My love for the Chevrolet Vega began in late 2001. My father had after some behest convinced me that the third generation Camaro was more trouble than fun. Of course, I’d gone through the typical hand-wringing at smog test stations and one morning while at his computer he pulled up a picture and said, “You need to get one of these.”
“Oh cool!” I said. “A early second gen Camaro.”
To my surprise, Dad said that it wasn’t a Camaro but a Vega. The car was for sale in the paper for $100. He asked if I wanted to go buy it. Not one to turn down an almost-free car I said sure and we left to go buy the first of many in our combined collection.
The car was a ’73 non-GT Vega and had been sitting since the early 1980’s. It was in sad shape with at least four bags of garbage inside the interior, both front wheels were off (read: gone) and the front brakes were nowhere to be found. Dad and I still laugh about the fact that it took us $125 in parts to get the $100 car out of the guy’s yard.
Since the car didn’t run I wanted to drive one of these cars. My Dad had been harping about how fast they were and how they would turn people’s heads. I told him that I wanted to find a running car and he agreed to lend me the money if I found a car worth buying.
I started looking on the internet. A great place to look for H-Bodies is on www.CollectorCarTrader.com because the search is nationwide and you can search based upon year/model criteria. In late 2002, I found a 1972 Vega GT near Sacramento. The guy was asking $2500. In the picture the car looked fairly solid. I emailed him and he said that yes, he still had the car. Dad and I talked it over and he told me to buy a plane ticket up to Sacramento. The guy offered to pick me up at the airport.
I arrived fairly late in the evening. It was already dark and while I don’t like buying cars at night I felt that I’d be OK because I was looking for major flaws only. The guy obviously knew nothing about cars, telling me that he had a V8 Pinto and that this car was very slow compared to that car. When we arrived at his house the first thing he did was brag about his DeLorean—although, I must admit it was interesting to find out the car had a SAAB engine.
The Vega seemed to be solid. The body had little rust and it was pretty straight. The first thing I noticed was that the 5 lug conversion had been completed. I asked him about who converted the car and he told me that the previous owner told him Bob Gumm had converted the car. I raised my eyebrows but kept digging. The car had no interior. Instead, the guy had taken the car down to a shop and paid them to spray a rubberized coating like GatorCoat over the whole floor. The car stunk like chemicals. There was a B&M ratchet shifter on the floor and mid-80s cloth seats in the front. There was no back seat.
Mechanically, the car seemed to be pretty solid. It ran decent. I did notice that the car had camelback heads without accessory holes. It had long-tube headers and a 4bbl carburetor. The guy told me that he’d never gotten the car to run right so he wanted to sell it. He gave me a box with an Edelbrock 1406 carburetor in it. He also gave me a few other parts.
I wanted to see what rearend was under the car and took a peek. It was a 12 bolt. I stood up and asked the guy for confirmation of how much he wanted. Again, he stated $2500. I told him I’d be interested in $2000. He said he couldn’t let it go that cheap so I offered $2200 and he agreed. Steal! That rear is worth almost what I paid for the car!
On the drive home I noticed that the car had almost no power. It wouldn’t even spin the tires! It ran hot on the highway if I went over 60mph. The car revved very high on the freeway and I later calculated it had 3.73s. It was very, very stiff. Even with my then 220 pound frame on the fender that car would only drop about ¼”.
I had to stop and take rest breaks about every hour because the fumes were so bad in the car. Between the rubber coating and the leaking headers I was dizzy and nauseous. The car sounded wicked, though. When I got home my Dad and I looked the car over and noticed a few things I hadn’t seen the night before. First, the car had been converted to use front engine mounts. The person that converted the car also installed a lower brace that tied the lower control arm mounting points together. It was very stiff. Later, I found some racing seat belts stuffed under the seats. To this day I feel the car was raced.
I tried and tried to get the car to run right. I converted it back to points ignition. I ran an external ballast resistor directly off the battery. I tuned the carburetor. The car refused to spin the tires and had no power. But boy, did it sound good. Everytime I stopped to get gas someone would ask me about the car. I tried to not let it go to my head!
Soon after I decided to change the motor. I bought a 1993 Z-28 motor on eBay. The day I won the auction I was at my girlfriend’s house. She only had dial-up. Can you believe I won the auction by 1 second? I still have a screenshot somewhere of the auction bid times. The guy I’d been in a bidding war with emailed me and said, “Nice sniping! If you want to sell that motor let me know!” Of course, I was happy with a $660 low-mileage LT1.
I’d recently met a guy named Oscar. He ran a company called Dynatech Motorsports in Whittier, California. I didn’t know it yet but he was screwing people over left and right. His company specialized in converting LT1/LS1/Northstar/Vortec harnesses for older cars. Basically, someone would send their existing car’s engine harness and their new engine’s harness to Dynatech and the company would splice the two harnesses together. I had no idea that Oscar was butchering people’s harnesses and taking people’s money.
We made a deal. I’d build him a website for his business and he would convert my LT1 harness for use with my Vega. I drove my Vega down to Whittier and began the swap. After my car had been there about two months he called me and told me that someone had stolen my 327 and transmission. He said that the owner of the building he was renting wanted my car gone immediately. This was back in early 2004.
I went down to pick up the car and a lot of stuff was missing that I’d had in the car. My digital camera had been stolen. So had some of the LT1 parts. I was so angry. I stole some parts back from that guy: an LS1 PCM, a complete set of roller lifters and a set of roller rocker arms. I felt somewhat vindicated but angry at the fact I’d been ripped off.
The car basically sat untouched for almost 3 years. I hated looking at it. Just thinking about getting ripped off made me sick. My LT1 sat wrapped in a plastic bag. My T56 transmission was collecting dust. I just wanted to sell everything I had bought and drive my ’04 Ford Focus. At least it ran.
Last year I started getting serious about the Vega again. I had run into VegaRon, a member here on the boards. He has a really nice ’72 Vega hatchback. It looks almost identical to mine except that it isn’t a GT and doesn’t have the black stripe running down the center of the car. Ron and I talked in length about my project and he told me that I should get back on the car and finish it.
His motivational speech really buoyed my spirits. Ron’s car sounds deadly with the exhaust and gear drive. The 350 in the car lopes just perfectly and I really started to feel like I should made good on Oscar’s ill intents for me.
Early this year I rebuilt the front suspension. Since the car was already 5 lug I only had to sandblast the parts and reassemble with new off-the-shelf suspension pieces. I used Moog wherever possible. The only parts I kept from before were the centerlink, spindles and brake calipers. I installed new rotors/pads/ball joints and tie rod ends. I was very fortunate in that my car is originally from California and the cambolts came out with just a 3/8” ratchet. Can you believe that?
Well, when the suspension was done I decided that I should start on the T56 conversion. I used a sawzall and opened the floor up. VERY quickly I realized I was in over my head! I don’t know how to weld and have never fabricated anything more than stock parts. As quickly as I’d found the love again I lost it.
I posted on the board here on H-Body.org that my car was for sale. Some of the members talked me out of selling it. I decided that I should hang on to the car and wait for a more opportune time to pick the project back up. Between the T56 and the water pump problem I was just “over” the whole thing.
Last weekend I was at Ron’s house again, returning a set of Chris Alston subframe connectors he’d let me borrow. I really appreciate that, by the way. Ron and I were talking and he told me that his son Shawn had a friend that was pretty good at welding. He told me to bring my car over. Actually, I believe he said, “bring your car over, man.” Very cool.
On Saturday, October 13, 2007 I brought my Vega over to Ron’s house. Shawn and his friend Troy worked almost steady on that Vega! Yesterday, they finished welding the floor back in. I am so impressed. Totally floored (pun intended!)
My impressions about the project have changed a lot in the past few months. I’ve gone from wanting that bloody car out of my yard permanently to loving it again. I know it sounds fickle. Getting ripped off just put such a bad taste in my mouth. I can’t believe I still have Dynatech’s sticker on my back window. Maybe I should put an HBO sticker on?
I have to thank Ron and Shawn for their help. I also want to thank Troy for his help. A 17 year old kid renewed my interest in my car. For so long I’ve been a ghost on here, a co-admin but someone who just floated around trying to be a beacon for the hobby. Now I can finally join you all in the love of the “feeling.”
More to come. Thanks for your patience and support.
Sincerely,
Colin Opseth
