Always dreamed of building a v8 muscle car, but never could afford it. Today, I came across this.
1971 ford crown 2 door hard top coupe.
Looks very "muscle" but it has no engine.
I can pick it up in kinda rough shape, but nothing unfixable or critical, very little rust, for around 5000 rand (around 450 dollars) from an old man nearby my place.
Should I bother with it? Buying it, fixing up the body, getting a V8 engine, have it mounted and converted, etc etc.?
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Side pic
Engine bay (he's removing the engine to put in his other car, which is the same car but better condition body and red paint)
>have it mounted and converted
If you are not going to do it yourself then don't bother.
I'll be doing everything but mounting it. I can't lift and mount an engine as I don't have the equipment. but wiring, calibrating the engine management, everything that doesn't require the car or engine to be lifted,I'll be doing myself
What kind of V8s are available in SA?
That's a Toyota Crown.
Most common and cheapest are Lexus engines. 1uz and 3uz being the most powerful under around 2000 dollars, with gearbox. There's also some edelbrock and chevy engines, but they cost well over 8000 dollars on average, without gearboxes.
>that front
oh jeez it makes a Juke look good
chances are that unless you do all the work it would cost more than getting a car that already had a V8 but I dont really know how things are in SA
SA is pretty terrible for anything automotive. Dodgy mechanics, a population hellbent on fucking up cars due to lack of maintenance, and finding a good car in decent condition with good performance costs around the same as buying a brand new BMW usually.
well this car with a 1UZ would be quite the rocket if you could get it working but it wont be cheap at all
How's gas (petrol) prices?
You can find 5.3s in literally every junkyard and swapping for an ls1 intake is easy. Getting the V8 in there should be easy
He lives in south africa...
Better than U.S. but still not too pretty. Little under a dollar per litre
Yeah, no. Our scrap yards have nothing to do with cars.
Any more advice anyone can offer?
Some people are telling me that the 1uz Lexus engine I can get will twist the chassis to shit, because the engine was designed to fit straight 6 or v6. Don't know how true that is...
The engine is 1uz-fe VVT-i LS400.
I can also get my hands on a 3uz-fe VVT-i V8, 4.3l with a 5 speed manual gearbox for not much more.
ive got a 8th gen Crown and own a few older Toyotas including a MKI Supra and have seen some swaps. 1UZFE apparently because of the oil pan design you have to screw around with the chassis of older Toyotas, dont know about that Crown Chassis though
whoever said that is full of shit, my 8th gen came with 1UZFE or a bunch of other engines like 7MGE, 1JZGTE, etc. doesnt matter. guy by me put a 1UZFE in a MKI Supra which i wanted to do on mine but said he had to fuck with the chassis on the front to fit the oil pan and wouldnt do it again
Buy it and get a sweet 1UZ.
Thanks.
I believe this is a 4th gen crown, as far as I've researched. Everything I'm reading about it points to it being stock standard with a straight 6 engine. Meaning I shouldn't have too much trouble with the length of the V8, but the width... Not so sure. Still wondering if it'll be worth it to use this to build my "dream" car...
Legit got goosebumps listening to that
looks fuggen nice, i thought it was a muscle car like a gto
This is what the body looks like, just with a lil tlc required (this pic is from Wikipedia). The pics are shit though, but it's not in too bad a condition. Not too great either really
I saw the all black sedan version used as a taxi in Japan. It was very well appointed compared with the Corona and Corolla of its day.
The front end is certainly distinctive and the car is very large for a Japanese car of its era. I assumed the front styling was intended to provided extra marker lights to make it easier to recognize and to indicate the size of the car when it was parked on narrow streets.
I dont know about NZ but that car is super rare in the USA.
>the 1uz Lexus engine I can get will twist the chassis to shit
That's true of any hot rod. Reinforce the chassis or don't drive like a moron, or both.
it depends on how the chassis is, a guy i know has a 1UZFE in a AE86 but that things reinforced and can hande it fine. my 1979 Supra anything other than the stock 4M engine the doors would probably fly off without reinforcement. if you think you have the knowledge on how to reinforce the chassis i would go for it
even here in Canada a LHD Crown is hard to find because North America only got them until the mid-70s i believe then they were Japan and AUS only, its only RHD ones that are slowly getting popular. mine was the first in North America in 2007 and theres a handful now
Wow, this thread is still alive?
Well, i Spoke to him this morning. He says "he saw the same car in Australia for 12 000 dollars, he's not selling it for so little anymore" to which I promptly responded "1. This isn't Australia.
2. You let that thing rust to shit.
3. You're selling it without an engine.
All in all, you have a junkyard dog, not a collector's poodle"
So my dreams of a 70s appeal v8 muscle car is dead in the water.
>So my dreams of a 70s appeal v8 muscle car is dead in the water.
As they should be. Don't bother with any of this until you own a welder and develope the little fabrication skills you'll need to make a new crossmember and trans tunnel.
Also don't come on here asking for advice on how to do anything more than "how do I change oil" because this board is full of morons almost none of them have done any custom work or fabrication.
He better be meaning 12k rand
I am a welder and blacksmith by trade actually. But the most fabrication I've done is furniture. Thought this could be my first shot at fabricating things that actually go towards something more than some suburban woman's "rustic appeal" lawn chair.
Nope, 12k Australian dollars. Think he's bullshitting, but hey. Can't deal with someone that dumb
>putting a v8 into a 71 crown
blasphemy.
put a 1jz in it.
heh i just sold my ms65 sedan it ran but it rusted to shit.
Thats mint user u from aus as well
>1jz single turbo private second hand cost: 22000 ZAR
> 1UZ twin turbo with 5 speed gearbox, demo engine refurbished from reputable company cost: 16000 ZAR
Nah mate, from South Africa. Visit AUS now and then though, every other year
yeah mine had the doors rust out, it was under cover too for 10 years
ironically everything else in the garage didnt rust
shitty 70's metal huh
Yeah, but for a car to rust in Australia, you gotta either live right on the coast or have real shitty luck. Also, Japanese metal from the 70s was pretty shite too, so there's that then
Try humid + wet 24/7 for a month then months of DRY
opinions shouldn't ever be wrong, and that's what always surprises me about your posts. you have wrong opinions
Lol. Yeah I suppose that would do it too hey.
mate it was fucked i could see through the doors and literally no water ever physically touched it.
Sad ;(
Are you sure no water got in behind the door panels maybe? It shouldn't have rusted up quite that badly
no it was sealed
interior was nice and dry as well.
Oh well sold it on to a aussie muslim
its with isis now ;(
Haha! Well if there's one thing Muslims are good for, it's doing up old cars. Whether they do it to look half decent, or turn them into car bombs, we know our stuff
only thing i like about the middle is is how our car culture is kinda similar
oh well when mad max irl kicks off its gonna be a even battlefield
Nah, white folk have the edge on that. We know bodywork and bombs. Y'all know engines and performance.
im a white agnostic breh
This is the comradery that I missed from Veeky Forums
SA user, what's considered a luxury car in your area?
Double bonus, you're less likely to have suicide bombers
"Luxury" around here is a pretty broad term. Not many petrol heads here. But in general, it's Mercedes and BMW. The "common man's car" here is the old Citi golfs and velocity golfs, sometimes the old E30 BMW, or E34. But those in decent condition is almost impossible to find, because they're used as what we call "spinners" which is the most retarded thing anyone could ever dream of, but hey. Niggers.
You snooze, you lose. Tough luck, pal.