Attempting to thin the herd(accidental shop cleanup content, hopefully)

Oops, I wrote a book.

So I think this family has a problem, or maybe just me and my dad, I'm not sure. Either way, I've realized there are 8 broken cars sitting around the house if you don't count my truck. Me and my mom have realized that this is a problem and are scheming of ways to fix it. I'm probably going to use this thread to ask a lot of stupid questions about a lot of stupid vehicles.

Anyway time for a list of subjects here.

2001 PT Cruiser My aunt gave this car to my sister, my sister didn't want it. It served as my mom's daily for a few months until it blew the top of the radiator off. We replaced the radiator, the fan, and a few other things I can't remember. Then we chased a few leaks, finally got it sorted out. And then we put new tires on it and parked here. And it never started again. Before it seemed like it would only fire on one of the 4 cylinders then last time we tried it wouldn't turn over at all.

2000 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 This one was bought from a sketchy "buy here pay here" lot guy that happens to be somewhat of a family friend. I drove it to high school for a while, then it suffered from an extreme lack of lubrication issue in the rear axle that resulted in having to put the first axle my dad could find cheap in it. Resulting in this truck having a 3.55 gear in the rear and a 4.10 in the front. It also had a pretty serious vibration problem that I always thought had something to do with the driveshaft. Long story short, It chucked the rear driveshaft at 75mph on I-65 and possibly killed the transfer case in the process. I think mom actually wants this one to be saved rather than disposed of. So we've been looking for a transfer case and another axle with a 4.10 gear.

1991 Oldsmobile Bravada Currently the only one I think we have a plan to get rid of. My grandpa bought it as a project, kept it for a few years. When he passed away my dad bought it. I drove it for a few months before I bought my truck. I bought 2 new tires for the front planning on getting the rears with my next paycheck until it overheated on the way to class with apparently almost no oil and very little water in it. I haven't taken the time to look into what I broke yet, but I think it's been decided that we're going to fluff this one up and sell it ASAP.

1995 BMW 325iA Cabrio This one has an engine that was overheated repeatedly by the previous owner and a sketchy title situation, I think it's probably going to get parted and scrapped.

1986 Pontiac Firebird This was my $800 project car until I got pretty deep into it and THEN realized that it's got rust all through it. It probably needs floors, passenger side lower quarter and inner fender, rear lower control arm mounts, and the driver side inner fender. There's also a hole in the drivers side a pillar, but somehow the battery tray is solid. I believe it's going to see the same fate as the E36 after we pull the 350 and TH350 from it for use in something else.

1996 Jeep Cherokee This one was a daily driver with 275k miles. It started to be a drag car project (with that 350/Th350 from the firebird). We haven't decided if that's still happening or not, but the 4.0 and AW4 have already been pulled and most of the engine bay wiring has been stripped, So I think I want to go ahead and finish it.

Oh and I really need to clean this place up and put some kind of door on the garage.

Thank you for reading my book, I think I forgot to ask any questions with this post, but I probably will later.

what about that nissan?

'79 280ZX, probably staying right in that corner until further notice. Dad's car, none of my suggestions have been taken seriously.

Holy GRM Playground Batman...

I actually need to figure out how much rust is too much rust on that Firebird. Because part of me wants to see if I can just patch the worst of the holes and sneak it into Cam-C.

So I crawled under the grey truck looking for answers. I don't have any yet but I do know that whatever happened here was violent.

Your neighbors must love you.

Luckily most of the mess is far enough away from the road and we have enough trees that they can't see most of it unless they come up to the house.

Not much to say but thank you for making me realize my yard and garage aren't as bad as my wife makes them out to be..

Pic n pull might be a good place to check for the Dodge. Last time I was there local to me there were about 5 1500 4x4 with the running gear still intact.

that bravada looks pretty rust free (from that picture atleast) and would probably make a good candidate for a v8 swap and make a sweet awd 4 door typhoon clone.

I'd pick one project and get rid of the rest. Once you finish that one (or at least get it running and more or less sorted out) start looking for the next project. You're not the only one getting rid of projects and you can snatch one up then.

Cleanliness is next to godliness! Or so they say....

Godspeed soldier!The first step is admitting you have a problem.

The worst part is, only the red truck is mine, I just live with the others and my mom complaining about them. Thus, what happens to these really isn't up to me, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have my hands in most of it if anything is going to actually happen. Dad's decided the Firebird is too far for what he cares about so we're removing anything that might be of value and scrapping the rest. So I think tomorrow's project is going to be pulling that engine/trans for the 2nd time.

EDITED: added more words

So um

1) 4.3 V6 front accessories fit on a Gen 1 SBC, right?

2) 350 bolts up the stock 700r4?

3) One could theoretically stretch the 4.3 oil pan to fit on the 350?

Anything special I need to know to make the TBI work on a 350 that has a 4 barrel on it right now?

I was going to suggest skipping the hassle of putting the small block in the Cherokee and putting it in the Bravada instead. Is that where you're going with this?

Also, i would scrap everything else but the PT because the PT can be fixed easily and then sold for 1500+.

Yes that is where I'm going with this. Though the XJ is lighter and I would be more ok with putting a Hemi scoop on it. Looks like the grey truck is going to be a parts truck for another truck I found. (Going slightly backwards, but oh well.)

I think the small block bravada is an excellent idea. Make sure to install a higher-stall converter while the engine is being swapped!!

The XJ may be lighter but you'll have more cheap-thrills fun hooking the torque with Bravada AWD and a high-stall converter (cheaper than a set of drag radials, i might add..), then feeling the top end 'pull...' of a near-stock small block in a 3000 lb jeep. My .02.

To do a 4.3 to v8 swap on a TBI you just need a different distributor, a different computer or chip for the computer, and maybe extend some wires. You'd need a tbi intake manifold. You could buy an adapter for the carb manifold but a stock tbi manifold at the junkyard would actually be cheaper.

I think the Jeep being a 2 door 2wd with almost no options puts it a bit below 3,000lbs, I've never actually weighed it though so I'm not sure. But I guess the headaches I'd have with the Bravada have mostly been figured out by somebody else on the internet already. So there's that.

Been there! Except mine was 64 cars and no real place to work on them!

Just a couple of teaser pics. There is more, but it would take all day to post.

Feel better about your mess yet?

Bruce

Yeah I think I'm just going to show mom this post and call the problem fixed.

Not so fast Dude! I pushed through 9 cars and have 5 more ready for the scrap yard, got a good working area and got rid of a lot of crap.

I was just pointing out I started way worse than you and made good progress.

Got "this side of the fence" cleaned up and a plan that works!

Actually is cleaner than this recent pic.

Bruce

Yeah as soon as I quit being lazy I'm going to pull the engine/trans from the Firebird like I said was going to do tuesday(it rained a bit). The grey truck is probably getting scrapped after I pick it clean to fix another truck I'm probably going to buy tomorrow. The Bravada is more than likely going to get it's current electrical issue sorted out and new rear tires then stick around mostly as a backup car. (if you can start it and move it out of the way, it's not nearly as big of a problem having it around)

Then that leaves the PT, Jeep, and E36.

EDIT: Put a new battery in the Bravada yesterday and it just started after sitting all night. I believe it was the hot wire going to the dome light switch shorting against the body that drained the battery, and then my dad repeatedly jump starting it and letting it run for just a couple minutes before it drained again that killed it. Making the dome light work again later is going to be real annoying, but I think it can keep a battery in it now.

Everything but the truck looks like either scrap or good money after bad.

Sell/scrap/part everything until the property is clean and then put the moeny into buying the parts for the truck.

What you might find is that if you toss the truck into the same scrap-heap, you end up with enough $$$ to actually buy a running version of the truck.

Try to do one thing a day. Some days you spend all day only to realize the problem was a 10 minute fix and others you finally jump on that one thing that seems like it will take all day and fix it in 10 minutes! Then there is the truly hard stuff...but ya gotta do it anyway.

Bruce

So I'm pretty sure the reverse staggered tire combo the Bravada has right now is sort of killing the transfer case (I was fairly certain this was going to be a problem as soon as saw the tire shop guy roll it out with the new front tires on it) So I should probably park that until I can get 2 more tires next pay day. If I'm wrong, please correct me.