update on Rich's build

[Zapato]

45 years ago on a Fairlane that was mine for a few months I removed the Ford crest in that rear seat panel trim piece,drilled a hole and mounted a black t-handled choke cable. Not very trick but being younger and much more limber could reach it from the driver seat and pop the trunk. Never bothered to disconnect any of the stock hardware. More of a novelty than anything else. As always your solution is definitely cleaner and well thought out.

Zap-

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks, ZapAto. Since I removed the trunk key lock/Ford ensignia, I had to come up with something. I really didn't want to have to go behind the seat to reach a manual cable unless as a backup, so the wires were alot easier to run to where I could reach it from the interior.
I got the engine fired up with the cop's...no issues, runs just like before. Now a few days of cleaning things up in the engine compartment...removing unused brackets and clips, rerouting coil wiring, wrapping wires, etc.
LOL..in case anyone is wondering what's with the "ZapAto"....On the Hamb, and probably here alsoI had been misspelling Zap's name as Zapoto..One of the members, from Portugal, corrected me and said it was ZapAto.

[Zapato]

Rich, the idea of a back-up on the trunk latch is brilliant. Nothing like having a backup plan in case something goes wrong. If you never need to use it then really nothing is lost. Can't put a price on peace of mind.

ZapAto - 

[RICH MUISE]

I got my cowl vent cover installed yesterday.....one of those 1 hour jobs that ends up taking all day. First, I had painted it 3+ years ago, but never color sanded it.....a pita on this piece not to buff thru. So, I got it sanded and buffed as much as I dared. Second, since my cowl is not being used for fresh air, I wanted to seal off the opening as much as posible and still have access to the wiper mechanism. I applied a rubber tape on the bottom side of the screen under the cover, and then repainted it so the sticky tape wouldn't be gathering dirt and dust (pic #1). The rubber tape I used is a 1/16 x 1" rubber tape with an extremely aggresive adhesive that fuses to itself. It's not coming off easily after it touches down, and certainly not intact. Lowes, 9.50 for a 10ft roll (pic #3). I also used it to wrap my wiring where the engine wires all came together on the side panel. Made sort of a rubber boot there with the stuff.
I couldn't find the rubber antisqueak seal I thought I bought for the cowl panel, but I'm glad I didn't because I ran across this seal I picked up in Phoenix last year @Socal on their clearance table. At the time, I thought it looked like it might come in handy, and it did...perfectly. It's a seal for a 49-51 wagon tailgate, lower seal. pn 8A-7943016. It fits perfectly, and I think looks much neater than the oem '57 rubber (pic #2).
Edit 6 years down the road:......sealing the vent is not a good idea. Engine heat will eventually build up the temperature inside the cowl, and with the sealed screen, it can't vent out, so the heat gets transferred to inside the cabin. Not good.

[Zapato]

the more I read your posts the more I think you must have been a great artist in a past life. as always it continues to look well thought out and executed.

ZapAto - 

[jvo]

You're pretty creative.  Some real nice stuff here.  And I didn't notice it till you brought it up earlier, but I've been meaning to comment on your rear roll pan.  That really looks good.  I'm gonna have to make most of the back end on my Ranchero project, and just might take a few cues from yours. 

[RICH MUISE]

"well thought out and executed."...well, thanks, but not always the case. Yesterday for example. Since I now have a windshield, I was fiddling with the wipers and washer nozzles a bit. Everything was working excellent until my  driver's side wiper started losing some of it's sweep, but the passenger side was ok.(I've got a hard arm system I made up). After thinking it over, I pulled the vent cover off so I could have a look inside to see if what I suspected was the case, and it was. Back 2 or 3 years ago when I was designing/building the system, I did a small tack weld on the arm that attaches directly to the oem wiper pivot, not wanting to do a complete weld until the system was installed and checked out. Well, that idea was "well thought out", but unfortunatly not executed because I forgot about just the small tack weld and never completed a weld I could depend on. That tack weld broke as it was very small, and probably too cold of a weld for the thick plate. Anyway...no biggie...I pulled the component out and did a really good it-aint-coming-apart weld. Only problem there was I forgot one of the swivels attached to the arm had a nylon/plastic snap on fitting. You guessed it..it melted before I realized what was going on. Dumb...dumb...dumb, it only would have taken a minute to snap it off the metal ball post. Instead of that minute I got to drive to a u-pull-it yard and take apart a Mustang for another hard arm. Tommorrow I'll get that modified and try real hard not to take two steps backwards again.

[RICH MUISE]

Still fiddlin' with the wiper arms. I had commented in the past that the oem Mustang joints I had used were nice and quiet, but the heims joints weren't (I used both). That wasn't the case, I discovered yesterday morning I had an issue with the length of stroke on one or more of the arms that was causing a bind on the others, and that's where the noise was eminating from. After unsuccesfully trying to adjust, I finally realized the only way I was going to get this right was to start with the first arm and build/adjust stroke on each arm added from there. This involved relocating the pivot joints the arms. I've still got one arm to go, but I've got it to the point now where it is nice and quiet, smooth, no binding on anything. I think the binding I was having was also affecting the variable speed timing also, because now even the timing of the sweep intervals is much better.

[Zapato]

Rich, a  good friend and former co-worker of mine took almost 15 years to build an incredible 40 chevrolet sedan. I used to tell him it actually only took him 5 years to really build it. See he was never quite happy with most things he did first time around and would rework everything pretty much a couple of times. Both for mechanical or cosmetic reasons. And of course his vision changed on the build morphed a bit here and there. Most of us would have been happy with lots of the things he changed but they were not right for him. So when I say ''well thought out and executed'' have learned from the best that it may need several revisions. These are just the Rich Muise version of the factory ''service bulletins''.

Keep it up, you're almost there and soon you'll be telling us about fantastic road trips in your coupe.

ZapAto -

[RICH MUISE]

Finally got everything right! The last arm turned out to be harder than I expected, because that arm can't be removed without first removing the other arms, so alot of in and outs today making suble tweeks before everything was right. Yeah...now I can button it up (although I won't be able to watch all those arms in motion any more. lol)

[RICH MUISE]

Moving on....My nephew and I got the hood mounted, mainly so I could check out the radiator clearance with it's forward positioning. Also, I've been waiting a few years to see what the hood with the Mustang scoop actually looked like sitting on the car. I like it alot, has a great look from the inside. Very subtle look with it's wide, low profile, but enough to let you know there may be something under that hood. I'm not sure if I can leave the hood in place while mounting the front fenders, but I'll give it a shot. The hood needs to be repainted, posibly the nose piece also, but I'm going to respray it on the car.
With a standard radiator cap, btw, I have about 1/4" of clearance where the hood is sitting now. Hopefully after alignment/adjustments it'll still clear.
The hydraulic lift mod on the hinges seems to be just about perfect. The hood seems very balanced with a minimal effort to close......and super quiet...ya can't hear a thing!!

[RICH MUISE]

Bill's fender mounting guide got me out in the garage to see if I could assemble it myself without scratching too much.
Question: re: leading edge of the fender beside and below the headlight..  I'm pretty sure from previous threads here, that the leading edge of the inner fender goes inside the outer fender, but what about the splash guard? does it go inside the fender as well, in other words, the edge of the splash guard is behind the fender's flanges so that the edge of the splash guard can't be seen from the front??

[Ford Blue blood]

Fender sits on the splash guard.

[RICH MUISE]

Thanks...I had found an exploded view in the chassis manual, but it didn't show assembly position.Bill, been forgetting to ask...did you ever find your windshield clips?

[Ford Blue blood]

Not looking real hard right now...."life" has once more gotten in the way...