ya man, nice to see it all coming together, good (hard) work!

Thanks dood.

Couple suspension related questions:

1. Is there a rubber grommet that's supposed to sit at the bottom of the front strut between it and the strut assembly? The manual lists one, and I saw a "strut spacer" at FCP, so I ordered it thinking that's what it was. Except its metal, and when you put it in, the strut sits so high you can't thread the strut nut on. Anyone know?

2. Where does the stock front strut rubber bumper (bump stop I guess) sit in relation to the upper spring perch? There's two "ledges" of sorts at the top of the strut shaft, and I'm guessing the top of the bump stop should sit on the bottom ledge, right below the spring perch, but the one I bought is so thick, it doesn't allow the spring perch to sit anywhere near that bottom ledge.

Those metal rings are suppose to be in there (I have a spare set - dang)...but there was no rubber part on the two sets that I've had apart. I don't recall where the bump stop sits.

Hmmm...I'll have to look at it again tomorrow, but good to know you haven't seen any rubber grommets down there.

What would they do? By the time you get the nut wound down on the top of the strut tube - it is effectively clamped to the tube. The rubber, if it was ever there was maybe just a gasket, but I can't see that strut tube doing a lot of chaffing or moving around. If you like, I've got some tire inner tube that we could cut into a gasket. I just don't see the point.

Makes sense. I'll just leave it as is. Only one of my manuals mentions the grommet, so I think they're just out to lunch.

Update time. I've been working pretty much daily out in the garage, and slowly making some progress. I painted the engine in the past few days and it turned out okay. I ordered up some POR 15 engine enamel in Ford corporate blue. After doing one coat of regular POR, I laid down two coats of the blue.


On the engine is a new water pump, and refitted crank cover.


The engine turned out okay, but the oil pan not so well. I laid down the second coat a little thin, and so the paint didn't set as smooth as it should have. And between bristles coming off the cheap brushes I've been using, and the dust that sets in while its drying, things don't look as good as they could. I was disappointed the colour was as dark as it was. POR offers 3 different Ford blues, and this was the lightest of the three. I was hoping it was the light Ford blue visible on my valve cover, but no dice. I'll likely end up painting some suspension bits with the darker blue, and using the spray can light blue for everything else.

I got the struts assembled. Everythings been painted, including the camber plates. Dr. Coburn fabbed me up some stronger bottom plates for the camber assembly, which should work much better. Plasma is cool!


I ended up pulling the stock Volvo bump stops at the JY, and adding in some generic dust boots I purchased locally. The bump stop mounts via a thin metal washer on the strut assembly right below the top spring plate. Struts are Koni yellows, and springs are Eurosport lowering.

All mounted up. New Mintex pads up front with braided lines.


Ah, what the heck. I can't resist.....










BLING!!!
Picture speaks for itself. I'm excited to say the least. First time I've had one mounted. Looks great, and I checked out the front clearance to the fender lip. Looks like the wheel is half an inch inset from the fender lip. Doesn't quite show it here.


Engine goes in this weekend. From there its bolting up parts and then starting the wiring.

That looks SOOOO GOOD

Some good progress being made there Greg, that is going to be a very cool wagon.

Pictures of installed engine!

As requested.



A big thanks to Craig and Dale for the help over the weekend! It was huge.

You did put the nuts on the motor mount brackets, correct?

You mean on the bottom? Yep.

No new pictures, but I've been slowly working away at getting the rear end of the car assembled. The rear trailing arm bushing shell on the one side of the axle was corroded/worn away, so Craig welded a cover shell to reinforce what was there. I used JB weld to smooth out the inside of the shell before throwing some poly bushings in. The rear end is now in place and connected. A couple bolts were heavily worn, so I ended up replacing some of those as well.

The one bolt on the left motor mount broke, so that set me back quite a bit. I had to remove the mount, and tried using an easy-out to remove it. That broke inside the bolt, so after Craig tried welding on a nut on the outside and turning it out unsuccessfully, I ended up drilling out the hole and re-tapping it one size larger. That set me back quite a ways.

Other than that, I've started sandblasting parts with Craig's new sandblaster, and that should speed up the cleaning/painting process quite a bit. I freaking love sandblasters....so much nicer than a wire wheel.

Behold, my masterpiece!



All the pieces were sandblasted and painted, the accumulator painted after a wire wheel, and the pump is NOS off of Ebay.