Roller Paint Job Diary

Glad you ain't the jealous type!

 

Norm phones Andy today...... "ring ring".... ' Hi Andy, it's Norm"...followed buy a 'click' and dial tone. Norm phones back.... "Hi Andy, we got disconnected"... followed by a 'click' and dial tone. Norm phones again but this time the phone just keeps ringing.......................

Andy unplugs the phone, gets anther coffee and............




Norm walks over, taps on window and yells..... Andy, "tap tap", your phone isn't working! Andy "tap tap", wana go to a auto wreaker today?
....It's toooooo cold to work inside the house today!




For some reason, Andy does not answer and decides to have some lunch........



Norm remains at window...... Andy, "tap tap", Andy, "tap tap",
Andy, "tap tap",



Andy finishes lunch, turns up the classical music and returns to the warm fireplace.......



And at his feet, the dog that rescued Norm..... Andy telling the dog, good boy, you just sleep, your rescuing days are over, just sleep and stay warm boy....




After a couple hours of...."Andy, "tap tap", Andy, "tap tap", Andy, "tap tap"

.


,,,,,,,, Then there was a peaceful silence!

So Andy looked out the window and saw Norm again......



So Andy plugged the phone back in. A short time later, Mrs Norm phoned looking for Norm. Andy replied...." Have not seen him all day, he normally phones or comes over"

Well the Dog had to go out, so Andy Covered Norm up..........




Andy then returned to the warm fireplace with a bowl of hot soup......



Dog by his feet.....








EDIT......

Stay tuned for tomorrows episode of "The Days Of Our Wagons" (insert organ soap opera music)

...... Will Norm escape his snow man tomb?

...... Will Mrs. Norm continue to walk the streets of Winterpeg in search of Norm?

...... Will Andy finally (CENSORED) if he has to go on just one more rescue Norm mission?

...... Will the dog find true love, or will Andy bring it to the vet to "chopped"?

Find out tomorrow ( Keep bad organ soap opera music in head) and don't miss......

"The Days Of Our Wagons"

Todays episode was brought you by the makers of......



And by YUGO, the makers of terrible, unreliable, unsafe cars, the worst the world has yet to see........




(End organ soap opera music now)

 

ROTFLMFAO!!!

You missed your calling Tedy!

I did find my shed. The fellow sent me an email to say that the tires wouldn't hold air, so I had to dig out my own from the shed. We hit a balmy +1C today!

Then I dug out the neighbour's yard. Almost ready.+





He can't find the keys, so the ignition lock is LOCKED. I've got to find a way to get around that, because the Zephyr has a tilt steering column, which I really do want in mine.

And without solving that, its gonna be tough easing it into that yard.

He's driving in from 3 hours away, so I can't tie him waiting for a locksmith. I thought I could undo the column down by the steering gear. Never drilled an ignition out. Any suggestions?:confused:

 

I'd help but I have this terrible organ music sound in my head.
Maybe if you go down to the dark part of town you can get some kid to break the lock.

 

The kids that know old-school locks are retired. And the new bunch are harmless on our cars, knowing only how to hack alarm systems.

 

The owner of that yard told me that he has some older Tri-Power carb setups for older Pontiacs, Chevys, Olds and one or two Ford Flatheads. I had mentioned that I'd be doing a tri-power on mine, so he mentioned that.

I was reading a couple threads on those setups for my 200 CID six, and decided I'd combine the best of the old and the new. These 200 6s always came with single barrel carburetors. The racing hobby started tinkering with other carbs and adapters long ago, and then the racing equipment companies climbed in making pretty parts, to replace the homemade ones.

The older tri-power systems ran solid linkage to all 3 carbs, rather than progressive linkage that only uses the centre carb, in city driving, and kicks in the other 2 (front and rear carbs), on hitting the pedal to the metal.

The problem with the commercial manifolds is that they don't make the intake ports large enough (1.09" diameter for the front and rear and 1.325 for the center carb. So these small sixes can't breathe enough to maximize their output.

There's a good technical post in this thread on that issue, where the fellow makes the case that all 3 ports should be 1.75" diameter, whether or not you use solid or progressive linkage:

http://fordsix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=66999

At about 1/4 down the page, you'll see one fellow's solution to several problems with commercial manifolds.

Here's his photobucket link to his homebuilt manifold:

http://s529.photobucket.com/user/rw...page=1&_suid=13945551927650005818767200138242

The problems for newer, smaller Fords, including the Fox-bodied models, is the height. Even the stock air breather touches the hood insulation, and the 'pretty' air breathers would also touch it, because their manifolds are about an 1" higher.

The second problem is that the commercial ones don't position the front and rear carbs, precisely between each pair of cylinders, making for some inefficiencies to fuel delivery even worse in these narrow intake manifolds. And they're pricey, like close to $400 without linkage.

About the only limitation with a homebuilt manifold is the need to stick with Ford bolt spacing, whether they are Holley, Carter, MotorCraft or Autolite carbs made for these small Ford engines.

The other constraint is that it would be more difficult on cylinder heads from before 1980. All the older Falcon, Fairlane, Comet 6s (140, 170 and 200) as well as the ones from 1969 to 1979 have narrow intake logs. It can be done, but the single plate's rear edge would have to be wider, into the center of the manifold's length.





This one would work too, but the carbs would be at different heights, and all the linkage support bolt tabs would have to be added - not quite a finished look.


I found a carburetor site showing some of the early GM tri-power air breathers too. All 3 under one breather. I'm kind of leaning to that, maybe an oblong one from a dual quad setup. The smaller set of 3 would expose the filters to a lot of prairie dust. The fox-bodied cars have a 4" port in the fender to draw cleaner air from behind the headlights. And all kinds of variations of stock molded tubes to run from the breather to the fender opening/port).

Here's a list, click on a few:
http://www.thecarburetorshop.com/Tripower_air_cleaners.htm

And here's a list of Factory tri-power setups:
http://www.thecarburetorshop.com/Multicarbsetups.htm

Betcha that a few wagons had 'em!

 

Its frustrating to find that other Ford sites, especially Fox-bodied sites don't have some real tech articles or threads for inline 6s. How many 6-bangers have 7 main bearings? That's one tough little beast! Some guys run them up over 500 HP! Not that I want to. But I figured that more Fox owners would have dug deeper into the possibilities with these sweet machines.

Luckily, the Fordsix.com guys also cruise the popular sites, like the H.A.M.B. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/

And the FourEyedPride site:
http://vb.foureyedpride.com/forum.php

And The Ford Falcon News site:
http://www.tffn.net/

Then there's this "The Ford Falcon Six Performance Book"
http://www.falcon6handbook.com/

But! Oh what am I whining about? They've done almost every variation of tweaking to these cars that can be done!

I'm frustrated that I can't get at it for another 4 weeks. Gotta wait until the 4 feet of snow melts!

Anyway, my new parts car will be here after lunch today. I'll feel better then.

 

Yippee! She's here! Safe and sound. Just need to find a stock 4-speed for it, from a 1979 or 1980 Fairmont, Zephyr, Mustang or Capri, or even a Maverick/Comet. The 1978 I6s got a 3 speed on the column with an I6. The 1981 and 1982 models got a T5 speed (4 plus OD), on the V8s and C4 automatics. Waiting for quotes from 2 Minnesota yards. Can't seem to find any in Canada.

 

Good luck on the standard tranny swap. Son is doing that now with his 85 Chevy truck. Five speeds around here are hard to find and the other parts darn near impossible.

 

I watched a youtube video to rebuild a 5-speed T5. They gave a link to a vendor who's known for providing the most complete rebuild kits in the industry. The Video was from AutoRestoMod.
http://www.autorestomod.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/AutoRestoMod?feature=watch

The vendor:
http://www.moderndriveline.com/

It's not witchcraft with the right tools. The videos show how to get around buying the expensive tools.

 

Tucking in Fairmont or Zephyr Bumpers

With all the snow and ice we get up here, there's a couple issues that tick me off with the wagon bumpers. At the rear, the snow and ice just accumulates on the top of the bumper, preventing me from opening the tailgate. At the front, when I connect the block heater on days or nights below -20C (-2F), the hood snow melts and runs right over the headlights. In both cases, I have to chip it off, risking I'll hit the paint or a lamp. SOOOOO...

I'm gonna tuck them in to protrude just 3/4" instead of 3", like this:
http://vb.foureyedpride. com/showthread.php?62073-bumper-brackets-fairmont/page2

to look like this owner's bumpers:


versus this:


A lot easier making that modification with the fenders off.

Since I already have a Class II hitch on it, welded to the frame, the absorbing bumper extensions are kind of useless anyway.

 

Started to remove some of the crumpled front left (driver) fender. A bit unfamiliar with spot weld cutting tools. I'll post pics tomorrow morning.

A couple of the members have posted some info on welding machines and info over here:
http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31083


Worth a look-see.

 

I had to remove the components on the fender well and driver's side firewall, as well as chase down some grinding/sanding supplies, so I barely got started. I did use a black marker to mark off the welds that need to come off. The main structural frame wasn't damaged, nor was the shock tower.

The hood hinge got warped a bit in the hit, but the donor's hinges are good.


This one is marked as to where the spotwelds are on here:


Same area, just above the Power Brake tank:


Front corner, no damage to frame:


Same corner, inside view:


Continued below...

 

You can see that the bumper mounts are not distorted


But the rad brace is almost beyond rescue.


Just to show you how modular these fox-bodied chassis are, here's a couple pics of other owners' disassembly:

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthread.php?87414-78-Boxtop-build-thread

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthread.php?57637-Lack-of-progress-thread-85-notch-build/page2