These pictures were taken in the Miami, Florida area... this is how the car looked when I first saw it.
Well... this story starts when a friend and fellow Olds-lover... from the Roanoke area tipped me off that a friend of his's 1979 Hurst/Olds was featured on the website http://my.voyager.net/hurstolds/. I checked out the web page and noticed that there was a classified section on it. Found this car in that classified section listed for $1000 with a short description of the body damage and some of the parts included. Well... I was interested... have wanted a Hurst/Olds of any year for a while now... but the grand was a bit over my budget... especially considering the car was in South Florida. Well... called the guy up and talked him down to $650 over the phone. I agreed to this and told him I'd come down and look at the car... and that if it was in a decent condition other than the described body damage... I'd take it. Made the arrangements with work (my maternal grandmother in New Jersey suddenly became ill) and took the weekend off for the run to Florida. Rented a car dolly... because if I did decide to buy it... I certainly didn't want to have to make two 1700+ mile trips. After a very long drive on little sleep (me and my buddy both bought a 52 ounce insulated coffee mug at the 7-11 in Georgia... and refilled it a couple of times) we finally arrived there... it was a little bit further into Florida than I had thought... I was thinking it was near the Fort Pierce area for some reason... well... it turned out to be within about 15 minutes or so of Miami! Looked at the car... and right off knew that I was getting a deal. I didn't even wait for the owner to arrive to load the car on the trailer... it was all ready to go and I had money in hand when he showed up with the title. The trip back was even longer and more tiring it seemed. We had to sort of stop overnight in some piss-ant little town in South Carolina... because we literaly could not stay up any longer no matter how much caffeine we consumed... so I snoozed in one of the reclining buckets in the new H/O and my friend napped in his truck. We finally got back home in the afternoon on Sunday (we had left Friday afternoon). The car after cleaning up... is in much better shape than I first thought and while it needs some work... it won't take much to have it looking pretty good. First project is getting her running. Included with the car were the original heads fresh from the machine shop... new cam... Edelbrock intake... gasket set... and many other new parts. I am hoping to have it running within the next month or two.
If you are wondering about the body damage... basically the car had just been finished at the body shoppe (yes... that's a new paint job... but it sat a little while) when the owner was hit in the front end. The impact ripped the bumper from the car... and messed up both fenders and the header panel. The hood was not damaged though. I already have a good set of fenders on my 1980 Supreme parts car and the header panel we think is actually fixable. Parts I will need to find are grills... bumper (different from the 1980 bumper) and on the interior a dash... new carpet... seats recovered... and possibly some side panels. I am hoping to have the car looking and running good by the SE Regional Olds meet in Nashville this year. Would be awesome to be able to drive it down. Hopefully the money makes itself available :-).
Oh... notice the tow vehicle... its a real 1999 Supersport S10... my friend's truck... its pretty hot for a new vehicle... tows better than most full size trucks too... actually has a towing package... try to haul a car back from Florida in your Extreme :-).
Okay... enough chat... here's some pics.
I'll try to keep this page updated.
Click on the picture for a (much) larger view.
These pictures were taken in the Miami, Florida area... this is how the car looked when I first saw it.
This was later... at lunch... happened to park right by a real Buick Gran-Nat... a Impala SS... and a Roadrunner. You can see part of the Buick in the background.
Later that night... in Georgia... after hosing the car down at a local car wash. Was amazed at how shiny and clean the paint came out.
Here are a couple of underhood shots and a shot of the exhaust routing and underside of the car. The original numbers matching engine is apart as seen in the pics but is all there
with many new parts and turns free. We are hoping to get her running again by early this summer.
Here are a few interior shots including the rallye pac and the Hurst Dual Gate shifter.
Here are the factory style Wheels.
