JANUARY 23, 2005 - THE ART OF PROCRASTINATION

 A lot has happend since the last update

1) bought a house (see New Stable for the Pinto)  

2) found out that I will be a dad in June

3) worked on the first 2 rooms of the house to keep wife happy for a little bit.  

4) reassigned job and now live 120 miles from home Monday thru Friday until the end of February. (makes working on car in evenings impossible)

Now for the car,

Transmission -
The transmission is actualy an Srod from the 82 Mustang GT.  This puts the final ratio for the Transmission at either .70  or .81.  I will not know until I get on the road.  Either way, the car will run on the highway all day long in a low Rpm range (Rear ratio is 2.78).  The clutch is also cable actuated, meaning it will be a simple installation to the clutch pedal in the car (once we install the pedal)  

Engine-
The person who was to be helping rebuild the 351 ran out of time and can no longer take the time to help rebuild the engine that would involve a complete tear down of the engine.  We now have to revise our plan.

We will now be taking the engine block as is and only have the required head work done since we had a bent push rod.  When we parked the Mustang, the engine ran well enough to get it where it is now parked and did not smoke through the exhaust.  However, it did have some issues with the cylinder heads.  

The cylinder heads are now being worked on at a machine shop and should be ready by the end of the week.  This will allow us to start the rebuild and installation since we only have 9 weeks to have the car completed and ready to go.  


As you can see in the picture, even though the car has been sitting, we have been busy purchasing parts to complete the pinto.  From left to right are the latest purchases.

Moroso Battery box (sealed), Summit Racing timing set, (2x) 2.5" Summit racing turbo mufflers, Water pump pulley, Alternator brackets, fan blade, drive shaft loop, complete gasket set, new headlights, intake for the 351w,  (2x) 5 point safety belts with date of June 2004, and a clutch assembly from other pinto.  

Other items that we managed to sell were the original front turn signals and the seat belts we removed from the car.  We received $15 for the belts and another $10 for the turn signals.  

If all goes well, our plans should be as follows,
Jan 29/30 - get the engine built and mock it up in the frame of the car as time permits.  
Feb 5 - finish installing the engine and get dimensions of the drive shaft for resizing.
Feb 12/13 - complete painting the interior of the car and install the fuel cell and battery box
Feb 19/20 - TEST FIRE THE ENGINE AND CROSS YOUR FINGERS
Feb 27 - Finish up engine bay, install the Monte Carlo Bar and hood.
Week starting Feb 28 - Work out bugs of car and work on body
Week starting Mar 7 - More of the same
Week starting Mar 14 - Paint the car
Week starting Mar 21 - Finish up the paint and re-install the windows
Week starting Mar 28 - Drive (trailer) the car to Gainesville Florida







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