 converters...on the same car!
We also replaced the carpet, since the original carpet was missing.
The carpet is another one of those items that is not available
anywhere, so we used a $20 Walmart carpet which turned out pretty
nice. The front seat had no upholstery, just a big piece of foam.
So we got a seat cover for it. The dash has some cracks, so we'll
get a cover for that as well. We got a club for the steering
wheel and a locking gas cap for the fuel tank. We did an oil
& filter change and a transmission fluid and filter change.
The car had a transmission
linkage problem when we got it. I don't even have a license yet,
but Dad didn't see any harm in letting me sit in the driver's
seat with the car idling. Well, it popped into reverse all by
itself. Luckily, Archie was parked a few feet behind Gloria and
stopped the car safely! The linkage is now fixed, so the car
won't be going anywhere without deliberate human interaction.
Future plans for the
car:
Fix starter. The car
wouldn't start on several occasions. We thought it was the battery
but it tested ok at AutoZone. Must either be a bad battery cable
or a bad starter solenoid.
Fix left stereo speaker.
The right one works fine. Hopefully it's just a loose wire.
Take more photos and
maybe some video for the website. |