Projects Im getting Married! Project 46 ford begins!

I’m leery that the bolt in the $20 kit is a cheapy I mean how can the whole kit be as much as one bolt and still be the same quality?

im going to run the part numbers and see if the same place makes them. I know it’s often $2 more to buy an entire engine gasket set than it is for just a set of valve cover gaskets so it’s sure not unheard of

 

Well I did my looking around and seemed the same place made them all.

so I went to the store mid week figuring they would have to get it from the warehouse, apparently the Closest one he could find was in Tennessee and by the time he racked on shipping it was like $42. $42 and I just want a bolt.

so, knowing I’ve been in there a million times he pulls a brand new solenoid from the shelf behind him and says $20.

so as much as I’d rather just change one bolt
I guess it is what it is.

swapped it this morning in less time than it took me to wake up this morning. Now to crawl under the car and bolt it back on and pray it starts.

 

Ok so long story short I had drained the battery so low that I had to be very creative to even get the charger to turn on.

anyhow as of this morning it starts and runs again ! Phone says “feels like 18”
Which qualifies as a head wave so let it warm up
To 150 and drove it 40 feet back and forth in the driveway hammering the brakes and shifting threw all the gears before parking it.

Shit that feels good!

now I can get back to hammering on the cowl and making progress again

 

Well it hit 67 and melted the snow! Nervously hopped in the car, did the cold start secret handshake and it fired right up!

let it warm for a minute and ran a couple miles down the road for a billion dollars of corn free premium fuel. Man that tank was eeeeemmmmpty.

car ran great. Now to get back to that cowl dent...

 

Quick update, got a few minutes of hammer time in with Frankenhammer. Seems like it should work but I might trim the handle. It’s hard to get a swing because the handle gets in the way and it’s hard to hit the back of the hammer because the oil pressure gauge, steering column ect gets in the way.

either way progress. Next is figuring out how to sneak behind the horizontal brace and the center door hung to smack to deepest parts of the dent.

it’s so rewarding to get a good solid wack to it and have a dent pop out like Tupperware. Worth the effort and time of having a plan and tool to do it.

 

Mini update. Got a little more hammer time in last week and this morning with a fresh bottle of fuel I put some heat to it and GROAN! About half of it just came right out.

a 4 count with the heat on it and it actually groaned out loud and the dent came out. I’ve heat shrunk a lot of stuff but I’ve never had one make a bunch of noise.


Either way feeling good about it. I think a few more shrinks and some hammer time and I should be ready to put paint back on it and stay driving again

 

"OOUUUUUUCCCCCHHHHH! THATS HOTTT!!!" - Tim's sedan...... Probably

Lol

-Adam

Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Bahaha

 

Lots and lots of hammering and I’m finally sanding filler off

 

Sooooo close.

 

Got the last coats on this morning. Going to try to finally drive it to work Friday/ Saturday and let it dry for a solid week before I start knocking it down to polish and buff. Once it’s done I’ll post a few progress / trouble shooting moments I had

 

Filthy car made it to work and back today. Starter made a racket so maybe somethings lose again? But otherwise not real eventful, thankfully! and the cowl, hasn’t been sanded or polished etc yet, looks way better outside than under a lot of led lights and white walls. So another win in my book!

time to get some miles in! Gonna try to find a minute to wash it off tomorrow, a barn find is ok for a day but then it needs washed lol

 

First time in two… or three years we washed it off with the hose and some meguires car wash. I then immediately flooded it trying to impatiently start it to move it inside

edit: turns out I got some ignition wet. 4 hours in the driveway and it will still won’t start. Time to pull the cap and dry things off when everyone’s in bed

 

Ok caps bone dry… got creative and finally got it up the drive and into the garage. Thinking the coil went out maybe the module. Possibly lingering collateral from the voltage regulator going out?

either way I got everything but spark.

the saga continues lol

 

Guess I haven’t updated the yet. Went to Napa and got a Napa/ echelin hei module and got it swapped in. After leaving the battery on a trickle charger to recover from my day of trying to start it the car runs and sounds way better than before.

not only does it sound better but some spots that have had a little hesitation in acceleration seem to be gone.

How ever my starter still sounds like a bunch of shovels falling over after a say or two of it sounding normal.

while trying to trouble shoot that we went for the second post module swap drive and promptly hit a pot hole, snapped the upper shock mount and shoved it threw the inner fender.

of course.

took it apart road side and drove the 1/2 ish mile back home.

while laying under the car I made sure the starter was tight, concertos was tight, teeth and mash are all good. So we figure that something inside is worn and lose. possibly highlighted by the new solenoid.

wither way I confirmed 168 teeth on the flex plate but noticing the starter has the staggers pattern and ordered a smaller and stronger power master from summit and I’ll swap it this weekend. For no more than it costs I’ll save $10 and 20 hour dicking with this ten year old starter and just change it. I’ll take it apart later out of curiosity I suppose.

I also realized that my car has settled about an inch in the front since the front shock mounts were made and though generally an older Ford moves about 1.25 inches up and down in suspension, these nasty Kansas City road craters at 50mph make it move more. So the shock has been bottoming on the upper mount.

The only shorter shock I can find is $$$ for a speedway brand t bucket front end. So after scratching my head on solutions all afternoon I landed on going to the metal supply shop and picking up a little drop of metal to make my existing mounts an inch taller.

Other than being to short there’s nothing wrong with the old shocks and mount. So it seems the best rout for me.

will I change it later? Who knows, I’ve changed everything else 3 times why not.

hoping to swap the starter l, buy metal and start wet sanding the cowl paint by this time next week.

optimistic and ambitious? Absolutely. Lol

 

Well, cars still up on the ramps. But here’s a recap
- paint still not shined up
- new starter on, shimmed and tested. Works!
- the first of a few things hitting because the spring settled so much fixed
-metal to grow the upper shock mounts so they don’t bottom out aquired

up next- pull the sway bar for new rubber, pull the front shackles for bushings and replacements, weld the shock mounts back together and on. Rattle can it and sit it down for hopefully some driving

 

Had to battle a dog bone link that needs cleaned up threads now but I got the front sway bar free’d and bush bushes installed.

Dang those were worn! new one for comparison! Can’t wait to drive this with new sway bar and spring shackles and shocks that aren’t bottoming out after an inch and a quarter!

 

This is the plan for making the shock mounts taller. Made a template of the profile of the in broken mount. Holding it all together I checked and they are both symmetrical.

bought some metal and I’m going to stretch it along the flat vertical section. Basically filling that gap

I’m guessing it will make the shock slightly more vertical in angle but I don’t think it will be a noticeable difference to the eye. Much more noticeable should be shocks that can do their job!

Thinking I’ll get sprinkle shackles tackled next and then weld the shock mounts on very last score I connect the dots and drop it back on the ground. That’ll let us weld the mounts to the frame with the least amount of stuff in the way.

 

Alright got the jack stands and blocks shuffled around. Time to make new shackles and replace bushings. I think the stock spring hanger bushing had a brass sleeve over it that I drove out a decade ago.
I’m back and forth over ordering a new brass sleeve and moving forward or using a different shackle pin and going
Down the road for some Pete and jakes bushings.

think I need to take it apart and see what’s what first.

 

Got the passenger side off and apart last night.

the bushings are much better than expected, just wore the top hat “brim” off the back sides but the shackles themselves are pretty beat.

gonna buy some hardware tonight and mark the new plates for trimming. Hopefully have it back together this time tomorrow then I’ll pull the other side and see what it’s got in store.

 

Washers = $20!
new bushings = $7

Should have them in a day or two.

getting ready prune the plates in the mean time

 

We finally got a full tank for the torch and now the identical but taller shock mounts are ready to go on to the car next Monday

 

Well it’s not the most beautiful repair we ever did, but I can pretty it up later we didn’t figure on everything that landed in the way bejng in the way when we stretched the mounts in the lower section so we could raise them straight up. If we did it again we would leave the bottom alone and stretch the middle and tweak the angle to suit.

that being said, I’ve yet to actually measure yet, we mocked it up with the shock bolted to each end to make sure we had 2” to 2.25” of travel. Got that done and muscled, and I mean MUSCLED, the sway bar back 180 deg and bolted it back on.

went for a couple laps around the block and the combo of new shackles and bushings, new sway bar bushings and now double the amount of suspension travel before it bottoms was insane. I’m super excited to get this in a fast road and see what it’s like.

around the neighborhood it’s noticeably quitter and softer. In genuinely feels like I rebuilt the front suspension and steering. Absolutely thrilled.

I need to pick up one washer and do one more bit and bolt check and I’m ready to burn threw this very old tank of gas in quick fashion!

 

Awesome! More drivable means more opportunities to drive!

 

Looks dry on Thursday….

 

Needed a little more room to work so I went for a little drive and…. found a better place to park

 

Congrats on the new digs! Details? Garage Journal post?

 

@Tman yeah I’m planing a garage journal post. Big move, waaaaaaaaay bigger shop.

 

So happy for you!!!!!