TonyinKC

I need to replace the left side exhaust manifold for my '65 396 car. Part no. ends in 301. Date code is not important to me. Must be a servicable original.

Thanks.
Tony

geopar

Tony,
I have a set of these cast in June of '65.
Let me think about splitting them up-----a nice offer from you might help make up my mind.
George
210 213 7004
geopar@gvtc.com

rayvaflav

Tony, I'm glad to see that you are posting again. I remember last year that you had purchased a '65 396 coupe on eBay against the recommendations of some Forum members and received some flack about it. Well, about a year later I saw your photos on the C2 Registry and the finished product. Sh*t dude, you do some incredible work and I'm glad that you tackled this project. My favorite happy ending so far !

TonyinKC

Thanks for the nice post. It has been a fun project. When I got the car up here from AZ, everyone called it the "mud car" because it was so dirty. I got the car from the second owner who bought it in 1969. He parked it in a dusty desert barn in Phoenix, AZ in 1972 and their she sat until I bought it a year ago. You could plant my wife's flowers in all of the dirt on the floor pans. The original white interior looked brown!

After I hosed it all out and cleaned it up, you could see that the car had really good bones. When I pulled the body, you could see all of the original paint inspection daubs and most of the frame number stenciled on the frame.

You may remember that much of the car had parts taken off of it, such as the seats and bumpers. They were apparently stored in a different locaton because they were so rusty. The car itself though had only minor surface rust. The frame and suspension were in fantastic condition.

The car had mostly original components including the original rear end, tranny, starter, alternator, exhaust manifolds and carb--all expensive parts if you had to go out and find them. I found a correctly dated block and intake manifold (the block's casting dated is about a month prior to my car's build date).

My good friend Herb is helping me restore the car. He's a muscle car junky. Unfortunately, we had a mishap in his shop two days ago, and he broke the original left side exhaust manifold (long story).

Anyway, I got a Chapter Top Flight at the end of May and I'm preparing the car for NCRS Nationals next month.

It's been a wild ride. I did about 75% of the work myself, so I saved alot of money doing it. I don't want to think about what it would have cost had I just hired someone to do it (what's the fun in that?).

Best,
Tony