Shiny, deep paint has always been the go-to for car people looking to turn heads with their classic cars. But for car purists — especially those concerned with originality over everything else — there’s nothing better than having that OE paint on your classic.

For years, original paint wasn’t a priority for many car restorers, and that has made original-paint cars relatively rare today — with those cars that do have OE finishes sometimes valued higher than their resprayed counterparts, Read More

So you just bought a car at auction. You take it home, get it in your garage, and after owning it for a while, you decide it’s time to personalize it. The best way to change its look? A new set of wheels and tires.

There are thousands of wheel and tire combinations out there for buyers who want something different than OEM. But you really need to be careful, because the right rolling stock can take your car’s look Read More

Electronic fuel injection may be the wave of the future, but there’s nothing wrong with a properly tuned carburetor. The key is figuring out how to tune it.

Edelbrock carburetors have been a go-to for street-bound muscle cars and classics for several decades. The design itself goes back to the AFB carbs of the 1960s — a tried-and-true setup that offers plenty of adjustability while remaining reliably adjusted once set up. These things are everywhere — if your car isn’t Read More

Classic car owners love to talk about their car’s paint or their car’s engine. But for those of us who love to drive, there’s one typically overlooked component that can affect the overall experience behind the wheel more than anything else: the seat. After all, this is where you sit to enjoy your car. Shouldn’t it be comfortable?

You may think that your seat is just fine, but it’s just as likely that you’ve become accustomed to worn foam and Read More

Classic cars and music go hand-in-hand. What fun is driving your ’57 Chevy without Buddy Holly, or your ’65 Mustang without the Beach Boys, or your ’70 Charger without the Stones?

Chances are your classic car still has its original AM radio. They just look right — better than a modern LED plastic piece that would be out of place in an otherwise OEM interior. Sure, there are some replacement modern systems that look stock-ish, but one of those is Read More

Classic-car brakes, in general, are pretty simple and generally hassle-free. Most of us don’t run our cars often enough or hard enough to warrant regular replacement of the factory components — especially with regard to OEM rear drums that only handle a small portion of the actual stopping.
That leads to a hidden issue that you might not have thought of — leaky wheel cylinders. And no, they don’t need to be pouring brake fluid down your tires before Read More

Face it: Your original muscle car’s headlights and taillights are old. Maybe they’re still as good as they ever were, but the world has changed around them. Drivers today are more distracted than ever, and even the most bland, blob-shaped commuter junk has better lighting than your prized stock GTO, Charger or Mustang. Do you really want to gamble that you’re going to be seen when you brave modern traffic in your classic machine?
With a little work, you Read More

Water-based coolants have been the standard since the beginning of the car industry. But those traditional coolants have limitations that car people have simply learned to accept. Coolant turns acidic over time, so we swap it often to eliminate electrolysis from eating our engine’s metals from the inside out. We replace plugged heater cores and radiators, full of scale and other deposits left by water. And we still deal with boil-overs on hot days and the high pressure needed to Read More

The average muscle car is over 40 years old now, and it’s easy to forget that it lived a full life during that time — a life that likely filled its original fuel tank with rocks and rust scale. If you’ve ever run an old car out of gas, you probably cursed this stuff as you cleared it out of your fuel lines.

Worse yet are slow leaks from rear-end damage, which are a common problem on tanks that fill Read More