Just like the caption says, I bought a 5-speed swapped Vic. Although I broke my tradition of buying $600 cars with this one, I am happy with the purchase.

It's a 2007 Westerville (OH) cruiser and has the scuffs to prove it. The previous owner, a member here, installed the following goodies:
-TR3650
-10.5" clutch
-Pier's pedals
-Modular Head Shop stage 2 cams
-Kook's LT headers

This combo allegedly makes 270WHP and 299TQ on a 93 octane tune. I will likely have this re-tuned in the next month (more on this later in the post) or so and see what they left on the table.

Annnnyway, I brought it home yesterday and introduced it to the Marauder...


And the Marquis...


Today, I replaced a burnt-out taillight bulb and spent an hour getting the interior to a livable level...



Mechanically, there are some issues. I feel confident in some of them; not all of them:
-tackle the grinding sound/feel in the right front wheel when I'm turning (wheel bearing?)
-brakes all the way around - hoping for just pads - they squeal...bad.
-(this is the big one) re-tune the car, have MIL eliminators installed, turn the rear O2s back on in the tune, and HOPE TO GOD this thing passes Ohio's E-check. (they won't even test it with a P1000 code, which currently surfaces any time the car is started)

On the interior, the list is much shorter:
-clean clean clean
-fix the floor, shift boot, bezel, etc. It's...not right.

Cosmetically:
-who cares? It's a P71.

All of that being said, this is a very solid car. Rowing your own is fun, but third gear pulls are downright intoxicating.

Haters...hit me with your best shot.

I'm jealous. Really jealous.

I like it, but my god does that thing need carpet, I hate the rubber floors. Otherwise most good.

And that does really need a tune. Manual swaps on these result in the computer freaking the hell out.

I am still surprised you stooped to our level with the P71. your monicle may have cracked

let us know how the 5 speed does my son is thinking about the swap.

Looks nice for what it is. I'd swap out the rubber floor mat for some proper carpet and do something about those bucket seats. They look weird.

Maybe you could rework the shifter into a console and just get some Panther buckets or redo some bench seats to fit.

I like the shifter coming straight out of the floor. I don't plan to change that. I may price out carpet and put some in.

The buckets...I like them. I don't love them, but I don't love the stock Panther seats either.

None of this will be addressed until I get the wheel bearing or whatever fixed. And probably E-check and a legal license.

Once you get it legalized (Like what my car is currently going through) I'd go carpet and some center console.

Otherwise it's perfect.

Rotors are so cheap for this car, just do a full brake job, I'm sure with the level of maintenance the previous owner clearly put into this car, the rotors are below minimum thickness as it is. Make sure you do a full bleed to, just in case its still factory fluid.


MIL eliminators + a retune should work fine, Vince passed for years in NJ with no cats and MIL eliminators.

I had cats...they were hollow but I had them

Looks like a great little project Adam, keep the updates coming and good luck with it.

Nice looking P71 Adam. I second the need for carpet and a console. A Sport console shouldn't be too hard to find cheap at a junkyard. Swap that in kinda like JustBob has done with his manual Marauder.

I drove it around a bit here and there yesterday. My god, does this thing need rear control arms - I've never axle-hopped a Panther in wet weather before. I have the old ones off the Marauder laying around, so I might try my hand at boxing a set instead of plunking down four bills for Heinous/Metco pieces.

The wheel bearing is job #1. Since I got called in to work early, so I decided to spend my coffee hour researching the job. It should be in my skill-set, as long as there's no other issues in there. I've got a bearing on order; now I just need to order some motivation and nice weather.

I might. But I did find a box of brand-new front pads in the garage...no idea where they came from, so...yeah. Gonna have the rotors turned (there's a ton of rotor left) and go that route first.

That's what I'm hoping for. I want to get this car safe to roll down the road before I start in on emissions-related BS.

To the people crying for a Sport/Marauder center console, let me repeat myself:

Didn't the Bandit Trans Am have a center console?

This is no Bandit T/A!

My point is, what's good enough for Bo Darville, is good enough for you, so you should get a console.

And it makes it look less like the interior of a early 70s farm truck.