Well, the other day, the '75 finally went on a short maiden voyage after it's 20 year coma. It amazes me no end how far we came with it considering the minimal work involved. The car runs actually very well considering I haven't rebuilt the carb yet. Lifters quieted down completely after just a couple minutes of constant running on fresh conventional oil with the Lucas added. Power steering works beautifully as do the brakes. Alternator is charging very well. Here's a shocker. The a/c actually blows cold air! We couldn't believe it. Clutch was free and it engaged without making any bad noises. No bad noises from the suspension. Tranny appears to be operating ok with no leaks since we replaced the coolant lines. No noises from the drive train. Only issue we found was a metallic tinging coming from the transmission area which we traced to the reman starter not backing the bendix quite enough so the gear was making minimal contact with the flywheel when the engine torqued. New shims coming today to fix that. My buddy who is an accomplished engine builder told me that with remans, this happens because the tolerances of the starter are often minutely off. Was a routinely seen issue with older Fords, thus why starter shims came into existence. Fortunately one can still get them otherwise it would take another starter to fix the issue. The issue was easy to spot once the inspection plate came off the tranny. Reverse lights seem to be not working but I would think it's the all too common switch issue that we find with these older automatics. What this means is that there is every hope that the car comes home this weekend under it's own power so cosmetic stuff can start. I went to see a guy in E. Aurora, NY yesterday and picked up a set of bumpers and dog dish caps and got them for a great price. It was worth the 6 hour round trip. Mine are corroded too badly to polish up. The replacements needs a couple spots fixed as to the chroming but I have a replating kit coming from Caswell to fix them up. If the kit works as well as it appears to, I'll have to replate the side view mirror as it is not in great shape either. I was hoping NY had a nice mirror as he has a lot of Maverick parts but no luck there. As to the hubcaps, I have a full set of full wheel covers, the more fancy type that I've freshened up. Just have to make a decision on which route I want to take with them. After a through scrubbing inside and out, it'll be time to tackle the three rust spots and refinish the paint where they are along with a number of spots needing paint correction and some paintless dent pulling in several spots. I would consider repainting the entire car but just plain isn't in my budget. The torque boxes have already been fixed by a pro so that's one bigger job done. Considering how little $ I have invested so far, this is coming together much better and faster than I had anticipated. I love it when a plan comes together.
With the ac working it would be a shame to have crack open that line . Its amazing how these car can sit for so long and fire up with just a little maintenance
