For sale is my 1971 Vega fastback. This car was a base hatchback 4-speed Vega and was converted to V-8 by a previous owner. I bought this car off eBay approx 5 years ago, it came from Michigan.
The car has a 400 sbc with Turbo 350 auto transmission and B&M ratchet type shifter. Manual trans is set up to work best shifting gears manually. The engine has a solid lifter cam (specs unknown), Victor Jr intake, iron Chevy heads, HEI distributor, double pumper carb, single stage NOS setup which I never ran, but left on the car. New NOS bottle. Electric fuel pump. Roll control "line lock" is on the car. Don Hardy engine mounts. 12-bolt Chevy rear with stock type rear suspension. Aluminum rad with pusher electric fan plus a flex fan. Rear mount battery in steel box w switch at rear of car. Car has run high 12’s in quarter mile. Only ran a few times and I really did not push it hard.
I had an 800cfm carb I rebuilt with a Proform main body and installed. Additionally I put an MSD Ultimate HEI kit in the distributor. I also put on an Edlbrock aluminum water pump. To dress up the engine and give it a more vintage look I put on a nice set of finned aluminum valve covers.
Some more things I did to the car: I had the headers ceramic coated, gas tank has been restored by tank RENU (tank has a sump in it), installed AJE tubular front a-arms, installed Spohn tubular rear control arms, Spohn bump steer tie rod ends.
The front a-arms DO NOT have a sway bar mount as shown in the picture. AJE did not make the swaybar mount correctly. It was in the wrong spot and was not tall enough. I did not want to wait and have the car unmovable while I waited for AJE to correct their error. Since I had planned to mostly run the car at the drag strip, I figured I'd keep the front sway bar off. So I cut off the mount shown in the picture. Thinking I'd get the correct mount from AJE in the future...I never did. You'd have to fabricate your own mount or get a correct one from AJE to weld on if you were going to do a lot of street driving. I have both the front and rear swaybars, but neither are on the car now. They will go with the car. I put in a new pic with spring in place.
When I got the car it had a tall lift-off cowl hood. I really wanted to make the car look more like a vintage “Motion” like car, so I put on a fiberglass L-88 style hood, and a front spoiler. The hood was made by the notorious Showcars and does not fit the best. But, it hinges from the front and looks cool. The previous owner did a base coat clear coat paint job on the car himself. He did a nice job, but used a mixture of leftover paints and in bright sun looked oddly blotchy. The interior where bare body showed was much darker.
I really wanted the car to look older like it had an enamel OE like paint. I had been reading about and was fascinated by the “roller” paint jobs people were doing so; I tried one on the Vega. It is a Royal blue, and I’d say is a “10ft” paint job. As you can see in the pics the black areas on the body and hood. Those were done in flat black, but sprayed.
Wheels are aluminum slotted. 14” in front, 15” in rear with BGF tires, drag radials in back. 5 lug front conversion with S-10 spindles done by previous owner. Disk brakes in front, drum on rear.
This is a pretty solid car; body is in nice shape with no rust. Surface rust in spots on undercarriage, like most any car. Battery area in front was rusted at some point in life of car and was fiber glassed over by a previous owner. Rear has fiberglass fender flares. Car does not have wipers, got it that way, but I have a motor and wipers with linkage to go with car.
Interior is basic Vega. Seats are in nice shape, where probably tan at one time. I re-dyed them. No back seat. Newer carpet in back area. Dash pad is nice. Dash has shift light on top of it and switch and light for NOS system activation. Big tach under dash.
I got this car to have fun with working on and perhaps get more into drag racing. This car was not about being perfect or spotless. I had a lot of plans for the car, hoping to modify and learn welding and fabrication. But, these day my interests have changed, and I never have the time to get the car where I wanted it to be. I'm not selling because I have to. Might consider trade involving early 70's Corvette.
I have some spare parts I will include with the car. Spare grill, some new front and rear shocks, new air bags for rear springs (never installed), some misc brake parts for rear. Rear brakes are sticking a bit and I was gathering parts for rear brake job.
I also have a new set of Don Hardy headers which I will consider including with the car.
The headers on the car now were pitted when I got the car, I had them ceramic coated to help make them last longer, thinking headers for a v-8 Vega might be hard to come by, especially with the DH motor mounts. Last batch of headers Bob Grumm got Don Hardy to make, I ordered a set.
I will update post with more detailed pictures including interior pics when I get a chance to take picture this weekend.
Any questions please PM me. I’m listing the car for sale here first, hoping an H-body enthusiast with purchase it.
I have been on the forum since I got this car. If you wanted to search my posts use JohnP or JohnP2.
Asking 6,000
Car is in NJ
Thanks for looking
JohnP