I've been putting a ton of time into my King. After two years of work, including a complete high performance rebuild on the 351W, I got it running in November for the first time since spring 2000. Now I'm driving it whenever the weather allows to work out the bugs and break in the motor. 240 miles so far, and I've had to readjust several of the rocker arms, re-seal the power steering pump, and play with wiring issues. Up next, I have to change out the axle assembly. When I put the 3.80 gears into it, I discovered a nasty crack in the housing. Since I'm going easy on it anyway, I left it until I could get a replacement. Last weekend I picked up a complete axle (with a wicked bonus: 3.40 gears that will go into my '77) and I'm cleaning that up now. Interesting point: this new axle was actually manufactured the week before the axle it's replacing. Bizarre. I'm also getting new rear springs, e-brake cable, and I'm going to replace all of the brake lines as well as the master cylinder, which keeps leaking. I also have a wide-band AF meter and controller that I'll be installing. I already had the bung welded into the exhaust, I just have to wire it up and figure out where to mount the gauge. I want to do an a-pillar mount on this one but haven't committed to cutting/modifying my t-top specific a-pillar cover yet. I did a dash top auto meter gauge pod (modified 94-98 clock pod mount) with an oil pressure gauge and vac gauge.
I'm modifying a bolt on cowl hood scoop that runs the full length of the hood and will be enlarging the hole I had to cut in the hood for clearance. Then I can run a bigger air cleaner...
When all of that is done to my satisfaction, and I have enough miles on it to really feel the power
then it's time to take it to the body shop. Current plans call for a complete media blast, some body massaging to take out 30 years worth of dings, and then a thorough coat of '69/'70 Calypso Coral.
Final step will be carpet and hundreds of dollars worth of weatherstripping. Worth it if the t-tops will stop leaking...
Hope to be ready for some car show action by the end of May!
Oh, and I'm going to squeeze in some time to install the long tube headers in my GT 500.