It's pretty mucked up and seems to have seen quite a bit of use...or just kept in dirty storage. The copper part of the solenoid worries me; it seems like they wrapped it in duct tape. Why, I'll never know. I was always told duct tape was for duct work, electrical tape was for electrical work. I can thank Pulaski Technical College's Saline County Career Center for making that distinction stick in my mind. Here's a close up of the duct tape:
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
I had a friend named Trye (Pronounced: Tray) drop by earlier today to come check out the car. He saw my blog on Facebook and subscribed to it. He told me how excited he was that we've got it going and he can't wait to see it finished! It's compliments like that that really make me proud to have this project. ...That, and the idea of having such a classic car. I've decided on a plan...I'm going to try and build this car to SCCA Solo: Street Prepared category, due to several issues on running in the "stock" category...
Stock category requires all original emissions equipment if the car was equipped with it, and factory muffler hangars. In addition, requires original interior, wiring, and emblems and no body add-ons whatsoever or sway bars except for OE applications. So far, there are NO catalytic converters on the car, and I'm pretty sure most of the emissions equipment is going to come up missing. In Street Prepared, I'm not required to have that; some modifications can be made. Plus, I can change the ignition system as long as it remains the stock-type (In this case, any distributor system that keeps the same number of spark plugs is okay!) I plan to hopefully convert this car from a points-type distributor (still can't figure out why in 1977, the imports would still run points set ups when domestic vehicles were going with HEI.) to a Pertronix HEI system. It would last longer, and it would be much better at higher RPM's.
Back to the restoration process, though...
In addition to digging out the starter, I took off the water neck from the cylinder head to bring it in and clean it. It hasn't had the cap on it in a while, so dirt had found it's way inside. Once again, it seems awfully close to a General Motors design, like on a 250ci L6 engine.
There it is, all disassembled. I noticed it had some electronic connections on the end, most likely for the water temperature gauge inside the car. Noticing how much scum and grit and grime had built on these over time, I figured I'd just drop the waterneck into a solution of baking soda and warm water, to get the dirt off or at least loose to be touched up later with some lacquer thinner and a toothbrush (can't use Lye soaps or caustic, harsh chemicals on aluminum parts.) Since the parts have seen a mixture of water and antifreeze, and antifreeze is toxic to the human body, I used a Ziploc plastic container that I could re-use to store parts later that wouldn't be needed for food or anything.
Some of the dirt came loose and made that nasty film as soon as I dropped the parts into the mixture. I put the lid on, and shook it around a bit and am going to let the parts soak over night and clean them up tomorrow.
In the mean time...I'm chilling and spending the last of my Monday night like this:
Enjoying a nice game of Forza Motorsport 3 for Xbox 360!
Take it easy, readers, while you still can. Seems that lately there's less time to relax and more time I need to take responsibility...Oh no, a life lesson! :)
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