Starting On the Headers

I've decided that I really didn't want to put the old truck exhaust manifolds back on the car. They are ugly and are quite possibly the worst performing manifolds available for the car. Even after taking time to port one of them I'm just not convinced that I will be happy with them.

So, I've decided to add headers. There's a couple of problems with that: the headers hang very low, and they start at $369 + shipping!

For my family cruiser wagon I really don't want exhaust that I am having to weld skid plates on to, so I decided to go another route - I bought a kit to make my own. I must be out of my mind! But, we're going to give this a whirl. Below are a couple of pics of where I am at as of last night. I am starting with the hard side. I figure if I can do this side, the other side is a cake walk.

Engine and Trans Installed!

This past weekend I spent half a day getting everything set and installed the engine (long block) and trans in the car, but not before adding a B&M shift kit and installing a new Lokar shift arm so I can convert over to a floor shift.

The shift kit took a while to do, but was pretty straight forward. The shift arm is a dream - what a great product! If I don't have to stay stock, I will never worry about trying to find a correct stock part for the shift linkages again. Great quality and well engineered. The only downsides were it it is much larger than a factory shift arm, so clearance could be an issue (I had to flip mine backward from what I had intended to clear the tunnel) and the price - it was $65 which is roughly double what I could have paid for other alternatives, but this looks great and is very well engineered.

More to come to get things up to date...

Transmission All Cleaned Up

When I started, the transmission was black from bellhousing to tailshaft due to the massive oil leak where the previous owner attempted to modify the oil pan. He also drove on a lot of dirt roads leaving an oil and dirt cake more than 1/2" thick in places.

Once I cleared that away, which was a very tedious process, it revealed the the blue paint that covered everything, including fitting, linkages and fasteners. I decided that so long as the trans was out I might as well make it look nice.

Once again, a very tedious process. But after I repainted the trans to look like a factory CJ trans, it made the effort all seem worth while.

It rolls again!

Well, I had a couple of days where I could throw some time at the car and the results speak for themselves. I have the suspension back on the car (except for the front sway bar) and the tires back on the ground.

It was a lot work. Following the shop manual to reinstall the springs, it turns out, is not possible unless you use a spring compressor, quite possibly my least-favorite automotive tool to use. But, once I conceded that it wasn't going back together with out one, it went fairly well.

The only hick-up is one of the shock absorber studs on the lower control arm snapped off on installation. I'm not suce what all is involved in the repair, but it is a little bit of a disappointment. to have to go back in and repaira part that I already restored. Oh well. Could have been much worse.

In addition to the above, the firewall is painted, harness is cleaned and retaped, and all vacuum hoses that were still on the car have been replace with new. Next up will be the sway bar and a couple of other small details up front, and then I need replace the rear springs. The gas line needs to be replaced as well, but I'm thinking I will be waiting until the engine is back in the car since I want to run it by the firewall rather than around the front of the engine.

Tomorrow, I roll it out and do some cleaning in the garage. More updates to follow...

Reassembly begins...

Been working on reassembly as well as clean up on the parts that I haven't had a chance to clean up yet. All of the vacuum lines that were left on the front end have been replaced with new, the harness has been cleaned and retaped, and the brake lines have been cleaned up at the front of the car.

I took that wiper motor apart and did a quick detail on it, so it looks much better.

Part of this project is converting from power drum brakes to power disc brakes off of a '68 Galaxie wagon, so I needed to change out the booster which needed a little detail work to get it presentable. Just the usual wire-wheel, a little sanding and steel wool, rust converter,and then paint. It is now installed with the previously refinished bracket. The actual master cylinder is on order from Rock Auto, but won't arrive until the middle of next week, but there is plenty left to do before then!

I cleaned up the rag-joint which is in great shape (thank goodness!) since this has tilt steering, and the rag joints in good used condition fetch about $80-$100. After clean up was done, I reinstalled the power steering box, and then finished up the heater core cover and mounting plate.

The cover was a little extra fun since it has damage in a few places that had to be repaired with plastic epoxy first.

Last thing done ... upper control arms are installed. I hope to get the rest of the suspension, minus the coils, in place tomorrow. Hope to post some pictures then as well.

More to come!