Soon after I bought the car, my dad and I began rebuilding the 225 slant 6. We bought a rebuilt crankshaft and bearings, and a complete set of engine seals. We took the whole engine apart and cleaned all the parts as best we could; a friend of my dad cleaned the heads really well. I learned a lot about all the different parts and torque specifications from rebuilding that engine. When the engine was all back together, it ran pretty well. Then, we put on new wheels and tires--wide-tread tires for plenty of traction and aluminum mag wheels that my dad got from a friend who did not need them. I cleaned the wheels up nicely.
From about the spring of 1997 until January 1998 my dad drove the Demon to work. Then on my 16th birthday--January 6, 1998--I got my license and began driving the car to school and work. I liked driving the Demon because it was so different from most other cars, and I was the only ninth grader with both a cool car and a job. I gave everyone rides. Just about everyone liked the car; even the people that like new cars seemed to appreciate the quality and tough looks of it.
Then, on September 4, 1998, I was involved in my first crash. It was a rainy day and still a little dark at about 7:00 a.m., when my friend and I were going north on U.S. 1 on our way to school. As we were coming to the intersection of U.S. 1 and Highway 50, the traffic light had just turned green, and traffic was just beginning to move. The car in front of me did not stop until the intersection was pretty close, and I had to stop quickly to avoid hitting him. I stopped about five feet from him, but the 1985 Chrysler LeBaron behind me could not stop as fast, and it ran up under my car all the way to the gas tank. No one was hurt, and the Demon had almost no damage--the bumper was bent under a little bit and the exhaust was pushed up about 3 feet. The LeBaron, on the other hand, was fit for the junkyard--the hood and fenders were all bashed up, the passenger side door would not open right, and radiator fluid was everywhere. It was a mess. When it was all over, I received $450 for damages to the bumper and exhaust.
The only problem with the Demon was that the car looked much faster than it was--I wanted to drop a V-8 in there! So my dad found a 1970 Dart with a 318, and he traded a motorcycle and a gun for it. We pulled the engine out and kept all the front fenders and grill and other parts that seemed to be worth keeping. The engine was a 1979 318 with a 2-barrel carburetor. We rebuilt the 318 with a new camshaft, timing chain, high volume oil pump, new gaskets for the entire engine, new bearings for the cam, and a crankshaft. We also had the heads shaved slightly to boost the compression a bit. It all cost a little over $500. We also got a K-frame, front disk brakes, control arms and basically all the front-end parts from a 1974 Duster. We got everything ready for the winter vacation, and when the vacation began, we started putting it all together. It was a lot of work, but we had the whole job done by the end of winter vacation of 1998, and the car was a lot faster than it had been.
It is now March 20, 1999, and I am still driving the Demon to school and work with over 120,000 miles on it. One day I would like to get it painted the original green color and also fix the big dent in the driver's side door. And I'd like to replace the original 2-barrel carb with a Holley 600 cfm. that my dad has, but first I will have to save enough money to buy a four-barrel intake.