back in the saddle?

Life's been pretty busy/crazy the past couple of months, not much time for the car.  Been doing little things here and there and just got some good time in the past couple of weeks.

I got a little hand-brush to clean the dust and everything out from the inside rather than using my broom.  I wouldn't say it's 'clean' but it's certainly 'less filthy'.  Took out some more seatbelts, too.

Hopefully before it snows this year, I'll roll it out of the garage one last time and wash the inside with soap and water, some scrubbing, etc.

I got both of the engine mounts unbolted so it's ready to pull the engine out there anyway.  Yes, it's filthy.  In some places, inches of crusted dirt and oil deposits.

Passenger's side engine mount.  Up and to the right you see the fuel pump mount (had to remove it in order to get my wrench on the engine mount) and the water pump.  The K-member here is where I scraped a lot of crusty dirt out.  Lovely.

Took the torque converter cover off to reveal the flywheel and whatnot, got the four bolts out connecting the flywheel to the torque converter.  I'm impressed by how clean it looks in there.  Actually, now that I look at it, I see a fair amount of dirt in there... hmm.  Anyway, it's exciting to be looking 'into the guts' of the drivetrain.

Disconnected the throttle cable and the transmission kickdown lever.

 Looking up at the bottom of the engine and the bell housing.  Note the rusty hole to the left where there SHOULD be a freeze plug.  Same issue on the other side.  This was why my brother stopped driving the car... I can only imagine what the waterfall of coolant was like.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing what all of this stuff looks like once it's clean.

I know I'm not doing anything with the frame right now until I can afford some things (like... frame rails and a welding setup), but I wanted this reference shot of the shift linkage mounted on the frame rail.  Looks like I might need some new bolts...

 Looking at the front of the engine.  The bottom pulley there is on the crankshaft, it was very exciting to me to turn that in order to rotate the engine to get the flywheel bolts off of the torque converter.  It turned pretty easy, so that's a good sign, I think.  Also, that pulley was so packed full of dirt, I couldn't even see the bolt in there.  I took a few minutes to chisel out the crud with my screwdriver.

So this is the front of the left-hand cylinder head.  That shiny bolt hole is where the negative battery cable attached... I'm thinking of putting a new bolt in there for attaching the chain to pull the engine out.  I can't see any better place to bolt in and I think it'll be strong enough... right?

My twisted pile of filthy seat belts.  I should have labeled them, it's going to be fun figuring out what goes where, I know.  Oh, well.

So this is the torque converter plate cover... I don't know why there's a little 'window' on the bottom of it, because considering airflow and whatnot, I would think that would just let flying rocks, gravel and small animals just get scooped up into the bellhousing.  I don't think I'll be putting this one back in, I'll get an 'aftermarket' with no 'window' in it.

The plan as of now is to keep cleaning and whatnot and Mark is going to help me pull the engine on Oct 29th.  With the engine out, I'll clean out the engine bay and want to pull out the tranny and driveshaft so it's as light as possible to roll out of the garage and do one last hose/clean before winter.  Then I'll break down and clean the engine and all.  I'd like to start 'work' on the trunk lid too, kind of to practice sanding down to a good surface and whatnot.  I'll probably start my welding/patching practice on the trunk lid, too... but I really doubt I'll be buying anything like a welding set until after the holidays are done... (February).  Until then, I'll keep cleaning and disassembling.  Plenty of that to keep me busy right now.

I would like to try to bend the roof supports back up, though... some lumber and a hydraulic jack... I may try that one of these days when I'm bored.  :-)