Project 1990 country squire resto/modification by andyfanshawe

4 minute(s) of a 418 minute read

Interesting day today! My dad broke down in his Yaris (left his lights on), our caravan started to show signs of water droplets inside and our big Ford (renamed project Marmite by my good lady Wife-for obvious reasons!!) made a few more tentative steps to a fire up and reliability.

So, inbetween rescuing my dad and stripping the caravan down, I managed to do a few jobs on the car.

First was the replacing of the valve covers with the new gaskets. But, not quite as simple as it seemed because there is a bracket at the back of the drivers side valve cover that secures some wiring multiplug connectors. And its rusty.

Needs a good clean up and repaint. So, out with the media blaster

Here it is after blasting

Etch primer next

Then painted black and reinstalled.

Next?  Engine bay clean up of unecessary bits. ie thermactor components and brackets (not needed for our emission tests and badly mangled up. Pipes are rusty and full of holes, air pump is noisy in operation, pipes have rotted off the catalytic converters, 1 has been plugged but the other hasn't!

These are the remains after a bit of cutting and pulling!

This is the pipe that connects to the back of the heads to exhaust passages

This was the pipe as it was in place

Now I just can't leave the holes in the back of the heads, so it's out with the hacksaw and a bit of gas welding

Heres one already welded and one about to be

My Wife caught me in action!

That leaves the bracket for the diverter valve to be shifted and the bracket that use to hold one of the pipes. All located on the passenger side exhaustmanifold studs.  

All not been moved for 19 years and seriously rusted.

Theres only 1 wrench that will move them, and here it is (a hot wrench!)-nuts already removed

Sorry its not in action, but i would probably set the car on fire while taking the photo!

Heres the new space minus brackets

Battery tray reinforcement next.