A dusty little corner of the Internet: electronics, computer hardware and software, general aviation, 1980's Mopars, and related sundry.
Automotive
1986 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z C/S
This was my last Turbo Dodge daily driver: a 1986 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z C/S, aka "Frankentona". The "C/S" stands for "Carroll Shelby", which is basically a performance handling package on top of the "Turbo Z" Daytona package. The C/S package includes a 32mm solid front sway bar and a 28mm solid rear sway bar. It also includes a set of 15x6.5 inch "crab" rims (in gold for black C/S's), but I got this one with the standard 15x6 inch "pizza" rims. See Dempsey Bowling's pages for more information on Daytona C/S packages.
The Daytona: May 18, 2005
Posted on May 18, 2005.
The Daytona's been under the knife again. The fenders and doors are off. Sanded the doors and the new hood from Dave. Totally stripped the weird peeling/flaking paint off of the fenders, only to find a gallon of bondo on the passenger side. I'm not even going to bother with it. The driver's side is in good condition, though. I hate body work.
The Daytona: May 8, 2005
Posted on May 08, 2005.
Heard a strange scraping sound as I pulled into the driveway. It was part of the rusted, twisted hulk that was my radiator core support. Time to drive the CSX for a while.
The Daytona: April 4, 2005
Posted on April 04, 2005.
Swapped back to the original tires and put the Blizzaks in storage. They were excellent tires in the sloppy weather, though we had a fairly mild winter this year. Dry traction and handling is horrible, but I was expecting that given the very soft compound and tall treads. Gonna start on the CSX so I can start tearing into this thing.
The Daytona: January 5, 2005
Posted on January 05, 2005.
Strange thing happened. I tried to go to work one snowy morning, but I couldn't get the beast started. It popped a few times, but then nothing. It was snowing out, which made it a pain to diagnose, but I had fuel and spark. Finally I checked the timing and found that the cam was fine but the ignition had jumped about 50 degrees. I cranked the distributer around to get the rotor pointing at #1 again and it fired right up. The timing belt was done anyway, so I went ahead and replaced it. Also fixed a bunch of little vacuum leaks. Runs better than ever. Will have the Blizzaks shortly....
The Daytona: December 17, 2004
Posted on December 17, 2004.
The stupid radiator core support broke and the engine mount smashed the crap out of the radiator. Whatever moron at whatever body shop fixed this thing did a really crappy job. They replaced some of the metal, but didn't bother to actually weld any of it together. Instead they put a couple of pop rivits in, used the wrong bolts on the ends, and let the rest of it float around (which is why the hood looks a little unsteady at speed). The core support itself was not even straightened out. Instead they welded some angle iron and a piece of a bed frame to it and hoped for the best. The remaining sheet metal fatigued, cracked, and ripped apart. I pushed everything back where it is supposed to be, more or less, and welded it together. It should hold for a while. Ideally I should cut that whole mess out and weld in a new one, but I can probably do some creative sheet metal bending and make it work too.
