Rusty's not very quiet cuda progress

Stripped the valve cover & manifold bolts to get those cleaned & painted, then I ran into the A/C'd garage to escape the heat.
stumbled upon rocker instructions so I laid out the rockers.
one side the notch goes to the front, other the rear, so I did the one in the pic first.............20230702_134142.jpg
Before all this I didn't even know there were left & right rockers, now my only question left is do the left & rights for the other side start at the same point, it didn't say in the book, maybe the push rods will give me a hint?
for now I ran them the same. 20230702_134636.jpg
& got the small speaker grilles painted up. 20230702_145835.jpg
 
RUSTY Cuda said:
only question left is do the left & rights for the other side start at the same point
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Take the one that you did per the manual, then turn it around as though it was installed on the other side and look at it. They're both the same (Ex-In-In-Ex-Ex-In-In-Ex).
 
RUSTY Cuda said:
OK, yours looks like r/l l/r r/l l/r
The book showed l/r l/r l/r l/r all the way across
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I don't know why they would be different because that's the way the valves are ordered in the head.

They will be the same on both sides though. I'm pretty sure you will see a difference if they're wrong when you put them on the head. If they're wrong they won't line up for the pushrod and the valve tip.
 
I was hoping the push rods would give me a hint & also why I'm waiting for Mr 340 before I do it, I'll get a closeup of the pic in the book to show what I mean.
 
On the good news side, I got a call from Bob at ABC, He has a pad ready to go, transaction complete & I asked about the rivets & He threw them in for 20 bucks, still a lot for rivets but better than 48.
So if I can bear some hot weather I can move on getting the front of the interior (dash area) put together & contact the glass guy for the new windshield.
 
FYI - it actively encourages me to share the discount so have at it if you need it

PUJqjXs.jpg
 
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So with the dash pad on it's way back I started to TRY & organize some of the parts to put it back together & in the car!
cleaned the A/C duct I had & emptied that box onto the bench..........20230703_151951.jpglooked into a few of the hard ware bags, seems there always short something? 20230703_152002.jpgfinished off the manifold & valve cover hardware...........20230703_151940.jpgAlmost got the heater box & gasket/insulation box out from under the piles of crap strewn on top of them.20230703_152020.jpg
& checked the 1/4" shrink wrap that came, it fir over the connectors, so I slid 2 sections over each wire, then dug out some male connectors & put those in before I heated the wrap, pulled the first one over & shrunk that, then the second looks ok to me? 20230703_134356.jpg20230703_135411.jpg
All back in their proper places. 20230703_135800.jpg
 
He was easy to deal with, returned calls, which is highly unusual these days.
I just wonder why all of a sudden He had the pad in stock, was he waiting to make sure mine was useable before letting it go?
 
Still hurts a bit, total cost with all the back & fourth shipping will be a little over1,400 bucks!
I'll shoot some pics when it gets here.
 
RUSTY Cuda said:
He was easy to deal with, returned calls, which is highly unusual these days.
I just wonder why all of a sudden He had the pad in stock, was he waiting to make sure mine was useable before letting it go?
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My guess is he's been burned on cores in the past. A person or persons probably sent him a tracking number saying "the core's on the way, ship 'er out!" He then did so, then received a core with a rusty, severely bent, or ABS core. This begs the question: Does Bob buy cores outright? I have at least one, maybe two or three more dashes for him to do and I have at least two extra E-body pads.

RUSTY Cuda said:
Still hurts a bit, total cost with all the back & fourth shipping will be a little over1,400 bucks!
I'll shoot some pics when it gets here.
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The shipping costs would've been the same regardless of who did it for you, so you still saved money. The results are worth it, both because it looks right (Just Dashes and Legendary don't) and all the old foam has been replaced with new using the factory process-- something neither JD nor Legendary do. They just fill in the cracks in the old, rotten foam.
Remember: It won't be perfect, because originals weren't either. I had an excellent factory pad as well as one with minor cracking on hand when I got mine back from Bob and compared the two. Every single "flaw" on the one ABC did was present in the original pad.
 
I'm not the type to go around with a magnifying glass over every inch, honestly going back almost 50 years when I got my brandy new 'Cuda, I don't think I even looked at the dash pad, after a while I did notice the waves in the C pillars, and again never really looked at door, trunk or hood gaps.
I was much more upset That my Dad switched the order from 4 speed to auto (which was probably a good thing in the end) & the mirrors were chrome instead of color keyed.
 
I actually prefer the color-keyed mirrors only on the High Impact colors (or non-metallic basic colors in the later years). Otherwise I like chrome--particularly on black. I'd still be a little bitter about the 4-speed, though. 😂

In fact, I'm a little bitter about a 4-speed right now. I wrenched my back badly trying to lift and move one in close quarters yesterday. If @Stretch hadn't been there I probably would've dropped it on my feet. It hurts to do anything other than think right now.
 
I like that Burnished Red, and I think the chrome mirrors look better than body-colored would've! That was a '74 360 car, wasn't it?
 
Yes, base was 30 somehing, I paid 44 for a bunch of goodies, light package, rally dash, trim package,
rally wheels The 360 was even an extra few bucks, A/C & like a dummy I got manual steering I wanted to feel the road, what a dumb ass I was, anyway I certainly had a one of car if I got everything I ordered.
here's the original order write up, that's my Dad's auto parts store it's written to.
orig 74 order form color scan full size.jpg
 
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