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 | | October 19, 2024 - Fall Fling - 2024 The drive to the show was uneventful, car performed like a champ. I spent a fair amount of the show in the swap, the time at the car people liked it and the stories that go with it. At the show there was a rare 1967 Valliant with the Commando V8 and a 4-speed... |
 | | October 15, 2024 - Counterweight Fixed I chose to defete the heat riser alltogether and just bolt the counterweight to the manifold, so the counterweight was tapped. A combination of washers and spacers were needed to make it look like it was functioning... |
 | | October 14, 2024 - Exhausting (5) Still waiting for parts but I did get the manifold and counterweight blasted... |
 | | October 13, 2024 - Exhausting (4) With the manifold out I was able to come up with a plan and order some parts. I'll blast the manifold and counterweight then paint with exhaust paint... |
 | | October 12, 2024 - Exhausting (3) Took the car out for a 100 mile speedometer calibration drive and just as I get home I hit a speed bump in the development and hear a clank as something fell off the car. I go home and park the car, walk back to see what it was... |
 | | October 06, 2024 - Exhausting (2) Once again adjusting the exhaust, pipes were hitting the frame and or the tank. I think I got it now... |
 | | September 29, 2024 - Speaker Relocation Recently I got new door panels and kick panels for speakers. The fix was easy aside from having to cut the terminals off and reattach them so i could pull the wire back into the kick panel area. Nice not having speakers in the doors... |
 | | September 28, 2024 - Cars and Coffee Once again Cars and Coffee, this time with the 340... |
 | | September 27, 2024 - Exhaust Fixed In order to fix the exhaust pipe I needed to put some slits in the pipe. Not having a welder I felt the best way to close those openings was a band clamp... |
 | | September 26, 2024 - Oil Leak I get back from a out of town trip to find a puddle of motor oil under the car, upon inspection it turned out to have come from the trunk. There was a gallon bottle of oil that must have had a loose cap and fell over... |
 | | September 16, 2024 - Exhausting Wanted to go for a drive after work but about 10 miles out the exhaust pipe falls out. I pulled over not knowing what part came apart. Initially I thought I could just put it back together till I realized the rear hanger got broken in the process... |
 | | September 15, 2024 - Test Drive Two Not happy with the exhaust and wanted to better align the tips. Done with that I went for a drive and noted the oil pressure on the dash gauge for comparison to the mechanical that we tested with. Did my best to burn off as much of the regular gas that was in the tank... |
 | | September 14, 2024 - Drive Time First up was to bleed the brakes and chase a bunch of leaks. We head out and put about 50 miles on it, mostly open highway with a couple good grades. The car just idled along even up the hills... |
 | | September 11, 2024 - Driveshaft Got the driveshaft in and installed... |
 | | September 10, 2024 - Problem Solved Got some press in fasteners for the hood pad, may not be OEM but they will not come out... |
 | | September 08, 2024 - Progress (5) The original headlight hardware was white, the reproductions are black, nothing some paint won't take care of. I'm not even sure why I tried, attempted to put the hood pad in with the OEM clips but they kept popping out... |
 | | September 07, 2024 - Hole The master cylinder has a different mounting flange than the original and leaves a hole to the interior. I'll need to deal with this before its first road trip... |
 | | September 06, 2024 - Screwed I know it is a long shot but I'm going to try and locate the unique screws used on the headlight bezels. The screws are a pointed machine screw and not a sheet metal screw as were in on some of them... |
 | | September 03, 2024 - Rear End Drop Took some time at lunch to get the rear end out Edit: Got the new rear in the next day and measured for the driveshaft. Did a layout for doing a dry transfer to detail the voltage regulator, did on for my friends 68 as well... |
 | | September 02, 2024 - It Lives Even though I didn't have the correct power steering pulley we just left that belt off and were able to start the engine. Right away we noticed tapping sound in the valve covers so we pulled a cover and noticed that the rockers were hitting the baffle... |
 | | September 01, 2024 - Final Stuff Getting down to the final details. My friend dropped the carburetor off and later I got the master in... |
 | | August 31, 2024 - Exhaust For the most part the exhaust is in, still need to adjust it a little... |
 | | August 29, 2024 - Power Steering Pulley I got a new power steering pulley but the diameter is notably smaller... |
 | | August 27, 2024 - Rivnut One of the voltage regulator mounting holes was stripped so a threaded insert was put in... |
 | | August 25, 2024 - Progress (4) Started off with taking the back seat out so I could put the exhaust hanger bracket in. Got most the rest of the under hood details done... |
 | | August 24, 2024 - Progress (3) Got the radiator it, one of the cooler lines was a little short so I needed to stretch it a little, good thing there was a service loop... |
 | | August 23, 2024 - Misaligned I got a new tail shaft seal for the transmission as I didn't like the one that was on it. Work continued on dressing out the engine compartment. Then I noticed the power steering pulley was not in alignment... |
 | | August 22, 2024 - Progress (2) Got a lot of the under hood dressing done. Ignition module has been mounted... |
 | | August 18, 2024 - Bottoms Up After thinking about it I chose to install the engine in the car and deal with the dipstick tube later. First up was to install the correct speedometer pinion. This is the second time I have installed an engine from the bottom... |
 | | August 17, 2024 - Delays The dipstick tube I got with the transmission wasn't correct so I got another one, said to be correct, not. One of the levers on the transmission isn't going to work, will need to track down the correct one. I didn't like the way the power steering hoses ended up... |
 | | August 11, 2024 - Engine Mounted Set off to get the engine bolted to the frame. First the bolts don't go in be the instructions, then the reproduction hardware just comes apart. I went to storage and found all the old original engine mount bolts that I could, was able to put together one good set... |
 | | August 4, 2024 - Frame Prep Got the steering assembly mounted to the frame... |
 | | August 1, 2024 - Trunk Trim The trunk trim doesn't lineup the way I think it should. Not sure but i think they are both the same and they should not be. Will need to remove them to confirm... |
 | | July 16, 2024 - Fresh Black Before the steering linkage could go on the new frame it needed a fresh coat of black paint... |
 | | July 2, 2024 - Engine Dropoff I was heading to Oregon so I felt it would be easy enough to just drop the engine off at my friends place in Northern California... |
 | | June 30, 2024 - Progress The speedometer pinion was saved from the old transmission, should be the same as I didn't change the rear end ratio. The steering column was wrapped up so the engine compartment end could be blasted and repainted... |
 | | June 29, 2024 - In Line New front to rear fuel line was put in along with all new brake lines... |
 | | June 28, 2024 - Blackout Some of the details on the firewall that got painted over needed to be freshened up. Everything was masked up and some semi gloss black sprayed on. While at it I did my best to freshen up the blackout on the core support... |
 | | June 26, 2024 - Rust Repaired Hard to see but the rust spot was repaired and painted... |
 | | June 25, 2024 - Sway Bar Got the parts back from the powder coater so I got the sway bar mounted to the frame... |
 | | June 19, 2024 - It's Red The old engine is just in the way, going to put it in my truck till further notice. I needed to remove the tailgate so I could get the engine in the bed further, As it was the clearance was close... |
 | | June 16, 2024 - Nutty Workspace The special lugnuts used on this car are unique and only available NOS from one source. I do have a set of NOS but for some reason I cannot get rid of the old ones. I'm sure going to miss this workspace once the kitchen is done, ooh, the rear end is done... |
 | | June 15, 2024 - Odd Nut It could have been that way from the factory but one of the nuts on the heater fan bracket is different. Will need to track down a correct one... |
 | | June 12, 2024 - Brake Parts Just documenting the left/right specific brake parts... |
 | | June 11, 2024 - Powder Coating Just an inventory of the parts going to the powder coater... |
 | | June 10, 2024 - Rear End Prep Getting ready to assemble the rear end, just making sure I have everything ready... |
 | | June 9, 2024 - Old Brakes Although the service manual is a good reference I wanted to document how the rear brake on the new rear were assembled... |
 | | June 7, 2024 - Much Better I had the local fab shop make a couple modifications to the sway bar brackets, now the geometry is correct... |
 | | June 4, 2024 - Rust? Just spotted a spot on the inner fender that is probably rust. This is a spot that may have been difficult to see with the steering gear in place. Will have it taken care of before the engine goes back in... |
 | | June 2, 2024 - Frame Teardown First up was to clear out the brake lines so they can be cleaned up (replaced) The control arms, steering gear and sway bar were removed as an assembly... |
 | | June 1, 2024 - Frame Out Now that the engine compartment has been painted I needed to pull the frame out and salvage what is being reused. Initially I thought I needed to pull the calipers and rotors to unbolt the lower ball joint but it turns out that wasn't needed... |
 | | May 30, 2024 - Sealer Stopped by the shop to check on something, totaly forgot what that was when I saw that he already had sealer on it. He used a tinted sealer that looks like base but it isn't. The car was paint shortly later and was ready to be picked up... |
 | | May 29, 2024 - Paint Preparations Dropped by to check on the car and he already has it sanded down, probably will be shooting tomorrow... |
 | | May 28, 2024 - Pick Up The car went to the body shop today to have the engine conpartment painted. Now to cleanup the garage and figure out what to do with the engine till my friend can get it... |
 | | May 27, 2024 - Coat Rack The inside of the hood is going to get repainted along with the engine conpartment, will need to pull the hood pad. I have a new molded pad to go in, we'll see about the clips... |
 | | May 25, 2024 - Twisted With the engine out of the car I noticed the windows were not aligning the way they should be. Will need to keep an eye on when the new engine goes in... |
 | | May 12, 2024 - Ouch! The engine is out, I had a friend over that has actually pulled a 6 out and understood its quirks. For the most part it happened quick so no pictures of the pull. The only issue started when I couldn't find my chain lift sling as I use a carb plate on the v-8s... |
 | | May 11, 2024 - Engine Pull Preparations Removed the radiator, exhaust and driveshaft. All set for the pull tomorrow... |
 | | May 1, 2024 - Engine Pull Preparations In large everything under the hood was removed in preparation to pulling the engine, just need to drain the radiator and pull all the hoses. Going through the decals I had already I noticed that I had two different coolant decals will need to look into the cutoff... |
 | | April 22, 2024 - Reverse Reverse gear in the transmission finally died. To get the car out of the garage I push the car back and the drive up on some boards placed in front of the car and then let the car roll back... |
 | | March 16, 2024 - Engine Assembly (5) For the most part the engine is done. The valve train was installed, oil filter and adapter and lastly the intake... |
 | | March 9, 2024 - Parts Sorting I got the wire bracket but still have found no reference to it being used. Between the new gasket kit and leftovers I had there some differences in some of them... |
 | | February 20, 2024 - Head Games Heads are on, minor but it is starting to look like an engine. Like most valve covers of the era the wire tabs needed to be replaced. The originals were ground off and I'm going to a friend weld on the new ones... |
 | | February 16, 2024 - New Windshield I drove down to Classic Industries and picked up the new windshield in person. I was surprised when I got it and there was no packaging, just paper... |
 | | February 11, 2024 - Engine Assembly (4) My friend wasn't available today so I figured I could handle the oil pan alone... |
 | | February 10, 2024 - Engine Assembly (3) The timing cover and water pump were installed then the dampener. The day wrapped up with getting the oil pump and pickup installed wrapped up with the windage tray... |
 | | February 3, 2024 - Engine Assembly (2) The pistons were installed, not much else... |
 | | January 9, 2024 - Yet Another Electronic Ignition This showed up on eBay and I couldn't pass it up. I have multiple now, always good to have spare orange boxes... |
 | | December 30, 2023 - Engine Assembly The block was thoroughly cleaned inside and out. Right up front we wanted to install the cam to check that the cam bearing were installed correctly. The day was wrapped up getting the crank installed... |
 | | November 21, 2023 - Engine Preparations Getting ready to start working on the engine, the windage tray looks to have been painted, it will need to be blasted clean before being installed. The block is now on the engine stand. Knowing we'd be needing an undersized timing chain an old stock one was located... |
 | | September 24, 2023 - Rotors The car has slotted cross drilled rotors, there were questions in the forum about interference but I didn't notice anything... |
 | | September 11, 2023 - Home Bound On the way home I stayed at a place I often do, the car just blends in, not. The next day I took the Avenue of the Flags detour that I often do. In going through the Walnut Creek area I was in traffic and a rock came flying from four cars ahead, not a truck in sight... |
 | | August 31, 2023 - Oregon Bound Once again heading to Oregon with the car. I chose to take a different route that would limit the amount of grades I needed to climb. This route essentially climbed once then went some distance before descending back to the other route... |
 | | August 20, 2023 - Squeaky Toy Drive My friend that had car before me took it to different events in the bay area. Down the road I'll be removing the different stickers... |
 | | August 19, 2023 - Cars and Coffee Took the car the semi regular Cars and Coffee, a friend had his 68 there... |
 | | August 12, 2023 - Lompoc 2023 The annual Lompoc car show was nice, it was in a parking lot this year and not the park as before. The car was well received... |
 | | August 5, 2023 - NOS Seat Belts The car has replacement seat belts but nothing beats factory, recently a set of NOS ones showed up on eBay. There are some minor differences in these as they are 66s but they are close enough for me... |
 | | July 25, 2023 - Drumin Just checking to see if the drums on the 7-1/4 are the same as the 8-3/4, they are. Unlike many of the replacement wheel cylinders there have the correct bolt threads... |
 | | July 2, 2023 - In the Way Still chasing electrical problems on the Polara... |
 | | July 1, 2023 - Electronic Ignition Kit Another good buy on eBay, an unused Mopar Performance electronic ignition kit. These are getting hard to find and this is one of the better earlier ones... |
 | | June 23, 2023 - Electronic Ignition Kit Another good buy on eBay, an unused Mopar Performance electronic ignition kit. These are getting hard to find and this is one of the better earlier ones... |
 | | June 12, 2023 - Transmission (2) The transmission is ready but I had a show I was heading to. I chose to go get the transmission (three hour round trip) then head out in the car to the show. I didn't even take time to bring it in, left it in the truck till I got back from the show... |
 | | June 10, 2023 - Mopar Alley - 2023 Max and I get to the show and the line is just not moving and when it did it was in inches. We finaly get up to the check in to find out I was in the wrong line, I said screw it and parked in the spectator lot. When I saw there was no line I went and got the car... |
 | | May 1, 2023 - Missing Picture In ordering the exhaust system they wanted the manifold numbers, a couple pictures was quicker than writing them down. Oops, the other picture didn't come out. Needless to say I still ordered the system... |
 | | April 25, 2023 - Starter Relay You go to the effort to locate vintage parts just to get them in less than idle condition. Recently I get a couple starter relays that have the correct looking brown board and not the yellow plastic one. I get the parts and they have writting on them... |
 | | April 22, 2023 - Part Refference Someone needed information on the factory water pump pulley and fan spacer, having them accessible made it easy to get pictures and measurements... |
 | | April 18, 2023 - Expansion Bolt The idler arm would not fit in the k-member, between years of torquing and the powder coating I needed to open it up. A piece of all thread nuts and washers I made a tool so I could spread the yoke... |
 | | April 3, 2023 - Another Nice Part Another really nice part is the oil dipstick, I didn't have the right one so I got a new tube and dipstick not just the tube. I have a couple spare push rods from my 273 build, likely the same ones we'll be using on this build... |
 | | March 25, 2023 - Quality Parts Sometimes the reproduction parts are the way to go, the choke is perfect short of having the Carter logo and Chrysler part number. The water neck is a perfect copy including the part number, sure beats corroded used ones... |
 | | March 18/19, 2023 - Parts Hunt Looking through all my spare parts I am finding different markings, I like to the correct ones if I have them. I had a couple oil slingers but both had damage that I didn't like, will need to get a new one... |
 | | March 15, 2023 - Rare Heat Shield The left side 340 exhaust heat shield is a rare animal. Recently one showed up on eBay as part of a gasket set, in Germany. The price was right and far below what they normally go for... |
 | | March 9, 2023 - Engine Parts Slowly engine parts are coming in... |
 | | March 6, 2023 - Mixup Apparently there was a mix-up at the machine shop and when I went to get my (340) parts they were not my parts but basic 318 parts. We assured them there was a mistake and a week later our parts were "found". What is the real story?.. |
 | | March 3, 2023 - Carburetor I found a very nice 1969 carburetor, will stiff rebuild it but is very clean... |
 | | February 28, 2023 - Seat Belts There was a question in a forum about the belts in this car compared to the factory ones... |
 | | February 11/12, 2023 - Rockers I picked up the heads the other day and dropped off the rotating assembly. My engine builder wanted me to look at a few things on the heads, he was happy with what he sees I have a few spare rocker assemblies... |
 | | December 24, 2022 - Another Photo Op I took a single picture of the Fastback on a wim many years ago, this is my second time returning just for pictures, not sure why I didn't stay for a burger... |
 | | December 14, 2022 - Funky Nuts In cleaning up hardware for the differential I noticed that some of the nuts were different. I was told that it was from torquing the nuts down... |
 | | December 10, 2022 - Under Cover I could have got conversion mounts for the engine but I chose to locate a proper V8 k-member. This was part of a group of parts sent to the powder coater, after multiple previous projects I think I finally got the sheen to where I like it... |
 | | December 6-8, 2022 - 340 Valve Cover (2) I found a pair of 340 valve covers but they need work. After blasting them I could see how rough they were, I might be able to make them work, will keep looking... |
 | | December 4, 2022 - Balanced One thing I have are balancers, will probably take a spare to the shop when the rotating assembly goes in. I have a bunch of light weights and one heavy... |
 | | December 3, 2022 - Broken Latch The flex plate was blasted and painted, one ear was painted red to help facilitate installation. This is the first failure on my watch, a cosmetic portion of the top latch broke off... |
 | | November 26, 2022 - Flex Plate The crank that came with the engine didn't have a flex plate, I have one on a 273 crank, should be good to go... |
 | | November 20/21, 2022 - Leftovers I was told we'd probably be getting different head gaskets that what was in the kit so I thought with all my leftovers I might have everything. Just not enough, will need to get a full kit... |
 | | November 19, 2022 - Dealer Show There was a fund raiser at the local Chevrolet dealer and they were having a car gathering as well. Knowing how hard the 340 valve covers are to get I got a pair of Commando covers that could be modified. Will keep looking... |
 | | November 15, 2022 - More Parts The linkage that I just got will work but I'd like to have it look more like the one on my 273. A couple of the pieces are different, checked, don't have already, time to look online. I found a pinion snubber already but it was not correct at all... |
 | | November 13, 2022 - Another Sunday Drive A coworker was commenting on a recent drive he went on that didn't sound right. Apparently he stopped short of the end as he was confused on where the road went... |
 | | November 10, 2022 - Powder Coating I finally had all the parts that I had planned on taking to the powder coater. Just a list to remind me what went... |
 | | November 6, 2022 - Axle ID One thing I felt needed to be upgraded with the engine was the rear axle. I found a complete assembly in pieces which is good as I wanted to have it powder coated. Before I sent it out I wanted to document the markings on the housing... |
 | | November 5, 2022 - Kickdown Linkage One thing I knew I needed was the throttle bracket and kickdown linkage. I looked and couldn't find reproduction, got lucky and one showed up on eBay the other day... |
 | | October 22, 2022 - 2022 Fall Fling A friend pointed out the manifold was missing a bit, not sure what it was or where it went. Saw it on a car at a recent show. I get to the show and park the car then go check out the swap... |
 | | October 16, 2022 - Sunday Drive I took the car to a different Cars and Coffee and got some pictures on the way back. It may not seam like much but to me the repainted detail on the wheel covers makes a big difference... |
 | | October 15, 2022 - Wheel Covers These are wheel covers that I'm quite familiar with. I grabbed the best ones from storage and the ones off the car then picked the best of those. I took them apart and cleaned all the pieces. The Argent paint was worn on most all them or just gone.. |
 | | October 9, 2022 - First Picture Set As always off to the beach, well not exactly but close. My typical first set of pictures showing where I'm starting. This car is much nicer than at the start than most others I have had... |
 | | September 23, 2022 - Transmission I recently bumped into a friend and mentioned the project and he said he had a transmission. Not sure about the green paint but it does appear to have everything I need... |
 | | September 14-20, 2022 - First Road Trip Not even a month after getting the car I'm taking it on its first road trip. This may not be its first trip to Oregon but the first for me with this car... |
 | | September 10, 2022 - Distributor Swap I went to storage to see what I had; this build will also include restoring under the hood. I had a fan, multiple balancers and a box of hardware along with other brackets etc... |
 | | September 9, 2022 - 340 Valve Cover The right side valve cover is a one year only (1968) design and can be difficult to find. If needed I can use a standard 273/318 cover that I don't even have. The 340 has a guard on it that the others do not, this was also on the Commando 273 cover... |
 | | September 8, 2022 - Electrical Upgrades In trying to tune the car up a little better it was discovered that the alternator was arcing in a way it shouldn't, I got a new one and it has the ability to upgrade it to an isolated field with an electronic voltage regulator... |
 | | September 7, 2022 - Inventory The engine was for the most part complete, all the hardware needed to be sorted out to see what was missing. One valve cover is correct the other not, fan is not correct... |
 | | September 5, 2022 - 340 Time I initially thought I'd keep the slant six but in the trip home with the car his a few grades and it became quickly apparent that the six would not do it. I checked with my engine builder about options, 273, 318 or 340... |
 | | September 3, 2022 - First Cars and Coffee A local group recently started a Cars and Coffee near me, this was the first time I had the opportunity to get up there... |
 | | August 21-28, 2022 - Carburetor The car was upgradded to a 2 barrel carburetor, this particular one has multiple unused vacuum ports. I just thappen to have a 2 barrel carburetor more suitted for this car... |
 | | August 20, 2022 - Recent Acquisition After a couple weeks I couldn't convince myself not to get it. Initially I planned on getting it at the end of September on the way home from another trip... |
 | | April 4, 2021 - Temptation The body and paint on his fastback was done but the car was four hours away in my garage. The plan was initially to get the car to where it could be driven home... |
 | | June 14, 1967 - A Little Backstory The car was first sold new at S.L Savidge in Seattle Washington on June 14, 1967, that is about four weeks after its scheduled build date of May 19. The first part of its life is unknown through 1977... |
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