Much progress has been made, but there's still a ton left to do...
We start on January 20th, when we finally buckled down and got back to work. We re-sanded the fenders, worked on the doors, and got the epoxy primer ready to go...
Then we fast-forward a week, when we have time to work on it again, and we paint the fenders, for the second time...
We break for Barber, and return on the 6th of February. This finds the man of honor in town with 4 days off to work on the truck, so we get cracking right away and start priminthe doors with the high-build...
While I was at work on the 7th, Mike and Aldin went to the paint store to get some black, and wound up with a half-pint of BMW "Jet Black," which was shot onto the fill panel between the core support and grille, and the hood latch assembly. Also while I was gone, they decided to mock up the front end, which provides a nice picture of the progress...
Aldin also decides that the clear on the hood release needs his thumbprint in it, so there's that...
The next night finds us sanding doors...
Painting doors... (I didn't get a picture of the paint going on the outside of the doors, which sat overnight before getting flipped so I could do the insides)
Painting hardware...
And touching up little scratches that have found their way onto the cab and core support over the last year.
Also around this time we decided to get the brake lines wet (purged with cheap Valvoline "synthetic" and then flushed with Amsoil) since we had Josh over to help out one night.
Friday night we decided to start on the underhood wiring, since the Painless Wiring Duraspark II kit we ordered arrived. We had to unbundle the zip-tied-and-plastic-bagged mess of EEC-IV wires under the hood and then, with the help of the wiring diagram, started fishing out the wires we would no longer need to run the truck. Also, I think Mike wanted to sit on the makeshift seat in the cab and make "vroom vroom" noises.
About two hours of fishing and diagram-consulting later,
(Aldin also wanted to sit in the cab and make "vroom vroom" noises.)
All that wiring two pictures up (the one with sad Mike) gets replaced by this, which makes Mike happy:
All this finally leads up to Saturday afternoon, when we get the Duraspark brain and associated wiring connected and alligator-clipped in place, the carb mounted and an inner fender mounted to put stuff on, and we decided we should try to start it for the first time since 2006.
And son of a bitch, wouldn't you know it - the damn thing starts right up (if you don't count a weak jump box as a problem, which I don't.) It wants to live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmILesyoOsE
Unfortunately, shortly after that video, the cooling system decided to pressurize and despite the engine only being ~140°, water started blowing out the radiator overflow. This was followed shortly thereafter by the pressure exceeding the 16psi cap and blowing that, too. Mike's neighbor, a former Ford master tech, came over to give it the once over, but his diagnosis was the same as mine - a failed head gasket. So, in other words, the one thing on the truck we didn't do failed spectacularly.
We were trying to vacuum down the cooling system to make sure it was actually full of water, and not failing because of a big air bubble, but this was to no avail. So, this week, we'll order an ARP head stud kit, an MLS gasket (NOT a Felpro) and avail ourselves of the fact that the front clip is not attached and do a head job. On a freshly-"professionally-built" engine. And of course, the 12m/12k warranty has long expired, not that it really matters since the company is out of business anyway... so, there's that. But at least it ran for like 10 minutes, and Aldin was there to see it. Things have been shitty for me lately and that made me feel pretty good.
Official photographer/Team Police Brutality|Speedycop & the Gang
Lackey-mechanic-whatever/NSF Racing
Sycophant/Judge Phil, Jay Lamm, Kim Harmon
Galaxie Driver/not Parnelli Jones