January 2006
| Well another year gone and I'm still
plugging along. My original goal was September 2005. Seems I missed that
mark by a long way. I think I might now shoot for anytime in 2006. That is
quite feasible and going by the assembly phase, I might even get there by
September 2006...time will tell. They say only mad dogs and Englishmen venture out in the noon day sun. Well stupid Aussies venture into garages when the mercury hits 50 degrees Celsius, as it did at my place. That is around 125 degrees Fahrenheit in the old measure. In fact, it was the hottest day in Sydney in 68 years. Luckily I'm like a lizard and the heat doesn't bother me too much, as long as I have plenty of stuff to drink. |
| Here is a little mock up. You will notice a
carby on top, but I'm still pondering if its going to run LPG or not. I will
get it on the road with petrol ( may as well get some use out of my custom
stainless steel tank I had made a couple of year ago). The rocker covers will be sent out through the
week for a buffing along with the headers for HPC coating. The engine needs
some other stuff as well, like alternator brackets, electronic dizzy, MSD
module and heater pipe. It looks like my best source for new stuff is now
Robbos at Campsie. They have a lot of stuff that I can't get anywhere, also
at a good price. Cleveland stuff is getting harder to find, so once I find a
good source, I'll keep going back. The next pic is the dip stick tube for the Bronco sump. It does not come cut to the right length or in any particular position. I decided to have it hang off the rear header bolt. That is optimum for me as its out of the way of everything but accessible at the same time. I found an old bracket and welded it to the tube, then bolted it to the header bolt.. I then roughly worked out how far the dip stick goes in and cut it off. I'll calibrate it later when I fill the sump with oil. |
|
|
| After stuffing all holes with rag and a good
going over with prep sol, I gave the engine a coat of primer. Next week we
will see what colour Marg and me decided on using. That is not an easy task
as the colour the engine ends up will also be the interior colour. Marg and
me had a lot of discussions before we finally came up with a colour. Next
week I will declare it and hopefully show the engine in it.
Ok its next week and here it is. We went for a candy colour called Regal Blue. It's hard to reproduce in a picture but it is slightly darker then what you see here. It should look good against the polished rocker covers and chrome accessories. I hope to have them back by the end of the week |
 |
|
| This was my first attempt at a candy paint. This took both days to do. The first day was prep, and Sunday was painting. This required primer, 2 base coats of silver, 3 coats of candy and finally 3 coats of clear. Very laborious in deed, but well worth the effort I think. The next pic is my new Edelbrock Performer manifold. I was contemplating leaving it bare alloy, but I later changed my mind and gave it paint as well. The chrome ARP bolts will look great against the blue I think. |
 |
|
| The gearbox was hard to paint because of all the nooks and crannies. I ended up using my touch up gun. It was a lot more controllable and small enough to use at all angles without getting the paint to run. The chrome pan looks great against the colour. |
 |
|
| I placed the water pump onto the chassis to get an idea how the blue candy blends in with the black. I plonked my new MSD distributor in to see how it looks. I'm happy. I'll start to assemble stuff through the week. Hopefully It will have all its bling back on by next week. Then I'll drop it and the gearbox back in. |
 |
|
| OK, this is the engine during the dress up phase. The rocker covers have been buffed up and I spent a few hours masking and painting in between the fins. That is a tedious exercise but the end result is worth it. |
 |
 |
| I could have used more modern rocker covers, but I have always liked the M/T style. It also seems unique to a Clevo to have the level top style covers. A bit of bling adds to the appeal. There's more to come in the guise of braided hoses. Again, some feel that its old hat, but if I listened to everyone else, I would not have done some of the things I have already done. I like what I like and I'm to old to change:-) |
 |
 |
| Poetry on an engine stand I say. If it goes half as good as it looks, I better get myself a neck brace before I drive it:-) |
 |
 |
| Before I bolted the intake down, I removed
the lifters and gave them a dab of lube because the engine has been sitting
around for about 8 years and it looked a bit dry around the cam lobes. I
found an old fan belt so I can get a new one the same. I am toying with
painting the dizzy cap black. MSD say that is OK to do. I am also having new
custom leads made in black as well. They will form around the side of the
rocker covers in a loom. I have left the centre of the rocker covers plain.
I have plans for a unique insert to go in there, but I still haven't thought
of anything good enough. I'm open to suggestions. I may just use plain old
351 High Performance badges if nothing better comes along. Here it is now slung back into the chassis. You may also notice the dizzy cap is now black. I also painted the top of the coil. There will be no red to be seen. I have also got my new leads, custom lengths, also in black. That's the next job, also to put in all the senders ( oil, temp, speedo drive etc ) |
 |
 |
| I still had the transmission lines that I
removed from the T400. I thought they would go close to fitting the C4. Well
they were just about perfect. I used the original hoses to mock it up. I'll
get new hose through rhe week, along with some clamps to hold them. I was told that these new in line coolers work very well. I mounted mine beside the openings in the X member so it will get plenty of air. This turned out to be an easy job. After I took this pic I replaced the rear seal in the C4 and fitted the tail shaft. |
 |
|
| Starter motor now bolted in permanently,
also the steering shafts. All looks good..so far! This pic shows how far I painted the terminal towers. I left the top unpainted just in case the spark wants to track down the paint. Once the grommets are placed on, you can't see the top. I think it should be OK. |
 |
|
| Here is the cap with the leads formed through the lead retainers. I will get some plastic retainers nearer to the cap to hold the loom. Note to, I painted the top of the coil as well. No more red to be seen. |
 |
 |
| It will still need a bit of fiddling to get
the leads just right, but on this initial trial, it looks promising. Once I fitted the radiator and pumped up the tyres, it seemed obvious the height of the car is to much. It will settle a bit more, but I doubt it will come down enough. There is 7" from the front end to the ground. I am contemplating getting dropped spindles. |
 |
|
| This is the Lokar kick down cable. I had discussions with other rodders whether the C4 requires one or not. The consensus is it can live without one, but it will be more streetable with one. I had to modify the bracket to fit the situation. That carby is an old Holley square bore that I'm using for a trial fit. I have a new one on its way. The gearbox end fitted up fine. |
 |
|
| I finally got my headers back from being ceramic coated. They look OK. Shame I didn't do a neater job on the welding, cause the finish is spoiled by my efforts. |
 |
|
| All in all, it was a fairly productive month. Things are coming together quite nicely. The engineer is coming over for his first inspection next month. I feel like a kid having his home work marked. I can't stop thinking I should be studying something. If there are any issues, its better to find out now. When the body is on, it will be a lot harder to change things. |
