1969 toronado project

[cartercarbaficionado]

finally getting back to this car after a year of sitting.
I forgot how extremely solid it is underneath for 30k miles of dirt roads.
anyways I haven't been able to pull my blown up olds 455 since I haven't found a replacement or really any parts to finish the ac or accessory drive. plus the interior is messed up still.
I'm currently torn on whether or not to keep this front wheel drive or make a trans tunnel and cut out the spare tire well to make this a rear wheel drive. I would perfer all wheel drive so I can actually drive it year round but that's turned out to be quite the debacle
let me know if anyone has parts or a good engine near Washington state

[Slick66]

Hey I'm just curious on what your theory would be on all wheel drive. There's no way to work a transfer case into the drivetrain. On rear wheel drive, wouldn't it just be easier to buy a Riviera and swap the body over. Of course you would need to alow for the drive train.

[cartercarbaficionado]

believe it or not there is. I just don't want to swap those motors in since it's mostly v6 stuff, the way to do it easily would be to use a 6t80e(or 4t65eHD) with the differential and output cup with the awd output box from a pontiac Aztec and then using a 4.9 Cadillac motor just like a fiero would (currently making plans to awd one of those for a rally car) I could also use a transfer case from a chevy astro van and cut up the floor a bit to make It fit.
also yeah no. a riveria around Oregon is quite expensive (over 10k)for one that's even half as nice as this $1500 toronado
luckily the toronado uses a quad shock leaf spring beam axle so swapping in a 70s square body rear axle is easy and let's me keep the stock wheels and oversized drums which will be a plus when I decide to later attempt to shove abs in this. it's a little difficult but it's primarily using a 93 and up gm 3 abs unit that can just be ran through a 1998 Monte carlo ecm for the wheel speed and intensity
honestly though the rwd is gonna be the easiest part of this particular toronado since it has just about every wiring issue it could have had from the previous owner pulling it out of a barn and promptly almost burning it to the ground with a chevy 1 wire alternator he wired the power to ground with.