Feb 09

My elbow finally healed up a little so I can get a little work done, but I'm still very busy at work so nothing major has been done. The main thing is that I placed some orders for some parts. A march under-drive pulley set, a billet power steering pump, a polished intake, polished water neck, polished 140 amp alternator, polished Stewart stage 2 water pump and a few accessories. Then I also bought a Dewitt's SP031 radiator and fan kit.

The power steering pump sure looks nice but it has a blemish beneath the powder coat. Since this is a $300 pump, I think I'd like perfection. I emailed Summit and they sent a call tag to pick it up.

Today I decided to move the body outside and do a little paint stripping. Along the way I did a few other things (like finish filling the differential oil) but for the most paint I used fiberglass paint stripper and a razor blade scraper and tore the paint off my body. I also took pictures of a few fiberglass problems that I need fixed. I got the radiator support cleaned and painted and I found the air dam seals I ordered about 4 years ago and installed them as well. Looks like it has had at least 4 coats of paint. Apparently burgundy, then red twice, then burgundy again.

I also took pictures of a few fiberglass problems that I need fixed. I'd really like to replace the inner gills as the one on the left side has been mangled pretty bad. The rear bumper mounts on both sides are pretty bad, worse on left. the bottom of the fender is uneven. The left rocker panel glass is crap and ill probably have to replace this whole piece. The right side has this puiece of glass for the rear connection of the rocker molding but the left side is missing. I really don't want to replace that whole panel to get that one small piece of fiberglass. Same for the license plate mount. It is fixable but id rather just get a small section and blend it in. The lazy idiot who owned the car before painted the taillight housings. I also found a crack in the passenger vent tube.

My 3hp chrome high torque mini-starter got here today, so I took it out to the shop and installed it. I need to go rob the battery out of my truck and test it but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I also found the upper tabs for the radiator so I cleaned them up and started priming. The ground wire off my spare frame was in much nicer shape so I cleaned it up and installed as well. While I was cleaning overpspray off the engine to get good ground and flush starter mounting I cleaned up the water pump surface as well.