73 Road Race Cuda

[70chall440]

The idea of the books came from the Joe Rogan Cuda build book initially. I bought that book and read it and the idea of having my own (but much different) came about. The concept was/is to capture all of the instructions and relevant information for everything on the car so that I could find it when I need it. As a male, read instructions was never my strong suit, however over the years I have come to respect at least keeping them for reference latter... 

With regards to the receipt book, it lets me figure out when and from whom I obtained something. If you don't want to know what you spent, don't add them up. I have a spreadsheet for this purpose and know exactly what I have spent. It doesn't bother me at all as I am not building this car to resell. I know if I ever did I wouldn't get near what I have spent on it, however all of these books and the spreadsheet will allow me to not only tell the story to a prospective buyer but prove it. They may not care, but I would if I was buying. Same reason people like the original build sheets for the vehicles and it indicates what the vehicle was built with.

Another aspect of the receipts is the warranties where applicable. I found several that may come in handy.

[70chall440]

Still waiting on the weather to spray poly, thought it would be today, but it only made it to 58. Tomorrow is supposed to me about the same but Saturday it is suppose to be 70 and getting warmer after that, so it looks like this will be the day.

In the mean time I have been doing some other things, one thing that I have been thinking about is a hinge strut as the trampoline springs are pretty light and any amount of wind will close the hood. I have seen at least one version of a strut on here which was a U shaped wire; while effective not overly ascetic.... Therefore I decided to build one today, basically this is just a cheap aluminum turn buckle I got at a local hardware store, I want to say it is 8", however I needed 8.25 to 8.5 (depending on how high the hood is lifted. A little heat, some bending, a little cutting, some heat shrink, wire and hitch clips and BAM!!!  Since I know how much you guys love pictures, here you are.

[70chall440]

sorry about the orientation, windows 10 SUCKS...

[Cudakiller70]

Nice alternative! I like it naked with out the wrap, but that's just me
Hey hey hey, why's that yellow jack out of place?

[70chall440]

Yeah I liked it without the heat shrink as well, but after bumping it one and thinking about new paint, it got wrapped...

Damn, you caught me... I will get that jack put away immediately...

[Cudakiller70]

Yeah I liked it without the heat shrink as well, but after bumping it one and thinking about new paint, it got wrapped...

Damn, you caught me... I will get that jack put away immediately...

Strike 1

[70chall440]

ok, I will need to invoke my 5th amendment rights to self incrimination... no more pics... 

[Mpdlawdog]

   great idea..added to my list of things to do...I have a TA hood and am not running any springs...this will work great!

[70chall440]

Exactly why I made it, my AAR hood will stay open with the trampoline springs but just barely.. In fact, if the hinges are not adjust just right, the hood will not stay open. Therefore I can only imagine it slamming down when I least expect it and at a minimum pissing me off, at the worst damaging it. I wanted something that didn't look too bad and came up with this. Not sure if I will keep the heat shrink on it, but I need a method to connect the wire with the clips to it so I don't lose them; plus the heat shrink does provide some paint protection so there is that.

[Cudakiller70]

Exactly why I made it, my AAR hood will stay open with the trampoline springs but just barely.. In fact, if the hinges are not adjust just right, the hood will not stay open. Therefore I can only imagine it slamming down when I least expect it and at a minimum pissing me off, at the worst damaging it. I wanted something that didn't look too bad and came up with this. Not sure if I will keep the heat shrink on it, but I need a method to connect the wire with the clips to it so I don't lose them; plus the heat shrink does provide some paint protection so there is that.

Have only heard of springs which are made for the Fiberglas hoods from suppliers like year one. Never thought of trampoline springs, good thinking. As far as tension is there another soft spring you could slide inside or a lager spring to go over the trampoline spring?

[70chall440]

I was originally going to go with the AAR springs, however given the cost and potential for long term damage to the hood, I went with the trampoline springs. Another member on here is running them and mentioned them (brad70 perhaps). I found a place online where I could order only 2, I think I got ones that were/are 9" long. They provide just enough tension to hold the hood open normally, but are on the light side. Perhaps 8.5" would be a little better. These springs are like $5 each so you can play around. Not any room inside them for another spring however.

[Brillo1974]

Any color yet? 

[70chall440]

unfortunately not, the weather has not been cooperating. I intend on shooting the first coat of polyester filler today, then block and see where I am. Perhaps a second coat and block then on to primer/filler, another sanding and then epoxy followed by color. If the weather holds up, perhaps in the not too distant future.

[redo1973]

The weather is impacting the east coast as well.  I had a great 68 degree day yesterday but could not quite get my paint booth and final preparations ready.  Now it is 52 degrees with high chance of rain.  Aargh! Another weekend delayed but I can work on other smaller parts so still moving forward.

[70chall440]

Well, it took all day but I was finally able to get the poly sprayed onto the car. I am going to let it sit for some time before I begin blocking. On the one hand, it is the first time this car has been all one color for many years and standing back it looks good. On the other hand, I can now see several problem areas that I am not real sure how to contend with.

Spraying the poly was an adventure to say the least. I had some reduced the poly by 10% with acetone and it did shoot pretty well, but it shot pretty fast and didn't seem to cover all that well. I gave it about 3 coats or so and used up most of the gallon. The last quart I didn't reduce and it definitely covered better (read thicker). I was using a gun with a 2.0 tip and to be honest, I don't think I needed to reduce it. I also had an issue with a air hose coming about which subsequently blew some dirt onto the primer but since I have to block it out, it isn't an issue.