Mixin' up the Lady's Ride, While She's Away - '75 245 Content...

The girl left for the weekend, Friday Morning...I thought I could use the weekend, to rethink her daily transportation...




A couple weeks ago, I found the orange '75 245, for sale, here, in my home town. Got a good deal, for one in such good shape & it was a well maintained daily driver. 220k miles, on a well serviced B20/M40, K-jet and that's about it.




The paint is pretty good, and body straight...usual rust around the rear quarter glass. Brake lines, suspension, hardware...it all looked pretty rusty. Let me see what I can do...





Got the car down to the bare minimum, so I could still drive it to the shop. That's where I did the heavy lifting...





The driveshaft bolts didn't want to come free, so I removed the front assembly, and rear assembly with their respective driveshaft halves.




Got 'er sitting on all '81 GLT running gear, brand new Bilstein HD's, iPD wagon overloads, '79 242 GT front springs, and brand new KYB strut mounts.




Brand New HELLA H4's...and a Nissens Radiator, with e-fan




Stock '81 B21F, on LH2.2/EZK117...fully cleaned & resealed, with a fresh timing belt & oil filter




I hit the engine bay...and front subframe with the pressure washer & some degreaser, before putting the powerplant in. Now it's just clean paint & rust...




M46, with new input shaft seal & front cover gasket




I think she comes back tomorrow

That's pretty awesome. Have you guys talked about doing something like this or is it that you had a bunch of spare parts sitting around.

Cool...

Any plans for the passenger side beltline mouldings on the old '81 donor, if they're intact? The '92 could use some all-black beltline mouldings on the passenger side doors.

-J

Andrewhans said:

That's pretty awesome. Have you guys talked about doing something like this or is it that you had a bunch of spare parts sitting around.

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Haven't really discussed, it, no...it's a surprise
The '81 donor car is all that I'm using...
I've invested a lot of work in that car, so some of the work has been done for me.

Blue245Ti said:

Cool...

Any plans for the passenger side beltline mouldings on the old '81 donor, if they're intact? The '92 could use some all-black beltline mouldings on the passenger side doors.

-J

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It's all pretty trashed. To pull it for someone just wouldn't be worth it.

Cool!

Man I really want a set of the 140 style door panels for mine. I just like those early ones for some reason.

Fantastic!

What a nice car, cool color too. Looks like its pretty minty, just not sure why the first thing you did was rip the engine right out of a perfectly running well maintained vintage car, kills it for me! You do get right down to work though, eh!

Thats such a great color

Dang you were busy.

Wow great work!

Speedy work!
Does she like the result?

The girl got home yesterday, and so did her wagon...though too late for her to see it...

She's at work now, which was a perfect chance to go put the grillset back on...




I made certain to handle everything that'd require a lift, so I could finish in the driveway...swapped fuel system, and drilled my holes for the new EFI pump tray & roll-over valve. I tightened up the driveshaft & topped off the transmission with fluid.




Bled the brakes, while still in the air too..




'92 A/C & Power Steering have been fitted, so it's just belts away.




I still need to plumb the chassis harness, which is close to a three hour job, so maybe after work today.

I'd like to hear it run today....she leaves town again tomorrow, so I'll have time to put the interior back together and give it a thorough test & shine.

Wow, great job on the swap! She must be a special gal, that's more than I'd do for anybody I know for free.

Old Iron said:

What a nice car, cool color too. Looks like its pretty minty, just not sure why the first thing you did was rip the engine right out of a perfectly running well maintained vintage car, kills it for me! You do get right down to work though, eh!

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It ran so well, I was looking for every excuse to leave it alone. One peak underneath, at all the rust on suspension and brake parts told me something needed to be done. I would have been happy with a simpler, suspension & brake system swap, but she got tired of the manual steering pretty darn quickly. I was also waiting for the fuel economy to become an issue...without overdrive.

Short the Virgo Wheels, there isn't really an indicator, inside or out, that this Vintage car has been modified. That said, I don't really think a 240 is the right place for a B20...great motors, but I'd rather see that 8-Bolt Pushrod motor power a PV, 122 or 140

PRVersion said:

Wow, great job on the swap! She must be a special gal, that's more than I'd do for anybody I know for free.

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You could say that...we've been together a little over two years...she puts up with all my car guy B.S. and still loves me and my cars...I figured it was time she had a showpiece of her own to drive.

Nice ride

Swapped in harness yesterday....couldn't get it started..

That ain't gonna make the girl happy. Walked away for the night, installed '92 HVAC today, and tried to diagnose 'no start'...

loose tach signal wire from powerstage....fired right up! sounds great! Gotta run out for some coolant, so I can let it idle and burn the crap off the exhaust.

Also, got the early cluster wired up to the mid-year harness!

Very nice I plan on doing the same thing to the new 245 I just acquired for I suppose my wife as she loves the color and such sadly though no cool factors yet good job thus far its impressive

Good to hear you got it started up, love the old school 245! I was wondering if it was an L van in the states the first time I read the OP, still a cool color though!

Got 'er back up on the rack...




Didn't see this transformation happening so soon, so the first thing I did, after purchase, was build a simple sport exhaust. It's 2.25" piping, from manifold to a V6 Mustang Muffler, where resonator was, and a down turn, just before rear axle. I cut it, with room to spare, so the exhaust shop could reweld it to the new B21F piping.





Sounds like an angry bee!

The rest of my day was devoted to putting the interior back some, and repinning cluster connectors, for the '75 cluster to work properly, when connected to a '81 harness... All done!





Well, still some to go...worst is over, I'd say.