Frankie the Fink

The car holds its own in any crowd - its really growing on me

Bluestripe67

Yes they do Frankie. I remember the one I had 10 years ago. Keep on enjoying. Dennis

Rich Yanulis

I'm glad to see that you have your projects complete.

She looks Great

lqpappy

Looks great. Congrats

StingU2

Frankie... that red split of yours sure looks NICE!

-Bruce

Zoomin

Beautiful car my friend!

Kerrmudgeon

Just don't forget the lonely 61 at home.

groovyjay

Best car design ever, regardless era, brand or model. SWC is still the best! Frankie's car is to die for... Hopefully mine will be drivable in 2015.

kellsdad

Great cars. Great pictures. I shared one with my car friends.

Frankie the Fink

What 61 ? Oh yeah I remember, THAT 61.

Have to say that the Vintage Air system works like gangbusters on the heat and defrost functions. Haven't really had a hot enough day yet to give the A/C a real test...

I finished up the mechanicals on the doors/side windows Friday and washed all the greasy fingerprints off the car and buffed out the whole thing eliminating small swirls and scratches and the paint just popped right up. Shines just about as much as the C7 next door...

jeff batchelor

The other cars are running with the Big Dog.

mcb55-210

Beautiful car, Frank. Looks like it was a fun outing.

Mike

hedgehead

Avispa

Sure makes the rest of those cars look ugly

kellsdad

I'm thinking the annual depreciation on that C7 would pay for a top notch paint job on your SWC every year for quite a while.

Frankie the Fink

On that topic -- I was REALLY disappointed when I reinstalled the dash cluster and my tach developed the "jitters"; shaky needle below 2000 RPM. On my way home last night I opened the car up on a long stretch (yeah I know, its only a 250HP) and ran up to about 4200 RPM twice.

Mysteriously the tach needle is steady as a rock throughout its range now. Either:

1) My cable lube finally made its way into the right place, or,
2) I scared the instrument in to submission.

It was a nice touch to the end of a great day though !

stratplus

Very nice Frank. It must be great to have it finished and just be able to take it out and enjoy it.

How do you compare the ride, handling, performance to the 61?

I love my 60, but I have always had a soft spot for 63's from the very first time I saw the
63 Chevy ad while watching Bonanza.

Frankie the Fink

I've devoted some thought to that recently. Remember, my '61 is an original dual quad, solid lifter, Duntov 097-cammed, 270HP, 283ci tuned to within an inch of its life (advance curve, carbs, etc..).

The '63 is a stock 250HP, 327ci with an incorrect Edelbrock "old school" dual plane intake and incorrect Carter AFB. MAYBE that gives it a 15hp-20hp boost - can't say.

Both cars have Pertronix Ignitor IIIs but I really haven't done magic on the SWC's advance curve yet - its the conservative, non-optimized factory setting. Neither car has power anything (manual steering and brakes) - the '61 has discs in the front.

Having said that:

Performance:

1) My '61 would suck the windshield out of the '63 in a straight head-to-head launch. No question at all on that topic.
2) The '63 is much more civilized, idles like a modern car without the shaking and bumpy nature of the '61 setup. The '63 is shamefully quiet out the exhaust (doesn't sound like a Corvette - that may change).
3) The drama in the '63 when driving "all out" is a yawn compared to the '61. As the '61 approaches its 5,800RPM rev limit (it can safely go higher that's where I have it set) and you're fighting the loosey-goosey steering and hearing the solid lifters clatter, bumping down the road on that solid axle and the noisy dual quads are sucking in atmosphere its a rush. The '63 just squats down and smoothly rolls out to the 4,800RPM rev limit (also set by me) with little fanfare - MUCH more like a modern car.
4) The '61 takes more conscious effort to drive. My clone dual quads don't have the "stall on left turn" fix - so if you roll around a corner too fast you have to be ready for the bobble that occurs - things like that. The '63 requires much less attention to idiosyncrasies.

Ride:

1) Of course the coupe, by its nature is just a tighter ride altogether and looking down the hood at those curved up fenders makes you feel like you're in an Indy car or something. With the windows up its quiet, comfy and this low mileage original car has ridiculously tight steering. The non-power, all drum brakes are scary at first but entirely adequate.
2) The '61 although not as bad as many people tout on the forum is noisy and the squeaks, groans and rattles attest to the primitive nature of the car. It really can seem like a "fast tractor" at times.

Steering/Handling:

1) The '61, again, has the typical C1 slop and is a pig in heavy cornering whereas the '63 sorta "slides" around corners.
2) Strangely, the '61 and '63 steering effort is nearly identical (the '61 has more play of course). So, IMO properly maintained and lubed center arm, king pin setups with proper front end alignment and the original 17" steering wheel aren't all THAT terrible.
3) I sorta decried the hoopla about the rear split being a bad blind spot. It really is though...every time I look in the rear view mirror I have to do a quick mental thingee to focus farther back and not on the split - that will prob become second nature I'm guessing.
4) Unlike the '61 I see no reason for a 5 speed in the '63. The Muncie (its a LATE '63) 4 speed has a nice ratio and even at 65mph the car is tooling down the road with no strain.

Wifey:

"Honey, I like the 'old' [61] vette, but, oh that 'new' [63] one!"

Rich Yanulis

Sounds like you just needed to blow out the cobwebs

Frankie the Fink

If the same angel would smile down upon my non-working odometer my life would be complete