My '76 Chevy Cosworth Vega: Past and Pending Upgrades

[Crazy Vega]

Six years ago, my dad bought this car as a bare shell along with many other parts, most of which he sold or exchanged for other parts. Now, when I say bare shell, I mean exactly that, with the exception of having a hood, doors and windows. After having it sit in the driveway for a couple months, he began to work on it, and in order to show me how to fix cars, he had me help. After a couple months, it had lights, bumpers, upper and lower control arms, and even some wheels leaning up against in the wheelwells it so the neighbors would stop complaining. Slowly, I began to like it, and once I'd turned 15, I knew I wanted it as my own. After putting a dashboard and all of the internal wiring in it, I made a couple careful cuts, and put in a new radio. Mod number one. With some time, the engine, trans, rear axle, and other important things were added until it was roadworthy. Then, soon after, I began to autocross it, though I'd been racing since before I had my license (a benefit of private autocrosses ).

Lately, not much has been done to it due to school keeping me away from a garage, but I've been on the lookout for the parts I'll need once I'm home again. Hopefully that will be sometime soon, and I'll be able to post some pictures up. But, in the meantime, here's one from last weekend.

[Dsemaj]

You don't really have have "I AM STIG" as your numberplate, do you? It looks like a really clean and cool project car, a real labor of love. I'd like to see more photos!

[Crazy Vega]

Originally Posted by Dsemaj

You don't really have have "I AM STIG" as your numberplate, do you? It looks like a really clean and cool project car, a real labor of love. I'd like to see more photos!

That is my real plate. Two years ago I asked my dad for the I am The Stig shirt as well as the Da Vinci Code shirt for xmas. I ended up getting both of those, and the plate as an unexpected bonus. Before it had the plate "IN COLOR", which was pulled off of his dark green metallic Cosworth. Only a few of the Cosworths were made in a color other than black, so the plate fit. When we took mine out for a show a couple states away, we had insurance, but no plates for it. So, we snagged 'em from the green car. Same year, same model, same everything, just a different color. We figured that if we got pulled over, which we didn't, we could just say it was repainted recently.

The driveway was nearly empty, save my mom's burnt out van, which is just out of the shot, so I figured I'd get a good picture one weekend.

This one was down in New Smyrna, FL a day or two before that year's CVOA Round Up. (Cosworth Vega Owners' Association) I ended up getting the longest distance driven plaque as well

Somehow my car found its way into a Pixar movie, with the old plates still on.


And now for a couple upgrades that I have in the works.
An important one, which is already on the car are the reindexed cam sprockets. The improvement to low end power was extremely noticeable, unlike many things you get where it claims to add 1hp, or whatever, and you never really feel the difference.
One that I have in the works right now is switching from 4-lug wheels over to 5-lug wheels. It turns out that Chevy S10's use a nearly identical rear end, and as long as you get the 2wd axle shafts from an old enough model (pre-93 I believe), the 26 spline axle shafts will just slide right in. I already have the rims for my normal tires, which are essentially the same design of what I already have, just with an extra lug, although I have yet to look for any rims that I can get a good set of sticky tires for. (I'm open to suggestions)
Hand polishing rims takes a lot of time.....

Along with this will also be the switch from rear drum brakes to rear disk brakes, which... people say can be done using parts off of an '80 Cadillac Eldorado. Damn I love interchangeable parts!
Once the rear is built, I'll probably focus on a new exhaust system, made completely out of old, discarded coffee cans!!! But, in all seriousness, the exhaust system I have right now is an adequate 2.5", it just hangs way too low, and rattles ever so often. It'll scrape if I go over too big of a speedbump as well.
Once the rear and exhaust is done, I'll be switching the front over to 5-lug as well, again, using S10 parts.


Not mine, but this Vega was damn fast.

[Crazy Vega]

I found a great salvage yard just two blocks away from campus this week, and managed to snag the axle shafts and drums I needed from an S10 for under $100, tax included. Once I get this done, and I know it's working nicely, I'll replace the spindles with those from an S10 as well as replacing the drum brakes with the rear disk setup from a 1980 Cadillac Eldorado.

For those who are interested, Chevy S10s with RWD using a 7.5" rear end, made before '93 have 5 lug axle shafts that will replace the 4 lug axle shafts of a Vega without any modification to the differential nor the brakes, save the drum.

[JipJopJones]

Sweet car man. The vega is a lost treasure. It really has so much potential, but people just think Vega, crappy econo car that wasn't even that economical.

I like what you've done with it. Keep us updated.

[Crazy Vega]

Originally Posted by JipJopJones

Sweet car man. The vega is a lost treasure. It really has so much potential, but people just think Vega, crappy econo car that wasn't even that economical.

I like what you've done with it. Keep us updated.

Thanks, and I think that many people remember the rust problem that the Vegas had, as they were built with cheap steel that rusted much faster than it should have. But, mine will never touch a salted winter road. I have a '74 Vega coupe for that. It had some rust already when I bought it, so rust won't be a big issue.

And as far as economical... a Cosworth that gets good mileage?? HA!!

[MattD1zzl3]

From a expat born and raised clevelander and GM owner, godspeed

Cant wait to join you in the late 70's car owners club (1979 Camaro Z28 on the way) Keep us updated

[tigger]

Nice little Vega. The only ones I've ever seen down here either rusted to death or were drag raced to death.

[Crazy Vega]

I spent a couple hours today working on the new axle for my car. Though, most of that was taking time to clean up the 'new' axle shafts.

Here's the new axle. It's a 7.5" 4.10 posi, whereas my current one is an open 7.5" 4.10 axle.


Standard 4-lug Vega axle on the right, a pre-94, 2WD S10 5-lug axle shaft on the left, and a whole crapload of car parts behind.


A good look at the insides of a Vega posi.

And now I've got a 5-lug rear end. Really, really, really easy, actually.

[Bishamon]

Awesome ride!

I love seeing very uncommon older vehicles that have been revived and/or kept in great condition. I mean, 'everyone' is restoring old Mustangs, Camaros, etc. Not that I don't like old Mustangs and Camaros, but something like your Vega is way cooler.

[Cobol74]

Er the thing that has completely got me - well apart from you rather robust attitude to number plates is this line:

"save my mom's burnt out van" ...

OK do tell. ...

[Steve Levin]

I love Cosworth Vegas. Especially in black with the gold trim. But yours is turning out quite nicely!

Steve

[Crazy Vega]

Not this past summer, but the summer before, some jackass decided to throw fireworks into my mom's van, which she had forgot to lock that night. Now, I don't live in a bad neighborhood, but there are plenty of jackasses around, and through school, I was one of the easy targets.

I stayed up half the night watching movies on tv, and when Fight Club finished around 4:00 am, I figured it was a good time to hit the sack. Walking toward the stairs, I saw LOTS of flashing lights outside. Looking to see who had the misfortune of this attention at this hour, I found it to be me.

There's my mom on the left behind my car, and there's my dad's Pontiac Astre in front of the van that had caught fire. Enough of the wiring had melted to turn on all of its lights. A passing police car noticed the lights on, and upon looking closer noticed the fire before it got out of control.

The melted dash, the rear of my dad's van, and his car again (I moved it onto the lawn to get it out of the way of the firemen)

Melted dash again, windshield cracked from the stress of the heat and covered in ash as well, and there's the burnt headliner

Here's what used to be the instrument panel. Upon taking it apart, we found that the gear indicator was completely unharmed.

Heat-stressed windshield after getting cleaned a bit.

Remains of fireworks in the van.

Remains of fireworks on the street by the mailbox.


They decided to throw one in our mailbox as well, though that was the cheap, easy to fix end of the whole ordeal.
After a couple weeks.

The week after that.



My dad's van on the far left, my mom's burnt van in the middle, and my friend's van on the right, which stopped running and has strut towers so rusty that they would probably punch through if you hit a bump. We switched the hoods between the two, since the firemen pried the hood open to cut the battery cables.

Here's the van that we got the seats from, with my dad driving it at a chair covered in boxes of beer cans, and a couple fireworks on it.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...03408250531598
The seats are so permeated with the smell of burnt plastic that they're not reusable, though we have seats from our '89 van that will fit. We have a new carpet in it as well as a new headliner and most of the interior panels at this point.

[starfox07]

^^Why I hate human beings^^

[JipJopJones]

if that happened to me, I'd find out who did it and beath the living shit out of them with a tire iron.

I've always said, "Fuck with me all you want, touch my car, and your mine"

[prizrak]

Geez you got some very "intelligent" people in your neighborhood..........

[Crazy Vega]

Originally Posted by JipJopJones

if that happened to me, I'd find out who did it and beath the living shit out of them with a tire iron.

I've always said, "Fuck with me all you want, touch my car, and your mine"

Trouble is, we have no way to know who it was. The other problem is that my mom wanted to keep the van as hers. I wanted it as my own to make a convertible out of it.

[tigger]

That's rough man. I'm glad of course to see that no Vegas were harmed in the perpetrating of said arson. The world can live without Caravans, but Chevy Vegas ... not so much. It's pretty impressive that you guys got that van back together too.

Originally Posted by JipJopJones

I've always said, "Fuck with me all you want, touch my car and you're mine"

That's always been my personal philosophy too. I had someone screw with my car once in high school, once. I, fortunately, found out who was responsible and it never happened again .