The Black Pearl - Progress Thread

LaserSVT said:

Dave, there are some aspect where I look at that car and really want it and think its sweet then there are others that make me want to kick a kitten.
Car looks great and you have busted your ass on it but some things are just too Macgyvered. I know about tight cash and making do with what you have but is a little longer tranny hoses so the cooler can be mounted correctly that much? I think I have some 8-10' of it left. Let me unpack and I will send it to you. I wish I still had my old over flow tank cause I woukd send that to you too. Where do the washer fluid tanks normally sit on those? I assume its different then the fuel injected (real injection) cars since the CFI breaths from that hole.
Also, do you have any wire ties instead of the Wonder Bread twist ties?

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Believe me, I'm not proud of these things. The only reason I'm posting pics of this stuff is because I'm pointing out that they're things I want to FIX at some point - these are not permanent solutions. Ideally, I'd like to find one of those stock coolant overflow/washer fluid reservoir tanks that's not all melted and beat to hell or cracked n' leaky like all the ones I've found. I did have a stock coolant overflow tank on the fan shroud at one point, but it inevitably cracked up beyond repair and kept leaking like a mofo; the current setup looks dumb as hell, but it works and doesn't leak, so no major must-fix priority on it right now. The tranny cooler obviously is just a short-term setup for the time being. It's not that I can't afford tranny cooler lines, per se, it's just that I haven't gotten around to it with all the other crap I've had to fix on it lately (tie rod ends, chasing coolant leaks, and so on).

FWIW, I have the washer fluid/coolant overflow sitting in exactly the same arrangement as stock ... it's just not as pretty. Works perfectly fine, though. The older four-eye cars have the battery on the passenger side, so they used the area that's normally occupied by the battery on the later EFI models to plunk in a huge coolant/washer tank. Anyway, this is my DD, so really, I'm not terribly concerned about underhood appearances.

aar0s said:

hey dave, i might be able to come up with a puke tank, lemme ask around...

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If you can find one from a '79-'85 model that's not cracked and still has the lid, that would rule. So far, though, I haven't had any luck at all around here with the junkyards. Only one I did find in one piece with a lid here was damaged from the heat of an underhood fire and didn't hold water at all.

LaserSVT said:

Wonder if the breather tubes are still available. I never noticed it was forced to suck all that hot air in there. Cant be good on a black car in AZ

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I know they're available (seen 'em on eBay for $40+ for EACH SIDE), but all the ones I've found around here are all dry-rotted and cracked up to where they'd suck underhood air anyway. I'm sure there's a way I could ghetto-rig up some universal ducting stuff from Autozone or whatever, but it's just not really been high up on my list of priorities lately.

My main concern right now is getting a set of PROPERLY-SIZED tires on it and a correct speedo gear for the 3.08 8.8" rear end. Presently running a speedo gear for 3.27's, but with the short tires, it balances out to where it actually reads pretty close to accurate (according to the po-po's "Posted speed VS your actual speed" radar things on the side of the road around town).

UPDATE:

Not much new, but here's the latest...

1. Re-balanced the tires on the 10-holes ($25 ... probably got another 5,000 or so miles left in 'em, and can't afford a set of tires for awhile, anyway) and I swapped 'em back onto the Black Pearl. Looks better, handles better, speedo reads pretty close to correct, but it rides a bit stiffer, and it's a bit more noisy on the highway. I saw some Pony rims with almost-new tires listed today for $200 and I soooooo was gonna spring for 'em, but I can't quite scrape together the cash at the moment. Oh well ... I like the looks of 10-holes better on this car, anyway.
2. Swapped in a shifter from an '86 LX 'vert with a V6 ($25). The trans in the 'vert was (I'm guessing) a C4 because it had PRND21 rather than PRN(D)D1, but it's the same number of "notches" for gears so it still works. Had to modify the shifter "gate" a bit with a Dremel tool to make the 1st-only gear selection work, and I Frankensteined parts from my old shifter onto this one (such as the handle and gear selection display) to make it work, but it's all good. I now finally have a push-button for my shifter and a safety lockout so I can't accidentally bump it from Drive into Reverse.