Nominal

Making some progress with the bag setup. When I bought the car it had been fitted with an A/C dash (it wasn't A/C originally) and was supplied with a York compressor and some of the mounts. First problem was the crank pulley. It was running two sheaves on the crank, one for the water pump and alternator, and one for the power steering. The factory setup has a third sheave for the A/C, running around an adjustable idler. I was visiting the US back in September so managed to order the correct pulley (which fits over the balance, so was huge) and A/C mounting bracket. Unfortunately the seller didn't do a very good packaging job with only the crank pulley arriving. I managed to get another A/C mount via Craigslist at short notice though, so it worked out OK. When I got home I realised that I needed a smaller water pump pulley to fit with the big crank pulley. Not having a good source for this I cut the inner sheave off my newly acquired pulley and mounted it to the old skinny balancer. For some reason this didn't align with the P/S pump. so a 3mm spacer was needed between the pulleys. New pulley mounted up This is the newer of the two A/C compressors. It's a York 2-piston unit. I tested the magnetic clutch and that the unit still spun OK. This is the idler for the A/C belt which also includes the alternator mount and adjuster. I had to cut off one ear to fit around the water pump, and also adjust some spacing for belt alignment. The 50 year old A/C mount needed some clean up and rust removal in acid. Nasty stuff! The mounting bits almost ready to go on. I wanted to block off an oil passage which allows crank case oil to be sucked into the compressor suction side. This doesn't matter in a closed A/C system, but is messy when using it as an air compressor. Head off shows the reed-type valves. Removing the valve plate shows the pistons. The crank is in a separate chamber below. I used a self-tapping screw to block the passage. All assembled onto the engine, and with a couple of new belts as the lengths had changed. I started the car up and it all stayed in place. Jumping the magnetic clutch resulted in some satisfying pumping action.

Drums right now. I am sort-of planning to do disc conversion with bags for cert savings. I acquired a new 77 T-bird disc/drum master in the USA recently (f'n massive thing too). Was thinking of Falcon discs for front. The car is 2 tonnes so needs to be something fairly big. Going to keep old bushings if I can so far. I did have some new steering rod ends and upper (I think) ball joints shipping from Rock Auto.

Broken windscreen is an arse. Flying rock?

Ohhh panorama pic - flash! Good meet once again, nice location, nice meal, great company!

You can do some maths if you know/guess the corner weights e.g. http://www.ridetech.com/info/spring-rate-calculator/

Sweet - should be there with Morris.

Maybe replace the ball bearings and spacers with taper roller bearings? That's what I've done on my Morris Minor.

Eventful race for sure. Bummer for SVG. I though Lowndes was a bit hard done by too. Exciting last lap but.

" Material having a thickness of equal or greater strength than 8mm (5/16") mild steel" Also says that 5mm is acceptable for unusually short pedals like Lotus 7.

Nice!

Get the test done first - it needs to "comply with, as a minimum, Tables 6,1, or 6.2 if the AS/NZS 1556.1:2004 Standard" blah blah, basically a certified tester. A report needs to be provided by the tester to verify that the standard for testing has been met, and that the component is considered to be free of defects. (from the HCTM) They recommend magnetic-particle testing for ferrous metals. I'm going to have to go through this process soon. When I asked Andy Smith about it, he said to follow the procedure in the book (as above).

Nice job on the carpet. You'll have to keep the inside dry now!

I'm planning triangulated 4-link. Haven't started that end yet. Got the same accuair controls - I agree sweet looking gear. I just have the rocker switch though (going cheap for now).

I'm not going any lower than the stock bump limits. Travel is actually restricted by the shock location and available stroke. At the end of the day, I doubt either setup will be worse than the stock suspension. It's not like yank tanks for old Toyota wagons are corner carvers

It all seems a bit random. There are specs available for the firestone bags so you can do calcs if you know the original spring rates, weights etc. I haven't seen any detailed specifications for the SS bags though. After a fair bit of google bashing (El Polacko on the HAMB is good), I've punted on SS7's for the front of the Merc. Takes ~70psi to get to ride height I think, so hope that works out OK.

Must be LS1 time!

Cool video eh? Was that you doing the driving?

You might have to do some calcs on the M/C size. Smaller piston there will result in greater braking effort for same pedal push, but you also need to move enough brake fluid to the discs. If you just use the same M/C you may not like the outcome. As noted above, you can tinker with pedal ratio too. I've had good advice from Les Hunter in Chch (even though I wasn't buying anything).

See here for dry icing //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/40842-sound-deadening-removal-advice/

Wish I could find the box with the nuts and centres in right now. Lost in the shed somewhere. Anyway, back in 1963 Ford introduced the 'compliance link' into the front suspension of the Galaxie (and fullsize Mercury). This is a offset pivot on the front of the lower A-arm that allows the arm to move back under compression (or something like that). It was such a 'great' idea that it was dropped after the 1964 year. When driving the car with these things it gives a weird feel to the front suspension, especially under braking. While still in the USA a bought a big steel bar that bolts between the links on each side and effectively locks them out. Worked fine, but now that I am doing the airbag thing, I wanted to get rid of it. Here is the link in the chassis after the A-arm was removed. Here are the parts out the chassis. The shaft threads inside the housing which is in turn threaded into the chassis. I had to borrow a big 3/4 drive socket from oldschooler CXGPWR to get it out. There are various kits available (at outrageous prices) to replace this. Some use a straight bolt mounted through the centre of the housing, while others have new offset mounts in the chassis. I decided to use the offset approach as it puts the pivot in the factory 'rest' location. A chunk of 50mm bar got mounted in the 4-jaw of my old clunker lathe to start the process. Here is the result. The thinner mount goes in front, the thicker towards the rear. It needs to be thicker to take up the space used by the crank piece and a washer thingy. The through bolt is 3/4 x 9 inches (thanks NZFord for supplying those). They seem to work fine in the chassis. When I'm done tinkering I'll tack them to the crossmember so they don't rotate.

Last week I think. Now 50% off. All Haynes manuals etc $20.

Why yes, sorry, I thought you were linking to the electric model. I must put one of these on my 'neat stuff to do one day' list that I intend to get to when I retire

Stirling engine powered fan would be cooler!

Could maybe look in on the old tractors at Rod Clifton's, or possibly the Studebaker collection in Otaki....

Been rolled sometime then? At least it doesn't have gaping rust holes all over.