Got a few things done this weekend, was hoping to get more done but my lower back's killin me. The much needed vacation to Maui for a week was nice, being crammed in like cattle and not being able to sleep or sit comfortably on the flight back, not so nice. Ah well, take the good with the bad.
Anyways, since we got the headers back, I got the passenger side one back in (no picts of that, sorry). The driver side header and steering gear will hopefully be put in tomorrow after work.
A new, non custom-made radiator reservoir was put in space that's been cleared up with my big "hide the wires project".
That space was previously occupied by this control for the dual electric fans:
That was mounted to the opposing side of the radiator support frame on a slab of black delrin that I cut and shaped to fit into the frame groove:
The "hide the wires" project is something of a personal goal that I put forward, to clean up the engine bay so you don't have wires draped all over the place like the car originally did. I may not get it completely sorted out before the upcoming car show, but what I've gotten done so far is a pretty good start. Once the headers and steering gear is in and a few more wires sorted out I'll take a few more shots to show you what I'm talking about.
Not to deviate from the subject matter of this thread, but chatting in #md brought up one of the other vehicles on our property, as 1966 Morgan +4. This is likely to be the 'next big project' after the 'cuda is out of the way and one or two things are sorted out around the place (like a potential garage remodel). After our experience with restoring the 'cuda, dad and I came to the decision that when we start on the Morgan, it's "going to be a hot rod project, not a resto, cause it's way too far gone and way too much effort to be a resto"... besides, we've had too many cool ideas to try out on the thing.
Haha, it's always awesome to see how the old tech was on cars. I've always wondered what they'd think if I could take my car back in time, and let them look it over.
Well, got the driver side header and the steering gear in, got them all bolted down and hooked up the headers to the pipes. I got started on getting the idler arm hooked up to the steering gear but my shoulder started hurting too much; seeing as it's 11:30 I'd say that's as good a time to call it a night as any.
Tomorrow shall be getting the steering linkage all bolted back up, and then on to getting the new steering column put in, though that may have to wait as I need to get the instrument cluster back in and wired up, and see what I can do about the headlight switch that felt completely apart when I was taking the dash apart last.
At this point I've essentially got a deadline of 'next Monday' as that's when we're supposed to take it down to the body shop to get the other parts put on and get the paint touch-ups taken care of. That may be flexible by a few days, but at this point the car show's just over a month away, and I *really* do not want to miss is when we're this close to being 'done'(...ish).
@notman - yah, no kidding. Notice how the Morgan's got disc brakes? That reminded me of the Lotus that was featured on Top Gear, which Lotus refused to ship over to James Dean because they were afraid the Americans would copy their disc brake technology... so Dean bought a Porsche and the rest, as they say, is history.
I think the car knows it's gonna be around for another week (body shop called to delay delivery), cause right now I'm hoping it's just a faulty starter relay (seperate from the starter) that's keeping it from cranking over.
Funny though, I was thinking that it sounded like you had a rocker clicking or a header leak, but wasn't sure if any of it had to do with youtubes sound compression, then I hear your dad say something about "It sounds like an exhaust leak" Not too difficult to fix though
I wish I leave nearby... I'd hit you up for a cruise in it
Yah, I put a note up on the actual youtube post saying we noticed the ticking sound, and suspect it's either a header leak or the new power steering gear still suckin in fluids. I'll be sorting it out over the next day or two.
Well, after four days of serious wrenching, two of which spent not feeling all that great at all, I just drove the Barracuda ~60 miles down to Hollister to drop it off at the body shop.
The car has a handful of small electrical issues, and there's various other issues that need get sorted out, but aside from that (and waking up this morning feeling like I was gonna puke), it was a good drive down.
Dad picked the car up from the body shop today, they didn't have a chance to do the fiberglass hood yet, but managed to fix the dings in the stock hood and put that back on.
The car was making more of the horrid whining noises I'd noticed on the drive down to the body shop a few weeks back, so he dropped it off at the local mechanic who's worked on pretty much every vehicle we own at one point or another to fix that and some other problems.
Word is currently that the bearing went out on the rear end gearing (somewhat of a surprise since the whole posi rear end was reassembled with new gearing by a local shop a few years back and hasn't exactly been beat on), and that he may be able to fix a steering gear issue and some other items.
The show's this weekend, but both my dad and I are in agreement that we'd rather see it fixed and working than hobble its way over to the show and back. As it is, there's a myriad of small things to still do to the car, most of them detail work, that will improve its appearance. If it is in running condition by tomorrow, though, it will be taken to the show.
Well, the 'cuda isn't gonna make it to the Mopar Alley Rally this year. Seems that when we had the posi rear end installed the shop reused the old bearings, and those gave up the ghost. Ah well, plenty of small details to sort out on the car anyways, it'll be badass for next year.
The short list includes getting the trunk lid to set right (slight gap for some reason), getting the lower rear valence fixed (slight angle in the bodywork we're not happy with), getting the fiberglass hood installed, handful of other body-shop items. There's still a few electrical gremlins to sort out (like why the reverse lights stopped working), as well as mechanical (need to replace a faulty remanufactured steering gear). 'Personal' touches include the custom-made radiator / grill gap cover plate, and cleaning up / hiding the rest of the wiring in the engine bay. That's just stuff that's coming to mind right now.
It's in 'my' parking space in the main garage cause I've got enough other projects taking up the workshop that I'd rather not risk dinging it or having to constantly relocate it.
Been doing plenty of car stuff lately. I got bit by the 'mod bug' again for my 'vette, and the new front fascia I ordered showed up.
I thought the body stuff was getting finished up recently?
The reverse light should be reasonably easy at least
Things got kinda rushed when we thought it was gonna be ready in time for the car show. Probably should have realized then that trying to cram it was a bad idea, oh well.
The reverse lights, at least on the driver side, share a ground with another light, so initially it was splitting power with that other light. Why they're not working at all right now is a bit confusing to me.
Figured I'd give a quick update on this (even though I'm in North Dakota on an ice fishing trip at the moment). I swapped in the car's third power steering gear a few months back, and we got a nice black carpetting put in the trunk area instead of the vinyl / plastic repro factory liner. Between other car projects, losing my job, doing IT work, house remodel projects, trying to start a vinyl decal biz, etc etc etc, this car's taken quite the back seat as of late. Still haven't gotten the fiberglass hood back or the few other things taken care of that were listed above, but will need to top off the fluids and take it for another 'shakedown' ride once the weather starts clearing up in Nor Cal. As it is, I'll probably start using the winter weather time to handle the engine wiring cleanup job and make that 'cover plate' for in front of the radiator. Here's hoping I land a job in the area so I can finally enjoy cruising this car around this coming summer!
The decal biz has been an interest of mine for a while and now that I have access to a cutter I'm giving it a go. Besides the normal window decal stuff I'm also working on a 'customized stock decal idea. Things are still in a kind of design / gauge the market phase but I think car owners' penchant (especially on places like the Corvette forum) for wanting a unique look may make it a good sell. We shall see.
As for the steering gear... the original turned out to be in bad shape, and getting it cooked when we painted it (powdercoating shop's error) didn't help the already aged seals. The first rebuilt one I put in had bad internals but we didn't find out until after it was installed. The third one I put in I had our preferred mechanic give it a thumbs up and made damn sure it wasn't cooked but air dried when we had it painted.
How do you mount the camera? Hear back from the phone interview yet?
It's a GoPro camera with the suction cup mount on the rear quarter panel. In some of the later parts you can see the shadow for it against the car and road.
No word back on the phone interview. Not worried one way or the other. If I get picked up there, cool, if not, send stuff out to everyone else and focus on a couple of business ideas I have locally.
Sounds really good. And I don't mean from just the exhaust. The idle was pretty stable/smooth. No pops or misfires. Beautiful ride.
Yah, car was running great. If it were for the two issues I would've taken it out on the freeway for a quick local loop. I'm kinda chompin at the bit to do so anyways, but I want to talk with our mechanic first.
We believe the clunking noise coming from the front end is originating in the power steering gear, so I'm going to have to order another one and install it. This will be the fourth power steering gear the car will have installed since the beginning of the resto... I'm really wishing I'd pushed harder for a tubular k member with rack and pinion steering now... I may not get it done before the car show, but the vehicle's drivable, so it's not a big issue.
The fiberglass hood's still off at the body shop.. I'm not holding my breath on it getting done in time for the car show, but it's not a fate worse than death..
Still a number of detail items to take care of, but they're all kind of on hold at the moment, and nothing that prevents the car from being driven.
In other car news, I've just created a website to blog the restoration / customization of the 1966 Morgan Plus 4 that my dad gave me, check it out at http://mogrod.com/.
Cool. I'll try to remember to check in... of course, we'll expect updates here too
Not planning on starting a new thread for the Morgan on here, but I can definitely keep this thread going with updates on it. In some ways having this thread be the main source of info on the Barracuda's resto was a mistake. If the forum craps out (like it has in the past) or something else unexpected happens (like a mod deletes or locks it), I will have lost a record of the work done on the 'cuda. That being said, the social aspect of this thread has been great fun for me while working on the car.
Nah, I'm just hoping you might let us know when you get started. I noticed the blog isn't offering a RSS feed or notifying service, that I can subscribe to.
So, flaagan told me if I didn't want to create a thread, I should post here.
My dad's been working on restoring what was once my grandpa's 69 Dodge Coronet 500. The engine is a 383 with a 4-barrel carb (originally had a 2 barrel). The car has been under cover for most of it's life so there was very little rust to deal with and the body was quite straight. We decided to keep it closer to stock instead of converting it into a super bee like nearly everyone does. Certain things were changed like the shifter going from the steering wheel to the center console. We still have the build sheet for the car and all the changes are changes that were available back in 1969 for this car.
There's still some accessories to be put on. Wheels are ordered (red lines with magnum 500 rims). The hope is to be mostly completed before my grandpa's 93rd birthday in a couple weeks so we can take him for a cruise in his old car.
Well, just made the decision to not take the 'cuda to the Mopar Alley Rally today. The weather's been bad enough lately that it just does not warrant taking the car out, so I'm going to have to wait another year to finally show the 'cuda there. I'm pretty irked about this, particularly cause this was a decision based on something completely out of my control. Hopefully the weather will improve in the coming months for the next Good Guys show and we can take it to that (there was a GG show this weekend too, no point in attending that).
I was invited by a friend who works at Brokade to show the 'cuda at a Chilli Cook-off and car show they were doing today. Weather was awesome, and the cuda definitely stole the show, even from the CEO's Lambo (which had a "please sit and take photos in" sign on it). It was a small show, but hey, the showing has begun.
I apologize for how blurry the images are, I don't know why my phone took all the images so poorly, it's usually pretty damn good about this,
Replies
QFT
James, get on it.
:poly009: Already planning on making a black vinyl greentooth mouth, eyes, and thin black outline once the car's fully done.
Anyways, since we got the headers back, I got the passenger side one back in (no picts of that, sorry). The driver side header and steering gear will hopefully be put in tomorrow after work.
A new, non custom-made radiator reservoir was put in space that's been cleared up with my big "hide the wires project".
That space was previously occupied by this control for the dual electric fans:
That was mounted to the opposing side of the radiator support frame on a slab of black delrin that I cut and shaped to fit into the frame groove:
The "hide the wires" project is something of a personal goal that I put forward, to clean up the engine bay so you don't have wires draped all over the place like the car originally did. I may not get it completely sorted out before the upcoming car show, but what I've gotten done so far is a pretty good start. Once the headers and steering gear is in and a few more wires sorted out I'll take a few more shots to show you what I'm talking about.
Tomorrow shall be getting the steering linkage all bolted back up, and then on to getting the new steering column put in, though that may have to wait as I need to get the instrument cluster back in and wired up, and see what I can do about the headlight switch that felt completely apart when I was taking the dash apart last.
At this point I've essentially got a deadline of 'next Monday' as that's when we're supposed to take it down to the body shop to get the other parts put on and get the paint touch-ups taken care of. That may be flexible by a few days, but at this point the car show's just over a month away, and I *really* do not want to miss is when we're this close to being 'done'(...ish).
@notman - yah, no kidding. Notice how the Morgan's got disc brakes? That reminded me of the Lotus that was featured on Top Gear, which Lotus refused to ship over to James Dean because they were afraid the Americans would copy their disc brake technology... so Dean bought a Porsche and the rest, as they say, is history.
8)
Funny though, I was thinking that it sounded like you had a rocker clicking or a header leak, but wasn't sure if any of it had to do with youtubes sound compression, then I hear your dad say something about "It sounds like an exhaust leak"
I wish I leave nearby... I'd hit you up for a cruise in it
erection
Maybe... if the problem is making a sound :P
The car has a handful of small electrical issues, and there's various other issues that need get sorted out, but aside from that (and waking up this morning feeling like I was gonna puke), it was a good drive down.
Dad picked the car up from the body shop today, they didn't have a chance to do the fiberglass hood yet, but managed to fix the dings in the stock hood and put that back on.
The car was making more of the horrid whining noises I'd noticed on the drive down to the body shop a few weeks back, so he dropped it off at the local mechanic who's worked on pretty much every vehicle we own at one point or another to fix that and some other problems.
Word is currently that the bearing went out on the rear end gearing (somewhat of a surprise since the whole posi rear end was reassembled with new gearing by a local shop a few years back and hasn't exactly been beat on), and that he may be able to fix a steering gear issue and some other items.
The show's this weekend, but both my dad and I are in agreement that we'd rather see it fixed and working than hobble its way over to the show and back. As it is, there's a myriad of small things to still do to the car, most of them detail work, that will improve its appearance. If it is in running condition by tomorrow, though, it will be taken to the show.
that morgan would be a sick project..
I wish I had cool old cars lying around the garden.... lol
Oooh, a whole lotta stuff! :poly142:
The short list includes getting the trunk lid to set right (slight gap for some reason), getting the lower rear valence fixed (slight angle in the bodywork we're not happy with), getting the fiberglass hood installed, handful of other body-shop items. There's still a few electrical gremlins to sort out (like why the reverse lights stopped working), as well as mechanical (need to replace a faulty remanufactured steering gear). 'Personal' touches include the custom-made radiator / grill gap cover plate, and cleaning up / hiding the rest of the wiring in the engine bay. That's just stuff that's coming to mind right now.
It's in 'my' parking space in the main garage cause I've got enough other projects taking up the workshop that I'd rather not risk dinging it or having to constantly relocate it.
Been doing plenty of car stuff lately. I got bit by the 'mod bug' again for my 'vette, and the new front fascia I ordered showed up.
The reverse light should be reasonably easy at least
Things got kinda rushed when we thought it was gonna be ready in time for the car show. Probably should have realized then that trying to cram it was a bad idea, oh well.
The reverse lights, at least on the driver side, share a ground with another light, so initially it was splitting power with that other light. Why they're not working at all right now is a bit confusing to me.
Why so many swaps on the power steering?
As for the steering gear... the original turned out to be in bad shape, and getting it cooked when we painted it (powdercoating shop's error) didn't help the already aged seals. The first rebuilt one I put in had bad internals but we didn't find out until after it was installed. The third one I put in I had our preferred mechanic give it a thumbs up and made damn sure it wasn't cooked but air dried when we had it painted.
(1080p version up at youtube proper)
How do you mount the camera? Hear back from the phone interview yet?
It's a GoPro camera with the suction cup mount on the rear quarter panel. In some of the later parts you can see the shadow for it against the car and road.
No word back on the phone interview. Not worried one way or the other. If I get picked up there, cool, if not, send stuff out to everyone else and focus on a couple of business ideas I have locally.
Yah, car was running great. If it were for the two issues I would've taken it out on the freeway for a quick local loop. I'm kinda chompin at the bit to do so anyways, but I want to talk with our mechanic first.
We believe the clunking noise coming from the front end is originating in the power steering gear, so I'm going to have to order another one and install it. This will be the fourth power steering gear the car will have installed since the beginning of the resto... I'm really wishing I'd pushed harder for a tubular k member with rack and pinion steering now... I may not get it done before the car show, but the vehicle's drivable, so it's not a big issue.
The fiberglass hood's still off at the body shop.. I'm not holding my breath on it getting done in time for the car show, but it's not a fate worse than death..
Still a number of detail items to take care of, but they're all kind of on hold at the moment, and nothing that prevents the car from being driven.
In other car news, I've just created a website to blog the restoration / customization of the 1966 Morgan Plus 4 that my dad gave me, check it out at http://mogrod.com/.
Not planning on starting a new thread for the Morgan on here, but I can definitely keep this thread going with updates on it. In some ways having this thread be the main source of info on the Barracuda's resto was a mistake. If the forum craps out (like it has in the past) or something else unexpected happens (like a mod deletes or locks it), I will have lost a record of the work done on the 'cuda. That being said, the social aspect of this thread has been great fun for me while working on the car.
My dad's been working on restoring what was once my grandpa's 69 Dodge Coronet 500. The engine is a 383 with a 4-barrel carb (originally had a 2 barrel). The car has been under cover for most of it's life so there was very little rust to deal with and the body was quite straight. We decided to keep it closer to stock instead of converting it into a super bee like nearly everyone does. Certain things were changed like the shifter going from the steering wheel to the center console. We still have the build sheet for the car and all the changes are changes that were available back in 1969 for this car.
There's still some accessories to be put on. Wheels are ordered (red lines with magnum 500 rims). The hope is to be mostly completed before my grandpa's 93rd birthday in a couple weeks so we can take him for a cruise in his old car.
I apologize for how blurry the images are, I don't know why my phone took all the images so poorly, it's usually pretty damn good about this,