# '69 Judge restoration steerage needed



## Joe'sJudge (Nov 2, 2017)

Hi, first time poster, long time lurker. I've had my '69 Judge for 17 years, and now it's time to send it on its way and own some of the other cars I'd like to experience. My issue is that the car is really far from original and I need to invest in it wisely (i.e. where there's a return) as I bring it back to snuff. The small mechanical stuff is a no-brainer, but I struggle with the following. The interior is not the original color and is nice enough but showing wear (currently black but was parchment). It also has a hood tach and hideaways that it didn't come with. The engine is not original ('69 YZ is now a '69 WT). It was an AT car and now has a M-21. There's water in the exhaust so if I do need to rebuild I need to figure out if it makes sense to find an SR block or something. Under the hood there's super comp headers, a custom plated QJet by Cliff, and lots of other small mods that are readily evident to the trained eye (e.g. vacuum pump, fuel pump). The headers are scraped and the exhaust should be replaced so do I cap off horsepower (which feels like a sin) and put on manifolds and the right size pipes? It has Cragar SS wheels on it but I do have a set of 14x6 Rallye 2's. I have 3pt seat belts installed for safety. What is worth the expense and what isn't to set right? Luckily, the body is straight. If it were a numbers car, the question would be simple - as original as possible. But it isn't. I don't have any of those parts and never did - this car was hotrodded through the '70's and '80's and looks the part. Please share with me your $0.02 or experience.


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## Shake-N-Bake (Jun 16, 2015)

Based on the info provided then I would venture to say that you should just clean it up and get it mechanically sound and then sell it as is. You would most likely net more when the dust settles. 

The water in the exhaust....
Are you loosing coolant? Some water out the exhaust can be normal if the conditions are right.

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk


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## Joe'sJudge (Nov 2, 2017)

Yeah, losing coolant, the white smoke gets heavy when it's warm, the plugs are wet, and you can see it bubbling out along the header flanges. Time for me to sack up, get the heads off, and see what's really going wrong.


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