Transcona, the Dirty Old XR7

[egoman]

Today was a cleanup everything day. That never means that you are done, but something that needed to get done got done.

[egoman]

Just love when I can sit at the drafting table and whip off some drawings for the man who operates the CNC plasma. These are for the coilover brackets and they are designed to be able to move an inch at a time. If that seems like too large a move; notice that there are 2 different offsets so we have ½ inch adjustability. Technically we should never be more than a ¼ inch away from placing the shock where we want it.

[egoman]

I almost pooped myself when Facebook marketplace showed me this. Let’s see it’s a 351 roller Windsor with an OD auto trans. It’s 2 wheel drive and is fully optioned. This people is a freakin unicorn!
I will use this powertrain and wiring harness to initially get the car running and moving and after selling all the parts off it that I don’t need I should break even.
The previous owner babied this truck to no end. After we signed the papers I told him what its fate was going to be. He nearly cried, but I showed him what I was working on and he wasn’t as sad. BUT he was still sad!

[egoman]

Facebook Marketplace just seems to know what I need on any given day!

[egoman]

This is another case of “I just had to have it”
Dummy Styrofoam 351w block for doing mounts and other stuff.
I actually never used it, not even once…………………………..
Anybody need one?????

[egoman]

Last March we had all schools shut down for Covid and were doing remote learning. I was up at 6am setting out the assignments for the students and checked my E-mails every 2 hours. The rest of the time I was basically bored. When I get bored stuff is going to happen, and quickly!

[egoman]

This is the self-isolation of 2020. I need to not go bananas so I end up working even harder than normal. The drivetrain in that service truck will be coming out in the next few days.

[egoman]

Getting the motor ready to leave the chassis is a big deal. There are so many wires that I actually have to worry about not screwing up. Any mechanics that are on here are aware of “special” bolts that the manufacturers use just to piss you off. There are a few of them and I will make note of them. Some engineers need a punch in their ugly faces!

[egoman]

We hit a milestone with that last post. That would be my 100^th post. Now if you actually counted them it may not work out exactly as some posts are actually broke down into two or three because of posting limits for pictures.
What this means is that I worked 100 days on the car. Some were 10-12 hours, and some were only a few hours, but those were the days that I put in. This just gives you a guideline as to the amount of work you need to put in to build a car from scratch.
There are a lot of days that you are building something that is just to help you work on the car, most of those I documented. There are also lots of days where you are just running around picking stuff up and I kept no record of those days. Intellectual time also resulted in no record, but many days of pondering.
Let’s just for arguments sake say that those were 8 hour days. We are at 800 hours of labor. Even with a 50$ an hour shop rate we are at $40,000 in labor charges. We probably have at least that much more to go.
When you see a car that’s been shop built and done with an open check-book most of us would faint at the cost the owner paid to have that car done. OH and try and find a $50 shop rate. I am terrified of the costs of paint and body when we get there!
I post this not as a discouragement, but for the readers and the dreamers to realize that this stuff isn’t for the faint of heart. I also do it so all these cars are appreciated. Sometimes I need to learn that myself as I am a bit of a snob.
This is a labor of love and while I work on this car my mind wanders to what I am going to work on next? No sense in just getting a restful night’s sleep, when you can have the grey matter running all night.
HMMM, a plane made from carbon fiber would be ultra-cool……………………………

[egoman]

Started the day with no intentions of removing this motor. Things just started rolling and here we are!

[Vimes]

I'm with you on the "what were they thinking" engineering issues. More than once I've wanted to meet a few of these engineers and shake them by the throat while asking them what they were thinking.

[egoman]

I'm with you on the "what were they thinking" engineering issues. More than once I've wanted to meet a few of these engineers and shake them by the throat while asking them what they were thinking.

RIGHT, and then they would say you were guilty!
Damn judge probably never pulled a motor in his life! How would you get a fair trial?

[egoman]

Borrowed my neighbor’s trailer and hauled the core off to the car wash. It’s easier to lose skin that doesn’t get infected. Clean prevents gangrene, REMEMBER that kids!

[egoman]

The motor had to be able to go in from the top. It goes in pretty easy with all belts and attachments. Ultimately though we may have to remove the upper intake in the future for clearance.

[egoman]

Late spring/winter storm that threatens to drop the roof of my garage on the car. Never mind that all that snow melt will make it rain inside for several days. A few hours of shoveling will give me a few days of working in the garage.

[Vimes]

Since you're cutting and welding everything else, have you considered making a bolt-in upper rad support? You should be able to make something like this, provided the condenser and any other coolers can be dropped down when it's time to pull the engine. It would get you another 8-10 inches of clearance for a through-the-top engine install. This was a really nice feature on my truck, and I hardly had to lift the engine at all to get it to come out.

[egoman]

Since you're cutting and welding everything else, have you considered making a bolt-in upper rad support? You should be able to make something like this, provided the condenser and any other coolers can be dropped down when it's time to pull the engine. It would get you another 8-10 inches of clearance for a through-the-top engine install. This was a really nice feature on my truck, and I hardly had to lift the engine at all to get it to come out.

I actually have all the mounting points that you are talking about still attached to the body shell. I agree with the through the top engine install of course, but I am not sure if I will even have to remove the rad for an engine removal.
I also at this point plan on exiting the hot air out the hood with some fancy ductwork.

[egoman]

Just spinning up a whole bunch of slugs for seat belt mounts suspension bolt-throughs and whatever else may come up. I have an old lathe that I acquired from a work buddy who was retiring and downsizing. My dad went to pick it up and was offered a whole bunch more stuff for another $100. He took it no questions asked and it was worth way more than that. GOOD JOB Dad!

[Jonathonar89]

Never clicked on your build thread before. This is intense! Good job with all the effort going in!

[egoman]

Never clicked on your build thread before. This is intense! Good job with all the effort going in!

Thanks man its a lot of work but it keeps the hands busy.
In my first post I told everyone that this was an all out build. Its also mostly built by me in a ****ty garage.