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You asked for it...progress pictures

RustyRed

Active Member
Ok, someone asked for it so here are the progress pictures.

Here's what I started with....

enginebay.jpg


Just for fun here is one of the "in progress" after the bay was painted.

bay.jpg



And here is a not so great picture I took with my cell phone about 30 minutes ago. Still have some things to clean up for example the battery cables look like crap because they are old, the plug wires on the passenger side need to be clipped or something because they are going a little nuts at the moment, etc but getting down to minor things except for the radiator issue.

enginebay-1.jpg



Not exactly "there yet" but sure looking better then when I started, LOL!

I'll try to get a better "after" picture but I was in kind of a hurry today.....
 
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Even with the blurry pic it looks GREAT! Tidy up a few things, get that new rad installed and drive it like you stole it!!!!
 
Thanks.

I am afraid I may have to get bigger back tires before too long though....with the skinny stock ones I am pretty sure I could spin the heck out of them with the added horse power, LOL!

My rims look pretty rough in general but two of them are worse than the others....o great, here I go again with upgrade-itise (is that even a word?)
 
First off, it looks great and is one to be proud of!

"RustyRed" said:
I am pretty sure I could spin the heck out of them with the added horse power, LOL!
Maybe i missed it, but can you elaborate on the extra horsepower.... What are we talking about here?
 
"lethal289" said:
can you elaborate on the extra horsepower.... What are we talking about here?

That is the mechanical action resulting from the internal combustion in the engine, it's what makes the car.......M O V E
 
Wow~!!!!

Way to go! That looks great! Won't be long you'll be cruisin down I45!!
 
"lethal289" said:
First off, it looks great and is one to be proud of!
Maybe i missed it, but can you elaborate on the extra horsepower.... What are we talking about here?

We haven't figured out what horse power exactly that we are running. But my buddy and I took it for a short test drive. He recently redid a '66 GT that they built a 271 hp 289 for and he said he was sure I was running above that.

Basically, it is a 302 with Holley 570, ported GT40's, Weiand stealth, etc. The motor guy said he was going to put in a 214/224 cam but it honestly has more lope to it then I would have expected. That isn't a bad thing just sort of surprised me a little.

My best guess is it is running about 275 to 300 for horse power range.

I have the pretty skinny stock style tires and I have not tried to prove the theory yet but I am pretty sure I could spin them with this motor. My buddy said something about spinning them all day long. I'll get it broken in good first but sooner or later I am going to have to test it and see.

All I know is my old motor was getting really worn out. It would use half a tank of gas on a few short trips and probably had the power of a 4 banger. Strangely it didn't seem to consume excessive amounts of oil but if you let it sit and idle for a while you'd get a pretty good cloud of smoke behind you.

About the master cylinder....I actually purchased a dual bowl master that said to use the push rod from the old one. We changed them out with the rod from the old master and the thing was leaking out of the back. Since pretty much everything has been running over budget we just stuck a stock style master in there for now. I'll have to figure out how to change it later but I may just say screw it and convert the front brakes to disc next year depending on how our finances are going....I think most of the conversion kits come with a dual bowl but I could be wrong.
 
The granada swap (discbrakeswap.com) is a direct bolt on app that uses the old pushrod. You can buy a mc for a late 70's granada and it will bolt up using existing holes and pushrod. The only thing you'll have to scavenge for is fittings. IIRC the guy selling it (discbrakeswap.com) may now include the fittings in his package. The kit has everything you need with cd instructions for $5XX. He's quick to answer questions also. Have fun.
 
One thing to be aware of when using the Granada spindles..... the hub is larger preventing the use of some OEM wheels.
 
"lethal289" said:
First off, it looks great and is one to be proud of!
Maybe i missed it, but can you elaborate on the extra horsepower.... What are we talking about here?

"silverblueBP" said:
That is the mechanical action resulting from the internal combustion in the engine, it's what makes the car.......M O V E

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


And good job Red!
 
"daveSanborn" said:
One thing to be aware of when using the Granada spindles..... the hub is larger preventing the use of some OEM wheels.

Correct. Forgot to mention that. If you're running questionable wheels add that cost to the conversion. Doesn't stop you from replacing the mc though. Good catch Dave.
 
I am at one of those stages where this big piece of the puzzle just got complete and with the old motor it was getting to be very necessary.

The first thing I need to do is order the radiator ASAP then do a few other nickle and dime sort of things such as order the battery hold down kit and get some new battery cables.

After that I need to step back and think some.

I need to make a list of things that I need or want to do and then get them in some sort of order of priority. I know my rear leaf springs really need to be replaced, I've kicked around the idea of adding subframe connectors just to give the car additional support and I'd like to eventually do the brake conversion... of course there are the unplanned things that come up along the way. I wouldn't mind also doing something with my front end like maybe change out the springs at some point just to make it handle better going down the road. I've replaced the head light harness but I think it would be a good idea to replace the remaining wires under the hood when I have the time / money, etc, etc.

I've had the car going on two years now and it has been one of those deals of doing it little by little. Getting there but it'll take time just yet. It looks and drives much better than when I bought it at any rate. Last years "big battle" was getting the floor pans done and paying a buddy of mine to deal with some heavy surface rust in the drip rails. I wanted to get that rust taken care of before I had to find a roof off a donor car. With the new carpet I put in when doing the floors the interior is pretty much done minus a few nit-pick things I'd like to change eventually. Also replaced the gas tank last year but that was a fairly minor deal really. I just took a day off to deal with stuff around the house half a day and spent the other half day replacing the tank.

This years big battles have been replacing the radiator support and fender apron back in May / June and of course the latest big project with the motor.

Getting there slowly but surely.
 
know how you must feel!

I know how you must feel to some degree as well as many here! For me, I've pretty much replaced everything! You just need to make a list of priorities, and maybe proceed a little at a time of course, and as funds permit cause we all know how expensive and time consuming these little pony cars can become! I honestly didn't think I would have spent what I've spent over the past couple years(I never added up the receipts!), but things got out of hand regarding Upgrading! If I had just left it stock~ WELL HELL, it wouldn't have been any fun!!!! :craz In the meantime, keep it up~! it's fun!
dne'
 
Re: know how you must feel!

"Dne'" said:
but things got out of hand regarding Upgrading! If I had just left it stock~ WELL HELL, it wouldn't have been any fun!!!! :craz In the meantime, keep it up~! it's fun!
dne'

Funny you should mention that....when I first bought the car I was going to keep it as original as possible. But now I have a new motor that is far from "stock" and I am about to have an aluminum radiator.

I'll keep plugging away at it but I think my next priority after a couple of nit picky / minor things under the hood is going to be my leaf springs...should be able to do those in a month or maybe two. I need to do some reading if I want to go with the original style springs or go for something else....I think someone makes a five leaf one if memory serves but I wouldn't quote me on that. After leaf springs I am seriously pondering sub-frames...I don't care for the Tin Man ones because cutting off the end of my frame rails is not something I care to do so I might start researching other options with that....

That's where I am leaning at the moment but I need to get the new radiator in and drive it around some first to really make any definite decisions.
 
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