Holiday weekend coming up, so as usual the local Pick N Pull is having their half price sale! Email members get an extra two days to peruse before the general public gets their shot at half price! So today I scurried over with my tools and absconded with another 8.8" Ford limited slip axle in 3.73 posi. About 90 minutes work, and $102 later I had it loaded in the back of my Burb, and heading home!
Don't have a use for it yet, but hard to not grab one at the price. A complete axle, down to the drums, U bolts, and spring plates; is a super buy at $102! If I don't use it on a project I can shoot it black, and resell them for $300 all day long!

 

Hey look what I got! Got this link emailed to me by a friend this today! It's a video he took at Billetproof drags this year. Happened to catch me and my buddy Jeff's '56 Chevy when we went heads up! It's the 2nd race in the video.

 

Nice run. He didn't even have a chance, did he?

 

Afraid not. He's a good friend, but it's apples and oranges between our engines. Tried very hard when I put his engine/trans together, and in the car to get him to spend some money on heads, a shift kit, rear gears, etc., but he was in a hurry. Now he wants to do all the things I wanted to do when the car was apart.

I had a .052 RT on that race vs. his .190 RT, so he got buried off the line, and just got worse down track. Last year he laid a .037 RT on me, and I had to run him down to get a win!

 

My little two hour project this morning. (before the heat got too bad!) Factory radio doesn't work, and couldn't hear it if it did! Decided to make a radio delete plate that would mimic the chrome trim and black dash. Cut a template from some cardboard, and then jigsaw out the pattern on aluminum sheet. Filed it to fit, and then painted it on the dividing line to make the top half black. Drilled for a couple 8-32 screws, and made a backing plate from more aluminum scrap. Saved 10 lbs. from the old radio being gone too!

 

Headed over to the pick n pull this morning, in search of a E brake lever assembly. Found a Ford Aspire E brake that was pretty easy to remove, and sat flat on the floor. I unbolted it, and cut enough of the old brake operating cable to ensure I could mate it to my cables from the 8.8" Ford E brake.
I tried several places to situate it in what would be considered "normal" locations, but none worked well. I finally ended up putting it on the left side of the driver's seat, between the rollbar door bar, and the door. It's easy to reach down left handed to set it, and it's tucked below the rollbar tube, so not snagging my pants on it as I exit the car. Drilled two mounting holes, and a hole for the cable, and bolted it down. Adjusted the nut on the end, and then rolled the car down the driveway backwards to see if it stopped. All worked great, and the pull is so much lighter than the factory E brake operator.
Just need to fab a cover, or sew up a boot to cover the mechanism now, so it looks cleaner.

 

Did some clean up and touch up under the hood yesterday, in preparation for our last Wed. night cruise. A good friend, who's a great tuner, convinced me I should try a wider plug gap with my MSD box, and Mallory Unilite distributor. He said I should get less plug fouling when I drive around town in stop and go traffic. I opened them up to .044" and put them back in. Fired it up, and took it for a drive. Seems to drive better, and doesn't want to load up at stop lights, where I used to blip the throttle to clean it out. Smells better too!

 

Crazy that something so small makes such a big difference.

 

Yeah it is. It's almost hard to detect the slight .010" difference in gap, but sure feels and runs better.

 

Got out today and removed my gas fill inset. I moved my filler into the trunk awhile back, and wanted the filler gone. I removed my gas door, and then made a filler plate of 20 ga. steel. Tacked it in place, and welded it up. Ground it all down and filled with a thin coat of Duraglass. Gave it a shot of primer to keep the rust away, but need to give it a finish coat of glazing putty later on.


I did a swap with a guy at the Falcon forum. He needed hinges for his Falcon, and wanted to trade a factory console. Fortunately I didn't toss the hinges when I went to the tilt frontend. So we swapped straight across, the hinges for the console. I need to recover the sides in black vinyl, and touch up the paint between the chrome fins, but it's a nice addition, and price was right!