914Driver wrote:AngryCorvair wrote: do NOT cut the roof off. the coupe is more rare than the ragtop today. do NOT listen to foxtrapper. he recently had a head trauma. do NOT flip your grandpa's car unless he's cool with it. DO give it a proper cleaning from top to bottom. DO give it a tune-up. DO cruise in style. These are opinions, specifically *MY* opinions, and you do not have to share them.Actually you do, you'll hate yourself in the morning ....
If you do cut the roof off, do it like this:
I'd take it and do this:
Clean and inspect for rotten rubber bits
Replace rubber bits and bushings as needed
Replace shocks as needed.
Strip engine of any emission garbage and find a good 4 bbl and mani to set on top of it.
'High performance summer' tires that fit on the stock wheels (keep the wheel covers, too!)
Replace exhaust or just the muffler with something a touch louder
Smile a lot as you cruise and wave at the chicks
We did a lot of reading up on the 400M before we attempted some "performance" mods on ours. Unless you're running a hot cam and better heads and possibly a shorter gear, the 4 bbl manifold doesn't gain you a whole lot. The stock 2bbl carb is something like a Motorcraft 2150, and it's easy and cheap to rebuild- de-emissionify, and tune. For the RPMs that engine turned stock, you'd be lucky to need 400- 450 CFM.
Even a used 4 bbl manifold will set you back a hundred an a quarter, and a decent 4 bbl carb and rebuild will easily double that. For 40 bucks you can overhaul the stock 2bbl, and removing emissions stuff usually doesn't cost anything. Spend your $$ on a dual exhaust- at least then your ride will sound sweet.
If I may amend my above list to take consideration of actual technical information brought to light by volvoclearinghouse:
What he said.
I would hate to do much to it but fix it up and drive it at this point. It's just in too good a shape to be hacking apart.
Then autocross. Obviously.
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