Jeff

Just curious, why are you sorry to say Florida?

Thanks for all the tips Sam. I'm glad the reducer is working for you. It's all those nooks and crannies that were killing me as well. I played around with quite a few methods myself, but I never tried oven cleaner. Might have to give it a try on my spare tire well. The stuff on there has a coat of white paint or primer on it and it seems harder than the rest. Thanks again and good luck with yours.

Thanks for the kind words guys. The reason I am getting it so clean is because I am not going back with undercoating. Going to go either the truck bedliner route or chip guard with a urethane paint. The guy who sold me the car is a painter and also a good friend. He wants to do the chip guard but I am not sold on having a paint finish under the car. I'm sure it would look sharp at first but I don't think it would hold up. After all of this I am probably still going to sandblast the entire bottom of the car. The more I think about it I don't think I want to reuse a primer that has been covered with a petroleum based product for 28 years. Thanks again and any opinions on what to coat the bottom of the car with are welcome.

There is a layer of paint or primer there beneath the undercoating. My 72 240 that I started with did not have the paint, it was just bare steel. I gave up on the 240 just too much rust.

No that is a stripe of black paint. Looks like somebody painted the wheel wells and the area below the rocker at some point.

I know we have touched on this before but I wanted to share my experience on this so far. Had a pretty good weekend and got a fair amount of the car completed. Here is a pic of what she looks like naked My rust free body shell ended up having a couple of rust through spots that I didn't find until I removed the undercoating. This was the reason for going through this process in the first place. Here is the worst rust I found, minor but still needs to be repaired. The process I have been using to strip the undercoating goes something like this. 1. Saturate an area with carb cleaner and let it soak in a minute. Start attacking the heavy stuff using a stiff scraper and reapply the carb cleaner as needed. I have used a combination of tools thus far including a stiff scraper, putty knife, stiff plastic bondo applicator and an assortment of wire brushes. 2. Once you have gotten all the heavy stuff off you can attack the lighter coating that is left with a spray bottle full of acrylic enamel reducer and a scotch brite pad. You will create a thin coating that can be wiped clean with disposable paper rags. I bought the kind that dispenses out of a box. The enamel reducer works great and you can buy it in a five gallon drum inexpensively. I bought mine from the local Keystone Automotive distributor. I believe they have something like 150 locations nationwide. The enamel reducer evaporates quickly and can therefore be applied heavily in tight spots to literally wash the undercoating away. 3. You can spray one final application of the enamel reducer and wipe clean, then you are done. You can either sand the surface or go with a light sandblasting if you prefer. I used a layer of visqueen topped with a layer of 15# roofing felt to protect my garage floor. This is a very messy job and always wear quality gloves and eye protection as you are doing this. Just thought I would share my experiences thus far and I am sure there are many other methods to accomplish the same end result.

Mike, If you have the same luck at the new shop let me know. I have a friend who runs a local cylinder head shop and would be glad to hook you guys up. He does a tremendous amount of import and high performance work.

From the centerline of the crossmember rear bolt hole to the vertical plane of the firewall is exactly 20" on the drivers side of my car. I transfered the mark to the top of the frame rail and measured back to the firewall. Hope this helps and good luck with the project.

Sorry Dan, I went to the track last night and forgot to measure when I got home. I made myself a note and will measure tonight.

I got mine out in one piece but I don't have any idea how I'm gonna get that sucker back in there. Don't take the filler tube out if you don't have to.

Dan, Is yours an early or late 260? I have an early 260 that I can pull the measurement on. It is a bare body shell up on a rotisserie so measuring is very easy. You are more than welcome to come by some time if that would help. I'll measure it tonight and let you know.

Not sure about that company, but that style of device has been discussed. It looks very useful if you are not going to fully disassemble the car. A rotisserie is the way to go if you are taking it to a bare body shell. You can check out the plans I used to build mine here If you do a search in the paint & body section under rotisserie you will come up with a welath of information.

Check out Banzai Motorworks Here Hope this helps.

When I went and looked at the car the guy indicated it had an electric fuel pump so that is what you are hearing. You could verify this easily by turning on the ignition and the see if the noise quits when you flip the switch under the ashtray lid to the off position.

Before you remove the power steering pump I would suggest you remove the belt and take it for a test drive. A disabled power steering acts nothing like manual steering it takes way more effort. Most cars are near undriveable without the pump working. To each his own on the A/C but I'm in Florida and can't live without it.

Eibach makes replacement springs and springs for coil overs. Look at the base of the spring and see if you have a threaded sleeve and collar. If you do then you have coil overs and can use the 8" wheels. Look at this link for pictures of what a coil over setup look like.

Sam, You can't run an 8" wheel with the stock springs. The coil overs use a smaller diameter spring which allows for a larger wheel. Thanks Dan, My coil overs have 10" springs and I like several of the Centerline Billet Series. Keep trying to make up my mind whether to go to five lug or not. Sounds like with the Centerlines I won't need to.

Dan, What length spring are you running on your coil overs? I've heard you need to run an 8" spring to get the spring perch above the tire with 8" wheels. Haven't seen you post in a while, good to have you back.

Dan, Don't forget that with the FWD style wheels you will need to run a spacer to compensate for the offset. Ross sells those as well though. What day are you coming into town? I'm sure you are going to be happy with the car and it will make the trip no problem.

Scottie, I think I know the car as well, makes me glad I didn't go to the track Friday night, just too depressing. Mike, Be careful out there The only way I know to hold the valves in place is with compressed air. I don't have a valve spring compressor but I'm sure you can rent one if all other sources fail. Since you don't want to pull the head I'm assuming you already put the 2mm gasket on. You certainly should be getting proficient at it by now

You should consider figuring out which swap you are going to do and then trial fit the motor and tranny before you do the paint work. It sounds like you are going to paint the engine bay body color and I would hate to see you trash it doing the swap. just my $0.02

Unfortunately the article is from the University of Central Florida paper, right here in Orlando. Oh the shame

Here is a link to the plans I used to build mine, although it may be more complex than what you want Rotisserie Plan You can click here to see a few pics of my car on the stand.

The Ford is the toughest next to Chryslers Dana 60. Both rear ends can withstand your 800 hp goal. Just FYI it's a 9" not a nine bolt. This refers to the diameter of the ring gear.

OOOOOHHH....This is gonna be good Can't wait to see it, but my money is on Scottie.