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1973 142 - The Stepchild of a Stepchild!

Got some warm weather so I went to the garage. Started reassembling the front suspension and crossmember.
Springs & poly bushings from VP Autoparts & new rubber washers from Hiperformance Auto. The spacers were in good shape so I cleaned and reused them. Shocks are just KYB Gas-A-Just, nothing special.
So, for the pics:

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Formed & welded in the new battery tray support last night. I used some 1/4"-20 weldnuts on the inner fender so the battery tray can be removed in the future if needed.
Going out later today to steam clean the engine.

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Thanks Coupid.
I had to run to Chicago yesterday. My son plays baseball for his college team (North Central College, D-3). He'll never make the bigs, but it's cool that he gets to pitch in college. He knows this and wants to work in baseball after college, so playing will help.
Anyway, his pre-season team banquet was yesterday, so I drove up from St. Louis yesterday morning and back last night. So I took today off of work. I figured that I would try to clean 43 years of oil from the engine.....
Started with some lacquer thinner, which does a good job, but thought, "I'm going this far, I might as well pull the engine and re-gasket it before I paint the engine bay".
Scope creep......
I still have good oil pressure, but I think I'll pull the head and have a valve job done along with hardened seats. I'll also replace the cam, gears, lifters & push rods. I am not going to mess with the bottom end, other than front & rear neoprene seals, which I already have waiting.
Looks like a trip to Harbor Freight is in my future for an engine stand.
I may pull the noisy M40 and rebuild it while I'm at it. I have a good online DIY bookmarked.
 
Soo nice to see this ... dont over look CL for an engine stand.

Great to see such fine work
 
Soo nice to see this ... dont over look CL for an engine stand.

Great to see such fine work


Thanks Bob!
I looked and there is one on CL that I'm going to call.
Most of the time, the boneheads around here ask as much as HF wants for a new one though.
The one I found is still in the box, so maybe I can save a few bucks.
 
Removed the engine today. I'll drop the transmission one night this week.
Got a bunch of goodie from VP Auto yesterday. Gasket sets, paint and chrome valve cover / oil filler cap.
Photobucket is acting strange so no pics.
 
Dropped the transmission the other night, then ended up having back spasms for a couple of days. Carried a new mattress to the 2nd floor of my house. It wasn't heavy, but I got about halfway up & felt the twinge. I get them a couple times a year, sometimes just putting on shoes. Anyway, muscle relaxers & a couple days in the recliner took care of them.
It was really nice today in St. Louis, so I finally got some primer on the engine bay. Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer, so hopefully I can shoot some color. I'll probably paint the sections of the cowl that are black first thing in the morning, after I scuff the primer. That will dry quicker than the body color. That way I might be able to get them masked and shoot some dark blue.
Or, should I just paint it all the dark blue body color? It wouldn't be correct for a 73, but masking around the seam sealer that was squeezed out when the factory installed the removable cowl sections could lead to severe bouts of Tourette's Syndrome. And I'm not tearing out the dash to remove them.
Progress at last!

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No color today.
My wife & I took her G37S convertible out and did some furniture shopping for the TV room. It's been a while since I last bought new furniture, geez that was painful! A sectional, ottoman, and new kitchen island, and let's say I could've had one well of an engine rebuild with $$$ to spare!
Got back home and laid down a 2nd coat of high build. Also go the battery tray primered. I forgot the radiator cover still needs to be sanded, epoxied, and primed. Oops.
So a little back story. My wife kept telling me that the cloths washer, which is a month old, would leak if she put in a large load. Next to the washer is the utility sink, which isn't bolted to the floor. Yesterday, I filled a bucket of water to clean the engine bay before I epoxied it.
So this morning, I went to the shop and grabbed the radiator cover to give it a good cleaning before sanding it. I went to the utility sink, put the plug in the drain, and proceeded to fill it with water & Purple Power.
After it was clean, I pulled the plug and hear water rushing out, look at the floor, and it's running across the laundry room. Figured out that it's not the washer leaking, but the p-trap came loose from the drain. I guess when they delivered the new washer they moved the utility sink just enough to pop the drain loose. And it just happens that when my wife thought the washer was leaking, I had recently used the sink. I'll guess be grabbing the hammer drill later and going to Lowe's tomorrow afternoon for some lag screws and washers.....
I know, boring update. :lol:
 
Finished the color. Code 96 Dark Blue, looks a little purple in the photos, but it's a deep, dark blue. ****ty phone pics.....

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I'm definitely not a body-guy. Cleaning, tack cloth, denatured alcohol, rinse / repeat, and I still have specks in the paint. Oh well, it looks better than it did!
 
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Thanks guys!
The blue has a lot of specks in it, but I'm good with the way it came out. No more faded paint and rust under the battery tray.
Masked it off for the Eastwood Underhood Black for the removable cowl panels. My guess is that these can be changed for RHD cars, as opposed to the earlier 140's that had the booster & master cylinder on the left side. They used a lot of seam sealer on these, so I masked around it so it would be black also.
I started to put some parts back on it, but the paint is still a little soft. I'll let it set up for a couple of days. It's single stage that I had mixed into aerosol cans.
A couple of car porn pics......

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The paint has cured pretty much, so I started unmasking the wiring harnesses and mounting the vacuum & vapor canisters.
The 1st picture is where the fuel injection harness had been repaired by a previous owner. It has cheap splice connectors now. I'll probably remove these and solder the wires and protect them with some shrink tubing. But, what would you guys suggest I do to rewrap the harness? There wasn't anything on this area when I pulled the harness loose. I haven't found any wrapable heat shrink and I don't want to use 3M Super 88, since it will just fall off. And I dread taking the whole harness apart, buying 5 feet of harness cover from Dave Barton, and remaking this. Any suggestions?

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Next pic is just some items finally going back on the car.

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Final pic is of the cleaned data tag and a new emissions sticker from VP Autoparts. I got it a little crocked, dammit!

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Now it's time to start cleaning some clips & fasteners to secure the harnesses, and clean / paint some things like the hood latch & wiper motor. I'll get those finished over the next couple of evenings, get the crossmember reinstalled, then tear into the gearbox this weekend.
 
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