72 TA : New Project

[njsteve]

Took her out for a drive yesterday. It was record-breaking 78 degree winter day here in Joysey. She ran very nicely. It is quite a kick to hear the secondaries on the Quadrajet kick in and simultaneously watch the shaker trap door open up, doubling the volume of the angry, engine noise.

Still tinkering. Found a near-NOS quality, interior rear view mirror on ebay to replace the de-silvering glass, original. I found it with an hour to spare on ebay and ended up paying only 34 bucks for it. Since it costs twice that amount to get one redone and you tend to break things when trying to take one of these apart, I think it worked out quite well.




Also, the alleged reproduction mirrors all the repro companies offer are completely wrong, as they have a chrome, not textured black, housing. No one correctly reproduces the black painted mirrors.

Here's a shot of the original one:

[KevinW]

Steve, you always find the odd stuff cheap [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img] Wish Jinx was ready last friday! Still redoing the gas lines and tank (winter project, just a little late )

[njsteve]

Hey, it's officially Spring now, so get movin' [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]

Any word on a replacement location for the Jackson Outlet cruise?

[Jeff H]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: njsteve</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Any word on a replacement location for the Jackson Outlet cruise? </div></div>

Word is the new cruise location is supposed to be at the Shoppes at Hamilton which is on rt 130 north, just south of I195.

[KevinW]

Steve, any time you want to go to a free cruise night, let me know. I am compiling my NJ 2011 cruise/show calendar and have my email chain up and running. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Not being satisfied with the wrinkles that were left in the back edges of the headliner after my amateur installation a year or so ago, I took the car out for a 70-mile round trip drive today, to a long-time upholsterer I have used for other work.

He's been doing this stuff for 45 years and he still says he's learning new methods every day. After about an hour or so of tugging, heating and massaging, all the wrinkles are gone. He said one of the mistakes people tend to make is not to trim away enough of the fabric channel that holds the metal bows. If there is too much of the channel still attached to the headliner on the ends, it will cause bunching and wrinkles in the edges and corners.

All in all, he said he has seen a lot worse backyard jobs than mine, so I guess that was a compliment. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

(P.S. I think it's time I cleaned the camera lens.)

[KevinW]

Nice! Just took mine for a spin too. The gas is flowing! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Did the annual oil change yesterday. I put 1,150 miles on her since April last year. Five quarts of Castrol GTX 10W40 + a can of STP + 3 ounces of Camshield zinc additive.

Changed the plugs back to the NGKs. It really runs a lot smoother with those NGKs in. I had swapped back to the set of Autolites during the ignition trouble-shooting episode a few months ago but I noticed it runs &quot;different&quot; with the Autolites - it kind of surges at a steady RPM. That doesn't happen with the NGKs.

Took her out for another spin today to test drive the new oil (needed an excuse). I'm beginning to like this thing. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Still fine tuning the tuning: [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

I bought a one step colder set of UR5GP NGK plugs to see how they burn. After 35 years of wrenching I'm still learning about stuff, like how to read the electrode and where the burn mark should be.

Here's the UR4GP, burning a bit too hot, as the flame mark on the electrode is closer to the base than it should be. (Too close to the tip would indicate too cold of a heat range).



And the UR5GP burning the preferred area, halfway up the electrode:



And here is the base ring color with a consistent brownish tone, allegedly indicating proper carb jetting/fuel mixture:



Any tuning gurus out there, feel free to chime in with your opinions!




This looked like an interesting article on plug reading:

http://www.wallaceracing.com/plug-reading-lm.html

[njsteve]

In case anyone is still following this insane thread, I started on a new project - my Gramma Rose's Firebird that we've owned since new:

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...019#Post449019

[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]