Bearded Baldy

Housing, head and backingplates got waterblasted, wired brushed, wiped with petrol and coated in paint.

Like the sound of that idea. Will get this diff sorted then see what i do next.

Well shit, that escalated quickly. Got it on the bench at work and took the axles out. Looked like relatively fresh grease on them, feel smooth enough too. But what can only be described as mud on the splines. Hmmm Looked at the pinion trying to decide whether or not to spin it and ruin my day. Pinion bearing growly as the dog. Pulled the head out and checked it over. Bit of wear and pitting on the teeth, all bearings rooted. Have it all stripped down waiting on a waterblast now. No rush as the first place to price bearings came in near 460 dollars which ain't happening this xmas. Will let my fingers do the walking tomorrow.

Love working at home. Rules can suck it. Loaded up ready for a ride to town.

Have been putting off doing anything to the utes for a long time, funds and inspiration are lacking. Pushed bluey onto the mowed part of the lawn tonight and lightly buffed the label on the diff. 3.909 ratio! Will jack it up this week and pull the diff out, put it on the white ute and take it to work for the xmas break. Be nice to work on things without interuptions. New axle bearings, brakes, and a rattlecan resto on the housing is the plan.

Haven't looked for mounting points yet. Need another storage shed before i take the rest of it apart. Can't rush these jobs. Cheers for the info.

1978 falcon. Never had rear seatbelts. If i was to cert for efi upgrade on the 6 cylinder, later diff with discs, aside from brake test and driveshaft hoop is there anything going to trip me up? Will i need to fit rear belts? Reg on hold not lapsed.

Recommendations for blasting and priming?

I need to take that out too.

That is future baldies problem. Still trying to figure out where i am putting the bits i have taken off already.

Some carefull grinding sliced the nuts nicely. Lights out and quick brush off revealed some nasty shit. A little bit in the bootlid. But..... the channels are mint! The scaly bit behind the chrome trim mentioned earlier. Barely a fleck in comparison.

Bumper is off. So is the towbar which won't be going back on. Rear corner chrome trim came off with minimal surprises, on one scaly section out of 8 screwholes so pretty happy with that. Tail lights are giving me arseholes, nuts are siezed onto the nolongercaptive studs. And all my vicegrips are at work....

Tail light panel.

Rh side

Lh side.

Went through the boot today, found a few gaskets and other bits and pieces i had stashed over the years. Removed the carpet and ran a screwstick around the seams before waving the vacuum around and looking for speedholes. Worse than i thought but still not as bad as it could be. Yet. Still need to remove lights and bumper to get a better idea. Soaking all nuts and bolts with crc before i start that fight.

Went for quick drive up the road to turn it around, some more crud got in the fuel line and got some big leanpops during the 'u-turn'... fuel system is all getting redone so not too stressed. 3 year old fuel in a 43yr old tank was never going to run perfect. But it fits.

Noice

Yeah i just did the satin black version on forza, looked better in my head. So oe spec it is. Looks much better irl too. Going for a quick shakedown run today, need to turn it around so may as well go up n down the street a few times to shake the last cobwebs off.

Colourscheme ideas for when body is finished.... Back to oe spec colour and vinyl roof was the gameplan. But part of me thinks that satin black body, no trim strip, black vinyl roof. Gloss black bumpers and cragars. Chrome around front and rear screens, and gutter channel chrome, would look choice. Throw some ideas at me fellas.

But closer inspection shows the truth... best i look at that bumper tomorrow, hope it is just a lump of shit on there and not a hole.

Shed reshuffle all done, selfpriming fuel pump needed help so got an old fashioned shanghai suck and spit, one mouthfull later i had a running car. quick wash to get the pollen and moss off, passes the 10 yard twilight test.

Changed my mind about the shed, want car on the other side so i can still use lathe, grinders etc, and most importantly reach the stereo. So for todays mission i am reorganising the shelves and moving shit from side to side. Another crate of rubbish full already. Still not convinced it is all mine....

Have head. Ports are far better design the ironhead currently fitted. Will price up options of bigger valves etc before i go too crazy on cleaning up the throats and reshaping chambers. also soooooo much lighter.

Shed has been a mess for 4 years at least. Started as organised clutter then progressed to utter shambles. Took most of the weekend, and a few hours tonight. But it is nearly ready for car again. Done one trip to the dump already, have to take some waste oil/dirty fuel containers to work to empty out. And move a few things to the garden shed. Nearly have room for the tv too!