Muscle Car Fan

Posts Tagged: parts

A veteran auto upholsterer with almost fifty years in the trade breaks down a full seat restoration on a 1975 Corvette, from pattern making and foam shaping to dying the surrounding vinyl and plastic trim. It’s the kind of hands-on knowledge most restorers pay a shop thousands of dollars to access, laid out step by step for anyone willing to try it themselves. See what actually separates a seat that looks restored from one that feels factory-correct again.

This restomod build doesn’t just show off a finished classic — it walks through the entire transformation, from a full teardown to a modern powertrain swap, upgraded brakes, an all-new wiring harness, and a fresh interior that still respects the original design. It’s a rare look at everything that goes into bridging vintage style with modern performance, including the costs most builds prefer to leave out. Read on to see exactly what a build like this actually takes.

Engineering Explained’s Jason Fenske tackles one of the most argued-about questions in manual transmission ownership: does skipping a gear actually hurt your synchronizers? The answer turns out to hinge less on which gear you pick and more on how well you rev-match the shift — a distinction that matters enormously for owners running decades-old Muncie and Borg-Warner four-speeds in classic muscle cars. Watch to see what’s really happening inside the gearbox on every shift.

In February 2013, Lars Skroder challenged his brother to find an unrestored 1971 Hemi ‘Cuda with a build sheet, a four-speed, and its original owner still attached. Three weeks later, a YouTube video led him to Greg Peterson, who had owned the Hemi Orange car since he was sixteen. Read on to find out how a graduation gift became one of the most original ‘Cudas on the planet.

A green Dodge Challenger running a genuine 426 Hemi hits a half-mile stretch of track with nothing held back, and the resulting sound has kept this clip circulating in Mopar circles for years. Car Acceleration TV captured both the numbers and the unmuffled roar of one of Detroit’s most legendary big-blocks doing exactly what it was built to do. This is the elephant engine, unleashed.

Seven years into a Barracuda build, this owner realized the most dangerous component in the car was not the supercharged 360 under the hood — it was the fifty-year-old wiring harness feeding it. Original insulation cracks, connectors corrode, and grounds fail in ways that stay invisible until something starts smoking. Rewiring is the least glamorous upgrade on any build sheet and the one that matters most. Read on to find out how it’s actually done.

A car that quietly pulls to one side or wears through a set of tires years too early usually isn’t a tire problem at all — it’s an alignment problem hiding behind three angles most drivers have never heard of. CNET’s Brian Cooley breaks down camber, caster, and toe in plain language, and more than one viewer went out to check their own wheels after watching. Watch to find out which of the three you’re most likely feeling every time you drive.

Grid Banter’s cameras catch the Dodge Demon’s first public test run at the 2017 Gator Nationals — footage tied directly to NHRA’s unusual decision to ban the production car from its own sanctioned events. A Dodge rep confirms on camera that it’s a real Demon mule, then declines to discuss specs. Even a Corvette Z06 owner in the comments admits Dodge deserves credit for building something this extreme.

Auto Archaeology returns to a hidden Mopar collection split between an abandoned auto parts showroom and a barn buried into a hillside — a find significant enough that Hot Rod magazine covered it separately. One commenter adds real depth on Chrysler’s High-Impact color program, explaining how Plymouth’s Moulin Rouge, In Violet, and Vitamin C matched Dodge’s differently-named Panther Pink, Plum Crazy Purple, and Go Mango. See what else the second visit uncovers.

A video titled ‘1977 Dodge Charger R/T’ immediately drew skepticism in its own comment section, with viewers pointing out that Dodge never sold an R/T-badged Charger in the U.S. by 1977 — pointing instead to Chrysler’s Australian, Canadian, or South American operations as the likely real source. The mystery of exactly which regional Mopar plant built this car turns out to be more interesting than a standard restoration walkthrough. Watch the full review and see if you can spot the clues the comments picked up on.

Lokar’s Muscle Car Shifter Knob is built to replicate the look and feel of a factory GM shifter closely enough to fool most people at a car show, and it won SEMA’s award for Best New Interior Accessory Product. The install is straightforward but order-dependent: the shifter has to be in Park, the set screw inside the knob has to stay untouched, and the adapter housing has to be held steady while tightening. Here’s exactly how to avoid the mistakes first-timers usually make.

Nate Rider put a real number on what it costs to turn a classic Mustang into a modern restomod — starting around $35,000 for a road-ready build with a Coyote swap, updated suspension, and a completely reworked interior. The full breakdown, and the warnings from viewers who’ve done it themselves, might change how you budget your own project. Watch the full cost breakdown above.

A 6.0-liter LS truck engine doesn’t become a 6.2 with a few bolt-on parts, and this hands-on build video from Myvintageiron7512 shows exactly why, bore work, machine shop tolerances, and the same architecture GM used to build the LS3 that powers C6 Corvettes and fifth-gen Camaros. One viewer summed up the appeal simply: this is someone who clearly knows the platform inside and out. See what it actually takes to bridge the gap between a budget truck engine and genuine LS3-spec displacement.

Nearly 3,000 vehicles spanning prewar sedans to modern Hellcats fill the show field at Chryslers at Carlisle every year, drawing Mopar die-hards willing to argue over a date code for hours. This piece walks through why Carlisle became Mopar’s unofficial capital, what makes the swap meet and car corral half the draw, and why factory-correct detail matters so much to this particular crowd.

Raw POV footage puts you inside a 1969 Plymouth Road Runner as it rips off a 12.9-second pass at a grassroots event called Hills Race, complete with a scream from whoever’s riding along and shift work clean enough that commenters are still praising it years later. One longtime Mopar owner even chimed in with his own pistol-grip-shifter memories. It’s the kind of unfiltered footage professional broadcasts never capture. Watch the run that’s still turning heads.

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