A year ( or so) later

 Well, many things have happened since that faithful day of the revel. I have done more to the car and I need to add those things to the record.
The one thing that I did was to add hood pins. Not a hard job but scary.

Jeremy and I ran tape on the inside of the engine compartment and extended it along the top of the front support rail out onto the top of each fender. Than we added the tape to the top of the hood so we knew where the support brace was under the hood. Then I found a few pictures of some Shelby's that had pins and gave it me best guess as the the location in from the edge of the hood.

I also switched the rear gears. I went from the stock 2.79 to 3.80.
Well that was a mistake. For the type of driving that Denise and I will be doing, I should have picked a smaller ratio. Maybe 3.25 or 3.55.
I have converted back to the original rear. I will keep that untill I am able to convert the transmission to a T5.

I also added a woodgrain steering wheel . That was pretty easy and looks great.

I also installed an electronic ignition.
THAT WAS THE BEST UPGRADE I COULD HAVE DONE! There was more power and a smoother idle.

Follow up to a follow up…

Most of the time I don’t bother complaining but once in a while I get so frustrated that I have to say something with the hopes of saving someone else a major headache.

 I was very excited about making the change to an electronic distributor without points and condenser. The upgrade itself will never be regretted.

Unfortunately I can’t say that about the retailer that I chose to purchase it from.

A year ago I made the decision to convert the original distributor and called CJ Pony parts to make the purchase. I gave them the engine specs and THEY recommended the proper distributor and coil for my upgrade. I trusted they knew what they were doing.

After a year of issues that could not be traced, including stranding Denise, I spoke to the tech support at PerTronix. Carl was the best. He was able to isolate my problem with two questions. What I did not know and obviously CJ Pony parts did not know either is that the coil and the distributor need to be matched to be correct. CJ Pony parts sold me the wrong coil. But that is not the problem. Mistakes happen. I see the real problem being CJ Pony Parts unwillingness to fix the problem as the real issue here. Even after their mistake, they were unwilling to exchange the wrong coil with the correct one. All this after spending thousands of dollars with them through the restoration and even after writing a letter to them explaining the entire situation.  It just seemed like my patronage was unimportant to them.

Luckily, PreTronix is concerned about their clients. Carl made the decision to replace the wrong coil with the correct one, at no cost. I see this as going above and beyond. It was not only kind but is the kind of gesture that will insure my trust and loyalty to a company.

Bottom line…It appears that CJ Pony parts is more concerned with the sale then with caring for their customers.
To go one further... the wrong parts were the direct reason for an expensive breakdown. We were traveling out of state when the car died. After an expensive tow, we were told the wrong timing gear was used with this distributor. AGAIN, this was the result of the wrong item being supplied by CJ Pony Parts.


I am profoundly disappointed in them and will not be using them ever again.

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I went back and re-gluded the rocker trim that I put on. Remember I said that there were some things that I really felt had been reproduced cheaply? That was one of those things.



I also fabricated a radiator overflow bottle. I did not want any of the overflow antifreeze to be getting on the motor or the new paint so I found a solution. The reason it was needed is because I am running with the timing advanced slightly. Doing that seems to cause the motor to run a bit hotter than before.

Here is a few of the finished product.