My eBay purchased 74

[Jamiez]

I did manage to go to a auto swap meet down in Canfield Ohio this weekend.  I didn't get anything but I saw a nice Petty Blue Barracuda with a vendor sticker on it.  And I managed to avoid buying a 72 Road runner...that was a struggle.

[Jamiez]

Calling this documentation is quite a stretch:

What it is it?  Well it's hard to read and the photo didn't help any, but it turns out it's a  receipt from Nationwise Auto Parts in Morgantown, West Virginia 26505 printed at 10:15 AM 1-18-91 Fri Whatever it was for cost $26.99 + 1.62 in tax) and $40.00 cash was tendered.

I found it under the spare tire when I was looking around in the trunk.  Just a fascinating stowaway that's been in my car for 20 years......

[joelson6]

hey, i found a bullet in the dash of my '74 

[GranCuda1970]

You found J. Hoffa's Old barracuda LOL!!

[brads70]

hey, i found a bullet in the dash of my '74 

I bought a 55 chevy from Alabama . I found a 45 slug that had been fired, you can see the rifling from the barrel in it, but the end of the bullet was not deformed. Meaning it had hit something soft.   The rear seat uppolstery had been changed along with the headliner. Makes ya wonder what had " gone bump" in the middle of the night huh?

[GranCuda1970]

A soft hit new headliner that must of made a hell of a mess. Pulp fiction comes to mind.

[brads70]

A soft hit new headliner that must of made a hell of a mess. Pulp fiction comes to mind.

I agree! If only that car could talk! there were lots of bullets and spent brass in it when I stripped it out. Almost thought I should contact the police?     Just sold it though, new owner is picking it up today. 

[Jamiez]

Just sold it though, new owner is picking it up today. 

Had to make room for the Road Runner, huh?

[brads70]

Had to make room for the Road Runner, huh?

Well..... I'd like to but this will pay for the new Dana 60 for the Challenger....

[Jamiez]

Buy a Road Runner with a Dana 60 and put it onto the challenger...it's not like your wife will make you get rid of the road runner once you have it.....

[brads70]

Buy a Road Runner with a Dana 60 and put it onto the challenger...it's not like your wife will make you get rid of the road runner once you have it.....

Ha! she's just comming around after buying the Challenger....3 years later! 

[Jamiez]

When I took the driver's door trim off to adjust the window, I cleaned found the reason the panel didn't quite fit right was because one of the clips on the bottom was mauled. So I removed the clip straightened it, and reinstalled it.  That door fit fine.  The passenger door had a similar issue, but before I took it off I decided to pick up some replacement clips.  eBay to the rescue!

Only one of the clips was bad, so I swapped it out.  Good thing I bought new clips because I wouldn't have been able to bend this one back:




Also while poking around on the web this weekend I found this:
http://autoholics.com/2011/01/03/Paint-It-or-Leave-It--487857

Apparently there was a moparts thread/poll where the previous owner considered repainting it (to Plumb Crazy....not the original FE5).  I haven't had any luck locating the thread, but I wonder if anyone around here remembers it.

[Jamiez]

Work has been killing me with the launch of a new accounting system, but it is in place now and it seems like it's mostly working so maybe I'll have time to get back to the car....at least before I have to put it away

During my hunt for broadcast sheets, I discovered the passenger side seat back cover was held on by only 3 hog rings.  I'd never worked with hog rings before and mistakenly thought I could just buy a kit and put them on while the seat back was still installed.   I quickly realized the error of my ways and removed the seat back, removed all the old hog rings, and put in a bunch of new ones (using the pre-existing holes).  It shouldn't have taken long at all but every time I needed a tool (hog ring pliers, ring cutters, a right angle driver) it turned out I didn't have one and had to order it.  I'll probably pull the driver's side and do the same thing (now that I have all the tools).

There's still a lot of stuff I'd like to get done like swapping out the carpet, but I don't know if I want to start it with winter looming so close.  I also want to change the oil (but there is a lot of info on picking the right oil that I need to go through).  I still need to swap over to an electric choke I picked up months ago, but that involves pulling the carb (per the instructions), I'd still like to go over the ignition system and make sure the "loose coil wire" was really the only problem, and probably a dozen other little projects I can't remember right now.
 
And since I couldn't be home working on the car, I did some eBay shopping and ended up picking up some brochures and other literature to keep with the car.  Maybe I'll make one of those poster type things I've seen other owners put out when they show their cars.  I can definitely do that in the winter.

[Jamiez]

Since I had all the tools handy, I decided to pull the back off the driver seat, check it for broadcast sheets and give it a good once over.  It turns out the driver's side is a little bit harder to remove as it seems to sit closer to the trans tunnel.  Still it was good to work on the car again.



I decided to order some replacement LED tail lights, since they seem like a pretty clean swap and I can easily go back to stock.  Hopefully they show up before I decide to pack the car away.

[Jamiez]

Week 21:

After seeing them on this board I decided to order a full set of LEDs for the rear from ClassicLEDs.  The brake lights went in without a hitch.  The reverse lights are giving me problems.  I think my harness probably has a little green death and there's just not enough voltage to light the LEDs (or more accurately to trip the diode).  They work fine when jumpered to the battery or to the harness under the kick panel.  it's just by the time they reach the rear..zip.   It's on my list of things to play with.

A few minor notes on the product.  They really fill the housing...and that's great, but there's a down side.  The connections on the back of the board can touch the metal housing and ground out, thus causing the LEDs to not light.  Also they really don't "mount" in the housing.  The instructions recommend silicon to hold them in place.  I ended up going with double sided tape.  I discovered if I doubled the tape up, the connectors couldn't press through to the housing and the lights worked flawlessly.  Also the wires could stand to be a bit longer to ease installation.  All and all I'm happy with them.

Here they are mounted:

Powered up with just the parking lights on

The brake lights in action, you can see the light really fills out the lens like a bulb would.


I used a light meter and took some readings

Brake: Stock = 90 lux, LEDs = 1410 lux
Parking: Stock = 54 lux, LEDs = 70 lux

A pretty big jump in visibility