Age Progression of the Car

One neat thing that happened on the St George trip, is my aunt giving me pictures of the car. I am incredibly thankful to my aunt for holding on to this car and allowing me to purchase it from her. I know she is still struggling with her decision to sell the car, which I completely understand. It honestly means so much to me to be able to have this car. I am so thankful she held on this car through the years so that it could be restored.

Anyways I figured I would show the age progression of the car so here it goes... 

These two pictures were taken in April 1967 (when the car was only 3 months old)

The next three were taken in May of 1974 on my aunts wedding day

 This picture was taken in the 1980's

This was April 2008

 And current day (April 2012)

Just for comparison sake...

It's Showtime!

The 28th was the show. We got there early and got the car nice and clean. This is the view looking over part of the Tuacahn parking lot.

This is me standing next to the car

 With my display (which I only put up after the car had been judged)

 We got a picture of my dad sitting in the car. It was so fun having him at the show with me. He seemed to really like the car and it was a trip down memory lane.

 Me and my dad with the car

 Me and Mike with the car

 Saturday night we had to move the car so it could stay over night. So we ended up towing the car with a golf cart. Someone has video footage of it which I really hope to get a copy of someday soon. Anyways this is the car tucked in for the night with the car cover over it.

 The next morning ready to be shown again. We ended up staying in the same place we moved it to so we didn't have to tow it back to our original spot.

 I was very surprised to get 2nd place in my class. The awards are made out of sandstone and are rather neat.  It was nice being able to get an award. We were told that there were two things that made the difference between us getting 2nd versus 1st place. We didn't have time to get a spare tire for the trunk, and I left the floor mats in the car. I had gone back and forth on if those had to come out or not but finally just decided to leave them. So lesson learned, those come out when being judged.

Anyways it was an awesome show and an awesome trip. I am really glad we were able to get the car there even though it wasn't running. The car turned out amazing and I feel like the award really should go to Mike for taking charge of this restoration and making this car what it is. I feel so lucky to have my dad's first car and to be able to have it restored. I really loved having my dad at the show with me. I feel like the luckiest person in the world!

Autocross and Pony Trails

The 26th was the autocross. Mike's parents had us drive their Cobra to St George so they could autocross it. Mike had some fun autocrossing it. This is the best picture I could get of him doing the autocross.  He made me go with him one round but I didn't like it. It scared the heck out of me! He said his goal was to make me squeal which I did. I will admit it, I am a chicken and going fast around a course with lots of skidding and sliding is not my cup of tea. Mike sure enjoyed it though.

 The 27th was the pony trails. The morning of the pony trails we went and got my car off the trailer and situated at Tuacahn and went through classification. It was decided my car would be in Occasionaly Driven - Trailerd  class. After getting that figured out we headed on the pony trails. Heather and Dana were in Nightmare and we were in the Cobra with the top down. We also stopped in Hurricane and picked up my dad so he could go with us.

 This is me and my dad sitting in the cobra in Zions.

 On the other side of Zions all the cars met for lunch at a ranch. It was a really good lunch. It was chicken or buffalo fajitas. I enjoyed it and I think my dad enjoyed it as well.

We then headed back to Harrisburg and I got showered and cleaned up before heading to Iceberg in St. George for a cruise in. It was fun!

Off we go to St. George

Tuesday, April 24th

Mike got straight to work on trying to get the car to run, since we were suppose to leave for St George later that day. He tried numerous things and ruled out everything,but then decided that there must have been bad gas in the used gas tank we had put in the car. So he pulled the gas tank. We couldn't find anywhere that had a gas tank in stock so we talked to Mustang Ranch which had one they said we could use if we bought a replacement for them when we got home.  So Mike and switched that out. They put new gas in but the car was still having problems so finally it was decided we would just trailer the car. Mike's parents were nice enough to trailer my car, even though it meant the Pace Car staying home.

Mike putting the car on the trailer.  

 We really tried everything we could think of on the car. We even stopped that evening in Springville and tried one last ditch effort to get it running but to no avail. So the next day (the 25th) we ended up taking the car to a mechanic shop in St George. $200 later we at least had an answer but no solution. So everything checked out ok so it has been deemed that the sludge from the bad gas is making the valves stick, therefore the car is backfiring. Mike did however get to drive the car down the street before it died and had to be towed back to the shop. It was frustrating not being able to get it run, but we decided that we could not put anymore money into the car and Mike would just fix it when we got home.

This is the car while at the shop.

 I realized I had not gotten a good picture of the car so I took a picture while the car was in the parking lot of the shop.

It still blows my mind how good the car turned out. I Love it!

Finishing Touches

This post is all the stuff that went on Monday, April 23rd

Gary came by with the remaining car parts. He helped line up the body panels, did some paint touch up, and put the stripes on. This is the hood waiting to be put on the car.

 The glove compartment and ash tray are now in place. The dash board is finished!

 The stripes going on

 Mike then put the door panels on

I love how the stripes turned out. It looks awesome!

Time is running out!!

The trunk is back now. So that is all installed and Mike put the lettering on it. The bumper also was put on. So the back end is complete.

 This is the trunk before the trunk mat went in.

 This is how it looks with the trunk mat, the jack pouch thingy and the spare tire cover. We actually need to get a spare tire for this car. We have the wheel and a tire, it's just a matter of having the tire put on the wheel.

 Another view of the complete back end.

The headlight trim is in place and the front bumper is on.

 Mike then put the trim around the windshield. It looks so much better with the trim on there!

 Complete with windshield wipers installed.

 A view of what the car looks like as of now.

Things are really coming together, but getting frustrating. The car will start but has a hard time starting and doesn't idle very well. So we are still trying to get that figured out. We did get the leaks addressed. Mike put a new gasket on the transmission pan and took care of that leak. He finally got to a breaking point and decided he needed to just buy a new intake manifold since it was leaking antifreeze but also letting air into the engine. It sucked having another unexpected expense but it solved both of those problems.

Today has been a frustrating day trying to get this thing to run right. Mike is on the verge of throwing in the towel but is still trying everything he can to get the car running. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will be able to get it running and will be able to drive it to Tuacahn on Tuesday. Time is quickly running out though. We still don't even have the hood. We should get that back tomorrow or Monday. We are going to try to meet up with Gary tomorrow to get the body panels lined up and the stripes put on the car. I can't wait for the stripes. That will be exciting! So it's still blows me away how nice this car is turning out, but I will be very happy when it's running right and it's finally done!

Finally Running

To begin with, I had to show the picture with the Walter Larson Ford emblem original from the dealership. It's fun that it was still on the car and salvageable.

 Mike and his dad got a lot of front end stuff done. We got the driver side fender back all nicely touched up.

 I had gone to bed at this point but got up this morning and came out and saw all the progress last night. It really is looking like a car now. The bumper does still need to be put on though, and of course the hood.

So a couple nights ago we tried to get the engine running. We put fluids in and inevitably had every type of fluid leaking. So after tightening and fixing a few things we got most of the leaks taken care of. So then we moved on the starting the car. First we had problems with the pertronix. So Mike had to go back to using points in the distributor. After that it was a matter of trying to get the timing right which wasn't working out so well. We eventually ran the battery dead and called it a night.

So tonight Mike came out determined to get it running. He had thought it over and thought maybe the engine place had put a different cam into the engine then what it originally had. So he decided to try a different firing order. So after switching all of that, it fired up right away. It was exciting hearing the car running. There were some more leaks so Mike is now changing out gaskets and tightening things so we can try to stop the leaks. Hopefully it will help and it wont leak so bad, although I have been warned that there are always leaks of one sort or another. Especially with the transmission.

So I took video of the first time the car started... and here it is...

And just for comparison sake... here is the video from the first time we started it after dragging it home from St. George when I first bought it.

And More....

The interior is almost finished. Mike put the side panels and seats in.

 Looks great with the seats in. Now we just need the glove box and ash tray.

 This is Mike putting the back seat in.

 And the completed backseat. The wires are for the speakers. They wont be out like that during shows.

Exciting having the interior all completed. Sunday morning I sat in my car for a little while just enjoying it. Mike decided to come out and sit in his fastback beside me. It was actually a lot of fun chatting while sitting in our cars.

Some more exciting news.... we finally got temporary registration for my car. We can now legally drive it to St George. Although we are still working on getting the car to run... but I have faith we can get it going.