PoFoMoCo's 1971 Shelby Europa build October 2022

[PoFoMoCo]

I went thru a short checklist of minor, yet important tasks today. In addition to continuing to work on restoring the Rim Blow steering wheel I pulled all four Magnums 500s and tires off to dry fit the Shelby Cal 500 wheels to make sure they were good-to-go before I spent 3-4 days cleaning and polishing them. Too many things going on last weekend to get the the wheels restored... until now!

Unfortunately, I found a roofing nail in the rear drivers side BFG tire so I spent some time at Discount Tire for the repair. We live in a gated community where many new houses are being built and its a land mine field of obstacles for my BFGs, Michelins, and Nittos LOL.

I also wanted to get a really good look at the front disc and rear drum brakes. While I was tinkering, I replaced the headlight dimmer switch, rear axle vent hose and a couple of BUSS fuses. It was relaxing to just tinker around the shop today.

 

[tpj71mach]

Those wheels are going to look great on your car!

 

[PoFoMoCo]

After allot of searching for an original hood and researching the repro options I bought a reproduction NASA hood from a Texas based shop and a ram air cleaner base and snorkel from NPD. The NASA hood is in Lewisville Tx, I’ll pick it up sometime in the next 7-10 days. I didn’t want to ship the hood, this way I can pick thru the on-hand stock and select the best available. If I don’t find a suitable hood, all I’m out is my time.

The ram air cleaner is a Dynacorn setup and I was surprised at the quality and detail. While not perfect, it was better than I expected. It did require some massaging around the seal lip and the snorkel flange to make it “right” but I know I’m a little OCD. Nothing a block of wood, a metal file and a deadblow hammer could not handle. I also fabricated a bracket for the snorkel vacuum line. Last, I detailed the vacuum motor and I will rivet the motor in place one I finish the Ford Corporate Blue paint job.

I also have the correct air cleaner lid. I have heavily scuffed the chrome with maroon & green scotch brite pads and it is ready for a quick shot of primer and finish work before I paint it blue as well.

I bought an original plenum and flappers from a member and they should arrive in the next couple of days I will rebuild the vacuum motors on the flappers and then I will be able to put it all together.

Great time for some winter projects.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

I got my (correct for the Europa) '73 bumper guards from an awesome member here on our board. They needed to be re-chromed so I sent them to my buddy in El Paso, Tx. There is not a local chrome shop in my area. The original guards were in good shape, just a little hazy. They came out nice, and the total costs was very reasonable, $40 (+) shipping to the chrome shop.

I purchased a set of new repro bumper strips from Don @ OMS. Also, I will blast and re-furbish my original mounting bolts. Not a sexy post for a not very sexy part that most members discard... but I like them.

Here are some before/after pictures...

 

[Sheriff41]

I got my (correct for the Europa) '73 bumper guards from an awesome member here on our board. They needed to be re-chromed so I sent them to my buddy in El Paso, Tx. There is not a local chrome shop in my area. The original guards were in good shape, just a little hazy. They came out nice, and the total costs was very reasonable, $40 (+) shipping to the chrome shop.

I purchased a set of new repro bumper strips from Don @ OMS. Also, I will blast and re-furbish my original mounting bolts. Not a sexy post for a not very sexy part that most members discard... but I like them.

Here are some before/after pictures...

Those turned out great! For the bolts and other small parts have you tried products like Evapo-Rust?

 

[c9zx]

That you got anything chromed for $40.00 is a bargain. There may be a little bit of international business involved. Chuck

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Those turned out great! For the bolts and other small parts have you tried products like Evapo-Rust?

No sir, I have not. I'm going to give it a try. The Google Machine says it is available at Harbor Freight.

That you got anything chromed for $40.00 is a bargain. There may be a little bit of international business involved. Chuck

Chuck - I believe you may be right about that. I have been out of the hobby so long, I honestly had no idea how few chrome shops were still around. My buddy with the Boss 429 sends all of his stuff to Tucson, AZ. I had no idea about all the EPA issues related to the chrome shops and I'd never heard of hexavalent chromium exposure. I have 25 years of catching up to do.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

I purchased a ram air plenum and both actuators from a 71-73 member. The parts arrived from Canada this week and I started the restoration by cleaning and degreasing of the plenum and the actuators. They were pretty dirty and crusty, but in GREAT shape. I also tested the actuator on the passenger-side flapper.... it holds vacuum. Thanks @GARYCOBRAJET for the hook-up on the ram air system!

edit: the flapper no longer holds vacuum, it'll get rebuilt

Also, I started the tear down of the drivers-side actuator. I followed the tutorials and threads posted by two other 71-73 members on our site, @mdan575 and @rackerm. As they stated, it was straight forward and simple, just take your time and trust the process. Here are the photos so far, I will post more as I proceed thru the passenger-side actuator and the final assembly.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

I am super happy as both actuator’s are coming back pretty well. I fully stripped down the LH side and partially striped the RH side. I figured out it wasn’t necessary to pull the flapper and rod from the housing to complete the restoration. I still have some work to do but they are coming along.

I have been focusing on reconditioning the flappers and the one original vacuum pot. Here’s a sneak peek. I have a couple of Dynacorn repro pots for the flappers and I will use the rebuilt pot for the air cleaner snorkel. The old pot is very pitted but I’ll skim coat those spots and the Ford Blue paint will cover it well. I included one of the repro pots for a side-by-side shot just for the sake of comparison.

I don’t have a shot of the finished plenum but it’s in near perfect shape and it presents very, very well.

 

[tpj71mach]

Great find! and it's all cleaning up nicely

 

[PoFoMoCo]

The original ram air flapper assemblies are finished. I was a little surprised at how sturdy and well built they are. Now they are ready for another 52 years of service.

 

[tpj71mach]

Nice job! Looking good

 

[Kilgon]

I have to say when you first mentioned what you planned on doing I was a little skeptical, but any doubt that you will complete your build and finish the car as a 1971 Shelby Europa has gone to the wayside. Very impressive. Keep up the great work.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Nice job! Looking good

Thanks Tom

 

[PoFoMoCo]

I have to say when you first mentioned what you planned on doing I was a little skeptical, but any doubt that you will complete your build and finish the car as a 1971 Shelby Europa has gone to the wayside. Very impressive. Keep up the great work.

Thanks Kilgon

 

[PoFoMoCo]

I started prepping the Dynacorn ram air cleaner assembly and snorkel for paint. The original vacuum motor from the RH flapper assembly will be used in the snorkel. The vacuum motor cleaned up well but had several pits and small imperfections so I detailed it too. The snorkel has been scuffed up and wiped down and is ready for paint.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Finally!!! I was able to jet to the Metroplex and pick up my repro hood. I didn't want to ship it, I drove to their warehouse and dug thru the on hand stock. They had 13 hoods, don't ask how I know

But, I got the pick of the litter. I hope to mock up all the ram air components and twist locks and get the hood on the car soon. I couldn't help myself, I had to put on my NOS hood scoop inserts just to "see" how they looked. I'm really happy with the hood. All of my NASA/NACA hood specific research and discussions pointed to three vendors in this order:

1. Golden Star (FDM1-AHD000-71M-WS-GSA)
2. Goodmark (GMK3023200712)
3. Dynacorn (3641Q)

Here are some pics of the trip and unboxing. Yep, a little overkill on the straps but it didn't move an inch....

 

[tpj71mach]

Nice! Can't wait to see it painted and installed.

 

[PoFoMoCo]

I've been on some small projects over the last couple of days. I painted my NPD sourced Dynacorn snorkel and I installed the rebuilt vacuum motor. I went with a medium 3/16 aluminum rivet to fasten the vacuum motor to the snorkel, not original but it does look nice. I also sanded and buffed the chrome ram air lid. Next, it will be get a coat of self-etching primer followed by a coat regular primer before the correct Ford blue paint. I did not use the Dynacorn lid, as I had this lid from another project and its very close to the original pressing. It's been a PITA the prep the chrome lid for paint but it will be worth it in the finished product.

Next, I took a page out of the perfectionist playbook and I made another Europa gas cap. I was really unhappy with the way first cap came out, it just wasn't quite right, so I just made another one. I'll call the 1st gas cap the "prototype" model and put it up on the wall in the shop. While it's a nice piece it just didn't do the build justice! (Insert OCD at your leisure)

Also, I’ve had a couple of questions about the quality of the Golden Star hood so I thought I'd post some more info in this thread. I did allot of searching before I made a decision to buy this hood and many sources agreed it was a very good hood, as ranked in post #57 above. But, it's important to add I did not have an original hood to compare to and I did not have any local repro hoods that I could get eyes on, so I had to rely on other's opinion about the quality of the Golden Star hood. I will say this, while I've read many posts about the repro ram air setups not matching up with the pre-drilled holes on many of the OEM and repro hoods, this hood mocked up to my OEM plenum and other ram air parts perfectly. Every pre-drilled hole was dead on center with the OEM plenum and flappers. So I am super excited about that.

I will say if I had purchased the repro Dynacorn ram plenum and actuator air assembly I would have also purchased a Dynacorn hood in hopes that everything matched up.

 

[tpj71mach]

Looking great! I'm glad to see the OCD thing is more common around here than usual.