BDRAG, JUST CHECKIN IN....

[BDRAG]

05/08/2022 UPDATE:

Drilled in and attached the rubber on the lower edge of the air dam. Man it closes out that gap. Cool! Several friends telle it's looking like a Mad Max car! Lololol.

Also got the hood hinges cleaned up and painted. Once I get those bolted in we stab the hood and locate and install the hood pins. The hood pins will actually be the only thing keeping the hood closed. I don't have any of the OEM latch assembly parts in the parts bins. Don't feel like spending any money on them. So pins it is.

Once the hood is fit, I will lay out the vintage GT 350 type hood scoop and cut a big hole in the hood. Oh what fun that is going to be. One shot! Lolol

BDRAG

 

[BDRAG]

05/10/2022 UPDATE:

Well we got the crapped out hood hinges cleaned up and installed. Installed the hood. Installed the hood pins. Had to modify one of the two sets combining parts from both sets. One set was too short that had the large diameter pins. The second set was longer and had smaller diameter pins. So I drilled up the longer ones to fit the large pins.

Got those aligned and installed and then set the 1965 350 GTR type hood scoop on the hood just for a peak at what it's going to look like.

All I know is I do a lot of sitting back and looking at this thing and grinning from ear to ear. I don't know why but this just is a fun project. I think it's going to look a little different than most people's garage projects.


BDRAG

 

[BDRAG]

05/13/2022 UPDATE:

Happy Friday 13th. ....

In my 63 years on this planet, I have never done anything so freaking irritating as installing, rebuilding OEM 60's vintage head light buckets and assembly's. B I T C H of a job. Got it done. Only 27 cuts and bruises! Lololol. My fake thumbs are killing me!

I installed the New LED headlights in new buckets with new trim rings.

Got the hood pin lanyards installed. Built and installed a radiator protective screen. Another irritating job working with expanded mesh that is RAZOR SHARP on all edges. Luckily I had a roll of plastic edge guard and used it on all edges.

Got the hole pattern laid out on hood scoop. I will get it mounted this weekend and get the hole in the hood cut in. Fingers crossed. Lololol.

BDRAG

 

[BDRAG]

Just to explain my Fake Thumbs comment. I had Stablix titanium thumb joint implants to remove severe arthritis in my base thumb joints. Here are a few x-rays. Took about 2 years for them to basically heal to about 95% . Two thumbs up! Lololol.

Had first one done in May 2019. Second one done in November 2019.

I only lost 3-4 days of work with each surgery. I had pain but was able to manage it if I was careful. Soft cast wrap for 10-12 days then he careful. Wild chit! Lolol. So far so good.


BDRAG

 

[Roxasuras]

Ouch!

 

[BDRAG]

Well lets just say I didn't wear any button type pants like jeans for a long time unless ya button them and step in and wiggle like hell! Lots of sweat pants cause ya couldn't pull anything up that took your thumb and fore finger. Learned to start the shop truck with the key between my first and second fingers, knuckled it. Like I said, 3 years now on the right, 2.5 on the left., all is about 95%. Drastic weather fronts cause aches and working the hands long and hard irritates the hand. Not real pain but just sore. Hell, I have built this damn car with um! Lololol.

BDRAG

 

[Roxasuras]

And a hell of a job so far. How much longer do you think till she's done

 

[BDRAG]

And a hell of a job so far. How much longer do you think till she's done

We pulled the tranny today to replace leaking shaft seals. Tail shaft at driveshaft and nose or pilot shaft. Did the pilot shaft because it can get all over the clutch and flywheel. Luckily we have only put 5-6 miles on it. It's sat 3 weeks or more since the last test run.

There is no telling how long the tranny has sat in the corner of the past owners. We put it back in. Nice and smooth job with that $150 tranny jack I bout myself from my wife. Lolol.

While we had the tranny out we went ahead and put a almost functional muffler on. It's 14 inches long compared to the 6 inch long one. Lol. Got the can spray ceramic coat paint coated the heck out of it. We will get it back in tommarra morn.

I did some adjusting on the brake bias pedal system. I put more front brake first. Will see how it does in tommarra test drive.

So other than getting the trunk lid aligned, a trunk latch installed and the lights wired, it's drivable. Hope, HOPE to paint it by end of June. Fingers and thumbs crossed. Lolol.

BDRAG

 

[Roxasuras]

Can't wait to see it painted.

 

[BDRAG]

05/15/2022 UPDATE:

Well the re installed tranny may still have a small weep leak at drive shaft yoke / output shaft seal. That means a new drive shaft yoke prolly. Errrrrrr!
Front not leaking as of now. So drive it. Lol.

Removed the hood and cut the whole for the air intake/scoop. Sanded and trimmed it with some of that black edge guarding that I have a box of. Looks pretty decent and is functional.

And after getting the exhaust bolted back up we decided to take it for a few spins around the block with the new muffler, a flowmaster super 44 dual end dual out and it sounds great and is still loud but it sounds great.

I hit first gear then second and when I hit third the car jump sideways boiling the rear tires and the motor shut off at 5,500 RPM and I hit fourth and it came to life again pow! So we spent some time trying to figure out if the fuel injection system or the A6L MSD ignition box is controlling the rev limiter. We couldn't find anything in any literature anywhere saying which one takes control if you're running both. So we said both of the rev limiters at 7,000 are p.m. . Will test it in the next few days.

After Park in the car in the sun for about 10 minutes after driving it was wanting to be cantankerous firing back up, it didn't want to go when you gave it the gas, kind of like a heat related vapor lock. So we'll investigate that. But man oh man when it's done it going to be fun......

I was telling my cats about the car today and they seemed interested. Lololol.

BDRAG

 

[BDRAG]

A few pics of the car outside after the Sunday test run.

Can you see this thing coming up from behind I'm your rear view mirror? Lololol.

BDRAG

 

[BDRAG]

05/20/2022 UPDATE:

Well we got the tail lights, reverses lights, LED head lights and the front LED blinker/running lights. The running lights are LED strips that have body tape to secure them. So if I'm painting the car I don't want to stick them on. So I am fitting them and retaining them temporarily with some ole stand by clear rocker panel rock guard tape. It stickers to anything and can be removed.

Still have to sort out the blinker and brake light wiring. The removal of the original harness has us trying to find out what did what and adapt it.

I also plugged up the holes in the rear trunk panel where I had to add holes to get the roll cage bars into the car. I used the bottom of some beer cans and trimmed them and attached over the holes with seam filler caulk. Lolol. Worked great! You'll never see them behind the rear bumper.

BDRAG

 

[BDRAG]

05/21/2022 UPDATE:

We got all the lights working correctly. Turn signals front and rear brake lights and headlights. I hate wiring. Now that the seats are in the car it's a pain in the butt to crawl in there and do any wiring and tie wrapping and so forth for a fat guy. Lolol.

We got the seat belts in and we did a little bit of test driving today. Probably put 15 -18 miles on it. We have a slight rub in the rear when we did a very steep transition into a parking lot but no damage just a spot where we need to figure out what's going on and the heim joints in the 4-link are creaking like an old man. So I assume some lubrication is in order there I hope.

Other than that it ran great, got all kinds of people watching when we drive by, and the guys at the parts house were like what's in there????


BDRAG

 

[BDRAG]

05/23/2022 UPDATE:

Well over the past week I bought some hinges, some turnbuckle struts and had a piece of .125 aluminum sheet cut. I then laid out how I was going to build and where I was going to attach my rear deck spoiler.

I used the ole stand by steel rivnuts. I then counter bored the back side of the hinges to allow the hinge to fit flush with the skin of the trunk over the heads of the rivnuts.

I then drilled the holes in the aluminum and attached it to the hinges. I then located where I wanted the support struts to be. I had to cut them down 2" and re tap them. I then drilled them into the trunk lid.
After drilling, I went inside the trunk lid and counter bored access for the attach bolts.

It's shown with sharp corners but when I pulled it all back apart for the black anodize platting, I put a 1" radius on the corners.

BDRAG

 

[BDRAG]

05/26/2022 UPDATE:

Well it's finally here. The day that the car goes out and goes to a local very small car meet. These guys are all hardcore with everything from vintage mustang road race cars to t-buckets to imported Japanese pickup trucks to rat rods and more.

All these guys out class me by a lot in the wallet. But some of them actually do their own work but about half of them pay someone to do their work for them.

So it will be interesting to see what they think of my MAD MAX MUSTANG. Hahahahaha,.

We got the old windshield cleaned but it is messed up. It has scratches from the wipers from many years past and pits and on the inside it looks like someone must have done a bunch of grinding inside where sparks have stuck to the glass and left slag on there.

I used four 0000 steel wool on my DA sander and then used a polish with that same steel wool on my DA sander and it came out pretty decent except for those damn scratches.

We will try to get it slammed in this afternoon if the pain around the windows is dry. I scraped out all the crap that was in the window channel and why I wheeled it and primed and painted it. I have a sitting out in the sun baking and hope it's dry enough to try to muscle in the windshield before the show tonight. If not we just wear the old safety glasses and let your hair blow in the wind like you're on a motorcycle. Lol.

We also got the window A piller stiffeners welded to the roll bar and to the A puller.

Here's a few pics of it rolled outside in the sun. Still got a long way to go on the looks but mechanically I think we're just about 95% there.

BDRAG

 

[Roxasuras]

Post some pics of the meet

 

[BDRAG]

Well crap. I was having souch fun showing off our work I forgot to take any damn pictures. Lolol.

The car was a hit. I mean even the hardcore guys were like y'all did a great job. I know it sounds weird but for some reason it's feels great when someone acknowledges the crap that you've worked on for years is spot on and it's own style.

Four five of the guys that are hardcore said don't paint it but spray clear on it as it is. I agree it is a pretty cool mad Max looking car but I still think that I will paint it white as I intended in the beginning. But it may take a while to paint it now.. Heheeeee.

Going to try and make another local meet that has 30 or 40 cars Saturday morning and see what they say but I tell you what, IT'S A BLAST TO DRIVE! There's still some tuning we need to do but man about three grand it's a monster. It still seems to be running a little bit rich right off the bottom throttle but man the mid-range is freaking awesome!

BDRAG

 

[BDRAG]

Post some pics of the meet

So today we did about 80 miles. We went to a small car show at an auto detailing supply / school in a small suburb called Prosper. Then left and met my wife and her brother and his wife for lunch

A lot of traffic. Stop and go. All went great. Right up till we dropped by a friend of Pete's instead of getting gas. We coasted to his friends house. Lucky he was home. Lol. Gas gauge needs calibrating.

We were videoed by people in traffic using their phones at least a dozen times. Lots of thumbs up. Fun day. ??♿

Many told us that we should NOT paint the car but leave it Mad Max looking. Lololol.

We herd, mad max, death race 2000, canon ball run, and other movie titles used to describe the car. I kinda like Frankinstang! Lololol.

We got the back window of the storage shelf. Man it was a mess! It had grinding dust stuck, and I mean stuck to the glass on both sides. Dust, glue, old ass dried up masking tape. You name it, it was on there.

So I scrapped the entire rear window with a single edge razor blade. The hot the 0000 steel wool and FA sander out again. After a work out with the steel wool I used the past polish and more steel wool and the DA sander.

The window is still scratched and pitted all over but it's a hell of a lot better. We can use it for now.



BDRAG

 

[BDRAG]

Well today we did a little drive by video so you can hear that wonderful retro exhaust note that I was so trying to achieve.
I suggest ear buds or my favorite, headphones. Enjoy!

BDRAG

 

[Dan H.]

I drive a Thunderjet 8100 Vortec (496) jet boat which has the same heat vapor lock issue. If it's been running and you shut down for 10-20 minutes it vapor locks and runs like a choke is on. If you start it sooner or wait a little longer for it to cool down it is fine. Good luck figuring yours out.

05/15/2022 UPDATE:

Well the re installed tranny may still have a small weep leak at drive shaft yoke / output shaft seal. That means a new drive shaft yoke prolly. Errrrrrr!
Front not leaking as of now. So drive it. Lol.

Removed the hood and cut the whole for the air intake/scoop. Sanded and trimmed it with some of that black edge guarding that I have a box of. Looks pretty decent and is functional.

And after getting the exhaust bolted back up we decided to take it for a few spins around the block with the new muffler, a flowmaster super 44 dual end dual out and it sounds great and is still loud but it sounds great.

I hit first gear then second and when I hit third the car jump sideways boiling the rear tires and the motor shut off at 5,500 RPM and I hit fourth and it came to life again pow! So we spent some time trying to figure out if the fuel injection system or the A6L MSD ignition box is controlling the rev limiter. We couldn't find anything in any literature anywhere saying which one takes control if you're running both. So we said both of the rev limiters at 7,000 are p.m. . Will test it in the next few days.

After Park in the car in the sun for about 10 minutes after driving it was wanting to be cantankerous firing back up, it didn't want to go when you gave it the gas, kind of like a heat related vapor lock. So we'll investigate that. But man oh man when it's done it going to be fun......

I was telling my cats about the car today and they seemed interested. Lololol.

BDRAG

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