62 Converted to Jetfire

I drove a 62 Cutlass over 200K miles, the “yellow car”. It covered a lot of
miles with the needle far to the right of center.

Salvaged a couple Jetfire setups, got one running for a while. With that
compressor stirring up the single barrel mixture, the idle was so smooth
people would ask me if it was still running. I could only tell by the gauges.

The car was scrapped decades ago, but the speedometer is still on
display here at 219K miles, a picture hangs, and even today my friends
remember “the yellow car”. Used to have extra engines, 13 transmissions
(that kept breaking), axles, gobs of small stuff. It had shielded ignition for
my HAM radio, internal regulator alternator conversion, delayed wiper, put
in a jetfire radiator with overflow tank, adapted a vacuum trunk release,
add on air conditioning, my first 304 stainless steel exhaust, rear sway
bar and a”double” front bar I made, 4 way flashers, digital clock, million
mileodometer, special headlights, custom relocated washer tank with
self priming bottom pump, PCV setup, running lights added to the body,
more that I forget. Plenty of leaks.

Lots of stories with that car. The yellow car was ahead of its time and
neat. But it was a high maintenance car for my kind of miles. The brakes
were unpredictable and quite dangerous when wet, single circuit.

The auto trans was a lousy match to the engine, and kept breaking. I
would have been so much happier with a 4 speed stick on the floor.
Nobody could fix that drive shaft. I thought of using Buick parts to adapt
a torque converter type transmission to fix that BIG PROBLEM. But the
final straw was it craved high octane leaded gas I could no longer buy. I
sold all the engines and turbo stuff to a 215 racer, and all the custom
stuff to another guy.

Now I drive a boring ’77 Delta 88. Its 403 will do 15s, the ’67 switch pitch
400 trans never fails, maintenance is reduced 85%, 12″ front disk dual
circuit brakes, HEI ignition, and it runs just fine (without any valve jobs or
blown head gaskets) on crap 87 octane no lead, even gets better mileage.
My bumper sticker to late models: WHEN YOUR CAR IS RECYCLED,
THIS ONE WILL STILL BE ON THE ROAD

Now I have another yellow car, a 79 Eldorado with factory EFI. Its drive
train is customized too. You can see what I’m up to now on PHOTOBUCKET.

https://app.photobucket.com/u/bcroe

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BRUCE ROE bcroe@juno.com
5719 EAST SKINNER ROAD,
STILLMAN VLY, IL 61084-9215. Phone 815 234-8039
K9MQG since 1958. Solar powered since 2013