Bill Howell
Member
During my stay in Scottsdale for the O7 Barrett Jackson event, I found this car in the local paper. It was an original, rustfree SE that a guy had just lost interest in. He had redone the interior, painted the car, rebuilt the engine, tranny, new frontend, brakes, etc and simply stopped. It has sat in his back yard for several years untouched. It was love at first sight for me, I had missed out on one of these when I was in highschool. A friend had one for sale and I could handle the $1800 asking price but could not deal with the $900 yearly insurance cost. Strangely enough, back then a 72 400/4v was considered HP???? Right, all 220 hp....lol
Anyway, I had always wanted a 72 SE after that and I just had to have this one once I saw it.
It was absolutely rust free and somehow has never had any body damage at all, great starting place and I figured with the new paint and interior, I would simply hook the rest of the parts up, and be driving in a month, right? Wrong.
The internet is a two edged sword, while easy to find parts, it is also too easy to dream of stuff and suddenly they are appearing in a big brown truck in a week...haha
When I got the car home, I searched the net, first just to see what options I had with that motor and what I could do to get a bit more than the factory HP out of it. Next thing I know, I have a complete XV suspension ordered, and a new 392 crate hemi on the way. From there, the parts and pieces you see trickled in over the next two and one half years. We worked on it as we had time. It cranked and ran under it's own power last Thursday evening and now we are sorting a few things out getting ready for my annual show next weekend and then on to SEMA the end of October.
First thing I did once I decided to go over the line with the car was have a friend of mine, Jason Rushforth do a rendering of it.
Next, once the XV parts arrived we worked on all the required welding and fitting to get the frontend installed then moved on to the rearend. When we bought the rear setup, we knew they were not designed for a third gen, so we basically took the parts, cut them up and built our own three link setup.
Anyway, I had always wanted a 72 SE after that and I just had to have this one once I saw it.
It was absolutely rust free and somehow has never had any body damage at all, great starting place and I figured with the new paint and interior, I would simply hook the rest of the parts up, and be driving in a month, right? Wrong.
The internet is a two edged sword, while easy to find parts, it is also too easy to dream of stuff and suddenly they are appearing in a big brown truck in a week...haha
When I got the car home, I searched the net, first just to see what options I had with that motor and what I could do to get a bit more than the factory HP out of it. Next thing I know, I have a complete XV suspension ordered, and a new 392 crate hemi on the way. From there, the parts and pieces you see trickled in over the next two and one half years. We worked on it as we had time. It cranked and ran under it's own power last Thursday evening and now we are sorting a few things out getting ready for my annual show next weekend and then on to SEMA the end of October.
First thing I did once I decided to go over the line with the car was have a friend of mine, Jason Rushforth do a rendering of it.
Next, once the XV parts arrived we worked on all the required welding and fitting to get the frontend installed then moved on to the rearend. When we bought the rear setup, we knew they were not designed for a third gen, so we basically took the parts, cut them up and built our own three link setup.