Goodbye to the green machine

The 96 Tracer has a new owner. Yesterday I was prepping the car for a trip to Denver. Elle and Adam Lloyd were going to ride with Alvie and me to find a car. After I loaded tools, rotated tires and made it clean, a thought came to me. Why drive 285 miles in a car that is low maintenance and gets better than 30 mpg to get a car that does the same but not one guaranty of road-worthiness? So now I am back to a truck and a truck with a camper on it.

Somebody likes Fords and Mercurys

How much is the doggy in the window?

Camouflage

...and there's always old reliable

The Grand Marquis wagon came from somewhere up north around Longmont and we parked it at Fred's while we cleaned the glass enough to get it to Thornton. I had it up to 130 mph on I-25 and it ran just like it had never missed a car-wash. The 429 ended up in the super-cruiser. That's because it wouldn't fit in a 96 Tracer. Oh well.

Cleanup 2013

Yes a mess

I started before it really got hot last week.

It's getting somewhere

Still before

It did look foreboding but you know I like the challenge.

The little 302

Somewhere in this there's a 454 that was attached to that short tail 400

More of the mess with a turbo-400 and Samira

 Now I'm getting somewhere

Good enough!

And now it's hot, windy and all dried out. The driveway is reacquired.

Still Recovering

Twice in the last four days I've taken the truck for a ride into the City of Montrose. Olathe is just a town in case anyone asks. I forgot how fun that truck is to drive. So here's the status of this year's project.

I've broken the glass on the dash twice now. First time I dropped it on the cab floor while trying to talk on the phone and bounce ping pong balls off the wall with my mouth. Don't ever swallow one of those things. It really hurts! Twice! I silly-coned the old windshield in for the present so I can drive it down the road without deer or ducks flying through the hole you get when the windshield in not in. The other glass isn't really necessary yet. I'm not going on any monster truck cruises to Moab or Engineer Pass in the near future or eternity in this truck. I already tried Engineer once. That went worse than the ping pong ball (if anybody cares). So when I put the new glass in the dash I didn't notice until the next morning that it would have been wise to wait until the morning (when there's a lot more light than at midnight) to tighten the speedo/instrument cluster onto the remnants of the super glue I used to put the first two broken pieces together so I could blame some one besides the usual suspects of tampering with more than just ballots for County Sheriff.

Meanwhile I've managed to get most of the lights in working order, the bumper is in primer, the transfer case has a good rubber mount now and the 302 runs as smooth as a 302 can run when bolted to a 850,000 mile frame that's seen things even fish can't understand. I got Dwayne to make another lens for the speedo head this afternoon and I promised myself not to sleep walk out there after midnight and attempt the impossible one more time. For now I'll watch Hidalgo eat locusts and take my meds with a little ice cream.

Tomorrow I'll try texting without my glasses and see who all I can alarm with the same message I read this evening in tomorrow's New York Times: You're ugly! and if you want another opinion; Your mother dresses you funny!

The Ford Collection

 There's the color. That's cherry red and real gloss white. A couple of hours ago I got two kids looking for bike parts to help push the Fairmont back into the drive.




The old 302 has a bent rod from the number four hole. I'll get it back together soon so the Fairmont can move again.

 This shot is headed to Ford for their archives. The Tracer is parked to my right in the shade.

Some day I will find the picture from Fred's when we lived in Lafayette. But this is just more proof that we can stock pile old Fords forever.

The engine from the 81 T-Bird that I put into the Fairmont is now in the truck and it purrs like Mr. Alexander Maliciousness Anderson. 

It is the same one.

 Before and after. It's getting there. I have to get the Jeep done soon but today I'll get the steering column cleaned up and put the wiring in. But the Jeep is first.