Sunday, June 10, 2012

Oh dear lord, what a day!

Ok so, yesterday was pretty big. The Mustang is now distinctly less big and in many, many pieces. This kind of job needs a lot of room and for all nice shiny things to be far far away from ground zero. Look for all you doubters, Reginald is running and frankly gorgeous...


Look, all you have to do is hook the battery wires up properly!

Ok Mr Mustang your time is up. We have a Saw's all,  grinder, air chisel and axes. It's on.

I make the first cut....

Less text, more videos and pictures, we're cutting a car up. Not a lot you can say about that! We removed one of the rear windows pretty easily, the other was more stubborn so seeing as there's nothing we need from the car now except part of the floor pan we went destructo on it's ass!


Step 1: hit it with a ceramic sparkplug.
Verdict: fail.


Step 2: shoot it with ceramic bb's.
Verdict: also fail.


Step 3: hit it with a punch.
Verdict: better, however, video fail.

Off comes the boot/trunk

It's ass is literally on the floor lol :P

We tried removing the soft top, it's not that soft. We chopped all the fabric off and ended up leaving the mechanism attached as it was so hard core.

This is what we have so far, looking smaller....


Saw's all blade casualties, the first of many..


We got this far and discovered yet another big bar holding it. Time to bring out the big guns..

Also known as 2 axes and brute force. Crew Chief rule no' 1: if in doubt hit it with a bigger hammer.


Smiley Mustang :)

Smashing stuff is exhausting.

and this is what we're left with :)

Goofy face is goofy :P

I love this man <3

Art installation number 1

and number 2.

And we're done. Time for beer.











The beginning of the Mustang's end.....

2 posts today because we did 2 consecutive days and I fail at writing on the same day things happen. Let's pretend it's Friday evening....

 We picked up where we left off last time this morning and tag teamed the fuel tank. 1 lady either side and Claire and I made short work of getting the metal straps off and releasing the tank onto a motorbike jack. I'd been trying to figure out how to detach the tank from the hose going to the filler cap but to no avail so I had my first go with the Saw's all reciprocating saw and just chopped through it! I made a pretty god job of it if I do say so myself. Once all the hoses were cut and I was liberally soaked in fuel, I took off what I thought was the fuel pump, but no, it was the fuel filter, the pump is in the tank. Joy. Now the tank was completely free and we lowered it down. The filler hose now slips neatly out of the tank, not sure how you'd get to that point without cutting it first tbh.
Tank and filter, tricksy hose still in place.. (nice sawing job though)

My stunning look for the day, I'm channeling pirate mechanic couture. At least my hair wasn't full of sh*te this time lol


The back end is done! Everything is now off that we'll need. Onto the front. This was my view for most of this process.....
Me and this brake are best friends now..

These brakes are waaaaaaaay worse off than the back ones, there is a huge lip in the rotor. We worked the calipers off and kept them for reference if nothing else, then worked on removing the K frame from the body of the car. Jeff said I'd never undo the big bolts holding it by myself but I did. I'm strong, like Bull! Leverage my friend, it rules. Long story short, lots of big bolts, many cables and hoses to get out of the way and the K frame was on the floor. Get in.

Yeah, I suppose that's "K" shaped.

After lunch we tackled that pesky Drive shaft. Air tools meant nothing to these bolts, they're 12 sided and really rounded so the socket just made them more round. Fail. Bring out the grinder!! 


Look Mum not only did I buy an 800cc Intruder this week now I'm trying to set myself on fire!!

We HAD to chop the Mustang up so we could fit everything else in the Garage!

So finally the drive shaft is detached from the rear axle, and once again I was doused in gear oil as the seal on the pumpkin was knackered. Lovely.

Look I found the exhaust manifold, in the cupboard o' car bits :D





Sunday, June 3, 2012

Bits and pieces....

Where to begin... I have a whole list of stuff that's happened and reasons why more hasn't happened of late. What we have done is attack that bloody drive shaft with newly acquired air tools -yay for air tools!- alas to no avail. We managed to remove 1 lonely bolt and the rest will have to be drilled out. I have proof! It was an epic task for not much reward....

1 down 3 to go..

Other Mustang progress includes the removal of the exhaust system. WD40 did the trick, after soaking the bolts for a fortnight they were pretty easy to undo. Note to self: next time when removing the exhaust from a 1988 Mustang don't lie under the piece that you're unbolting. It will pin you.




Obligatory picture of exhaust pieces. I don't have one of the headers because I honestly don't know where they ended up! 


My next task was to figure out how to remove the fuel tank while Jeff and Claire were working on the K frame. I was ably assisted by Jakey, who would lie next to me under the car licking my face while I was undoing bolts which was extremely helpful if a little distracting. He also has to be louder than the air compressor at all times! 

Gillian's little helper :)


We've not done much in the garage of late because I had a visitor! The lovely Wendi came for a week and we hung out, went to the beach, had a bonfire party and made cupcakes. Much less engine grease involved all round!


Luauing it up!
Bonifre party: bikers, booze, bonfire. Perfect.

Clearly the only way to roast marshmallows! 
Other things we've done have been routine maintenance, oil changes, air filters that kind of thing. We also had to charge up the Dodge after someone left the ignition on all night and drained the battery. Clever Daniel is clever. These tasks were made better by a liberal application of beer.





And finally, one of our favorite things to do is cruise the Lemon Lot on Base. I have drooled over many things there but this was the best so far, a Plymouth Valiant 200, only $2500. In need of love but looking amazing for it's year (which I have forgotten)

The pictures are all out of whack, it's doing my nut. I give up.