Punky Manor - Vintage Stock Car - Tribute Build

Restoration Begins - Summer 2019

When I first stumbled on to the Gran Torino down in Racine back in May of 2015, I knew it needed a lot of work. I convinced myself that building an old dirt track race car would be a lot easier and less expensive than building any other type of street car. After all, you don't have any trim, no glass, pretty much no interior. It's just a frame, roll cage, engine, and four tires and wheels, right? Boy did I learn otherwise.

On my initial walk around of the car, I didn't think it looked too bad. The roll cage looked pretty decent, it had coil spring buckets installed on all four corners, and was already set up for racing. After looking closer and closer, I found more and more things that really needed to be fixed or replaced. I don't want to bash any of the previous owners, but the old Gran Torino Sport had seen a rough life!

Before I get into this too far I should present a little disclaimer. I know very little about the history of this car. I do know that it was raced on some asphalt tracks in Southeast Wisconsin. Before anyone is feeling bad about this classic car being turned into a race car, from what I have discovered so far it would not have made a good candidate for any kind of high end restoration! 

I will explain my above point in more detail in this post.

Here are a couple pictures of the exterior of the car as it was when I took over ownership.

And here are a few pictures of the interior structure...

Dash Area

Rear Seat Area

Engine Bay

Trunk/Rear End Area

In the process of prepping several smaller parts, I was able to locate a sand blasting shop not far from our home. I made the decision to to take the Torino down to get the frame and some other areas blasted before I hauled it home to my garage. 

After the sand blasting was completed, I could really see what I had to start with. The rear frame especially was pitted once all the rust was removed. The front frame looked much better, but still needed some attention. 

Passenger Side Front Frame Rail

Driver Side Front Frame

After pulling out all the old tin that had been installed by previous owners, I found the back seat area rather disturbing. I started having quite a few of those "what the hell was I thinking" moments! Before I let it overwhelm me I decided I needed a plan.

I decided to start on the rear end of the car and work my way to the front. Before I could start putting on any sheet metal, I had to determine where the rear tires would be situated so I could cut the wheel opening in the "new" quarter panels. Before I could do that I needed to install the Frankland quick change rear end. Before I could install the rear end, I needed to clean up the control arm mounts, reinforce the rear frame rails, fabricate fuel cell mounts and remount the rear trunk support and body mounts. 

In the picture above it is pretty clear that a lot of work had to be done to rebuild the rear seat structure because there is basically nothing holding the rear quarter panels in place.

Like the old saying, take ten steps backward to take one step forward. 

I have actually made some pretty good progress on that exhausting list above. This coming weekend I am hoping to put the Frankland quick change rear end together and get it in the car....wish me luck, take care.

Punky Manor - Vintage Stock Car - Tribute Build

Engine - The main challenge of the build (Part 2)

Although finding replacement body panels for the Tribute Torino has presented a few challenges, it's the engine I worried over the most. Initially I tried to find an engine similar to the ones Punky ran in his Torino back in 1974. Either a 427, 428, maybe even a 406. I was having a difficult time finding one of those engines that I could afford so I changed my plan a bit. 

I decided to look for a 460 cubic inch marine engine instead. They are easier to find and are much more affordable than a specific car engine that people are hunting for to use in their restoration projects. 

In my last post I talked about the two different 460's that I had purchased for my race car build. The 2nd and more recent one was running, I just had to make it look more like a car engine than something that came out of a boat.

I started the process by swapping out the marine specific parts for parts designed for a car. The water pump and timing chain cover were specifically designed to be used with OMC accessories and would not work with the engine parts I needed to install.

The OMC 460 King Cobra engine was also equipped with an oil pan made for a truck. The deep part of the pan was towards the back of the engine, where the car engines used a front sump pan. I had already purchased a new water pump and was able to use the timing chain cover from the first (Hardin Marine) engine I bought.

  
I cleaned the engine off pretty well and then masked off everything that didn't need or shouldn't have paint on it. 

After all that, I sprayed the engine with some old Ford blue paint.

Finally I bolted on the Hardin Marine Valve covers that I had re-chromed. I also added the Hardin Marine decals that I recreated, and a Mustang style air cleaner.

Once I had the engine nearly ready to run I decided that I should build a test-run engine stand. I needed to test all the components that were going in the race car as well as see if the radiator held water. I looked at a few examples on the internet and combined the best attributes of them all. 

Well, for the most part all the components seem to work. This is really the first time I've tried to build my own wiring harness. I still have to figure out the correct wiring for the alternator and charging system. Here is a little video of one of the first test fires.

Currently, I have shifted gears a bit. I now have the Torino home where I can work on it. I have decided to start on the rear of the car and work my way forward. I've had areas of the car that will be rebuilt sand blasted, but most of the body panels will be replaced. In my next post I will cover the progress I have made on the Torino so far. Take care