Prepping the engine

Finally got back to work on the car!  Last Saturday turned out to be a  beautiful day.  A little chilly in the morning but it warmed nicely as the  day rolled on.  I mainly worked on getting the pedal box in place and  bolted down.  The last little bolt took quite a bit of cajoling but  eventually it fit.  With that done I attached the Master Cylinder and  hooked up the brake lines.  Woohoo, I had pressure although there isn’t any  break fluid in there yet.  I also did a couple of other little things like  attaching the motor mounts and the engine hangers.  Test fit the water pump  and it looks fine.  I’m short one bolt but I think I might be able to get  away without it.  If not I’ll probably just pick up a generic one in order  to supply some clamping force on the top of the pump.

I test fit the headers and they are tight up in there.  I’m going to  have to look at some others and make sure they look right.  Good news is  that they look like they will easily clear the motor mounts.  Others have  had problems with the headers barely tapping the passenger side mount.   Then again, when it’s sitting in the frame that might change.

I’ve also been working on getting the rag joint to fit in the one piece  column I got from Tri-States.  Something’s hanging it up and I can’t tell  if it’s the rag joint or the inside of the shaft.  Worked on that a little  but then set it aside.

I was looking over the donor parts pile I have and something funny occurred  to me.  About half the parts are throw aways.  I won’t toss them until  the kit’s done but it’s kind of cool to know there aren’t a whole lot of donor  parts left to go in the car.

I’ve made goals for myself with this car and it seems like I keep missing  them.  Life happens and I find myself a month or two since I last touched  it.  I’m getting to the point where I’m comfortable with the fact that I’m  only making occasional progress with it.  There are other things in life  that I wouldn’t want to be missing out on.  Still…with the weather  warming up…I’m having visions of cruising along with the wind in my hair, my  arm up on the door getting toasty from the sun, a permanent grin plastered  across my face…

On a side note, I want to thank everyone who’s taken a moment to leave a  comment in the guest book.  It’s  really nice to see that people read this and get something out of it.   Makes maintaining this web page a lot more enjoyable.