With this virus thing going on, Deb and I have been spending every other week alternating between the lake and the shop – so not as much got done in the last month. That said, here we go.
Screamin’ Woody
The rocker set from Jesel arrived, installed, and the motor is back to ready.
The rear of the car was ass-backwards, with the batteries in back of the weight boxes, making it near impossible to get them out. So the weight boxes and batteries were swapped around.
While at it, the rear window was made easily removable, so I can clean the insides of the side and rear windows.
I also removed the old name and numbers, and replaced with something that better matches.
The Stacker
I had some boxes Fabricated out of 1/8″ aluminum. One is the same height and width as the inside fender, and a length that fits between the fender and the lift post. That is to carry loose weight needed for the car’s weight boxes – to change the weight of the car.
I drilled through the aluminum floor and installed threads, so I could easily remove the box, should I want to.
I then drilled holes in the box, bolted them down and filled with weights.
The other was to carry the jack stands in the attic of the stacker. They were mounted the same way.
The in-floor compartment for the winch was too small for both a 9000# winch and the pulley.
So I attached 6 strong magnets to it, so that it can be stowed when not used.
I have a sweeping magnet for when my fat thumbs drop hardware – like valve cover nuts – in the grass. I riveted holders for it and a car mop.
Some HD velco spots will let me keep the T-Handle hex wrenches steady on my work bench
Allante
This was my dream car that I bought new in 93. The AC was repaired and the vent that was cracked and broken was plastic welded with Hot staples to be good as new.
The Petty Tribute Car
The first test drive had the pipes scrape on turns, the horn blow on turns, the transmission’s shifter would pop out of 2nd & 4th, and the motor broke up above 5000 rpm.
The latter was cured with a distributor re-curve and carburetor adjustment. The horn required the steering wheel disassembled many times and played with. Loosening the bottom shifter stops allowed the shifter to stay in 2nd & 4th. The car leaning so much in the turns and scraping the exhaust was solved by calling Espo Springs and More for a set of stiffer springs having a 1″ lift.
I took the car for a ride and it is exactly what I’ve wanted. I took a short video, which sucks because I’m trying to hold the phone, shift and steer a manual steering car.
This car has been rattling around in my head fir almost 20 years, and I’m happy to finally cross it off my bucket list. Here are some Glamour photos I took with my phone when I got back from my ride.
The Magnum GT
If you’ve been following along this blog for the last six months, you know that I dyed the leather, got new Radial TAs tires, and repainted the car. The only thing keeping it from being perfect was an under hood detail and paint, bumpers chromed, paint for the trunk and door jams, and new exhaust. I pretty sure I last posted photos of my cleaning, wire brushing, priming and painting the trunk; and also pulling the drivetrain.
Since then, the motor and trans have been gone through and inspected, resealed, cleaned and painted, while under the hood has been cleaned and made ready for paint.
The bumpers have come off and sent to be crush glass blasted and powder-coated gloss black. They’ll go on my Magnum XE and the freshly chromed ones on the XE will go on the GT.
Magnum XE
I bought a Holley Stinger Throttle-Body EFI with an in-tank fuel pump, 20′ of 6-AN black braided fuel lines, a large black in-line filter with 6-AN fittings, and assorted black anodized fitting to get hooked up from the pump to the black anodized throttle body. Also bought a dropped air cleaner base made for the throttle body. I fell asleep at the wheel photo documenting the install.
I drove about 100 miles at varying speeds while in learn mode. Car drives great when driven sanely. Fast, with no stutters or hesitation. It still has some learning and tuning to happen for when it is hammer time as this motor is about 550hp and much faster than what it limited me to on the first hammer down. I’m sure it will make me happy and the car will run like a raped ape when dialed in. Below is a hammer time drive after 100 mile learn.
64 Imperial Convertible
I’ve been working on getting the car right, and its not far away. I had a leak in both convertible rams, and bought replacements that were suppose to fit off Ebay. Their stroke was about 1/2″ short, so they were cut, threaded on both ends of the cut, and an extension screwed on in between.
While the back seat is out and I’m at the lake, my Shop Rat will vacuum, degrease and paint that area with POR 15. The car needs an exhaust modification as the new factory pipes have the left side has about a 1′ too close to the floor. After the exhaust, the car gets new carpet. Someday, if I win the lottery, I’ll convert it to EFI and overdrive too. Hell, it might someday have a pump gas 440 race motor that I have ready to go into something.
Red, White & Blue
I’m not just stopping at my single-car trailer and three rocking chairs in Red, White and Blue.
I had my Shop Rat paint my fence with Red top boards, White posts and center boards, an Blue bottom boards.
Since Grandson #6 and his mother live at our Beasley residence, I had the playground strip down, the vertical boards painted White, horizontal boards painted Red and diagonal boards Blue. I ordered blue grips for the climbing platform, a red swing and a red toddler swing. The slide is in my paint booth, waiting for me to scuff, hit with adhesion promoter, and paint blue.
But why stop there? I have two chairs and table in front of my shop.
One chair is fixin to be red, the other blue and the table white. Then there’s the furniture on the front porch of my barndominium.
Yup, you guessed it. Red, White and Blue. That porch is fixin to get tripled in size and screened in for front porch time.
Well, that pretty has my shop action up to date.