What should i do with $10,000??

Personally, I wouldn't take out a loan that big and go that much further into debt in this crappy economy and sorry job market. Besides, your car is already really nice , finished and probably runs great and already reliable by the looks of it. What is there not to like about it? You should feel fortunate to have somthing that nice. I wish mine looked as good. But since you ask for suggestions here is mine.
The only thing I would CHANGE on it is the transmission. An overdrive would be the first thing to get for it and maybe install a good AC system, if you don't already have one in it, if power tour is one of your goals. As far a comfortable interior. If your seats are all vinyl, then just have an upholstery shop remove the covers and have cloth inserts made into them in the exisiting pattern either in black or red fabric. I would do at least those three upgrades and you should be good to go. Unless there is somthing actually broke and need of repair elsewhere. Spend only what you need to spend on it and don't tear the whole car down changing things just for the sake of changing them and fixing what isn't broken while having it laying in pieces for years. Like I said, your car is already nice. Drive and enjoy.

:horse: :horse: :horse: Yeah... Not to beat the poor dead horse more but I do agree with the other folks that are trying to discourage you from taking a loan to work on a project car.

Why? Well a few reasons. When you actually have to save yer extra change from yer pay check to do the stuff you dream about doing to the car you tend to spend yer money more wisely and shop around for the best deals and shop for stuff you ACTUALLY need and not stuff you just kinda like.

It took me 10 years of saving money and parts just to get my car ready to work on. The four link rear section from art morrison was about 3200 bare. Stuff the rear end housing and add 1500. Top it off with some brakes and its a nuther 600.

The engine???? To get a legit 500 ponies out of yer 1st gen block could go anywhere from 8000 bucks ALL the way up. And Im talking a legit 500hp 350. Thats NOT a good number for a 1st gen 350, they dont reach that high without some expensive help. I agree with the others, the LS series will give you the most HP/Dollar ratio.

Then brakes on the front half, you are gonna need them with 500 mules pushing yer car around. Thats a min of 800-1200 bucks.

And you mentioned wheels and tires, nuther 2400 on UP for some wheels and tires. Mine are not even close to great wheels and they are 600 bucks each.

Interior? The sky is the limit. But just some new covers and foam will put you put a couple hundred bucks. New seats, after market used seats, 300 a set. New nice seats? 600 plus..

Where Im going with this is a project car, even if its yer only car can soak up money faster than you think. 10 grand can be gone very fast and then you have a payment over yer head and the car STILL wont be what you want it to be.

Dont get discouraged because your car is not ALL you want it to be at the moment. To be honest there are alot of guys here and elsewhere that have cars that I think are perfect and Id love to own and they are still working on them a lil at a time. Project cars are NEVER done, until you sell them.

But they dont take loans out to get them there. They wait until the funds are there and invest (bad term cause cars are NOT an investment) the hard earned money when it becomes available.

There is something to be gained when you save up the money and use it as needed.

The worst place to be is slamming 10k into a car that you borrowed and the car still is NOT what you envisioned. Cause now you have this note hanging onto you like a blood sucking snake and you cant save the extra cash from the pay check to do some work on yer car.

IMO its better to drive what you have and appreciate it and save the money that you would be paying for the loan and make the changes to the car as the money accumulates.

The catalogs sent to the house (Jegs, summit and others) are "wish" books. Same as the old Sears catalogs back when. I would have some mangled up Summit catalogs, dog eared on just about every page. Just dreaming about the parts I wanted while saving my money. Then when the money was saved I had a firm knowledge of what I really needed and not what I wanted and bought what was needed.

And back in the day (solly to throw the "I walked three miles to school in the snow" thang) young men used to work two jobs. One (the full time job) was to pay the bills and the other (part time work) was to pay for the car's slush fund. That works and you can save up a pretty nice load going that route.

Im solly to be preaching. That was NOT your Q.

So a fast reply to yer Q? Brakes!!! A sound engine and some comfort in the passengers compartment, YES, doable... 500 ponies, a nice cabin AND suspension work? Prolly not. Heck a real 500hp 350 (more like a 383) that will live is 10k already (unless you want an LS and its still pushing 6k).. JR

You can certainly achieve what you want, you are closer than you think. For starters you steering has a good foundation with part of my system. Some minor upgrades with the upper arms and 13 inch brakes from us will knock out the front suspension and brakes all the way around. Next is the 4 link, take a look in my vendor area under Good Guys and you will se the triangulated set up that I put on the Chuck Wagon.

Next would be small improvement to the interior and then as others have stated an overdrive trans. You have to be careful with the engine as it could break the bank. So I would tidy up the rest of the car and then see what you have for available funds to put toward the engine.

This way you can continue to drive the car in comfort. If you go too big too fast, with the engine first, you may end up short changing yourself with the comfort. Let's face it a stock 4cyl. Can cruise the power tour at 70mph just like an over priced small block can...


I hope this helps shed some light.