Just saw this on Facebook.

I had one of those back in the early 80's when I was living in Daytona beach. Mine was blue, rust free and ran pretty good. Bought it for $400 and sold it for the same about a year later. Back then they were just junk cars and I had about a dozen, from SS Impalas, Chevelles Mustangs and Camaros. We never thought they would become collector cars and actually be worth anything.
 
Lager said:
I had one of those back in the early 80's when I was living in Daytona beach. Mine was blue, rust free and ran pretty good. Bought it for $400 and sold it for the same about a year later. Back then they were just junk cars and I had about a dozen, from SS Impalas, Chevelles Mustangs and Camaros. We never thought they would become collector cars and actually be worth anything.
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My daddy had 2 69 Camaro verts. He was going to fix up one for me and one for my brother. We told him they were ugly. He sold them....even though I don't like a vert, I wish we had them today.
 
Was a time when restoring something like this was easily done in the back yard. I've had a 78 Ranchero in the shop for 3 years and still just getting started.
 
When I was 15-16 years old there was an old cutlas 442 convertible that kept sitting in a guys driveway with a tarp about 20 miles out of town. @Qball might actually know the one I'm talking about. It was in either Phillipi or belignton, WV on the road to Clarksburg. I begged my dad every time we drive by it to stop and talk to the guy. My biggest miscalculation was the fact that we were poor. I just didn't know. Good times.
 
I've owned 2 1974 AMC Javelins, one got passed down to my sister, the other got totaled while parked in front of my apartment.
Also owned 2 1966 Mustangs. One bought for $600 in great shape and driven till it died, one bought for $1800 and sold years later for $3600. Both are 6 bangers.
My first car was a 1968 Plymouth Satellite....318 V8 2 door....same body as the same year Road Runner....wish still had that one. Built like a tank, decent power, and got 23mpg with it's tiny carb. I remember buying 3 adaptors to neck down a MT chrome air cleaner to that 1bbl carb!
 
Cowboy said:
@Qball might actually know the one I'm talking about. It was in either Phillipi or belignton, WV on the road to Clarksburg.
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I used to drive up that way quite a bit back in the ‘80’s to visit my wife (then girlfriend) when she was visiting her parents who lived in Morgantown.

But I don’t recall seeing that convertible 442. I moved down here to NC in ‘86 and my wife followed in ‘87.
 
If that’s actually a 351 Cleveland engine in that Torino, and not a Windsor or Modified, then the engine alone would make it worth it to purchase the car.

Many folks out there will mistakenly call any 351 Ford a Cleveland.

But based on the hood scoop and Sport designation, it probably does have the Cleveland engine. The intake ports on those Cleveland heads are just about big enough to swallow a tennis ball.
 
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About 3 miles from my house as the crow flies, at a storage facility that allows some outdoor storage of vehicles, sits a 1966 Dodge Charger Fastback with a 426 Hemi. The owner bought the car in 1968 and has had it ever since.

I’ve called the owner more than once, as has many other people, and he won’t sell it. He just lets it sit under a tarp to rot away.

By now, it is just about too far gone to restore without going deep in the hole.

I’d love to buy it just to get the engine and some other parts off of it. This car has a center console that stretches all the way to the rear seats.

It’s really a shame for someone to purposely let something like this just rot away so no one else can give it a new life.
 
I had a '73 version of that car, brown in color. Bought it in 1986 if I recall, from the original owner with 78k miles.
 
After doing a little research on the 1972 Gran Torino Sport, I’d just about bet that the owner is mistakenly advertising that car to have the 351 Cleveland engine (Q code 4 barrel Cobra Jet) when it actually has the 351 Modified (H code 2 barrel) or 351 Windsor (also a 2 barrel).

The H code Modified was built in the Cleveland plant but is not the same engine. They resemble each other under the hood because both have the wide valve covers and similar or the same timing covers. But the similarities end there especially with the cylinder heads.

The S code 400 looked exactly like the H code 351 Modified. Externally, without looking at the casting numbers, they are indistinguishable.
 
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Qball said:
After doing a little research on the 1972 Gran Torino Sport, I’d just about bet that the owner is mistakenly advertising that car to have the 351 Cleveland engine (Q code 4 barrel Cobra Jet) when it actually has the 351 Modified (H code 2 barrel) or 351 Windsor ( also H code 2 barrel).

The H code Modified was built in the Cleveland plant but is not the same engine. They resemble each other under the hood because both have the wide valve covers and similar or the same timing covers. But the similarities end there.
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The tag says 351C-2v which would be a Cleveland with a 2 bbl carb.
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45/70fan said:
The tag says 351C-2v with would be a Cleveland with a 2 bbl carb.
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Yes. Technically it’s a Cleveland engine. I was just inferring that many folks out there mistakenly think they have the heavily sought after big port 351 Cleveland (Cobra Jet) when they have the small port 351.

It’s kind of like when some folks who had early ‘70’s Trans Ams with the 455 HO engine thought they had 455 Super Duty engines. I knew a lady, who has since passed away, lived her entire life thinking she had a 1972 Trans Am 455 SD when I discovered after she passed, that her car was simply a 455 HO.
 
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Qball said:
After doing a little research on the 1972 Gran Torino Sport, I’d just about bet that the owner is mistakenly advertising that car to have the 351 Cleveland engine (Q code 4 barrel Cobra Jet) when it actually has the 351 Modified (H code 2 barrel) or 351 Windsor (also a 2 barrel).

The H code Modified was built in the Cleveland plant but is not the same engine. They resemble each other under the hood because both have the wide valve covers and similar or the same timing covers. But the similarities end there especially with the cylinder heads.

The S code 400 looked exactly like the H code 351 Modified. Externally, without looking at the casting numbers, they are indistinguishable.
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Mine has the 351M. It's a big block 351 but it was designed as an anti smog motor and as a result is weak. As I've told people in traffic when they ask,"Nothing to brag about".
 
Qball said:
I used to drive up that way quite a bit back in the ‘80’s to visit my wife (then girlfriend) when she was visiting her parents who lived in Morgantown.

But I don’t recall seeing that convertible 442. I moved down here to NC in ‘86 and my wife followed in ‘87.
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So I've been thinking about it. I can tell you exactly when and almost where. It would have been between February 1989 and September 1991. I can narrow it down because it was in the detour of the covered bridge after it was burned buy fire in 1989. So that would put it in north Philippi probably on maple ave at one of the small ranch houses.
 
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