metaruss

The stupid radiator core support broke and the engine mount smashed the crap out of the radiator.  Whatever moron at whatever body shop fixed this thing did a really crappy job.  They replaced some of the metal, but didn’t bother to actually weld any of it together.  Instead they put a couple of pop rivits in, used the wrong bolts on the ends, and let the rest of it float around (which is why the hood looks a little unsteady at speed).  The core support itself was not even straightened out.  Instead they welded some angle iron and a piece of a bed frame to it and hoped for the best.  The remaining sheet metal fatigued, cracked, and ripped apart.  I pushed everything back where it is supposed to be, more or less, and welded it together.  It should hold for a while.  Ideally I should cut that whole mess out and weld in a new one, but I can probably do some creative sheet metal bending and make it work too.

My intent was to build-up this motor over the summer, but I simply didn’t have time.  I also wanted to fix the fender and paint the hood, but again no time (house stuff).  I spent most of my free time trying to get the CSX ready for the convention.  So, the Daytona basically sat in the garage all summer while I drove the CSX.

Before putting the CSX away and getting the Daytona back on the road, I did manage to fix a few things.  I went to a local fabric store and purchased new headliner material and finally fixed that stupid thing.  While I had it out, I installed the ’87 overhead console and associated wiring.  While doing that, I also prepared the wiring to accept the early 12-button navigator in the ’91 slot.  This required splicing in about 12″ of wire into the harness so it would reach.  Also fixed a few other electrical gremlins.  The compass in the overhead console has a problem retaining it’s calibration and the thermometer was way out of whack.  I managed to calibrate the thermometer, but I was not able to get the little microcontroller in there to keep its memory.  I’m not sure what causes it to lose its brains, but it is fairly intermittent.  My primary motivation to install it was the compass (I don’t have the best sense of direction), but it will have to wait.

Put the car to rest for the winter.  The inner tripod on the passenger side axle is pretty loose and the car needs tires, but other than that it ran good all summer/fall.  I do need to drop the oil pan and install the crank scraper, oil temp bung, and possibly some baffling.  The one thing that got me at the driving school at SDAC was oil supply problems.  By the end of the session the car was running pretty bad because of collapsed lifters.