Progress On Body

I met up with a bunch of friends the other day at a local Mexican restaurant and was pleasantly surprised to see the guy doing my bodywork & painting come strolling up. He told me that most of the body work was complete and that he would be shooting the color on soon. The car was delivered to him in May.

I would have liked the car back months ago, but after seeing several examples of his work (and he has Mustang experience), patience seemed to be the way to go. Perhaps by Christmas, I'll be driving it again.

Long Time

I have resisted adding another post due to the fact that I wanted to be at another milestone before I wrote one. I must come to grips with the fact that time is moving along.

A few months ago, I removed the interior and delivered the car to a body shop. My father has had a few cars painted by this shop and the work has always been stellar. That said, this one man shop is anything but fast. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining since I would rather wait a while and get a great job than have a week turnaround with a piss poor paint job.

I purchased two new rear quarters and two trunk drops from NPD and delivered them to the body man. He reported that the fit was very good. I spent the extra bucks on the 'good' panels from NPD. Along with the new quarters, (they had some rust) I also am having the antenna hole in the front fender patched (due to iPod, no radio needed!). Finally, along the two front fenders, there is some rust bubbles showing up so those are to be cut out and patched.

The paint that is currently on the car is almost 20 years old so it is time for a fresh coat. It will remain Poppy Red (even though I have had a few people call it Chevy Orange!!) since that is the original color AND it is fairly rare.

So, this post is just to let you know what is going on. The car has not been driven in two months since it was delivered to the body shop. I miss it but I have had fun driving the 1967 Triumph TR4A.

I don't have an ETA on the Mustang so I'll just keep busy waiting.

Car Is Doing Well

The header collector bolts seem to have decided to stay tight. I installed a new shifter boot from Scott Drake. I am trying to seal up all of the penetrations into the interior in an attempt to reduce the noise intrusion. The old, torn shifter boot was a major source of noise so I am quite pleased with how the new boot brought the noise volume down. My next task is the two lines leading to the heater core.

I removed the stock intake and powdercoated it. I found a set of aluminum Explorer valve covers so I powdercoated them as well. They are a bit taller than the stock steel covers so they contacted the intake at the EGR boss and at the brake booster vacuum boss. A few minutes with the grinder took care of those spots. I'll post a pic soon.

Problems Rear Their Ugly Head

While driving to the store the other day, I noticed a grinding sound coming from the rear of the car. Upon inspection, I determined my Currie rear had a bad bearing. The rear has less than 1500 miles on it. I was thinking about taking the car up to New Orleans to see a friend but I don't think I should until I give the car some more shakedown time.

I also seem to have magic header collector nuts. They seem to loosen at random times.

Impressions

I would like to take a moment and describe the driving experience. As I have detailed in previous posts, I have replaced the motor, front and rear suspension, transmission, brakes, wheels and tires. That is pretty much all of the moving parts that matter.

So, as expected the car drives completely different. Not only is it much more peppy than before, it stops with aplomb. The steering is a bit light for my taste but it has less play than before. The car tracks better in turns with much less body roll. Braking is so much better than before it is hard to believe it is the same car.

I have noticed that in hard right turns, I get a rubbing from the left rear tire. It is contacting the fender. I plan to install a Panhard Rod to positively locate the rear axle. That should take care of the rubbing. I was a bit surprised this happened given the stoutness of the new leaf springs along with new bushings. But this project has been a learning experience for me.

The mufflers were mounted too close to the rear end. The axle housings would contact the tail pipes so I moved those up slightly.

I wish that I had routed the fuel lines differently. I should have run them along the tunnel all they way. I will remember that when I build my next project.

Speaking of the next project, I was thinking about a Mod motor in a new Dynacorn 67 body. That won't happen anytime soon but it is fun to plan.

Driving Car Daily

Daily drives to the store and such have revealed a few small problems but none have left me stranded.

While driving at night, the headlights would blink off for a few seconds then turn back on. The circuit breaker built into the headlight switch was tripping. I knew that these switches are not built to last so I decided to change the way the headlights were operated. I ordered a new switch and installed it. Then I spliced the hot-out for the parking lights onto a relay. This way, the headlight switch would only see a few milliamps. I then ran a new power source to the relay input and attached the stock parking light wire to the output post on the relay. I did the same thing with the head lights. I installed a relay between the switch and the headlight dimmer floor switch. This way, both the high and low beams are powered by the same relay like the stock switch was powering both. Except I am using a 40 amp relay which is considerably more stout than the stock switch.

I have been chasing a squeaking belt. I am pretty sure it is the A/C compressor since that is in a non stock position and I located it with a set of fabricated brackets. I continue to adjust it and I almost have it perfect but when cold, the belt still makes a little noise.