A big second on the Scarebird stuff! Lot's cheaper than going with the stock rebuilt drums and the only other necessary mod to the above quick list. Be sure to grab a '74 Maverick manual Disc/Drum master cylinder at the same time. My whole deal cost less than 200.00 at my parts wholesaler and dramatically improved the drivability of the car. I don't care who knows better, you don't need an external prop valve with this deal either.
I was advised to skip the mustang bin and go right to the Granada parts, but I think that's only if I'm going with the V8 swap. Way back near the beginning of this post, you guys mentioned scarebird, so I looked it up. Do you find a lot of difference between the power and manual disc brakes? I suppose in any event, discs are better than drums. Or Flinstones brakes.
Granada parts alter the suspension and steering geometry, randomly. Just because they fit, does not mean that they are "right". I have a booster on my Scarebird setup. It was a PITA to get it in there. Probably doesn't need it.
Well, I'm headed up tomorrow morning to get this thing, and I'll have 6-7 long hours to thing about it. I'm glad I found this place, it helps my nerve. It'll be easier to see what needs to be done when it's in front of me.
Love this thread, but what happened? My friend just bought a '62 Comet station wagon. I want him to do these sorts of upgrades. We live vicariously through others' shenanigans and learn from their experiences.
@shivasdad- Luckily, nothing happened! I was given a bum battery is all. I hooked it up, jumped it to another car and all the interior lights came on. After some charging, I turned the key and everything went dead. This was about 1:00am last night, so I said screw it, I'm going to bed. Fortunately, a cheap battery was all it took to get it going. Now I have a brand new voltage regulator I can use if the time ever comes.
While viewing the sludge on driver side of my block and firewall I wondered if I could plug the crankcase tube. Can I do this ? What else is affected by doing this? Posted using my Big THUMB on a small screen!
I would not. You want the crank case to have a way to evacuate pressure and vapor. A dead-ended top-breathing system won't do this well. I drilled and tapping a steel cup-style freeze plug, and attached a hose. Ran that hose to a PCV valve on the manifold.
Drove my 61 to work today. Freeway and everything. 65 and easy. When I picked up the car, I noticed a Jasper Engines sticker with a serial number on the block and inner fender. Apparently they rebuilt the whole motor and trans. You guys would kill me if I told you what I paid for it!
I gotta be honest, I'm pretty happy with the 144/3spd. I think I'm going to focus on body work this summer and call it done until something breaks.
The Jalopy Journal
