The excitement is building

[Island Girl]

Little Update . . . .

Had me some fun today . . . . at least I keep telling myself that . .

Today I planned to move the little mouse motor from the run stand onto the smaller, rolling storage stand from Summit, so it would be a small enough package to move off the porch and load into my truck bed to move over to unload onto the concrete slab.

First order of business was to get everything that might be going to be In my way . . . Out of the way, so into the truck bed it went.
The diff housing skid went up o the porch wall.

So after un-tarping and rolling the engine on the run stand out into the clear area, it looked so sad and lonely, I just had to fire it up, and of course, It Fired Right Up, and about the same time as the headers cooled enough to remove them, my hearing started to come back.

GOT DAMN she sounded sweet!!! . . . Forgot how much I miss that lovely noise!

Once I got it lifted up and the run stand cleared away, I put the Summit stand in place, and for a change, all the effing bolt holes lined up and it fit over the dowel pins that locate the bell housing just like it's supposed to.

Lowered it back down with no issues and rolled the motor back out of the way and tarped it.

Getting tidied up wasn't too bad, moved all the stuff from the truck bed back onto the porch and snatched the diff housing skid off the wall and rolled it back out of the way.

Overall, it doesn't seem like a lot of work, but in this heat, it's taxing . . . . I work about an hour, then take a break for 15 minutes or so while I drink a bottle of water, and then get back at it. . . . Turned out to be a whole day's work.

I need to do a couple little things to the little car to be ready to install the engine/trans, but while I'd like to do them tomorrow, it may be few days, . . . . . pretty sure I'll be feeling today's "exercise" for a day or two to come.


Anyway, . . . here's a few pics of today's fun:


















View attachment 19388

 

[Island Girl]

A Few more pics:







View attachment 19385

 

[DonnyRay]

WOW !! Great photos.

 

[Indycars]

Hurry up and get this car running, I'm ready to go for a drive !!!

 

[old round fart]

You got some HELL MICE in the islands mon!

 

[Island Girl]

You got some HELL MICE in the islands mon!

And those mice have gotten a LOT more expensive, (almost $3K) since I bought them in December 2018 . . . . Damn good thing I got it when I did! . . . . That's just a crazy increase in a year and a half, . . . I liked to shit when I saw the current pricing.

Indy, . . . I'm ready to go for a drive too, buddy !!!

Having the concrete pad in, and then hearing it run yesterday, a girl could almost hurt herself trying to do too much too fast.

But I'm gonna go ahead and do the right thing, and just plow right ahead.

(I think maybe I've watched too many Vice Grip Garage episodes)

 

[rbsWELDER]

That "sweet sound" is motivation!

 

[409T]

I've always heard that big block = rat motor, small block = mouse motor (at least in Chevrolet engines).

 

[Island Girl]

I've always heard that big block = rat motor, small block = mouse motor (at least in Chevrolet engines).

That's correct, . . . I was being a bit facetious . . . Then again, maybe those Sonny Leonard aluminum monster blocks are the new Rats . . . . .

 

[Indycars]

Then again, maybe those Sonny Leonard aluminum monster blocks are the new Rats . . . . .

I think that's more like a Badger! LOL!

 

[DonnyRay]

I believe a big block Oldsmobile engine is called an Elephant.

 

[Island Girl]

I believe a big block Oldsmobile engine is called an Elephant.

Elephant is usually what the Chrysler 426 Hemi was called, never heard it used regarding the Olds engines.

 

[Island Girl]

Well . . . . another day of progress;

Weather started off pretty iffy this morning, . . overcast with little showers, but the showers tapered off a bit around lunch time and I made some progress on getting the little car ready to pop the body off to install the engine/trans assembly before the big rains came in late in the afternoon.

Spirit cars are made with the interior panels being removable, the seats are upholstered onto a fiberglass insert so you can pull out the insert and the whole seat assy. is removed . . . takes only a few minutes, quite a nicely thought out setup.

Anyway, I've never had mine out, but it has to come out to cut the seatbelt access cutouts in the main interior insert that's bonded to the body tub, and to cut out where you need to have a removable "hatch" to access the master cylinder and a cutout to get to the battery box that's dropped thru the floor.

Before I removed the seat upholstery insert, I marked the seatbelt cutout locations, and then cut them out after removing the seat

I had also noted that the front bolt holes were not drilled all the way thru, so I drilled them out up from the bottom using the frame tabs for proper location, now all 4 body mounting bolts will drop in properly.

To mark where I'll need to make cutouts in the floor for the master cylinder access panel, I drilled up thru the floor from under the car, so that I have holes in 4 corners to mark where to make the access hatch.

With the hatch location marked out, it'll be easy to cut out while the body is off the frame and accessible to work on.

I also marked on the frame where the front of the battery box is so I don't screw up and mount the trans cooler too far back, though I don't think that's possible, now that dawns on me, because of the trans cross member location.

Anyway, the only thing left is to mark out, and cut from under the car, a little more relief area where the gas tank outlet is so I have room for different tank connection options. I can do that when the weather breaks ,since I have to install the tank in place to see where exactly I want to cut out . . . . maybe tomorrow . . .

Note to self . . . . Have to swap out those nasty rusty screws holding the top in place for some nice new stainless steel ones!

Here's a few pics from my day of fun;

 

[Neshkoro]

You’ll be cruising in that thing in no time!!!

 

[Island Girl]

Anyone with good sense would have looked at the sky, listened to the weather, and just left the covers on the hot rod and done something else today . . . .

But with a bold new plan, hatched by insomnia, I forged ahead undaunted and oblivious.

In as much as it's become pretty apparent to me that finding someone who's willing to give me hand once in a while just isn't going to happen, so I'm resolved just make a plan to do whatever needs doing by myself going forward.

So having gotten a little closer to pulling the body off Sunday, I inventoried what I had to work with and what I could probably find at the hardware store, and set my little plan in motion.

Of course no sooner had I taken the top off to reveal the saucy little wench . . . errr, . . . I mean sporty looking roadster, underneath that otherwise demure appearance, than the rains came, . . . . so what else is new . . . welcome to the Caribbean

Note to self: Do Not try to remove/move the top alone on a windy day.

Anyway . . . . I got some measurements and then off to the hardware store for some 4" PVC pipe, 1/2" eyebolts, and some threaded rod, . . . . just in time for the thunder storms to roll by.

Get home and things are starting to dry out, so I got a little done and then the sky gets practically black again, so off to do some other errands and hope Wednesday is the charm.

I did get a few pics of my baby topless . . . check out the dark sky in the last pic . . . . and it's about 11 AM.

 

[Neshkoro]

I know the feeling Island Girl. My kids live too far away. My close friends are now spread across the country. The locals are not car guys. It’s all me.
Some time it sucks!

 

[Spanky]

I did get a few pics of my baby topless . . .

DD really looks fetching topless. Do you plan to put a drain hole in your floor? Might be wise, considering . . .

 

[Island Girl]

DD really looks fetching topless. Do you plan to put a drain hole in your floor? Might be wise, considering . . .

Given our lovely tropical weather . . . .

I was thinking more along the line of a Sump Pump. . . . .


In actuality though . . . the doors are slightly below floor level, as opposed to somewhat higher, so rain would never accumulate inside.

The only place it might could accumulate before cutting out for battery box and master cylinder access would be in the interior insert seat wells.

With the access cutouts in place, any rain that would have ended up in the wells would just pass to the actual body tub floor, which would run off the rear of the floor.


This is the rear of the floor looking in from the rear deck with the gas tank removed . .

 

[lincolnuT]

I live in the VERY DRY New Mexico, somewhat desert area and when I put the last body on my Bucket I drilled two 1 inch holes on both sides of the Trans Tunnel in the front below the dash.......Cause you will get in the rain if you drive it at all........I even have a Full Top on the car and it has had lots of water in it.....

 

[Island Girl]

Update Incoming . . . .