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After the Restoration (2018)

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Restoration Journal
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  2002:
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  2003:
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    June
    July
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 Restoration Journal

June 4, 2003

Noticed a little oil on the intake after my last drive; after doing some research, I learned that oil from the head can creep up the threads, and these new intake bolts don't have washers under them, so there's really nothing to stop the oil from climbing up and out. I put some thread sealant on that bolt, which will hopefully take care of the problem.

Next, I inpsected the right front wheel. I've been hearing some clunking from that area when going over bumps at low speed. The ball joints (which are brand new), look find. There did seem to be too much play in the bearings, so I tightened it down a bit. We'll see if that was the source of the noise or not.

I also crawled under the car to find the source of the oil leak (I think there still is one, even though I know neither valve cover is leaking any more). The wind blows oil around under there, so it's tough to say exactly where it's coming from. It may be the oil filter adapter, but I'm not sure...

June 15, 2003

Bear came over. Mostly we drank beer, but we did get a little work done. We replaced the turn-down exhaust tips with the pair TTI sent me. One of the tips had rusted on the tail pipe, so we had to cut it off with Bear's sawzall. We also had to trim a couple inches off the tips to get them to fit right.

They look good; better than the turn-downs, and more correct also. I'd like to tuck them up against the valence a bit more, but that will require some hanger modification. Some other day...

June 27-28, 2003

Buffed the passenger side drip rail trim. I kind of messed it up a bit when I removed it. Somehow, I bent it into a curve, and I needed to straighten it a bit before I could buff it (it was shaped like a "C" instead of a straight line. While straightening it, I put some small kinks in it.

Unless you inspect it closely, you'd never notice, and I'm saying "good enough" for now. Maybe someday I'll get a replacement.

June 30, 2003

I broke down and bought a timing gun; something I should've done a long time ago. I checked the timing on the car, and it was too far advanced (I've removed the distributor a couple times since it was set initially). So, with the help of my lovely wife, we set the timing at both idle and at 3500 RPM. There isn't as much mechanical advance as the tech said there was; only about 20 degrees. So, I had to set the inital timing at 14 to get a decent advance of 34 at 3500. Ideally the initial should only be 10 or 12.

Took it for a spin, and even after setting the timing properly, it still pings a bit if I floor it at lower RPMs. That's the only time it pings, so I can live with that. I now know that if I want to really open it up sometime, I'll need a little racing fuel in the tank.