1972 grand torino station wagon

first post here other than the welcome 

just wanted to drop a note regarding my first car. I was allowed to rescue it from a barn lot. It had been used for a farm truck - fire wood hauler. It developed a miss, starter went out so i sat in a barn lot for a sheep rubbing obstacle. 

I was offered the challenge at 16 if I could get it running I could have it for helping with sheep vaxing, sheep tail docking and banding. 

I was thrilled, I had no money other than farm work I did. I had a little bit of funds from trapping in the winter. Most of my money was spent for gas to go to school to participate in sports practices before/after school and this would provide a way of getting to/from school also and not have to deal with mom/dad and arrangements to coordinate with them. 

readers digest version

sheep taken care of, couple boards/jacks, aired up tires, brought starter with me off 1975 mercury marquis that had a broken crank we had stuffed in the fence row. 

put on starter, got it running, drove it home 50ish miles. 

cut my teeth on engine repair on lawn mowers so this was bigger, taught myself how to take head off 75 merc that had broken crank. 

found bent valve on torino, diagnosed by pulling valve covers and dad told me to watch while it idled, then pulled rocker and found valve not moving by hitting valve stem with hammer 

pulled head off - got gasket set from auto parts store - put it back together and to my surprise it was fixed, dad said he would only help if I couldnt figure out what to do, didnt have a torque wrench, used a cheater on 1/2 inch ratchet on head bolts. 

it was a 400cu in motor, 75 merc was anemic, the 72 torino ran Very Well for some reason. 

I used it for a pickup - hauled dead deer in the back since it was metal i just washed it out with a hose. Had lugged mud/snow tires and it went well for me. 

It never had an easy life, I was hard on it and pedal to firewall every time I drove it at some point. 

I will have to dig up a picture of it somewhere, it was that powder puff blue - pastel - light fluffy cloud blue. 

Nothing about it was a chick magnet but it was a great car for a first time kid. Never left me stranded. 

mine was the 400/2V variety, likely a C4, whatever it was it had the issue where you would have to wait a minute before it would take off once you put it in drive, sometimes in the winter it was like 3 minutes or more it seemed like because of the cold. 

i gave it to my sister when I left home, she drove it a couple more years that way then dad got tired of hearing about it and sold it for 275 bucks to someone. 

I bought my aunts 1970 buick lesabre w/cracked head and bad rochester on a 455/4V it was healthy when i got it fixed, gave 300 bucks for it. It was long legged too!

modulator valve went out once, that was really only issue i had other than wait to take off 

it was VERY reliable, always started, always ran, never left me stranded, such a great car for a farm kid growing up, was the strongest 400 i have ever driven and why i couldnt tell you. 

not sure the rear gears but it would run around 110 or so I had it there many times cause you know a kid had to see how fast it would go and make sure it would still do it after the oil change, or spark plugs or flipping the air cleaner lid upside down LOL

i abused it - the rear fender wells were rusted out and i had towels/rags stuffed in there so the dust would be slowed down a bit from the gravel roads. 

i think i put about 10 speakers in it so it made more noise - always ran quiet stock exhaust on it 

long story short as a kid i wasnt expertly trained and a farm kid mechanic - i tried my best to see what was wrong with the windshield wiper sprayer and it just wouldnt work - car did smoke sometimes when i started it and the windshield wiper tank was always empty - yup you guessed it, the dang hose was going to the vacuum port on the back of the intake - after resolving that it all worked fine, no more hard starting, no more smoking sometimes and i had wiper sprayer LOL

Nice Robert, so what kind of supercharger did it have, to need water injection?

many dont get me to thinking, if all the possibilities that are out there now and what i would have done as a kid trying to experiment i would have blown it up in short order just to go fast for one good rip!!!

no not really, i was a poor kid, was so proud to have what i had and even though i drove it like i stole it, i did take care of it.

I kept it cleaned up because mom expected that even though it was mine, she and dad used it when their car was broken or they needed it or just wanted to drive something different. They paid my insurance and license tags on it for me I covered the gas and maint/repair costs/tires. 

Funny how the tire thing kept the burn outs to a minimum. usually when i was angry and frustrated I gave it ALL the onions she had. 

Barney Fife wasnt around when I was a kid so I drove it fast everywhere. To farmers to work, to school, to band practice, to sports practice, to town, u name it. Amazing I survived all those years in my crazy driving. I had so many guardian angels it would have been like an entourage.