Ken G's Journal

Happy New Year!!

Between the holidays, the weather and some flu bugs hitting the house there wasn't much accomplished between the last update and Christmas, however the last few days have been productive.
I cleaned, primed and painted the engine, patched and painted the floorboards. Both of those items took a lot more work than that one sentence conveys.

I went with a gloss black for the engine and I think it it may need another coat but we'll see once it dries.

Best wishes in the new year.

Such a long process, lots of baby steps and steps forward and back.
This last weekend I sanded and primed the engine bay. It is by far from perfect but is much better than it was before.

I hope to add a bit of color in the next week or so

I have also done a bit of touch up on the engine paint and what not.

January is done and I feel pretty good about my progress after the abysmal December. The engine compartment is painted and just needs a bit of a buff and touch up. I'm not going for show quality, it is more f a stop the rust and look "OK" from maybe 10 feet away.

The painting on the engine is completed and I am going to start reattaching bits this week; Tappet covers, flywheel, fan and the like.

The interior floor pans and tunnel are primed and I'm trying to decide if it is worth painting them with some color or just leaving it as since the floor is going to be covered with carpet anyways. I should so I probably will.

Next steps will be to putting in the hard lines for the brakes and fuel, the peddle box and that odd assortment of items that are required to complete before installing the engine.

A long way to go still but I feel like I'm not starting to put it back together as opposed to taking it apart. As long as i can find where I stashed all the parts I think it should go back together pretty quickly.

Oh I got the flywheel back from the machine shop and it looks shiny

Always small steps with this project.
February doesn't seem like it has been too productive of a month so far. I have the foot pedal box and the pedals installed, and the main harness is in. I fiddled with the clutch and brake lines but didn't get them completed. I have installed the new flywheel and clutch and I'm getting primed to attach the new (to me) OD transmission.

There is a week left in the month so If I can get the transmission attached and the hard lines connected by the end of the month I'll count it as a success.

What a hassle!

I spent today working on attaching the OD transmission to the engine. Multiple attempts ended the same, frustration, swearing and stomping out of the garage in disgust..
Finally I put the engine and transmission on floor, picked up the transmission and just shoved it on and like magic, it just clicked in? WTH!!! I quickly set the bolts and it wasn't until the 4th bolt was in that I took a breath.

I had read the stories but hoped I'd be one of the lucky ones to get it on the first try. Guess not, but it is done and another milestone is completed.
I had hoped to get the hard lines also set before the end of the month but it looks like I'm going to miss that goal by a week. (Unless I take some time off work ...)

Starting to put it all back together and I've got a concern that I'll miss something and it will cause a big problem later.

I now have the brake and clutch lines and pedal box in, but not filled. The rear wire harness is run up to the front. The main harness is roughly in place but not connected.
On the engine I have reconnected the transmission, side covers, front pullies, oil filter bracket and hard line and the OD Electrical harness.

I think that is most of the major items, but some of the things I don't want to forget are:
- Oil in the transmission
- Reconnect the emergency brake
- Ground cable for the engine mount
- Ground cable from the transmission
- Transmission restraint rod
- Run speedometer cable
- Wire up the OD harness to the switch

This is is what I have so far, hopefully I haven't forgotten something biggish.