The Mav fired up first time and after a few quick adjustments it was running smooth. It took less then 10 minutes. So we let it idle while Kim moved a few thing around to get out of his backyard and we put the tools up. The Mav sat and idled for at least 15 minutes. Then we parked it at the base of the driveway (still running) for Kim to take a few last photos leaving his house. That took another couple of minutes. So it was time to head home.
We started down the street, got about
15 feet and the Mav died in the street and did not want to restart. Some quick
troubleshooting and we found that gas was not getting to the motor. We hooked
up an electronic fuel pump Kim had around with a clear fuel filter. It started
up. Within a few minutes we could see that the fuel filter was collecting a
bunch of crud in it. We had put on all new rubber fuel line and blew out the
metal fuel line, however Mr. Murphy decided to step in. Since we could now stop
and start the engine at will, we decided to hit the road once again. Bottom
line is that about 1:00 PM. Kim backed the Mav into the driveway of our house
without any issues during the three mile drive. I gave Kim a ride back to his house
and came home with the old messed up hood to practice some body work on.
Prior to replacing that small hose, the engine would start and after about 10 seconds die. Since then it ran for the 3 or 4 minutes I let it run.
Continuing with the working on the cheap mode, I removed the tail lights to re-paint
the bezel's and the blacked out part of the rear. I figure it is small enough to be
good practice on, yet big enough to make a noticeable improvement. Yet, if I
screw it up it will be small enough to re-do in the future.
Here are the before and after photos.
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| BEFORE | AFTER |
Cheryl was in Houston visiting her parents over the holiday weekend. Work gave
us Monday off, so I had a 4 day weekend to play with the car. I was able to
finally get around to doing the compression test with 100-120 PSI across
all 8 cylinders(see the results).
I did have quite a bit of oil on each of the spark plugs. From what I can find
in my research, I suspect that the valve guides may be leaking oil. Since I had
to remove each spark plug anyway, I went ahead and replaced them all with new ones.
The timing was dead on the mark so I did not have to mess with it.
I was over at my parents for dinner and mentioned to my dad that I was thinking of putting the Pertronix points replacement system on the car. The biggest reason being the cost of points, condenser and a tach/dwell meter would be most of the cost of the pertronix system. He pulled my old tach/dwell meter out of a drawer in the garage. It is the same meter I used when I first owned this car back in 1976 (along with the same timing light I still use today). I was not able to adjust the idle speed to below 800 RPM so I will have to work on that.
It's only rust. So far all I have encountered was surface rust. Nothing that
a quick shot of some sandpaper or a wire brush would not take care of. That was
until I pulled the battery out to clean that half of the under hood area. Under
the battery try, I found my first really badly rusted spot. Looks like a little work to
fix this spot. Overall
not bad for a 34+ year old car.
This is how it tuned out after being fixed.
This is the result of some rust removal, rust conversion, rust encapsulating, panel adhesive and new
metal. All finished off with some seam sealer, primer and paint. I used the panel adhesive for two
reasons. First being this is not a structurally important area and is very flat. Second, I do not have
a welder to have welded in new metal. I'll have to keep my fingers crossed that this
ends up being the only bad spot on the car. So far so good.
Once again this month the focus will be on cleaning. With the cleaning and touching up of the under hood being the main area of focus.
I am not sure home much will really get done this month. I would like to do as much as possible. Around here it cools off and starts to rain in November. I figure that gives me at least two full months of nice weather for working.
However, September is also a busy month for us. This year my parents will be celebrating 50 years of marriage on the 11'th. Followed in a few weeks with my mothers birthday. I was happy to start the month off with a 3 day weekend. I did not do any work on the car the first day. Instead I went to a 60'th birthday BBQ for the brother-in-law of the original owner, Joe. It was great to see them all. Joe's sister, brother and son were all there. These folk have always been like family to me. It hard for me to remember a time when they were not a part of my life. It was truly great to visit with them and gave me a new burst of excitement about working on the car. Joe has passed on but I hope when I complete this project. His family will enjoy seeing his old ride on the road again as much as I will enjoy having my fist ride back on the road again.
While a lot of the cleaning has been under the car and knocking surface rust off of the frame. Here are some photos showing a little progress under the hood.
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| BEFORE | NOW |
This month started off well. I got a new tool for my Birthday that should help with some of those rusty nuts and bolts. However, I did not get much work done. I lost one weekend due to work. I had to travel to Eagan, MN for a weekend installation of some special order products for one of our major customers. I was able to take my "weekend" on Tuesday and Wednesday of that week. I just did not feel like doing much those days.
No real plans for this month. Hope to get some more body work done. I have the trim under the front bumper off (from last month) and I am working on fixing a few dents. Like the area between the tail lights. The front trim is an are big enough to make a difference, small enough to redo if needed and hidden most of the time, making a good area to practice and learn on.
I really did not get much done this month (cue the violin music). I had to make an unplanned work trip to a customer outside of Minneapolis. I left our house at 4:30 am on Thursday and was back on Friday night about 5:00 pm. Needless to say, I did not feel up to working on the Maverick that weekend. Then my Grandmother passed away just before Thanksgiving. So, I really did not feel like doing much that weekend either. I was sad at her having passed on and more so because I was not going to be able to addend the services.
Once again no real plans for this month other then try to do what I wanted to
last month. This month will also mark the 1 year anniversary of my getting the
car back from Kim. Looking back, I have not got as much done as I had hoped.
Maybe we will have a warm winter (so far been colder then normal) so I can get
more done.
What I did get done was:
Back flushed the radiator. I was surprised by how little rust came out. The
cooling system was real clean. It took a few minutes to get my baby to fire up.
But, it did start under its own power and ran smoothly. It took about 10 minutes
for the blue smoke to clean up. It still smelled from burning oil, but was not
belching blue smoke all the time. I even took it for another quick ride around our
town-home complex.
I ran out of touch-up paint and did not want to order any more until after catching up on all the Christmas bill. I did get paint just in time for it to get cold and stormy. We lost power twice in two days.
To be 100% honest not much done this month.
The first week of the month I was sort of sick. Not sure what I had, not really
"sick" sick. Just felt like all of my energy had been drained. NO, It was not a hang over!.
Then we had a bit of a cold snap where it
was just not fun being out side or even in the garage.
Another weekend was taken up with problems with both the DirecTV TiVo
box downstairs and our home wireless network .
That same weekend was also my dads birthday.
I also had to do some work on our
Mystique to replace the rear trunk
struts (what a pain to figure that out) and an oil change.
Enough of the excuses, maybe something good will happen next month.
I did manage to get some more touch up paint and smooth
out a bump on the front under bumper trim.
Another month of not getting much done.
The DirecTV folks called and moved our upgrade from the middle of next
month to the end of this month. I had to do a bunch of list minute things to
get ready for that.
The Mystique
stuck back again this month. I had to replace the battery. I really should
not complain. I knew it was coming and it was still the original battery
from the factory when the car was built in 1998.
It has been rather a cold and rainy month. Just not very enjoyable to
be out in the garage and work.
I do know that next month and maybe even April will not be very productive
as far as the Maverick project goes. I need to have a little work done on my
person and will have a few weeks of recovery time where I need to take it easy.
Just like I expected, I did not get much done this last month. I did have my
surgery which put a stop to any work since the middle of the month. Prior to
that I spent most of the month getting things ready to be down for 6 weeks or
so. I did manage to spend a little time working on the front under bumper trim
and think I have it real close to being finished. It seems to look good under
primer.
I do not expect to get anything done on the car in April. I will still be somewhat
restricted on lifting and moving heavy things for most of the month and we have plans
for a couple of weekends toward the end of the month.
Got to love living in California. The weather is nice but it does have its bad points (for some things). The Smog Cops for one. In order to protect the air the state has passed many laws that make some items not legal to sell in the state. What does not make sense to me, you can buy 4 or more quarts of this paint in quart cans, but you can not buy one gallon of the very same paint in a gallon can. I am sure that they have some big hairy technical reason for this, but it does not pass a common sense test and only makes us pay more for the same thing. Then instead of having one can to trash, you have a bunch of smaller cans. The extent of stuff you can not buy here is getting nuts. They outlawed some small gas powered gas generators. I guess that 3 or 4 hours a year a person might have to use one is going to kill us all???? As they say, give me a break. They did some good but I think they are getting a little full of themselves.
Along those same lines of thinking. The (San Francisco) Bay Area Air Quality Management District sent me a letter early this month. They offered me $650.00 to drive my Maverick to an approved wrecking yard and have it scrapped. The idea is to get 1985 and older cars off of the street. I'll be passing on that offer. I'm still hoping to win the lottery and being able to have the money to get Chip Foose to work his magic on my car. Not counting on that however, I will continue to have lots of fun working on my Mav as time and money allow. Smog Cops be damned, this is a collectors car and will only be a "weekend car" once it is complete. Not a daily driver.
One of the reasons not much got done this last month was our plan to stop by the all Fords car show held every April at Knott's Berry Farm. This was the first car show I have been to in many years and we had a nice time at both the car show and the theme park.
May 2007 It was another month of not much done. We had a few other things to
do over the weekends. The wife was not feeling well and I did not want to be
making a bunch of noise and have
Bondo or paint smell drifting
into the bedroom while she was not up to par. I also caught a case of the
"lazyies" despite being motivated by last months trip to the car show.
I did decide to start on the rear under bumper trim valence.
This damage was done back in either 1976 or 1977 when I fist owned the car. It was hit
in the parking lot of the Jack In The Box
I worked at way back then.
I did manage to continue pretending I know how to do some body work. I got the rear valance about 99% done. It has some complex angles as it curves up and has the flat spot for the rear licence plate. Most of what is not done very well will be covered by the rear licence plate. I would be safe to say it is "good enough" but I am trying to get it better. I feel it is best to practice and build my skills on a part that will hide any screw up's while building some skills to make the more visible areas come out better.
As a side note: I sent an email to one of the local adult education centers. They have two different body shop classes that meet one night a week for about 4 months. I asked if the class would be good for a hobbyist or just people wanting to go into the profession. I also asked if you could bring in your own parts to work on in class. In my case the body is in good shape and it is the front fenders, doors and other stuff that is easy to remove that really need attention. The only contact given for email did not know and said he would ask his instructors and get back to me. So far it has been about 2 weeks, and I have not gotten any other information from him. The class starts at the end of August, so I would like to find out soon enough to try to register. Otherwise, I will have to try again after the first of the year.
Here is a link to the class information. It is not the most user friendly site. You may have to search for "auto body" to find the class's they offer.
July 2007I did not do as much as I wanted. I continued to work on the rear valance and started on the trunk lid and rear spoiler that attaches to it.
August 2007 Had a moisture event happen in the downstairs half bath that sucked
up a weekend. Other then that, I did get front and rear valance's body work done
and in primer.
I even put some paint on the sides that will not be seen once installed
to see how it would look. The back sides were not smoothed out since the only
way they will be seen is if someone were to lay on the ground and crawl under the
car. These are good enough for now.
September 2007
I had a little time to work on a few things this last month. I dug
out my old air brush stuff to practice with. I got this stuff years ago for my
then backyard railway project. Anyway, I wanted to practice my air brushing skills on
something that was not very visible. So I did the area behind the passenger side
headlight.
Changing the color from the red of the replacement fender to goldenrod yellow.
I also got some work done on a small dent behind that light on the fender as
well as the trunk scratches. The rear spoiler is still a work in progress.
I am not expecting to get much done in October, The weather is starting to turn cooler and
damper. The rainy season should kick in by the end of the month. Also, we need to make sure we have the funds
to cover two Birthday's, and the upcoming Christmas holiday. Not to mention property tax's, car insurance and
the truck licence renewal are all coming due by the end of the year. Guess that is why this is a hobby car... So
you can do what you can when time, weather and other resources allow. I am still enjoying myself with it.....
This was not my most productive month as far as the Maverick goes. I got fooled by the weather and busy with a few other projects round the house. About the weather...Well, around here the rainy season starts about the first of November. This year we had a nice rain in early October and it seemed like we might have an early winter. So we started to clean up the garage to move the patio cushions and other stuff into it. Then the weather turned nice and we are still firing up the BBQ to cook outside. Since the Maverick was already in winter mode. I did not to do much work on it. The only thing I did was clean up the area under the Maverick and re-hung the front and rear valance's. Sort of... I tie wrapped them up to get them off of the floor.
With luck, I can work on the small golf ball size dents on the front fenders during November. Only time will tell for sure.......
I was correct in last months prediction about this months productivity. Then again, when you make a prediction that you control the outcome of, I guess it is hard to miss. Anyway..... About all I did was fix a few small dings in the rear spoiler and prime it. I have also been doing some research on possible future upgrades to the suspension.
So what excuses can I come up with for not making any progress this
month. Well I did have a cold that set me back a week. It was also rather cool
and damp most of the month, so I did not feel like working out in the garage.
Any extra money was used on Christmas (NOT HOLIDAY) presents. To be 100% honest
I am a little disappointed with my progress. This month marked the 2 year
point and I am no where near where I had hoped to be.
GREAT NEWS!!! The Maverick is 100% complete. I used the lottery winnings
to take the Maverick down to Chip Foose.
They were able to complete the car in only 3 weeks because they wanted to use the car in
a TV show.
I can not post any after photos until after the show airs.
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP,
What is that? bat-crap - its the alarm. Time to wake up. I just had the most wonderful dream....
Needless to say, in the real world not much got done again this month. It might be
March before the weather is nice enough to get in the garage and get started
again. I did do a little work on some rough spots on the passenger side door
and front fender.
The car spent most of the month with Chip Foose doing
publicity stuff for the TV show.
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP,
OH-MAN - its the alarm again. Just another dream....
Real world progress: Zilch, Zip, Nothing. But the weather does feel like it is about to turn to spring. We
are exiting February with cool foggy or over cast mornings but afternoons are pushing the upper 60's. So March looks
like it could be good for getting back to work. One would have thought that with this being a leap year, February would
have been more productive.
Sorry for the late update. Here it is the end of the first week of April and I am just getting to the update for last month. I did think to do the update at the end of the month. However, I was in Springfield, IL at the end of the month for my work. I had to leave during the weekend to be there for Monday morning. Toss in the cooler then normal weather, Easter and nothing got done once again.
I do not think much will happen in April.
Our complex is having all the buildings
treated for subterranean termites this month. We need to clean out a 3 foot area along at
least one wall in the garage and move the washer and drier out of the way. They need to
drill holes into the cement floor for the treatment and then fill in the holes. So the garage
is going to be tore up for at least 2 weekends (one before and one after treatment). We also have our
anniversary coming up in April.
I did make a little progress this month, sort of. I had to make another quick trip to Springfield, IL that involved traveling on the last Saturday of the month. I also lost the better part of two weekends getting ready for and recovering from the termite project.
So what kind of progress could I have possibly made? I was able to get
the garage cleaned up and ready to do some work. We were lucky that the weather
turned nicer early in the month. That allowed us to move the patio chair covers
and umbrellas out of the garage and into the backyard. I also was able to pick up
a few supplies such as much needed sandpaper. So I hope to make May the first
real productive month of the summer.
A very small amount of progress this month. Mostly just sanding a
little on the front fenders trying to smooth them out. The weekends did not go
as planned. With Mother's day one day. Our complex wide garage sale was the next Saturday.
I had to install some plumbing for the new refrigerator (with ice maker) and I missed most
of the 3 day weekend because I had to travel to Houston for work. I had to be in Houston on
Memorial day, so that we can start first thing on Tuesday morning.
With my lack of progress I am
starting to wonder if I might be better off selling my much beloved Maverick and get some of my money back.
We can use the money on better things. Then again, I do enjoy the time I do get to spend working on it.
It is hard to believe that another month has gone buy and I did not get a single thing done to the Mav. It just seemed like every free day of the weekends was taken up some other project that needed to be done around the house. I'll keep my finger crossed for next month to be work related travel free and we get caught up on the home front.
July 2008At least this month I have a few excuses for not getting much done... Let me see, I got hot. I mean it got HOT and stayed that way. We were in the very high 90's or low 100's for a long time. It was just not pleasant being outside. Besides the heat we had a lot of crappy air quality. Lots of warnings for unhealthy air and a bunch of "spare the air" days. Some due to the high heat but most of it was smoke blowing in from the large number of wildfires burning in the state. Most of them were at least 120 miles away. Since some were to the north and others to the south it did not matter which way the wind was blowing, we would get some of the smoke. Once the weather returned to our our normal summer it was late in the month. By then we were behind on yard work and other things that needed to be done around the house
On a sad note, I also went to Ken Metherell's funeral on the 12'th. Ken was a cool guy and a real old school car guy. I met him back in High School when I first met Tracy.
August 2008Zip, Nada, Nothing to report. I was trying to keep my evenings and weekends free just in case Obama or McCain wanted to talk with me about becoming the vice president. Neither of them did, so I guess I should have some time to work on the car next month.
