Leaving in 5 min to go get the car...pretty excited...son still doesn't know about it or even WHY we are getting up "so early" on a Saturday morning... ;-)
I know...I know...where are the PICS... Well we got the car and took a couple of down-n-dirty shots with the cell phone. But they didn't come out very well. No problem, as a semi-professional photographer, I decided to take some really good photos. But we had to leave town about six hours after we got the car and of course we were out cruisin up until the last minute...lol. We didn't get back in town until about 2pm yesterday, at which point I took a LONG nap after a 6 hour drive. When I woke up, we took the wife and daughter for a ride in the car. (Fun, but hmmm - running a little hot I notice.) So we drop off the girls and take the car to the parts store to get some coolant, and a bottle of purple ice (it's now running over 220-deg so I'm pretty sure we're low on coolant.) Knowing the car was still pretty hot, I started to ease off the radiator cap to releive pressure. Yeah, you know where this is going...WHOOOSH!!!!...scalding hot water blows out like a geyser all over the car and parking lot with me jumping around like a nutcase trying to get coolant off my face, head, shirt, hands, etc. Fast forward one bottle of purple ice, two jugs of 50/50 coolant, and one hour later....we're heading back to the house and it's too dark for photos. So still no photos and now I'm worried/hoping the overheating episode didn't warp the heads or something...
Well rats, the starter went out last night. So we put the car up on jackstands to drop the starter and found a few other items that need attention. Nothing major, just little things like the speedo cable sitting on the exhaust pipe, old fluid lines (unused) to remove, stuff like that. Son was like, "what's up with all this? Why can't we just drive it around?!?!?" I'm like, "Welcome to the world of hot rods boy. Everyone does it different. I don't like some of this so we're gonna do it my way and clean up this stuff while we've got her off the ground." Fix Or Repair Daily First On Race Day Just sort of depends on the situation at hand doesn't it...lol...
Keep it simple and fun. Don't look too hard or you will end up like alot of us and have a 16 year project lol.
LOL - you know it, but we already went through that with a 6-month "Camaro project" that never got off the ground (unless you consider sitting on jack stands the entire time getting off the ground.) Just going to change the starter and the other two items, then back down the road we go. First stop: photos !!!!
The wait is over...and I'm a dork (sometimes at any rate...) I completely forgot the seller had sent me photos when we first started talking about the deal so I'm attaching a few of those. The car has both sets of wheels/tires. The firestones and moon discs are the street tires and practically brand new. The black rims w/ dog dish caps are for the strip (M&H cheaters on back) and have a little more wear * * * * * We pulled the starter last night. It was completely shelled - stuck in the engaged position with bearings and springs laying on the ground and in floor of the the bell housing. Picking up a new one today, and hopefully back on the road tonight. * * * * * Here are the specs he gave me. Some of this was visually verifiable, and from the way it runs I have no reason to doubt him on the rest. 331 stroker w/ scat rotating assembly (forged I-beam rods, forged crank, 35Kpsi rod bolts, etc.) KB forged +.030 pistons Pro Comp aluminum heads (199cc runners, 56cc chambers, 2.04/1.62 valves) 9.5-1 compression ratio Professional Produts Air-gap intake (port matched to heads) Machine work by Ed Adams, Arlington Automotive Machine Shop (Arlington, TX) Holley 670cfm Street Avenger carburetor TRW true roller / double roller timing assembly SFI 28oz balancer Professional Products flex plate (156 tooth) Comp-Cams magnum roller rockers Comp-Cams magnum pushrods Comp-Cams camshaft (.569 lift, .294 duration) Solid lifters (valve lash 20 hot / 18 cold) Pertronix ignition (coil + distributor) MSD wires (8mm) Edelbrock fuel pump (mechanical) Edelbrock aluminum water pump Melling high volume oil pump Champion cooling radiator (aluminum 3-row) Hayden electric fan 8gal RCI plastic fuel cell w/ open cell foam baffle Tri-Power headers into 2.5" dual exhaust Thrush mufflers w/ turndowns (in front of rear axle) C4 transmission (race built to owners specs) 3500 stall (built to owners specs) Transmission and converter by Phoenix Transmission Products (Weatherford, TX) Custom driveshaft (Driveshaft King, Dallas) B&M finned aluminum pan Driveshaft safety loop Borg-Warner u-joints 8" Ford rear (stock housing, brakes, springs) Richmond 4:10 gears Richmond mini-spool (forged) Heat treated axles (Metroplex Heat Treating) Lakewood traction bars Moroso 10/20 rear shocks Moroso 40/20 adjustable front shocks Stock brakes, springs, steering 1970 (???) Mustang bucket seats (stock back seats) Autometer monster tach w/ shift light (currently set at 6K) Autometer gauges (water/amp/oil) Radio delete option car No carpet, just rubber floor mats (and very loud might I add) New headliner Stock Maverick floor shifter (although it is a column shift car) Two-stage paint (silver metallic) Mustang hood scoop and rear spoiler Re-chromed bumpers He said the car ran high 6's in the 1/8 on the bottle and high 7's w/o juice. We agreed the car is plenty fast enough for a father/son weekend car so he removed and kept the Zex nitrous system. (And we look forward to verifying the 7-sec claim soon!) I suppose these would be the major items we'd like to do over the next months/years... Heat/sound insulation Carpeting Replace current steering column w/ floor shift column Re-upholster front seats to match rear seats (has the hand-tooled-leather-look centers) Disc brakes all around Get the heater working again (it's all there just not hooked up) 3:55 gears Subframe connectors Radio/speakers Bigger rear tires to fill up those wheel wells Replace fuel cell w/ gas tank (what benefit is a fuel cell on a street car?)
New starter is in... New battery cable is in... New overflow bottle replaced the old plastic squirt bottle... New zip ties are holding all the cables and hoses in place... And on that subject...what did we ever do before zip ties?!?!?!? (Bailing wire I suppose - lol)
