Carl's Econo

carl, if you will be in the soco area, around that jo's coffee stage either friday or saturday eve. I think we may make it down that way for a beverage and possibly some tacos al pastor at guero's .

paul at austinmodhouse dot com

Pretty sure we'll be in the SoCo area or the ASS party in the evenings.
Staying at Embasy Suites. I hear that SoCo is kinda' crazy during the roundup!
Sending a PM.

it is often crazy in soco. last week was sxsw, 9 days of free drinks and more than two thousand bands.

http://austinmodhouse.com/blog1/2011/03/sxsw_2011_day_2_the_bus_entour.html

Dropped the belly pan yesterday to replace the window washer motor. Found a pin hole leak on the bottom of the radiator. All this time I thought the water was coming from the overflow hose! So I ended up pulling the radiator:



Got the rear seat back yesterday and got it mounted to:



Readjusted the shift linkages, adjusted the timing and checked all of the fluids. Heading to Austin early tomorrow morning.

Have a great trip !

Nice looking seat.

Last weekend a buddy and I went to the tenth annual Lone Star Rod and Kustom Roundup in Austin. Logged 650 trouble free miles (if you don't count having to stop in Brenham to put the voltage regulator wires back on!). Saw quite a few earlies in the show and on the streets of Austin. Those pics are at the bottom page here.

At Austin Speed Shop on Thursday. Barely visible is the Larry Watson T-Bird.


Thursday night at Top Notch Burger.


Never knew what you might find parked on South Congress.


A little of the SoCo nightlife.


At Ski Shores Cafe.


Met up with "Balcones1" and his much better half at Mercury Charlies.


And before we left on Sunday we met up with "Austinmodhouse" and his family at Guerro's on SoCo.

My dash skirt arrived yesterday, a day earlier than expected. It is a real good looking piece! It is molded off of an original and although the holes are not drilled, it is very apparent where they need to be. Packaging was much better than expected too. Hopefully we can get it fitted next week. Then we're going to need some paint for the skirt and all of the DCW window trim.

Summer is getting here quick, and Martha's riding season is just about over! Time to start the install of the A/C kit bought last November.

Removed the heater assembly:




Installed the air vent box from the driver's side of a parts van to the right side:

Next step, mount the compressor. The bracket that came with the kit was made for something with a lot more room under the hood! Luckily our van came from California and had the bulge for the air pump on the right side of the dog house. Perfect place for the compressor. After a whole lot of trial and error, we came up with a bracket (still tacked together in this pic):





In this configuration the belt goes from the rear grooves on the crank and water pump pulleys over to the front pulley on the Sanden type compressor. This meant getting a double groove pulley for the alternator and using the front grooves for its belt.

To make more room for the Evaporator/ Heater box something had to be done with the wiper motor. First thought was to have it mounted parallel to the floor to allow for more room, which meant having to reclock the arm so the wipers would park correctly. I removed the wiper motor with bracket attached to see if it could be mounted upside down. Using the original holes the motor hit the top of the dash, but making brackets to drop the motor down one inch it fit perfectly. In this location the shaft coming out of the motor is where it came from the factory. All that was left to do was move the arm bolted to the motor 180 degrees.



Now the wiper motor is well out of the way. The original was a single speed, so while I was at it I converted to a 2-speed wiper motor.

Wow! That musta took at least six beers to do. Maybe three more figurin out the wiper motor. Good Job! Martha's gonna be so HAPPY!

Duane in Tennessee.

AC in a early, very cool

Wow Carl,

I had to buy another Van last year to get A/C for Jill.....

this is exciting stuff. a/c... some day.... except I have no bulge. will have to fabricate something.

austinmodhouse wrote:.... except I have no bulge.

That's funny stuff there Paul!!!

But seriously, it wouldn't be that difficult to fabricate something. Or maybe even have one of those Cal-a-forn-I-A guys keep a lookout for one.

yeah, I'm still on the fence about the 300 or 302 decision. if I have to bump out the DH for a/c, might as well bump out both sides for a v/8.... part of me wants to stay close to original and other part wants to.... I gotta remember gas is $5 a gallon (or more when you consider the real price we pay for gas)

crowen57 wrote:The original was a single speed, so while I was at it I converted to a 2-speed wiper motor.

Stupid question, but how did you do that?

Hey Scot, I guess that 'converted' was a bad choice of wording. I 'replaced' the single speed motor and switch with a 2 speed motor and switch.

And welcome to the site Scot, what took you so long?!!

Been lurking here for a while. Really jealous of the A/C setup...

Keep us updated!

Got the inside unit and condenser installed last week.

Nice having a friend with a large tool/machine filled back yard shop!


Made two brackets to hold the inside unit. One bracket across the back between the wiper motor and the old vent on the passenger side (ended up having to remove the vent and make a plate to cover the hole). The other bracket in front hanging from the dash to the A/C.






Mounted the condenser (with electric fan) under the left side, opposite the side doors:

Stripped everything back out to prep the nose for a dose of 'fatmat':


After wire brushing the surface rust we thoroughly cleaned with soap and water, then applied a coat of Ospho:

Looking GOOD Carl. The install is going well for you!!

Applied a coat of POR-15 to the floor and inside the nose today: