Build Thread 1978 Fairmont. I bet somebody back home’s thinkin’…I wonder why he don’t write..?

Is that a picture of your arm or of one of the "Gray" aliens that came to abduct you to put the car out of your misery?

I do like the removable tunnel. Could you document this and NOT delete the thread until I have another car and decide to copy this or not?
 
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Is that a picture of your arm or of one of the "Gray" aliens that came to abduct you to put the car out of your misery?

I do like the removable tunnel. Could you document this and NOT delete the thread until I have another car and decide to copy this or not?
The tunnel has no documentation. It was hackery..I never take pics of hackery. Simply put, I cut the tunnel along the flat transition where the tunnel became the floor, and 3/4” away from the back of the firewall. I took that cut out piece, and added a 3/4” border along the perimeter of the cut out piece. ( required that I “pie cut” kerfs out so that it would follow the curves)
I welded the border to the tunnel, and screwed it down with shooters. I removed the shooter screws, and drilled the holes open to 1/4”. I took 1x1/8” strips, and transferred the hole spacing from the floor, to the strip. Drilled the strips, welded a 1/4” nut to each hole, then bolted the tunnel back in using the strips as a backer. Once tight, I welded the strips to the floor.

And you’ve been wondering what I’ve been doing with myself..
 
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How much pressure does this pump see? Is it something that might leak later with your screw in place?
The epoxy is unlikely to push out..the impressions i’m talking about are probably .010 deep. and the two halves are holding the tiny amount of goop i placed there “ in place”. All I wanted it to do was level out the recess (s) to better enable a perfect match between the mating surfaces. I’m thinkin that will happen.
 
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I did something that I haven’t done in months last night...

I slept.

I‘m sure partly because of the fact that I had not slept at all the night before, and partly because I busted my ass on the car for 8 hours straight. Add another “partly“ because of the two glasses of whiskey before going to bed, and don’t forget to include the “partly” because of the melatonin I took...but all of that wouldn’t have mattered if...There was anything about anything bothering me .

And as much as I could worry about the glued together front pump...or the little screw inside that pump that could wreak holy hell if it ever comes back out, or the whole “will the fckin transmission even work AT ALL” ( considering I’ve now managed to find 3 separate pieces that I’ve left out of the transmission over the course of this whole conversion) I’m somehow not worried.

Its like the Dalai Lama visited me, and bestowed total consciousness on me..


So I got that going for me........Which is nice. :banana:
 
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The tunnel has no documentation. It was hackery..I never take pics of hackery. Simply put, I cut the tunnel along the flat transition where the tunnel became the floor, and 3/4” away from the back of the firewall. I took that cut out piece, and added a 3/4” border along the perimeter of the cut out piece. ( required that I “pie cut” kerfs out so that it would follow the curves)
I welded the border to the tunnel, and screwed it down with shooters. I removed the shooter screws, and drilled the holes open to 1/4”. I took 1x1/8” strips, and transferred the hole spacing from the floor, to the strip. Drilled the strips, welded a 1/4” nut to each hole, then bolted the tunnel back in using the strips as a backer. Once tight, I welded the strips to the floor.

And you’ve been wondering what I’ve been doing with myself..

Seems nutserts would be an easy solution. But you seem to like burning MIG wire. I'm not sure what you call putting jb weld inside a transmission. Hackery, butchery, witchcraft???
 
it’s called...fixt..

Get on board, or get off the boat, cause this sht is sailing to melt down town...

Let's go. I got a cooler full of Modelos and a charger for my phone. I'm thinking you're finally to the point of burnouts...endless transmission testing burnouts!

2015-08-17_13-53-54-768x505.jpg
 
Im close.
I came home at 6 last night, and spent a frenzied hour doing the little stuff before attempting to cover it all up with the top of the tunnel..
20200911_180451.jpg

I added the dipstick, and tied the pigtails together. ( Pay no attention to the tumor on the floor,..the monster has had to take one more for the team with regard to getting the pig to fit.)
I added back the down pipe..
20200911_175728.jpg

20200911_175753.jpg

Everything squeezes by w/o too much trauma...
All of the trans bolts are tight..
20200911_175803.jpg

Then I put the cover in place.
or at least I tried to..
If the dipstick tube wasn’t there, everything would be all lovey-dove...But,...that tube is there. And it’s just enough additional height to cause a interference between it and the top of the tunnel..Fortunately the whole piece is flexible enough to allow me to force it into place..
That dipstick will never come out with the cover in place.

Im completely on track for a Sunday start. I’m hoping that everything works.
 
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I think he finally renamed the car. WartHog. That floor has a new wart on it. Or he could go with Phuketol Mobile.

I'll turn to the southest (from my location) and look for the mushroom cloud. If this Ford-Toyota-GM conglomeration fails to perform, my Spidey senses detect impending nuke meltdown.
 
Im close.
I came home at 6 last night, and spent a frenzied hour doing the little stuff before attempting to cover it all up with the top of the tunnel..
20200911_180451.jpg

I added the dipstick, and tied the pigtails together. ( Pay no attention to the tumor on the floor,..the monster has had to take one more for the team with regard to getting the pig to fit.)
I added back the down pipe..
20200911_175728.jpg

20200911_175753.jpg

Everything squeezes by w/o too much trauma...
All of the trans bolts are tight..
20200911_175803.jpg

Then I put the cover in place.
or at least I tried to..
If the dipstick tube wasn’t there, everything would be all lovey-dove...But,...that tube is there. And it’s just enough additional height to cause a interference between it and the top of the tunnel..Fortunately the whole piece is flexible enough to allow me to force it into place..
That dipstick will never come out with the cover in place.

Im completely on track for a Sunday start. I’m hoping that everything works.
Don't sweat the tunnel-hump. Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Dodge, and Maserati have all done it on their somewhat-related cars.
 
sooo... what did you get done today?
I worked my real Job...I have to work on Saturday so I can dick off on Sunday.
I think he finally renamed the car. WartHog. That floor has a new wart on it. Or he could go with Phuketol Mobile.

I'll turn to the southest (from my location) and look for the mushroom cloud. If this Ford-Toyota-GM conglomeration fails to perform, my Spidey senses detect impending nuke meltdown.
If any car gets named after a pig, it should be a pre-64 falcon....But then that insults the pig..
Don't sweat the tunnel-hump. Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Dodge, and Maserati have all done it on their somewhat-related cars.
Im not,..There is a similar tumor on the other side that had to be put there to allow the shifting mechanism the proper clearance,..but that was done when the car was in build phase, v1.0. it’s fully welded, ground smooth, and kinda looks like the floor. But I was younger then, and I cared more than one RRBH about how the floor looked. Now, 7 years later I dont even care one rats red bunion hole about a riveted bulge that’s under the carpet.
 
The wife has decided that we need to buy a new dishwasher. Keeps bitchin about how this thing will sometimes just not clean the dishes.. ( I think the fact that sometimes, a cooking utensil will block the spinny doo-hicky that is on the bottom of the top rack, and stuff doesn’t get clean as a result might have something to do with that),...but She’s the one that does the dishes about 99% of the time and if it makes her stop bitching about ”this fcking dishwasher”...Who am I to argue?

The problem with that is that she wants to shop....Tomorrow. D day for Monster restart..and I was expecting to have all day to myself....I gotta figure out some way to divert her from that path. I can’t tell her she’s loading the dishwasher wrong,...I’ll get told to load the phckin thing myself.
If I take the thing apart to inspect it, to see if something might be plugged. With my luck lately, i’ll permanently disable the thing, and not only will I lose the time it took to phck it up, I’ll either have to do the dishes myself until we get a new one, or go get a new one, and spend the rest of the day installing it.
I can fake an illness,..tell her I can’t lay on my back without getting nauseous,..or just pretend to not hear her when she tells me it’s time to go..This is a Kobayashi Maru.
 
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The wife has decided that we need to buy a new dishwasher. Keeps bitchin about how this thing will sometimes just not clean the dishes.. ( I think the fact that sometimes, a cooking utensil will block the spinny doo-hicky that is on the bottom of the top rack, and stuff doesn’t get clean as a result might have something to do with that),...but She’s the one that does the dishes about 99% of the time and if it makes her stop bitching about ”this fcking dishwasher”...Who am I to argue?

The problem with that is that she wants to shop....Tomorrow. D day for Monster restart..and I was expecting to have all day to myself....I gotta figure out some way to divert her from that path. I can’t tell her she’s loading the dishwasher wrong,...I’ll get told to load the phckin thing myself.
If I take the thing apart to inspect it, to see if something might be plugged. With my luck lately, i’ll permanently disable the thing, and not only will I lose the time it took to phck it up, I’ll either have to do the dishes myself until we get a new one, or go get a new one, and spend the rest of the day installing it.
I can fake an illness,..tell her I can’t lay on my back without getting nauseous,..or just pretend to not hear her when she tells me it’s time to go..This is a Kobayashi Maru.
Screw it Mike, you know down deep you’ll have to go get that dishwasher. Accept it, figure out a way to make it quick as possible, and go start the monster.