stick shift close out

I welded the small steel bulkheads onto the transmission tunnel:

The used the score and fold to close out the remainder of the opening.  I left a small gap around the shifter that will get closed up with a rubber gasket eventually

 

Finally welded in the rest of the close out.  Next will be to prime ant slather all the joints with seem sealer.

 

After making a list of what needs done while the engine is out, I yanked it again.

I had a stuck bolt that had broken off which held the radiator in.  Now that I am using the stock radiator a while, I need that broken off bolt out.  I had already worked on it for like half a day last summer and gave up.  Tonight I slid a nut over it and welded it hard.  The nut glowed whitish / translucent after I filled it in with wfs at 50 and heat at 4.  Then it spun right out with the impact gun.  I always feel like I've gotten away with something when that works.

 

I get the balance of this weekend, and then spring break is over.  Fortunately I have a good list of things to do that are straight forward, so I can potentially get out there a little here and there before the semester ends.

Radiator solution

Left side is the focus radiator, right is the Mustang Radiator

 

When I picked up the mustang radiator, it sounded like plinko on the "price is right".  I shook it and a couple mouse poison pellets fell out.  I shook it some more and:

 

Fortunately no dead mouse in it.

 

The mustang radiator core is 1.5 inches thick,  The focus radiator is 1 inch thick.  The mustang radiator is about 50% taller.  Unfortunately It is also a little wider and doesn't fit between the headlights unless I mount it super low, or too far back.  I don't think the focus radiator is up to the task of cooling this motor, but I looked around online and found another builder who used the stock focus radiator.

 

In the spirit of get it running and driving before committing money to fixes, I think I will build with the focus radiator which will require no mounts or fanciness.  See what happens, and then react accordingly.  The stock shroud and fans will not fit.  However since I won't have the AC core in there, I now have room for a pusher fan:

one year down

So teaching swatted out my progress pretty hard like I expected.  Should pay for the fuel injection and then some, so worth it.  I just found out I will teach in the Fall again, so this is turning into a good bit of income on the side to fund vacations and car stuff without touching my primary income. If I can just get a few more tree surgery gigs...

Anyway this month makes one year done on the project.  I feel like I took on many of the harder problems in the build, and have good, safe, and innovative solutions to show for the effort.  I have spent almost nothing, learned a lot of new things about cars, and about how to make things.  I am very happy with where I am at.

I am burning up some vacation this week and have gotten out there a bit.  I have some progress to report:

Steering / suspension: 
I bought the bump steer kit from Maximum motorsports and a 5/8 drill bit from Mcmaster and drilled my knuckles out with my neighbor's mill.

So then I could put the struts, knuckles, brakes and new links in to see how everything fits:

 

I will have to move the brake hose attachment points aft about 8 inches but I have parts to do that.  Bottom line is this can be on its wheel now whenever I want, and I can steer it with the steering wheel.  Really psyched about that.  I will set bump and toe later in the project.  The kit came with Nylock nuts.  I will probably add a cotter pin to the mix for good measure.  For now I will swap to non nylock so that I don't waste the nylock feature when I know stuff will come apart again.

 

Clutch:

I mounted the slave cylinder to the car.  I will beef this up a little later:

 

 As you can see above, I found a brake line that is 3/8-24 male on the slave cylinder end and 7/16-24 on the female end for my flare nut. I don't even remember now the trickery I used to find this, but it is a Dorman hose H64843 available from anywhere, and really cheap.


 I took the little push rod and threaded one end, ane threaded one end to mate to a rod end, and lathed a groove to receive the dust boot:

 

Here it is with the hardware that will hook to the clutch arm: 

 

Now I am looking at where the accessories wil sit, the belt routing and tensioner, and the radiator.  I want to be sure that I hve clearance for everything.  I through back on the ront of the car that has been off for so long to check how all this will fit.  The engine looks like it belongs in there, and the suspension looks like I never touched it: