3/2/10

Sunday morning I had to get up and move my car so mom could go to church. I debated going straight to the shop and “finishing” The Seven but went back in and messed around on the internot for a while. Eventually, I grabbed all of my .380 ACP ammo, my two spare magazines, eyes and ears, and headed to the shop. Of course I don't need to mention Kurt Corto because I always carry that with me. At the shop, I get cracking on the intake and exhaust installation. I steal all but two studs from another head and install them on The Seven’s engine. Yes, I did wriggle the exhaust manifold and an intake/exhaust gasket into place first. When I had the manifolds hunkered down, I took a look at the heat shield which has fought me from day one. I decided to give it a slight bend this time to clear the frame rail. I took it to the vice and leaned on it pretty good. Damn, but that is some serious metal! I did get it to bend slightly and went back to have a look on the car. It seemed like it might be better but I didn't really have high hopes it would clear the frame. I bolted the carburetors on, with the heat shield of course, and began hooking up the springs, cables, hoses, and whatnot. Much to my surprise, the shield totally cleared the frame after all. The springs still had plenty of tension, as far as I could tell, as well. I reconnected the zorst to the manifold and hunkered down on the clamp. “Ooh,” I said to myself, “I still need to connect that clutch slave cylinder!” This, I did not do. I decided to install the driveshaft instead. John, your worries about dumping more transmission fluid on the floor were unfounded. It dripped a bit but I made the swap quick enough that it didn't make a mess. I bolted the shaft in and hunkered down the nuts. Well, the two I could get to at that point at least. I needed to install the shifter so I could pop the thing into neutral. I knew I would probably step on the clutch if I did that though so I crawled under and installed the clutch slave. Then I rounded up the tools I felt I needed for the shifter and slid into the driver’s seat. I installed it and sat there running through the gears for a bit. Eventually I got back out and rolled the car forward enough to hunker on the last two driveshaft nuts. Yes, I'm very fond of the verb “to hunker” today. Get used to it. While sitting in the car, making race car noises of course, I decided I really, REALLY, hate the black washers we put under the dimmer and hazard switches when we installed them several weeks ago. I rounded up a 9/16” socket and took them off. Ahh, mucho mantequilla! (Much butter.) At some point, Marty Smith showed up and we chatted for a bit. He left. Finally, I grabbed the radiator and its hoses and installed them. I grabbed the center console and gave some thought as to how I was going to fill the gaping hole left by the absent switch panel. I found an old Datsun radio-delete storage bin thingy which fit the width pretty well but was a tad too short on the up-down plane. I made a panel from an old license plate and installed them. I'm not sure how well it will work, but it is on there for now. I did not install the console yet. I still need to install the passenger seatbelt harnesses before I can reinstall the rest of the interior. I didn't feel like doing that just yet. So, as far as making the thing run, all I need is an oil filter, oil, and coolant. We could fire it up next weekend. Theoretically, I could have it at the Old School thing next Sunday! We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess. Well, I have to go do some actual work so I'll save the shoosting range story for tomorrow.