I guess that this isn't really going to be a build thread, since it appears that my camera's grown legs & wandered off somewhere, but I wanted to make a public record of this effort. This is partly to document it for myself, & partly to give me the "kick in the ***" that I sometimes need after a LONG day at work when I arrive home just mentally exhausted... (Lately it seems that 40 hrs/wk is just a fond memory...)

80 days from today is June 9th - the date of perhaps the largest car show in the entire Rocky Mtn. region. We're talking hundreds of cars spread over three sites. I've attended as a spectator before, but this year I intend to participate - but I'm going to have to put in a fair bit of work to do so.

The vehicle is a late-thirdgen T/A, I currently have the rebuilt 6.2L installed along with the transmission. Beefier rear is also in place, I've just finished the brake lines, but still need to hook up the e-brake cables & torque arm.

Other things (in no particular order) on this no-doubt-incomplete list:
I'm sure that this list is probably painfully incomplete, but I'll update it as I think of things, & as I make progress (although I won't promise to be real wordy, as I'm hoping that I'll spend most of my effort getting the car done!).

Feel free to follow along, offer encouragement, bet for/against me getting it done in time, or just point & laugh...

 

That's a hefty list, but I would think it's doable, never underestimate the power of sheer determination! Good luck on it.

What's the car show in Denver called? I'm going to a show in Pueblo near the end of June, Colorado is a nice place to visit.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it! I'm heading out there again in just a few minutes...

The car show is called Cruisin' Havana, named after the street that the sponsors are located on - it's a kind of a Chamber of Commerce kind of thing, but I don't care, it's a lot of good fun with food, music & a lot of great cars.

I'm guessing, but are you going to the NSRA Nats in Pueblo?? That's the only big car show down there that I can think of off-hand... Maybe I'll swing down there so that maybe we can each put a face to the name... (And yeah, checking out a bunch of street rods wouldn't be the worst way to spend the day...)

 

I thought of a couple of additional items to add to the list today...

Dang it, I'm supposed to be eliminating items from the list, not adding to it!

 

Got the e-brake cables shortened, routed, ends crimped & attached last night. Doesn't sound like much for a night's work, but I stopped off at a new hardware place on the way home from work hoping that they'd have better "ends" to crimp on.

Oh well, it's one more thing checked off the list...

Edit: Forgot to mention - 79 days & counting...

 

Yeah, that's the one. I'll be out there for a week or so, starting up north in Rocky Mountain National Park, then down to Colorado Springs so I can drive up Pike's Peak again, haven't been there since its been all paved, so probably wont be as cool. Then to Pueblo. If you get a chance to make it down, definitely stop by and say hi. I'll be driving my '33, the one in the pic in my sig.

 

Yeah, that sounds like a pretty nice vacation. As a Colorado native, I completely agree w/ you regarding Pikes Peak, I was really bummed when they paved it, I felt that it lost a lot of it's character. But the guys who race it (1 week/year) apparently like it a lot better, so there's that...

I'm already tentatively penciling in a trip to the NSRA Nats now, I'll shoot you a PM to coordinate as the date gets closer - I'm looking forward to seeing your '33 in person, the picture you have in your sig is one of the most distinctive pics on the site!

Pretty much no progress made last night, I had a crushing headache through the 2nd half of the workday, laid down for a while after I got home, then went out to the garage, but couldn't push through it. So I spent some time prioritizing the 'to-do' list & making a list of what I need to buy... Not sure if that counts as progress or not.

Edit: 78 days & counting...

 

Got a little bit of time yesterday & today to work on the car, & I was able to disassemble & re-do part of the electrical that I wasn't entirely comfortable with. The new crimper that I bought helped a lot today, I was able to create battery cables just the way that I wanted them. I know that it's not huge progress (like I'd hoped for when I started yesterday evening), but this is something that I wasn't sure how I'd be able to do it before buying that tool, so mentally it feels kind of good to be mostly "over that hump".

I'm also trying to plan out the sequence of assembly so that I don't put something together only to have to tear it apart again so that something else can be completed. And as I'm thinking it through, I can see that the spaces on either side of the engine are going to be fairly cramped. I'm seriously considering just mounting my coils in the stock valve cover location - which would really suck, because I did a pretty good job of painting the valve covers, I spent a fair bit of time to mask & paint pretty carefully, & that effort paid off - they look pretty good, if I do say so myself! Having to cover them up would be a definite bummer - but relocating the coils looks like one of those things that could potentially eat up a lot of time - and 'getting the car running' easily beats out 'aesthetic concerns'...

As a minor aside, I also contacted the guy who will likely do my tune. He told me that he'll be glad to add me to his mid-May calendar - although I'll definitely need to follow up on that as the car gets closer to completion.

Edit: One minor bit of serendipity occurred today, I found a used P/S pump that I didn't remember having. Some months ago I was thinking about mounting the P/S reservoir remotely so I separated the reservoir from the pump itself & added a pipe fitting to hose adapter into the pump. Lately I've decided that that was more work than it's worth, so I've put the two together again - although I was still looking for the two clips that actually hold them together. Finding that 2nd pump might (if I'm lucky) allow me to cannibalize the two clips from the used pump. Here's hoping that they're close enough in size to be usable...

Tomorrow will probably be dedicated mostly to household stuff, so there may not be much - if anything - to report, but I plan to take advantage of whatever time becomes available.

Currently just under 77 days remaining...

 

Between family obligations & preparing for an upcoming event that we have planned, there hasn't been much time to work on the car since my last post. I got an hour early yesterday & was able to (mostly) fab a mounting bracket for the battery kill switch, but that's all the work that's gotten done. On a more-positive note, I've located the correct idler (tensioner?) pulley assembly which is the last remaining piece of the FEAD assembly (I just need to locate some longer bolts), I've finally decided upon -and ordered- a radiator (which should allow me to button up the front of the engine area), as well as a Norris catch can,& some misc. stuff like heat-shielding for between the exhaust & the floorpan, steam line hose, etc.

I've got another solid week, maybe even two, ahead of me where I won't have much time to work on the car, so I'm hoping that if I have everything lined up & available, I'll be able to really bust out some good work once time frees up a bit.

68 days remaining, as of today...

 

Once i get a bit more time to work on the car, I should be able to finish the remainder of the primary electrical system, & tie in the hot wires from the aftermarket harness I'm using. Not sure whether I should make "finishing the harness" it's own sub-project (so that I focus on that until it's done), or just use that as "filler" work & make one or a few connections when I only have a small amount of time available to work on the car - I suspect that I'd be better off with the first option so that nothing gets skipped/forgotten.

Got a bunch more stuff ordered, boxes should start arriving tomorrow. AFAICT, I should be able to finish up the cooling system, the rest of the suspension (as soon as I can get a driveshaft), & get me about 75%, maybe 80% done with the exhaust. I also have the materials to fab up a custom intake tract, I just need to figure out how to make the correct bends with it. I may have just figured out an idea as I was typing this, we'll see if I can make it work...

R.I.P. Bear - Very probably one of the most intelligent, good-hearted dogs to walk this earth. Your time with us was WAY too short...

Today is D minus 66 days & counting...

 

I can relate. Had to put my buddy Toby down last Thanksgiving Day.

Andrew

 

Thanks for the reply Andrew, although I'm genuinely sorry to hear about Toby. I've been surprised at how hard it's hit my wife & I, it's been similar to losing some of the people I've loved most, more so than most pets I've had. Just part of the process, I guess.

I received a couple of boxes today, the Jegs guy messed a couple things up, so I'll be returning those. I located a couple of the correct-sized bolts I needed, so I was able to bolt up the idler pulley assembly to the water pump, which means the FEAD is essentially done. I'm looking forward to having some time to get all of this stuff put together now...

 

The radiator that I ordered arrived unexpectedly today. Generally speaking, I kind of prefer a notification that it shipped, a tracking number, that kind of thing... Failing that, I am glad that it arrived in one piece.

Now I really can't wait to get some time to start throwing this together!!

 

Yeah, stuff showing up early always ticks me off too....... NOT! lol

 

 

Hey guys, I apologize for the delay in responding, but I have a couple of good excuses -

First, this thread hasn't tended to get many responses at all, so I haven't watched it as closely as I might have if it drew more interest (so that's totally on me).

The 2nd "good excuse" is that I spent all of last week cruising through the southern Caribbean. Never been on a cruise ship before, Never even seen anything more tropical than Orlando, FL before! (Well, not in person anyway...) Sweet holy Moses, I have GOT to win that Powerball so that I can do some more of that!!! It was actually a little bit depressing to return to "real life"!!

All humor aside though, I'm really thankful that we were able to do that.

Heh - I'm certainly not upset that it arrived before I left, I guess it's just that we've kind of gotten spoiled with ubiquitous tracking numbers/notifications, & being able to "watch" something that we've ordered make it's way across the country to your doorstep. This was more like "the old days" (i.e., 2005 or so) when you ordered something, & trusted that it would arrive in the reasonably-near future...

Yeah, I pretty much have, thanks for asking Michael. I'm planning on basically re-creating the setup shown in the two "stock" images (Nissan & Fiesta ST) that I posted above. I've bought a nice Canton expansion tank, two radiator caps (1- 30 lb. for the radiator itself, & 1 - 16 lb. for the expansion tank), & I already had an 'el cheapo' overflow tank. So I have all of the major pieces, I just need to buy some hoses to hook it all together.

BTW, how are you feeling these days? All "buttoned back up"??

I've spent all of yesterday & today recovering from getting back home at 0300, & then going in to work, while trying to "spin my normal life back up" so I haven't managed to accomplish a stinkin' thing since I last posted (although I was hoping I'd be able to do a bit tonight). Once I can get started again, I should be able to make some decent progress, hopefully tomorrow evening...

Thanks for the responses guys!

As of today (17 Apr), I show 53 days & counting...

 

Made up a couple of the hours last night that I missed on Monday, but I still made it out to the garage to do some test-fitting. I'd already read one review several months back that the "direct-fit" Holley Frostbite radiator for the 3rd-generation F-body actually was not a drop-in as advertised, but unfortunately I got to confirm that for myself last night. It's almost an inch too tall, & even if that wasn't a problem, it's necessary to trim the core support for the radiator filler neck.

I bought the FB190 (four-core) radiator, so I was expecting it to be fairly thick - but the fact that it doesn't even fit the advertised application is irritating. I've given it some thought, & I think I'm going to cut out the bottom core support & lower it about an inch. That will also affect the air-dam mounting, but I don't think it will affect anything else. (And yes, it'll still be necessary to notch the upper core support for the filler neck, which pisses me off because I've already got a professional paint job on the engine compartment...)

I know that "bolt-on" parts all-too-frequently don't, but it's stupid crap like this (where someone half-asses a measurement that affects every product they build) that makes me really nervous about making my deadline...

Currently 51 days & counting...

 

Are we going 80 days without a picture?

 

What, the emoticons aren't good enough for ya?

OK, seriously, I mentioned in the first message in this thread that my camera's somehow gone missing, I spent a fair bit of time looking for it before my vacation, but no luck. I've thought about taking pictures with my cell camera, but they're not the greatest, & I kind of hate to show those off...

I'm thinking about taking a look online to see what kind of replacement camera I could get for not too much, maybe I'll do that this weekend...

 

I realized that I hadn't actually included those pictures in this thread like I'd thought I had, so I'm adding them with this post. My hope is that they'll be helpful for someone else.