
After about 60 seconds of engine cranking and accelerator pumping, she roared to life. I was able to pull her out into the driveway but that's it. The left rear tire (against the wall all winter) had gone completely flat. I wanted to get out and check that fuel leak anyway. Well, this wasn't gong to be a simple loose fitting. There was gas dribbling rather profusely from all around the fuel pump. So much for top down fun this weekend. I got air in the tire and put her back in the garage to await a replacement pump. Thankfully, it only leaks when running so there's no danger of burning the house down (I had checked that last fall.)
This is going to be a big year for the old 'Bird. I've got some play money from doing a small design project for a friend that my company wasn't interested in. Part of that money bought the laptop that I'm typing this on. The rest is going to some 18" Boyd Codington Smoothy II wheels for the T'bird. You might be able to tell from that picture, but she's riding on undersize second hand blackwalls (that don't hold air well). These cars originally came (most of them anyway) with a 2 1/4" wide whitewall. The small 14" wheels and the undersize blackwalls have just made the car look wimpy. Not any more. The 18" diameter polished rims will almost match the diameter of the original wide whites. They're a nice meaty five spoke wheel that ought to give the 'Bird the stance it should have.
So I've got some measuring to do to see wheel back space I need and how wide I can go and still use the skirts in the back. I also want to make sure I don't have any rubbing in the front when I turn the wheel. I'm also planning to go through the front suspension while I'm at it and replace the shocks. So I poked my head underneath today just to see what I'm up against and I found a surprise.

OK, can someone with better HTML skills that I tell me how to get those images to stack one over the other? My CSS is set up to right align "img" tags autpmatically. I've tried addiing in a "br" tag in between, but that just shifts the second tag down a line. Wrapping each "img" tag with "p" tags is what I've got now. I also tried a "br clear=all" tag inbetween the images, but that didn't do it either. Anyone?
Cool stuff!
The Rambler came out this week too, and I'm making some progress on the '64 Jeep.
The wheels ought to look good..
Sounds like you just need a new fuel pump and gaskets...much cheaper than a tank repair.
That's so cool. i wish that:
a.) i was a car guy
b.) that I had something old I could hit the road in with the top down.
(Insert Napoleon Dynamite voice) LUCKY! ;-)