It's been "a while".

This is usually how stuff starts on this blog 😉

I did not post in a long time because life happens. Wrenching on my trucks and vehicles is part of this happening, so there's quite some news to go through.

First of all: Mary is road legal. She's been classified as a historical vehicle, insured and tagged as such and after a small amount of fiddling with adjustments, she drives really nice.

This is basically how she's been inspected by road authorities and deemed road worthy.

NO! Zero, zilch, nada deficits, defects or anything. They did not even criticize the tiny leaks on the engine and transmission.

I was pretty stoked. Right now i am fixing small bugs, like an overfilled transmission:

It turns out that the original 727/36rh's transmission fill tube and dip sticks fill marking do not work with the A518/46rh.

They differ by about 1/2" in a way that you would overfill the transmission going by the marking on the 727s dip stick. Once that's corrected, the transmission works awesome.

The converter is worn out though. I kind of anticipated that.

The outer appearance will not change by much from the shown status. The original wheels will be reinstalled once i get tires for them and had them mounted and balanced.

Stuff i still need to do is:

  • replace pressure side hose on the power steering, leaks on both fittings
  • adjust power steering box and center the steering wheel and turn signal return cam
  • rebuild the steering column
  • install a new carpet
  • have small defects in the paint fixed (cracks in the roof seam)
  • procure new tires for the second set of rims
  • spray bomb the cavities with wax
  • remove, de-rust and paint the core support (winter project) and inner fenders and battery tray
  • find a replacement for parts of the emission equipment (defective canister and valve)
  • drop in new lifters, re-seal the intake
  • high voltage ignition conversion (Chevy HEI + Ford coil, my usual performance mod)
  • optimize fuel consumption (new converter and mod ignition, maybe torque cam)
  • mod the fuel pickup in the tank with walbro pickups (like i did on Mother Hulda, this time without cutting holes into the tank)
  • create a set of rubber mats for the bed
  • install beeper helpers for parking in tight spots

Ya, lots to do but now that it runs and drives fine and thereby adds a permanent grin to my face i got rid of a lot of pressure.

I can now partially focus on my race truck which for itself saw some progress (read: destruction).