Hoagies and Grinders!

On Monday I came home to a box on my porch. It was filled with toys. Ordered on Friday, here on Monday and I paid zero dollars shipping. Amazon Prime is the best thing that ever happened to online shopping. I don't work for Amazon...  but I may have drunk the Kool-aid.

A 10 amp Dewalt Angle grinder makes short work of thick weld beads and fingers.

I finally started working on the car itself. Up to this point it has been all parts collection and scheming. While that is important, actually working on the car makes the difference between a project and a sarlaac pit for dead presidents. I've seen too many of the latter.

There were no less than four starters and four alternators in this car. Maybe the previous owner was planning some sort of post-apocalyptic hybrid? Mad Max did drive a Falcon, so I'm gonna go with that. There was a pretty large amount of crap in the car, below is a picture of most of the car's contents.

No, I'm not homeless. Maybe after I finish the Falcon I'll show you what the shopping cart is for.

The interior cleaned up nicely. There is no real rust to speak of. The bare metal on the top of the fuel tank was as shiny as newly stamped steel.

I got a chance to test fit the front bucket seats. I'm pretty stoked about how they fit and look. I'll need to fabricate some rear mounts for these seats. Raising them up about 3" will put the seat at about a perfect level. On the front I'll just drill some holes in the floorpan and bolt them down with a washer on the underside of the body.

Leather seats from an 06 or 07 Mazda Miata.

Miatas ARE good for something!

You may notice in the lower picture that the steering wheel seems very close to the driver. I'll be putting a smaller wheel in there with far less dish. It should solve that problem.

On Tuesday tore down the rear axle and cleaned it up, inside and out. I still had some shock mount and leaf spring pad welds to clean up. I ran over those with a grinder wheel and then finished it with an abrasive flap wheel. I'd used a flap wheel before, but this reminded me of why I love a good flap wheel. It leaves such a smooth nice finish that I wonder if it isn't made of ivory and blessed by an aboriginal shaman in the DeWALT factory. I hope that's not the case 'cause I'd feel a little guilty.

The differential was a little difficult to get out, but Backyard Steve showed up and told me to jar the housing by dropping it on the jack stands from a few inches up. Sure enough, the diff popped right out and Backyard Steve brought me some of his favorite degreaser. It seemed to work well, but if I get bronchitis I have a sneaking suspicion about what the cause might be.

Clean stuff.

More clean stuff (AKA Ford 8.8 Limited Slip Differential)

I'm happy with the progress so far, but it's time to stop pussyfooting around. Where's my torch and sawzall?