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Clutch issue has been resolved. It just needed persuasion from a giant pair of channel locks. Body panels are now being installed.😁
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"Fitted the front body panels. The hood closes, but it is tight.
Got the fenders back on and the headlamps mounted. The lights work!!
As I was mounting the front bumper brackets and tow bar I noticed something out the corner of my eye.
That ain’t right.
This has obviously been broken for a while. Never noticed or felt a thing. It rode and handled fine, believe it or not. I jumped on line to order a replacement only to find the company has a dozen bolt in replacements for the MustangII front end. When I first bought mine, they only offered the one. Hopefully, when the west coast wakes up tomorrow, I can get one shipped out right away. Decided to replace the lower ball joint while it’s apart. That’s no big deal.
Coming down to the wire…
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"Ongoing concerns with operating temperatures. If only I could get consistent readings I’d feel a lot better driving it. I’ve put a few miles on it constantly stopping to check temps. I’ve never encountered boil overs or errant steam which is a good thing. It makes me leery to take it any distance.
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"Once more into the breach!
So, after already running a 180* thermostat and being surprised by how hot she runs, i pulled the thermostat and gutted it. In lieu of eliminating it I left the large flange in place and was left with a one inch hole to maintain a small bit of restriction to the flow. Hoping this helps.
I can always go back in and close it off some more if this works too good.
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"Well, this is the end result. I had the radiator taken apart and re cleaned and installed a larger cooling fan. The fan will require some re engineering to mount the headlamp brackets together. We ran with no front body work. We did it…it works.
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"The hillclimb has its own thread now.
Pagoda Hillclimb 2018
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"Bill, I have been watching your V8 swap with interest and would like to hear some of your driving impressions. On the road in daily driving as well as how she handled on the hill climb. I have driven a few sports cars with swaps and generally was disappointed (TR6, MGTD, and Sunbeam Tiger – a factory “swap”). I have owned each of these with factory power. The swaps were not mine.
The TR6: the swap was poorly thought out and attempted on the cheap with no attention to handling. Terrible!
MGTD with a flathead Ford V8 60 hp: Beautiful. It looked just right. But, again with about 200# added to the front, disappointing performance. (this car still looked like an unmodified stock TD until you opened the bonnet)
On the Sunbeam Tiger: Well I had owned 3 Alpines and the factory V8 Tiger was exciting and it threw you back in the seat under throttle. But, also too front heavy for me.
I guess you can tell that I hate understeer and prize nimbleness and handling over raw power. But, I have never competed in a hill climb.
I once “raced” my brothers XKE in my 911s. He had me on the straights. I had him on the twisties (not a big surprise). (I’m glad to say that we both survived that day.) I liked his Jag to look at and for touring, but preferred my 911 for spirited driving on country roads.
Roy, I can’t answer that question, yet. I just got it sorted out on the Tuesday before the hill climb. The track conditions were terrible with the rain. I can tell you that in a straight line it puts you back in the seat and puts a huge smile on your face. I did not experience any understeer, but with wet roads I had some oversteer. I need seat time. With MINI Takes the States coming up in a couple weeks, it doesn’t look like I’ll get much before Duryea Hill Climb in August. I can only hope for dry roads. I hope to have the video of Saturday’s second run and the finishing run on Sunday morning ready for viewing some time Sunday.(Maybe)
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"Yes, it was. Worked out pretty good, too. I had a dedicated support crew along with a standby ambulance with EMT’s and a tow truck.
I never got to the video Sunday. Spent the day trying to reclaim some working room in the garage.
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"Ok, here is my second run on Saturday in the wet. Put it sideways in turn 3 and spun out in 8. That’s where the camera dies.
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"Here is the one you’ve waited for. This includes the crash in Turn 7 along with all the recovery work and subsequent tow to the top.
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"Just realized these should be posted in the other Hillclimb thread. Ill put them there also. Sorry.
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"Ok. In mounting the fenders I couldn’t get them off the tires. It seems the shock manufacturer moved the location of the threads that held the adjustable lower spring perch. Even cranked up to its limits the tires rubbed.
A local race car shop was able to supply a longer spring, but everything snowballs, the lower control arms had to come off and modified so the spring adjustment nut could be accessed.
With the fenders on and ride height adjusted , the upper support, headlamp bracket had to be reengineered. Originally, I had a steel bar running through the grill shell between the headlamp brackets. The grill shell is now filled with the cooling fan.
I’m hoping this simple “L” will be sufficient to hold the fenders weight.
Now that the fenders are on and they no longer rub, it was off to the local alignment shop. I was pleased that after sliding into and over the curbing it only required adjustment to the toe.
Now we need for the rain to end so we can get some seat time.
Duryea Hillclimb is Aug. 18-19
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"…and I’m whining about making door panels — Great work, Bill — you are my “if it don’t fit, re-engineer it” hero!!
Well-done, Bill.
And Jack—you’re no slouch either.
But the real kings of “if it don’t fit, re-engineer it” are these guys. Link is to the video of them making the wipers work on their Mini. The hell of it is, they DID fit!
The wipers on my Classic Mini are anemic also.
I thought of the improvements made by “these guys” but could not find my step drill bit so I ultimately decided to not drive in the rain.
(“Bad Obsession” is an apt name for these guys.)
WOW!! I guess I just need a metal lathe, a TIG welder, a metal brake, a white board so I can do some geometry and trigonometry (tangents and squared and stuff) and about an extra 10 years to learn how to use it all…
…or I can just take a set of wiper arms from a 1971 VW, pull off the bottom mount sections, attach them to a set of TRICO old British style wiper arms, and voila!! good, reliable, solid, spline-drive wipers on Manypenny (I think — time will tell how well they work).
Roy, that was a great video. Ah, to have all that equipment and, not to mention, all that time.
Jack, my wipers always parked to the left. Do different VW wiper motors park differently?
Now you get to play with the adjustment screw on the arm and get them to park flat.
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"This morning I stripped the fuel delivery system from the car. There was a mid range, part throttle, stumble that wasn’t affected by making adjustments. I feel I need MORE FUEL!!! I’ll have a larger capacity fuel pump tomorrow and will install with larger fuel lines. The only restriction left in the system will be the supply line built into the tank. I’m hoping the pump will override that.
I was able to acceptably straighten the rear bumper by twisting it with a pair of giant channel locks and using a slide hammer attached to the center hole. Came out a lot better than I had expected.
The front bumper and tow bar also went back on.
A rather productive morning.
Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"
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