1970 Ford Torino: The Vision

Track the Progress of 'The Vision'

The demise of my beautiful and slightly modified 1996 Impala SS was truly sad, and a testament to my own stupidity. But the silver lining on this tragedy was that Stacey now did not have to ride in a "pimp mobile" and the payout for the car was about what I had paid for it 3 years prior. This provided a significant amount of money for the down payment on a house which then allowed my wife Stacey to finally realize her dream of getting dogs.

While Stacey basked in the fun of cleaning up dog pee and barf in our new home, I was back to having the one vehicle, the ever present Bronco in all its oxidized glory. Don’t get me wrong, I love driving that truck, but our new home had a three car garage. That empty space was just sitting there waiting for a vehicle.

The future was obvious; I needed to have a new project vehicle. So I started thinking about what I would like to do and a couple ideas came to mind. One was working on a former police cruiser. Basically the cop version of my former Impala, but the idea of having a vehicle with the residue of vomit from countless meth addicts was kind of turning me off on this idea. I also thought about maybe getting a caprice classic circa late 70's. But the labyrinth of vacuum hoses for vehicles of that time coupled with the inflated price they were fetching, due to the interest and theft by gang bangers, made me reconsider.

What started to formulate were the following criteria. The car for me had to be:

Cheap (So a new Impala SS was just too far out of my price range.)

Smog exempt. I could do whatever the hell I wanted and not get hassled by the MAN. This meant pre 1973.

Something that was not a collectible as I planned to do some serious changes to any vehicle. I would not want to ruin an original collective muscle car.

Powerful. Nothing smaller than 350 cubic inches.

Something that would look good in black. Lots of black.

A car I had been mildly interested in off and on since being a teenager was the Ford Torino. Not the Starsky and Hutch version but a version made only for two years in 1970 and 1971. The interest in this car probably originated from my opinion that out of all the American iron made, this car bore the most similarity to the Australian Ford Falcon used in the Mad Max movies. These movies and their world based on smashing cars was a bit of a childhood obsession and it left an imprint.

I therefore started my search. I discovered that the 1970/71 Torino came with a GT option which was more sporty, but also more pricey and collectible version. Given my interest in NOT cutting up a collectible I started looking at the standard version. I also found out that the standard Torino came with an engine up to 429 cubic inches in size. That was for me.

I quickly found a greenish 1970 Torino with a 429 in Montana, but the owner was not interested in shipping. After searching for about half a year the "perfect" car appeared -- a 1970 Brougham edition with the 429. I called and the car sounded perfect. The current owner was a mechanic who bought it from his mechanic buddy who bought it from the original owners when I believe one of them passed away. The car was in San Diego so I flew down site unseen and purchased the car from an extremely nice and honest man. I then drove the car all the way from San Diego back to Napa. I am sure my wife Stacey thought I was nuts driving a 30 plus year old car on a 10 hour trip. But it made it without incident and then the project began.

First let me say, my wife Stacey immediately wondered why I bought "Grandpa's car". The beige paint job, white vinyl roof, beige interior complete with bench seat does not exactly scream "cool" to your average person. But, that’s when I told her about "the vision". When I looked at this beige on beige grocery getter for some elderly couple, I saw a black on black muscle car. I have this "vision" yet sadly Stacey has yet to see it.

The overall plan is to use most of the original stuff in this car. This is not going to be some Pimp-my-Ride DVD player, Recaro seats, bling bling car. It will still have its original column shifter, bench seats, etc. But I will bring out the muscle car within. Sort of like a makeover where you turn the nerdy girl into a beauty contest winner or porn star.

Right now I am doing stuff that is more time intensive but cheaper. But down the road I envision a single turbo charged fuel injected rebuilt 429 motor with a redone transmission riding in a matte black package. Check back regularly to see the progress of "the vision".