Father, son and a V8

[LincolnLovin]

Pictures to follow but to celebrate my birthday today, I replaced the next thing on my list to check out where this engine light is coming from, today's part the fuel pressure regulator. Considering it was only held on by three bolts it was an arse of a job, access is non existent and the easiest option would be to remove the upper air intake and fuel rail to get access to it.

Disaster that way lies, thought I and so I elected to remove it in situ and after an hour or so finally managed to swap out the old unit.

And the light is still coming on!

This must be the o2 sensor at this point, I'll get it replaced when I get the exhaust manifolds changed.

[LincolnLovin]

Booked the town car into the local garage to get the exhaust manifolds changed, can't be having an exhaust blow on the wedding day. They are only shorty headers and likely not much of an improvement over the s/h mustangs ones that I got for £10 but least they won't leak (I hope) and there's a good chance it should clear the CEL too.

Edited by LincolnLovin on Thursday 18th August 11:20

[LincolnLovin]

Dropped off the TC to the garage, really hoping the exhaust blow ahead of the o2 sensor is what was causing the CEL.

At least I will have shiny headers...

[LincolnLovin]

And it was all going so well...I had almost forgotten the taste of failure on this project.

The old manifolds came off with no issue, and the new ones went on without much pain (save the lack of access), however the ends do not meet up with the exhaust. No amount of mechanical persuasion would make them align, they looked lovely in the engine bay though:



But as you can see, no chance of joining them:



So what to do? All the exhaust places round here that could deal with a car this size wont have space until after the wedding next Saturday. As the Haynes says, reassembly is the reverse of removal - I've asked them to weld up the crack in the passenger exhaust and put the original set back on.

I can then look at getting a new exhaust system created for this car next year, as with this unexpected addition means I'll be on beans for a while.

Edited by LincolnLovin on Wednesday 24th August 16:09

[LincolnLovin]

Slightly kicking myself that I either just put up with the exhaust blow or got this sorted way earlier. Hopefully they garage doesn't hit any issues welding or reinstalling the old headers, if they do there a chance the car won't be ready for the wedding :/

Life is nothing without drama.

[LincolnLovin]

You know those moments where you wish the car would be whisked off and returned in pristine condition like in the car shows? I'm kinda at that point. There is so much left to do and at the end of the day I'm going to end up with a Town Car. I can see how people get sucked into spending tens of thousands on Corsa's and the like.

I haven't costed up how much I've spent since 2011 but it doesn't feel like I have much to show for it, even if the car makes it to the wedding next Saturday its far from how I want it to look, and yet I am stuck with the car, I can't sell it again but my enthusiasm wanes at times.

Why is the mid way point in a restoration so damn frustrating?

[Google [bot]]

Classic cars are frequently a love-hate rollercoaster, I think that's something you have to accept. One day you'll be in a position to throw some expendable at it and get it perfect. Until then keep on top of it best you can, even if that means storage. I don't think I need to tell you not to go to any other dark side of regret.

[LincolnLovin]

Yeah, its on the road and works - just hoped it would be further along than it is. Though the wedding was an unexpected deadline this year, given another year the bodywork and rest of the mechanicals would have been sorted.

[LincolnLovin]

On the upside, we did find the cause of the CEL there was a hairline crack in the passenger exhaust that was likely the cause of the CEL.

Silver lining and all that.

[LincolnLovin]

So the car is collected and back together but it looks like the CEL is still there, I suspect even the re-welded manifold has still got issues and needs to be cast to the scrap heap.

The upside is car is working and I'm not touching anything else until after the wedding next week (save cleaning).

Edited by LincolnLovin on Thursday 25th August 16:21

[Renn Sport]

Keep plugging away and try to focus on why you have this car and what it means to you.

Your going to have to find a way to make this TC a little easier on the eye. However first things first and get those issues resolved.

Good job so far.

[LincolnLovin]

haha its always going to look like a town car, not much you can do to hide its shape, its a brick.

[Coatesy351]

I've had massive ups and downs with my old ford. Sometimes I've felt like setting fire to it . I actually don't know when i got so attached to it but if it wasn't around i would miss it. I keep a list of the things i need or want to do to it which has gradually become shorter over about 16 years. I think the next improvement keeps me interested but I doubt I'll ever run out of things to do. Don't despair you cant fix it all at once.

[LincolnLovin]

Absolutely perfect, someone has stolen one of the headlight surrounds from the front of the car.

Now can't use for the wedding, unless a miracle happens.

st, st, st.

[LincolnLovin]

I've found an eBay hap and they are looking into alternative shipping options, cracking open some wine to soothe the pain.

[LincolnLovin]

I really don't know what I'll do if this seller cant get them in time, we can fashion a bodge fix but the front end was the only thing that looked good on the car

[skyrover]

LincolnLovin said:

Absolutely perfect, someone has stolen one of the headlight surrounds from the front of the car.

Why on earth would someone do that?... can't be many vintage town car owners in blighty

Feel for you mate... it can be discouraging.

I just did a whole bunch of work on my jeep to get it back on the road and firs time I used th sunroof, it jammed open. Now the whole headlining has to come out so I can figure out why it's stuck.

[LincolnLovin]

I honestly have no idea, there isn't another 80s town car in the country I don't think - I suspect it was taken because it looked nice or for a prank.

I can take breaking my own stuff, but this irks, it really does.

[R6VED]

I can feel your enthusiasm waning through my screen, is there any possibility that the surround fell off and may be at the side of a road somewhere? might be worth having a quick look around. I have found parts twice doing the same.

Don't despair, this is the sort of thing that sorts the men from the boys. I have a 35yr old Mercedes 500 SEL and have a list of things I would like to do. At this very moment I have paint drying on my latest alteration :-)

Keep your chin up, keep that upper lip stiff and man the f**k up :-) I am sure that your Dad would be extremely proud of what you have gone through and what you have achieved so far.

Enjoy the wedding, a tip someone gave me before mine was to ensure that I took some mental pictures as the day progressed, some on my own, some with my wife and some with friends/family. It was good advice and I just sat and watched my guests enjoying themselves with the caricaturist and illusionist.

Have a great day and worry about the car once all the drama is over with :-)

[LincolnLovin]

Sadly it was on the car when I parked up (I disconnect the battery when I'm not using the car), but I did a drive round yesterday just in case I was imagining things

Without the pressure of the wedding I'd be more serene about the car - I hadn't planned on it being finished this year so a lot of stuff got moved up.

Post next week, things return to normalcy