A Conundrum with my Biscayne -- Opinions solicited

[Casey Marks]

I've been having sick thoughts lately about my '68 L72 Biscayne. Some of you saw it at SCR7 in '04, others may not know what the hell I'm talking about.

Here's a couple of pics from SCR7:





It is a 12,000 original mile, Butternut yellow car. Although it has 12k originally, it was raced from day 1 until the late '70's. Came factory with a *DP* coded 4.88 12-bolt. Interior is ALL original and gorgeous. Paint is about 60% original, with the only repaint being a dusting on the sides to cover up the "ghosting" from the original lettering on the car. It still has the original brake shoes and hardware on it.

Here's my conundrum ....

Underneath the hood it looks a little nabby to me. The DZ carb looks like a 38 year old carburetor. The *163* intake has obviously been the recepient of many carb tear downs and fuel puddles. I've got a process that I use with aluminum intakes and my Mopar aluminum manual steering boxes that make aluminum look like it was "just cast". It comes out PERFECT, and it kills me to know that I could mint out that intake and it looks like it does. But if I do the intake it will stick out like a sore thumb if I don't keep going. It's got non-EGR manifolds on it now, BUT I have the original manifolds and all of the original smog equipment that was taken off the car, literally the day it was bought. I really want to put all of the smog stuff back on. Like the carb, the underhood plated components look 38 years old. They aren't all rusty or crusty .... they just look *old*. There's some scratches on the inner fenders from it's race days, and a couple of other things that are kinda scuffed up from 10 years of racing. The rest of the car I'm leaving COMPLETELY alone .... it's just the underhood stuff that bugs the heck out of me. I'm afraid if I mint out one or two things it will snowball because it is all seen as a package.

So here's my question ??? What, if anything would YOU do in my situation ??

1. Leave it all alone and accept the fact that it looks like an old race car underneath the hood.

2. Do "some" things to kinda sex it up a bit.

3. Detail the engine compartment completely and make it look "fresh".

Keeping in mind, of course, I DO race this car at the Pure Stock Drags ..... as it was intended.

Thoughts ???

[TDW]

My opinion...Make it look brand new under the hood.

[camarojoe]

The whole car looked pretty sweet to me... If its bugging you, detail out the underhood the way you want it, and leave the exterior alone. It would also give you the "excuse" to put the correct manifolds and smog stuff back on...plus you'd be happier knowing that your underhood looks the way you wanted. JMO.

[mockingbird812]

Need more information. Give us a shot of your engine bay and let us have a better idea just how "bad" it really is. It has taken your car 37 years to "earn" that patina and you don't want to make a rash judgement.

[SS427]

Casey,
My opinion would be to either put it back the way it was raced, slicks, wheels, headers, decals, etc and leave the engine compartment alone with it's patina or restore the engine compartment. I truly do not believe you will hurt the value by doing an engine compartment detailing.
Rick

[markjohnson]

I would leave the engine compartment paint alone. I know it's been said before, but they're only original once. It's neat to see the inner fender/firewall paint that the General applied 37 years ago. Especially with the battle scars. It's just like they say about people, scars are the map book of our lives. Sorry that sounds so corny. Anyway is your car the same yellow '68 L-72 Biscayne that raced back in the eighties in those Supercar Shootouts held in Bowling Green? Somewhere around here I still have the official video of that race. I want to say it was around 83-85.

[Mr70]

Whatever you decide to do,don't think about painting it any other color.
I love that shade!

[Belair62]

Leave it alone......all we see is nice shiny engine compartments....all else is left alone....why do the compartment...I'll PM you some pics of a nasty compartment later on !

[Casey Marks]

[ QUOTE ]
.... Anyway is your car the same yellow '68 L-72 Biscayne that raced back in the eighties in those Supercar Shootouts held in Bowling Green? Somewhere around here I still have the official video of that race. I want to say it was around 83-85.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes it is. It was 1985, and had the stock stuff back in it. 4.88 gears, manifolds that are on it now, and 1 7/8" exhaust. Unfortunately, there are a LOT of missed shifts on that video, so it is kinda embarrassing to look at.

[txracer70]

i can understand your feelings about the engine compartment, iam also a very involved drag racer, and on a few occasions i have started with "mint" engine compartments, but ended up disguisted later from the hurry up turnaround for the next race. there is always a chance of jet changes and plug changes, pulling a valve cover, and sometimes tools get droppped on the fender wells and sometimes the fender itselves, fuel spilled all over the intake and motor. what i finally came up with is at the track the guys dont care, there cars look pretty much the same, but when i wanted to show the car i put me a real nice big board together with all of the cars racing history, little story line, alot of pictures at the track, and something stating that this car is still raced till this very day. it eases some of the burden of it not being the best looking car that it can be. after all we are talking about survivor car here right.