Any one every tear and engine down because there pissed?

[67stangboy]

Ok, so I’m changing out my fuel pump tonight, and I don't get to start until around 10:30 P.M. I start looking at it and realize that the power steering pump and the AC motor mount are in the way. So 20 minutes worth of work turns into an hour and a half. In the process of pulling the PS pump I kick a bolt and it disappears into the garage never to be found again. After wasting 20 minutes looking for it I decide that at this point I should just pull the whole friggin engine out and clean it, repaint some parts and fix some things we did half way when we built it. I have a sinking feeling that tomorrow evening I’m going to hate myself.

Any one else do this before? How did it turn out, did you hate yourself the next day?

 

[hungrymonkey]

kind of.

I usually pop the hood and notice something small. Like a spark plug wire that is not at the same angle as the others. So I reach down and adjust it, but I somehow manage to break the metal piece off the wire which in turns breaks off the spark plug into the head, which requires me to remove the head after breaking off a couple of drill bits, easy outs, a screw driver, and a portion of my finger.

while removing the head I take it upon myself to break off a head bolt or two, and lose some of the exhaust bolts, along with a bracket.

Then I get pissed and let it sit for a year or two. That way my car has plenty to think about the next time I try to fix something.

 

[BDT 1967]

Exact same situation with my car, started out as a fuel pump, then i just kept going before i knew it i had the engine was out of it. But the best part is I loved every min of it.

 

[BDT 1967]

Oh yea cant forget to have 10k invested in it by the time you finish

 

[67stangboy]

I already plan on building a new engine for it, my only reason for doing the fuel pump so late last night was because of a car show saturday and now I've got 3 days worth of work ahead of me. I think it will be a good thing though, im going to go back and fix some of the detail items we skipped over durring the first build. I'm going to order all chrome bolts for the brackets, and I'm going to remove the AC motor mount since I don't have AC in my car. I'm also going to repaint some of the red brackets that have faded to orange and pink. Then I'll re-wire some areas to hide the wires. All in all it should work out to be a good thing.

 

[1320stang]

Let's see, flashback to 1988, I'm driving my car back to school at night and halfway there, the right rear tire decides to seperate the tread from the tire whilst I'm running 60mph down a dark (no moon) unmarked 2 lane road. This also happens to be the side that had a rusted hole in the lower quarter that my buddy and I did an EXCELENT job repairing with a piece of cardboard and a can of duraglass and a can of bondo, which I stored the leftover cans in the trunk dropoff on that side.

Well, the tread only seperated about 3/4 of the way around, so this big piece of rubber is slapping the heck out of the quarter, destroying our beautiful work and continues to split the outer wheel well open to the top of the well while allowing a bunch of air into the trunk which rips out the threads in the original headliner filling the passenger compartment with dust to the point I can't see out of the car. I get the car shut down okay, luckily I have a spare and a bottle jack and on the bright side, the tire still held air. Unfortunately, it's at the bottom of the trunk which is filled with so much stuff, the stuff on top has molded the form of the bracing of the underside of the trunk lid. I also have no flashlight, so I spend about ten minutes piling stuff on the road to get to the tire, jack, and find the freaking handle to the jack which has wandered all the way across the trunk. The loose tread has split open the cans of duraglass and bondo like biscut cans and thrown the contents into a green and tan blob stuck to the underside of the top of the quarterpanel, but not before it dribbled the cans off said quarterpanel enough times to raise several dents from the inside up about 3/4".

I get the tire changed, all the stuff back in the trunk and get to school. On the way to my duplex, I see my girlfriend who proceeds to tell me that she and her family are moving to NC from OK in about 2 weeks. I get to the duplex, I'm pissed about my car and my girlfriend and proceed to take out my frustrations on the quarterpanel with a ballpeen hammer thinking that I'll replace it in the next week or so.

Fastforwarding between that night and 2006, I don't get the quarter changed in a couple weeks, school lets out for the semester, I move to NC, live there for 5 months, find out my girlfriend has been doing it on the side with a married guy, move back to OK and the car is sitting in my driveway with a still messed up quarter today on 4 flat tires on car dollys with no engine of tranny, front sheet metal stripped off with the interior gutted and filled both there and the trunk full of spare parts for it and other cars.

I've got 3 kids, 13, 9 & 5 and we're a single income family, so I don't get much $, much less time, to work on the car very much. I recently bought a rotisserie and own a 115v Miller 130 MIG and have all the sheetmetal to replace everything from the doors back except the decklid and the piece below the windshield. I'm in the process of reorganizing my garage and building a new set of benches in my little 8x10 cubby at the front of the garage so that I can work more efficeintly and hope to start replacing metal in the fall.

Moral of my story? Don't bite off more than you can chew. A rolling stone may gather no moss, but a rolling snowball tends to get bigger and bigger if you don't stop it.

 

[BDT 1967]

sounds like you have had it pretty ruff with that car so far, to be honest with you, i am kinda suprised that you didnt sell it after all those years.

 

[1320stang]

Well, it's an A-code bench seat coupe with factory disc brakes, 3-speed (?!?), 3.00 rear and came with factory air.

It replaced a '67 'vert that was going to be red with red interior and a white top, all was done except paint, totalled by a lady in a '86 S-10 Blazer in early '87.

Part of the reason I never have gotten rid of it is spite. My dad told me he's hauled the car more miles than it's been driven since I owned it (it's only had about 2k put on it since then and been garaged all but about 1.5 years since '87) and when I first got it, my mom liked driving it, so I'm hoping that when it's done, I'll give it to my mom to drive until she doesn't want it anymore. She's REALLY meticulous with her vehicles.

It got torn down in about '95, I was taking it to the drag strip in '92-'93 and running high 15's with it. Tear down took place after I broke the third member in it (Lincoln Locker). I had started running my buddy's '69 Mach I with my race 289 in it and was running low 11's, which my car wasn't equipped to do. I then found a '63 Fairlane that was an old drag car, so I stopped tearing into the '65 and started on the '63, which I still have as well. I've just recently sold the race 289 shortblock to a guy in Kansas that'll put it into his '63 Fairlane and the '69 351w heads went to a local kid for his '88 hatch who has run 12.1s on a 331 N/A with a AOD.

 

[69 Rustang]

Well, I can't say I was pissed at the time, but my 69 Mustang project started as a valve job. The valves are done, but the rest of the car is still in pieces.

 

[67stangboy]

LoL I didn't take it that far, I think some good came out of my rage. Im sending all the parts and brackets I had painted red, or black, or the ones that I had just skipped painting off to get powder coated this week and while there gone I'm going to re-wire the engine compartment, install my MSD box and put in my Tach.

My wife still thinks im insane since I didn't come to bed till about 2 a.m. but she knew I was crazy when she married me.

 

[Protowrxs]

Well, I can't say I was pissed at the time, but my 69 Mustang project started as a valve job. The valves are done, but the rest of the car is still in pieces.

Hehe ... Sounds familar. The last motor in my Stang had a hydr cam but I had adjustable screw in studs still from the solid lifter before. Lifters not really adjusted right and noisy.. I should fix that you know...

10+.. crap, 15+ years later and here I am too.

What a life...

But I have to say 1320's beats all of the stories so far.
-Stephen

 

[StangDreamin']

Well, there's this '73 Cougar (a "Moose-stang" by another name); been parked in my carport for over 18 months. The Cleveland was rebuilt couple-three years ago, but the lifters/pushrods need to be addressed - not sure if the cam was replaced in the rebuild, but I'm pretty sure the lifters/pushrods are original and noisey as h***. Less pressing is a carb/intake issue - 600CFM Holley 4bbl on a spacer plate dumping into the factory smogger two-hole intake. If this ends up being a DD for my younger daughter (16-yr-old still working on her Learner's permit); the intake's gonna stay and a 500 CFM two barrel moves in!

If it survives her interest and I end up with it, then it might get "a little pick-me-up" in the top-end Let's see; Performer RPM or maybe a Stealth on which to perch the Holley..... oughta do something about the heads, maybe port 'em..... but they're still '73 smogger heads, maybe some other heads?..... if I'm gonna do that, maybe oughta look at a different cam....since I'm already going to be messing with the lifters and I'm maybe going to be changing cams, how about a roller setup?

The tranny wasn't touched when the engine was rebuilt, oughta find out how much it's gonna cost to beef that FMX. And the 9-inch is a peg-leg, maybe an LSD would be good...... There's a bit of rust on all the inner fenders and wheel houses (Colorado car), anybody sell that sheetmetal? If that actually works out, some sub-frame connectors would be a good idea - since I'm already under there!......The suspension/steering sure could use tightening up..... 4 wheel discs would be a good idea for stopping that behemoth, even if I keep the top-end at relatively "stocker 73" levels.......

And on and on and on......

One problem: the PO (NoKitten) "sorta" signed it over to Mrs StangDreamin' or me; but no signature or Notary Stamp.

Well, that's probably pretty good, anyways - I can see me doing the same thing you guys are doing - big-spending and all!

EDIT: Wait a minute - now I know why this sounds familiar. I once bought this '72 F100 that had been sitting for a couple years. Of course all the seals in the 360/C6 were dry-rotted and started leaking and -well, I've already yammered on about the 406/beefed C6-driven hauler that developed out of a simple "fixer-upper"
Hello, my name's Jimmy, and I need to go over the 12 steps for motor-holics again

 

[Cowgirl Tink]

Well, there's this '73 Cougar (a "Moose-stang" by another name); been parked in my carport for over 18 months. The Cleveland was rebuilt couple-three years ago, but the lifters/pushrods need to be addressed - not sure if the cam was replaced in the rebuild, but I'm pretty sure the lifters/pushrods are original and noisey as h***. Less pressing is a carb/intake issue - 600CFM Holley 4bbl on a spacer plate dumping into the factory smogger two-hole intake. If this ends up being a DD for my younger daughter (16-yr-old still working on her Learner's permit); the intake's gonna stay and a 500 CFM two barrel moves in!

If it survives her interest and I end up with it, then it might get "a little pick-me-up" in the top-end

And on and on and on......

One problem: the PO (NoKitten) "sorta" signed it over to Mrs StangDreamin' or me; but no signature or Notary Stamp.

Hello, my name's Jimmy, and I need to go over the 12 steps for motor-holics again

Oh really, He finally talked to you guys about his luggage and the money he owes ya? Amazing.....Please PM or email all the details as you have not told me about this yet.

Trish