Tag Archives: Car Show

1970 Mustang – Replacing my Pillar Post Moldings Part III

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Caulk another tasks down on the restoration of the Mustang. 

I finished up the pillar post molding last night.  Here is the before: 

Pretty?

 

Now these were not as labor intensive as the dash-pad but here were some issues. 

We’ll walk through them. 

The removing the dash-pad was chronicled in my earlier post and that was pretty quick now that I’ve done it twice. 

Once the dash-pad was removed there is an additional piece that needs to be removed, or at least a couple of screw removed on each side. That is the top molding: 

Top Molding

 

 In the picture above I’m pointing to one of the screws in the top molding that runs the length of the windshield.  That screw  is actually through the pillar molding which is partially behind it.  The top molding has 5 screws, two on each end and on my coupe the fifth is in the center and holds the plastic snap for the ends of the sun visors.  That screw does not have to be removed there is plenty of play after the removal of the four other screws, to safely (without forcing anything) remove and install the new moldings. 

The next step is removing the two additional screws that hold the pillar molding to the pillar. 

Screw Marked Remove

 

and this one: 

Second screw to remove.

 

It’s tough see there but here is a good clear picture…that old mold was so deteriorated it actually fell apart. 

Lower molding screw.

 

When I said it fell apart……. 

Yup. It was in bad shape.

 

The other side came/fell off the same way, in pieces, nothing left to do but snap the other pieces on and…eeerrrrkkkk(insert braking sound)…”Yeah..anybody know if you can insert sound in there a WordPress blog??” ….cricket..cricket…cricket……huuummm where’s my…oh I have no staff…well, only when my son visits (he does some on my graphic design..more on my new logo search later..maybe you all can vote on one??) back to my eeerrkkk…we need to discuss quality of workmanship for reproduction parts.  That won’t be a long discussion..”sucks”…there ya go, end of discussion. 

But really I know that they try, and I am grateful for something that looks almost as good, especially for a rare car like mine (…meaning not very sought after..at least not yet…therefore the profit in making any unique parts is next to nothing.) 

One of the first things about this particular molding is that is about 1/2 the thickness of the original and made of light plastic.  This worked out because the holes are not exactly lined up and there was a larger problem. 

Offset isn't correct.

 

As you can see the molding on the right (the original) where the screw driver blade is located, is recessed about 1/2 an inch, if not a little more.  On the left (new molding) there is almost only about 1/4 of an inch..maybe a bit less.  If the material for the new molding was as rigid as the original there would be no flex in the material and the lack of offset for tab on the new molding would not have allowed the use of the original screw, it would have been too short. Additionally, screw holes A and B  in the picture below were not aligned properly and would not have enough ”give” but allow installation, if it was stiff as the original. 

Improperly aligned.

 

 Was this engineering genius or happy mistake? 

Generally, the fit was close, not contours car show inspect-able close, but close enough for the local guys.  But if you can find parts made from “original tooling” (we talked about that when I was install the dash-pad for the first time) buy those, if your Average Budget can handle it.  These molding just aren’t available in any other tooling. 

With the holes in the wrong place it took some pressure and jostling to get them into place.  One tip I can pass on is do not tighten the screws until you have them all started.   I had to leave the top two screws out far enough to allow movement to get the bottom screw in. 

Keep the screw loose to maneuver the piece around.

 

 In the end the result were pretty good. You be the judge. 

Left side

 

Left side bottom (and my vette in the background)

 

Right side (and my neighbor's truck...like you need to know that!!)

 

Left Side bottom

 

Over all it took about 3 hours with interruptions with phone calls and neighbors stopping to chat.  It’s like Soaring over on www.MustangV8.com forum said..”Those are the kinds of tinkering jobs I like.  You get satisfaction you can actually see.”  (BTW – I like that forum, the Classic Mustang section is great.) 

Thanks for reading. 

Tim 

Abandon Car Pics Contest Win a DVD

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Hey..I’m still looking for abandon car pics. Email them to me timsweet@cox.net  or drop by Average Guy’s Car Restoration, Mods and Racing facebook group.  Pls include a general location.

I still have two DVD’s to give way!!!  Here’s my latest.

1939 Packard.  Originally from Texas, it got left here in AZ and now sits outside Boot Hill in Tombstone, Az.

1939 Packard.

 

1939 Packard Originally from TX.

 

Still got the flat head tucked under the hood.

Just needs a little TLC on the interior...yikes!!!

Auto Factoids for the Week of 6/13/2010

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Oh..yes I’m behind. 

There was a huge one last week.. 

6/14/1832 – Nicolaus Otto was born in Germany…”Who?”   He invented the gas motor engine. An engineer and experimenter, Nicolaus Otto invented the first practical alternative to the steam engine in 1876 — the first four-stroke internal combustion engine. He called it the “Otto Cycle Engine,” and as soon as he had completed his engine, he built it into a motorcycle. 

The Otto Motor powered Cycle

6/16/1903 – The BIGGIE….Ford Motor Company was established. On the same day in 1953 Ford introduced the power steering.  (Two for the price of one) 

Also on 6/16/1896 Jean Peugeot was born in Paris.  Founder of Peugeot the auto maker.  The family began with coffee mills and bicycles and then cars. 

6/18/1943  Tom Gale was born in Michigan, Flint to be more exact.  His Dad was a designer for Buick and his grandfather worked the assembly for Buick.  Guess where he went to work when he finished school….nope….Chrysler.. Gale became head of design in 1985.  He previously worked on the some of the iconic cars such as the E-bodies-Barracuda and Challenger and was a major contributor to the  Chrysler Portofino concept car. 

1987-Chrysler-Portofinow Concept Car

 

6/19/1947 the Tucker shows up in Chicago. 

The Tucker-Torpedo - I love these cars!!!!

And on the same day, 1969 GM produced the 4 millionth Cadillac.   

This isn't actually "THE" 4 Millionth Caddy..but you get the idea.

Thanks for reading 

Tim

Hanging in Chi-town

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Coming to you live from The Witt in downtown Chicago, it’s me typing on my laptop.   Three more days to enjoy relaxing and seeing the sights.

Speaking of sights..what I don’t see is a lot of muscle cars now or old…errrk… let me explain “lot” in this context it means…. “almost none”.  I’ve actual only seen one newish corvette (C6 – convertible) and a 1968 Mustang.  The Vette was on the street and the Mustang was parked in an alley.  That’s it!!!.

Muscle Car Drought..the only Vette I've seen!!

Ok…hang on,  if you think I just sit and type uninterrupted..nope…not much chance of that.

 My better half is here in the Windy City, at an international interior design event, where she’ll be giving a talk on….um…some interior design subject….um….yeah…I pretty sure that’s right and I tagged along. Nice little vacation where I can tool around a big city, which I enjoy doing from time to time.  What’s my point…umm…oh yeah….so I just ran out to get pick her up a couple of items while she is practicing her presentation.   On my return trip back to our hotel I spied  a beautiful custom 2010 Mustang..so..that makes three!!!

 Would you drive  your vintage or newish muscle car around a large city?  Let me say that I’ve been walking and taking cabs and even ridding on top of the double-decker tour bus and I’ve seen how these Windy City dwellers drive….I’d have to day…..I don’t think I would.  These folks drive 50 miles an hour between stop lights…but..still I might consider it early on a Sunday morning!!!

Oh…bTW…I know these guys!!!

My Parts Guy.

Oh and in the category of hanging 1930 Chevy’s….here ya go…a 4 door sedan at Portillo’s.

1930 Chevy..hanging in an eating establishment.

And up close:

1930 4 Door Sedan.

Engine and all are there for you to see.

Thanks reading.

Tim

Steve Sears 1992 Ford Ranger XLT and Paint

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Steve Sears is one of the readers of this blog and owner of a 1982 Mercury Cougar Station Wagon (again..I love this car). 

But that’s not all, Steve does a lot of his own work, including this unique paint job on his 1992 Ranger. 

Here is his recent project. 

The before: 

1992 Ford Ranger XLT

 

Tim, 

  

I completed my project last week and thought you’d like to see it.  I painted my Ranger with a roller.  I only did six coats of each color, usually 8 – 10 coats are required.  I like to call the color Haze gray underway and white.  I spent 26 years in the Navy so I thought the gray was appropriate for me. Ha Ha.  It’s painted with rustoleum mixed with mineral spirits in a 1:1 ratio thus the many coats required.  The body prep is the same as any other type paint job except that a primer is not used over the whole truck.  I only spot primed the bare metal and over the bondo used to fix parking lot dings.  It took a full 8 days to complete the project including the paint on the topper.  I have to wait a few weeks before buffing out for a full gloss.  For that I’ll just remove the mirrors and the bug shield on the front.  The process is well documented on the web over the last 10 years or so so I won’t repeat the process.   

  

I thought your readers would be interested. Finally I have the truck looking like new again.  It’s a 1992 Ranger XLT that I had bought new on April 24, 1992.  It has the 2.3 liter four and a five speed tranny.  The picture labeled 019.JPG is the before shot is attached.  

And the after photos: 

After Pic 1

  

After Pic 2

  

After Pic 3

Thanks very much for sharing it Steve.  (A roller?  Wow!!!!)  

  Drop me your comments!!!! 

Thanks for reading 

Tim 

Auto Factoids for the Week of 5/30/2010

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5/31/1927 – Mr. Ford produces the last Model T

6/2/1899 – Locomobile Co. Founded – they were in business until 1929.  They made a lot of cars, I hadn’t realized that.  Here are a couple.

1901 Locomobille - Cool..wonder what the 1/4 mile time were??

Love this one..Steam powered????

1923 48 Series Sport

6/3/1864 Ransom Olds was born in Ohio.  He developed and build cars named after him,  Oldsmobile and REO (his middle name was Eli, hence REO, hey that was a band name REO Speedwagon.

An Reo Speedwagon

I’ve never heard of the next guy, until now and did a little reading.

Barney Oldfield was born 6/3/1878.  He was a race car drive, but started out racing bike and wining silver medals in the process.  Here are a couple pics:

Early 1900's

Oh Yeah..that Henry Ford standing next to his car.

Auto Factoids for Week of 5/23/2010

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Few major milestones this week. 

Brooklyn bridge opened for traffic on 5/24 1883 and the Golden opened 5/27 in 1937. 

Race car driver Mauri Rose was born 5/26/1906 currently in the racing hall of fame, placed second in the 1927 Indy 500.  Actually won the Indy in 1941, but that was a tough victory, spanning two Maserati-powered Elgin Piston Pin Specials cars, after the first one had mechanical issues.  He tossed a fit and the car owners pulled one of the other drivers on the time from the race and give Rose that car. 

The Pin 

Elgin Pin

 

What powered that thing? 

Power Plant

 

The first Kaiser-Frazer was produced 5/28/1946 – cars weren’t sold until 1947. 

1947 Willow Run Plant

Mustang Hose Woes

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I was about to start the pillar moldings mini project when I ran into a couple mechanical issues.

About a week ago the Mustang began squealing when pushed to high revs.  That normally indicates one of several problems.

1. It could be a water pump

2.  It could be the power steering pump

3.  It could be a pulley

4. It could be a bolt that was holding the alternator bracket to the engine worked itself out and was in contact with the fan belt.

5. It could be a combination of the any of these.

Now the Mustang did, every once in a while, drip some fluid from the power steering control value but it wasn’t a huge deal.

Well, Saturday I went to start her and the battery was dead.  It’s over 3 years old and I had left the lights on the day before and had to have it jump started.  So off to the auto parts store I went and pick up a new 3 year battery and stuck it. When I started the engine up, it made the squeal and I decided I needed to fix this, before the pillar molding.

So with a neighbor revving the engine I noticed the bolt protruding from the water pump/block ( it passes through left side water pump housing in to the block).  With the revs the fan belt would flex and briefly hit the bolt.   This bolt was “custom” made when we were fitting everything up to reman’ed long block and was about 7 or 8 inches long.

It took a bit to get that back in place, had to loosen up the alternator’s other two supports and toss a little loctite on the threads and she was good to go…..almost…..

Yeah….option #5 above was the correct answer BTW.

Started it up and there was still a squeal – not the same squeal but clearly an ‘accompaning’ squeal.  Shortly after that a power steering hose let go and well liquid does what gravity  make it do and I spent the afternoon cleaning the driveway.  So there went my allotted time for Saturday.   So replacing both hoses seem the best way to go and they’ll  be in today.  Right now it’s at the shop down the street, I had no time to undertake this task at the moment, will be traveling the next couple weeks.

One of my travels takes me to the National Corvette Museum.  I’ll spend an entire day there which include the assembly plant tour.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

SCCA Event 4/25/2010 Auto Cross Part III

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So let’s get to my runs.  As I mentioned, there were 2 sets of runs, one for time and points and one for just time.  Each was five trips on the course.

One thing they have you do is of course walk the track which is to get you someone familiar with the corners.  I walked it twice.  Once on my own and once with the novice “coach”.

This is my second auto cross.  If you’ve been a constant reader you might recall that was on Jan 25 2010 and it was mainly corvettes. We rented the area and set up our course.  I did fairly well there for my first time.  But this course was different.  A lot tighter corners in a row and two sets of very tight slalom.  Nothing a vette couldn’t handle with the proper speed and a good surface..this was not a good surface, however.

My first run was a darn right awful.  I look like some crazed speed demon with a severe hatred for orange cones. I over drove every tight corner.  My second run wasn’t much better, I didn’t even hit the first corner and then a took a cone for a ride under the vette. 

So now I feeling like a knucklehead.  I had the oldest car there and maybe the one with the most torque, but certainly not the most horse power.  My third run was better and I took along one of the novice coaches but I still had a CD (course deviation) on the backside by missing the second slalom set of cones.  I dropped off the novice coach and my 4th and fifth runs were clean as far as CD’s go but I still got a cone on each run.

So here is how it end up in the first set of 5 runs.

 84 Chevy/Corvette BS
1. DNF
2. DNF
3. DNF
4. 56.355
5. 54.616

My next runs were much better.  I did have on CD and I did get a cone, but the times were getting better. The 5th run below I took a cone and spun on the back side of the course.

1. 51.643
2. 53.146
3. 52.622
4. 51.645
5. 54.188

So I ended the day with the following times and points.

PAX Time         Points

46.260              753
43.575                  796

PAX time is like a handicap in golf, it takes the class of your car and the skill level reduces your time to keep you somewhat competitive.

Not bad for my first real “formal” event.

By the end of the I was worn out.  That is a lot of driving, in the heat (ok..only 88 degree..little hotter on the course). 

The vette performed perfectly, no over heating issues (one of my biggest fears) and nothing broken, did have to rub out a few cone marks….but I showed them whose boss!!!!

You’ll notice a lack of pic or vids on this one, didn’t have my son along as a camera man, and when I wasn’t running they put you to work resetting cones.

If you want to see the scores go to  http://www.azbrscca.org/results/index.php and you can review the results.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

SCCA Event 4/25/2010 Auto Cross Part I

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The name of my blog includes “racing”.  This isn’t meant to be watching on TV and reporting back, it’s meant to be my events.  My blog title also includes  “Average” and includes budget as well.  (You might as well include ‘time’, as in average amount of time to spend on the hobby.) 

I just finished running a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) event.  It was a blast!!  I’ll get to my times in a bit, but first, let’s talk about cost of this particular event. 

Straight up to join SCCA there is the yearly fee for the national membership and there is the fee for your regional membership. Total cost here was $80.00.   Now the events are not free.  In my regional club which run events in the Tucson areas and Phoenix as well, they have to offerings.  They have a round for points and time and they have the time only round.  There are separate prices for each. 

Today when I showed up (you can pre register and save ..I think…$10.00) filled out all the paper work and went to pay.  The fellow taking the money asked if I wanted “time only” and  I’m thinking…do I only want to be timed…so I said “No.” and he said “That will be $30.00.”  So I paid. 

Now I have co-worker who talked me into joining SCCA and he attends regular events at the local drag strip – the auto cross is held in the huge drag pit/parking area.   He cleared up my misunderstanding and said if I wanted the “full” experience I need to go back and say yes I wanted the ‘time-only’ round as well.  That cost me another $10.00. 

So putting this together we are at 120 big ones this month to race.  Not too bad, I’d have to say. 

There are more costs and I’ll get to that in next portion of this subject. 

SCCA Event 4/25/2010