Fast Developments

It's very exciting...things are moving quickly, so even the last pictures I posted are out of date. here's pics of some of the work I've done this week...guess studying for midterms will have to wait. :-)

This is what the cockpit currently looks like. Notice the carbon fiber, new dash pad, seat covers, and nice clean doors among other things.

















I did a little custom fitting of the hardware so the seat covers actually fit pretty well, and don't look quite as cheap as they really are. :-P






















Back seats mostly installed...


















I also put carbon fiber in the coin tray. :-)

















The nicely cleaned door panels...Maria helped with these. woot.

















I also got a new set of spark plugs...the "do it yourself" kind. Means I can taylor the length perfectly so they all run nicely side by side... ba-zing!


















Hopefully this sat I'll be installing the new distributor and getting her started up.

The State of Things

So at long last, here's an update...including pictures.
The car as it looks from the outside. List of things that have been accomplished on the exterior since last post include:

• Rear view mirrors
• grill
• new headlights
• headlight bezels (not installed yet)
• passenger side door handle
• hood scoop
• beginnings of body work
• fixing brake lights, running lights etc.
• replaced rusted out hatch
• Weather stripping installed (old and ugly...but it'll work for now)
  

What still needs to be done:

• Side marker lights
• body work/paint
• find chrome trim
• Replace left tail light lens assembly

The big project of late has been the interior. The list of things I've done there is too long to try to make...I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. It's not done yet, but it's getting there one step at a time.

Door panels+hardware. Original black. still working on cleaning them up, but they are in pretty good shape. :-)

















Refurbished dash, including carbon fiber inlay.


















Carpet, sill plates, console, shifter, etc.


















Rear panels. Also original black. In excellent shape though they still need a little more cleaning up.

















Because the shifter is a little further forward than original, I had to cut a little hole in the bottom of the glove box to make room for the E-brake. Nothing my dremel can't handle.

















Before and after pics of my upholstery job. Thank God for sisters to help w/ the sewing. :-)

















After. Not bad, eh?

















There's lots more...but that's enough for now. As you can see it's coming along. Still have quite a few pieces to finish up including the instrument panel, rear area carpet, seat covers, and headliner. Along with a bunch of smaller trim pieces.

Let me know what you think. :-)

May I Digress

so I KNOW this has nothing to do with cars. but let me wax political for a moment. I just want to note how ironic it is that all the liberal blogs criticize the democratic party for not challenging the republican candidates on the issues. This from those promoting a candidate who is one of the most gifted men I have ever seen at saying absolutely NOTHING...and saying it so beautifully. Perhaps it hasn't occurred to them that perhaps the reason they don't want to get into the issues...is cause they don't have any answers either.

Second, I would like to get one thing straight.

This is MY GIRL...and I love her. :-)

















isn't she gorgeous?

As promised, here are a few pics...

My engine as it currently stands.

































Automatic Tranny removed and flywheel/pilot bearing installed for manual:


















The hole where used to be the shifter:

















I'm working on inlaying carbon fiber on all the trim. So far it's worked really well:

I suck at blogging (apparently)

So when I started, I had this lofty goal of blogging on at least a weekly basis about the progress I make on my car.  Well, so far I count 8 blogs in 10 months...that puts me at less than one a months.  well...I can't be good at everything.  

updates:  Aluminum heads are installed, which involved a fun part where I cut into the top of my pistons with a dremel.  but they seem to be working well.  The engine is running pretty well but needs some work on the carb, and possibly a collapsed lifter replaced.  

Body work continues (slowly)  I think for the time being I am going to go with a dark gray primer with a seal coat over it.  the final effect is something of a matte black.  I can live with it.  

I used Por 15 and some fiber glass to fix my rusted floor pans.  the stuff is INTENSE.  I highly recommend it.  a bit of a pain to work with, but when it hardens it's hardness is second only to diamond.  ;-)  ok, so maybe not quite THAT hard, but it is hard...and yes, that is a good thing.  

The tranny conversion is scheduled to begin this weekend (hopefully).  I still don't have my flywheel, but I think I'm gonna start either way.  I'm gonna try to pull out the old tranny w/out removing the engine.  not sure if I can do it cause of the full length headers I am running, but it's worth a shot.  Beats pulling all the crap off of the front of the engine and pulling the engine out.  tranny is getting a new flywheel, clutch, flexplate, clutch cable, and bearing retainer.  should work well.  

Pictures...oh they are far overdue, and I know it.  I'll try to get some pictures soon.  

The interior is completely pulled out right now, and is in the process of being painted black.  won't look perfect (never does) but it'll look pretty sweet.  I'm also adding carbon fiber accents to a few key areas courtesy of Rich's Custom Carbon Fiber Products.  They really make great stuff, and I have a lot of respect for their skill and prefessionalism.  

hopefully a piture post will be coming tom...

Back to Life

As amazing as it seems...it's been 6 months since I posted last. wow! guess that's what happens when you get busy with school. well, don't have time to go into a LOT of detail about all the stuff I've done. but suffice it to say, the engine in the car turned out to be junk. in the months of december and January I replaced it with a late model roller 302. good stuff. I stuck with the carbed set up, and by the middle of Feb, I had the engine up and running. A test run followed in during which there was a fair amount of burnt rubber and run times. Engine runs well except for a vacuum leak around the break power booster. Since then I haven't had time to work on it too much, but it has not gone by the wayside. I have redone the brakes on all corners, and have started on the body work. And now that I am about done with school, I am planning a major project.

Cause I'm a glutton for punishment, I have decided to switch out the C4 Tranny for a five speed manual. More fun to drive, plus it has overdrive. also, I'm going to go ahead and put the edelbrock aluminum heads on there that came with the car when I got it. And further more, I found a cheap set of Hooker Headers (used) to finish off the set up. Add in some hardened push rods and roller rockers, and it'll be a sweet running engine. while i'm at it though, i'm gonna give the suspension a little tlc as well. The rear I'm gonna rework the leafs and see if I can salvage them, and add new KYB shocks. The front I'm gonna knock the springs off about an inch for the time being. eventually I want to put in stiffer front springs to help w/ cornering. i'll be cleaning and painting as I go to make it all look pretty and make it last. :-)

Exams finish up week after next, so at that point, I'll start posting regularly including pics and all of the progress. I can't wait to get my hands greasy again. my goal is to have the car on the road around the beginning of july. it'll be tight, but I think it can be done.

disassembly begins

The car is now safely inside my workshop, and the rebuilding process has begun.
I spent yesterday evening, and this evening pulling off the carb, alternator, power steering pump, intake manifold, heads, and a bunch of other random stuff. It took some doing to get the intake off, as the gasket had melted to the block and didn't want to let go. I ended up having to tap a screw driver very gently into the seam in order to loosen it up, and then use a wrench as a pry bar on the front part of the manifold, and managed to get it off. Gotta be careful not to scrape up that surface... The heads came off pretty easily. The bolts were torqued on there well, so it took some elbow grease to get them off, but other than that they came off without a fight. And next thing I knew I was lookin down on the top of my pistons. not 100% sure, but I'm pretty sure they aren't stock either. not much seems to be in this car. Here's some pics.











































The pistons didn't seem corroded, so it didn't seem that they were what is causing the engine to cease up like it has. I did notice however, that the lifters seem to be very much corroded and frozen up. I'm thinking that might be the problem, so I hosed them down with skunk pee, and they are soaking over night. Tomorrow Eddie's comin over and is gonna tell me what's what. If it's just the lifters frozen up, that's great news. without too much work, I should be able to get them loosened up, and see if she turns over. The good news so far is that everything else seems to be in moderate-great condition. The intake looks great, as do the heads/valves/pushrods/rocker arms/springs etc. The carb looks like it's in decent condition, might need a rebuild, not sure yet. but it's not in too bad shape at least, and I might even get away w/out rebuilding it for the time being.
So the next step: clean up the heads/intake, and free up the lifters. Then see if the engine turns, if it doesn't, then the engine is coming out definitely. I'm still not sure that I'm gonna pull it, but I'm thinking I will, if only so that I can repaint it and clean it up properly. But really everything is still up in the air at this point, cause I'm not 100% sure what the problem is. if freeing up the lifters solves it, then I will probly put the engine back together, and see whether I can start it up, before deciding how much more of a rebuild to do. can't wait to hear that engine growl. I'll add pics of the disassembled engine shortly.