Automotive Attention Deficit Disorder

I’ve often said I have Automotive Attention Deficit Disorder, or AADD for the clinically inclined.
Though we did officially run Project Ford Country a bunch of times in August and September it is one of three unfinished projects occupying space at the Denomme homestead. (Otherwise known as CHR Headquarters).

So what did I do a few weeks ago? Add to the project list of course. When a 1966 Plymouth Satellite was discovered just a minute down the road, I convinced myself I had to have it. If you’ve read my Blowing Smoke column in Vol 6, Iss 2 (still on newsstands until early January) I listed a 1966/67 Plymouth Satellite as one of the Top 10 cars I’d like to own one day.

Not only has this Bronze Poly beauty spent its life on Vancouver Island with just two previous owners, it’s the only car I’ve ever owned built the same year I was. Unlike me the car’s been painted once (in the mid 1970s with some pretty sad mud work on the driver’s side fender) and had the 318ci poly motor rebuilt about the same time.

Sitting since 2008 and rarely driven in the decade before that, the car was definitely in need of cleanup but surprisingly solid. I actually smelled the car before I got a close look, as oxidization soured the fuel.

The owner had been storing it in a car port at his daughter’s house but future renovations meant the Satellite was looking for a new home.
It took a couple of days but I finally got the car for $1,400. Nice. We didn’t try to start it, though once we got it to the shop an oil change, new points, battery and fuel pump had it running. As you can see on our video page, that little 318 has good torque and despite needing a tune up and fresher gas can perform a one-tire fire with aplomb. Still smells though, so I can’t leave it in the shop overnight which is just as well, as Patty’s loving her new heated and enclosed parking spot. Damn, now I’ll never get her Focus out of there.

A few days of driving led to a puked heater core (on order thanks to National Moparts Inc in Beaverton, ON) but I bypassed it and put three months insurance on the car.

I plan to drive it until the weather says I can’t or until I burn through that tank of old/new gas. Once it’s empy I’ll pull the tank and get it cleaned out so I can get it back in the shop for some brake work, engine bay detailing and interior cleanup.

Future plans include finding a 4-barrel intake for the 318 poly, wheels and tires and then eventually a different motor and a Hotchkis Total Vehicle System suspension upgrade.

We’ll feature the changes in the magazine and when the next good deal rears its ugly head I’m going to
try real hard to ignore it. Patty says she’ll help me with that.
She’s not a big fan of my AADD but hopefully a few passes down the track next year in the Project 1963 Rambler wagon will change her mind.

A guy can dream.

 

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