Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Still no pictures

I did some work on the car this past weekend, but didn't take any pictures. So the dilemma is whether to post here or not. I'm going with a post, for the sake of recording the history of my progress. I can always come back and add a picture later if I take one.

First I got my Russ Thompson pedal pads installed. These are aluminum plates that go on the brake and clutch pedals to make them match the very nice Russ Thompson gas pedal that I got. They look much better than stock. The directions were so cute, too. They noted that the original steel pedal would interfere with the rubber grommets in the pedals, so you'd have to grind them down a bit. As though there were parts of this car that don't need a grinder for installation.

Then I finished up my cooling system, or at least the water-carrying parts thereof. (The electric fan still needs to be hooked up.) I bypassed the heater for now, because it was slowing me down just thinking about it. The car isn't likely to get much winter use anyway.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Freezing my butt off

It's cold in the shop. So cold that I've been a little worried about my beer and soda in the shop fridge. Any idea how cold a bottle of beer can get before it blows up? I'm not sure, but it has been down to 25 on the thermometer out there and they're still intact. The fridge might be warmer than the rest of the shop. Anyway, 25 is cold enough that you really can't handle metal tools without gloves, and it isn't any fun to lie down on the concrete floor.

I got out and did a little work this weekend anyway. I got my front cover bolted back on again, along with the thermostat housing. I drilled and tapped the thermostat housing for the fan switch, and it seemed to go pretty well even though I did not have the correct 37/64" drill bit. I attached the small coolant hoses (heater loop, bypass, heater return), routed the positive battery cable from the trunk area to the starter relay, and hooked up the transmission end of the speedometer cable. Just little things here and there. I think next up is radiator plumbing.

Catching up from last week, I got the pedal bender tool from Roy and put a little space between my brake and accelerator. Even so, I think I'll need to drive in narrow shoes. The clutch can't really go any further left because of the frame tube. I could potentially open up a little more space to the right of the accelerator by customizing the aluminum there.