Show season is well under way, and I’ve already attended one so far: the Porsche Concours held at Larz Anderson. I’ll be posting photos of that soon enough.
Here’s a bonus set of photos from the end of last year’s show season that I sort of forgot to publish to my blog. I actually participated in the drag races, using my friend Eric’s Rupp. I didn’t win; I kept hesitating at the start. But it was fun, and I’d really love to have a minibike of my own. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of myself racing, but that’s kind of how it goes when you’re the one taking all the pictures. Many more photos after the break.
RIP Carroll Shelby =(
Last night I finally liberated Sunshine’s wiring harness. In order to get it out, I had to take out a lot of the dash and pretty much all of the heating system. It was definitely more work than I had anticipated, but at least now I can properly clean and repair it. While I’m doing that, I will also clean out the engine compartment, make a few minor repairs in there, get rid of some small areas of surface rust and finally repaint it before the new motor gets put in.
Female Race Car Driver Talks About Vegetarianism -
Nice article on Leilani Munter, professional race car driver, vegetarian and environmental activist.
*Gratuitous picture of yourself in an engine compartment
The old motor is out of Sushine! With my dad’s help, last night we got it out. It was a bit tricky with the crank pulley and the water pump still on (I knew I should have pulled those), but we managed.
The easy part of the project is over. The priorities now are to get the wiring harness out of the car, clean, repair it and reinstall it, clean, repair and paint the engine compartment, and get the car ready to receive the new motor.
Ok, yeah…let’s just say that this would be the absolute perfect car for me. Yes, I know I still have two project cars I’m working on…shh!
More info, and it’s for sale: http://bringatrailer.com/2012/02/21/bat-exclusive-awd-1971-mini-vtec-rocketship/
I’m still working on clearing out Sunshine’s engine compartment, and it’s coming along pretty well. I’m removing the wiring harness so I can make repairs to it and clean it. It really needs it, since some of the connectors are messed up or broken and previous owners did some pretty awful repairs to it. I’m surprised the car ran as well as it did…or even at all, to be honest.
The harness is all freed up from the engine compartment except for where it goes through the firewall on the passenger side. I wasn’t sure what I should do there until I asked the guys on the turbo-mopar forum. Apparently the connector is inside the car, so all I have to do is get in there, remove the kick panel and disconnect it. Too bad I didn’t know that before I stopped for the day. Oh well. I got a lot done anyway.
Sorry, no progress photos this time. I don’t really have anything exciting to show right now.
Last night I pulled the fan, radiator and intercooler, alternator and power steering pump, then stopped for the night because my back was killing me from being hunched over for so long. Anyway, there’s not much left that I need to do in order to get the motor out:
It looks like more of a mess than it really is, trust me. Although, speaking of messes, I did drench myself in antifreeze after accidentally bumping into the bin full of it with my creeper. That was fun.
Also, out of curiosity I checked the S/N on the block. Unsurprisingly, it’s not even close to the car’s VIN:
It’s also been painted heavily with brush, like some other things on this car.
I bought a shop crane and engine stand last night. My friend Paul helped me get them home and assisted me in assembling the shop crane since it’s too heavy for me to do myself. I wish I didn’t have to buy one, but I don’t have any beams in this garage to hang a chain hoist from, so this is what I have to do. Also, I used to have an engine stand, but I think it’s in NJ with the MGs. That was relatively cheap anyway.
It’s going to be a tight squeeze with the shop crane in my little garage, but I think it’ll be ok. Also, I think I’m going to have to move the Shelby as far as I can to one side of the garage in order to take delivery of the new motor. I have a bit of time before I have to do that, though.
Once I get the old motor out, I plan on pushing the Shelby outside and giving the engine compartment a good cleaning. It definitely needs it. Hopefully I’ll get a warm day to do that.