67 Caprice 427 - Any thoughts?

[budnate]

Must be the one and only Don Hardy, used his kit to build a V-8 Vega waaaay back when.

[CC Rider]

Sure are a lot of hand prints on that car!

Thanks for posting these pictures, great story.

[67Z24rag]

Jacquie, looks COLD down there in Texas ! WOW what a find ! Cant wait to see it clean !!


Jon.

[kwhizz]

Jacquie................Perfect Power Tour Car......

Ken

[Xplantdad]

I agree! Don Hardy's old cars...how cool!

[Tarrytown SS427s]

Jacquie,
Here is a breakdown:

P - Interior color, Plum

M2 - Royal Plum exterior with black vinyl top

VIN - 43,783 vehicle out of the Arlington, TX plant

C - Cater 4BBL Carb

T0130IJ - 427/385 with TH400 tranny, assembled Jan 30, 1967 Tonawanda NY

ER - 2:73 Open rear axle assembled December 3, 1966, possibly with Metallic Brakes.

P - Assembly month code, February

67B329 - Turbo 400 (B=427) built 329th day of 1966

3 - Power Steering/Brakes
5 - AM/FM Radio
1 - Factory A/C
1 - Power Windows

Being that this car is built in Arlington, a BOP plant, there is a great chance you will find a broadcast sheet in one of the seats, but the best place to look is the back seat, as they have been found there several times.

Steve

[sYc]

Don Hardy was a well known chassis buidler, built cars for the likes of Dick Harrell, Kelly Chadwick, and many others, and yes, the man behind many, many Vega kits. I believe even Joel Rosen used some of his parts.

Sue is a very interesting person to talk to about the good old days of racing. We had a couple of nice visits when I was researching my funny car.

[Shevelle]

Yes, it was COLD in the panhandle of Texas where there wasn't so much as a twig to block that North Wind! Sue was freaking out on the guys for making fingerprints in the dust. They told her to stop chastising them and get her hands dirty and start pushing.

Steve, thanks for decoding the POP. I will get a photo of the vin, deck stamp and trim tag and Monday will pull the back seat and see if we can find that buildsheet.

Tom, Sue told us about Don selling the funny car. Said the gentleman he sold it to didn't quite get all the info about the car he wanted out of Don, so he took her out to dinner to hear what she remembered about it. We wondered if that could have been you.

Ken, great idea! Once we get her all cleaned up and get that AC working the Caprice would be a killer power tour car! Way more fun than Glenns 502 Camaro that we figured we would have to use. I hate riding in that thing because the only way he seems to know to drive it is sideways!

I plan to hang on to the Caprice and enjoy it for a while. I'm really looking forward starting the clean-up. The trunk lock is frozen and we haven't been in there yet. Maybe we will find some Christmas presents hiding there! We found a like new 64-66 wood wheel in the trunk of the Impala. Glenn wants to go ahead and sell the Impala but would first like to talk to Don and see if he is the one that put the 409 stuff in it and learn a little more about it...but Sue didn't think he would be too receptive. I don't think he was happy about losing his cars.

[RichSchmidt]

Calling Don Hardy a guy who makes Vega kits is like calling Grumpy Jenkins a guy who rebuilds engines.He built tube chassis race cars for the biggest names in the sport back in the 70's.

[Shevelle]

Here's a few pics for those of you who wanted to see the Caprice cleaned up. She's looking good Body looks really nice - just a few scratches and dings here and there and lacquer checking, mostly on the hood. Haven't got started on the interior yet...busy time of year to get much done. Got the trunk lid opened and tried to lift the mat to see what we had going on under there. Bad news is the mat shattered, like glass, into a hundred pieces It didn't look like it had ever been moved, but the good news was just normal surface rust underneath. Got all the fluids changed and as soon as we get a couple of hoses we'll fire her up!

We talked to Don too...nice guy! He had some cool stories to share. He said the car did 90 better than 70 out on the highway and that he got plenty of speeding tickets to prove it.

Sorry the photos are taken inside...but it was toooo cold to push her back out for a photo shoot!!