Well brought the tiger home from Fl last week, right through a snow storm in
WV. On the trailer helped but still covered in salt and dirt. Had a wonderful
time at customs, they sure fell our cars are worth a whole lot. Grilled the
ell out of me about how much I paid for it. Did I find it on the internet?
How did i find out about it? Did I buy it on e-bay? Keep saying it looked mint
and must be worth about 30,000 at least. Finally between me constantly
telling them to phone Craig in fl, giving them the number etc, threating to
call
him myself we walked around the car again this time with me. Started with the
bonded valance, clipped front end, which you can see in the fenderwell area,
patched area on top of fenders very easy to spot to a bodyman like me, back to
the patches in the quarter panel, and oh yes the bent frame. Car looks great
from a few feet, but it sure ain't mint, one of these wankers keep saying he
had done this for 18 years and was an "expert" Expert at being a real
JERK...Took an hour but won the first battle. Lost the next taking car off
trailer,
my helper was in a hurry to get home and keep saying it was fine to back
off. Ya right the exhaust was but not the front valance, knocked about 5 lbs
of
bondo out of that. Just going to hammer and dolly it out halfass and spray
some paint on it for now. Idea is to drive the car for a season then get to
the
body. Washed the car, starter dies. Knew it was a bit fussy so had bought a
new one from ford racing...m-11000. Of course does not happen in garage and I
'm alone can't push it across the gravel laneway and up the slight incline
to garage. Cub Cadet to the rescue. Used a motorcycle tie down hooked over the
swaybar and draged it in the garge finally. Note here, I have read and been
told that I do not need to use the two wire system they supply. That instead I
can run one wire from the starter relay under the brake booster down to the
starter moter solenoid and then just run a short jumper over to the other
terminal. In the instructions ford in big letters says not to do this, the
starter will stay engaged for a bit and eventually ruin it. They are right, I
had
to shorten the wiring they sent, miles too long for a tiger, but nice stuff.
Nice mallable ends so easy to spread and shorten to lenth and re crimp with
some shrink wrap cover. Tryed it with just the one shortened and a little
jumper....ya it hung on for a bit after starting. Shortened the other, ran it
like they said worked fine. Put it all back in the nice wire wrap they sent
,looks good. Have to get some longer starter bolts though, body casting is
thicker than the stock, but the rest of the size sure is smaller.. Gotta get a
mechanical saftey to get my plates in this province, should not be a prob,
rest
of front end pieces look good and so do the brakes. Also found where the frame
was cracked on the inside by the right motor mount. Looked only slightly
bent from the outside and Craig said it alinged ok, seemed to when driven and
when followed. Anyway thats todays projuct, get the mount off and fire up the
mig. I want to weld that up before I put it on a rack and give it a little
pull. I don't think its back much but if i can get it on a frame rack I think
we
could give it a pull without taking much off, just maybe the bumper and the
engine mount. I may give it a four way align first. Guees I gotta call in
some favors from the old days before I retired....lol A bit of a rocky start
here but if the damn sun starts to shine and I can get this thing out a drive
it
maybe i'll cheer up. Damn this is like being back at work in a
shop.....least it's not flat rate....no rate here...anyway a cuppa and
onward......cheers....phil
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