Rob & Stu's 69 Sport Satellite

[uk-maxie]

Recently started a thread here about our more recent purchase...

http://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/showthread.php?t=11557

but this one's been in the family a little longer...


Back in early 1985, aged 23, my brother & I started looking round at a few muscle cars for our first 'interesting' purchase, having been driving for 3 or 4 years.
Had a close shave with a rotten 'bread van' (71?) Mustang uke: and just missed out on a pretty cool (honest ) 68 396 Chevelle, but seeing as our mates who were driving cars from the other side of the pond, were mostly into Mopars, we settled on this Sport Satellite that was up for sale just south of London.

The guy selling the car showed us some trophies he'd won with the car over the years, but looking back now, the competition must have been pretty poor as the car did have some rot showing, despite its (then) relatively young age

The car had come to the UK in '77 from Belgium, where I think it had been since new. A lot of US cars came to the UK from mainland Europe back in the 70's & 80's as servicemen at USAF bases brought their cars over with them while stationed here, then sold them on to European customers when they got moved on. I'm also led to belive that our Satellite was made for export, so it may have gone direct to a European dealer for sale to Monsieur Jean Doe :toothy5:

I got these pics from a friend over here who's been in the 'scene' since the 70's. These were taken soon after the car came to England... prob 78-80. Car's still in its original colour with original wheel covers, that we were given when we bought the car. We still have them, but havent had the guts (or wheels!) to fit them yet!

 

[uk-maxie]

We bought the car in June '85, the day before one of our regular race meets at our local drag strip, Santa Pod Raceway.

Sometime between those earlier pics & when we bought it, it had been painted a nasty VW green colour, and a bumblebee stripe added (dont ask :icon_scratch

Some pics from that weekend....

 

[uk-maxie]

Next installment of fuzzy scanned photos to follow later today.... :blush:

 

[roadrunnerman]

car looks good,are you going to add the fuzzy dice.LOL

 

[uk-maxie]

car looks good,are you going to add the fuzzy dice.LOL

Rats, I knew there was summat I missed off the last Year One order! :thinker:



More fuzzy pics from the last century :hippy2:..........

We stuck with the 318 & 904 for all of 18 months then thought it about time we treated the Satellite to the big block it was made for :icon_keel:
A fairly mild 440 & 727 was put together, but good enough to get a best of 13.6 @ 106 on BFG's & thru the mufflers.

Around this time we also changed the old **** mags for a shiny set of Centrelines... state of the art in the late 80's!

Following pics are from early '87.....

 

[uk-maxie]

That's pretty much how the car stayed for the next couple of years... except that the rot had really started to show itself in the usual places....

Bottom of the rear quarters, front wings & doors, base of the vinyl and the join at the base of the rear window where the top of the rear quarter meets the panel below the window.

So the next task was to find the replacement parts & someone to nail them on :icon_biggrin:
Dont forget, this was pre-internet, so had to rely on magazines, word of mouth & late nite trans-atlantic phone calls...

 

[BuckNeccid]

Good looking car, and it sure looks like you're doing it right. I LOVE those old school slots, they are getting really hard to find, and look great on certain rides. Wish you were close enough I could come by and steal them off you lol.

You're not in St Albans by any chance are you?

 

[uk-maxie]

Thanks Buck(!)

Sorry but those slots are long gone :icon_cry:

St Albans isnt a bad guess! About 8 miles away! Or was it not a guess.... :eusa_eh:

 

[BuckNeccid]

Actually, just hope. I spent some time in St Albans back in the early 70's, absolutely LOVE the area and the people. Don't offer a room or I'm on my way back lol. 8 miles huh... that's not far enough for Watford, But know you're a blessed man.

 

[uk-maxie]

Actually, just hope. I spent some time in St Albans back in the early 70's, absolutely LOVE the area and the people. Don't offer a room or I'm on my way back lol. 8 miles huh... that's not far enough for Watford, But know you're a blessed man.

Hey Buck, small world, eh?! I live in Hemel Hempstead, not as posh as St Albans but a good location between London and some nice rural areas. My brother (where the cars are kept) is in Hitchin, about 20 miles north. Both have some nice areas but also have their fair share of scum-bags, like most places I suppose! :tard:

Anyway, back to the car.......

Following a recommendation from a friend (the current owner of the Ace Cafe in North London... check it out :icon_cool: http://www.ace-cafe-london.com/default.aspx ..... you might have seen it on American Chopper when they were in England?) we took the car about 60 miles east to south Suffolk to a guy called Steve who agreed to do the bodywork for us.

We took the car there in December '90 and he set about dismantling and stripping to see just how bad it was :icon_pale:

Some pics of the early stages....

 

[uk-maxie]

To cut a long story short, it took about 8 months from start to finish.... seemed like a long time to us back then, but knowing now how long some people wait for this kind of work, I think Steve did well. And that was with fitting in other jobs in between. Ok, it's not quite up to Muscle Car Restorations standards, but at £5500 (approx $7500?) it was a fair bit cheaper too!

More pics of the rot being removed. We had new (Sherman I think) rea quarters and new patch panels for the bottom of the front fenders but all other rotten areas were cut out & replaced with new hand-formed sheet metal.

 

[uk-maxie]

Gettin late so I'll post more next time. Dont worry, it starts to get prettier from here on in :toothy5:

 

[Clay Dots]

yep, typical b-body decay stuff, glad you saved her! look forward to more pics! best wishes CD

 

[uk-maxie]

Thanks CD!

With the patch panels, rear quarters & miscellaneous pieces of sheet metal replaced, Steve got on with the spraying. And we still hadnt decided on a colour!

 

[uk-maxie]

Although Steve was great with the metal work and confident that he could do a good job with the paint, he wsnt comfortable spraying a metallic colour without an oven.
In hindsight, we should have found a way to go back to the original gold, but in looking for a non-metallic, eventually settled on a dark blue.

Meanwhile, we set about tidying up the engine, getting the trans rebuilt and rechroming the bumpers. In addition to a fresh coat or five of MP engine paint, we had the Edelbrock Performer powder coated silver (to prevent the ally from oxidising) and had the headers aluminum coated (that nasty rough bright silver/white colour that shows all the dirt!.... hence the paper wrapping in the pics, while we fitted them).

 

[uk-maxie]

Nearly done :toothy5:

 

[uk-maxie]

July 27th 1991. Finished at last! (apart from forgetting to take the centre caps & new air filter lid :icon_frown

More to follow next time....

 

[Redhorse719]

Beautiful car. How do you determine which one drives it?

 

[uk-maxie]

Thanks Mr B

Generally just take turns - one will drive to the destination and the other will drive back.... but we dont get too **** about it! :icon_lol:


First show after all this work, Aug 91, went there with a mate & his 69 RR. I think this site is now being developed for part of the 2012 Olympics ccasion6:

oooh never thought I'd get to use that one on here! :icon_lol:

 

[detmatt1]

Very nice!!, great color.