Home-Built Hero: Walter Cravens’ Tire-Shredding ’71 Vega

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Walter Cravens is a true hot rodder from Evansville, Indiana. He has been building cool classic rides for about as long as he can remember. But in case you haven’t noticed, his interest doesn’t revolve solely around Chevrolet’s “musclecars,” he also likes something a little more compact. “I’ve always like Vegas. When gas hit $4.00 a gallon several years ago, I had just built a Pro Street 1970 Z28. It had a big-block under the hood, no back seat, heat, air conditioning, or even windshield wipers. With three daughters and a wife, a back seat and some amenities were needed.”

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Looks as good as a factory install to us.

One day he was searching on the Internet for a Camaro replacement, and he came across an ad on an auction site for a 1971 Vega. Walter tells us, “The reserve wasn’t met, so I called the guy and learned that the reserve was missed by $1.00. He relisted it, and then I used the “Buy It Now” option.” The sub-compact Chevy was from California, and had a scant 32,000 miles on the odometer, and Walter told us the car was equipped from the factory with a four-speed, and someone had added a Holley carburetor and a header.

Walter bought a 1 ¾-inch header kit, but had to modify the tubes a little bit.

According to Walter, “I got the car home and drove it around a little, and when I had used about a 1/2 tank of fuel, the engine seized up. Whoever built the engine, put the head gasket on backwards, and the oil passages to the overhead cam were blocked.” At this point, Walter weighed his options. He could rebuild another four cylinder, find a turbo engine from a Grand National and slide it in place, or finally, do a V8 swap. Walter chuckled as he said, “After driving my friends ‘99 Corvette, he talked me into putting a LS engine in it.”

Walter found a ’99 LS engine that was removed from an F-body, and added a set of LS6 cylinder heads, intake, and camshaft. The wiring harness came with the engine, and he also added a Megasquirt II EFI unit. According to Walter, “I wanted it to look like it came from the factory with this engine in it.” Behind the new engine is a 200R4 transmission with a 9-inch Vigilante torque converter. Finally, a Don Hardy-built 12-bolt rearend is filled with a with a Posi unit and 3.08 gears.

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The front suspension is from a ’68 – ’72 A-body, but the brakes have been glommed from a ’94 Camaro. The rear suspension consists of a Cravens-made pair of adjustable upper control arms and aftermarket lower tubular pieces. The exhaust is 3-inch pipes leading to stainless steel Borla catalytic converters and then into 2 ½-inch Magnaflow mufflers. The tail pipes exit on both sides of the ‘69 Camaro gas tank that is modified with an EFI pump conversion from Rock Auto.

Walter had to make the rear wheels himself.

In case you couldn’t tell by looking, the wheels are 15×6 and 15×8 Pontiac Rally wheels. Walter told us, “The rears were made by taking the centers out of a 15×8 six lug truck hoop, and then placing the stock Rally wheel center in the place of the truck six lug center.” Look closely, as it is a tight fit for the 235/60-15 radials. Walter quips, “I have since bought drag radials, because the street radials haven’t got a chance. When at the strip, I launched the car in Second gear, and even easing it out of the hole netted a tire-spinning 8.36 at 86 mph on the eighth-mile.

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Walter has added a lot of custom touches to the interior.

Inside, Walter added Auto Meter carbon fiber gauges, new carpeting and dash pad, and also installed a Vintage Air A/C unit.

“My plan is to drive the wheels off of it. With the A/C cooling in the summer and the heat in the winter, those miles will rack up quick.” Walter continued, “I think that the rearend gearing and overdrive should help deliver decent fuel mileage – if I can keep my foot out of it. It’s quiet enough to ride around with the family, and the wife and daughters love how quiet it is, so they want to go all the time.”

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It does resemble a second-gen Camaro, so it can be considered muscle-esque.

Walter would like to thank Brent Poole who helped take his crazy ideas and make them happen, everyone at H-body.org for all their help sourcing hard to find Vega parts, Justin Barrera, and most of all, his wife for, in his words, “letting me have my space to build this crazy idea, and putting up with my moods when things didn’t go well.”

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Do you want to read about more Home-Built Heros? All you need to do is click here. If you own a Home-Built Hero, we want to hear about it. Since we’ve started the Home-Built Hero series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we are still in need of more. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send us a few pictures of your car showing the engine, interior and exterior, along with all of the pertinent information, and we’ll make you Internet famous. You can send your submissions to [email protected].

About the author

Randy Bolig

Randy Bolig has been working on cars and has been involved in the hobby ever since he bought his first car when he was only 14 years old. His passion for performance got him noticed by many locals, and he began helping them modify their vehicles.
Read My Articles

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