DeTomaso Mailing List: April 2001, Message #69

Hey all!

Just had time to sit down and read a few posts!! A good 
weekend/Monday was had by me in the garage so I feel real 
good now!

MD!!!  You really need to work on that right pedal 
thing....  BTW, Will you ever be allowed back to TWS??

Secondly, you want tires! Have Mikey get you some 727 
specials! That should give you some topend! HAH!  Reminds 
me of the Bill Cosby thing "200MPH" !!

Cal! Dammit! Get back to sanding!

Melton01: One word buddy! CRAFTSMAN!  The BIG box!

Nolan and Jack: If you guys can't post links to pictures 
on ebay that take less than 5 minutes to load, I'm not 
looking any more.  All I got to see was a cement block 
building "somewhere in NJ" and then my computer quit 
xferring data... what's up with that!?

Thomas! You crazy Swede you!  You're 'sposed to put a 
lift in the garage to lift the WHOLE car! I'd take the 
hoist back....  Glad you got your water leak fixed!  And 
your first ride with the boy!  He'll come around, next 
time Uma down the street see's you guys cruise by... and 
as soon as he get's his driver's license... and has a 
date with Uma... and need transpo!   HAH!  ...."oh dad, 
can I have some kroners for gas! Tack!"... You'll never 
see him again....

Cal: Keep sandin!   An old body & fender man once told me 
this, after I asked him how to tell when it was smooth 
enuf? "As soon as it feels as smooth as a woman's breast, 
you're done sanding." I always had trouble with that 
one.....  probably why I'm not a bodyman.... they all 
felt pretty smooth on paper!

Mikey: Just where the hell are you!

Dan Jones: I wanna see an Autolite carb on your car at 
Vegas this year!!

  So, what have I been doing besides busting chops!  I 
been bustin' butt on my car!  Here's where we are:

Engine is ready to drop in place. Need to fab a sling etc 
for proper placement.  When it came out, it was only a 
short block. Now it's all growed up and is a long block! 
Should be dropping it in Saturday, unless I get a job 
before then and can quit wasting my time going to job 
fairs..... and then can get some REAL time into the 
Goose, by dropping the motor in!  What's my planner say 
about tomorrow... damned job fair..... maybe Wednesday...

Valve covers are sitting in place, but due to new roller 
rocker interferance, I had to remove the oil drippers in 
the stock aluminum covers. Another item for ebay...."pay 
for my Aussue heads fund!"

Fab'd a bracket to hold the dipstick tube to the head.  
Seems the Aussies saw no need for a hole in the casting 
there any longer.... could have drilled and tapped the 
head, but it may have gotten messy going right into the 
oil drain back area... used an existing blind hole 
instead and made a bracket... It's going nowhere!

Fab'd a jackshaft support for the center of the jackshaft 
to keep any unwanted oscillations down, just in case they 
wanted to come to the party.... Thank goodness for drill 
presses, or I'd still be out there recharging the 
Makita...  Old Boss manifold had two points where the 
support mounted on a horizontal plane. Street Boss intake 
eliminated the need for them (or those bolt holes anyway) 
and the Aussie heads are not drilled there anyway as 
well!

Painted my distributor hold down clamp.  Slipped thru the 
cracks somehow...

Distributor is only thing that I need to square away.  
Have two choices, curve a vacume advanced version for 
driveability and drop it in, or just stuff in the old 
dual point Accel and replace it later. Risk is the 16 
degrees initial advance that a Boss 302 wants with no 
vacume advance....could be problems.  No wonder they 
started hard and idled like crap!

Oil pan is off yet, but will be doing some engineering 
work towards a "Goose Pan for the Masses" with increased 
ground clearance and higher capacity. Stay tuned. Will 
run old pan for now, replace later.

Removed under car cooling pipes! Boy, this was not a fun 
thing!  Seems DeT wrapped each pipe right where each 
little frame tab was, with rubber tape and something like 
masking tape. Fast forward 30 years and imagine this 
sandwich of tape, rubber, and tubing starting to settle 
onto the metal support tabs....  Bottom line is that 
these suckers were stuck good!  I felt great if I got an 
eight inch of movement pushing back and forth, back and 
forth, back and forth.... imagine this a whole lot 
more.... until finally ya got a half inch! I almost wet 
my pants when the pipe would let loose and move 4-6 
inches! Once you had this much, it was all down hill as 
you finally had some room to get a good pull!  

On a Goose, the pipes will come out the front! (THanks 
Jeffery!!!) No engine pulling/lifting required, and you 
can run one piece pipes, no joints!

Obtained stainless tubing for my under car cooling pipes, 
and for my front "Goose Only" pipe that most of youse 
guys (& gals) don't have to deal with. Now just need to 
find a shop with 1 3/8" bending/forming tools.... 
Borrowed the special Goose Pipe from another local Goose 
owner. He will need stainless tubing too..... real 
soon!!! No, he needs it already!

Tomorrow is a job fair.....

Need to cut off ground stud on rear crossmember of frame, 
drill hole thru what remains and tap for screw....  This 
stud has the unique ability to get stuck directly in the 
middle of the round hole in the casting at the rear of 
the ZF when you are trying to raise or lower it.... push 
it in to clear the stud, ya can't raise or lower it cuz 
the pilot shaft is in the clutch disc... get it out of 
the clutch disc and the stud get's ya.... anyone see a 
pattern here besides me????

All suspension pieces are bolted back securely in place. 
Shocks have new bushings (old news..)

Replaced the bumper on the wife's Fiat.   Now how the 
heck did that get in here!?  Who's moderating this board 
anyway.....

End of brain dump!  Sleep well!
Cal! Keep sanding!!!

Steve :)))))))

I better remember to pick up some oil.....and put the pan 
on first....