Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

But, before I drove the car parts had to be bolted on.

I got my gorgeous driveshaft from The DriveShaft Shop. Earlier you saw that I had a CV slip yoke for the front and I also installed a CV yoke on the 9" rear.

Here is the front:



And the rear...



Overall the shaft is 55.5" long from CV flange to CV flange.



Here is the front installed...



and the rear...



One side benefit of running a CF driveshaft is that in the case of a failure, the shaft will shred, which is a good thing since it won't damage the underside of the car.

I also replaced the worn hinge on the driver's side, but there is nothing exciting to see about that...

Topped off the diff fluid, filled the trans...and then it was time to grow a pair and take her down the street.


Good day indeed.

Andrew

HISS

iTrader: (52)

Nice! Bet that felt awesome after all that work.

franktf

iTrader: (6)

It lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

It does indeed. You're not that far behind!

Andrew

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

Yesterday I had scheduled a laundry list of items that I wanted to tackle, first one being a spongy brake pedal. I figured that the brakes just needed to be bled again. I get the car off the ground at all corners and when I pulled the driver's side rear wheel off, I saw brake fluid on the inside of the wheel. FML...

A little more looking and I realized that the driver's side wheel cylinder was leaking. I don't know why I didn't replace those when I did the rest of the rear end.

Lesson: replace all brake parts that are 50 years old!

After a few phone calls I managed to track down both the left and right side at a Napa store in Appleton. Spent an hour driving there and back, then managed to install the new cylinders without too much drama. Also found a small leak at the fitting that connects the rear hard line to the flexible line for the rear end. Snugged that up. Bled the rear brakes again and had a much firmer pedal. Hopefully that does it for the brakes.

Today I will tackle that laundry list of small projects and hopefully have the car ready to drive to the exhaust shop in the morning. Wish me luck!!!

Andrew

RacnJsn95

iTrader: (4)

Great work on the horn button! If you want to go black though and aren't happy with the loss of detail from the paint, I'm with SuperDave, use the Smooth-on Onyx black product.

That thing sounds bad ***! congrats on the first drive!

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

Thanks! I will look into the Smooth-on Onyx black resin. That would make the horn center piece really pop.

Andrew

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

Got the big list of "to-do's" done today, so tomorrow morning I will be taking a drive to the exhaust shop. The plan is to have a very simple 2.5" system with a H-pipe, Hooker VR304 mufflers, and tailpipes that dump just behind the rear wheels, without any tips showing. More videos to come.

But in the meantime, I had requests to show the new digital sequential turn signal lights, so here you go.


Andrew

superdave84

That's awesome. My brother is going to rig up sequentials on my car too

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

The Cougars had stock sequential lights, but it was a mechanical/electronic system. The digital box replaces 3 components that were originally part of the system and makes it a plug-n-play affair. If you want to save time, I see no reason why you can't adapt the digital system that I used. It's from Cougars unlimited.

http://www2.cougarpartscatalog.com/c7wy-13a366-bs.html

You can download the Cougar wiring schematic for free from the same website.

Andrew

superdave84

Actually he is trying to stat a company making sequentials, brake/turn signal kits, aux fuse boxes, and some other cool HUD/night vision stuff to sell to hotrodders. He already has sequentials figured out through some system of relays. Wouldn't do me much good to look at the schematics because my head would likely explode!

Kharp

Awesome!

1964SS

iTrader: (1)

Very cool!

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

Got the exhaust installed today. Nothing fancy, just 2.5" pipes going to some Hooker VR304 mufflers, no x-pipe, no H-pipe, simple...It sounds deep and mellow and much quieter than I expected. The exhaust dumps just in front of the rear axle.

With the exhaust and the sidebands installed I was able to start tuning. The Holley Dominator is simply THE BOMB! I was able to turn on the learning function and the ECU went to work correcting the base fuel map. After a few minutes of driving it leaned it out during various driving around conditions. She purrrrrs...The surging is gone and it's very easy to drive around town. The idle has mellowed out as well and the cam lope is not nearly as noticeable as before.

Alignment and more tuning tomorrow.

Andrew

marbs34

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the tip on the sequential light realist, they have a universal controller that may work for my 65 skylark!

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

I know you all want to hear the car with the exhaust on it, so here is a little video that I made this morning before I went off to the alignment shop.


Got the car aligned and it was driving really nice, so I decided to take a road trip to see my buddy BA, who lives in the Chicago suburbs. So I jumped in the car and went. All together I put close to 400 miles on the car and there is nothing dramatic to report. The rear springs are very stiff. I got word from the previous owner that back in the day they had extra leafs installed, which explains the incredibly stiff ride. It was somewhat bouncy around town, so I put 3 click of compression and 3 clicks of rebound damning into the shocks and that cured the bounce. Still very stiff, but not bouncy.

Up to about 55 mph the car is smooth as glass, but above that, the monkey business with my front wheels reared its ugly head. As you might recall, with the brake caliper clearance there is no room for the balance weights. I did use the balancing beads in the tires, but I don't think those are working as advertised. Maybe there isn't enough beads? I only put in 3 ounces per wheel, which is what the manufacturer recommended based on tire size. I will call them and discuss.

It would be nice to have another set of wheels and tires to try out, just for sake of sanity, that way I can figure out what's causing the actual vibration. It's definitely related to speed and is not the driveline. The vibration is at wheel speed and makes the steering wheel shimmy.

Overall, the car drives very easy and nice. I did some more tuning as I drove, which made the drivability better. The 4.33 gears make it super easy to drive around town and with the .5 overdrive and 27 inch tires, I was seeing 2000 at 70 mph. The driveline feels super smooth thanks to the awesome CV driveshaft.

So I have a small list of issues to chase down, but overall it's a pretty fun ride.

Andrew

HISS

iTrader: (52)

I never had good luck with those balance beads in my motorcycle tires. Tried them a few times and always ended up going back to stick on weights.

zTimbo

Same here, I've always thought they were a bit of a gimmick because I've never had any luck with them either.

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

Thanks for the input guys.

I need to isolate the problem before I go changing things.The alignment was spot on, I not only watched him do it, but I sat in the car so it was done with me in it.

It has to be either the wheel/tire or the stupid *** spacer that I have. I really like these wheels and I am ready to swap brakes to ditch the spacer, if I knew 100% that it was causing a problem.

Andrew

zTimbo

Throw the wheel/tire on a balancer and see if it balances out.