Well, I drug home another one

[TT5.9mag]

Got home from work and installed the distributor. Jumped the ballast, hooked up some wiring, hillbilly timing taped my balancer, set the base timing to 20 and hit the key. Fired right off and runs so much more crisp. The advance slots welded up and filed to .385 gave me exactly 17 degrees of advance. So initial is 19 and total is 36 all in at 2750. I played with the vacuum advance a bit and delayed it by 4 turns so it doesn’t start adding until ~2400 and 16” and in cruise at 2800 I have 52 degrees. Good starting point to tune from. I’ll have to drive it a bit and see if it takes this much timing this quick on 87 octane.

 

[70DusterDev]

Damn! You weren't kidding, you have been busy with this thing! I know you've said you have a few of these cars, but are any of them 3 pedal cars? I still think this one should be a drag and drive car!! And of course, when you're tired of the ol 318 I think it should get an LS with a turbo mwahaha! Because you know how well thats worked for me so far

The car looks awesome though for all original! That was a hell of a find! I wanna hear a video of it idling!

 

[TT5.9mag]

Damn! You weren't kidding, you have been busy with this thing! I know you've said you have a few of these cars, but are any of them 3 pedal cars? I still think this one should be a drag and drive car!! And of course, when you're tired of the ol 318 I think it should get an LS with a turbo mwahaha! Because you know how well thats worked for me so far

The car looks awesome though for all original! That was a hell of a find! I wanna hear a video of it idling!

I do have a turbo 6.0 and a t56. But that won’t happen. That’s our drag week package for another car. I’d really like to get my girl in this car and let her learn how to race in it. So I’m keeping it low power for the time being. But turbos are never off the table.

 

[TT5.9mag]

I wanna hear a video of it idling!

I just got the tune pretty squared away last night. I’ll take a video in the next day or two.

 

[70DusterDev]

I do have a turbo 6.0 and a t56. But that won’t happen. That’s our drag week package for another car. I’d really like to get my girl in this car and let her learn how to race in it. So I’m keeping it low power for the time being. But turbos are never off the table.

Ohhhh thats an excelent idea! That will be super cool to get her in there!

What kind of car are you thinking for a drag week car?

 

[TT5.9mag]

What kind of car are you thinking for a drag week car?

You and I have talked about it. The pinto wagon that I’m doing the drivetrain program on.

 

[70DusterDev]

You and I have talked about it. The pinto wagon that I’m doing the drivetrain program on.

Ahhh I couldn't remember if you had told me for sure but now I remember! Because then I looked up the Vega wagon haha. Its all coming back now!

 

[TT5.9mag]

Well, it’s time for an update. I got sick, really sick, more so than I’ve been in a few years. I’ll spare the details but before I was strapped to a toilet for 4 days I did manage to get some stuff on the dart accomplished. All of the engine/trans mounts are done. The trans had some weird mount I’ve never seen before connecting it to the crossmember. Now a stock rubber mount is in place. I lengthened the middle kickdown rod a 1/2” to fix the geometry of the pivots on the kickdown linkage and had to readjust the length of the top rod afterwards and the trans shifts beautifully now. I cut off the homemade trailer hitch (junk) and pounded out a huge dent in the spare tire well that looked like it came from a trailer coming loose and running up under the car. Removed the valance along with the bumper. Valance will get replaced, bumper will get some hammer/dolly work I think. Saturday my girl and I pulled all of the interior out to start on redoing the seats and fixing some rust in the floorboards. There is a little more than I anticipated but it’s not terrible, maybe 5 patches 4” square each will fix it and I’ll get to cutting and welding on that soon. I was absolutely amazed to find an almost perfect build sheet taped to the tunnel under the rubber floor mat. That happened shortly after I was pissed about not finding one in the back or bottom of the seats. I’m almost feeling 100% so I’ll be back at it soon.

 

[TT5.9mag]

Worked on the dart quite a bit recently, but not huge progress. Basically installing things purchased at the fall fling. New (used) front bumper and valance are installed and I began stripping the new (used) rear bumper and transferring all the brackets and tail light housings from the old bumper. Had to hammer/dolly a few small dents out of the rear bumper and it’s pretty straight now but the chrome is hashed and I’ll need to make a decision on painting or rechroming it. Yesterday I tackled the door striker on the driver side. It was quite a project but it’s done and I’m pretty happy with it. I also pulled the pins on the passages side door hinges and welded those up while I had the welder out and was waiting for sheet metal to cool off. @Turbo440Dart came by and lent a hand (thanks) and I was able to snap a few pics of both cars in the driveway.

 

[Turbo440Dart]

Worked on the dart quite a bit recently, but not huge progress. Basically installing things purchased at the fall fling. New (used) front bumper and valance are installed and I began stripping the new (used) rear bumper and transferring all the brackets and tail light housings from the old bumper. Had to hammer/dolly a few small dents out of the rear bumper and it’s pretty straight now but the chrome is hashed and I’ll need to make a decision on painting or rechroming it. Yesterday I tackled the door striker on the driver side. It was quite a project but it’s done and I’m pretty happy with it. I also pulled the pins on the passages side door hinges and welded those up while I had the welder out and was waiting for sheet metal to cool off. @Turbo440Dart came by and lent a hand (thanks) and I was able to snap a few pics of both cars in the driveway.

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Was a good day till you smelled my coolant haha

 

[TT5.9mag]

Was a good day till you smelled my coolant haha

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If you had nothing to fix it would be boring.

 

[Turbo440Dart]

We’re all impatiently waiting for updates.

 

[TT5.9mag]

**** man, if the rain ever stops here I might be able to work on it. But (as you know) there are things going on in the background. As of now, the glass hood is on, and the front valence is on. But that’s all I got, for now. Things are coming.

 

[Turbo440Dart]

I just didn’t want you forgetting about the thread. For now the rain looks like it’s gone but I don’t think it’s done quite yet.

 

[TT5.9mag]

Yea we’re supposed to get more next week. I haven’t forgotten about the thread yet, I’m gettin old, but I’m not quite senial yet. Just got off the phone with Brian at IMM and I’m taking the heads to him tomorrow morning. I’ll have updates in the near future.