Tag Archives: Classic Cars

Next Project Corvette C4 Valve Cover Gaskets and Paint

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So if UPS has its act together I should be getting a set of valve cover gasket and engine paint to repaint the Valve covers and installing them all on Saturday and part of Sunday if necessary.

I could have got the gaskets locally, but only in cork.  What I’ll never understand is the thought behind using cork in cars where the average engine coolant temperature is over 200 degrees.   Yeah..really.

The spec book on the 1984 C4 Crossfire engine has the thermostat requirement at 195 (degrees).  That means the engine has to reach nearly 200 degrees before the thermostat opens and allows the coolant to flow.  What more the Crossfire engine is came equiped with an electronic fan for the radiator and the is factory set to come on when the temp reaches 223 degrees. 

Now that’s pretty hot for an engine.  Rarely does my corvette digital temp gage find it’s self under 200 degree during while operating, it normally round 210.

So knowing that,  Chevy still put cork valve cover gaskets on the car.  If you’ve ever worked with those, you know that if the engine runs hot, they will eventually “cook” on and dry out and leak.  So I went with…. errrkk…. cut/paste “Ultra-Seal material provides a positive seal through controlled swelling of the gasket once exposed to hot engine oil. The polymers used in Ultra-20 also ensure gaskets will not harden and fall apart like others can. Gaskets are coated with an easy release material which helps prevent tearing when the valve covers are removed.”…end errrk and cut/paste.

The painting shouldn’t be a problem, it’s just to spruce them, but I’ll need to prepare them.  They are textured magnesium and can take a lot of heat but they do stain easily.  I’ll show close-ups of the before and after. 

Actually you can see some of it here.

errrkkk….Normally my engine isn’t this awful looking.  But it’s been a wetter than normal winter and I haven’t kept up with it like I should.  Plus I haven’t been too worried about, know that I had to do these gaskets and hopefully, soon, I’ll be putting on the newly designed Crossfire intake.

Hey..don’t forget the Project Car Contest $100 online gift car to an auto parts house.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

70 Mustang Dash Removal Videos

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Sorry for the technical issues with the videos. It seems that WordPress has issues with longer videos, so I’ll have to keep them a bit shorter.

These next links will take you to the videos, but you’ll have to click the back button to get back to the blog.

This first video is when my son and I discovered that there was an additional bracket under the lower trim pieces.

http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm296/timsweet2200/?action=view&current=MVI_6869.flv

This next video is view of the partial removal.

http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm296/timsweet2200/?action=view&current=MVI_6876.flv

This last is the rest of the removal.  I tossed a little humor in there about feed my son Ryan only if we worked for the meal.  Not sure he thought that was too humorous..but I’m his Dad..he has to deal with me.  🙂

http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm296/timsweet2200/?action=view&current=MVI_6877.flv

Again, sorry these take you out of the site, I will work on this for the next video uploads.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Reminder:  PROJECT CAR CONTEST..GET YOU PROJECTS IN!!!!

70 Mustang Dash Replacement – Removal

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So the process was fairly straight forward.  Only thing not obvious was the removal of two trim pieces that hid the front bracket.     

Philips screw..wow how ugly was that old dash???

Top screw removal

There were 3 philips screws along the dash next to the windshield.  A nice long screw driver worked nicely.  The holes in the dash cover for the screw were pretty deteriorated, but it was good do know that the dash was really metal covered with the padded vinyl so the screw would hold forever.     

passenger side screws – remove and done!

There were 4 more screw on the passenger’s side.  Now if this were a Mach I it would have a clock located there, but instead there is just a plastic panel.  You could actually place a LCD monitor there for  DVD player.   The panel is below:     

passenger’s Side Panel

The next set of two screws that needed to come up were located above the radio.   These were a bit awkward to remove. But they weren’t philips screws..that pieced together with what we found after taking the dash pad out led to a conclusion of…well I’ll hold off mentioning that until I give you the other piece.      

Arrows show the position of the two screws

After removing these two “non-philips” screws (flat) the dash pad would lean forward and you’d think it would pop right off …but nope!!!  The next photos show why.     

Dash Pad leaning forward.

Additional Trim piece that needed to be removed.

One screw and off it came.

Caption is wrong here the side screw was removed but there was still one below.     

Bottom screw had to just be loosened and the pieces sliped off

One this pieces of trim was removed you can see the screw/bolt that need to be removed.     

Not a great pic..but you get the idea.

One on each side and the dash pad was ready to go.  Check out the videos.  If the videos don’t work..let me know.     

I enlisted the help of my son Ryan.  He was over for dinner and he lent me hand, so I could film as well.    

This first video shows us discovering the front brace hidden under the trim piece.     

  

Here is the backside of dash pad.     

The paper tag on the bottom of the dash pad.

Reading that you can see the date of 1972 on the tag. Since the Mustang is a 1970, the date doesn’t make sense. Adding that the screws near the radio that don’t match (straight vs. philip for the rest) I wondering if the dash wasn’t replaced.  The original owners didn’t mention it, but there was no real reason too.  This could mean that the dash was replaced with what appears to be NOS (new old stock) (from 1972)..that’s a possibility.  I’ll do some more research just to find out.     

The last few pics are of the other markings.     

The two eights – one upper in maker and the one in the glue.

Parts code perhaps 3 24 (d) 2

Sorry..that one’s upside down. 🙂     

The original Ford speaker.     

Speaker with part number.

So what’s next?  I’ll check out the wiring and pull the gages if I need to for repair (although all the gages are working fine). Oh..yeah..do a bulb replacement.     

More to come     

Thanks for reading.     

Tim

Wrenchin’ Tip Restoring emblems 03/18/2010

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Many of our cars have worn out emblems that were once painted…Ok..I’m a lucky average guy…the Mustang’s emblems are all chrome and my Corvettes are mostly plastic.  

But what about some those that need painting.  Look for a flow  pencil.  

Flow Pencil for paint your emblems.

 

These are pretty reasonable and make painting small areas a bit easier.  

Thanks for reading

Project Car Of the Week and Month

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I’ve been think about doing this but the rules seem a bit tough to come up with.  But I’ll give this a try.

I’m looking for some project car posts from the readers. Your projects.  Anything from a huge wreck of car project to something smaller (bigger then an oil change).  It has to be your car and you are doing “some” of the work on it. That the only hard and fast rule.

I’ll need a couple photos and some brief details.   You can post them up here or find me on Facebook and post the them up or email them to me (timsweet@cox.net).  I’ll post them here and then on my website (www.tucsoncarevents.com) for everyone to look at.

If I get enough entries I’m pick a car of the week the week and then out of the we’ll vote on the car of the month (if I don’t get votes posted up I’ll have one of my regular readers pick it.  The winner the car of the month gets a $100.00 online gift card as an auto parts dealer (Summit Racing or even on tailored to your car).  Simple as that.

So let’s get started. Remember anything from a total wreck to just a transmission swap, body work, paint, interior upgrade, hood swap.  That all works.  Sorry Pdawg giving Burt a bath and vac isn’t going to cut it (but he could use one!!!…just kidding).  It doesn’t have to be done and I don’t need a before and after, just what you are working on.

I’ll this run until I get at least for to choose from, then we’ll vote.

Note:  If you noticed my site is not commercial, there are no ads, no click through links, no pop ups.  It’s just me type to hear myself type and a few of you reading it.  I like it that way.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Project update 70 Mustang

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Dallas Mustang has just shipped my new dash-board for the Mustang.  Be here next week, should start the replacement shortly there after.

Tim

Muscle Car Peeves

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Ok, I’ve been wanting to do this for a while.  I have a couple of muscle cars and cars that aren’t but get “dressed up” like muscle car peeves.

So here are three right off the bat.

1.  Don’t put Yanko strips on your 2003 Dodge Neon.  It doesn’t look right, and you aren’t fooling anyone.

2.  I have nothing against body kits added to a car.  I, personally, wouldn’t do it to the two I have, but I’ve seen some pretty nice jobs done on Corvettes, especially.  I’ve even seen a lot of imports that look good with body kits.  But here’s my peeve, don’t put them on the car if you aren’t going to paint them the right way.  Save up the cash and get it all done at once.  And one more note on body kits, why would you want to take your Honda Accord and make it look like a 1946 pickup truck?  (OK, I’ve never seen one, but you know what I mean).

3.  I recently saw a 1970-something Camaro, mounted on the frame of a raised Chevy pickup…almost monster truck size.  Why people…WHY???!!!

Okay, there are a couple of mine muscle car want-ta-be peeves.

Post up some of yours. Come on, I know you’ve got them!!!!!

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Average Guy – Increasing Skill Set Training Parts

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Now, I keep saying I’m an average guy with an average skill set and frankly there’s no one I know that will argue the point.  That being the current situation, it doesn’t mean that I don’t try to pick up new skills, I do.     

So since I also have an average guy’s budget (selling cans back to the recycler for car parts…ok…just kidding there) I don’t have what I’d really like to have for “training purposes”.  If I did however, I have two of each car (in this case a 84 Vette with a Crossfire engine –has to be exact there and a second Mustang with a V8) and I’d experiment with parts cars until I get it right and then I’d work on its twin.  Of course that’s not affordable, so I next like to have a spare Crossfire engine to mess with and a Ford V8 do to the same.  Now that might be possible, budget wise (I know a couple of guys that will let me pick up a an old engine for free) but I have an average garage, with my cabinets and work bench, I can only get one car in there–nope no 3 bay garage for me.      

My garage with the Vette in it.

 

(Was I kidding???? NOPE!!!) Errrk…..And don’t think I haven’t approached the subject…but the misses doesn’t see the need to move to a larger house just so I can have a place in the garage to play.  So having two engines on stands won’t work out too well. So how do I get around this……I purchase a part to “study”.   Back in the day you’d have to go to the junk yard and pick your part and you can pretty much do that today as well.  There are drawbacks to that, though… here in a AZ during the summer time…taking the parts off the a hot car is a killer…not stolen…but a car that’s been sitting in the sun when it’s 110 degrees out.  Those metal part will be a bit warm…trust me.  But the Internet is a great thing and I’d like to take a minute and personally thank former Vice President Al Gore for inventing it…nicely done sir!!!  I’ve found most of my training parts online.  But don’t over look the local car clubs either, you can get help and I can assure there’s one or  two guys there that have or know a guy that knows a guy that has the part you are looking for.    

  When I first got my Mustang, it had a 1 barrel Weber carb, so I purchased  an old one online to take it apart and look it over.  Then I order the kit and rebuilt the usable one.  I’ve done the same thing for my C4.  I needed a rebuild of the fuel injector towers, so I went online and found a set for $20 plus shipping and took them apart and back together and used them as a model for when I did the real set.  Worked perfectly.    

 Here is my next piece:    

84 Vette Crossfire Intake Manifold

 

Which is seen here on the Vette:     

Corvette Crossfire Engine

 

The manifold is unique enough that I wanted to learn more about it before messing with it.  Now if you’ve been reading my blog since the beginning or are new and went back through my older posts, you’ll know about my psychological issue with breaking it myself. So the test part makes it even odds…ok..fine 40 – 60 that I won’t screw it up. (That’s a 60% chance that I’ll eventually have to take to someone and have it fixed when I’m done fixing it myself.)  Now I’ve mentioned that an up and coming mod will be to put on a newly designed manifold for the Vette, but I need to keep the original and will eventually rebuild it myself…or attempt too. Look this picture over and you’ll see why I love working on my C4:    

Hood up.

 

 Yeah..no fenders to lean over!!!!  It’s great.  Easy access to the engine. Just toss an old blanket (STOP..NOT THE ONE ON THE BED..NO NO..BAD….) over the wheel and you are home free.     

 Thanks for reading.  Always up for a comment or two.    

Tim

Average Guy’s Drag Racing Part IV

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Being an average guy …say it with me…..”with an average budget and average tools”…I travel light to the drag strip.

I don’t have a trailer and I don’t have spare tires, or worry have about NOS (Nitrous Oxide System).  I don’t carry a timing light (but that might be handy) or dwell/tach.  What I do carry with me is a small toolbox with open-end and box-end wrenches, socket set and screw drivers.  I also bring along a lawn chair, a cooler (No Alcohol) and Fire Extinguishers.  Now it helps that the strip is less than 10 miles way and I have a very nice GM towing/travel package (AAA like coverage  – under 10 miles the tow bill is free) so I don’t really need a trailer and the works.

The tools I carry are just enough to make carb adjustments and plug adjustments. (I have replaced the points and condenser with the Pertronix electronic ignition parts in the Mustang…(very smart idea by the way) and there really aren’t any adjustments I can make to the Corvette as it is currently configured – the computer which is crude 1980’s technology – just returns the car to original operation specs (fuel to air ratio) or close to it anyway.

So I look really small compared to the guys with the covered trailers and the double axle pick-up trucks.  But there are a lot of average guys there, taking up no space in the parking lot.

At the drags Pic 1

 

At the Drags Pic 2

As you can see by these pics there isn’t a giant tool box there and no pit crew.  BTW these photos are from my first time at the track, right after the new engine:

New engine just before installation.

And before the new paint.

I have a ton of fun at these events.  I’ve attended to two charity events, Race for the Cure, in support of cancer research and a several weekly test-n-tunes.  Generally at the test-n-tunes you see a lot of kids (relative depending on your age) with their imports.  You can tell there isn’t much of a budget there and that I think is what makes it fun.

In most of these events you aren’t running against the other guy (not really), you are running against your own skill as a driver and a mechanic – your own tune-up work and your last run’s time.  The kids with the tuners (a slang term for modified imports) generally have a Nitrous Oxide Systems (NOS) and a lap top to adjust the computer that controls nearly everything to do with the way the engine runs.  I know some old school guys that really frown on that but I think it pretty cool.

Do you have a racing experience?  Drop it in comment.

Coming up next (if I can find it) is an article I wrote that covers the finer point of bracket racing and some tech tips.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

And the Winners are?

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Cleanest and Disaster Garage contest is over and the Winners are:

Disaster Garage:  Mr. Steve  Sears with his entry –

Cleanest Garage:  Pdawg  

Mr. Sears wins the $25.00 Checker Auto Gift card

and Ms. Pdawg wins the $25.00 Home Depot.

Pls contact me and I’ll get these delivered to you.

OH..and just wait for the next contest.  Details coming up!!!!!