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.

More Happenings

We took the car to get the exhaust done on Thursday. This picture was taken at the exhaust shop I believe before they did it. Mike and his dad had already put the H pipe on prior to it going to the exhaust shop. Turns out we had the wrong output on the mufflers but the shop just swapped us straight across.

 The rear valance is not on the car, but you can see the two exhaust tips sticking out. I love the way they point down and with the valance on, they are perfect. I didn't want the exhaust tips to be really noticeable so I am very pleased with how they turned out.

 The fenders also came back. The car looks great with the fenders on. Although the driver side fender is back off the car and back with Gary. There was a spot that needed to be fixed with the paint.

 Mike put the lettering on the fenders. Now there is no mistaking what kind of car this is. The running horse emblem we had to order a new one because the kit we had was messed up and had one emblem for '67 and one for '68. Which the pegs are bigger on the '68 and the peg on the tail of the horse is placed different. So soon we should get the correct emblem and get it on.

 These pictures are out of order, but Mike had put the cardboard divider that goes behind the rear seat. He also put a metal divider as well just for safety measures. It didn't come with the metal one, only cardboard but seeing as the gas tank is in the back, it is safer having some sort of non flammable barrier between the interior and the trunk.

 This is looking at the cardboard divider from the trunk.

 Today Mike is working on the carpet. I will have more pictures of the carpet on a later post.

More Stuff...

We got the front and rear windows put in the car yesterday. We have the original rear window, but had to get a new windshield since the original one was broken. I am still a little bummed about the Hill Airforce Base sticker that was on the windshield from my dad, but oh well. We were able to at least get a a Carlite windshield for it.

 Mike then put the A pillar molding into the car. I honestly don't know if I typed that or spelled it right. I just asked Mike what they were called and that was my best interpretation of what I believe he just called them. If I got that wrong, sorry.

 He then put the rear view mirror and the sun visor in. I learned today that there are still plastic tips that have to go on the end of the sun visor rod that will actually hold it up in the hook. I learned that after nearly cracking our new windshield while playing with them. Lesson learned. Mike was very quick to remind me that he had warned me about that yesterday...which I apparently tuned him out during that chat.

 He then moves on to putting the stainless trim on the back window. We were able to salvage the original trim. It may not be the shiniest at this point but that will be something we will probably change down the road. With the money pit this thing is turning into, we decided we would have to draw the line somewhere... and so we did not fork out the money to get the trim polished or anything like that. Which I am perfectly fine with. I still think it looks great!

 There were some swear words with this trim. One of the holes got covered so it took some work getting the screw in. Eventually he got past that little road block and was able to get the rear window trim installed.

This is how the finished project looked. Unfortunately this is not the best picture. I am apparently really bad at taking pictures.

My Dad and Dave came by to see the car. keep in mind all of the things I am posting today were all last nights happenings. Anyways they came by and checked out the progress on the car. They seemed impressed. It was fun visiting with them for a few.

We are quickly running out of time. We are trying to have this car done by April 20th so we can have some time to work out any kinks before taking it on a 300 mile road trip to the show. So that leaves us about a week and a half. Things are coming along pretty quick though. We should be getting the fenders back from Gary soon. Also we are going to be dropping it off at the exhaust place before too long to get the exhaust on.

In the meantime, I have been trying to get as much overtime as I can handle to help pay for this restoration. This coming Saturday will be my 3rd Saturday in a row doing overtime. I have also tried to get an extra hour or two of overtime during the week. I am glad my work offers overtime. It's tough making myself work more than I absolutely have to, but I will do anything I can do to ease the financial burden.

Anyways its all coming together. It still blows my mind when I look at this car and think that it is actually my car. It doesn't seem real. I can't wait for it to be all done and be able to go to car shows. It will be a blast. I especially look forward to some local shows where Mike can have one of his cars on display beside mine. That will be neat!

Window Installation

Mike and his dad got the windows in the driver and passenger side.

The windows obviously need to be clearned still, but it amazed me how much work actually goes into getting the side glass in.

 They also got the door handle, key hole and the gromit in place.

Lots of frustration and a few swear words later, the windows were in. The front and rear windows didn't get put in to the car until today.

Headliner, Doors and other stuff..

We ran to Hooper yesterday and picked up some more parts from Gary. These are some of the parts baking in the sun. We also grabbed the doors but I didn't get a picture of them out in the sun.

 This is the side scoops in the car also with one of the doors on. Both doors are now on it but still need to be adjusted. The Side scoops look awesome! It's amazing the difference doors on a car make. It's actually really starting to resemble a car again.

 Ron came over and spent a few hours doing the headliner in the car. It turned out so nice!

Now we are working on getting the glass in. Tomorrow we are having a glass place come over to put the rear window in as well as a windshield.  Once all that glass is in, we can start really putting together the interior. Which means one of these days soon there should finally be a seat in there for me to sit on, therefore making it much easier and comfortable for me when I want to hang out in the car.. I am excited!

I got behind... so here it goes...

Mike got the filler neck hooked up to the gas tank and put the gas cap on. Looks good!

 This is the finished windshield wiper fluid hose.

 Mike decided to get the wiring all setup for the CD player that will be hidden in the glove compartment.

 We will have these speakers in the back that can easily be removed for car shows.

 This is with the CD player sitting there actually playing. Of course the first CD to ever play in this car was Stg Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. That was the memory my mom had of this car... seeing my dad sitting in it listening to that album. So it was only fitting to play that album again. It was actually a really neat moment seeing the car come to life. The dome light working and the everything else.

 This is the proportioning valve that is part of the power brakes. We were missing this part but were able to get one so Mike put it in.

So I think I am pretty well caught up. I managed to get sick one night and that was all it took for things to spiral out of control and for me to continue to get more and more behind. Lots happened tonight that I hope to blog about tomorrow.

Camera Saga

So I really worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the restoration from this point on... but I seem to be doing not too shabby on blog posts. Interestingly enough its the camera's that can't keep up. The camera I have been using all along is apparently on it's last leg. It works only when it wants to. So I can be going along taking pictures and it will randomly shut off. Then two minutes later will work again as if nothing ever happened.

So I dug out Mike's fairly new camera that really as not been used too much. Of course the battery was dead so I had to throw it on the charger. The next day I used it but sadly every single picture on I took turned out horribly blurry. So that camera is just not going to work for me.  Mike's cell phone actually takes pretty decent pictures... I am just weary of it since the Mid Mountain Marathon I tried to take pictures with his cell phone and managed to only get a picture of his feet. Sadly it is currently the most reliable camera I seem to have. Although I have noticed it takes more yellow shaded pictures.

So for the time being I am pretty much using my camera when it wants to work for me... and going to also use Mikes cell phone when needs be. Mike's nice camera is out since apparently you have to have some serious holding-still skills to make pictures turn out with that. I guess I shouldn't complain because at least I do have other picture options, but why does this all have to happen now... at the craziest part of the restoration??!!

Anyways on to pictures.  Mike and his dad put the hose for the windshield wiper fluid in.

Then came the dash pad on the dashboard. That was exciting. Prior to that going on, they put speakers in the dash. Sadly the picture I have with that was on the blurry camera.

 Notice how the car suddenly went from red to orange? That would be the way Mikes cell phone sees the car. I much prefer the pictures to depict the car as close to what it is in real life as possible... but I just have to do with what I have.

 Once again,orange. I swear it's really red. Notice in the background you can see where I was setup last night.... the chair and my laptop sitting on a TV tray. Not as comfy as sitting in the actual car but I didn't want to be in the way.

 So I went to bed at this point. I was exhausted! I guess Mike was out pretty late working on the car again. When I got off work today I came in and he showed me his progress. Such a beautiful sight seeing the dash almost totally completed. It looks great with the instrument cluster and the other trim. It is starting to assemble a car more and more every day.

So just a side note...from today. I know I am trying to blog about all last nights work and all tonight's work will be tomorrow's blog. I have to stray from that for a minute and talk about our little trip to the DMV. Apparently getting the lost title for this thing is going to be a bit more difficult than we thought. We had to wait to have the car back so Mike's cop friend could sign our Vin# verification form. So that all happened today. I am happy to report that it came back as not stolen. Good to know my dad's not a thief. So that meant we could finally file the paperwork with the DMV today. At this point we may not be able to get the title and get this registered before the car show. At least that's what it sounds like from turning in the paperwork to the Utah DMV.  Mike did call a DMV in Oregon (since the car was last registered in Oregon in 1981). They said they have purged files that far back so they will have to check their microfilm. So they will get back to us within a week. So maybe they will be faster dealing directly with them than the Utah office. Guess we will see. Keeping fingers crossed we can get this all squared away and the car registered in time for the show!

Lot's of Little Things

This picture cracks me up. It was actually taken a couple of days ago but I just found it on Mike's camera. I look tiny! The reason being that there are no seats in the car yet so I am sitting on the car floor between where the front and back seat would go. That is my nice little hang out spot.

 Lots of brackets and such put on. The hood hinges all set and ready to support the hood.

 I made Mike take a picture under the car... which is where him and his dad spent a decent amount of time last night. I really have no idea what specifically they did... but it looks pretty.

 Another view from underneath.