Don't sucker yourself in to buying someone else project

[zhandfull]

Looks to me like you did pretty good buying somebodys project......

I was hoping for some updates but I happen to be doing contract work in San Bernardino for the last couple months. With them going BK I wasn't in the mood to do any work last weekend. Maybe next weekend will be more productive.

I have been working on getting the Mustang wheels to fit the front hubs. Not wanting to grind on the new wheel centers. I have narrowed it down to two choices machine down the hubs or use Wilwood hubs and brake kit. The Mustang wheels fit pretty nice on the Willwood hubs, but that is kind of a big hit to the budget. There seems to be a lot of material on the 73 disc brake hubs think I'm going to machine some off and see how I feel about it from a safety stand point.

You can see the difference in oem and wilwood hubs

 

[zhandfull]

Well back at it last weekend. Got the K member and front suspension parts out of the parts car. Cleaned them up painted and installed new Moog ball joints. I welding up the k member seams and boxed in the steering box mount area. My welding kind of sucks but it's just adding to the factory crap so I shouldn't be risking my life over it. Nice to be working on it again.

 

[hemitheus]

damn... you re going at it well. keep it up

 

[FomocoReformed]

That car is clean!!!

Man I could only imagine how much money I'd have in my pocket if I didn't live in the northeast. AMD has almost 3k of my money and I'm not even gonna start on labor...

 

[zhandfull]

One last thing with the K member before spray paint. Tie down hooks! Not that this car will be on the trailer much but I thought I would give this a try and see how it works. I hate trying to get an axle strap around the K frame when tying off a car on a trailer.

3/8" bar stock from home depot $5. I then bent it around my trailer hitch ball before cutting them down in length. Notched the K member and welded them in. I think this is going to work nicely and won't really be noticeable on the car.

 

[clinteg]

The painted parts look nice! What type of paint did you use?

 

[zhandfull]

The painted parts look nice! What type of paint did you use?

Here is the spray paint. I bought at the auto parts store, it was kind of pricey but was highly recommended.

Stainless steel color on the arms gloss black on the spindles.

The gloss black layed down real nice the stainless color seamed to lay down kind of dry looking.

 

[DARTGAME]

Looking good.

 

[hemicop]

Maybe I'm missing something here:dontknow: You have a good looking "project" car that you're doing REALLY good work on & you're complaining about the car? It seems to me either you don't buy a "project" or you get one, build it & not complain.
I got an A100 p.u. that needs FAR more work than what I thought & what you started with but I figure it's all just part of the hobby.
What am I missing here?

 

[jamesdart]

cool build. these are the projects im into now. i cant spend years building something at this point in my life, have to be able to get out and enjoy them in between projects.

 

[zhandfull]

Maybe I'm missing something here:dontknow: You have a good looking "project" car that you're doing REALLY good work on & you're complaining about the car? It seems to me either you don't buy a "project" or you get one, build it & not complain.
I got an A100 p.u. that needs FAR more work than what I thought & what you started with but I figure it's all just part of the hobby.
What am I missing here?

I was just pissed off at myself for buying and getting involved with this car. Kind of a buyers remorse I guess. I have other car projects that have been around longer that need finishing. But money is tight and it's easy to justify not working on them because I don't have the money to do it the way I really want to.

This car build is a different approach for me. I'm cutting corners like using a parts car. Staying with a stock low hp 318 motor and trans. I'm just using what's left of the original interior. It just takes so much labor and I have found things take a lot longer now in my forty's to finish than they did when I was younger. Although on the positive side the quality is a little better.

Now that I'm over being pissed off about getting involved in this project. I really need to just get it done before the next great adventure comes along and distracts me from finishing this car.

With that being said I'm actually excitied about putting this car back together in the $4-$5,000 range. It should be a pretty cool looking and driving car. I wasted a month by not working on it. Guess I had better set a date to get it running and driving.

I willl be cruising it by October 30, 2012:burnout:

 

[Wheel Chock]

Nice car and I like your idea for the tie downs. Even if you never trailer it, adding them now while the K member is out, makes sense. I'll incorporate them into my Duster project, that is if I ever get my damn Flat Fender done!

 

[zhandfull]

Little update on progress. I have the front K member and suspension together. I spent about $300 on bushing, Moog ball joints and paint. I used the offset bushings on the upper arms to get more castor adjustment during alignment and poly busings on the lower A arms.

The motor is out of the parts car. I cleaned it up and pulled the oil pan. It is a typical 40 year old motor that is in a little better than average shape. It just kills me to not rebuild it. No money for that so it's just getting the basics. I did reseal the front and rear mains and installed a new oil pan gasket. The freeze plugs are being replace as a couple are starting to rust through and leak. Finally I noticed a lot of slack in the timing chain with the oil pan off. So I bought a $25 timing chain and replaced the original. That was money well spent! The plastic upper timing gear had lots of cracks in it, and had actually started breaking apart. I'm in to the motor work for just about a $150 for gaskets, freeze plugs, timing chain kit, and paint so far.

I'm going to put together the motor, trans, K frame and suspension and install from the bottom. That is a first for me, but I'm thinking it will make a lot of the work much easier being done outside the car.

I still need to paint the engine bay and have been avoiding it. Guess that is coming up soon.

 

[OwdKasd]

You are doing Great! And You are being smart about the $$$ being invested. It's going to be one heck of a Car for around $5 large. I have a bit more into my '73 and '72's generally command higher prices so I think you're golden.:glasses7: Keep up the good work.

 

[zhandfull]

This weekend I have the trans out of the parts car. Cleaned it up a little with some oil eater and a scrub brush. I then used the soda blaster to get in the tight spots. It works great on grease and dirt.

The trans is getting new front and rear seals and a oil and filter change before I bolt it up to the motor. Seemed to work ok when in the parts car. I have my fingers crossed.

Also transferred over the fuel tank and removed the fuel lines and brake lines from the parts car. Almost done with the parts car. It will be nice to get it away from the house for a little more room to work around here. Going to hang on to it at work for awhile just in case till I get the Dart together.

 

[zhandfull]

Well I have been slackin, but today I did get out in the garage and start working on getting the engine and trans back together. Still need to paint the engine bay. I'm dreading that, not sure if its the work or the fact that it probably won't be a perfect match to the body paint. Since I bought the car painted I have no idea what color or even type of paint they used on the car. It's just a budget build guess it doesn't really matter. This car has a solid foundation but is far from a high dollar build.

On the brakes I ended up going with a couple new 11-3/4" rotors off a Cordoba. They were $120.00 for two at Napa. I had the hubs turned down at a machine shop for the Mustang wheels $75.00. Still need to buy the caliper brackets, think they are about $100.00 on ebay. So I should be in to the front brakes for about just under $300.00 That is less than half the cost of the Wilwood kit I wanted. With the factory rotors being bigger than the Wilwoods, I'm thinking the factory brakes might work better for street performance driving anyways.

Looks like I'm not going to make myself imposed deadline for having the car running by the end of this month. So I guess I had better extend it to the end of November.

 

[DARTGAME]

Its getting there! Looks good.

 

[bad440]

nice work,gonna be a slick driver.

 

[rlevs]

zhandfull my said that she likes your dart and she is a Mustang girl

 

[socalvaliant]

Hey zhandfull,
What kind of soda blaster are you using? I want to be able to clean up my own parts as well....
Have you done any blasting yourself on body panels?

 

[zhandfull]

Hey zhandfull,
What kind of soda blaster are you using? I want to be able to clean up my own parts as well....
Have you done any blasting yourself on body panels?

Just a harbor freight unit. In all honesty it's great for small parts. Once you start getting into larger jobs like body panels, the cost of the soda and the time required with the small harbor freight unit would probably make it not economical enough to do the job yourself. I have also read of people having problems with paint sticking after soda blasting. My personal experience with small parts and spray paint, I have never had an issue.

 

[socalvaliant]

Thanks for that - another friend of mine had recommended a small Harbor Freight blast cabinet; I'll have to put it on my Christmas wish list!

BTW, my project is a 68 Valiant 2dr post, BB 4speed. Just at the mini tub and spring relocation stage...

Hope to see your cars eventually, not that far away....

 

[ironracer1]

You are doing good work, and I love the tie hooks!

 

[451Cuda]

Title should have been "Look how far ahead you can get if you buy someone elses project".

Seriously...you Cali guys are spoiled, 3k for that is a steal compared to here in the midwest.

 

[sireland67]

Most automotive paint supply shops have a camera that takes a photo of the paint pigments.
After they take a photo they can mix the paint for you.