New Throttle Cable Installed!

The old throttle cable was in very poor condition, so as I work at putting things together to fire the motor, I added replacing the old one to my to-do list.

I ended up picking this up off the shelf from O'Reilly's Auto Parts for $25. Not too bad, all things considered. After removing the old cable, I cleaned up the stock bracket and bolted it in place on the intake. A couple of tweaks with the Channel Locs squared the cable up with the throttle arm on the carb.

The mounting post came in the kit and just replaced the ball-and-socket style that was on the carb. Using the existingthrottle cable hole, I mounted the new cable in place putting a couple of gentle bends in place to work around the valve cover and leave a little slack for any movement of the engine.

After measuring 37 times, I attempted to cut the cable casing with a hacksaw, as stated in the instructions. This left frayed ends on the stainless jacket, and made zero impact on the spring steel wound inner core after more than 10 minutes of cutting with a fresh blade. So, I grabbed the angle cutter with a cutoff wheel and finished the job in seconds leaving a very clean cut.

Once again I mounted up the cable casing to prep for adding the inner cable. Originally, on my vehicle, a 3/8" diameter pin was used from the factory to hook up the old cable. After about 30 seconds of drilling I realized that it was hardened and I needed a different approach to the pedal mount. I finally opted to drill the pedal. It took three tries to get just the right angle so the cable didn't drag along the lip of the aluminum fitting. No worries.

After that, it was simply a matter of inserting the steel cable, measuring, removing, cutting to length, adding it back, feeding it into the eyelet assembly and setting the set screw. I did opt to use the clunky plastic end piece that came with the kit and is supposed to be used with their special bracket assembly. I just used a small hose clamp to hold it on the end so the cable fed through the center and didn't rub on the spring steel inner core.

The finished product looks good and works great. I just need to spray a little lithium grease up the tube to keep it lubed. Probably should have done that before installing it. Oh well.

Radiator support is installed ...

Putting the front end together so I can fire the motor.

Adding a 460 serpentine set-up to my 429 engine...

I cleaned up the pullies and brackets and added them to the engine today. The other picture is what they looked like before cleanup on the donor 460.

Working Toward Starting The Engine!

Working on trying to get the engine started on Monday, and I have a buddy coming over to help out for the day. Lots of stuff done, and lots more to go if we are to get it running. Here is a rundown of the last couple of days of what I've accomplished, and a few pics for fun!

I started out the weekend cleaning up the distributor and starter. The distributor (cap, base, wires and all) was painted blue, and where it wasn't blue, it was dirty and oxidized. I disassembled, cleaned and painted it to dress it up. The vacuum advance is paint chrome which give a nice finish. Not really chrome-like, but a nice shine for cheap, and far better than what I uncovered.

The starter was an even tone of oil and dirt covering surface rust. Once again, disassembled, cleaned up, and sprayed. This will sit behind a header, so it doesn't need to be perfect. I just couldn't put it back dirty.

Then I installed the heads and headers. What a pain! I made the headers myself and the passenger side wasn't too bad, but the driver's side was a bear. I had to pull the steering column and drop the steering box to get them in. I also had to "massage" them a bit up around the head as I couldn't test fit the last two pipes without tearing the front end apart, and I was off by about 1/4". No worries since this isn't going to be a super high performance vehicle. I wanted headers, and these should WAY outperform stock cast iron truck manifolds that were on the car.

Last, but not least, I polished up the valve covers I have. That meant wet sanding with 320, 600, 800, polishing with a Mother's Power Ball, and then hand polishing with a product called Autosol from Eastwood. In the end, I got the bright, satin finish that I was looking for. The covers are used, and they have "character marks", but I didn't want perfect, or highly polished.

I hope to be posting more pictures in the next few days that include a running engine,but we'll have to see.

Things Don't Always Work Out Like You Hope!

OK, so the other door skin just isn't going to happen. The first issue I ran into was the profile at the top of the door is different. No problem Just cut at the upper body line and replace part of the panel. It doesn't even have to be perfect since the molding will cover there.

I removed the new panel and trimmed it down. While planning the new attack on the existing door skin I held the new one up to make sure everything lined up. It did ... until I noticed that I couldn't see the door handle holes through the replacement door skin. Argh!

Apparently, on the hardtops, the door handle is moved a couple of inched inboard from the four-door models. This has officially made reskinning this door more hassle than its worth. So back to the bodywork on the original door, and we'll accept "not perfect."

In other news, I have started reassembly of the motor. I'm going to shoot for this weekend to start the car. So I cleaned out the cylinders to make sure nothing snuck in, ordered the gasket kit, put on the fuel pump cover, and I just finished doing a quicky detail of the starter and distributor.

The starter was covered in gunk and had light surface rust, while the distributor was oxidized, and 90% sprayed Ford blue. They look much better, and certainly suitable for the vehicle. The starter will be mostly hidden, so there was only minimal disassembly performed.

Tomorrow I need to pick up a new starter cable as the current one is rough. After that, drop the steering box to add the DS header and slip in the PS. Hope to post pics tomorrow!