Well I always wanted one, so got one

Just driven back 120 miles without any major incidents :lol:

I was fed up with not being able to tinker with a car, as I can rarely leave anything alone! This one the insurance is cheap even with mods, and its pretty simple so I can play about to my hearts content or just leave it alone and drive it if I want to.

First impressions are very good, really enjoyed the drive back, was good fun, and its nice to have a car that makes the right noise. And its not that bad in the handling and stopping departments either although the steering is way too light







Sorry for the bad pics only just got back and its a bit dark now.

Its not perfect by any means, and no show car. But it was a very good price, I think. From first glance it looks like a very solid car, needs a few small patches here and there but nothing I wouldnt have expected. The arches are in very good condition as are the sills and bottoms of both doors. Rear floor also looks fairly solid. Needs a couple of small patches on the floor though.

Its a 305 V8, looks like a mid 80's lump, not original as the car was a V6. Recent recon gearbox (TH350) and sprayed last year and body looks sound underneath although most panels are a bit rippled.

And the list of things identified to put right has started growing already....

Stickers are all coming off!
Both door seals need completely replacing (priority job this one as it lives outside now)
Front drivers side brake disc needs replacing as heavily grooved - got one with the car
Pulls to the right sightly under heavy braking
Fuel gauge doesnt work - reads off the scale (full) when there is plenty of fuel, or reads empty when on reserve. Have a new sender.
Need to get underneath and identify and do any welding thats required - car has been undersealed in the past, so that may be a hinderance.
Bonnet hinges are both knackered and need replacing or rebuilding and springs fitting too.
Both doors need the hinges sorting as drivers door particularly saggy
Runs a bit hot when doing 70mph plus but seems fine in slow moving traffic - may be another reason for this...
...bogs down and clatters (probably detonation?) if you plant your foot to the floor and seems to miss sometimes at higher engine speeds, so seems to be running lean. So the carb needs stripping and checking - its a Carter carb, not sure of model or CFM.
Intermittently screeches at high speed, louder on overrun, sounds like a slack belt to me rather than a mechanical gear whine but needs investigation anyway
Power steering belt slips on full lock when manouvering
Interior needs ripping out and floor inspecting from inside, seems surface rusty, probably due to water ingress through door seals. Needs prepping and painting.
Wiring needs sorting as its a bit messy behind the dash.
Rev counter doesnt work - but car was originally a V6 so will probably require modification.
Dash tell tales for indicators arent functional
Drivers door handle needs replacing - again a spare came with the car.
Winscreen has a crack in the bottom corner, fine for the MOT though. Also foggy up both sides.
Booth door cards need sorting
Transmission tunnel top needs covering/trimming
Couple of oil leaks need tracing to see what the problem is
Small water leak at bottom hose to water pump.
Paint needs flatting and finishing properly

This makes it sound really bad, but the shell seems solid. It was registered in the UK in 1982 and was manufactured in 1980.

And lots of other little things - I am very fussy, so over time I hope to make the car a lot better. I am thinking of it more as an investment at the moment, if I enjoy it then I shall keep it. Its never going to be an original example so the idea is to just make it into a very capable street machine.

I already have plans for a 350 to fit in it, but I'll make a big dent in the other jobs first.

No idea what the MPG is and I dont actually mind that much as my mileage in a car is so low these days.

David

[Edited on 6/8/11 by flak monkey]

wow

you have to keep the disturbin the peace one! thats brilliant
love it!

A cruisin' gallion of epic proportions

Looks like a very good base for a project!

Never really liked that shape to be honest (compared to the 1st gen!), but it's a good colour scheme and its road presence is much better than comes across in photos.

Definitely get rid of the stickers ASAP!

Parts from USA are incredibly good value as there will be lots of direct replacement/bolt on aftermarket goodies for it.

I reckon a black vinyl interior will completely transform it inside.

Awesome video asap!

Thanks chaps Those exhausts are 3" with just a little cherry bomb in each about half way along.

Size wise its about the same as my GTO was, but a lot lighter (believe it or not!)

It would be nice to find a set of black vinyl front seats as the ones fitted arent original style, although they are comfy. The back seats are black vinyl.

I plan on changing it to a 5.7l next year, building up a nice engine over the winter as well as finishing my bike off. But I'll get the other jobs done first.

If you need parts, speak to Brassy at Mildenhall

quote:

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Originally posted by Mark Allanson
If you need parts, speak to Brassy at Mildenhall

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tool.

I love it, proper 80's muscle. Ugly (in a very masculine testosterone fuelled way), in your face and I bet its got a wicked burbly sound. Best of all it sticks two fingers up the nanny state daily mail readers that seem to have all the power in this country !

quote:

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Originally posted by deltron63

quote:

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Originally posted by Mark Allanson
If you need parts, speak to Brassy at Mildenhall

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I dont think so mate....He's retired !
I was speaking to him last week ( worked on his camper van )

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luv it, awesome!

I often get confused between the rev counter and the fuel guage..they move about with the same intensity!
hehehehe!

Buford T. Justice: Hey boy, where is Sheriff Branford at?
Sheriff Branford: I AM Sheriff Branford.
Buford T. Justice: Oh, pardon me. For some reason you sounded a little taller on radio.

Cool as fuck.

I am massively jealous.

Very cool indeed David, I really need to hear it running.. lets have a walk round video of it ticking over with the hood up asap!!

quote:

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Originally posted by coozer
Very cool indeed David, I really need to hear it running.. lets have a walk round video of it ticking over with the hood up asap!!

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that looks cool, you do just have great taste in buying cars.

stu

Been a long few days...

Changed the waterpump on thursday evening. Never flushed so much crap out of a cooling system. Its as clean as it's likely to get now. Of course it didn't all go to plan as my new fuel filter leaked so I had to sort that out as well. Needless to say it was a late night...

Yesterday I had planned to change the sump gasket and investigate the oil leaks further, but it turned out the engine is a 87 or later so has a one piece rear main seal. But as I had the car up on ramps I did a bit more digging and found that someone had decided to route the main power and charging cables between the headers and block... needless to say they were pretty fried. So I pulled them out and totally rewired the passenger side of the engine bay and rerouted all the cables around the edge of the engine bay. It was a bit of a mess, and I found out why several other things didnt work... And it looks like at least one oil leak is a pinhole in the sump.

I think who ever has done some of the rewiring on this car had a job lot of chocolate block connectors...they are everywhere. Pulled the dash board out today to try and find out why none of the warning lights worked. Turned out to mostly be bad connections. And now I think everything is working...

Then decided to tackle the oil pan on the transmission, before starting noticed a bolt missing from the gearbox mount and the remaining one halfway out. Tried to tighten it up and it wouldn't... M10 bolt in a 7/16UNC tread :roll: Thankfully the tread wasn't damaged, still mount out and bolted back in properly. Needs to come out again anyway as the mount is knackered.

Having dropped the exhaust and header off I now have a blowing exhaust, which seems to be coming from #4 exhaust port. Time to pull it off again and put a new gasket in.

Found a few patches of rust too, usual places though, some will be a pain to get to but I'll tackle them eventually.

This is the wiring that was awaiting me




Nicely roasted and mostly connected with chocolate blocks



So it was all pulled out and completely redone



And rerun well out of the way



Ok its not hidden away now, but I would rather know it isn't going to be melted and short out :roll:

Also fixed the headlights this morning as the main beam weren't working, found a wire 'repaired' with a scotchlock which seemed to have a bad connection. Spliced in a new piece of cable and it seems ok for the moment. Its all part of the drivers side engine bay wiring that will be getting tidied up and redone fairly soon anyway similar to what I have already done with the passenger side. After that its the massive job of the under dash wiring!

Now for some gratuitous pics....









And no F body would be complete without some rust! Although its pretty minor, like most I have found so far...

Good progress there, always satisfying to know things are done right, previous owners bodges are always a nightmare!

quote:

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Originally posted by alistairolsen
... previous owners bodges are always a nightmare!

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I love it


The guy who is helping me out with the use of his workshop while doing the MK indy conversion has just taken on a customers job. A complete refurb of a Camaro - I am so wanting a trip out in when it is ready. The new bellhousing arrived for it last week. Jeez,, Heavy duty does not come close to describing it



Description

When you say "driver's side" do you mean your driver's side or our driver's side? Near and off side might work. Is it just yellow cars that attract you, like a moth or something? It looks like it will keep you occupied for a while anyway and it's already done a good job for me, warning me off looking at old American cars. I've done a bit of welding on some in the past and it's usually easy to get at and find something to work back to. All the best with the project.

WHERES THE RUMBLING VIDEO???!!!!

Once I have stopped the exhaust blowing I'll post a vid

quote:

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Originally posted by karlak
I love it


The guy who is helping me out with the use of his workshop while doing the MK indy conversion has just taken on a customers job. A complete refurb of a Camaro - I am so wanting a trip out in when it is ready. The new bellhousing arrived for it last week. Jeez,, Heavy duty does not come close to describing it



Description

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quote:

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Originally posted by flak monkey
Once I have stopped the exhaust blowing I'll post a vid

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Recent respray, but its crap. So its another job on the list.

Not that bothered to be honest, its not planned to be a show car, just quick

Loving the car david, very cool.

On a seperate note have you done any more with your bike build? Hopefully you are still planning on finishing it?

quote:

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Originally posted by Miks15
On a seperate note have you done any more with your bike build? Hopefully you are still planning on finishing it?

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Sadly for you and tragic for me, the parts for those things are the absolute cheapest there are, 2 km from my house at the infamous Canadian Tire. You can order whole engines from those guys if you want. Looks like a fun project for you though!

If you want something you can't track down over there, please don't hesitate to email or u2u me. They are seriously common over here.

Great thank you I am after a couple of bits, will U2U you

LOL cant wait to hear that rumbling up my road.

You are proper nuts aint you.

One video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C28riMVePE

Not sure what the sound is like as its off my camera.

Just changed the carb to a Holley as the old one was really knackered. Runs and starts much better now.

Did the sump and gasket yesterday afternoon. Bit of a pain to do, but more fiddly than anything. I don't like laying under cars at the best of times, though rust in your eyes beats welding spatter in the ear any day.... As my engine is an 87 its the one with the single piece rubber gasket.

Transmission oil pan gasket - replaced the old cork one with a proper Felpro one

Transmission mount - old one completely disintegrated. Replaced with a new pattern part.

Alternator changed for a new unit - bearings shot in other one and it was all siezed together making stripping it nearly impossible.

Straightened out crank pulley - someone had damaged the rear groove meaning the power steering pump was being run on the wrong groove. Now fixed well enough for it to run properly. Fitted a new belt and now have a nice quiet power steering drive. No more squeaky belts

Front brake disc - failed....the one that was supplied with the car isn't right and takes a different sized outer bearing. So I need to order a new front disc/hub. Might do a brake upgrade while I am at it. May as well I suppose.

Good news is just been for a quick drive and the sump and transmission oil pan dont seem to be leaking any more. There is just another leak on the speedo cable as someone has damaged the thread so you can't do it up properly. Will have to just replace the cable...

Still have a minor oil leak, but not enough to worry about now. Just a little at the front of the sump where it meets the timing cover. Could always stick some sealer in if i could be bothered, but the engine will be getting swapped soon anyway, so no major problem.

Also still have an intermittent whistling noise, loudest on overrun, quiet at cruise and stops under acceleration. Its not there all the time, and have yet to have it happen when idling, so finding it hard to pinpoint. I think it might be a vac leak somewhere so I have replaced the vac line down to the modulator on the transmission. It hadn't happened for ages, then started again today on and off. Loud enough to be annoying and embarrassing.

All the body seals/weather strips should arrive this week so I will be getting some of them fitted during the week. Though I will be holding off on the door mounted ones as I want to take the doors off and sort the bottom edges out properly as they have been badly repaired in the past. And I have to take them off to do the hinges anyway...

Also ordered an aluminium radiator and transmission cooler as my rad is leaking in more than one place and like a lot of things has been bodged to fit anyway. But that wont be here for another week or so.

So still loads to do...

Made a start on getting the parts together for my 355 build as well. 1968/69 4 bolt main block. Bored +.030". Just need to finsh swapping the core plugs, trimming up all the sharp edges and a few other bits. Also would like to get the block decked to 9.000" if I can find a machine shop to do it.



Also did a little work on the crank, nothing more than removing all the sharp edges as it was almost impossible to handle it without gloves. Its a nearly new crank from a crate Goodwrench engine that had only covered 1000miles when it was stripped. Its only a cast crank sadly, but I am not looking for more than 400bhp and will be keeping the rpm's down most of the time so hopefully it will be strong enough. I also gave the journals a quick polish up.




And these are the pistons, TRW L2304F. They are secondhand but unused, but I dont have much info about them. I think they are just over 10.5:1 with 64cc heads. The plan is to fit aluminium heads anyway so will see what I can find. Need to take a few high spots off from the crowns as well. Might give them a shine up as well.



So I am currently making a list of stuff to get. I was orginally planning on running a roller cam, but the price of all the hardware is putting me off big time. I dont want to end up running a high stall converter either as its a street car at the end of the day. So thinking about running a Lunati Voodoo 268/276 cam.

Need to get a full set of bearings and rings and a few other bits too... Hoping to have the engine built up before the end of the year and get it swapped over.

[Edited on 21/8/11 by flak monkey]

Nice walk around David, sounds mint! Hope my Jago sounds like that.. low rumble.... Oooooo yes....

Nice project, looks and sounds great!!