The latest with my SC

[Norm-L]

Nice job on the car, but I'm far more impressed with your own weight loss. Congrats! That's not an easy task. And more congrats for keeping it off.

 

[Mercutio]

Thanks. And speaking of weight, I put the SC on the scales tonight and it was 3,358. Was hoping for a tad less, but as I said, it's getting harder and harder to find weight to remove.

 

[David Neibert]

The car seems to be fixed. The instrument cluster voltmeter reads dead in the middle and a hand-held voltmeter showed 14.4 volts across the battery terminals when running. Took it for the same short test drive loop as before and all seems well. Got into the boost enough to verify the methanol system is activating as it should.

Will,
Glad to see you got it working correctly. Jacob Royer is hosting a road rally type meet in early October that you should try to attend.

 

[Mercutio]

Thanks. I saw his thread and for now I can't give much more than a "maybe." But I'll keep it in mind and see what happens.

I'd definitely like to see folks from the club again. Haven't seen anyone other than David Dalke since the last Epic Drive.

 

[ricardoa1]

Good Job Will, on the personal weight loss and the car. Some of those parts are pretty cool made out of aluminum. When I went on a quest for weight reduction I now feel I went too wrong on a few items. But I guess it depends on the intended use. The K member will help a lot. But I scraped tar like insulation from the floorboards and felt that was silly for its gains, now heat and noise are entering the cabin.

What will you be using the car for nowadays? I had ideas of road racing mine, but doubt I can get my car ready enough for the abuse, I just cruise with it when possible and remember the old days with it.

 

[Mercutio]

Thanks, Ricardo. I've stopped auto crossing competitely and sold my Camaro. I have my 57 as a hot rod and fun cruiser. It has decent power, but it's really more about style than actual speed. So at this point I view the SC as just a really fun street car, and I don't want to do anything to make it worse in that role. It was an ideal car for the last Epic Drive event. So as you mention, I have no plans to remove stuff like sound deadener or AC. It would save weight, but it would make the car worse.

Back in the 60s, Ford had its "R-code" muscle cars: the most powerful engine available in the lightest-weight version of that platform. Like the Thunderbolt--a 427 in a two-door post Fairlane. That's kind of how I think of my SC, as if Ford had made an R-code Thunderbird. At some point, I want to get my 95 LX running again as something more like the S-code Fairlane (which had a mild 390 and more options/luxuries. So the plan for the LX is an Explorer 4.6 swap, but posher and softer around the edges than the SC. Leather, fold-down rear seats, all the factory options I can throw at it (and some you couldn't, like factory foglights).