Headers are on

A couple weeks back, I bought some chromed Doug Thorley headers for the wagon. 4-2-1, no 02 sensor. Nice work. The guys at the muffler shop were admiring its quality.

I finally got the old headers off, put the new headers on, and had them weld the flange to the end of them so it would connect to the catalytic converter. They're awesome and my wagon finally sounds nice and quiet.

Now that it's quiet, I'm hearing all sort of other noises. I need to find out where all the vibrations and squeeks are coming from. haha...

Some updates

Life's been busy so the cars have, sadly, taken a back burner... until recently.

I'm having a friend build a lot of new billet aluminum parts for the wagon. Billet dash panel for the radio area, billet cover for the instrument cluster, billet vents to replace the old cracking plastic exterior vents, and a billet grille for the front. I can't wait to get 'em!

I've been having more wonky issues with the carburetor, the gas gauge is more misleading than ever, the front end pulls to the right and shakes occasionally, the clutch is almost completely toast, and one of the mounting studs on the bottom end of the exhaust manifold broke off, leading to a "massive exhaust leak."

Oh. And a while back, someone hit and ran on the front right fender. Lovely.

But I'm working on all that now. Clutch will probably go in later this month - it really has to or the car won't move much longer, and the manifold and carb should be getting serviced soon too. I found an interesting bit of information through the C.A.R.B. site saying that the Doug Thorley 513-Y headers for the 2TC motor are, in fact, C.A.R.B. exempt. So... I'll probably just get those instead of fixing the old beat-down exhaust manifold.

Lighting

Hrm... I thought I had posted *several* times since my last listed blog entry... So here's a few notes to catch up:

In mid-November, I got a new bubble shift knob for the Wagon to replace the one that was stolen back in April. Exact same brand, size, and color! Big thanks to Chris and Takako in Okinawa!

The Wagon's lip was cracked back in August by a tow truck. I recently sent the lip down to Jesse of Fleet Color Auto Collision Repair for repair. They've finished it up and is currently in transit to me! Can't wait to get the lip back on the wagon. =)

On March 30th, I wired up the fog lights and installed new sealed lamp 7" Sylvania Silver Star headlamps. They look great! I took some pics, but they need to be resized and uploaded. We'll see when I get around to that. =P

Maintenance

Just a mental note... some maintenance is needed:

Front brake pads (and rotors?)
Clutch
Transmission and differential fluid change

Wiper Arms

Today I'm getting someone at my work to media blast and powder coat the wagon's wiper arms a nice semigloss black. That's really going to make it look better.

Hopefully tonight I can also get Will to help me buff out the car. The paint could use some help for now, but eventually it'll need to be repainted. I'm still considering doing the two tone theme...

New clutch master cylinder

So Thursday after work, Will and I pick up the clutch master cylinder from CarQuest. At $80, it was expensive, but the only place in town that could get it overnight. Autozone could order it for $29, but would take a week to get here.

I took the new part home and get ready to install it. I've done this before. It should be easy, right? Unclip the linkage to the pedal, remove two 12mm nuts that hold it to the chassis... and the 12mm fitting that holds the hard clutch line.

...Except that hard clutch line fitting WOULD. NOT. COME. OUT! Soaked it in Liquid Wrench and yanked on it till it was almost stripped. Figured it wasn't coming off, so we need to do whatever it takes. Besides, it was getting dark. Vice grips! Clamped that sucker down incredibly tight... didn't budge. It just sheared off big chunks of the fitting. So, we take a torch and heat the the housing. No luck.

So I get the bright idea to just cut the hose, walk over to Autozone, rent their tube flaring tool and get a new fitting. Except, trying to flare a 30yr old metal hose wasn't a good idea. Just cracked the metal and leaked fluid everywhere.

So, thanks to a tip from a neighbor, today I went to Pep Boys after work to find that they do indeed have various lengths of hard line... pre-flared with the fittings and everything. The only ones they have left that will fit my clutch cylinder are 60" long! (I only needed about 36") So, I took it back to the house, disconnected the old tube and fit the new one. Thanks to my expert bending skills (which I didn't know I had), I bent the tube around on the firewall and made it fit gracefully.

Will and I bled the line and it works like a champ. Got to do a bit of crusing around tonight. I love that wagon. I hope it lasts for a while this time. I think next is a new clutch disk tho...

Now what...

On the way home today, the clutch master cylinder started going out. Leaky leaky! CRAP. Well, it's on order. Will be here tomorrow. Cost: $80. Frustration: Priceless.