Alright. There's some forward progress!
I'm pretty sure we've reached our point of maximum disassembly (well, almost, there's a BIT more interior gutting to do, but that'll get done when the driveline is in and wiring can be done with the ability to check your work). Almost all the parts to make it start, idle, drive, turn and stop and shut down have arrived or are on order.
I took down the overdrive servo module in the trans today. From what I can see, the band still looks OK, and the springs were fine (in fact, the return spring is a replacement with a lower spring rate, which means the 3-4 shift will be harder than stock - someone has built this transmission before) so I popped it back in. I've decided I don't care for reverse enough to bother checking it out.
Other than installing the replacement trans parts, which I will be receiving shortly, there's going to be some modification beyond that already described - sort of a DIY shift kit. I'll put together a detailed post on the transmission when I get to that point.
Last week, a very determined FedEx man insisted on delivering some parts for me to the wrong door. He squeezed between the racecar and an overgrown bush and climbed over a mountain of cast-off car parts to get to what was very clearly not the front door. Idiot. Anyway, Spectre had some parts from his CVPI laying around and we did a deal. Here's what I got:
1 set of Motorcraft Severe Duty front brake pads.
1 set of Raybestos Severe Duty front brake pads.
1 set of Motorcraft Sever Duty front shocks.
If my name were Elwood, I'd be quite enthusiastic about 'cop shocks' and 'cop brakes' and 'a model before catalytic converters' (okay, well, gutted catalytic converters are almost as good).
These join my existing stock of brake bits:
1 set of Wagner Severe Duty front pads
1 set of Wagner Severe Duty rear pads. Except there's one problem here.
These cars were sold with two different material rear caliper pistons. One piston material, which this particular car is equipped with, is called "Phenolic" and my understanding is that it's essentially a pile of chemicals and wood pulp (so... in my mind, that's paper)
The other material is, naturally, steel. The steel pistons have much thinner walls than the phenolic ones, because they don't need it for strength. Phenolic pistons are like two bucks cheaper per caliper. The problem is that the phenolics, at severe racing temperatures, appear to undergo some sort of chemical change and crumble. I'll take some pictures of the rear calipers when I get the replacements - they're effing scary. So I ordered replacements with steel pistons.
Remember how I said the steel pistons had thinner walls? Take a look at the picture of the rear pads up there - note that the inner pad has a silly retaining clip that engages with the inside of the piston walls. It's set up for a 1" diameter hole. The steel pistons have 1.75" holes. So I can't use those pads with the new calipers. As such, I've gone ahead and ordered some more.
Things are hopefully going to start speeding up on this, and more information and pretty pictures will be forthcoming over the next several weeks. We're also coming up on the entry date for Summit Point, so watch this space for further details.