(My neighbors have watched me for months wrench on this car, so they didn't want to miss this moment).
This year we had more rain in L.A. than they had in Seattle, so working on the car was on hold for a while. Also, a few weeks ago a freak accident happened that severely damaged the brand new radiator. It surprisingly holds water, but leaks transmission fluid. I already ordered a new one, but now they are on backorder and Jegs can't even tell me when it might be shipped. There is still a small leak at the 90 degree oil filter adapter that drops straight onto the exhaust. It is just really difficult to get a wrench on that bolt with the exhaust installed.
Anyways, after it started up I adjusted the timing a bit, but I still have to do it right. The shift cable wasn't adjusted correctly, but with the factory service manual it was surprisingly easy and I should have done that when I hooked up the cable. Lesson learned.
I drove it around the block yesterday, but it's still missing the entire front (valance, grille, bumper, etc) and somehow the dash lights don't work, but this is a huge moment. It's my first engine swap ever and the early A-body is certainly not the easiest car to do that. I ran into so many obstacles, but it feels really good to have done it without taking it to a shop to get it finished.
In part it took so long, because I didn't just wanted it run, but I also wanted to improve a lot of things like the wiring and also trying to make it look nice even though it's more of a driver than a show car.
Today I'm gonna work on the grille etc and hopefully I can tighten that stupid 90 degree oil filter adapter bolt so it does't leak. Tomorrow I'm having people over for a BBQ, so the car probably won't be totally road ready this weekend, but what a relief that it actually finally runs!