Automoda

I'm curious to see the damage. I'm sure its fixable but if you can get a new one on the truck's insurance, get a new one and fix-up and save the old one as a spare. They'll both need the same paint, after all.

While I love my engine and how it feels to drive.... Sometimes I see "new light weight battery invented" and I wonder about electric. Not the stuff we have today, but something thats actually light.

I have aluminum guards and 30,000 road miles. They dent with the big rocks, and every tiny rock adds to the dulling effect over time. I've replaced them once, and for sure when you replace them, a big rock will ding it within a month. However, I dont have a problem with it because its a sacrificial part and a sign of a car well enjoyed. Behind the aluminum I have the 3M 'clear bra' that goes almost to the top of the fender. Now that was a good move-- Its done a great job and only has a few scuffs deep enough to leave a mark in the material. The fender has been perfectly preserved below the clear bra, but since it doesn't like conforming to the extreme curve of the edge of the wheelwell opening, there is no clear bra in that area, and I do have a bit of chipping in the paint where there is no protection. 30,000 miles though, and the car overall looks pretty good.

Very nice. Top notch work on that. I have fancy paint on mine and to my shock, its holding up after 26000 miles. Who'd have thought!

Headed out at 0-Dark-30 and did my usual drive before the heat o' the day got me. Its been a wet year. The desert is really in bloom. I did my part to reduce the gnat population, judging by my windshield.

Don't worry-- He didn't leave the timing aggressive. He was confused by the way it was behaving and was just fiddling to see if he could pin it down. He dialed it back down to a safe level. He actually agreed with you 100% and said he felt like something was holding it back but he couldn't think of what that would be. I kinda feel like it vibrates more than it used to before I changed out the computer and EDIS4 and fuel pressure regulator and coils. I've checked the mounts and other bolts alternator mounts and they're good. 160hp is pretty boring but remember it was at 4000 feet and I live at 6000 feet. Nothing can be wrong with the intake... its 2 inches long. I sprayed starting fluid around it to see if the gaskets had leaks and it seemed fine. Stock Birkin exhaust is pretty free flowing. I cant imagine that something is plugging up the muffler, but it is something I'll be checking on. Thanks for the advice on improvements. I'm kinda surprised. I thought porting was the 'thing to do'. If its not worth it then I'll skip it. What sucks is I had a chance to get stage 2 cams from a friend and passed on it.

I sure wish my Birkin had an "easy lift-off cowl". I spent 2 hours taking mine off and putting it back on only to find out that the wires I needed to get to were easy to access from the underside all along! Its just so hard to see whats going on from the underside. Stalkers' one-piece upper body is certainly a mechanic's dream, even though its less 'classic super seven'. Isn't it funny how colorful sevens are? They're like VW Bugs-- You can get away with any color or paint scheme and they look good. Bright green is sure popular lately, and I have to say, I really like how the flat black works on your car. Is the black paint or is it a wrap? And is that Jet-Hot silver coating on the exhaust? -- It has that shine. The car looks so good now, will you dare to drive it? I've moved to the country and we have more little gravel pieces in the road and I get a lot more rock chips. Kinda dampens my enjoyment when I hear that tick-ity-tick. To make it worse, the highway to the south is now freshly coated in that gravel that they glue down with tar!

Wow what a beauty! I cant wait to see more pictures and hear more details about it.

I just got my ZX3 dyno tuned last week. The guy that did it was a true expert, knew the Megasquirt II well, and was amused by the open loop type of tuning (No vacuum-- Jenvey TBs with 2 inch intake manifold makes generating a smooth vacuum impossible even with a canister). He said that most of the real tuning would be accell enrichment tweaks once the base map was complete. Here's what he said: Max HP 160 at the wheels and decent torque. But he was at a loss for some of the engine's quirks. He'd never seen an engine less sensitive to adjustments in timing, especially at the high end. There was nearly no difference between 25 and 35 degrees at the top cell. He says it acts like a low compression engine that way and that I should think about changes in the head. Looking at the different runs, they were all rather close. There's a strange horizon in the VE table where, regardless of RPM, there's a fast transition between low and high numbers. He thinks my 45 TBs are over-sized for the flow the head is getting and its maxing out early. I'm running stock internals, so it makes sense. Interestingly he got it so it doesn't choke-off at 5800 like it used to and is a surprisingly straight path up to the limiter at 6500rpm. It was tuned at 4000 feet on mid-grade gas. So I'm thinking perhaps its time for some improvements. What suggestions would you guys have? Are the big Ford heads even available anymore? Can these heads be affordably improved?--- Shaving, porting, are bigger valves available, etc? My friend has a set of stage II cams I could get for a good price. My home is at 6,000 feet, so I could use some more air regardless. I'm more of a body guy than an engine guru so like the original poster, FE07, I could use some good advice on this subject.

Pasted this from their latest news letter regarding Price Fixing.... Dorman, a supplier to RockAuto for more than fifteen years, now demands all retailers sell at the same price (or higher) -- or not sell at all. The policy looks like an attempt to protect auto part chain stores and their "charge double what we paid" mark-ups, in the face of slowing sales and plunging stock prices. RockAuto is an independent, family-owned retailer. We work hard to provide reliably low prices, on all the parts your car will ever need. Our customers depend on their vehicles to get to work, school and all the other places life takes them. We will not participate in any scheme to force consumers to pay higher prices. Over the next few weeks, we will remove the affected Dorman parts from our catalog. Customers who purchased them in the past may obtain warranty replacements, if needed, through our Order Status & Returns page. We hope customers who need parts in the future will support us, and manufacturers who offer honest, affordable prices, by purchasing other brands.

Yeah thats the problem with some of these roads this time of year. The asphalt has shed some bits of grit and you have to take it a little slower. But thats ok because it'd be a shame to miss the scenery.

Driving the seven is a different experience now that I've moved out of the city and into the desert. There are no corners for forty miles above 35mph. If you take off or stop quickly, there's nobody to notice. The scenery, though, is amazing right from the front door. Several times per day I have to just stop and take it in. I've been having some fun with the camera and I'm sure I'll be taking a lot of pictures in the future. Here are a few recent ones: This picture was taken a couple miles up the road from the house at Millsite Reservoir. Another shot. These were pictures for State Farm's records when I changed insurance companies. Today I took a little road trip. It was a short drive but I wanted to explore the shortcut, route 803 that links up with I70. Quite an elevation change when you get to the middle of the uplift zone in the San Rafael Swell. Looking out at the sandstone. I'm going to have to take the horses or pack goats here sometime soon. I wish more of my in-car pictures had turned out. I can never get the camera to focus correctly. Anyhow, since I've moved to the deep desert, my next project is going to be my 1950 Jeepster. It'll be a little more practical for the area. I'll add more pictures to this thread as time goes on. Just anything 7 related or other fun pictures.

That cobra is going to look great. Its one of the most beautiful car shapes, in my opinion. Color sanding will probably take more than a couple weekends. With some brands of clearcoat you need to get it done within a time window, and you need to get the room as warm as possible to keep the paint soft. Regarding your exhaust leaks. I used some black tar-like stuff on the collector and it worked well. For a while. I think the tar stuff has dried up and vibrated enough that some exhaust is leaking out again. I'm seeing some odd readings on my O2 sensor which is a few inches down the pipe. I think a little air is getting sucked in from time to time. But you don't run these cars in closed loop anyhow so the 02 sensor is only used for tuning. Honestly I should remove it and put a plug in the pipe when I get it tuned right. Mine runs rich too, but I'm reprogramming it from scratch and its nowhere near done. Really its probably worth it to go to a pro tuner with a rolling road.

Megasquirt II is what I'm using. Isn't this pretty much the standard out there for modifying a fuel injected engine? 650 bucks + a $100 ford EDIS unit and you're set. The main problem is too much documentation. As for the tuning though, you'll have to get it running and take it to a dyno shop or something. I have mine 'best guess' but I know it could do better with the help of an expert tuner.

I once had the big idea to teflon coat the inside of a cup for a siphon-feed paint gun. Oh, how it was going to make my life easier! I must be a genius! Well. I had a friend do it (He worked at a military contractor and he'd sometimes do gun parts etc too). I filled the cup with primer and rotated the clamp lever. It bent the posts 20 degrees with no effort. Apparently that aluminum that the cup was made from completely changed properties when baked at 550 degrees. It had become as soft as lead. So much for that grand scheme. I had to withdraw my application to MENSA in shame.

Go to a craft store and find the crafting foam. They make it in thin sheets (about 2 or 3 mm). Get it in black and cut out a piece to match your windshield stands. Rubber-cement it to the stand and you're set! Its worked for me for a decade.

I saw it on sale this morning on the "Today's Deals" tab for around 60 bucks.

Wow! Wonderful work. I really like the paint scheme. So nice to see a car restored like that (I've done a few myself). I have a 2003 Birkin too. Its in great shape but yeah, over time the pitting gets to the paint and polish and I think in a couple years it'll be time to do what you've done and do a restoration. I just don't like the thought of taking the car apart in the warm weather while I could be driving!

I've always wanted to try this. If I had some better sheet metal tooling I'd do it for my Birkin. Here's a photoshop I did on a picture I grabbed from the for-sale topic. It was a great looking car, and I think it looks even better with... Split windshield. (I realize the photoshopped angles arent perfect but it gets the point across) Center-hinged hood like the very early Fords had. Slight pointed angle at the front and a little scoop-like metal work. Blacked out under the clam-shells. Thats it. What do you think? http://herb.linkrealms.com/lotus/split%20idea.jpg

The biggest improvement I have ever made to make driving a 7 more pleasant was shaving my head. All that hair flipping around got pretty irritating, and if I wore my leather biplane-pilot hat it itched. Dollar shave club and shazzam! Problem solved. Had the author shaved his head for the cause, it would have been a different article entirely. If he did a little lifting at the gym to go with it, the article would have involved hot chicks and watching ricers slide off the road in his rear view mirror. But alas, we got the article we got. The razors are only a buck!

I'm totally interested. I have a 2003 Birkin street car and I'd love to see whats new.

Zetec coils suck. Get the MSD aftermarket coil/wire kit. That was what kept me from driving half the season last year.