Ken G's Journal

It has been 2 years since my last journal post and in those two years I've done no work on the car. It has been sitting in the garage patiently waiting for me to simultaneously get free time and ambition something very rare with two pre-teens in the house.

But I'm happy to say that I have managed to do a restart on this project and after cleaning the garage last week I've managed to work two weeks in a row and can feel the excitement growing and some semblance of a feeling of accomplishment.

I honestly couldn't remember where I was on the various systems that have to be completed to get this car running again. So I spent some time making a checklist of all the various component needed to be completed in the car. It is like three pages long front and back. Pretty detailed and a bit overwhelming but I didn't want to miss anything (I still will) and I just work more efficiently with a check list.

The first thing I decided to tackle was the electronically system. Most of the connections had been completed and the dash had been temporally fastened in but I figured there were a few things that were either done incorrectly or were outstanding and not completed so I decided I needed to do a full test of all the components. I got a couple of 6 volt lantern batteries and connected them in series and started testing.

So this car is a total Frankenstein, parts swapped from so many places. The electrical system is from a 77 and the car is a 76. This caused some complications and the turn and wiper stalks different but it also made for some little wins. The 76 has the OD in the right stalk and the left stalk has a push button which I've got wired to the horn. There are a lot of the warning lights that were built into the 77 that don't have a spot in the 76 so those have been capped off.
Anyways using the test batteries I was able to get the hazards, turn, running lights head lights and brake lights working last weekend. I did find something a bit strange, some how I have one head light is halogen and the other in incandescent. No idea how that happened????
Today I was able to get the the the new OD light properly connected, the bright light dash warning light working, the horn to beep, the windshield wipers turning, the gauges lights lit and connected a USB outlet with a battery gauge. I also installed the starter.

Overall it still looks a mess but I'm happy with todays progress and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to connect the starter, install the distributor and test the brake system.

Too early for any predictions but I'm glad to be getting at it again.