falconvan

Yeah, I had the same car. That little thing was really reliable. I hadn't seen this body style in the dodge version, either.

I decided that with all the small parts I'm going to need and Missouri's law of documenting all the parts origins on a specially constructed vehicle; what I needed was a parts car with a clear title. I found this 1985 Omni for $175; clear title, and believe it or not the motor runs pretty good after just a battery and some fresh gas. Got it from a local car club member; it was his son's car in high school. His son died in 1994 and the car sat under a tree ever since. Actually less than 100,000 miles on it too.

Lots done today; brakes are bled and pedal feels good, Lokar shifter installed and adjusted, heater installed, and leads exhaust pipes from the headers installed. Just got a new job and will be doing some traveling so I'll be gone to Sacramento for the next two weeks. I saw there is a car museum and a train museum out there; I hope to hit them both. Happy Easter; Jesus is risen!!!

Mid 90s on the sway bar, be glad to post some pics of that and the heater when I get them installed.

Made a trip to the bone yard today and picked up a Jeep Cherokee sway bar; these work really good on these cars. I'll be putting this on this week.

You know, I really do love my son but is it just me or are today's youth unable to finish anything they start? He bugged the crap out of me to get going on this thing and wanted to help but I got about 4 hours of work out of him and now he's too busy to mess with it. This is after I dig all the stuff out of the boxes, buy several parts, and make a day's trip to the boneyard to get a bunch of little stuff we were missing for the motor. And of course its spread all over my workbench so if I want space back, I have to put the motor together and get it out of the way. Oh well, when I was 24 I was kind of flighty too, I guess. Anyway, here the short block is together and the head tore down so I can get it resurfaced. Having a clean painted motor on the stand isn't all bad, maybe I'll start on a chassis once this is done.

Great looking car, welcome to the forum!

Looking great; she'll be the belle of the ball at the car shows!

The old parking lights were pretty rough but I managed to get them apart without destroying them and after running the metal parts through a buddy's blast cabinet, they were still solid enough to use. I cut a hole in the back so a regular GM socket would fit, painted them and cut some gaskets. They came out really good. I also have all of the brakes plumbed except for one small line from the MC to the proportioning valve; should finish that tomorrow and get everything bled. Booster, MC, proportioning valve, and all the front solid brake lines came off of a late 90's Firebird and made for an easy swap. I also bought this heater from Southern Rods & Parts; nice and compact. I've been chipping away at a lot of small items on this and hope for a run down the street within the next few months.

Cool stuff! This will be more car based, basically a convertible two seater car with one seat behind the other, front wheel drive and one wheel in the rear.

Thanks; much appreciated. It has been a long haul on this one; going on 8 years now. Had it not been a gift from a good friend with my promise to finish it, I probably would have given up a long time ago. I dont even have a clue how much money is in it, but you cant take it with you when you go so you might as well spend it on something you enjoy. My goal is to be mechanically done by the end of summer so that all I'll have left is interior, glass, and weatherstripping to finish. Looking forward to that first trip down the road.

I talked about this a bit on one of my other threads and some guys expressed an interest in following the build. It's going to be a three wheel reverse trike using a 2.2 Dodge engine and FWD auto trans with a single rear wheel and tandem seating. If there's some interest, I'll keep the post going. Not a huge start but I had my son start putting the engine together since I had all the parts sitting there and he's been bugging me to start on this. We're going to put the drive train together and start tossing some ideas around for a frame design.

I've been off work all week and have been able to get a lot done. Wiring is pretty much all installed with the relay/fuse box I snagged from the boneyard. I need to neaten everything up but I can actually put the key in the ignition switch, start it, and have power to everywhere it needs to go. I still have tail and parking lights, gauges, heater, A/C, and a lot of other devices to install but the wiring is there and working. Also got some more done on the brakes, S-10 gas pedal modified and installed, plus some other misc. I'm off till Monday so I'll see how far I get.

I bought these seats a while back out of a 90's era Buick. I like the shape and they don't have a bunch of plastic trim around the sides. After removing the headrest and mounting them on some Astrovan pedestals, I think they will work great once they are recovered and the frames painted. I started to work on wiring but I figured I better get the wipers figured out before I start wiring under the dash. I bought this wiper assembly from a late 50's Desoto several years ago. The part that arms bolt to on the cowl was the same bolt pattern plus they are 12 volt rather than the old vacuum. I just had to come up with a different mount for the motor and make shorter actuator arms as this was 5" wider that the spread on the Plymouth. Got the mounts made today and everything trial fit; looks like its going to work.

Great looking car, Joey. Someone really babied that one.

Got my power steering hoses hooked up today; I took a chance and just bought the factory Cavalier hoses and were able to make them fit with a minor amount of bending. The pressure hose fittings were the right size for the LS pump which was also a nice plus.

All ready for cruisin' season; back to work on the 48 now.

Yep, time can sure get away from you, Paul. I was looking at the thread on my 48 build not long ago. In 2008 I said that the whole car should be done in 18 months. Hah!

Sounds good, Mike! Casper, this weather was perfect and I just happen to finagle two days off work to go with it.

I wrapped up several things over the last few days. It started out as changing out leaf spring bushings as they were shot and clunking pretty bad when you hit any kind of bump. I didn't realize it until I got going but the bumper had to come back off to get the spring shackles out. Then I realized that my fuel tank was leaking from an undetermined spot. So off came the tank and the bumper. After cleaning up the wet spot on the tank I found a couple of little pinholes. It looks like some rust pitting had started. Weird; only one small spot; the rest of the tank looked solid. So i rinsed the tank several times with hot water and Dawn and was able to weld the pinholes shut. Just for good measure I used some fiberglass mat and resin over the questionable area. Hopefully this will work long term; I did the same thing on an old fuel tank years ago and it held for several years. A new tank isn't in the budget right now. I also put the truck weatherstripping on. This all made a huge difference; it drives so much better with the front end adjusted, the sway bar, and the new spring bushings. Now for some new tires, the rest of the trim, and for now I decided to run a set of original 49 Plymouth full hubcaps.

Those look really nice, thanks for the pics. Your car looks great, too. I may have to go full size; I didnt realize it until I re-measured them last night but my front and rear rims are not the same. I got the rears off of a later model Crown Vic and they dont have tabs for dog dish caps. The fronts do, but they need an 11" cap. When I changed the rear end, the rims that were on the car would not go over the disc brake calipers so I had to get these. Not sure what the fronts came from, they have a Ford stamp on them and were on the car when I got it.

Thanks for all the nice compliments, glad you all like it.

98 Jeep Cherokee, 1"

Got my sway bar brackets made and installed today. Just a few more things to do; I've got new leaf spring bushings to install, the trim needs to be put on the car, and I'm getting new tires and possibly some kind of hub caps. Still thinking that over; I don't want aftermarket wheels but some vintage hub caps might look good.Then we're good to go for some summer road trips!

Great looking chop, it really flows nice.