TONS of questions on my new 1976 Torino

I recently bought a 1976 Torino that in my opinion was in great shape, has had some body filler here and there and was repainted before I bought it. Recently realized I need to get the floor panel for the driver side replaced though when someone in my backseat stepped out and I heard that gut wrenching crunch of rust from the floorboard I had no idea about (the only thing I forgot to look for, its not horrible but its bad enough that I need it fixed or eventually my front seat will not be very...secure).

Anyways, hes a few questions, what kind of price should I expect pay for the job of a new floor panel welded in? I found one I can buy for 220 and 40 shipping, not too happy about that but I really don't have a choice as this is my daily driver if the shop can't find something cheaper.

I was looking into having my carb rebuild due to my car running really rich of gas to the point sometimes my car wants to die at idle, I had a guy from my work take a look at it (he owns a estimated 30k$$ 68 cobra himself) and told me I should have the carb rebuilt. Should I get one of the rebuild kits and do this myself?
I have no previous experience rebuilding anything and this is my first car I'm going to get down and dirty with doing hopefully most of the repairs myself but I don't want to screw anything up. The car runs fine at the moment, once I put on the gas the car is fine but at most stops she has problems staying alive, only died on me once but has came close plenty of times but she is a beast when I put the pedal down!

Also I'm looking into ANY cheap performance upgrades (more costly ones to come later) so any help or ideas would be great. The guy from my work also said I should take the smog pump out, here in Indiana we don't have to pass any emission tests but I also read some were that if you take the smog pump out but leave your cataliac converter can cause serious problems and seize your engine. Is this true? I plan on getting dual exhaust glass pack's but that's going to have to wait until next year.

My mom for my birthday was going to drop 1k'ish into wheels and rims for me and I told her to let me find a better deal and I found these on ebay : http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...090997907&rd=1,1
Hoping it was a good deal, these rims new from what I have seen would of been 110'ish each and tires new 100 each or so. I got the 4 rims and tires for a total of 352 and thats with shipping, supposedly the tires are in great shape but I will know for sure next week.

I'm also looking to get a radio for my dash to fill up the empty spot I have there.

I seem to have a problem with my heating/ac unit. When I turn it on OFF it will stay on or turn off for about 10 seconds and turn right back on, honestly the cold weather is gone and I prefer to roll my window down on any given day its not raining so this is not a big deal but is this a tell sign of bad wiring or a sign of a unit just needing to be replaced?

I see that shakers were never put on a torino later than 72' atleast from what I've seen, could I possibly get a hood cut and put one of these shakers onto my torino? And if i did what kind of performance increase could i be looking at, if any at all.

I know this is alot to read and I've done all the searching possible on these subjects while I was waiting for my username to get approved, any help is much appreciated and anything you can think of is fine too.

Much regards,
Steve

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Zepar on 3/12/07 7:47am ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Zepar on 3/12/07 7:53am ]</font>

Wow, that's a lot of questions! If you aren't pleased with the responses you get, I would recommend putting each question in its own post with an idea of the nature of the question in the title. Also, questions that aren't Torino specific, like the carb rebuild, will get more attention in the Tech Board.

My experience with rebuilding a carb for the first time was frustrating and after a couple of attempts I threw in the towel and bought a new one. The steps involved in rebuilding a carb are not hard, though. If you have an experienced friend around to guide you, give it a try, but have a plan B (buying a new one or paying someone to do it right).

Enjoy your Torino!
[addsig]

Thanks for the advice, I will have to put some pics up soon. I do know that is ALOT of questions but I'm so excited about owning this Torino I have tons of ideas for it.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Zepar on 3/12/07 9:55am ]</font>

Hey man you sound like a young guy and I am young myself but I have been at this for a few years so I have a few questions for you if you dont mind.

What kind of motor and how many miles are on it?
How much did you pay for this car?
Are you dead set on a 76 Torino or even this particular 76 or can you be flexible on the years some?

First off the shaker no shaker was ever made for these cars it was 70/71 only the 72 that is Ram Air some people have done this custom work on their own over the years but honestly as far as performance goes you are better off spending money elsewhere.

Do you have a 2nd car to drive around while you do work on this one?

What type of tools/shop access do you have, do you work in a shop where you can work with all kinds of tools. Do you want to learn about cars and what part? I had no desire when I started on cars to do any body work but I would love to know it now.

Also as a reminder as you fix things you always need to be buying tools you might get away with borrowing some at first but your own tools are a must.

What kind of space do you have to work on the car?

As far as radio has the radio opening been cut at any point if not it should have raised edges in the middle with chromeish paint on them.

What kind of sound system are you looking for. Lincolns came with cassette players and you can get one of those cassettes with teh wire and hook it up to an Ipod with a Radio feature I think it would look nice and clean and you can take if out for shows and stuff later on but thats just me.

Mind if I ask how old you are? And what you currently do for income to work on this car? Just wondering what we have to work with for money and such, if your 45 and living with mom I would say sell some of your comics and action figures.. lol

Anyways I am a torino lover but I think I know fords all right answer these questions and we will proceed from there and get you on your way ok man?

351 Winsor is the Engine, I know its one of the lowest performing engines but its in GREAT shape so I'm very happy with it so far.

I'm not completely dead set on this car although it is in great condition and for the price I got it for I believe i got a great deal. I really like the 4 light and grill look and don't like the Elite's with just the 2 headlights. I totally dig my 76's body style though. Also this engine has not been opened up at all really, it shows 10,000 miles on it, I'm betting its rolled over but I have good reason to believe I'm the second owner of this car, previous owner being an old man who just gave up on it over time. So it could be possible that this car has an original 10,000 on it but I don't think I will ever know for sure. It was not kept garaged as I can tell there has been some body filler done to the rear and the small windows near the back of the car have been covered up to look I guess like a starsky and hutch car but the paint job is orange w/ the black rally stripes and does wonders for the body IMO.

I paid 3350 for the car, and the only thing I've had to fix so far is my regulator, so 15 bucks. I'm going to replace the driver side floor panel but I'm getting a good deal, I got an estimate of 300ish for the job and parts.

thank you for the response on the shaker.

Offhand I don't have a second car but my dad has always been willing to loan me his if/when I would need to.

I don't have any tools as of yet but I have a friend who has a garage and a ton of them himself, he and his dad both used to work on cars in the past so they have some knowledge on the basics. I also live above a garage but it needs to be cleaned out but at times it will be possible for me to use it to do work on my car.

I totally want to learn as much as possible, It's going to be my new hobby for sure.

Radio opening has not been cut and I have no desire to chop it up, looking to fit something stock-ish in it with the wire capability like I-pod as you said it has been something I've thought about.

I'm 21, I work currently at a call center making 9.00 an hour which is a whooping 5 mins from home max so even though the pay is low I'm making good on gas. I'm also ditching my dumb MMO game and selling the stuff on there so I will have some side cash in the weeks to come, I basically after bills can save 150-200ish a week to put into this car if I live cheap, I wont be willing to do that all weeks but some will be better than others.

I read your rust problem on your floor board.I had many torinos and the rust on the floor boards start from water leaks from the cowl air vents.The water shield rusts away and water enters and finds it's way to the lowest point on the floor. Roll back the carpet,then have someone run water on the wind shield. While you look at the floor near the dash you will notice water dripping on both sides. If not put news paper on the floor near the lower vents. Run water to see if the peper gets wet.The rust problem will be on both sides of the seat mounts.I know this from experience.I live in area where salt is used in winter.And cars rust fast.

oh yeah a 10k car wont have rusty floorpans do you play Second Life? lol

Anyways 351w for those years were dogs but can be easily woken up without much work but for now lets just go through the whole car make sure all the brakes and stuff work and suspension parts its more important then going fast.

As far as the rust goes if it rusts like the last guy said the firewall is sometimes rusted out too sorry to give ya such bad news man.

As far as your mom giving you 1000 for wheels and tires can you just get the 1000 anyways and put it into other things like rebuilding the brake system and getting the suspension in order and other needed things? Tell her you need brakes more then you need tires she want you to be safe on the roads right? lol.

Are you planning on keeping the car original? Are you willing to do some other mods one thing that you might be interested in is an Overdrive automatic transmission you will see a big difference in milage and then you can go with lower gears in the rear end but will still cruise at a nice speed, without killing your gas milage something to look into.

Another question how fast do you want to go in this car maybe after a tune up and a rebuild it will be fast enough for ya? I know the urge to go fast but as a young person that has been into trouble with johnny law may want to wait a few years or some such either way give us an idea of how fast ya want to go do you wish to drive this all the time or not so often and just on the weekends with some maybe drag racing action. Let me know man and take it easy.

Don't know what second life is..anyway.

I'm checking the life of the breaks when I put the rims/wheels on today (already bought and arrive today so no going back on that).

I'm going to do the test this weekend about the firewall, if I do end up having this problem can I patch the firewall up or what are my options.

To my knowledge breaks are cheap and I can work on the front ones at least on my own...never done rear before.

Don't really plan on keeping car original due to it being nothing like original, the paint job is nothing what you would be used to seeing on a car of this year and the small windows in the back have been covered up. I am game to do some work to make my mileage better.

How fast? Enough to impress myself and others, the start is were my car sucks, after I'm in second gear she impresses me in her current state. Speed is not really important though, safety and a good running car are what I really need, nice mileage would be nice to as this is my daily driver.

btw I will add pics today of her with her new rims/wheels to give you guys an idea of what I have to work with...

Cool deal man as far as going faster in first gear maybe you need some carb work like you said it needed to be rebuilt as far as replacing firewall/floors I live out west so we part out cars that are rusted wish I could help out more but as far as brakes go those are pretty easy to do.. Cant wait to see pics man take it easy.