Today I...

[72projectbird]

Heres two pushrods I pulled out of a 400 I tore down recently. The twisted up one was on the intake side, the snapped in half one I found in the oil pan. The other half was resting in the valley. 

[roadking77]

Those are pretty ugly, I don't know much about motors but aren't those supposed to be straight!!!

[MD79TA]

I went and put a deposit on a 5.3 yesterday, but while I was there I found one 70 and two 68 Dodge Chargers sitting in the bushes of the junk yard. Turns out they were the owners high school cars and have been sitting since the late 80's. I'll grab a few pics when I go back to pick up the engine.

Where was this?  Think I've been there...

Damons Junk in E.Bridgewater

I dealt with the owner and he seemed like a really cool guy. Really old school. He's been there his whole life.

I bought a truck bumper from him a few months ago,  Wes I believe his name is.

[Casey]

Heres two pushrods I pulled out of a 400 I tore down recently. The twisted up one was on the intake side, the snapped in half one I found in the oil pan. The other half was resting in the valley. 

Maybe it belonged to a psychic at one point?

[72projectbird]

I bought a truck bumper from him a few months ago,  Wes I believe his name is.

Correct! I forgot his name.

[mz-formula]

Heres two pushrods I pulled out of a 400 I tore down recently. The twisted up one was on the intake side, the snapped in half one I found in the oil pan. The other half was resting in the valley. 

that's an expensive way to make tent stakes, but .... it will work

[DeCaff2007]

Washed it and reset the hood gap as it was off somewhat and bothering me, also put on new wiper blades so I can see in the rain again.  Also snapped a pic of the radio while I was thinking about it.  It's purple with the lights off but as soon as the gauges etc... light up with the sidemarkers it goes red, pretty nifty feature.

Those HVAC controls look exactly like what I had in my 2001 Pontiac Sunfire.  Want a cool mod?  Peel the gray covers off and you will have clear HVAC knobs.  They will light up with whatever color bulb is in the dash.

Did that, and many other "all show no go" mods to that old Sunfire.  It was a definite chick magnet back in the day   

[77 TA man]

Today I got the other spoiler cap painted...the center spoiler section is going to kill me I think. Hand sanding 5 layers of paint with 180grit isnt fun. Especially since I dont want to use filler on the rock chips/scratches so its paint, sand down and repeat until the most of the imperfections are filled with paint and flush with the surface.

[Casey]

Those HVAC controls look exactly like what I had in my 2001 Pontiac Sunfire.  Want a cool mod?  Peel the gray covers off and you will have clear HVAC knobs.  They will light up with whatever color bulb is in the dash.

Did that, and many other "all show no go" mods to that old Sunfire.  It was a definite chick magnet back in the day   

Thanks I might just do that, at the moment they're kind of grungy looking which is weird and bothersome since the rest of the interior is in such good shape.

[kali_74TA]

Today I... spoke to the owner of a 2000 WS6 6 Speed Manual TA, maybe will go look at tomorrow. Here is link to the thread where I also have a couple questions while showing the on-line listing for the car: http://transamcountry.com/community/index.php?topic=73818.new#new

[Casey]

Programmed a remote for it my father still had from his Z28.  For the first time ever I won't have to grasp at the door at night to find the lock and guide the key in, or I won't have to fumble with keys when it's raining or my arms are full.  Wooo!

[kali_74TA]

Box, nice on the remote - for sure a great thing to have, gratz!

BTW, check out my on-line listing, am sure you will have some input and can help with some of the questions!!!

[Casey]

Changed out the hatch struts finally, that and used my Meguiar's air freshener I had gotten for it.

[Raptor]

Gave a good pressure wash to my '89 parts car that's been sitting outside for the past few years. It hasn't got much worse than how it was back in 2010. I'm seriously considering rebuilding it, despite its missing parts. Gotta have to find a good source of parts not too far. It needs a door, a front fender some front end parts, many interior parts...and an engine. It has some rust but nothing very serious. The carpet got the same treatment, it's in decent condition.
We will modify an old building of the farm to make a basic storage garage. Way more room in there than we'll ever need. It's got a concrete floor already.

[TA6.6Liter]

The 98 is officially out of winter storage.  Oil change, tire rotation and a few miles in the seat.  Chatted with the service guy that commented he was pleased to see a car was so well cared for.  Met a guy at the bank that commented on the car and asked if it was a 6 speed.  Yes, it is.  He asked, 'Have you been to the TA Nationals?" Then proceeded to put up his sweatshirt to reveal a 2014 Participant shirt... Yes, I was there with my 98.  Insanely small world.  A good day.

[79GoldnTan]

Got my 4 speed back in, been sitting next to my car for a week after I got it back from rebuild, if I can get out  in the morning to finish bolting up maby an Easter ride????  Anyway happy Easter to all!

[FormTA]

Ballpark price on the 4 speed rebuild?

[79GoldnTan]

Bearing Kit.....Gasket&seal kit...small parts kit...1-2 sincro drum assembly    $614.80   parts and labor
He showed me all old and new parts, the 1-2 thing was some kind of spring thing that was why it started jumping out of 2nd on deceleration. Heading out to shop now to start bolting everthing back up. Still have a couple small items to address after that before I take it down from winter cribbing.

[DeCaff2007]

Bearing Kit.....Gasket&seal kit...small parts kit...1-2 sincro drum assembly    $614.80   parts and labor
He showed me all old and new parts, the 1-2 thing was some kind of spring thing that was why it started jumping out of 2nd on deceleration. Heading out to shop now to start bolting everthing back up. Still have a couple small items to address after that before I take it down from winter cribbing.

That's actually pretty FRIKKIN cheap.  Sounds to me like you got a good deal.


Yesterday I...  finally got around to replacing the heater core in the womans Jeep.  The initial problem was intermittent heat and a strong antifreeze smell in the cab.  Pulling that core is not a small job.  It took me 3 hours to tear the dash out.  Upon inspection, that core was bone dry and the bottom was all corroded. 


Then, it took another 4 hours to reinstall everything.  After topping the coolant off and a test drive, WOW!  She now has heat from the infernal depths of Hell 

[79GoldnTan]

Yea. Friend of mine, not much to the st10, however  got it all bolted up ready to go, started filling, got half a quart of lube in and it starts dripping between the two halves...........will be dropping it off at his shop six thirty tomorrow morning on my way to job, disappointed to say the least.

[77 TA man]

I didn't tell you guys about the latest truck fiascos did I?

[gm muscle]

I didn't tell you guys about the latest truck fiascos did I?

All ears...

[Casey]

Did it catch on fire?

[77 TA man]

I didn't tell you guys about the latest truck fiascos did I?

All ears...

The transmission went out in the '03 Duramax(Crewcab Longbed) awhile back,  so it sits until my brother gets the $$$ to rebuild it. We get it back from the shop, hook it up and it doesnt move. Starts but doesnt move, after checking EVERYTHING multiple times we still have no clue whats causing it to not move. Eventually it gets to the point where we can move it with 3rd and reverse so since all of our trucks except the D-Max are 1500 gassers we have to borrow a truck.

A family member has a 7.3 PowerChoke Dually  we can use to tow it with, but it has a broken rear brake lines we have to fix first. It had been sitting for 6 months, so the batterys are bad. We sat there for 2 hours with a battery charger hooked up on it until it finally starts. We drive it home on back roads with no problem and fix the brakelines with an issue.  We hook up the trailer and load the D-Max(remember..crewcab longbed) and my brother takes off to take it the guy who did the transmission rebuild and the dually gets 2 flats on the same side. *fun part* We get out there with tools to change the tires but run into a problem, the outside wheel is Aluminum, with the inside wheel being steel. And Ford has the wheels flush/tight against the steel hub if you can see where this is going. The outside aluminum wheel bonded to the hub and inside wheel. We try everything you can think of to get that wheel off, we were there for 6 hours trying to get that rim off and my brother just gives up and limps it home @5MPH. The D-Max did get delived to the trans shop because he broke down right around the corner. We still havent gotten the rims off too.

 
I spent 4 hours underneath a truck my brother bought, on blocks in a field with a locked axle and seized rear disc brakes. Then we semi cleaned it out,empty jack daniel bottles and beer cans 3 deep on the floorboard and a longbed full of trash. Had a running Gen 3 4.8 though, no key so steering wheel was locked up along with a bent driveshaft along with a trashed half-shaft. Getting that on the trailer was fun, jacking it up on the pumpkin then pull the rear end with the winch to inch the rear end up on the ramps.


     

[77 Pontiac]

Did you try drivning with the wheel lugs losened up a bit? Some Hard breaking usually breaks the wheel lose without much effort.. But I have only done it with passenger cars, never on a truck..

[77 TA man]

Did you try drivning with the wheel lugs losened up a bit? Some Hard breaking usually breaks the wheel lose without much effort.. But I have only done it with passenger cars, never on a truck..

yeah we did that, we also put a 4"x6" between the wheels to seperate them.

[Casey]

Leave it to automobiles to be a pain in the backside.

So I've been thinking about getting some small(5" or so, maybe bigger on the front) outlined '77 phoenix decals in purple(favourite colour) to put onto the piece between the tail lights and onto the nose cone since my bird is devoid of birds.   Thinking small and outlined since it'd be more subtle and modern looking and not trying to copy the late seconds gens outright which I've seen before and doesn't look right in my opinion.  Found it on eBay, what's in white is the decal with everything else being transparent:

Can't really decide one way or another, but I'm leaning more towards just the one on that back piece since I'm meh on the idea of putting a decal onto paint.

[77 Pontiac]

Leave it to automobiles to be a pain in the backside.

So I've been thinking about getting some small(5" or so, maybe bigger on the front) outlined '77 phoenix decals in purple(favourite colour) to put onto the piece between the tail lights and onto the nose cone since my bird is devoid of birds.   Thinking small and outlined since it'd be more subtle and modern looking and not trying to copy the late seconds gens outright which I've seen before and doesn't look right in my opinion.  Found it on eBay, what's in white is the decal with everything else being transparent:

Can't really decide one way or another, but I'm leaning more towards just the one on that back piece since I'm meh on the idea of putting a decal onto paint.

how about a small bird on the rear pillars ? I think that could work..

[roadking77]

77 T/A man, so what I am getting out of this is that a FORD with flat tires and bad brakes still pulled a chevy on a trailer to be repaired. That's why I buy Ford trucks. lol.
Kidding aside, sounds like it was a pretty sucky time, hopefully things will work out well for you.

[Raptor]

Gave a good pressure wash to my '89 parts car that's been sitting outside for the past few years. It hasn't got much worse than how it was back in 2010. I'm seriously considering rebuilding it, despite its missing parts. Gotta have to find a good source of parts not too far. It needs a door, a front fender some front end parts, many interior parts...and an engine. It has some rust but nothing very serious. The carpet got the same treatment, it's in decent condition.
We will modify an old building of the farm to make a basic storage garage. Way more room in there than we'll ever need. It's got a concrete floor already.

Forget what I said, I had a better look at it today with a large pointy metal tool, it's way too rusty to be worth saving. The entire driver floor is very thin and it didn't take much effort to poke through all along the sill and many other areas. It was fun thinking about what I could do with it, but in the end, I'm much better off finding another one, cleaner, that I could use the parts I have left on it. But I'd better use the money for the Mustangs and the Formula !

[Casey]

how about a small bird on the rear pillars ? I think that could work..

I thought about that too as there's a plastic trim piece between the window and sail panel, but I'll have to measure it out as it's fairly small and not sure if the decals are made small enough.  That or I could do the sail panels if I'm not averse to putting decals onto paint, then would do the nose cone too.  I'll go and measure things out later.

[77 TA man]

I'm waiting on my PTFB solid body bushings, once I get those its hammer time on putting my mess back together.

[DeCaff2007]

Today I... got home from work and eagerly awaited a highly recommended roofing guy - who never showed up!  Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Also, while waiting, I did some more electrical work in my basement.  FINALLY figured out why I had no power in my living room closet.  Man that took some tracking down.  Turns out I had an OLD subpanel up in the basement joists, and had no idea it was there!  Well it had all the wiring and good fuses but the hot lead had long since been torn out.

[72projectbird]

Put about 40 miles on the 71 today. It was near 70F out today, but by Monday it'll be 40F again 

[kali_74TA]

Put about 40 miles on the 71 today. It was near 70F out today, but by Monday it'll be 40F again 

Man, when you post stuff like that you need to include a photo 

[Casey]

Bought a gift for the Firebird.

[kali_74TA]

pics???

[mz-formula]

I did the cnc programming for the plates that will change the center of gravity for the rear mount on my rotissery.  The plan is to cut them Monday at lunchtime on the mill.

[Casey]

pics???

I'm sure probably everyone here will question it, but that's ok:

Was wanting a round knob since I find them the most comfortable and found this one for only $5 more than a plain jane knob so why not, plus it's made here in the USA.  First gear I choose you!

[kali_74TA]

Pretty cool, could have made it an 8 ball....but as long as you good with it, that's what matters