PERSONAL
82CE WEBPAGES
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This car was
literally saved from being cut up and parted out. I bought it from a salvage
yard in St. Louis, MO
knowing that it would need literally everything replaced. The interior was torn
down to bare metal, then sandblasted,
undercoated, all new soundproofing, ect. before the new seats, door panels,
carpet, ect. were installed. Then the
engine, transmission, and drivetrain, including rear end, were pulled. The
engine was rebuilt using a custom ground
cam from Crane Cams. It was ground just for the Crossfire engine and it is the
biggest cam they would grind for me
and still use the automatic transmission (due to the heavy lope). I love it!
With the pollution control removed,
the heads ported and polished, roller rockers, chrome everything, and 2"
Flowmaster mufflers, this CE sounds
as good as it looks. If the heads aren't turned from its looks, they will be
from the sound!
This car has been my dream car since I was in high school, but I found out later
in life that it was all
looks and not very impressive in the "guts" department. My 11yr old son and I
set out to change that and change it
we did. The 4.11 posi rear end made the biggest difference of all. The tires can
be lit up anytime with little or
no effort and this car hooks up well enough to have minimal tire spin if you
don't want it.
It will not have you embarrassed at a stoplight.
Noel Carboni in Florida was my mentor and helped me tremendously in calculating
the rear end ratio vs.
RPMs at highway speeds. I found that with the 700 R4 Tranny, the overdrive makes
for a 2200 RPM highway cruising
speed that I can live with since I do most of my driving in hills, curves, and
stoplight action.
I have built a custom car dolly that only lifts the back tires 2" off the
ground. I can now pull it to shows that are
a long distance away.
My son and I painted the car ourselves (basecoat/clearcoat) and painted on all
the decals. We put the pinstripes
under the clearcoat so that the CE is effortless to wax and clean. I had the
paint job bid at $8,500.00. Doing it
ourselves, we spent just over $1,500 on the paint and supplies to do it
ourselves. We definitely got a much better
and much more detailed job (it took 4 months) doing it ourselves. With basecoat/clearcoat,
you can hand sand out all
the runs or orange peel and then buff to a shiny perfection.
If I can help any of you in technical questions, please let me know. I have had
lots of help from others and now
consider myself to be a wealth of information on where to buy the best parts for
the best price. I am more than
willing to pass on this information.
Steve Burges
Here are a few
photos from along the way...
Well, Here's how I
spent my January Weekends. Everything you see is new or powdercoated.
New Ball Joints, Tie Rods, Bushings, 550lb springs, shocks, power steering pump,
ps hoses,
slave cylinder, rotors, brakes, calipers, even new stainless brake lines and
chromed master cylinder.
If this don't make it drive nice and tight, I give up!
You can't put new shiny chrome wheels on without being able to take them off!
I think I'll have a wheel pulled off at the next show. I've never seen a car
shown that way,
but I have a problem with judges not wanting to look underneath.
And for my next project......
And to top it
off......
If you want to find out more about this labor intensive project, read my posts on the 82 CE Registry Forum!
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Last updated Monday, January 31, 2005
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