72 Rallye Project

[Chryco Psycho]

That is cool , never seen the console stereo before !!

[PatO]

@RUNCHARGER

"This was U-code, 4 speed, R/T SE car. Almost like the one you remembered."

Yes, very nice. Good thing I'm running out of money!

[PatO]

OK - I'm back again after the winter cold months here in Colorado.  I had a 2 month no progress period while I recovered from a nasty round with the flu and pneumonia. 

Right now, I'm just about ready to get the dash into the car. Just need to get a Vintage Air setup in first. That and the brake/gas pedals and the emergency brake.

Below I have a picture of the dash wiring when it came out of the car. This was a nasty mess. Hot spots, melt outs and splices everywhere. There were even some melt outs on the steering column harness.

Following that is a picture of the wiring with the new M&H wiring harness from yearone.  SO much neater and easier to follow. 

[PatO]

Moving to the front is the restored rallye gauge cluster.  I'd sent this to Performance Car Graphics in the late fall. The instrument faces are original, they were in good enough condition for me not to spend the extra cash on the new faces. Everything else was gone through and refurbished. New wood face plates were added. I kept the old dash pad too.  It has a few blemishes but it still fits to the frame really well. I cleaned, cleaned and cleaned again and then coated it with SEM adhesion promoter and then a few coats of SEM Color Coat.  It's not quite new in appearance but it is much better than what I started with.  I don't have any before pics though.

[RUNCHARGER]

That's looking good. I like the delete plate.

[Chryco Psycho]

Nice work , looking good 

[PatO]

Now for the budget bender. The car came with a 340 four barrel. This is what I was looking for. I wanted this because that is what I had back in '73 in high school. The motor wasn't original, it had a casting date of late '69.

Ever since high school I had always wanted to have a car with a professionally built motor so finally I went for it. The motor has been totally taken down, machined and brought back together with virtually all new parts. We kept the block, the crank and the heads.

The bore is now 4.085 with custom JE pistons. The main bearing bores were align honed, the block surfaced to square, cylinders bored and honed with torque plate, etc. etc.  The stock heads where mildly ported and the larger 2.02 valves installed. The heads where also cc'd and machined to accept a roller rocker set up. There's more but some of it is beyond my mechanical vocabulary.

I've attached a couple of photos of the engine a few days before it was dyno'd.

[PatO]

Here is a picture of the engine on the dyno along with photo copy of a part of the dyno report.  Numbers came in at 420 hp at 6100 rpm and 430 ft.lbs of torque at about 4200 rpm.  That's a bit more than I was hoping for so I am happy with the results, especially considering that we are over 5000 feet in altitude. 

[Chryco Psycho]

340s were so under rated , nice flat tq curve & good #s 

[ledphoot]

What an AWESOME project. The console is pure gold.. Where the hell did you find that?

Great work!

[jimynick]

Tying into your console thing; do you have cassettes to play in it? Somewhere around here there should be a plastic holder with a dozen or so 70's vintage cassettes. If I could find them, they might help round out the picture. 

[PatO]

Hi Ledphoot,  the overhead console is something Panasonic made in the late 70's and maybe in the early 80's for a few years. There where 3 or 4 different styles.  I found this one on ebay a couple of years ago when I started my build. Good ones are hard to come by.  This one was in the original packaging, unopened except for the outside box.  I was very fortunate on that!

Jimynick, you bet, I still have several 90 minute cassettes from back in the day that I recorded. I also still have a complete Harmon Kardon stereo, including a cassette recorder, I'll be making some more tapes in the future. 

[nsmall]

Here is a picture of the engine on the dyno along with photo copy of a part of the dyno report.  Numbers came in at 420 hp at 6100 rpm and 430 ft.lbs of torque at about 4200 rpm.  That's a bit more than I was hoping for so I am happy with the results, especially considering that we are over 5000 feet in altitude. 

Loving those numbers.  Congratulations!!!!!

[PatO]

Hey, I'm back again with what seems to be my quarterly or semi annual update.  I know I don't post much but I'm on this site every day looking for information and reading other peoples questions and discussions and looking at the pics and just generally absorbing information.

I take my time cause I'm doing everything myself except when I have some item refurbished or rebuilt.

First couple of pics are of the interior before I put the dash back in and then of the engine compartment as I got it ready for the motor. The interior shot is right after starting he install of the vintage air unit.

[PatO]

When I had my motor brought back home after the rebuild I had it placed in a wood dolly that I had Mcgyvered together. I then proceeded to get as much on the motor as I could, including the K frame and transmission as well as the steering box.  Ended up flaring and bending a fuel line to run from the aftermarket fuel pump to the aftermarket fuel line for the carb. Took 4 try's but I finally got it right.