Update: Finally Sorted.
Ran the car last night and the trans lines seem to be holding perfectly.
Car hit 175 degrees and it never went higher (would easily hit 190 stationary before the change).
Did an oil change too and got some of the Joe Gibbs HR1 stuff to replace the old crude that she was running before.
Also decided that as the heater never worked I'd remove the dead weight:
Before:
After:
No welding stuff at mine, plus the idea of being able to revert back makes the above solution suitable for now!
After collecting parts over the years it was nice to put some of the new stuff on.
I've left my old Dept of Defense bumper off (going to wall mount it), and fitted the replacement.
Bit of Autosol and its come up great! Also got some new chromed bumper bolts from Retro Motive (eBay), so that's now sorted an on.
The Grill.......
Before I started I decided that I was going to customise it.
Many times the stuff you have in your head doesn't work out so well in reality. I like subtle and not in your face!
As shown before, I'd decided to go matt black.
I didn't want a whole sea of black though and had already decided that the 72's indicator bins could possibly lend themselves to a few subtle touches to help improve the front end.
So I painted the internal parts of the bin in chrome paint (well its not chrome, its just shiny silver). This was to help amplify the lights when in use. These are hidden by the covers so no real issue if its not 100% perfect, but they turned out well.
In 72 Dodge put what can only be described as crosshairs on the indicator covers. These were originally silver (as was the whole bin).
Whilst painting the grill black i flipped through ideas on how i could add some subtle touches to the front end.
After much deliberation i decided I'd try a black surround with body colour crosshairs. This should help to soften the sea of black and well, add a bit of me to the car.
After loads of masking and painting...........Oh....Not so sure the ole brain image was going to work.
Persevered though and last night finished it and put it all together.........and i like it!!!
Not for the purist but this car was never gonna be:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
I've also got a replacement lower panel, but it needs work before it can be bolted on.........So that's missing from the pics!
That's a few weeks off being done though..........
I actually had another idea for the grill change. Being honest, I just got Bananarama! off with the masking, re-masking, painting and waiting to dry on the indicator bins so called it time on the rest.