Follow the steps and you’ll be able to remove those rusted exhaust bolts and it makes using an easy out on broke bolts…um…well… easier!!!!
1. Heat the bolt or stud with a torch errrkkk….”Yo…us averaged guys don’t have a torch set!!!!” Yeah, I know…I use a regular propane torch from ACE Hardware. ….errkkk Double nut the studs.
2. Once it hot…doesn’t have to be glowing red, touch a candle to it, until there is wax penetrated between the threads.
3. Remove the bold or apply the easy out and you are home free.
I plan on getting back to the pieces on drag racing, as I have a couple more parts to post. However, I have two projects coming that I thought give you all a heads up on.
The first is a new dash for the Mustang. Dashboards were never made to last, even back in the 70’s. They sure as ‘heck’ don’t last here in the Arizona sun. It doesn’t matter what that the dash is made up of, the heat will eventually mar it or destroy it all together. Painted metal with fade, at the least, if not peel off. Plastic will crack and the vinyl composite like the original dash in my Mustang will crack and curl up.
Take a look:
This the Dash with the custom cover.
Now it’s going to get ugly. Beware, send the children from the room and hide pets. Disclaimer: I’m not responsible for malfunctions of pacemakers, prosthetic limbs or dental work fall out of your head when you gasps at the next few pictures. Don’t view if you are in your lasts trimester or if you spouse in her last trimester. Side effects are severe headaches, nose bleeds, loss of voice and black-outs have been report but rarely occur. (Law school – money well spent!!)
Split dash on speaker cover.
Grand Canyon
Son of Grand Canyon
Tough to see here but the corners are curled up.
HAD ENOUGH?!?!?!!? Yeah…I thought so.
So I order a dash sometime ago and I’m ready to get it put on. …..eeeerrrrkkk….don’t get a cap (dash cap), they are the worst!!! They almost never fit right and they are normal waving and the glue doesn’t hold…especially here in the big AZ. I tried one on my ’74 Torino (I loved that car…I’ll tell that story another time…someone remind me!!!!) and it did all of those things plus it looked cheap. If you can buy the orignal equipment, NOS (New Old Stock) do it. Of course you can for Mustang’s and other popular cars and keep mind some fit other models of the same make. If you can’t get NOS then look for the advertisements where they are using the original tooling (molds etc.). Those are the best…. end of eeerrkkkk… While I’ve got the dash apart I’ll redo any wiring necessary and place all the bulbs. I might even replace the original speak which isn’t hooked up to the new stereo. And I’ll do some cleaning as well.
All this I will film with digital pics and digital movie clips and post them up. Every one can follow along. And if you are in area you can swing by and see the progress.
The second project I’ll be doing with a few professionals at Dynamic Crossfire Solutions. Met these guys through the Arizona Corvette Enthusiasts club (ACE). …eeerrrrk…..For an average guy with average skills, car clubs are a great resources…end of errrkkk… These guys, Tom and Jim have developed a new intake manifold for the lowly crossfire engines. I’ll talk more about that in the another post, but for a fair price, I having the newly developed (first of its kind) intake manifold for my 84. The Corvette will get a new fuel pump and the injectors will be modified to allow manual adjustments and a fuel pressure gauge will be added to help refine the flow. Why???…more HPs car peeps, up to 50 more for, what is really, just a bolt. Tom and Jim are going to let me turn the wrenches and I’ll be filming that was well and will share it here.
I have a new contest coming up (looking at $50.00 gift card) and some tips that might help with the project you are working on.
This is a tough one. Strictly from a budget point of view…nope. I run my Mustang and Vette with the street tires.
What not to do: (Read and heed)
At most tracks they have the water area where most cars with drag rubber will run through. It helps to get the tires spinning. Avoid that!!! On my very first run, I thought I’d be cool and do it like the big boys. Got the tires wet…..oh..they’ll spin alright..no problem…but hey aren’t soft enough to grip and well…lets just say it gets a little hairy and all I wanted was to just trying to get them to smoke a little..would have been fun. Well..what did happen was the Mustang started going sideways toward the concrete divider, mind you, I’m not even to the line yet, (and I’m think..”Hey honey..can you move your car so the tow truck and back in to the driveway).
So not only did they not smoke, they didn’t even get hot, just wet. Now take wet street tires and place them on 1/8 inch of rubber sticking to strip and…ta dah…you have a Mustang on ice…great!!! I recovered from that and got to the line. This was a charity race and I looked a cross concrete divider at this front wheel drive Ford Focus and I smiled…..but only for a second. The tree started and I popped the clutch and heard my bored out 302 engine rev and felt it go…. nowhere….the tires just spun…I see the Focus take off and I let up on the gas the Mustang took off, fishtailing…..I think I did two miles on the 1/4 mile strip, during that run. I did manage to get her up to 86 miles an hour that time but..I was at the end of the run and Focus has already turned off.
What to do:
Avoid the wetting down area. Your street tires will spin….trust me…on all that rubber the other cars have left for you. Warm you tires up only a little.
Now as an average guy..I only have a street car…just like it came off the show room floor, no trans-brake…nope… just a clutch and a gas pedal. So with a manual shift..and street tries you have to be careful taking off. I have out treed a few cars but you have to be light on the clutch. The tires will spin a little and you can limit that a bit with the clutch. A few feet out you will find more grip and 2nd and 3rd will be fine…um….I don’t have a 4th in the Mustang…so that’s pretty much it for me.
My next few passes went much better with my best being 93.43 mph with a 15.391 time. Now that’s pretty good with street tires and only 3 speeds. (Considering the first pass..documented above had a time of 17.54 at 78.98 mph.)
The next few posts will have pics and some videos to show the fun that was had at this event. This first one shows one of my runs and where I left the course. I did get back on, but the course rule was you either stopped or limped home. This was my worst time, 44 seconds plus.
