I think its time for paint.

Paint is a tough one. On one hand, I want the car to look good while I continue to work on it. On the other I'm not ready to spend a ton of money to get a great paint job when the car isn't there yet. I've heard two theories on this. Many people like to do the body work first and have a great looking car to inspire them to get it working great. Other people like to wait until the car is mechanically sound since they are constantly pulling it apart and working on it.

I'm part of the second group. Although when I got the car it looked pretty clean. It wasn't until I got hit that I became unhappy with the way the car looks. I had some body work done, but its not perfect and I'd rather spend money and getting the car running great rather than have a great looking car that can't get out of the garage.

I'm making a compromise. I've found Earl Schieb's web site and they have a good deal on a paint job. That way, imperfect fender won't stick out so much and I haven't spent a fortune that I don't have for a paint job I'm not ready for. Down the road I may have the fender reworked or replaced, but until I get there, I want the car to look good, not damaged like it does now.

Once the harmonic balancer is fixed I'll take a ride down there and see what they have to sat.

One thing fixed, new thing broken!

So, I finally figured out the pressure retard unit on the distributor had gone bad. The little device retards the spark advance up to 12 degrees when boosting. Without it, the car knocks like crazy! It took a good amount of time to find one. They have become pretty rare these days. I need to send my old core to Dale Manufacturing and have them rebuild it for me so I have a spare.

The good news is that the new unit works like a champ. The bad news is that when I was testing the car on the freeway, the harmonic balancer took a dump! Bad Luck! So now I need to get the car down to the mechanic and put it on the lift to replace the harmonic balancer. Hopefully after that, things will be moving along nicely.