To Restore or To hot rod Tii

[Rob7502]

Alright tomorow I finally get finished up on the girlfriends car her 75 comes back from paint put back together and done. Now I have to decide wether or not to restore my Tii. The body is in good condition, the only rust I could find is in the wheel well. Both the VIN on the motor and the body match so I cold do a VIN correct resto. But the problem is I also want a hotrod that I can take to the track. The PO put a five speed in it and Recaros and while he was at it decided to take out all the carpet and install some ricer interior components. He also painted it yellow (it was chamoniox).

So here are my options:

1) restore the car

2) Build into my dream racer

3) trade for a non Tii so that this one can be restored

What do ya think???

[jetboy]

hey, a castro valley hot hod sounds fun to me!

serious questions:

Once you restored the tii what would you do with it then? Just drive it around all clean and shiny - only on nice days and never leaveit parked anywhere where it might get touched? I got the feeling thats not your style... you would get it all restored and then just end up selling it or buying something else to work on because there would be nothing left to tinker with..

But a race car, there is always something that can be tweeked, tinkered, and improved upon. With a hot rod you will never be totally satisfied - which is exactly the place where one feels alive -

yeah. thats some 02 philosophy in a can for ya...

on the other hand I have it on good authority that rust helps your lap time because of how much weight you shed... so maybe you could try and get one with no trunk at all. just bolt aluminum over the wheel well, you don't ned a spare tire in a racer anyway.

[HarryPR]

You can sell it, buy a 74-75 squarie and still have some money left over for go-fast stuff.

[robdelk]

(nt)

[Guest Anonymous]

spare the tii.

do what you want to a squarie.

[Guest Anonymous]

(nt)

[Delia]

Since I bought my '73tii in 2001, I've been watching tii prices closely. They are rising far more rapidly than carb'd cars. One site has roundie tiis in "show" condition in the 12-13K range. Ebay 2002tiis are even higher.

If the car is solid and the engine/chassis numbers match, it's already a rare "survivor" - one of about 7,000 tiis brought to the US in '72-74.

You'd be farther ahead in the long run (financially) to restore the tii and sell it. If it has its nose snorkel and drivers door sticker, that's a plus. Any known history (owners, service records, etc.) is valuable as well. You can undo the interior and paint with a bit of work, and learn a few things about originality in the process.

However, setting your car 'right' can be an arduous task. If you're not up to the rigors of a detailed restoration and then *another* car for your personal hotrod wants/desires - you can sell it "as-is" for a good price and look for an unfinished hotrod project.

This is just information. Bottom line: it's your car and do whatever you want.

Cheers!

Delia

[02Nut]

Since Tii's have the K'Fish injection, it might be $$ to tune for race applications. Installing a hotter cam typically means re-calibrating the K'Fish pump.

There are also probably many more resources available for tuning a carb'ed '02 race motor than a K'fish race motor.

My $.02...

[BarryA]

modify a carb'ed car - tii roundies are getting hard to find (especially solid, matching numbers cars) and they get more desireable (and expensive) every year. Obviously, it's your car and you get to make the decisions as to what to do with it, but it seems like kind of a pity to make major mods to a relatively rare "survivor" when there are lots of already non-original cars around to start from.

Just a guess, but you'd probably be able to get enough selling the tii pretty much as-is to get a real good start on building a hotrod, especially if you start with a square light car.

[SteveJ]

The key is what condition is it in?

Has it already been cut and hacked and rusted and repaired? Any history on the car? Clean, unmolested roundies are getting tough to locate.

My current 02 is a 72tii that I got from the original owner. The car had not been modified. It did need some "correct" replacement parts installed to return it to glory, but knowing the history of the car, I was determined to keep it as stock as possible.

One of my 02's before this was a carbed car, back when 02s of anyshape were plentiful. I modified the Hell out of that car. Spent buckets of money, had a bunch of fun, learned quite a bit. Looking back on it, I should have kept it stock. I got that one from the original owner, and there was not a single modification or incorrect part on the car. Oh well, I was young.

Originallity is key to the value, however don't keep the car as an investment or as a museum piece. Get out and drive it!

Have fun with it. Bolt on parts to keep it fun, but take pause when it comes time to drilling or cutting or such.

[DukeRimmer]

Thought you track addicts preferred '67 because of weight. What am I missing here?

[NickVyse]

Because they're ugly, numerous and cheap! Early cars may be lighter, but they are also a lot rarer and now sort after in original condition. At least that's my guess from this side of the pond.

[DukeRimmer]

I'm currently dismantling a '67 that has a rough but salvageable body. Your reply says to me that someone may benefit from my taking the time to save it. I usually cut the front body away and drop all the front mechanical bits in one piece, then cut the roof off and turn the car over to remove the rear bits. Hope I can find it a new owner.

[Rob7502]

Alright, I was thinking the smae as most of you. I just wanted to put a feeler out to see what you guys think. The car has been fairly unmolested, no repair panels no funky wiring even just some hack job underhood repairs. The only ugly thing that I found was holes cut in the doors for speakers. It has a five speed and no it does not have the original snorkel.

PO info was unavailible, I got the car at a tow yard for $500 it was abandond there by some one who put a lot of time into it. All over $500 in DMV fees.

So in all it would be a fairly easy resto. So I think I will give it a driving resto ( not a museum peice ) and then maybe I will let one of you have it.

So thanks for all your input.