Old Fords never die

December

• Started to fabricate the upper part of the driver side footwell that meets the front scuttle. Tricky bit but the first part has been made and primed ready for welding on. (31/12/05)
• Other rear handbrake caliper has now been stripped and cleaned ready for paint. A new steering column mount has been made as the last one did not come up to scratch. (30/12/05)
• One rear handbrake caliper has been stripped, cleaned, painted, greased and re-assembled. Now that has been done the other one can be started. Always best to keep one just in case you think, how did that go together? New seat runners have also been fitted to the seats today. (29/12/05)
• Rear axle now completed assembled and back on the car. Rear on car sitting far too low. Will need to adjust ride hide on shocks, run out of time today. (11/12/05)
• Rear axle almost re-assembled. Just needs a few bolts tightened and spaces for the shocks and the car will be back on the ground. (04/12/05)

November

• A little work carried out today on the rear axle. The new rear UJ did not want to play ball. (26/11/05)
• More supplier links added. (26/11/05)
• Half-shaft has now been primed and painted a bright shade of yellow. (18/11/05)
• The last couple of weeks has seen me sorting my garage out with little work to the car. Half shaft has been primed and painted. However, I have just had a little spending spell!! On order are some new disks and uprated shocks / springs for the rear axle. The rear calipers are being reconditioned, new Cobra Monaco S seats and 3 point harness. Phew! and not even Christmas. (13/11/05)

October

• Little progress this month apart from starting the car every weekend. Have started to strip the rear axle so I can put new disks and paint up the half shafts. Cleaning / Polishing up the rear hubs is taking some time. Starting to look good though. (30/10/05)

September

• Managed to spent a little time in the garage today. Using the template made last week the front floor pan was made up in sheet metal, trial fitted and painted ready for fitting. (30/09/05)
• BIG NEWS - compression was improving on the engine. Tried to start it today, so near, please start and it eventually came. It roared into life. YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My "baby" has started after all these years. What a motivational boost this is. I am now floating on cloud 9. (25/09/05)
• Spot welded the drivers side floor pan, and gearbox side today. Only enough to hold it in place while I created a template for the front part of the floor pan. This is now ready to cut out of metal. Drivers side rear arch was almost completed welded up. Welds ground down and a level of filler layered on. (25/09/05)
• Compression is building up on some of the cylinders. Went to start the motor and it fired for a very short while. So close, but to no avail, it then did not want to fire anymore. Quick movie clip posted on main page. (09/09/05)
• Pages 8, 15 and 19 get some updates. (04/09/05)
• Spent a little time today removing the inner arch and tub from the offside rear of the car. This will allow me to complete welding the new wings arches and fabricate new tubs prior to the axle being re-installed. (04/09/05)
• Today was the day the engines was to be started for the first time in ..... (well, a lot of years!!). Unfortunately, it did not go as well as I hoped. Due to the engine standing for some time (even though it has been turned over by hand frequently) has lost some compression in most of the cylinders. This is being worked on and hope to have some news on this soon. (02/09/05)

July and August

• Been busy on other matters and not too much time has been had working on the car. However, I did manage to spend the odd hour here and there. The main has been sorted in the engine bay has been the alternator bracket, water pump and crank pully. Well pleased with that. Update pages will appear soon. (04/09/05)
• The other area that has been worked on is the electrics. All the electrics have been installed for the gauges and the starter side of things. Lights, etc can wait for another day. Update pages will appear soon. (04/09/05)
• Spent some time just hooking up my ICE equipment. This was to ensure all was working prior to installation. All I can say is that those twin 12" subs have certainly got a kick to them - my chest is still in pain!!! (04/09/05)

June

• Dashboard page gets updated. (03/06/05)
• My brother arrives back from the USA with my order from Summit Racing - BIG thanks. A new set of Auto Meter Pro Comp Ultra Lite gauges and Lokar Stainless Kickdown cable. (01/06/05)

May

• Started back again on the Alternator install. On first inspection a couple of months ago it looked to complex, left it for another day. With a fresh head it is turning out to be much easier then expected. Alternator fitted with new spacer, Water pump and Crank pulley removed for some fabrication work. This will be left to a specialist engineering company. (15/05/05)
• Picked up radiator from Olympic Radiators. First class job, and even better, they did not charge me - Nice one. (13/05/05)
• Radiator taken off to give to Olympic Radiators. They are going to solder in the water temp sensor in the top of the radiator. (08/05/05)
• Did not manage to do too much today apart from break 3 cobalt drill bits. How? trying to drill out the lock wire left in the diff bolts (secures diff to chassis). Managed to do three, the fourth has the broken drill bit in and will not shift. Also, did have time to start a new page on Electrics - Page 25. (02/05/05)
• Rear shock mountings sanded and painted ready for re-installation on to chassis. (01/05/05)

April

• Bought some 4awg battery cable + and - including some earthing and battery terminals. Managed to run the red positive cable from front to back of car and made up the earthing cable. (29/04/05)
• Spent most of today fabricating the drivers side part of the gearbox surround. Rather fiddly with all the different bends but I managed it. Now ready to weld in place. (24/04/05)
• Not a huge amount of work carried out this weekend. Fitted accelerator pedal, had to fabricate angle bracket and washer. This took more time than expected but turned out OK. Fuel pump re-fitted with new earthing point. (17/04/05)
• Brake pedal bracket fully welded to chassis. Two other brackets were fabricated and welded fully up today. These were to support the boot floor where the battery is located. A lot of the back end chassis was cleaned up and protective primer laid on. (03/04/05)

March

• Rear axle removed today. This is so (1) I can get to the chassis to clean it up and put some protective paint before spraying and (2) to strip the axle ready for some new discs. (28/03/05)
• Pedal brackets were welded up today. Dry fit looking good. (25/03/05)
• Had a day off today. Started to weld in the passenger foot-well and would you believe it, after a few spot welds the welder started playing up. The gas looked a bit low so that was that. A new re-design of the brake pedal assembly was decided, sketches were produced, tape measure to hand and fabrication started. How this was achieved is featured in the Brake page. Battery box fitted into boot and templates made for gearbox surround. Not a bad day after all!! (19/03/05)
• Started to weld in the lower section of the drivers foot-well and the main bulkhead - headaches.. don't talk!!!!! (13/03/05)
• A few new pages added. Steering - Page 22, Bulkhead - Page 23 and Electric fan install - Page 24. (06/03/05)
• The weekend was another wash out with only 30 minutes to spare in the garage. Anyway, managed to fit the electric fan. Better than nothing!! (06/03/05)

February

• Managed a whole 30 minutes in the garage today. Task was to install the electric fan. Failed miserable. The two different fittings would not pass through the holes in the fan. Did not want to drill out as they should be the correct size. All I managed to do after that was fit the adjustable thermostat to the radiator bracket. (27/02/05)
• Not much done this weekend, very little time. Made reinforcement plates from 3mm steel plate. These were cut and welded to strengthen the main chassis rail to the front chassis leg. Also, manages to weld the lower steering bracket on to the chassis upright. (20/02/05)
Ordered a few bit and pieces including a 16" electric fan and Starter Switch panel from N.F. Auto Development - Car Builder Solutions. Very friendly. (19/02/05)

January

• Drivers foot-well/bulkhead was next for the cardboard template stage. Started to cut the sheet metal up and my jigsaw decided to give up the will to live. Looks like I will have to buy a new one. Spent some time deciding on how to make my brake pedal assemble - more cardboard templates! - eat your heart out Blue Peter!! (30/01/05)
• New steering bracket cut out and bent up today. This will hold the bottom end of the column just before the UJ to the rack. (28/01/05)
• Bulkhead was the next task. Cardboard template made and transferred to sheet metal. This was bent to shape and fitted. Only clamped in at this stage. (21/01/05)
• Drivers side A post / bulkhead / front inner cill area work was carried out today. Bad metal removed and new sheet metal formed ready to be welded. (14/01/05)
• A few new goodies ordered and delivered during the first week of this month. The small! list goes like this : new alternator, battery, battery box, chrome accelerator pedal, stainless steel (s/s) throttle cable, Holley throttle cable bracket and double s/s springs, 8 way fuse panel and wiring kit. Phew!! I think that was it. (09/01/05)
• Time was spent today removing the remainder of the bulkhead (firewall) by the passenger and driver side. (07/01/05)
• Treated myself today. Went to Machine Mart and bought some bits to add to my compressor equipment. A Mini Filter for spray and blow gun. A Filter, Regulator and Lubricator for the rest of my air tools. (06/01/05)