The Crusty Cuda: Whole lotta Shakin' (N96) Goin' on!

[mockingbird812]

Your ‘cuda looks DAZZLING!

[njsteve]

I got the updated original Prestolite cast iron dual point (now with Pertronix) installed and she started right up. I set the timing and then adjusted the idle mixture. That took a little thinking since the carb only has a vacuum port for the distributor's ported vacuum and the car has manual brakes, so no manifold fitting either. I ended up pulling the pipe plug from the intake and installing a GM vacuum fitting (I think it's from a GM?) and routed the vacuum gauge to that so I could see what the highest reading was while adjusting mixture. I got it up to 19 inches of vaccum at 1500 rpm. I then set the idle back down to the factory 900 rpm. I think I'll leave the fitting there for the moment with a rubber cap on it, in case I need to readjust the mixture again in the near future.

[njsteve]

Well, plans for the audio system sort of evolved. I received the NOS Audiovox Amp but one channel wasn't working - so much for 50 year-old electronic equipment. Even with the one channel hooked up, it only raised the output volume by maybe 50% - still too quiet, and since it was plumbed through the original AM, it stilll sounded crackly.

So I went through my boxes of "crap I never threw out from the past-half century" and found the original no-name, K-Mart AM/FM Cassette deck that I had in my 70 Superbird that I drove to high school. Yeah, vintage 1979 or so. So I threw that in the car and hooked up the speakers.

YEAH BABY!

It sounds great. I then went and found my old stash of cassettes and located my favorite Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band cassettes from the same era.

Sure brings back memories from driving out to the Street Machine Nats in '79, '80 and '81. I had that cassette running in a constant tape loop for the the entire trips. Nothing like hearing "Turn The Page" cruising down I-80, watching the sunrise.