What did you do today instead of working on your Mustang?

I found this tool box sitting in a So Cal alley, in the rain. Five days earlier, I saw it sitting there and thought, someone must be coming by to pick it up, like a thrift store. Also, it was sitting next to the trash cans. So, with some of the drawers opened and full of water, I decided it would be a shame to see it taken to the dump.

So, I took it home, spent five days to disassemble it and unrust it. And this is what it now looks like:



I decided to give it to my son. It will be his first tool box. I feel good that I saved it. Now, back to my 73 Stang.

Steve McMahan said:

I found this tool box sitting in a So Cal alley, in the rain. Five days earlier, I saw it sitting there and thought, someone must be coming by to pick it up, like a thrift store. Also, it was sitting next to the trash cans. So, with some of the drawers opened and full of water, I decided it would be a shame to see it taken to the dump.

So, I took it home, spent five days to disassemble it and unrust it. And this is what it now looks like:

View attachment 88083

I decided to give it to my son. It will be his first tool box. I feel good that I saved it. Now, back to my 73 Stang.

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Nice save! Many more years of service left in that set!

Yea, felt good to give it a second life. And don’t tell me Karma isn’t real, when I picked it up, the upper drawers were rusted shut, and the thing was very heavy. Once I got the first drawer to move, I realized it had a complete 1/2” Craftsman socket set in it; SAE and metric, short and long sockets, 4 extensions, all covered in muck. My newly found ultrasound cleaner make it all look as good as new.

I thought I posted this and realized I hadn't yet. Last month my wife and I went to New Orleans with three of my best friends from high school and their wives. One of the wives saw an "old car like you have" down a side street and I of course went to check out a 63-ish Continental four door convertible with the suicide doors. Cool enough in it's own right, but it was a car show filming. Ride of your Life with Courtney Hanson was filming the reveal to the owner there right off of Bourbon street. Two of the guys from the Royl Garage from the show that work on the cars were there. They were really nice and opened the hood and one of them explained all of the things they did while performing the make over. It was interesting to learn that they finish the car after they film. They dull down the paint and chrome and they re-plate the chrome after the filming so you don't see the cameras and crew in the reflection.

Yesterday, I replaced the valve covers and replaced a few leaking A/C O-rings on my son's Xterra 4.0 liter V6. I really don't care for working on newer metric fastener cars, but I will when I need to. I prefer older, simpler, SAE fastener cars that I can get my old brain to understand, It was clear to me that he actually listened to the old man when he was told to keep the oil changed regularly. The inside of the engine looked really clean for a 17 year old, 165,000 mile engine. This engine had never been opened up before yesterday, we have never had a need to before the valve covers started leaking. Overall it went smoothly and no more oil leaks and the A/C blows cold again. The best part was closing the metric wrench drawer hoping not to have to open it again for a while, LOL.

Washed and waxed my truck with the aid of my trusty helper

tpj71mach said:

I really don't care for working on newer metric fastener cars, but I will when I need to.

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Except the part where a single 10mm socket can be used on 98% of the fasteners on the car. Your emergency travel tool kit can be a 10mm wrench and a 10mm socket on a ratchet.

Hell, even autozone has a special bin right by the register where they sell standalone 10mm sockets.

cjstaci said:

Washed and waxed my truck with the aid of my trusty helper View attachment 88415

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Dogs understand car guys and gals.

giantpune said:

Except the part where a single 10mm socket can be used on 98% of the fasteners on the car. Your emergency travel tool kit can be a 10mm wrench and a 10mm socket on a ratchet.

Hell, even autozone has a special bin right by the register where they sell standalone 10mm sockets.
View attachment 88416

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That's absolutely true, I removed the intake plenum and replaced both valve covers and replaced A/C line o-rings and the o-rings at the compressor and I only used a 10mm socket and wrench for all but a few 12mm head bolts.

Strangely here in metric land I use most 11, 13 and 14 on my stangs.

tpj71mach said:

Yesterday, I replaced the valve covers and replaced a few leaking A/C O-rings on my son's Xterra 4.0 liter V6. I really don't care for working on newer metric fastener cars, but I will when I need to. I prefer older, simpler, SAE fastener cars that I can get my old brain to understand, It was clear to me that he actually listened to the old man when he was told to keep the oil changed regularly. The inside of the engine looked really clean for a 17 year old, 165,000 mile engine. This engine had never been opened up before yesterday, we have never had a need to before the valve covers started leaking. Overall it went smoothly and no more oil leaks and the A/C blows cold again. The best part was closing the metric wrench drawer hoping not to have to open it again for a while, LOL.

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What really sucks is having a mix of sae and metric like the American cars of the 1980’s.

Been doing some spring yard cleanup and removing stumps. My neighbor has some toys and offered to come do the hard work. The space next to the garage will be filled and levelled for a gravel parking area.

Took the 71 up to the "Cruisin' on Main" show in Middletown, CT. Besides the complete clusterfork of traffic trying to get into the show, it was a good time. We sat idling for almost 90 minutes, had no overheating issues.

My daughter said she was doing her "car guy" cosplay.

I put up my daughters/grandkids pool:

Hemikiller said:

Took the 71 up to the "Cruisin' on Main" show in Middletown, CT. Besides the complete clusterfork of traffic trying to get into the show, it was a good time. We sat idling for almost 90 minutes, had no overheating issues.

My daughter said she was doing her "car guy" cosplay.

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Nice car! And your daughter has the proper swag on. Also know as drip

Working on my truck. It has a 400 eng. I don’t know the history of the engine but I am sure it was rebuilt at some point in time. It has an edlebrock performer intake and a edlebrock AVS2 carb. It had a hei distributor but I recently changed it to a Mallory unilite that I had laying around. I changed the distributor for two reasons, one, I had to make sure I wasn’t having a problem with the module and or coil failing under high temperatures and two, I don’t like the size of the distributor and the fact that it’s a gm style distributor on a ford. Anyway, it will idle with the ac off at 190 degrees and drive at city street speeds at 180, but on the highway, it will climb over 200. If I turn the ac on, it will run 200-210 at slow speeds, idle at stop lights it will reach 230, then the engine loses power. At that point I think the fuel is boiling in the carb. This is all at ambient temps above 80. I do have the correct type of thermostat, I have it idling at 880 in park with 12 degrees initial advance, total advance 34. Vacuum reading is rock steady at 15” (5000’ elevation). What I noticed was even though it idles smoothly, after a little time the idle drops about a 100 rpm. I sprayed some carb cleaner and found the rear of the manifold has a slight leak. I checked the bolts and found some to be loose. I torqued all the bolts but it didn’t help. I’m thinking maybe the slight vacuum leak is causing a lean condition in a couple cylinders and therefore causing it to run hot. I have new intake gaskets coming today and also a phenolic carb spacer. Keeping my fingers crossed that this will solve my problem.

Hemikiller said:

Took the 71 up to the "Cruisin' on Main" show in Middletown, CT. Besides the complete clusterfork of traffic trying to get into the show, it was a good time. We sat idling for almost 90 minutes, had no overheating issues.

My daughter said she was doing her "car guy" cosplay.

View attachment 89695

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Those shoes are not nearly comfortable enough for “old guy” shoes.

Finished my first attempt at an Epoxy pour table. Coffee table for my living room. I am happy with how it turned out. Learned a lot by making mistakes and creating extra work. I did enjoy doing it and am planning the next project. My daughter had to be the first one to put her foot on the table.

70cobrascj said:

Nice car! And your daughter has the proper swag on. Also know as drip

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Thanks! The retro Motorsport shirt came from the Perogie's booth at Carlisle. She and her friends don't use their lingo around us, so we have to figure it out on our own. If we ask, she'll tell us, but otherwise we're on our own. It's funny, because I remember my parents struggling with my teenager slang in the 80s.

I was using an electronic stethoscope to narrow down the cause of a valvetrain ticking from a 1968 Road Runner 440 (punched and stroked out to 520 CID). He has a retrofit hydraulic roller lifter and ca, so unless the metal hardening on the can failed the lack of Zinc in his engine oil ought not be a cause of a component failure I narrowed it down to the #7 cylinder exhaust valve. Likely a collapsed lifter. Time to pop a valve cover now that we know precisely where the noise is coming from.
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I like to keep my hands involved in more than just our pony cars. They are all a lot of fun.