Trying to play catch up with Auto Factoids:
9/7/1954 – Production of the Ford Thunderbird.
Ford Thunderbird
9/8/1903 Preston Tucker born in Michigan.
1948 Tucker....love the suicide doors
9/9/1935 Studebaker exports first cars to London. They were Studebaker Commanders.
Studebaker Commander 1935
Thanks for reading.
Tim
This is my ’70 Mustang. This is really a video test.
At some point I’ve promised myself I would cover the restoration stories that center around my 1970 Mustang. There is a lot to tell, trust me!! I’ve learned a lot!!!
Engine - Before (250)
Engine After - (302)
But for this Wrenchin’ Tip, I’d thought I’d share a few hints that I did pick up. Just to be fair I didn’t do a lot of the engine swap work myself (Average Guy w/ average tool and average skills) but I learned a lot of general helpful hints and some Mustang specific helpful hints!!!
So here are a couple of tips:
1. Planning and scheduling a restoration is important. If you are doing an engine swap or pulling it out for an overhaul make this the first step in your restoration. Yes, I’ve seen the TV shows where they put the engine after the car is back from the body shop. But hey this is the real world, and in this world, money is tight and body work is expensive enough not to what to afford to re-do it. In this world, my average guy world, wrenches slip, grease stains and sometimes swinging 400 lb engine at the end of a chain can be…well…a bit dicey.
2. Before preparing the engine for removal, you know, disconnecting all the electrical, fuel, A/C, vacuum system, etc., take the hood off and store it someplace safe. You’ll have a ton of room and you won’t bounce that shiny, newly painted engine against it.
3. Test fit the headers before you install the engine, especially if you aren’t putting stock headers back on. You need to check the clearances around them and ensure you can get to key components , such as starters, after the engine is completely installed. Nothing is more insane that having to pull an engine or headers just to replace your starter. Here is a pic of my Mustang’s engine with all the attachments.
Clearance checking pre-fit!!!
More engine swap tips coming up.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
This isn’t my normal “on this date back in…” factoid. This one is current.
8/6/2010
At the VW Automóveis Ltda. plant in Portugal today the hundred-thousandth third-generation Scirocco rolled off the production line. Since its launch in 1974, this compact sports coupe has been the most successful Volkswagen two-door with more than 800,000 sold to date. Another notable Giugiaro coupe is the breathtaking beautiful Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint.
These cars were a hot item in the use for a short while.
2010 Scirocco
Thanks for reading
Tim
7/20/1984 E.L. Cord was in Missouri. If you think he’s only responsible for the Cord
1937 Cord
Think again!!!! How about a company that included Stinson Aircraft, Checker Cab and American Airways (now American Airlines)? But let’s just stay with the cars. How about the Auburn and Duesenberg? His history is a good read.
7/23/1894 first auto race. It was organized by the Parisian magazine “Le Petit Journal” between the Paris to Rouen. And the winner was………… Count Jules-Albert de Dion it took 6 hours and 48 minutes at an average speed of 19 km/h (which was approximately 11.806052652509345 p/h). I don’t know what he drove but 2nd places was taken by George Lamaitre and he drove a Peugeot:
Peugeot 3 hp
7/24/1929 – 2, 000,000 Model A Ford built – A huge milestone.
1929 Model A
Tim,
Here’s my story of using household items to fix cars. Kinda like a turkey baster tool. Ha Ha.
Finally solved the fuel boil over problem on the 82 Cougar wagon with an inline six and 1 bbl carb.
I live and drive mostly above 2,000 feet and with the fuel blending today the fuel in the carb bowl will boil over and come out the fuel vent in the carb throat, pooling in the intake manifold causing a flooded condition resulting in hard starting when the engine is hot with the huge plume of black smoke when it did start. I’ve tried all manner of fixes that included: lowering the float, retarding the timing, advancing the timing and investigating whether the manifold, catalytic converter or the exhaust was restricted in some way. I built a heat shield out of aluminum and tried that. Some people had suggested using a thicker carb base gasket or even doubling the gasket which would have required longer mounting studs for the carb. Since it hasn’t been a daily driver in the summer due to a broken a/c I’ve put off the fix. I tried to find a phenolic material to make a carb base spacer for the carb that would insulate it from the heat with no luck.
Finally my wife went to Wal-Mart and bought a plastic cutting board for me on my request. It’s made from a hard polyethylene material that’s just over 7/16″ thick. So, I did the obvious scientific test on the material. I got the car to operating temperature and held the cutting board to the exhaust manifold and it did not melt. So I cut the board, drilled the carb bore hole with a 1 and 7/8″ hole saw, drilled the stud holes, made a thin gasket for both sides of the material and sealed it with red high temp permatex gasket maker and installed my new base plate. To test I drove the car in 108 degree heat to full operating temperature for 10 miles with the now fixed a/c blowing hard and the boil over problem is gone. There is no longer any fuel smell or hard starting when hot due to fuel in the intake manifold. Finally after almost 8 years this annoying problem is fixed. I don’t know why this material insulates so well over the factory thick gasket but it does.
The material doesn’t seem to be affected by fuel either.
I’m sure others have been baffled by this problem since most fuels today contain ethanol and other materials that lower the boiling temperature of gasoline. Altitude certainly plays a part as my car never did this at sea level even in 100 degree weather.
Steve Sears
Ridgecrest, Ca.
We got a first and a last on the same day – 60 years apart.
7/12/1922 – Frist Checker automobile built
1922 Checker Cab
7/12/1982 – Last Checker automobile built
1982 Checker Cab
7/14/1955 – First Karman Ghia – I really like these cars. I might own one some day, but maybe a Covair instead!!!
1955 Karmann Ghia - didn't change much from '55 - '74
7/16/1935…first parking meter in place in Oklahoma City, 30 minute later was the first parking ticket.
First Parking Meter
Thanks for reading
Tim
Here ya go, enjoy.
7/6/1946…..U.S. began producing car again after World War II. It is a bit misleading but some cars companies did continue to produce cars. At the very onset of the war (1942 thereabout), some of the first effort were to build the cars without all the chrome, painting the trim instead, the first “blacked out” (they were actually called “blackout specials or models” ) which became popular with the grilles in muscle cars later on. Washington dictated that stainless-steel and chrome would not be allowed on cars except on of bumpers, bumper guards, and windshield wipers.
1942 Chevy Front.
1942 Chevy Backside
I think it looks great!!!
7/8/1909 The first Hudson was built.
Hudson Roadster from 1909
Thanks for reading
Tim
The other day (7/1) was a record-setting day for me. Oh..yea..setting some personal bests, that….well….frankly I could have done without!!!!
So I thought I’d take a minute or two to jot down the events of the day, as a form of therapy, and maybe I won’t feel like having all my cars crushed and moving to a small Quaker community in PA.
Ok…. that does feel better. Now say it with me…”I’m OK and You are OK”.
So here’s the story and I’m being as dramatic as necessary!!!!
Drove my 84 C4 to work as normal yesterday………
>>>Oh..hey wait…..I did this Corvette owner thing a few weeks back…guess what it was?…..{silence….cricket…cricket….cricket..} Give up? Ok..fine I’ll just tell you. I got a personalized license plate…No..not a vanity plate that says “Studly” like my wife wanted me to get!!! {{If you only knew how funny that last statement was..my wife hates those plates, although I believe he thinks I am studly!!!}}. Nope I had to get clever, I wanted something that defined my car. You have no idea how many times I get asked…”Yo…what years is it?” My neighbor next store ask me that every time he see me outside my house…he’s 80 something…so I’m very polite about it (’cause I’ll be 80 some day), and tell him it’s a 1984, and always ask him if he wants to take it for a spin and we both laugh. (Man..you’re getting your money’s worth reading this one..three stories in one.) Any way I thought if I could squeeze the year of my Corvette into the plate and I wouldn’t have to answer it as much. ( I actually got a stamped “1970” plate at a place in a shopping mall for the front of my Mustang for the same reason…Arizona only requires a rear plate…funny..they still sent out two plates though!!!) (Geezzzeee..there’s 4 stories for ya…I don’t think I remember what the orignal was??!?!?!). The plate reads “84C4WOT”. Deciphered it means 1984 C4 (the generation) and WOT = Wide Open Throttle.
Wow was that painful to read through? Hope not!!!
Ok, back to the original post. Got to work just fine no problems. Now, this time of year it’s get’s pretty hot here is Southern AZ and I think yesterday was about 105 or 107. My work day went by as slow as it possibly could and I had to hang a little late to finish up a task. I head home and I got about 4 miles from work and I noticed the cars behind me slow down and to a little swerve in the road. If you’ve driven here in Tucson much, such things are not extraordinary, there’s a lot of weirdness here on the roads.
Approximately 1000 yards down the road I see my digital temp gauge, jump to 260 degrees. Now the 1984 C4 runs hot by factory standards. The electric fan has a factory setting of 223 degree before it kicks on…but 260…is not good…not by any stretch. And picture my expression on my face when 200 feet further it shot to 280 degrees. I’m doing about 45 and I’m in the middle lane of a 3 lane street and traffic is heavy. I know I need to pull this thing over or that which is currently going very bad..is going to get even worse. I cut off the next car where there was the smallest of a gap and dove for a Circle K (like a 7-11) parkinglot about another 500 yards away. As I pulled in to the parkinglot…my temp gauge read 299 degrees (my first new record of the day..beating the old temp by a whopping 17 degrees…”Tell him what he’s won Johnny!!” ” Well Wink, he’s won a cooked corvette and gas saving trip on the back of a tow truck!!!!”.) DOOM!!! was the only word that came to mind….ok..fine…that wasn’t the word…but it did have 4 letters.
I stopped it, turned it off, popped the hood latch and jumped out of the car to get the front lifted up…. I expected to see coolant gushing out of every place imaginable, but the engine compartment was pretty dry…I’m thinking..this is not good…nope….not good at all. There was a little fluid on the frame and a small wisp of steam, but nothing to make you think there was an Old Faithful event about to occur. I checked the coolant overflow tank and it had a small amount of fluid in it..very small, odd for something that was about to blow. I quickly checked the hoses that I could see, without touching anything….every thing was hot, and they looked fine. I could even see a portion of bottom hose, it seemed ok. I stepped back and looked under the car and there was only a very small puddle. Corvettes are pretty low to the ground which makes it hard to see anything will out getting down on the ground, but I had on white paints and when it is 107 degrees in Tucson, the pavement is about 115!!!
So what my observations imply is there wasn’t enough coolant in the car to boil…and at about 300 degree…it would be boiling!!!
There are only a couple of things that would a cause a complete drain of the cooling system.
1. A hose coming off. Since there wasn’t any coolant on the upper part of the engine, so the top ones were fine and what I could see of the bottom hose it seemed normal.
2. A cracked block or a head would have had the Vette running poorly before hand and I would have noticed.
3. Freeze out plug failing. I’m thinking this was the problem. A freeze out plug is just that, a metal plug in the block and heads of your engine. They are there mainly for cold weather climates. If the coolant was mixed wrong with too much water and should this mixture freeze, the plugs will pop out during a “freezing event” allowing expansion of liquid hopefully saving the engine’s metal from cracking from the pressure.
Freeze Out Plug
Freeze Out Plug in the engine block.
Why is that so bad? They look pretty simple to put back in. Sure they are, right…after you pull the entire engine out!!!
So there I stand, white paints looking soiled, red Vette with hood up and smelling like a burnt carrot, 107 degree, humid as hell, and it starts to rain. Can you picture it?
I made a quick call to my GM Motor Club and they arraigned for a flat-bed. 2 hours later my lovely wife meets me at the Circle K and we wait together for another 45 minutes(total of 2.75 hours) for a truck to show up (my second record of the day… breaking my last tow truck wait by 1.25 hours) and 45 minutes after that I waiting in my favorite repair facility parkinglot waiting for my poor Vette to be dropped off (where it would sit, in the dark, overnight, all alone and wounded). Too much drama?
Let’s get to the do’s and don’ts.
1. Do pull over in a safe spot as soon as possible.
2. Don’t continue driving. Don’t try to make it home or one more block/mile. You could just be making it worse.
3. Don’t keeping it running after you stop in a safe place. It isn’t normally going to cool it down and again you could be making it worse.
4. Don’t touch anything under the hood. Don’t open the radiator. Don’t open the coolant overflow reservoir.
5. Don’t try filling it with water or coolant immediately. Just let the car cool down all the way down.
6. Don’t try driving it after its cooled down, even if you filled it with water. 100% chance that what caused the overheating, didn’t go way.
7. Do call a tow truck.
8. Do call a friend or someone and let them know where you are, at the least.
9. Do get a motor club of some kind. Average Guy with average budget..right? Towing is expensive, very expensive. I like the GM Motor Club. I pay about $69 a year and I’ve used it twice this year already. I have my son’s car covered and my Corvette. (The Mustang is covered by Haggerty insurance.) Within town the towing is free up to a certain mileage, both this years tows were free, saving about 250 bucks a shot, that a good deal.
More coming up.
Thanks for reading
Tim.
If you searched and found or followed my posts on restoring the dash-board of my ’70 Mustang, then you might recall my planning/scheduling issues.
As I was taking the old dash pad off, I realized that I hadn’t order the plastic pillar molding. When I finally called a few Mustang parts supplies places I found them all to be out of stock and they had to put them on back order. They did finally come in and it’s taken me a bit to actually find the time to replace them. Well, this long 4th of July week, I’m at least going to get started. (I have also do the valve cover gaskets as well.)
So here again is what I’m replacing:
Yeah..had to get creative to keep them on.
Pretty?
Now the new molding comes in any color you want as long as that’s black. You’ll need to paint the proper color. If you have the specs for you car you’ll easily find the interior color and places like National Parts Depot or Mustang’s Unlimited have the paint for the job. I had to do this with a replacement armrest. Which was horrible – replicas all came square and my Mustang’s armrests are rounded and have the overstuffed look like a leather sofa or overstuffed chair. (I ended up pick up a use one in good shape and painted that..I think it was tan originally.)
Oh..sorry…I wandered!!!
The first think you have to do is prepare the plastic for holding paint. The guys at National Parts Depot recommend SEM 38353 Plastic/Leather Prep. I’ve used it and it seems to do the trick. Pretty simple….Spray surface, pay attention to recessed areas, wipe with clean cloth. Use some gloves if you have office worker hands and put out the cigar while you using this stuff.
SEM 38353 Plastic/Leather Prep
Sticking with the SEM brand I purchased a can of Universal Color Coat. I used this paint on the aforementioned armrest and it lives up to the “Flexible Coating” label. My Mustang’s interior is VP-15945 Vermillion.
SEM Universal Color Coat
So next up I’ll do the prep and the paint.
Molding
Thanks for reading.
Tim
