Just Can't Stay Away 1972 142S

[NO_SPRK]

that wheel is looking good in there!

[Coupid]

Originally Posted by NO_SPRK

that wheel is looking good in there!

Thanks man, it is so much nicer to drive with that in my hands. Gotta find a R-sport or Volvo button for it.

That last photo I uploaded reminded me how much I need to black out the awful chrome on the tach. So I did that too. Looks a lot less awful to last until I get a better solution in there.

[Duder]

Very nice 142. Keep it classy!

[Coupid]

Originally Posted by Duder

Very nice 142. Keep it classy!

Thanks man, I love what you have going on with your 240.

[Coupid]

Took the car on a drive yesterday and my fiance said she smelled burning crayons. When we got home I took a look and noticed that one of the heater hoses for the Weber intake manifold was pulled taut over the exhaust headers. It left this lovely design:

Again, super happy to figure this one out before I head to SLO on Friday.

I also bought a cassette for the drive but when I put it in the player it switches from radio to cassette but doesn't make a sound. Hopefully I can sort it out tomorrow.

[240keith]

I am not sure where that line runs, but you might think about some heat wrap or sparkplug sox if it is that close ...




I have one you can borrow if needed ( i might even have a set of 4)

[Coupid]

Originally Posted by 240keith

I am not sure where that line runs, but you might think about some heat wrap or sparkplug sox if it is that close ...




I have one you can borrow if needed ( i might even have a set of 4)

It goes from near the thermostat to the intake manifold right under the carb. Another one goes from by the firewall to the other side of the intake:



I thought about wrapping the headers but wrapping the line didn't cross my mind. I think its probably fine now since there is almost an inch of air between the runner and the line.



Thanks for the offer and I might take you up on it if I get nervous before the drive.

[Coupid]

Drove Buttercup up to San Luis Obispo for WM7.0 last weekend. The car did absolutely incredible on the way there and back. It is about 100 miles each way which obviously isn't a huge weekend but when the longest trip I had taken in the car prior to this was about 30 miles it seems like a nice accomplishment. The car was a blast on the windy bits of the 154 and on the freeways I stuck to the right lane and cruised at about 65 or 3700 RPM.

When I got home from the trip I had a little present waiting for me:



GT cluster with KMH Speedo to make the car feel super fast. The workman ship on a Roger cluster is fantastic. With the tiny Luisi wheel my view of the under dash tach was completely obscured. This solves that problem, looks awesome, and is consistently backlit.

The other exciting part I am waiting for is an adjustable panhard rod from Classic Swede in the UK. When it originally showed up it had an incorrect bar end on it that wouldn't fit the stud on my rear end. The replacement piece has been stuck somewhere in Los Angeles for 7 days and counting. Hopefully that gets sorted out soon. I would have loved to have it on my car by WM7 since I ordered it 1/25...

[240keith]

that looks great!

Lets see it in the car!

[MoCounselor]

LOVE the new gauge cluster! I can't wait to see it installed!!

-Ben

[NO_SPRK]

Sweeet! You can see the sport gauges? I couldn't read half my speedometer normally

[MoCounselor]

I'd love to hear some input on how you're liking the suspension set up with the 5x7 800# fronts and 5/11 250# rears. (Planning for my '71 and I'm still trying to figure out suspension on it.)

-Ben

[Coupid]

Originally Posted by NO_SPRK

Sweeet! You can see the sport gauges? I couldn't read half my speedometer normally

Yeah the rim of the wheel fully blocked the old tach now the new tach is only partially obscured so I'll call it progress. The part that is blocked is the 0-3000RPM range so I am less worried about that when the car is actually moving.

Originally Posted by 240keith

that looks great!

Lets see it in the car!

Funny story... As I was putting it in the car I forgot to unplug the battery and shorted the cluster out. It still lit up but I shipped it back to Roger to make sure its all good. I installed it to see what it looks like but didn't take any pictures before I pulled it out to ship it off yesterday. What a stupid mistake but I am sure Roger can make it perfect again.

Originally Posted by MoCounselor

I'd love to hear some input on how you're liking the suspension set up with the 5x7 800# fronts and 5/11 250# rears. (Planning for my '71 and I'm still trying to figure out suspension on it.)

-Ben

Ben- The suspension is probably a little stiff for daily driving. The car is meant to be fun on the weekends and it is great for that. It corners extremely flat with those springs and the 28mm IPD front sway. Since I haven't reinforced the sway bar end link attachment points I haven't beat on the car too hard yet. At the current height it still makes it into driveways easily but I would consider raising the front up a little to even out the rake.



Magically the new end for my adjustable panhard rod showed up today. I was able to lengthen it about 1/2 an inch to center the rear end. The car makes fewer clunks which is probably just due to the old panhard rod having old bushings. I am tempted to order the adjustable torque rods from Yoshifab so I can really dial in the rear suspension.

[RichGT]

interested in why you have gone for a single carb...

[pillowball]

With the smaller steering wheel and the GT cluster, you won't be able to see the freeway-speed side of the speedo. I have a Racemark that looks a bit bigger than your wheel, so I've just had to deal with it. It will also cut off a bit of the tach, but you can always rotate it for a better view (you can't do that with the speedo).

Also, it's too late for the panhard bar, but tbricker crandandall can turn around well-made adjustable suspension parts at very reasonable rates. He did both my panhard and torque rods, also pressing in new poly bushings, and I'm very happy with the results. Let me know if you need my old torque rods if you ever decide to lower the rear more and need adjustability; I'm happy to pay them forward for the price of shipping (or meet up with you at Davis, if it happens this year).

[MoCounselor]

Thanks for the suspension feedback. Mine is going to be a weekend toy/autox-er as well, so I can deal with stiffer suspension as long as it dampened well and isn't really harsh or crashing. Where did you get the Carrera's from, if you don't mind me asking?

Bummer about the gauges, but it sounds like you've got it figure out.

Thanks!

[Coupid]

Originally Posted by pimmboy

interested in why you have gone for a single carb...

I wouldn't say that I regret it at all since it was really easy to learn to tune the Weber and it has been completely reliable. Obviously the purist in me wishes I kept the original SUs but they were super worn out. If I had to do it all over again I would have tried to rebuild them a little before abandoning them but I don't think I could have ever had the engine running as well as it is with the Weber.

Originally Posted by pillowball

With the smaller steering wheel and the GT cluster, you won't be able to see the freeway-speed side of the speedo. I have a Racemark that looks a bit bigger than your wheel, so I've just had to deal with it. It will also cut off a bit of the tach, but you can always rotate it for a better view (you can't do that with the speedo).

Also, it's too late for the panhard bar, but tbricker crandandall can turn around well-made adjustable suspension parts at very reasonable rates. He did both my panhard and torque rods, also pressing in new poly bushings, and I'm very happy with the results. Let me know if you need my old torque rods if you ever decide to lower the rear more and need adjustability; I'm happy to pay them forward for the price of shipping (or meet up with you at Davis, if it happens this year).

Keith was telling me about that as well. I hope Davis happens so I can see your setup in person. Thats very generous about your old torque rods, I really appreciate the offer!

Originally Posted by MoCounselor

Thanks for the suspension feedback. Mine is going to be a weekend toy/autox-er as well, so I can deal with stiffer suspension as long as it dampened well and isn't really harsh or crashing. Where did you get the Carrera's from, if you don't mind me asking?

Bummer about the gauges, but it sounds like you've got it figure out.

Thanks!

The Carreras are from ebay. Honestly I think at some point soon I will just swap them for KYBs.

[Coupid]

After looking at Tony's photos from WM, I had to take some polish to under the rear bumper and clean up those rust stains from the bumper brackets. Looks a little better now but I really need to take the bumper off and clean and paint the brackets.



God I wish I could have found this car a few years earlier, before it sat outside in the sea breeze...



The extremely talented Tony Bird offered to take some photos of my car at WM7.0:

He did such a nice job making the car look incredible.

[240keith]

Originally Posted by Coupid

I really need to take the bumper off and clean and paint the brackets.

and throw them in the trash!


looked great at western meet

[Coupid]

It's back from Roger!

[Tfrasca]

Originally Posted by Coupid

It's back from Roger!

Man, that looks great. I was going to send mine to Roger months ago but haven't gotten around to it. Did you go with warm white LED's? Are they anywhere near as warm as normal bulbs?

[MoCounselor]

Originally Posted by Coupid

It's back from Roger!

Looks AWESOME man! Thanks for the pic. Someday, I've got to find one of those clusters for mine! :D

-Ben

[John242Ti]

Originally Posted by Coupid

It's back from Roger!

Glad to see that you got rid of the dog dick speedometer. Also, welcome to the metric world. Been running km/h speedometers in my cars since 1998...

-J

[Mikeystoy]

The "dog dick" speedo is why I put the 72 dashin my car in the first place

[Coupid]

I like the original speedo a lot but it doesn't leave any room for a tach in the dash. My original cluster had a bad dimmer switch so it didn't alway light up or stay lit so I decided to kill two birds with one stone.

Hopefully I can get used to the KPH speedo but if you've been using them since '98 it can't be too hard of an adjustment. 62MPH =100KPH

Originally Posted by Tfrasca

Man, that looks great. I was going to send mine to Roger months ago but haven't gotten around to it. Did you go with warm white LED's? Are they anywhere near as warm as normal bulbs?

Yeah these are the warm LEDs. That photo was with the dimmer turned all the way down. They get super bright but still somewhat match the rest of the interior. I'm very happy with the lighting.