Fitzy's GP is back!

[64 kiwi boni]

5 hours ago, Frosty said:

Fitzy - Congratulations on a job well done mate!!!! 

The labor of love journey has ended, but the journey in the Crimson Terror is just beginning!! I wish you a whole lot of joy driving the old girl around Queensland with the biggest shit eating grin on your face that even a mortician can't get rid of! Well done, mate, well done!!!

 

hahaha @ "golf Clap"

[JUSTA6]

Happy for ya.  You are finally in the light at the end of the tunnel.  Enjoy.   Keep the sunny side up N the rubber side down.

[Fitzy]

A genuine thank you to everyone - I feel like I'm walking on air! Of course, now is the time to step back a little, get the Frosty tach to work, get those gauges happening and then slowly start to straighten up the bodywork as I'm now tentatively thinking of painting it. 

I'll mention this as an aside. Now that the auto works properly an added benefit of getting full vacuum to the modulator is that it no longer roughly engages D or R from standing. It engages nice & gentle like it should and once again the changes as you drive are barely perceptible. I'm still getting some backfiring if I accelerate with vigour but the engine has less than 100 miles on it so is probably still tight as a drum. I'm gonna dedicate a weekend to brimming the tank with 98 and will run it in over those few days. Happy friggin' days!

[Fitzy]

After finally getting the car registered, did I drive it today? Of course not! After running a coupla morning errands I thought it was time to stop dicking around and fit those gauges. Voltmeter is easy - one positive and one ground wire. Done. My new fuse box has proven itself to be more handy than I ever imagined. Plugging into a new 12V terminal is so easy because there are so many spares. I also fitted the engine temp gauge and have routed the sensor wire to the front of the engine and cable tied it in place - waiting for the inline radiator hose adapter that I ordered to turn up. It seems my 'local' parts supplier has upgraded copper tubing for the oil pressure in stock so I'll have to find an excuse to go down there and pick it up, perhaps over the weekend.

Electronic ignition...well, it's half installed. I pulled out the points & condenser (pitting has already begun) and tried to fit the new module in their place. The screw holes wouldn't line up and there's a little nipple cast into the breaker plate to locate the points and of course that fouled the new ignitor plate - it wouldn't sit flat and was never going to fit. After some head scratching I thought perhaps they'd screw in on the opposite side of the breaker plate, and of course it virtually fell into place. In the instructions they neglected to mention to install the new module on the OPPOSITE side to where the points had come out! Next, I don't know where they think you're going to route the 2 wires that need to be attached to the coil. I fed them through a spare hole in the vacuum canister mounting plate. It's not ideal and they are bound to chafe. I'm gonna have to enlarge that hole and fit the supplied grommet. By this time it was 10 to 5 and time for a shower & a beer. I'll play with it tomorrow and hope it starts!

[Fitzy]

Whoops - forgot to mention that I found a NOS Pontiac leather keyring online - a frivolous purchase but why not. Also, I was going to fit personalised plates but I happen to like the supplied black & white jobbies, so I found a vintage California Pontiac dealer licence plate frame and that will finish off the rear plate and make it blend in. I was careful to choose California (car was made at South Gate, CA) it had to say Pontiac and had to be red. Done.

[Frosty]

Hmmmm.....I think an Ace Wilson Royal Pontiac license plate frame would look a lot cooler and would impress the local Pontiac community down under. Ace Wilson was the Royal Oak Michigan Pontiac dealer that Jim Wangers and Pontiac used to take cars to have super tuned, e.g. the famous Royal Bobcat treatment. Any Pontiac could get thier Royal Bobcat treatment, but the first cars to get them were the Bonnevilles and Catalinas, which is where the name BOBCAT came from.

Of course Justa is still pissed/jealous of me for getting mine at the Widetracker's swap meet some years ago. I bought a used original Ace Wilson Royal Pontiac rear plate holder for $10 with an old Michigan license plate still in it. Justa had just missed it. These things are almost unobtainuim and I scored one, and for cheap. I could be wrong, but I suspect some knock offs exist now too.

Edited March 25, 2022 by Frosty

[Fitzy]

I always wondered what the significance of Royal Bobcat was, and now I know. Like I said, to be true to the car's roots, it had to be a CA plate holder plus it's old & beaten up so will match the car perfectly! The one I really wanted was a srtaight Pontiac dealer plate (no GMC, Buick, Olds, etc mentiomed) but the dude wouldn't send it overseas. I hope he enjoys keeping it in his shop.

[64 kiwi boni]

fitzy, are your Queensland plates the same dimensions as usa plate???? 

[Fitzy]

No way. USA plates are slightly taller and not as wide. Fortunately, the Dept Of Transport here in Qld had the foresight to offer several formats of plates. I've seen US imports with the regular wide plate bent and crammed into the US aperture and it looks shoddy. Having said that, the predrilled holes that were in my plates were not correct so I had to modify them. After rebuilding the engine, it was a pleasant job!

I suppose your original question is to ensure that my ordered license plate frame will fit my plates, so yes it should.

[Fitzy]

Pertronix electronic ignition install. What should have been a 15 minute job turned into an 8 hour ordeal AND I reinstalled my points. After I installed the new module yesterday it was time to simply connect the 2 supplied wires this morning. Red to coil positive and black to coil negative. Even I couldn't muck that up. So after the connections, I attach a circuit tester to the coil negative, ignition on and wiggle the rotor, expecting to see the tester light come on and off as the distributor cam passes the module. Light stays on. I loosen distributor body and turn it a whole quarter turn and the light stays on. Car runs perfectly with points and now doesn't run at all. Is it possibly a faulty unit? No way to test it so I do some research and check the air gap between the distributor cam lobes and the module - about 2mm. It looks a little excessive to me so whip out the unit and enlarge the screw holes and lightly grind the plate where it abuts the inner part of the distributor. Refit the unit, air gap is now about 1.5mm so I'm happy with that. Light stays on, car won't start. I give up and reinstall the points. Bloody light STAYS ON! It turns out that the feed from coil negative to distributor was compromised (I won't go into it now) so I 'fix' that, adjust the point gap, do the static timing and she fires up instantly.

Now that I know what the problem is, I shall reinstall Pertronix tomorrow. You know, I could have taken up gardening, or lawn bowls...

[Fitzy]

Welcome to Happy Sunday!

Smashed down a coffee, gobbled down breakfast and strode with purpose out to the car because I knew THIS was the day. That ignition module was going in and was going to work. 15 mins later, she fires up. Adjusted the timing, reconnected the dizzy vac line and the job was done. To celebrate I drove to our local servo, took out a mortgage and bought 20 litres of 95. As I'm exiting the servo (because we're rural, it's a servo/general store/pub) I notice the pub carpark has an assortment of old cars in it. I burble through slowly checking out the cars and like moths to a flame, the pub's patrons have their noses glued to the fence checking out my ride. I thought it only polite to stop, so I parked up and introduced myself. It's the 'Classic, Not Plastic Car Club' so I asked to join - another reason for me to go for a drive in future. I then took her for a burn and noted with delight how nicely the new ignition module works. There's still an annoying misfire if I try and stab the throttle so perhaps a carby adjustment. One thing I did notice was how tight the engine is - trying to turn it over by hand the other day in order to set the static timing was almost impossible. I really need to get out there and get some miles up. I'll make that a priority when I get back from work.

One last thing - to my delight temp gauge works even though it's sensor is currently cable tied to the radiator hose. I bought oil pressure fitting adapter and copper tubing and shall install that last gauge upon my return. Also ordered a shift kit from Rockauto last night. That's it - the last thing for some time.

[64 kiwi boni]

2 hours ago, Fitzy said:

Welcome to Happy Sunday!

Smashed down a coffee, gobbled down breakfast and strode with purpose out to the car because I knew THIS was the day. That ignition module was going in and was going to work. 15 mins later, she fires up. Adjusted the timing, reconnected the dizzy vac line and the job was done. To celebrate I drove to our local servo, took out a mortgage and bought 20 litres of 95. As I'm exiting the servo (because we're rural, it's a servo/general store/pub) I notice the pub carpark has an assortment of old cars in it. I burble through slowly checking out the cars and like moths to a flame, the pub's patrons have their noses glued to the fence checking out my ride. I thought it only polite to stop, so I parked up and introduced myself. It's the 'Classic, Not Plastic Car Club' so I asked to join - another reason for me to go for a drive in future. I then took her for a burn and noted with delight how nicely the new ignition module works. There's still an annoying misfire if I try and stab the throttle so perhaps a carby adjustment. One thing I did notice was how tight the engine is - trying to turn it over by hand the other day in order to set the static timing was almost impossible. I really need to get out there and get some miles up. I'll make that a priority when I get back from work.

One last thing - to my delight temp gauge works even though it's sensor is currently cable tied to the radiator hose. I bought oil pressure fitting adapter and copper tubing and shall install that last gauge upon my return. Also ordered a shift kit from Rockauto last night. That's it - the last thing for some time.

You do know we love pictures around here aye !!!

[Fitzy]

Yeah I know, but what was I going to post? The ignition module? The gauges? Oh, you mean the other cars in the carpark. I didn't think of it. Next time I go for a drive, I'll send a pic.

[JUSTA6]

On 3/25/2022 at 9:09 AM, Frosty said:

Hmmmm.....I think an Ace Wilson Royal Pontiac license plate frame would look a lot cooler and would impress the local Pontiac community down under. Ace Wilson was the Royal Oak Michigan Pontiac dealer that Jim Wangers and Pontiac used to take cars to have super tuned, e.g. the famous Royal Bobcat treatment. Any Pontiac could get thier Royal Bobcat treatment, but the first cars to get them were the Bonnevilles and Catalinas, which is where the name BOBCAT came from.

Of course Justa is still pissed/jealous of me for getting mine at the Widetracker's swap meet some years ago. I bought a used original Ace Wilson Royal Pontiac rear plate holder for $10 with an old Michigan license plate still in it. Justa had just missed it. These things are almost unobtainuim and I scored one, and for cheap. I could be wrong, but I suspect some knock offs exist now too.

SHUTUP!!!!!!!!!  LMAO

[Fitzy]

A question: today's simple little task was going to be installing the oil pressure adapter so I can run a gauge & light to the dash. Do you think anything in my enormous collection of metric and imperial sockets & wrenches would fit? Ba- bow! A 27mm socket will fit but slips. A 26mm will not fit. A 1" will not fit. I'm guessing 1 1/16". Can anyone confirm the correct size for that oil pressure sender? I measured the flats with a caliper and came up with 1.03" which is like 1 & 45/64" or some bloody thing. Surely 1 1/16" will do it?

[JUSTA6]

5 hours ago, Fitzy said:

A question: today's simple little task was going to be installing the oil pressure adapter so I can run a gauge & light to the dash. Do you think anything in my enormous collection of metric and imperial sockets & wrenches would fit? Ba- bow! A 27mm socket will fit but slips. A 26mm will not fit. A 1" will not fit. I'm guessing 1 1/16". Can anyone confirm the correct size for that oil pressure sender? I measured the flats with a caliper and came up with 1.03" which is like 1 & 45/64" or some bloody thing. Surely 1 1/16" will do it?

It'sa JUSTAble.   

[Frosty]

That's evil Justa! Plain evil!

[JUSTA6]

9 minutes ago, Frosty said:

That's evil Justa! Plain evil!

Don't tell me you don't have one in your box.

[Wrongway]

Hey bro, an 1 1/16" wrench fits the one I have here perfectly. 

[Fitzy]

Thank you Wrongway for your sensible helpful response, unlike those other clowns! 

[Wrongway]

Glad I could help bro.

[JUSTA6]

14 hours ago, Fitzy said:

Thank you Wrongway for your sensible helpful response, unlike those other clowns! 

Did you try a cresent wrench??  You claimed to have tried everything in your extensive collection of tools.  Justa suggestion that happened to be a lil funny.  And 1 more use of JUSTA to the list.

[Frosty]

6 hours ago, Wrongway said:

Glad I could help bro.

Suck up! 

Edited March 29, 2022 by Frosty

[Fitzy]

Yes, I tried wrenches but they top out at 1". I've gone 50 years without needing anything over 1 inch!

Let the naughty comments begin!

[Frosty]

You'll get no harsh remarks from me mate. I'll leave the sarcasm to Justa, the sucking up sounds to Wrongway, and the laughing, pointing, and snickering in the corner to Kiwi. That's what real friends do!!!! Cheers!