My 44th Starsky & Huch Gran Torino Project...Episode 16

Well, here is Torino #44 all finished. It came out really well and I had four guys stop and come look at it while I was filming this. My goal was to bless Tony with a car that he could take to car shows, out to dinner or go get groceries and draw a crowd.

It is not perfect and Tony has plans to continue working on it. Doing things such as rebuild the engine and transmission, recover the front seats etc. Old cars are always a "work in process". That is part of the fun of owning a classic car, tinkering with it.

Tony chose the hybrid stripe which is both Hero #1 Torino from the TV show and the front of the stripe is like the L.E. He also wanted color keyed sport mirrors. He also wanted the bumpers chromed. I had never in my life had anything chromed so it was a learning experience. I had also never taken the skin off a torino bumper core.

There were some odds and ends missing. Some interior trim gone. I added the rear arm rests, sail panels and hat shelf as well as some misc. interior trim.

Tony had provided a better grill and surround so I put those on which made it even better. Another nice thing he wanted was a new windshield since the one in it was either put in wrong or it had shifted over to one side badly so I couldn't remove the window trim clips or install new ones.

The rear window trim was not attached properly because it was pretty bent and it was missing some clips. So I took one of my extra trim pieces and replaced it so now it snaps on and stays.

The fellow who has painted it before Tony bought it had replaced the passenger rear tail light mounting panel with one made of tin and sheet metal screwed it to the body. I left that on but had to re-do the tail light mounting holes because they were too low and made the tail light sag. Now it is nice and straight.

The worst thing on the car I fixed was the opera windows. The previous owner had taken out the opera windows and J.B. welded a thin piece of tin in the opera window hole and then bondoed over it. Which of course cracked in the shape of the window hole. I welded in new steel and did the body work and it turned out quite well. You wouldn't know it ever had opera windows.

So, now that it is done, I feel great and look forward to the next car project.
Thank you Tony for the opportunity to starskyize your baby.