The Plymford

The Plymford lurks in the shadows...

This past weekend I hooked a trickly charger up to its gigantic truck battery, and cleaned the bird poo off the lexan windshields.  After a few days of charging, the trickler went green.  

It was time.

Last night after tucking the Corvair into its home in the barn,  me and the two mini-VCHs went over and pulled the hood off the Plymford.  I trickled a little gas into the Edelbrock, flipped on the kill switch and the ignition, and nudged the starter toggle.

AAA-RUT-RUT-RUT-RUT ROOOOM!

It caught, then sputtered and died.  I nudged the toggle again.  

ARUTRUTRUTRUTRUTRUTRUTRUT...

More gas down the carburetor.

AAAA-RUT-RUT-ROOOOM-Buddudie Buddudie-Buddidie....

The 460 settled into the throaty rumble I'd become accustomed to at the last race.  It crackled, spat, grumbled, and made no qualms about the fact that I'd just woken a Real Racing Mo-sheen.

After clearing the youngins out of the way, I slid in through the driver's window, clicked the shifter back 3 notches, and slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y, crept the Plymford out into the daylight.

And, into my shop.

My daughter quipped,  "This car makes me happier than it should."

Me too, sweetie.  Me too.  

Back to racing? Getting in a last few summer cruises?

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

No racin' this year, but hope to have it out cruising around and waking up the neighbors before the leaves fall. 

Next year we'll get back on the track.  

460 stroker? Please?

volvoclearinghouse said:

The Plymford lurks in the shadows...

This past weekend I hooked a trickly charger up to its gigantic truck battery, and cleaned the bird poo off the lexan windshields.  After a few days of charging, the trickler went green.  

It was time.

Last night after tucking the Corvair into its home in the barn,  me and the two mini-VCHs went over and pulled the hood off the Plymford.  I trickled a little gas into the Edelbrock, flipped on the kill switch and the ignition, and nudged the starter toggle.

AAA-RUT-RUT-RUT-RUT ROOOOM!

It caught, then sputtered and died.  I nudged the toggle again.  

ARUTRUTRUTRUTRUTRUTRUTRUT...

More gas down the carburetor.

AAAA-RUT-RUT-ROOOOM-Buddudie Buddudie-Buddidie....

The 460 settled into the throaty rumble I'd become accustomed to at the last race.  It crackled, spat, grumbled, and made no qualms about the fact that I'd just woken a Real Racing Mo-sheen.

After clearing the youngins out of the way, I slid in through the driver's window, clicked the shifter back 3 notches, and slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y, crept the Plymford out into the daylight.

And, into my shop.

My daughter quipped,  "This car makes me happier than it should."

Me too, sweetie.  Me too.  

Forum photo of the week.....if not the year. Awesome

Go Tigers.

More Plymford!

Mad_Ratel said:

Go Tigers.

Mrs. VCH gives you a +1.

First up: at some point last winter a freeze plug popped out of the block. This is a sort of big deal, as without water the engine tends to heat up rather rapidly. 

Upon further inspection, all of the freeze plugs look absolutely fabulous, save one curiously absent. 

Of course, I had to remove the driver's side engine mount to get to that. Which necessitated conjuring up some engine levitation on that side (liberal application of engine hoist).  

Which was just as well, as the mount was pretty well berkeleyed. 

Probably hard to tell by that photo, but the rubber is all cracked and broken up. That mount was new when we swapped in the first 460 into this chassis (originally the LTD came with a 400). Racing's hard on stuff. A new 460 mount for a '75 LTD is on order ($9)

A new 1.5" freeze plug is needed, too.  

What else needs to happen before Plymford can hit the roads?

- new transmission pan (current one leaks)

- replace headlights (removed them for racing)

- remove pit light (dumb-looking trailer light on the side)

- flush out spare radiator and install. Current radiator full of mud

- Flush out engine. 

Sorry. No stroker motors in the works. ;-)

All plugged up!

It doesn't match the other freeze plugs and I don't care. I found it in a box of spare...stuff, so it was "free". 

Can't wait for Plymford to be terrorizing the neighborhood again.

Once I'd put the new engine mount in, the hole in the new mount didn't want to match up to the hole in the subframe bracket for the mounting bolt connecting the two.  

What?

As best I can tell, the old engine mount must have been contorted somewhat from "stock", and when I'd put in the bolt holes for the subframe bracket I'd used this deformed mount.  Because I'm an idiot, or more likely, I was too cheap to buy a new mount for the heap, and didn't realize it was so far off.  So we'll go with "ignorant" instead.

I tossed around a few ideas, and even unbolted the engine mount on the other side to see if I could gain some wiggle room.  Nope.  Couldn't make it fit.  So, to make sure I was doing everything as right-ly as possible ("Right", again, being a somewhat flexible term when describing everything that's going on here) I replaced the engine mount on the passenger side with a fresh new mount.  And it went in perfectly.  

Back to the obstreperous driver's side, I sliced the subframe bracket horizontally- which, in the orientation it goes in the car, ends up being at about 45 degrees.

Then, I bolted the bottom part to the subframe, ran a bolt through the top half to connect it to the engine mount on the 460, and set the engine back down to see where the bracket needed to locate itself.

As you can see, the new home is about 1/2" up the subframe at that 45 degree angle.  So be it.  It has found it's level.

Tack it in place with my favorite tool (the Lincoln), take it out of the car, and then go to town laying beads.

As you can see, I pie-cut the end where the top part of the bracket hung over the bottom.  The BFH bent the remaining plate down so it could be welded together, giving the bracket even more strength.

It's a little sloppy, but the welds have good penetration and, where I could reach, I welded it on the inside as well.  The other side of the bracket is still open, and some 10PM mental stress analysis decided that should be OK.  

As the freshly-welded mount was too hot to hold even in my leather-gloved hand, I left it to cool on the concrete floor and went inside for the night.  Maybe tonight I can stick it back in the car and get the engine bolted back down again. Unless Mrs. VCH wants to snuggle on the couch and watch sitcom reruns from the 1950's.  Which I'm also totally cool with.   

There has to be something satisfying about saying berkeley it, let's just slice and weld to make it fit.  Congrats.  

Hasn't...

berkeley it, let's just slice and weld to make it fit.  

... been the guiding rule for this whole build?

Floating Doc said:

Hasn't...

berkeley it, let's just slice and weld to make it fit.  

... been the guiding rule for this whole build?

I'd give you guys each more than one "+1" if I could.  

volvoclearinghouse said:

Floating Doc said:

Hasn't...

berkeley it, let's just slice and weld to make it fit.  

... been the guiding rule for this whole build?

I'd give you guys each more than one "+1" if I could.  

i +1'd each of them.   just trying to do my part.  also because you said obstreperous.

Green, since it's the left-hand side mount. 

volvoclearinghouse said:

Green, since it's the left-hand side mount. 

 

I believe you mean "port"  ;)

Though...the green light goes on the starboard side...so now I'm just lost.

In reply to ClemSparks :

Oh shoot. I was thinking of "red right returning", and thought red was on the right (starboard). Oh well. Easy enough to change. 

I can remember "red, right, return" and I can remember Port and Starboard...but the red and green bow lights usually stump this inland, Missouri boy.

Red, since it's the left hand side mount. 

Saturday night after the mini VCHs' bedtimes I went out to rock and roll in the shop.  The tunes were on, it wasn't overly hot, and everything went back together fairly straightforwardly.  At some point I glanced at my phone and, seeing as it was quarter to 11, decided to call it a night.  

When I got inside, Mrs. VCH was in the living room with a beverage, watching You Tube videos on gardening and compost.  I grabbed my own beverage and joined her for a few minutes.  She mentioned I'd been out in the shop for a bit.  "Yeah," I said, "The bolts just kept dropping into the holes so I just kept putting more in."  She laughed.  

One of the more disappointing and frustrating parts of this build (and honestly, there isn't much, I really love how it all turned out) has been the windshield.  Since the stock flat glass was not safety rated, the decision was made to get all "racey" and cut out Lexan windshields.  Which was fairly easy, and not unduly expensive.  But unfortunately, the Lexan was NOT very durable.  It scratches easily, fogs up, and woe be unto thee if you get ANY automotive chemical on it.  After just one race, and a winter's worth of storage under cover, it was already due for replacement.

I'd read some online about rejuvenating Lexan, and decided to give it a whirl before replacing it all.  The process, dumbed down here a bit, was as follows:

• Wash Lexan (I used blue windshield washer fluid) and dry.
• Wet sand with 1000 grit sandpaper until all scratches, blotches, etc are gone and the Lexan looks like frosted glass
• Wash and dry with microfiber towel
• Wet sand with 3000 grit sandaper until your arm is sore
• Wash and dry with microfiber towel
• Polish (the action, not the sausage) with Meguires Plastic Rx and a drill buffer
• Wipe off polish
• Hand polish with the Plastic Rx.
• Wash and dry with microfiber towel

The results were pretty good.  After about an hour's worth of work, both windshields were smooth and clearer.  It's not perfect (especially around the edges), but its loads better and definitely god enough to race on again.  There's a headlight lense protectant that supposedly helps prevent minor scratches and hazing; I plan to put some of that on tonight.  

Other than that...oil is changed, coolant has been added (and does not seem to leak - yay) and all of the electric stuff seems to work.  Apart from a new transmission pan, new tires, and a fire suppression system, Ole Plymmie is just about ready to head into battle again.  

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

At the end of the video, you reached your hand out to the top of the roof. For a moment, it looked like you were patting it.

My brain filled in: "good PlymFord, good PlymFord."