[sdcerreta]

Today was the day that it hit me. . . I have a daily driver that I planned on building.

So, I was driving to work and it hit me. Since replacing the rocker arms earlier this summer, all the problems with performance and breaking rocker arms has resolved. I have completed several road trips and that includes several commutes to my out of town work location, two trips to Phoenix and two trips to vist my parents and some out of town car shows. On Wednesday I drove to Phoenix and it was 103 degrees and I had the AC on high and drove up the notorious hill that I died on several times on the last trip that kept blowing fuses. No blown fuses on this trip and lots of passing power even with AC on high. I was comfortable too, unlike the last time I made that journey.

I realized that a week ago I made my first oil change, per BluePrint instructions with a full synthetic. I used AmsOil 10-30w. I now have 2000 miles on the car since replacing the rocker arms and I have a total of 8000 since putting in the BluePrint motor. The car is running fantastic. I start it up, put it in gear and go. I rarely think I am going to break down and most of the little bugs are slowly going away. I also have a solution for the fuel tank filler. No more stinky garage. It is not perfect but much improved. I will post that update soon.

Overall, this car is the daily driver that I dreamed about! Looks good, drives great and reliable. I can drive it anywhere I want to and often feeling myself doing just that. 8000 miles in a year and 3 months proves it. With the last 2k mostly perfect miles.

 

[sdcerreta]

With winter coming I have some big plans for the next series of upgrades. I have also realized that this car is not really a show car. It is cool and gets lots of attention, but it is not a rotisserie restoration like some of the cars I compete against. I think the niche for this car is really the interior. It has a ton of unique features and modern touches that many people appreciate. So, I am going to focus on that for the winter and will see if I can win some best interior awards.


Here is the next series of upgrades:
Black-out Dapper headlights
Baer T4 12" Rear disc brakes
Baer master cylinder
Line Lock kit
NOS kit with MSD 6AL-2 Programmable ignition

Interior:
Rebuild seat mounts to raise 3" for better seating position.
Dynamat roof and sails
Headliner
Essex carpet kit
CTC center console vinyl wrapped with: Temp Gauges, custom switch and USB charging panel, PCS electric shifter, Alpine 9" or 11" floating screen stereo, Backup camera, arm rest with storage box
Rework the subwoofer and rear deck trim and then vinyl wrap those pieces to match everything else

 

[Old Bear]

More changes?
Time to renew AAA towing card.

 

[sdcerreta]

After playing around with vinyl smoke lens covers from Dapper, I decided that I loved the look of smoked lenses on the car. So, I pulled the headlamps and gave them three coats of VHT Nightshades. This looks way better than the vinyl covers because the VHT does not have any wrinkles.


Here is a photo with clear Dapper headlamps with Halos on.

Here is a look at three coats of VHT NightShades on the left and clear headlamp on the right.

Here is a look at the smoked headlamps installed. I really like this blackened look.

Here the smoked headlamps with Halos on. Still lots of brightness.

 

[78 Elk]

They look good, nice job.

 

[sdcerreta]

Been super busy with travel recently and no time to work on the car. It is in the garage and ready for some winter projects as the cold sets in. I noticed that I made the NECOA 2023 Southwest Region calendar for the month of June. That is pretty cool. No one even notified me that my car was selected. That was weird. I bought a bunch of calendars to share with the family.

 

[Old Bear]

Scott
The calendars were only completed in the last day or two. They have had folks on the 2023 NECOA Calendar Team looking for errors, prior to releasing them this morning.

 

[RoadToad84]

Just got caught up on this after several months offline. Really happy to see you've got the car to a point you're able to use and enjoy it! Have really enjoyed following your work and you should be dead proud of all you've achieved