So over the last few weeks I've got a paycheck (finally!) and bought some tools and supplies for the GT. I've built a version of Steve Lyle and Edward Perisa's wooden 'rotisserie' and it seems pretty good. A little too much forward-back sway, may have to tie the front and rear together with some long 2x4s or something. Haven't rolled the car yet, as it still has the hatch lid on it and I want that off first.

I pulled the door glass and the winders out the other day, as well as the quarterlights/wind wings/whatever you want to call them. My least favorite part of any car. Also pulled out the rear side window glass and frames, and the S.S. B pillar trim. So the only thing left to do is pull the front and rear screens and all the glass is out. But that will wait till I have proper tools and and extra set of hands.

I pulled the P/S front fender off, and found what I expected, a rusty forward sill and rusty inside of the fender. looks like new outer sills and patches all the way around, at the very least. No worries, I need the practice. The car scares me though, every time I look at it I see another issue with the body and frankly its bringin' me down, man. For example, when I pulled the rear bumper off to mount the rear rotisserie, I noticed that it looked like the thing had been hit in the rear, not hard, but hard enough to push the edges of the overriders into the rear panel of the car, so now theres 4 neat little dents in that sharp edge of the rear panel. Also the lower valence is bent up badly and split at the exhaust cutout. The rear panel also has a big dent in it about center left, and another one at the filler neck hole. More body work.

Stripped the undercoat off of the front inner fenders, looking for rust, and found none, thankfully. Something tells me the underside of the car will be a different story. I did find a misshapen leading edge of the metal bit that forms the forward most edge of the engine bay on the passenger side, where the fender would be meeting the corner of the hood...its all dinged and bent and has some holes in it like someone was at it with a slide hammer. So maybe, this car has been whacked in the front as well. Will have to strip some fenders and the hood and look for bondo/repairs in those areas.

I was dismayed at the condition of the door glass, it was scratched up pretty bad from being rolled against dried out seals, maybe I can fix it, or deal with it.

I tore out the wiring harness too, it was just pissing me off being in the car, and since I lost all of my reference photos to a hardrive meltdown I don't really need it in the car as it is hacked into pretty badly anyaway. its nice not having it hanging out in the cabin, getting in the way. Blew another 30 pounds of rat shit out of the cavity between the firewalls(where the hood hinges are) and vacuumed out the cabin, engine bay and in-between again. It gets sooo dirty in there so fast.

Got the rear dogleg repair panel in the mail on tuesday, so I can finally cut out the old one and finish taking apart my drivers side sill and see the extent of the damage. Still a little wary about cutting into bodywork. Time for more research.

More to come soon I'm sure, but I may take a few weeks off and divert some funds to upgrading my dinosaur of a computer.

Well three frantic catch up journals and now were back to present. Maybe I'll actually keep up this time.

HA!

A few days ago I pulled the trans all the way out, (that thing is HEAVY!) and pulled the rest of the little, leftover bits out of the engine bay. My goal is to get most of it sorted and in primer, in preparation for paint, and the engine coming back which will be the first major expense once I have money to spend again. There is still the matter of rust by the heater box area to address, but the rest of the engine bay can be dealt with in the mean time.

I've been fretting about the car a lot lately. While it has no HUGE rust problems other than the drivers side sill area and some very small sectons of body...there is a fair amount of rust coming through the (thin) paint in spots, and especially on the roof. Being this close to the sea is not helping this poor car, and I want to get it sorted and sealed up ASAP. But there is a LOT of body work to do before then.

I want to start stripping the undercoat and recoat after dealing with any rust issues down there, but that will have to wait for money as I don't want to leave any part of this car in bare metal for any extent of time. Which is a big part of why nothing is getting done. Catch-22s all over this car.

Pulled the column out yesterday, complete with wheel, thus completing the stripping of the engine bay.

Today I spent 5 or 6 hours locating and drilling out about 5 million spot welds that hold the drivers side rocker panel on, there's currently only 3-4 holding it on as I type this, so tomorrow or the next day will see the extent of the damage underneath...Hopefully its minimal.

I still have to figure out how to deal with the rear rust hole in the dogleg on the same side, as that is all one body panel. I suppose I'll just have to cut it off at some point. Hopefully there no serious rust underneath there.

The floors are on my mind still. They're solid, but rusty, with pinholes in some places. Its causing much consternation deciding whether to replace them or not, not as a structural concern, but more because I don't want to put all the work into sanding, priming, soundproofing, and upholstering the interior to have rust come back a year or so down the road. (Punny!)

Need to finalize a color, price out repair panels, price out paint, get primer, undercoating, new rolocs for the die grinder...the list goes on and on.

Need to talk to my buddy about bodywork too.....

And need to call the engine shop! its been MONTHS! Hope my motors still there!!!!

Some time in early December of last year it was nice and warm, and I spent a few days dizzy in the car with a heat gun and a scraper, tearing out the sound deadening tar crap that's all over the floors.

When that was done I found a dismaying amount of rust on the floors. no huge holes, just a lot of patches of substantial rust. Not good.

The car, at this point, was getting to me. Having it around, right outside, was doing more harm then good, every time I would look at it I'd see something that needed doing that I didn't notice before...more rust...another dent...more parts missing....It wasn't helping my motivation.

At some point I tore out the Smiths heater box, the associated flaps inside the car, and made a dismaying discovery. The section of the firewall behind the heater was full of rust holes, and the cavity where the heater box sits was all rusty and thin. Also, inside the cabin there was more rust damage where water had collected in the recesses, and old Tom's Knob was blocked and full of rat nesting material, so no drainage was happening in there. More metalwork added to the list.

The drivers side sills were getting my attention more and more, those big rusty holes in the fenders were just looming there, begging to be addressed.

So at some point, I pulled off the front bumper, valence and drivers side fender. Of course the rocker panel was rusted through, but looking into it I could see surface rust but no holes on the inner metal bits...so possibly good news there? I stopped because I didn't want to start tearing apart the bodywork quite yet.

Well. So much for keeping a coherent, steady journal, eh?

In November of last year I finally drug the car down to my house from my uncle's, and since I lost my last job, I had all my tools at home. I would have thought that I'd got more done, but no.

Getting the thing onto the trailer was an ordeal. as it was on stands with no front suspension on a gravel driveway. I had to rent a U-Haul trailer (the open auto tow trailer with the two ramps for the wheels and not much else), back the trailer under the rear of the car, hook a chain to the front crossmember and use my uncle's loader bucket on his little tractor to lift the front, and with the help of 3 people push/slide/roll the car (on its rear backing plates, good job they were solid steel...) onto the trailer, set the thing down on the crossmember, lash up the hanging transmission, and tie everything down.

Once home, it was the same operation in reverse, but without the help of the loader. We found the thing to hard to push, so with an engine hoist holding the front, we jammed heavy 4x4 wood planks under the rear hubs, and levered the thing off the trailer, letting it roll forward onto a waiting jack. then it was just a matter of wheeling it to its final spot and putting it on jackstands. the whole ordeal, from pickup, transit, to unloading took about 5 hours.

Note to self: get a winch.

Initially I was pretty gung ho about it, I tore the rear axle out and pulled the rest of the wiring off its mounts in the engine bay. I pulled all the crap out of the inside and boxed it up (old carpet bits, most of the trim, etc). I picked up all the suspension and leftover engine parts from my old workplace where I was storing them, and spent a day labelling and stuffing them all in nice Walmart tote bins.

The engine block, crank, etc is still sitting idle at the shop in El Cajon...Hope its still there....

Stream-of-consciousness entry as I am to lazy to go back and edit after :P

Been a while. Winter came and went, too cold to work on the B. Got the engine out in late September, and disassembled the front suspension. All that went down to my work where all my tools are, and of course a place to work on them. Tore apart all the suspension bits, blasted, cleaned, and primed all of the stuff I'm not going to replace. Welded up the worn out holes on one set of lower A-arms, more for the welding practice than wanting to save on buying new arms. Still need to buy a suspension kit, found the kingpins not terrible but fairly rusty and pitted, and will replace them for good measure. Going with the MGC A-arm bushings, and prothane crossmember pads from Moss, everything else will be stock replacements. Attempting to resurrect one Armstrong shock that had leaked out all of its fluid, the other one is still strong.

The engine was put up on a stand and disassembled. I was informed when I bought the car that the motor had been recently rebuilt, but I felt like I should tear it apart anyway, again more for a learning experience than anything else. BOY am I glad I did. Pulled the head, found crap in the water passages, but the head gasket seal was strong. I found new standard-sized pistons and rings, but at least a 10-thou lip on the top of each cylinder bore. O_O. Pulled the pan and the main caps, the crank looked good except for some marginal uneven wear on the rearmost bearing surface. Still, better than leaving it as is... Pulled the cam, and found the #1 intake lobe nearly cylindrical! Surprised the car ran as well as it did when I was running it before! The last lobe was wearing too, a little flat but not as bad as #1. Some 'rebuild', Huh?

My plans for the motor are to rebuild the head and machine for more compression, weld up and regrind or replace the cam with a hotter grind,-270 or so degrees, not too hot but better than stock- new tappets and pushrods to fit the higher lift,(plus found the case-hardening on the tappets wearing thin...)
Block and crank went out to Speed Specialties in El Cajon for leak testing, polishing, cleaning and machining. Will bore cylinders out to +.020" and new piston/ring set to match. Crank tested good and is polished, block tested good and will be cleaned and machined soon. Cam will go to Crower Cams for welding and regrinding if possible, or buy a new camshaft. Now all I have to do is supply the parts!!!

Pulled the dash out in November; All gauges were cleaned and the cans painted fully gloss white on the inside in an effort to solve some of the dimness problems with Smiths gauges...Bezels cleaned up nicely for the condition they were in. Dash came out easily, and being the wonderful 68 US-spec 'Pillow" dash, is covered in cracks and splits in the vinyl and foam. My plan, if it works, is to strip the vinyl from the dash and radio console, and fill any cracks and damage in the foam with expanding insulating foam, and carve and sand to match, and then have the dash re-covered in vinyl. I am debating whether or not to add a 1/8' layer of soft foam and use soft vinyl for a 'cushy' feel on the dash. All switches will be replaced as they are either broken or damaged from years out in the desert sun.

That was it for 2010, and winter hit and I didn't make it up to my car until this last weekend. Pulled the spare out of the trunk, other than a rats nest of fluff and grass found no damage. I still have the original jack and knock-off wrench, so I'm stoked about that. Will round out the tool kit at some point. Drained the fuel tank of the little fuel it had in it from running the car last Sept., and other than it being a little yellow it was clean. No solid debris, which was promising. Unbolted the tank and disconnected the lines, and out it came. Found a fair amount of rust on the top exterior of the tank, but nothing that looks like it made it all the way through. Will need to sand blast and see. From what I could see the interior looked good, but I will still run a load of acid and primer through it for good measure, assuming the tank is good. Pulled the rest of the exhaust, its rusty and flat in a few spots but over all not bad. I'm planning on replacing it, but maybe I'll sell it if its worth anything. The manifold and the muffler look good at least.

Inspected the body around the tank area and found no rust. Happy about that. Began disassembly of the rear end, got the wheels off, and the driveshaft disconnected at the pinion flange. On closer inspection of the axle found the D/S limit strap broken, and the brake lines nearly flattened. Got everything disconnected but found the spring eye bolts totally frozen, as expected. I've noticed though, that for the majority of work on this car, all fasteners have come off with little or no extra work required, except for a select few suspension bits. It was late in the day at this point, so I called it and went and got some food.

While I was under the rear of the car I noticed the output shaft seal on the trans leaking, that will need to be replaced, also noticed seepage at the pinion shaft seal on the diff, will replace. Going to opt to fab new stainless brake and fuel lines, and neaten up the fuel pump area. Someone along the line put in a box-type Facet pump, and ran some rubber hoses that are about a foot too long from the hard lines to the pump in and out. Maybe I'll replace with stainless braided line, or something a little more neat. I'd like stainless with some AN fittings, but I'm not a big fan of the Red/Blue look of Earls or the like...I think I can get that stuff in silver somewhere. Going to repaint all the rear suspension components as with the front stuff, and I still have to get the axle out, and tear apart the rear brakes to see what needs doing back there.

On another note, went out to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on Sunday for the VARA races. Always a good time, although attendance is dwindling. Hope the sanction doesn't die out....

Anyways, I think thats all caught up! Cant wait to start throwing some parts at this pig.

Sunday, Sept. 12

Second bout of work on the car this weekend. Got up to my uncle's Saturday afternoon with 5 qts of oil, some brake fluid, coolant, water, and no plan at all!

Threw a 10A charge on the battery for a few hours while I dug a ratty old seat out of the 71 B parts car we have, and lubed up the rails. The seat was a bear coming out, had to take the back off to get to the rear seat bolts as the rails were frozen. Once it was out, it was smooth sailing till the seat back had to go back on, that was a little frustrating, trying to get the washer between the mount on the seat back and seat bottom, and keep it there long enough to run a bolt through. Got it eventually. Pulled the bonnet latch apart, lubed it, but found the cable was rusted solid, need to get a new cable before I can close the bonnet. Blew/Vacuumed all the crap out of the engine bay and the drivers side floor.

By this time the battery was nearly good, so I hopped in and turned the key, To my surprise, after a few hesitant cranks, the thing turned over and started right up! Oil pressure came right up, about 60psi at idle. Ran good too, had to keep the foot in it a little bit, the Mikuni carb's choke is disconnected, but it RUNS! Let it idle a bit, warmed it up. A little noise from the valve train, but nothing banging around.

Shut it off. Checked the brake reservoir, no fluid. Filled the res, and bled the MC at the line fittings. Got enought pedal to stop the car, and aired up the tires (or is that tyres), which are in suprisingly decent shape.
Started it up again and did a few cautious hot laps around the property, the car shifts well and there is no terrible noise except a banging from the left rear. Could be the battery bouncing a bit or maybe some dead suspension bushing somewhere, all the suspension rubber is shot.

Drove about a quarter of a mile down the dirt road in front of the property, turned around, and made it 1/4 of the way back before running out of gas. I guess that E on the gauge DOES mean 'Empty', not 'Enough' :P. Had to call uncle for a can of gas. Once the car was running again it made it back to the house fine. Noticed that the master cylinder was leaking on my right foot. :| Will need to rebuild BMC. All lights were working, except turn signals.

Saturday over.

Sunday Morning got up early, started playing with the electrical stuff. The cab is a mess, wires hanging down under the dash and all. Began tracing my inoperative turn signals. Pulled off the steering column cowl, and found the correct wires from the switch. Traced them across the dash to the turn signal flasher, found a terrible abortion of a wire repair at the pot, one terminal disconnected. Spliced the wires back together, plugged in the pot, still no blinkers. Took pot out of circuit, still nothing. Inspected the switch on the column, and found the switch contacts corroded and dirty. Cleaned with contact spray and fine sandpaper, and BINGO! Lights on. Plugged pot back into circuit, and got blinky.

Tried to get horns working, just a muffled 'thump' when button was pushed. Beat on them with a hammer while hitting the button, one came on intermittently, but only while being assaulted. Wrote them off as a lost cause. Will have to replace.

Removed the bonnet release assembly, it was frozen. Cleaned and lubed it, it moved freely, but found the cable to the bonnet release handle was frozen. Will have to buy new cable. Re-installed the latch assembly.

Pulled the plugs, found them to be black from rich mixture. Electrodes were in good shape. While plugs were out, performed a compression test, found all cylinders getting an even 100psi after 4-5 cranks. Replaced the plugs. Replaced fuel filter as the old one was faded and cracking. Fuel in filter looks like the tank may need some work.

Put the car on jackstands, pulled the wheels. Inspected the hubs and splines on the wheels, and they look good! I was worried about that. Will now have to go find someone who can do a good job at truing a wire wheel, and then blasting and powdercoat!

Drove the car down to the neighbor, who has a lift. Drove it on, and raised up the car to have a look at the underside. Car looks to have very little rust on the frame/sill area, undercoating 98% intact, little visible rust. Battery boxes pretty rusted out though, may have to fab up a plate or something for support/protection of the battery. Found a newer Facet fuel pump on the car, but the feed hoses to the pump and from the pump were each 8" long, and hanging down under the car. Will have to shorten or reroute those. Wouldn't want to catch a stone or something on the road and loose a fuel hose! Shocks look ok, no obvious leakage. May need to rebuild anyway for good measure.

Changed the oil and filter on the car (Black) while it was on the lift. Pulled it off, and parked it back up at the uncle's garage. Removed one of the DPO ski rack bolted through the boot lid. found the upper ski rack RIVETED to the back of the roof of the car, inside the recess for the boot lid. Will have to remove boot lid to access the rivets...but thats for another day.

Sunday over! Succesful car weekend.