Red Headed Stepchild-75 Swinger LSX Swap
First thing to get started on was the engine bay. After initially wanted to go with a black/silver/red/chrome scheme under the hood I changed my mind to keep the car looking as original as possible so I decided to go with the original Mopar Turquoise color of the time. Since I was going to be tearing some things apart I decided to start with all the basic maintenance for the car while I was in there anyway. The chrome valve cover was returned when I decided to stay with the original theme. Maintenance consisted of plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor, oil change, valve cover gasket, intake/exhaust gasket, oil cap, radiator cap, pcv valve, new air breather, thermostat/coolant, trans filter/fluid, oil pan gasket(waiting to install), rear diff fluid, coolant temp sensor, fuel filter, belts(waiting to be installed) and a new air filter and reinstall of the factory air cleaner. Also ended up replacing the fuel pump when I found it leaking.
And so the tear down begins.
Right after completing the teardown I began to separate the two manifolds and broke the two studs off in the exhaust manifold. Most likely due to it never being apart before. However a trip to the local Napa with a machine shop on site rectified that situation and they had them removed pretty easily. I also had them sand blast the hideous blue off the valve cover so it would be ready for some fresh coats of Turquoise.
First the block.
Then the valve cover.
Intake manifold.
Reassembly began shortly after.
Upon seeing this picture and all this nice clean stuff in the engine I made the decision to clean up the rest of the engine bay to make it match and be equally as clean and shiny.
I think started with the back firewall, then moved to both fender areas for another coat of red instead of the very faded red that was almost orange.
After doing all that I decided to break our the buffer, my polish ball and hit the car up with some mother's ultimate compound and then hit the wheels and bumpers with some mother's mag and aluminum polish. This worked outstanding and really brought the bumpers and chrome on the wheels to life.
First thing to get started on was the engine bay. After initially wanted to go with a black/silver/red/chrome scheme under the hood I changed my mind to keep the car looking as original as possible so I decided to go with the original Mopar Turquoise color of the time. Since I was going to be tearing some things apart I decided to start with all the basic maintenance for the car while I was in there anyway. The chrome valve cover was returned when I decided to stay with the original theme. Maintenance consisted of plugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor, oil change, valve cover gasket, intake/exhaust gasket, oil cap, radiator cap, pcv valve, new air breather, thermostat/coolant, trans filter/fluid, oil pan gasket(waiting to install), rear diff fluid, coolant temp sensor, fuel filter, belts(waiting to be installed) and a new air filter and reinstall of the factory air cleaner. Also ended up replacing the fuel pump when I found it leaking.
And so the tear down begins.
Right after completing the teardown I began to separate the two manifolds and broke the two studs off in the exhaust manifold. Most likely due to it never being apart before. However a trip to the local Napa with a machine shop on site rectified that situation and they had them removed pretty easily. I also had them sand blast the hideous blue off the valve cover so it would be ready for some fresh coats of Turquoise.
First the block.
Then the valve cover.
Intake manifold.
Reassembly began shortly after.
Upon seeing this picture and all this nice clean stuff in the engine I made the decision to clean up the rest of the engine bay to make it match and be equally as clean and shiny.
I think started with the back firewall, then moved to both fender areas for another coat of red instead of the very faded red that was almost orange.
After doing all that I decided to break our the buffer, my polish ball and hit the car up with some mother's ultimate compound and then hit the wheels and bumpers with some mother's mag and aluminum polish. This worked outstanding and really brought the bumpers and chrome on the wheels to life.
