The Improbable Car Company

Box is back

2009-05-10T19:14:56Z

Got Box back from being repaired today. He still hasn't been painted as I negotiated with my cousin who is doing the bodywork for a complete repaint (including fixing all the dents & dings) as part of the repairs. He needs to clear out a backlog of cars he's working on before Box can go in for paint, but at least I can drive him again.

Brakes still Broke

2009-05-02T12:55:55Z

I attempted earlier this week to fix Emily's brakes. I finally bought a new master cylinder, after two rebuilt ones in a row were defective. I was also adding a proportioning valve to the systems to get the braking balance right with the new front disc brakes.

I made a custom bracket for the valve, and painted all the bits in preparation for the install. The last thing I did was disassemble the used proportioning valve to double check it. At that point I discovered is was badly corroded inside to the point of unusability. So now Emily's old M/C is removed, and I can't install the new system until I get another prop valve.

So I'm now at two of two unusable cars. Lucky thing my sweetie is letting me borrow her car long term.

On a more positive note I finally tracked down a fourth of the rare 14" mustang rims I needed for Emily, so after repainting and some new tires I can have four of the same size rims on Emily instead of the 13" rears & 14" fronts on her now.

I broke my Box

2009-04-30T00:26:39Z

I had a relatively minor accident with Box on Saturday, pulled out in front of someone and they hit me in the left edge of the bumper, pushing it right.

Today I heard back from the insurance company. They appraised it and cut me a check. After taking out my $500 deductible, I am getting just over $4000 from them.

The damage is pretty substantial with the whole front radiator support (and everything attached-to/associated-with it swayed off to the right. So $3000 of the $4500 estimate is labor alone to disassemble everything, straighten the frontend, then repaint the few new parts and re-assemble it all.

So I'm going to talk to my cousin the professional body man, and see what we can do. I'm willing to be that especially if I'm willing to put some sweat-equity in that I can either have some $$ left over at the end of this, or possibly end up with a new complete paint job (rather than just the bumper & one fender).

I've even been pondering a two-tone paint job, or some other interesting variation. Maybe just getting the custom vinyl designs Velvet & I had talked about and started designing last summer.

We shall see...

Plans

2009-03-28T16:03:58Z

These are my plans for my cars this year.

Box. My plans for Box this year is to preemptively catch/stabilize/prevent any rust, and get some maintaince issues done that I haven't gotten to.

Replace both belts & get them tensioned correctly so they don't squeal like the ones I put in last year.
Do a very thorough inspection of the body for any potential/starting rust and grind/seal it before winter.
Completely replace fluid in brake system with new high-temp fluid.
Replace all hoses & refill cooling system w/ fresh coolant.

Emily. The big plan for Emily this year is to finish some projects & deal with some issues to make her truly drivable. I'm frustrated with not really being able to use her, so this is a big deal to me. Plus the last few years I've dumped a lot of money into her every year in big projects (floors/carpet, rear suspension, exhaust, etc.), this years I want to get the last details of them sewn up before embarking on the next big project.

Fix the drone in the exhaust. I have one idea, but even if that doesn't work I am fixing this somehow.
Install proportioning valve in brake system and do a full bleed (possibly rig up a pressure bleed).
At least fix choke, preferably rebuild/replace carb. Possibly upgrade carb.
Work on shift linkage, hopefully replace shift collar if I can find one.
Radio & speakers?
Get horns working.

Starting this back up

2009-03-20T02:25:24Z

I've decided to finally exhume this journal and put it back to use again.

Since the last time I posted here a few changes have happened in the cars here.

I still have Emily the '62 Comet. Still a lot to be done on here. This year I'm trying to concentrate on work to get her to more useable on a regular basis, and with any luck get a real start on stripping the 4-coats of paint off her panel by panel, doing bodywork & getting proper paint on her.

My daily driver is now Box a 2004 Scion xB. I have been hypermiling it to try and maximize my MPG, this has included various mods to this effect. More recently I've gotten into autocrossing and have now also been making mods to that effect.

This past weekend I finally got my new springs into Box. The stock springs were replaced with Swift Sport Mach racing springs. In the process I also cleaned off a surprising amount of surface rust off the rear axle and put a couple coats of Masterseries rust sealing pain on it and the brake backing plates.
I've been trying to pre-emtively fix issues the moment I spot them (or a risk of them) on Box because I'm planning to keep this car for a *minimum* of five years and want to keep Box from turning into a beater at least in that time (and preferable much longer).

This weekend is the Rookie School for the FCSCC autocrossing club I'm a member of. I've lept on this chance to get proper lessons on how to drive an autocrossing course well so that a) I can improve my skills and b)know what I *should* be doing so I have something useful to compare myself against for future improvement.

Interior Re-do parts 2 & 3

2007-03-15T00:52:20Z

Day two:

Velvet came over to look at the floors, and decided it was within his welding skills. So we spent the day cutting out the bad section of the driver's side, grinding away the paint, rust and undercoating from around the hole, and fabricating a patch panel. The patch panel is from a section of roof cut out of a junk Omni in Velvet's yard. Nothing like bringing the quality of an '80's Dodge sub-compact to bear on my project.
We also did more grinding on the passenger side and found more rot, looks like we're goign to need two decent sized patch panels to get it all. Feh.
Would have welded the patch in, but we had the wrong guage wire in the welder.

Day three:

Velvet came over and we welded the patch in. That's it really, but it too for bloody ever. I also cut out the first area of rot on the passenger side, but wasn't able to finish prepping that side as I couldn't run power tolls while Velvet was running the welder (circuit overload).

Need to gridn down the welds on the driver's side and make sure there aren't any gaps or pinholes in the welds. Then need to grind down and prep the passenger side, and form patch panels. Minimum two more days work on the floors I'm thinking.

Rug showed up today, haven't had them out of the box yet, but I'm excited.

Day one interior pics.

2007-03-11T15:22:42Z

For those interested, click on the above pic for a gallery of pics from the first day of the interior re-do.

Interior re-do, part the first

2007-03-11T00:27:02Z

And so it begins. With Fey's help I got the seats out. Then I started in on pulling up the old rugs and underlay. I had originally planned to hang onto the old underlay and padding so I could use it for patterns. However it was all incredibly nasty. Falling apart, full of grime and dust and just generally disgusting. So I filled a trash can with the carpet, underlay, and all the other crap I pulled out. Then I vacuumed up all the loose crap and surveyed the situation.

Not as good as I'd hoped, but not as bad as I'd feared. There is rot in the floors, but not too bad. Two 1/2 dollar sides spots on the passenger footwell, and one 4" x 10-12" section in the driver's footwell. All in areas fairly easy to access from both sides, and easy to make patches for. Velvet is going to come over and see if it looks like something he can weld up, and if not I know someone else who'll likely do it for a reasonable price.

Next I pulled off the sill trim, and the trim for the insides of the B pillar. There is a weird bit of red vinyl trim glued between the sill trim and the floor that I'll have to use some seat/door panel vinyl to recreate it.

Current status: Interior gutted, can't move forward on car itself until floors are welded.
Next probably step: Need to scrub seats and other removed parts, and figure out what trim pieces need repainting/dyeing.

Next big project on Emily.

2007-03-07T23:29:43Z

So I was planning to redo and upgrade emily's brakes this winter, but the place that sells the adapter kits I need are being insanely slow about actually making them available. So I have decided to back-burner that, and rip her entire interior out, since she's not going to be driving around in the snow anyway. Fortuitously I just got a bonus from work which will help finance this endeavor.

So to that end, I need to acquire:

~~new carpet~~ ordered online, be here in a couple weeks.
new carpet underlay (need to find the best option)
new heater system seals (probably from mustangs unlimited)
new window channel fuzzies (upholstery shop?)
new door seals (upholstery shop?)

What will need doing:

~~pull out seats, carpet & underlay~~
- Bring seats & door panels to an upholstery shop. Find out if they can get seats properly clean. Get price for replacing one damaged section of font seat and making new door panels.
- If price for door panels is prohibitive, buy vinyl and make own door panels.
~~Remove rear package shelf~~ Done 3-10
rip out heater system
fuckton of plastic sheets and tape to protect dashboard and headliner from dirt rust and paint
grind rust on floors, patch any rot, POR-15 the whole floor
~~check that firewall/cowl isn't rotted at heater intake.~~ Done 3-10 It is
added 3-10 Have holes in floor welded up.
added 3-10 Scrub trim panels & sill plates.
added 3-10 Repaint/dye and trim panels that need it.
~~find front seat-belt mounts, make sure they are solid and usable~~ Done 3-10 They're in great shape actually.
find good locations for rear seatbelt mounts. Drill holes, find/fabricate solid mounting plates, install plates.
Cut and install carpet underlay, install carpet. Cut relevant holes for seat and seatbelt mounting bolts.
Re-install heater system with all new seals.
clean (repaint if needed) interior trim panels.
re-dye rear package shelf, fabricate replacement if old one is too degraded.
Decide if I want to repaint dashboard top. If so, do it.
replace rear passenger door glass with '61 glass with good channel bracket
replace window channel fuzzies on all four doors
install door panels, with proper vapor barriers. Clean and polish interior door chrome
install seats and seatbelts.
install door weatherstripping.
Rock out in a sea of red and white vinyl glory.

Sweet jesus

2007-02-23T23:33:07Z

I want to have sex in, or possibly with, that hearse.

Oh that's the floor...

2007-01-07T03:08:39Z

Took advantage of the insane weather today (70+deg? On January 6th? WTF?) to get the garage cleared out, organized and cleaned. I threw out a fuckton of junk, and useless parts and such, sorted though the rest of the stuff and arranged things more logically, then pulled nearly everything out and scrubbed the floor with heavy duty concrete cleaner.
Much better. Floor is not one giant oil slick anymore, and I'm not tripping over the remains of the last four projects every time I walk through there.

As for the cars:
Roo has gotten a replacment driver's door, so it works properly, though I seem to have screwed something up wit hte door lock, possibly getting confused ion which was the correct one, cuz the key doesn't work in it. But it is way better than what I had, and has a mirror! Also her front brakes were vibrating, so I replaced the pads and rotors. Except I discovered the caliepr sliders were frozen, so I replaced those. While repalceing those I discovered the passenger outer CV boot was torn, so I repalced the entire halfshaft, while doing that I tore the balljoint boot, so now I need to replace that. Fun.
Emily's brakes are still giving me fits. They refuse to work properly or stay working when I do fix them. I need to pull the back ones apart again, check for issues, then replace the rubber line back there and rebleed everything and hope that fixes it. In the front I've decided to upgrade her to discs (found an easy source for 4-lug discs). That'll give me better brakes, and eliminate the damn front brakes which have never once been right since I bought her. I also need to replace the carb and futz with timing and tuning to get her to run smoother at idle. But I have to say the current drivetrain is miles above the old one. This winter's project will be the aforementioned disc brakes, and pulling the entire interior to check the floor for rot and POR-15 the whole thing, then get the front seat and door panels redone so the interior looks nice. On and reseal the heating system so it works well and eliminates tjhe massive drafts.

Shiny...

2006-10-20T02:07:36Z

I went to the DMV today and updated Emily's registration. In addition to renewing it I switched her over so I could run 'Yer of Manufacture' plates on her. This means she has a set of the old blue & white 1962 CT plates. They aren't *on* her yet, I had to do a bit of rust removal and paint touch up, but they'll be on her soon.
And this Saturday I'm taking her to a traditional hotrods show here in CT. It's in South Glastonbury, and I'm thinking I'm goign to take the Ferry across the CT river. Should be fun.

improbable_cars @ 2006-10-08T22:50:00

2006-10-09T02:50:09Z

Took Emily out and did a fairly significant amount of driving with her this weekend. I'm pretty sure I put over 100 miles on her. It may not seem like much, but considering when I took her out saturday it was the first tiem she'd been more than around the block with the new drivetrain.

I was a bit nervous as she still doesn't have a heat guage, but she didn't seem to have any problems getting to warm (maybe everything in the cooling system being almost new and a radiator that is overkill for her engine helped that).

The two probloems that presented themselves were:

a) the shift linkage I cobbled together is crap, I am prone to missing gears when trying to shift, and regularly I'd get reverse when I wanted park.
b) there is a distinct clunk in the drivetrain when I shift gears or accelerate hard (and sometimes when letting off the gas after hard acceleration). It sounds like a bad U-joint, bu the u-joint is brand new. I'm going to ahve to see if I can track it down as it makes me a bit nervous.

But overall she performed fine, and now actually has power, can keep up with highway traffic better, and is much quieter. I am pleased.

long overdue update

2006-09-30T01:56:35Z

I haven't been keeping up with this journal, as the whole emily project has been frustrating me too much. Trans was bad, had to get that rebuilt, and get a rebuilt torque converter. Then I put the trans in and it didn't want to go, turned out the be misadjusted bands in the trans. Just tonight I finally got her driveable for the first time since *june*

Things to still do:

~~sand/repaint hood hinges~~
~~grind rust on underside of hood~~
~~POR-15 underside of hood~~
~~repaint underside of hood~~
~~install hood~~
~~figure out temp air cleaner solution~~
figure out permanent air cleaner solution
adjust engine timing
double check carb for gas leaks
figure out temperature guage solution
~~replace wiring harness w/ '61 comet unit~~
replace starter cable
~~adjust front brakes~~
get/install correct rear brake hose
~~bleed brakes~~
replace tierods & adjusters
have front end aligned
fix turn signals (switch?)
~~tighten belt~~

Update

2006-07-27T15:18:24Z

Got Emily together and transmission didn't work. MEss with it, messed with it some more, took it out and messed with it and put it back in (full removal, partail disassembly, re-assembly and re-install in 6.5 hours) and it still doesn't work.
Have resigned myself to the fact it needs repair/rebuild or replacement. Have not yet lined up a source for either of those. Am annoyed and frustrated.

drivetrain swap updates

2006-06-28T16:39:00Z

part 12, engine/trans install 6-22
Left work early on Thurs and picked up the not-even-started shock plates.
With PG's help we spent the entire evening getting the transmission & engine installed, and soild bolted to each other and to the mounts.
The falconparts.com transmission crossmember fit pretty good, though I did have to do some minor modifying ot get all the bolts to fit and to clear part of the undercarriage.
Getting the engine in was a pain, I couldn't get it to hang level on the engine hoist, so there was a lot of swearing, shoving, kicking, yanking, etc. to get everythign to line up. Discovered that having pre-mounted the engine mounts was a waste of time, as I had to take them back off to get the engine low enough in the engine bay to meet up with the trans. Then once the trans was attached I raised it back up ewnough to get the mounts on and hook the whole thing to the frame. PG also pulled the valve cover off so I could grind it down and repaint it, I hadn't before as the chain for the hoist would have just scratched up the new paint.

part 13, attaching stuff and getting the annoying parts 6-23
Took Friday off work, and used it to run around all of the damn town to get the shock plates and driveshaft taken care of. First thing I brought the shock plates over to Metal Industries in Hartford. Guy clearly knew what he was talking about, and gave me a lot of confidence. Was also really clear that he *might* get to them that day but that if he didn't they would *definitely* be ready on Monday. It ended up that he called me a few hours later and told me he'd slipped them in between some bigger jobs and they were done. When I picked them up he'd done a really great job of modifying them. Cut and welded on a heavy duty extension, and carefully machined it and the new holes. Everything very high quality and not hacked up at all. I will totally use these guys for any other custom fabrication I ever need.
As for the driveshaft, on a whim I checked out a little hole in the wall junkyard I'd found back when I was looking for a drivetrain. Aside from the cars in the lot they clearly haven't updated in decades. The listings of car in the yard were kept on rolodexes, and in hte heads of the old guys behind the counter. Hanging from the rafters above a bookcase full of engine computers where 50's & 60's era steering wheels, that look like they've been ther since those cars were just old junk, and not classics.
Eventually they managed to find me a driveshaft that was the right length with the right ends. They had no idea what ford it was off, but it looked like it would work perfectly. Best of all, it was $40, much better than the best price of $165 for getting the maverick shaft lengthened.

Came home & pounded the old U-joints out of the new drivesahft, then put it and the shock plates aside. Started in on the massive re-assembly project on the drivetrain. I ground down and repainted the valve cover bright red. Then started hooking things up to the transmission. The fuel line ran right where the speedo cable needed to go into the trans, but a bit of light 'convincing' and it was moved enough to hook up the speedo. With much swearing and fighting I was able to hook up the transmission cooler lines. Clearly at some point in the maverick's history someone had changed out hte cooler lines, and had apparently been instructed to use as many brass adaptors as possible, so long as they didn't use two of the same kind. I ended up having to use a combination of hte adaptors from that trans and from the old merc-o-matic to get it all hooked up.
Then came the shift linkage. Neither the stock comet, or maverick linkages would work with this setup. What I eventually figured out was to use the lower maverick rod and the upper comet rod. Both connected via the comet linkage lever installed upside down to the maverick bracket via an old suspension bolt in a drilled out hole in the lever. Seems to work perfectly. The only transmission hassle is that I can't figure out how to hook up the kickdown linkage, as the lever for it runs right through where my new shift linkage is. I can live without it for right now, and I'm sure I can eventually come up with a solution.

part 14, more hot attaching action 6-24
Installed the repainted valve cover, carburator, throttle bracket, & coil. Then dropped in the radiator & hooked up the cooling system. Had to replace one of the heater hoses as it now runs straight from engine to heater core rather than through the carb plate.
Installed the new shock plates. I was afraid I was going to have to take a ton of measurements to make sure the rearend was lined up straight, but as it turns out the bolt that holds the leafs together in the center of the rear leaf sprigns drops into a hole in the axle plates on the rearend making it nearly impossible to get it wrong. I di have to modify my modified shock plates to fit over the other side of the same bolt though. Also did some minor grinding on the rearend itself to get hte bolts to fit nicely over it. All pretty minor stuff though.
Installed the ujoints in the driveshaft & yoke, then put it in the car. Fits like a dream.

Its kinda fun fitting each piece and doing all the various little modifactions and adjustments to make it all fit. It also shows much clearer progress then when you're ripping stuff apart. The piles of parts and bolts keeps getting steadily smaller.

part 14, all attaching all the time 6-26
Bent one of the vacuum lines (one more still to be bent), hooked up the exhaust and finished up a few other things.

part 14 in which the rain lets up long enough to work on the damn rearend 6-27
Holy crap! A dry day! Need desperately to get shit done on the rearend.
Pulled both axles to replace the seals & bearings, discovered the bearings need some sort of press or other tool, so left the mfor another day, but did the seals. Powerwashed all the gear lube off the brake plates & disassembled the old brakes. Managed to install the parkign brake cable & all brakes on the passsenger side, and even got the wheel back on. Driver's side is stripped but not re-assembled.

Stuff still remaining:
~~-need to install and hook up both engine compartment wiring harnesses~~
~~-need to secure trans dipstick tube (won't fit in the stock maverick location due to the heater hoses)~~
~~-fill rearend & transmission~~
-assemble driver's rear brakes, hardlines on rearend and bleed system
-install rear shocks
-modify air cleaner
-install hood and hood hinges

This is an improvement

2006-06-23T16:27:40Z

As of noon today I finally had in my posession a modified set of spring plates (brought them to another shop this morning and they had them done in a few hours), and a driveshaft which looks likely to be correct.

Last night PG & I got the engine and transmission in Emily and solidly bolted in place.

Now I just have a massive re-assembly project ahead of me.

fan-fucking-tasitc

2006-06-22T16:39:49Z

When I dropped the shock plates off at the machine shop on Monday I was told 'Tues, mabye Wed'. Weren't done on Wed. I just called now and was told they hadn't started on them and that they might be done tomorrow. Assholes. Not like I need that part of anything. Not like my car is sitting with its ass in the air waiting for them to get around to doing a job they said they'd do.
Going to call some other machine shops, if I can find one who can promise to get them done for tomorrow I'll go pick them up from the first shop and bring them elsewhere. Last thing I want to do is give these jerks my money after them dicking me around on this.

Also it looks like possible rain and even thunderstorms today. Was supposed to put the engien and trans in Emily, but between the rain and the chanec I might not be able to get the boom high enough to get the engine into the engine compartment it is looking like it might not be worth bothering to try. And why can't I get the engine high enough? Because Emily is stuck halfway in the garage due to the fact I can't roll her out because the shock plates are missing.

Grr. I think at this point I can officially say the show on Saturday is *not* going to happen.

drivetrain swap pt 11

2006-06-21T13:57:01Z

Sanded, ground, wire brushed, winkelschleifered, etc. the entire engine compartment in preperation for paint. Then powerwashed the hell out of it.

Also finally got my motor mounts, and the package with my torque converter showed up (and it was right, thank god!). So I should have all the bits now for the engine & transmission to go in.

This morning before leaving for work I hit all the rust spots in the engine compartment with POR-15. With luck it will be dry by the time I get home. Engine compart was factory semi-gloss black. However the only rustoleum I could find was either flat or gloss black. I'm going with gloss as the flat would trap and hold dirt and always look like crap, whereas hopefully the gloss will be easy to keep clean.

Today I'm planning to leave work early and pick up the modified spring plates, then the plan is to go home, paint all the black parts of the engine compartment, then get the rearend installed, pull hte axles & do the seals & bearings, then reassemble, piece together the brakes and otherwise button up that end of the car. With some luck the engine compartment will have dried enough by then for me to do the silver parts (brake lines, master cylinder, etc.). That way Thursday I can install the engine & transmission.

Latest new problem though, the driveshaft. The maverick one I got is too short. I need to either find a correct length one, or find someplace that can lengthen mine in a reasonable amount of time.

Drivetrain swap pt 9 & 10, and state of the Emily

2006-06-20T17:07:50Z

With PG's help most of the day was spent degreasing & cleaning smaller engine parts (linkages, brackets, etc.) so they could be repainted. Then re-assembled the engien as much as is possible without installing it.

Made a very interesting discovery. Turns out Emily didn't have a 170ci engine, she had the smaller 144ci one. This helps to explain her downright embarrassing performance. The upside is that the 200 drivetrain is going to mean a massive improvement.

Monday:

Plan was to swap out the rearend. Pushed Emily halfway into the garage, and tried to jack her up via the rearend. She fell off the damn jack twice, and dented the trunk floor upwards in the process.
Finally got her jacked up properly and tore into the old rearend. Turns out the brakes on the old '64 rearend and the new '71 are virtually identical, and hte stock ebrake cables will work. So between the pieces of both rearends I can assemble a working set of brakes. Looks like it will be the same story with brake lines as well.
Determined how I will have to modify the spring plates to install the new rearend, and brought them to a machine shop ot have them do it, will hopefully get them back today or tomorrow.
Did a bit of grinding in the engine bay to get it ready for paint. I'm hoping today (tues) get the whole engine bay ground & sanded down, and get the surface rust treated with POR-15 so I can repaint it on Wed. I've decided to go with brushing on Rustoleum as it means a hell of a lot less masking, and the thicker paint will hide more of the imperfections.

State of the Emily:
Engine: Done as it can be on the stand, ~~waiting for motor mounts~~ but otherwise ready to install.
Transmission: Done as it can be on the stand, ~~waiting for torque converter~~ to install.
Rearend: sitting on leaf springs, but need shock plates back to install. Still need to change axle bearings & seals and reassemble brakes.
Interior: Barely started, steering column needs upper half painted to match interior, need to figure out where/how to install Maverick gas pedal.
Engine Bay: started in on grinding paint. ~~Need to finish that, sand things down and POR-15 surface rust~~. Then repaint everything. I think I'm going to go with the original forward wiring harness as the modificatiosn the front one needs is more than I want to deal with at the moment. Plus it is easier to try getting the new engine running with wiring I already know will work.

If I get every piece I need in good time (especially if the damn torque converter finally shows up & is correct), and if no new problems crop up, I might have her back together by Friday.

Drivetrain swap pt 8

2006-06-18T02:57:27Z

Short version: Started today cleaning up the engine compartment and getting that ready for the new drivetrain. Also started pulling things from the old engine to clean them and put them on the new one.

Long version: Unbolted everything I could from the engine compartment, and removed the wiring harnesses. Used the nozzle on the hose to knock more white paint off the engine compartment. Was so impressed by how well this was working I went out and bought a $100 cheapie pressure washer. That worked *amazing* well. Knocked massive amounts of the white paint off, and got a lot of other crap off. Pressure washers kick ass. It also does an amazing job ofgetting grease & crap off parts. I should have bought one of these ages ago!

Engine bay currently looks like crap, with whtie & black paint randomly in equal amounts everywhere. But with another day's work I should have it cleaned up to where I can pauint, and the white paint that is left will be solid enough that it won't start peeling off everwhere.

Pulled the timing chain cover, waterpump, themostat housing & harmonic balancer off the new engine. Degreased & repainted stuff. Going to install a new waterpump & thermostat. With the single-goove hamonic balancer/crank pulley & the thermostat housing off the 170 replacing the 200 units. Am also swapping over the 170 oil pan to fit Emily's engine bay properly.

PG has been helping massively today, she did most of the pressure washing of the engine bay, and the various bits.

Motor mounts (which are new from October) are defective and need replacing. Won't be in until Tuesday, that and the torque converter means there isn't a chance of getting this done this weekend. Is frustrating. Right now I'm just trying to get the engine compartment done, and the engine ready to be installed tomorrow. Then I'll probably pull the rearend and try and get the new one in on Monday. Hopefully I'll be able to piece all the bits together over the week as the parts come in. With a minor miracle she might be ready by new weekend.

Driveline swap pt 7

2006-06-17T02:29:59Z

Engine and transmission have been pulled. The old 170 is on the other engine stand so that I can pull the bits I need off it for the 200. Also painted the exhaust manifold on the 200, the silver looks much better than rust.

Did a quickie degreasing of the engine compartment. The regular nozzle on the hose was enough to knock a lot of the nasty white paint off the engine compartment. I'm tempted to get a pressure washer and see if that'll remove most of it before I repaint. I'd rather remove the white paint than just paint over it.

improbable_cars @ 2006-06-16T12:40:00

2006-06-16T16:42:32Z

I want one of these grilles! I want one to use to build a custom Falcon, those are without a doubt the coolest grilles I have ever seen on a Falcon.
Of course given the Frontenac was a 1 year only Canadian car, finding a useable one I can rationalize affording is slim to none. But they are pretty.

Driveline swap pt 6

2006-06-16T02:31:56Z

Stuff done today:

-finished degreasing engine & painted block black.
-POR-15ed the steering column
-put front seal in transmission (is now as done as I can make it until torque converter shows up)
-started degreasing rearend

Also bought another huge pile of parts. Big stuff happening this weekend as I start after work tomorrow pulling Emily apart.

car problems & drivetrain swap pt 5

2006-06-12T22:53:50Z

Saturday night after I fueled Emily up in Springfield and was about ot head home she stalled out, then wouldn't restart. No crank and the interior light would dim when I turned the key but that was it. Poked at stuff, tried jumping her and figured it was something in the starting system and called AAA. 2.5 HOURS later and a lot of pissy calls to AAA a tow truck shows up. All told it was past 1am when I was rolling Emily down the driveway. Once I had her in the driveway I figured I'd fiddle with stuff some more since I was still awake. Messed with the battery connections a bit and she had full power and started fine. Turned out there was just some corrosion between the terminal and cable end that wasn't allowing enough power for the starter.
Sun morning I go to start her and I get nothing, not even like before, but in fact no indication that turning the key was doing anything. Decided to leave it for another time and left her.
Sunday afternoon Fey's minivan ate its transmission on the way back through Springfield. Seriously ate, like chunks of the casing were in the bottom of the torque converter area. Ended out waiting for another AAA truck and getting that towed home.

Today I fixed emily, turns out in my prodding last night I knocked a wire loose from the ignition switch, so she is all set.

Saturday I once again headed out to junkyards in the rain in search of a throttle pedal/cable & a driveshaft, the last two big pieces I need for this swap. New place I found in Sturbridge didn't have them so I went out to Henry's. Pulled the parts in the rain, and got completely soaking wet.

Today I actually started doing stuff again. Pulled the pan off the transmission and installed the check valve in the trans & re-installed the pan. Trans needs the front seal and it should be set.
Also pounded out the old U-joints from the new driveshaft and degreased it. Not going to do anythign more with it until I know if it will need re-sizing or not (most likely).
My parts from falconparts should be here today or tomorrow(EDIT: they showed up as I was typing this entry EDIT2: a tie-rod adjusting sleeve is missing from the order, fortunately that isn't needed thsi weekend). And the torque converter was shipped out to me this morning. Hopefully everything will get here by this coming weekend. Going to try and get as much smaller stuff as possible done so I can hop[efully do a significant part of the actual stripping of emily and swapping this weekend. My dream is to have it done by the end of the weekend (took next monday off to help accomplish this). My more realistic goal is to have the old drivetrain out, the new rearend in, the new transmission in ,and most/all of the prep work o nthe engine bay done. Unfortunately there is a ton of stuff that has to be swapped off of the old engine onto the new one before I can put the new one in the car. I'm also thinking of putting the new rearend in without doing the axle seals & bearings. I think it will be easier and safer to pull them with the rearend soildly bolted to a car rather than sitting a bit shakily on two jack stands. We shall see.

Painted falconparts transmission crossmember. My god is this thing overbuilt, laser or CNC cut steel, heavier guage than anything else anywhere on the car, big stonking welds. The little bracket that holds the e-brake assembly is *gusseted*, the stock one doesn't have a freaking gusset. This thing is damn near indestructible.
Also wire brushed the bit of surface rust on the replacement steering column so I can POR-15 that tomorrow and do repaint on the column at some point this week.