Well its been 3 years since my last update, so what happened to the Ugly Duckling?
Shortly after my last post my Father passed after a short battle with illness. We'd been working on the car together, it was the first time we were able to, previous attempts had ended in shouting matches. He was slow and methodical I was like a bull in a china shop. It was me, that in the end mellowed and followed his lead.
I wanted to finish the car in his garage with his tools but it soon became apparent that this wasn't going to happen, I just couldn't schedule the time, that, and I'm a tinkerer, I enjoy spending spare time on the car when I have it.
So late last month I headed over to his garage to house sit for Mum whilst she did a bucket list trip to Canada.
This is what greeted me.
Ater all that hard work it's turned into the ugly duckling all over again time to turn it into a beautiful swan once more
All the parts are there to finish it but, in my haste, and frame of mind at the time they were all packed willy nilly into the shed, so I set about going through the jumble.
Camber/ castor kit was first to finish off the suspension.
Peddle box next with new rubbers, I've since found and fitted the rubber for the throttle pedal. That was a bit of a pain, no matter how much I wiggled things the throttle linkage wouldn't fit behind the heater box so the whole lot had to come out, dash pod to remove the radio, radio to remove the heater box etc then all back together again.
Brake and clutch masters next followed by brake line plumbing.
The old inlet manifold had cracked and been welded, I was never happy with it and had since picked up a replacement so that and the headers went back on.
I had a kit stashed for the carb so I went through it before fitting. I've come along way tuning the IDF's on the RS so this made me laugh, theres only one of them and its a fair bit smaller than the cavernous IDF's
Fuel lines were plumbed and I topped the whole lot off with an original GT air cleaner and support rod.
Lots of small bits of bling fitted too that I had plated when I first started on the car, its the little bits like this that should really finish the car off.
With my mojo for the car back we towed it home to finish off, its been great to go out and tinker on it again, I've straightened, linished and polished the last bit of chrome side trim for it, fitted the front chrome spears, fitted the bonnet latches and catches, boot lock, starter motor and other bits that I'm finding as the boxes of parts start to empty.
I'll be installing the engine bay wiring soon, it's already been built, and now runs through the chassis rail and crossmember to hid it all from site and the seats will be trimmed in the new year when the trimmer has some free time.
