Introducing........RAT’S NEST

[NorCam]

Just read this thread and gotta say congrats on the find. Since the entire drive line is MIA, IMO it would make a great throwback car to it's earlier life and the semi original paint scheme. Restore it back as a 427 street machine with these colors. It's totally deserving of that. Or sell it to me and I'll do that.

[Copo_Cartel]

You have a great car I love that history especially watching it do what it was made to do congratulations on your find and the future with the car can’t wait to see the car

[R68GTO]

Thanks guys! I had a great day today.....my brother and I took the car to the home of the 2nd owner's son so he could see the car again for the first time since around 1974. The guy that painted the car red/white/blue was also there today - those two still hang out and race together nearly 45 years later.
I flipped him the keys and told them to go have fun with just two rules....don't blow it up or wreck it......other than that, go have fun! We spent a couple of hours together and I learned some more interesting stuff on the car's history. I'll post some more tomorrow when I have time to download some pics.

[69LM1]

That's awesome to see someone's face light up when they get to see their old battlewagon again. You probably gave him a great memory. Stand up thing to do considering these cars value today.

/Rich

[R68GTO]

You should have seen his mother's face when we rolled up in her driveway! She was there the day they picked the car up. She took her husband to get the car in her 69 Z28 (Cortez/black stripes). She said her husband complained when they got home that he couldn't keep up with her in her Z because he couldn't get any traction with those skinny 14" tires!
She originally thought the car we were in was her old Z, when her son told her it was the blue car, she about fell over.

[R68GTO]

One of the first questions the 2nd owner's son had after we arrived was "is there a dent in the floor pan under the back seat on the drivers side? When I told him there was, he proceeded to tell me that his Dad blew a driveshaft during a run and it hit the floor pan so hard that it dislodged the rear seat from the bracket on the driver side.
I was also able to confirm that they had added the engine torques bracket to the front subframe. I assumed a piece of chain was used between the bracket and the engine, but was told that they used a piece of flat stock instead of chain. I guess I need to ditch the chain I added and make a piece of flat stock!
Below is a photo of the 2nd owner's son holding his Dad's helmet that was painted to match the car & photos of the same guy with the guy that painted the car back in 1971. Just a note on the year.....while going through some other photos they had of the car just out of paint, the Kodak paper on the back has a 5/70. Now I'm wondering if it wasn't 1970 when the car was painted? I'll do a separate post about the scrap book he loaned to me.....lots of cool stuff in there too.
One of these days I'll figure out how to get these photos rotated correctly

[The Boss]

The cars are cool but it's the stories we get with them that are great!

[R68GTO]

As part of the scrap book, there was a pencil tracing from the photo that I posted earlier in this thread of RAT'S NEST leaving the starting line. I asked them what that tracing was done for? The son stated that he gave that to the tombstone-maker to have that image of the car engraved on his tombstone (2006 timeframe)! He asked if we could take the car out to the cemetery, which of course, we did. This car obviously was a big part of their family even though it was sold almost 34 years earlier!
As BOSS stated in the above post, it's the story that is the coolest. I just feel great having given this family a way to reminisce about their husband/father/friend that obviously meant a lot to them.
It is a little surreal that this car I bought to clone into an RS-Z28 has turned out to be a COPO that an image of it is engraved on a headstone in southern Ohio.

[The Boss]

Damn!

[mockingbird812]

Great story!