A new garage

Yesterday I found a new garage! It's almost twice as expensive but it's a lot roomier, a lot cleaner, somewhat closer to home and the guy owning the place seems to be very straightforward and serious about the place.

The biggest drawback is, besides the cost, that it lacks quite a bit of tools. No welder, no motor lift, few compressed air tools, etc, etc but that isn't all bad as I need to start getting those things of my own anyhow. Plus I'm not at a stage where I need those kind of tools right now.

The guy owning the garage, Kevin, is also best friends with the manager of a big tool retail chain here in Sweden so he can get really good discounts on pretty much any kind of tools which in a way compensates for the lack of tools at the garage.

He said I'd be able to move in the weekend after this so all I need to do now is make sure that the guys in my old garage get their cars out of the way in time (I'm parked at the very end of the garage, as I've mentioned before) but I hope they respect this.

I'll get back with more pictures after the move.

Kind of back in the swing

I was up at the garage earlier today, trying to do as much as I could with my car seeing that it's crammed into a corner of the garage (we're talking about how to solve this issue but still haven't found a solution).

Before I parked the car last autumn I tried a rather crude method to adjust my valve lifters (as I thought they made the noise I've been hearing from the engine) but it turned out less than stellar; the engine lacked power and "oomph" after the adjustment.

After some searching I decided to try out a method described over at Crane Cams (scroll down to the "Adjusting Hydraulic Lifters for Proper Preload" section) which basically involves adjusting the intake and exhaust valve for one cylinder at a time.

As a relative beginner at engine tuning I decided to use this method as it's quite foolproof, easy to perform and you can stop at pretty much any time in the process and still get back to where you left off.

I got the drivers side done before I had to head back home (some of my garage mates talk for hours) and I plan to do the other side tomorrow. It's a bit of a workout cranking the engine around by hand but the method gives me complete control, which I like.

All is not well in paradise (a.k.a. my garage)

I know I've been absent but the sad truth is that the temporary garage spot I got while not working on my car (barely big enough to fit my car in) has become my permanent spot.

Talking to the rest of the guys and trying to get them to understand that I can't remove the interior if I can't open my doors didn't do much good so for now I'm content with the fact that the car is indoors and warm.

In the meantime I'm looking for a new garage so most likely no new posts for another month or so. Sorry.

Picking up the slack

Geez, it's been a long time since I posted here. Sorry about that but I lost all interest in the car when I couldn't get it through the DMV (Bilprovningen) inspection and get it street legal.

Still, I managed to get the engine in and done as seen in the picture to the right. I would have loved to do the AC unit properly as well but at the time I was still hoping that the company that sold me the car would pick up the bill for the restoration of it so I didnt touch it. As it stands now, I'm guessing I'll pay for it though.

On a somewhat brighter note I picked up my new TA Performance headers a couple of weeks ago that I ordered sometime in March if I recall correctly. Overseas shipping is a nightmare.

I've also decided to replace my Flowmatser 40 mufflers with the Dynomax Super Turbo's after checking with the V8Buick forum members. The 20" muffler was the recommendation but I can squeeze in the 16" at best so I'm still waiting on feedback on if that's an option.

I'll be tackling the interior this winter - or as much as I can afford at least as I'm running low on funds for various reasons. Shipping parts from the States is also an issue so I'll try and do as much as possible on my own.

Post frequency will still be a bit erratic in the next month or so until I get back to the garage mid November.

More pictures:

Replacing the sheet metal below the battery tray

As I've mentioned before the sheet metal beneath the battery tray was in pretty bad condition.

This section is made up of sheet metal from the inner fender as well as the front assembly, lying on top of eachother which makes it rather cumbersome to repair.

With the time and money constraints I have we therefore went another route and cut out the rotten metal with the fender and the front assembly still in the car.

This meant that we couldn't do a perfect job but for the time being it is quite adequate. My intentions are to replace or repair this properly when I do a frame-off restoration of the car in 5-7 years time.

Engine assembly

The assembly of the engine is coming along nicely. I got one of the valve covers painted and although I wasn't sure about it at first, I like it more and more now.

There's also been a lot of stuff painted and "chromed" the past days (just click on through the images from the one I linked).

I will still need to touch up some of the paintwork as it got scratched during re-assembly, no matter how careful I (thought) I was.

The rest

Just a small "misc" post to inform you about all the little things that I did the past weekend.

I bent some new trans cooler lines. I also had to bend a new brake line as the one I bought was too short.

I didn't get a chance to replace the rotten sheet metal as Reijo was out of town (I'm not a good welder and he's a great welder so better wait for him ;).

Hopefully I'll be able to swing by the garage later today (despite my cold) and tomorrow (holiday here in Sweden).

Even more painted

These posts all start to look alike but that's because there's a lot to be painted right now. Despite it taking time it's still fun to see everything coming together.

The latest stuff

Not a lot done done since the last post but that's mostly because cleaning and painting the engine parts takes time. Not to mention that removing the old lines took for ever.

I did get quite a few engine parts painted. I also got new brake lines to replace my old ones.

I'm hoping to replace all the sheet metal for the battery tray by tomorrow as well as shape and install the new brake lines.

A deadline!

One of my garage buddies got me a time at the DMV the 22'd of May so now I have to get busy. :)

This is good because I have an actual date that I have to have the car done. It's bad because now I have to work on the car even if/when I don't feel like it which might affect the quality of the work done.

Still, no turning back now. :)