[BillC]

Originally Posted by Dr K

What is the round thing that extends about 3 cm below the center of the engine (with a bolt in the middle of it)?

It's called a "tuna can". It's a small deep sump, and fits in the opening for the stock pickup screen.

[BillC]

Once again, it's been a lot longer than planned since the last update.

Since then, I cleaned, de-rusted and re-painted the sheetmetal heat ductwork. I media blasted the worst of the rust off the parts and then soaked them in B'laster Metal Rescue, which is their copy of Evaporust. The stuff is nice because it won't eat the metal once the rust is gone, but it takes a long time, is rather expensive and doesn't last as long as one would hope -- I went through 3 gallons before everything was clean.

Turns out I had already scrounged up and stashed away all the sheetmetal needed, except for the flat-ish guide plate that goes above the shift rod. Fortunately, AA had new repros in stock, and it needed only minor tweaking to fit (had to move a couple of holes).

I also connected the heat control cables and the hoses to the body ducts.

Here are a couple of pics of the finished job:

[BillC]

Spent the last couple of days working on the car, trying to see about rearranging the fuel pump and filter. I removed the tank, pump and filter, and then spent quite a while futzing around trying to figure out some place to mount both in the tunnel with the steering rack. Despite trying multiple different locations, ended up deciding that I still preferred how everything fit under the tank. Yeah, I know that means I'll have to pull the tank to change the fuel filter, but honestly, how often to y'all change your filter anyway?

I did make one change to the hoses. Originally, I had cobbled up some brass fittings to go from the 3/8" tank outlet to the 1/2" fuel pump inlet. This time, while I had everything apart, I decided to make an adapter out of a piece of 303 stainless I had left over from a past project. Here it is just before cutting it off:


Here's the reinstallation, before putting the tank back in:

Just a little annoyed that I spent two days getting back to where I was before I started.

And, since it seems like I'm actually getting close(-ish) to starting this, I ordered a new battery:

Decided to go with AGM, even though it was twice the price of flooded.

[cmartin]

Just a little annoyed that I spent two days getting back to where I was before I started.

lol if its any help, you arent the only one

nice work, thanks for sharing

[BillC]

And we are making progress! For the first time in 4 1/2 years, the car is back on the ground!


In addition to finally getting it back on its wheels, I finished reinstalling the rest of the fuel injection parts (ECU, MPS, etc). I also reinstalled the steering wheel and wooden pedal board. I just need to reinstall the seats and get some fuel, and then I can try to start it.

[HoodPin]

^ Great news!