1973 Grande Build

[Steve McMahan]

Keep searching these Build Threads and you’ll see real craftsmen at work. I, like you, am amazed at what some of these guys can do with a two car garage. I hope some day to be counted as one of them. For now, I’m more of a hack who gets lucky!

 

[PoFoMoCo]

.... I, like you, am amazed at what some of these guys can do with a two car garage. I hope some day to be counted as one of them. For now, I’m more of a hack who gets lucky!

Yes that is so true, but I guess that's part of the magic of that craftsmanship we speak about. Hey man, there is nothing wrong with a little luck in life at our age!

 

[Steve McMahan]

Update (or non update): I’m week 4 of staying with my granddaughter while her sister and mom (my daughter) are at Children’s Hospital LA. The good news, I picked them at 10pm last night, so my visit is over and I’ll be returning to my 73 on the 29th to commence the project. Losing 4 weeks wasn’t in the plan, but once you have kids, you’re stuck with the results . I’ll tell you this, I’ve got one very detailed Excel Spreadsheet plan to attack the project with.

 

[Steve McMahan]

Well, I replaced the wrong in tank fuel pump and serviced the fuel injectors because at first start up last month, two leaked at the top. I’ve got to cleanup the fuel pump wiring in the trunk, and I need to relocate the O2 passenger side sensor, because it’s too tight of a fit to the body. That’s the tasks for tomorrow.

 

[Steve McMahan]

Today was a good day. I went to start the car for the second time, and found I had the in-tank pump wired backwards. And that’s the second time I’ve done that. You’ve got a 50/50 chance on these pumps, they don’t come with an electrical diagram. Of the two pumps I installed, I had to wire them 4 times. I’m getting pretty good at it .

So, once that was fixed, it started right up, and I find a significant fuel leak at the top of the #8 cyl injector. Bummer. That’s a lot of stuff to remove to get at it. Turns out, one of the o-rings in the set was defective. I guess I should have looked them over more carefully. Here’s the pic showing the defect:

If you expand it, you can see the scallop on one side. Fuel leaked really bad. Thankfully, one of the old o-rings was in great condition. It didn’t leak.

I got the trans sorted with the correct fluid level, and put the tires back on it, on the ground. I had to do the final brake bleed, I had a good helper:


Final step, I started it up, drove it out of the garage and onto the street. The alignment was so bad, the right front was squeaking. I stopped it there, jacked it up and did an in-street alignment before returning to the garage. It’s hard to watch, but she is alive and moving.
View attachment IMG_0709.MOV

Please no comments on the squeaking; I couldn’t figure out how to delete the sound. While it might not look like much, it’s bitchen to me. Now, I’ve got to diagnosis some electrical issues I have under the dash. That’s for tomorrow. Steve

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Congrats on rolling under your own power!

 

[Steve McMahan]

Thanks. I do have a question, hoping this is a typical problem with these vehicles. I’ve got some issue, the under dash wiring. If I reach under the dash, to the right of the steering shaft, and grab those wires that run along from that point to the center, I can cause the power to be interrupted to the ignition switch, just by moving, slightly, the harness. Is there one connector or plug I should focus on that is the likely cause? All help is appreciated.

I posted this on Electrical forum.

 

[Steve McMahan]

Ok, more progress to report. I got both door hinge sets rebuilt. The passenger side, I used my engine hoist to hold the door and having that bolt pin to hold the top hinge plate from falling into the kick panel, that was easier than I thought. Now, adjusting the door took longer than the hinge job. But, it looks 100% better than it did and closes tight now.

On to the drivers side, but my car is too close to my tool box to get my engine hoist to the door. So, I decided to see if I could keep the door closed, because the door fit was pretty close to being aligned well, and I had the hinge kits. So, I closed the door, used tie-down straps to hold the hinge side to the A pillar, and rebuilt one hinge at a time. It worked, but I still spent lots of time to align the door.

I took both fenders off to do the hinges, since they were not aligned very well. The passenger side fender took time to get right, but I was able to get it looking good at the door line, but I suspect, that fender is bent at the front and maybe buckled at the 9 o’clock position of the wheel opening. There is a crack in the wheel well at that exact spot, and it sticks out there too. I may have to replace that fender because I’m not sure how I would fix it.

The passenger fender took longer to get right, mostly because I’ve found a slight pushed in section right at the place where the headlight bucket ties into the core support (those 4 bolts). The fender didn’t reach the core support, and when I removed the fender again, I could see it was slightly pushed in at that place. I used my body tools and was able to get the fit better, but not perfect. At least, the fender and headlight bucket look right now.

Both doors close well, both fenders on and fit ok, hood aligned, and things look good for a few days of work.

Now, onto the electrical stuff under the dash, new headlight switch, turn signal switch, install the new alternator. I still need a wheel horn pad. Getting closer everyday to a real car .

 

[PoFoMoCo]

That is some serious progress!

 

[Steve McMahan]

It feels weird caring that the doors, fenders and hood look good on a junk yard, black spray can paint job. But, I got tired of the doors not closing and the hood binding, so I did it. I think it’s the cheapest thing I’ve done, 4 hinge rebuild kits.

It’s awesome to run into a problem and have 5 folks who want to help you solve it. Reminds me of working unsolvable problems in the 1980’s, before computers and the internet. Being part of this forum makes my retirement more joyful. Steve

 

[Steve McMahan]

Well, progress, although, slow progress. I got both side mirrors installed. Both sides had the improved, $10, black plastic side mirrors attached in the place of the original sport mirrors. They were one of the things I found in the trunk when I bought it. So, a few extra holes to deal with.

I suspect I know why they were installed. Both sides had one rivet nut missing, and the hole it was in was distorted badly. So, I had to hammer those back and it cleaned them up nicely. When I went to install the first one, on the passenger side, I used my trusty rivet-nut tool from HF, and on the last pull of the handle to give it a tight fit, the steel shaft, pulling on the river-nut, broke off in the nut. I couldn’t believe it, was I that strong? Naw. I had to cut that one out, and use the little Allen wrench tool the two river-nuts came with. After that I had no issues.



Getting the drivers remote into the door proved more difficult. The parts I got with that mirror wouldn’t work with my standard door panel. I suspect, but don’t know, that it maybe the part that works with a deluxe door panel, IDK. So, I decided to clean the bottom of the door, since I had the panel off, and lo and behold, the correct inside fastener that holds the remote was waiting for me. I cleaned it up and it worked great.



My new, correct width sway bar arrived, so now, I’ve got to tackle the suspension issues I’ve ignored. Once I got that complete, it’s valance, front grill, headlights, etc. Getting closer everyday.

 

[Steve McMahan]

Well, I finally got my wipers fixed and my new horns installed. Horns were an easy bolt on, but the wipers didn’t go easy. I ended up tearing into the passenger side pivot arm to Re-clock it to the correct position. Here are a few pics of the process:



If you look closely, the passenger arm, parked, is almost 1/2 way through its travel. It looks like about 40 degrees out of position. Instead of replacing it, I decided, since I already had a ready source for a replacement (thank you Doug), I would take a shot at relocating the pivot to bracket orientation. That required removing it, grinding on it, relocating the brackets, welding, trial fit, fail, relocate, weld, etc. I finally got it in the right orientation and lubed the pivots and reinstalled everything:



The details are on a thread on my wiper woes. Thanks for the encouragement. Steve

 

[Steve McMahan]

Well, 2 months have gone by and I’m getting close to presenting the car to the CA DMV for its VIN inspection. Car was last registered in Ca in 2006, so since it’s been out of the system for that long period, you gotta pay for the privilege to put it back.

I’ve been busy, but it seems like the first 6 months was a sprint, next 3 months a walk, and last 5 months a crawl. Progress seems to be slow, but I’m happy to be almost done with Phase 1 of my 3 phase plan. And if progress is what happens, here’s what happened.


Some of you sharp eyed folks will see the camera finish dash panels look weird; that’s what you get from cleaning them too vigorously. It’s ok, I was going for 1 degree better than salvage yard chic.

Anyway, I thank all of you who have offered gentle nudges along the way and those who asked me the right question to fix my issues (PoFoMoCo, Sheriff41, 71fast, Hemikiller, et all). This product is part yours, but only in that way, like, “I love you man“, but you can’t have my beer.

I’ll post either the easy or troubled DMV process as I complete Phase 1. Steve

 

[Sheriff41]

Well done Steve! You gave yourself quite the challenge going into your project and you've brought it a long way. Thanks for sharing the journey!

 

[Steve McMahan]

Well, another milestone day. I was able to verify the toe-in and tightened all of the front suspension to the specs I found on this site, and so, I took her around the block. While I was driving her, I found three problems. First, when I slowed down, the trans (AOD), went into a neutral feel, at idle, it took a moment to get back into first. I have a
trans cooler that I suspect is draining back and so, I can only check it running. I did check it when I stopped, and it was very low.

I also found a new leak, at the top of the power steering gear unit. I’ll post that problem where it belongs. Also, now that I have a working dash, the oil light was on brightly. The first time I started the motor in the car, I had a mechanical unit that said 40 psi, so I suspect I either have a bad sending unit (it’s brand new, but that’s no guarantee) or somehow, I’ve got that wiring wrong. If I get stuck figuring out which one it is, I’ll post a new problem. I’m am going to reconnect the mechanical unit to make sure it isn’t that first.

My wife made a short video to commemorate the event.

View attachment IMG_7976.mov

 

[Hemikiller]

Congrats on the milestone! Glad to have lent whatever hand you needed, it's great to see another one about to hit the road again. The dash pad needs some cacti and tumbleweeds...

All automatics have to be checked at operating temperature, in park. Even just a short drive around the block will warm it enough to get you close.

I had a Standard oil pressure switch that was bad out of the box, it failed within minutes of starting the new engine. I think I passed a cinder block in the quarter second it took to check the mechanical gauge, which said 75psi.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Well done Steve… she’s rolling brother! You are definitely powering thru the build!

 

[Steve McMahan]

Yep, it was the sending unit. Mechanical gauge has 30 psi at 800 rpm

 

[Steve McMahan]

Ok, so I noticed yesterday, my temp light came on (It wasn’t even hot, much less, overheating). The 302 engine came out of a 87 TBird and had the sensor for the digital display on it. I removed that and replaced it with a MTE-Thomson 3288 Engine Coolant Temp Sensor/Sender. Is that the right sensor for my idiot light setup?

 

[73GrandStang]

Car was last registered in Ca in 2006

Was the car registered as non-op or not registered at all? Just asking because my '73 has been on non-op for close to 10 years now (dont judge me) and I'd like to bring her back to life later this year....