Since my car is a huge part of my life, and often referred to as my baby, I thought I'd share it with you. The Beast is a red 1973 Plymouth Satellite Sebring Plus with a black vinyl top, and a black Road Runner hood. My car is powered by a 318 ci V8, and a Torqueflite 904 3 spd automatic transmission that have both undergone some modifications. The car was originally from California so the body is almost 100% rust free.
January 12, 2002:
This is the day that The Beast became mine. I was supposed to go with my dad to pick it up, but he went early in the morning with my mom so that when I woke up, it was parked in the driveway waiting for me. Unfortunately though, I did not get to put it on the road right away. When driving the car home, my dad realized that the temperature gauge read really low while the temp under the hood felt pretty hot, meaning that the thermostat was probably in need of replacement. Well it was, and when trying to replace it, one of the bolts for the thermostat housing snapped. This caused me to have to leave the car sitting in my driveway for 5 months without moving, or even being started.
June 17, 2002:
I finally got the thermostat housing bolt drilled and tapped with the help of my dad's friend, and quickly put it out on the road. The Beast was shortly tearing up the streets. In order for the car's power to be transferred to the pavement, the rubber was changed. The car sits on BF Goodrich Radial T/A's. P205/70 R14's on 14"x6" rims in the front, and 245/60 R14's on 14"x7" rims in the rear. This rubber is wrapped around a set of Cragar Keystone Klassic rims, rims that my dad pulled out of a dumpster.
July 27, 2002:
The first changes made on the car allowed it to breathe freely. This involved putting on a 14"x3" K&N Air Filter and true dual exhaust. Since the stock exhaust was a single muffler-single pipe, it was pulled off the car in a heartbeat. The exhaust I put on was a pair of Flowmaster 50 Series Delta Flow mufflers with 2 1/2" pipes. This allowed The Beast to get the breath of fresh air that it needed.
May 14, 2003:
When the car came into my possession, the stance was in critical condition. This was quickly revived when I had the rear leaf springs rebuilt. This raised the back of the car by about 3 inches.
January 8, 2004:
In the begininning of January 2004, I changed the stock 2 bbl carbeurator and manifold to an Edelbrock Performer Series 4 bbl carb and manifold. This whole setup quickly enhanced the power of the car, and enhanced the joy I get out of my right foot. I also put on a set of Mopar Performance valve covers to clean up of the engine compartment.
June, 2002- March, 2003:
As far as looks go, I haven't done much to the car. The exterior is stock except for the Road Runner hood, and the spoiler that I put on, which is off of a 1988 Pontiac Firebird (my first car). The interior has undergone a little more of a makeover. I have replaced the carpetting and headliner, as well as replace the stock bucket seats with black and red APC Super Sport Race seats. The other interior change that has been made was that I moved the shifter from the column to the floor, and replaced the steering column with one from a car that had a 4 spd manual. I have also recently tinted the windows, and removed the silver paint that the previous owner put on the rear bumper.
July 8, 2004:
So I haven't done anything to my car in a while, and that was bothering me a lot. That is why this summer, I put on a set of Hedman Hedders, along with exhaust cut-outs, and nice long chrome tailpipes. These relatively minor exhaust modifications have given The Beast a slightly more potent bite off the line, a bark that is definitely MUCH louder than it used to be, and a very sharp looking rear. I also recently purchased an original G-Tech Pro, so as soon as I get it working and figure out the exact numbers for the car, I will be adding those to the site.
August 15, 2004:
Well that does it for performance modifications so far, but I have also added a couple of creature comforts, as well as cosmetic upgrades. As far as the creature comforts go, I put in power windows, and keyless entry. Cosmetically, I put an original Mopar console in the car with a custom cut panel that holds the switches for my power windows along with an iPod dock so that I have my tunes at my fingertips.
November 5, 2004:
The Beast has now found a better way to grip the road. This happened by way of Edelbrock Performer IAS Shocks on all four corners. This shock swap was not at all easy, as I had trouble getting the rusted bolts to cooperate and come off. As it turned out I ended up snapping the head off one of the rear bolts which required me to pull out the cutting wheel, grinder, and drill to cut and drill out the old bolt, and replace it with a shiny new one that I got from AutoZone. Then when I got to the fronts, the opening in the A-frame was much too small to fit the new high performance shock. So on the fronts, with the help of my dad, I had to grind away some excess metal to give the shocks the clearance that they needed. This caused the shock swap to take about 7 1/2 hours when it should have only taken me at most 2. But since it's an old car, I guess I don't mind taking the extra time. However, changing the suspension on all four corners has made the ride so much better. The car takes turns almost like my dad's '84 Vette, and I never thought that it was possible for it to make such a drastic change.
November 6, 2004:
After doing the shock swap, I went to a car show and swap meet at the Belmont Racetrack where I decided I would have the perfect opportunity to use the G-Tech, and see what kind of power I was getting. Since I was at the car show, I took off my exhaust cut-out caps so that the car would definitely be heard before it was seen. With the caps removed I got a very wide range of possible horsepower, of which the most believable was 278hp. This is a huge gain compared to the 234hp reading I got with the caps on. So I have roughly increased the horsepower of the car by about 84hp from the pretty pathetic stock 150hp. I was pleased with these results, and hope to keep raising this number.
December 5, 2004:
I have just installed an aluminuim radiator that I purchased from Jeg's along with a Perma-Cool transmission cooler. These two relatively inexpensive and easy upgrades made the car perform so much better. The car runs much cooler than it did with the stock radiator that was half clogged, and the transmission shifts much better having its own cooler. I was also able to fix a problem I was having with my exhaust, and now the car responds so much better.
January 2, 2005:
The most recent addition to The Beast was also the first thing that I've done on the car in the new year. The addition was a line-lock from Jeg's. This will now allow me to do nice smokey burnouts with just the push of a button. It took a while to get it installed, along with a record number of trips to AutoZone, 5. This was because I kept having to get new brake line fittings to replace ones that had broken.
January 9, 2005:
The coolest thing about some of the Mopars from the 60's and 70's was the Pistol Grip Shifter, and I've been wanting to put one in my car for quite a while. This shifter has become a very expensive piece, and hard to find if you want an original instead of a reproduction part. Fortunately, I'm completely addicted to E-bay, and I managed to find an original 71-74 B-body console Pistol Grip Shifter that was at a price that agreed with my wallet. It took a while to get here as it was being shipped from Alaska, but now I have it and after drilling a few holes, and cutting my old shifter off, my car is now sporting the very cool, stylish, and amazingly comfortable Mopar Pistol Grip. It definitely gives my car that sporty touch the interior needed and also shifts better than the old shifter.
January 19, 2005:
Since I got my racing seats, I've been wanting to get a set of racing harnesses. I definitely wanted to get Sparco belts because I needed something in the car that was by Sparco. Since Sparco seats were not going to do the job of agreeing with my wallet, I decided to make sure that at the very least, my harnesses carried the Sparco name. Again my addiction to E-bay paid off as I found a pair of Sparco Clubman 4 point snap in racing seat belts. Luckily they had only been used in a show car for a couple of weeks, and the only place they show any signs of usage are on the mounting clips and bolts. I put them in the car, and now it looks like a racer. I think these belts, along with the Pistol Grip, added about 50 visual horsepower to the car.
March, 2005:
I finally got my back seat re-upholstered. My friend Ashley's grandfather did it for me and I couldn't be happier with the way it looks, he really did an amazing job on it.
June, 2005:
I put in a Powertrax Lock-Right Locker in the rearend of the car and man did this help the car grip the road better. Now I get power to both rear wheels rather than just one, and I can feel the difference in the way the car rides.
There are many more planned modifications for The Beast, and they will be completed once I have the money. I will also be updating this page as I update my ride. |
