jerry

far from me to offer unsolicited advice, but, you are likely to build an epic tribute car and it will likely be maintained by you and the next caretaker for some time. a rusty crusty pitted engine block can always be sleeved if necessary. coat the piston walls and bearing bores with cosmolene and use the original block as a plant stand so that it remains available should you ever decide to match the two up someday in the future. my 2760440 block is similarly pitted and abused, but i am already resigned to resleeving it when the time comes. btw, love your photos. i used your heaterbox wiring connection photo to correct my misplaced wires.

OSHA-approved???? calling all lawyers.... Perhaps a big warning sticker should be affixed to the box informing the unknowing public that car should remain in neutral whilst operating and do not operate under the influence. was beer involved? {sarcasm off}

yes, i agree, you made the right choice. sometimes,.... less really is, more....

For reference, i've got a schrick 292 cam, 9.5 CR bathtub pistons, 121t head on a used engine, running with a 38/38 and manual choke. My settings: emulsion tube: F-50 air corrector: 180 accelerator pumpjet: 70 fuel valve: 250 main: 150 idle: 55 it was idling nice but on the rich side. my idle/air mixture screws were less than 3/4 turn out when adjusted by someone more knowledgeble than me (JP Cadoux, A1-Imports). In order to get more turns on the idle/air screw, I was told to install smaller idle jets. i just installed 50's in the idle last night. i will have to tinker a little more but overall, the car seems okay for the most part. i have not played with the Mains since the tuning has been at idle speeds. i have slight hesitation at idle now with the smaller idle jet installed, but don't know if that is a result of my own lack of adjustment ability or the resized jets. i do not seem to have any hesitation when going from idle circuit to the main circuit, very nice response at 2500RPM and up.

thank you for your clear instructions and helpful diagram. my radio works!!! it was a very simple connection to the R terminal. these instructions should be readily searchable, too. i'm delighted that my humble little mono radio works, too. i am thrilled. it's kinda loud, as well. certainly not for an audiophile, but very nostalgic sound.

Folks, a forum search yields plenty of info on hooking up a radio on 12-fuse cars (use the purple wire off the hazard switch), but i was not able to find a clear contact point for the 6-fuse cars. i am loath to use those dang 'tap-a-wire' connectors that just seem to appear as an expedient, low-effort, no-thought method to get the job done. i like to make my connections at terminal ends if possible. i do not have the familiar 'purple wire' to plug into. btw, i'm working with a Becker Europa mono radio; one red in-line fused wire (+) and one black (-) wire. i'm thinking the black wire will connect with my heater box ground. any suggestions for the (+) wire? i *think* every post on the back of my ignition switch is taken. there does appear to be a dangling OEM-looking red-white wire dangling in my engine bay doing nothing at present. it's clean so i suspect it was at one time connected to the fuse box where it avoided engine grime. i loose it when i try to trace it past the firewall. all my electricals with the exception of my hazard flasher and alternator warning light work, so i do not know if that dangling wire is somehow related.

Love it!!! i'm not one to typically name cars, but i think you've just christened my car "Screamer". with its wind noise at speed, i think it fits. i think this car will sport this kidney grill as long as i'm driving it... now i have TADPOL and Screamer.

it's the little details that make one car stand out above the rest. heaven forbid that my car should be seen in public with a misplaced kidney grill. sooooo, i seek the collective knowledge-base of the FAQ to guide me to the proper orientation of my kidney grill. the shape difference is so subtle as to be almost imperceptible by my aging eyes.

there is a ground wire that is attached to the rear of the alternator housing and attaches to one of the bolts on the upper timing cover. is this the one you are referring to?

used engines are fairly common and reasonably priced for the most part, at least on the west coast. put your money on saving the body, first. what you are left with, body-wise will help you decide how to spend on an engine. no need to spend big bucks on a half-baked shell. if you do use another engine, at least hold on to the engine block for the next caretaker of your car...

a pair of common scissors work fine. you can always planish the edge with a hammer if necessary. our local Snap-On truck would prepare 12in lengths of feeler gauge stock with a blunt triangular tip for our mechanics. i was able to talk one of them into providing me with a length of 0.006in stock several years ago. another gauge i've made out of simple piece of weld rod was a go no-go gauge 189mm long (IIRC) to quickly determine if my brake drums are reuseable. if it does not seat within the drum squarely, it's good to go. similar such rod lengths can be made for the tii linkage. simple, effective and cheap.

yes, the broken cable was merely a result of the seized speedo. thanks for the encouraging words wrt to disassembly. i wasn't sure i wanted to deal with it right now without some input, as i have other items to occupy my time if it was a dead end prospect. i'll give this some attention now. fortunately, i do have a good replacement already installed and another less than perfect one to disassemble first as a test case (it's missing its indicator needle).

i too, covet that wheel... not common.

i was able to put 190 glorious uneventful miles on my original speedometer when i finally got this car back on the road. all of a sudden while on the freeway, it died. my initial finding was a broken tip at the tranny connection. ultimately, i discovered that the speedo siezed. the cable input will not rotate. question: is this a DIY job or a speedo shop job? it is NOT the odometer gears that is the problem. accessing the problem area will require undoing a couple small cheesehead screws with tattle-tale paint on them.

i'm using some silicone grommets from McMaster-Carr p/n 1061T11 around $6/25 you can get 100 of the rubber ones for about the same price p/n 9307K35 i'm using these same grommets as inserts where the throttle spring attaches to the firewall and throttle lever and also on the throttle rod pin that actuates the carburetor (this is a typical wear area). there is a wealth of useful bits for these cars on McMaster-Carr. it would be great to compile them in a Thread Topic on the FAQ Construction Forum for reference.

i did the search and learned a fair bit more in the process.. My Specs: 292 schrick cam, 9.4 CR bathtub pistons on a used engine (recently returned from mothballs) Weber 38/38 with jetting from a post on this forum Bosch Distributor (bought used at Brisbane $4.00) with points and condenser set the valves to 0.008in cold. set timing with light at around 1000RPM, timing ball dances a bit (worn dizzy?) used vacuum gage and tachometer while adjusting idle/air car starts right up, idles nicely, seems to respond well at all RPM's, but diesels slightly upon shutdown. i'm thinking i have a timing issue because of the dieseling but i'm not happy with my ability to get the timing light on the flywheel ball. looking through my stash, i was surprised at how many vac-advanced distributors i've collected. i'm currently running 0 231 115 071, JFUR4 I have the following distributors on hand 0 231 180 008, JFUD4, (for automatics, apparently) 0 231 115 081, JFUR4 0 231 176 084, JFU 4 (vac adv&retard, 76 '02, apparently) 0 231 115 045, JFUR4 (cast iron, early style) 0 231 176 059, JFU 4 (vac adv&retard) I'm thinking of sending 1 or 2 of these to Advanced Distributors for rebuilding. I just don't know which?? i'd love to use the old style cast iron one, but i'm concerned about parts availability for the rotor, cap, condensor and points i know some condensors have a round mount pad while others have a square mount pad and the caps have different recesses which prevent them from fitting on some distributors. are there parts issues with any of these? any comments on the distributors listed? any other info? thanks in advance (pun intended)

at the risk of sounding like a caveman, and/or hack... if you have any experience hand-lapping anything before, you might want to try what i did. i took a used flywheel and a FLAT sharpening stone with some very light oil (3-in-1, or similar, even WD-40), and spent about 20 minutes doing figure-8's along the wear surface until i got the majority of the surface relatively clean-looking and uniform. i can report that after at least 200+ miles of freeway and stop and go traffic (speedometer crapped out recently, another thread topic...), i have had absolutely NO chattering or other issues with my clutch. just thought i'd share. i suppose if you are planning on racing or autocrossing you might not want to try this method, but i, so far, have no regrets...

that panel is glued on and many have separated enough from the panel to allow moisture. it was glued onto unpainted bare metal! it's a stiffener panel and was not used on the earlier cars. you won't be able to remove all of it unless you liberate your quarter panel from your car. i'd take a die cutter to what you can remove and call it a day. or, alternatively, clean and prime as best as possible and reglue it in place

trying to keep the paint job under $2500????!!!!! with a color change and not wanting it to look hacked? how can you 'not love' Jade, but desire mintgrun? my advice: go out on a few dates with Jade, try to accept her for her orginality and lower prep time and effort. think of it as a comfortable pair of worn shoes. with some effort and polish, she'll shine much easier at your pricepoint than a complete color change. you have choices. either save up in preparation for more cost, or lower your expectations, or concentrate on ridding yourself of that horrid red overcoat and spending your money on the exterior portion only and hope for the best at $2500 returning it to its original color. any of your color choices would be fine, but not likely to happen at your target price.

ya know, if you are the type of guy who uses a greasy hair product to slick down your hair, in time, your headrest will match the darker portion. just a thought..., or a suggestion. what? don't have hair??? then nevermind.... they look fine, btw.