New Transmission  43                 April  2012

Here is a shot of the pushrods all hooked up. I ended up taking out both pedals a few days ago and repainted the upper half of them because they got all chipped while I was installing them. I also had one pedal rub on the firewall (which helped remove more paint) so back in the paint booth they went.
 

 

 
I'm switching to a different spark plug which will be E3's in place of my Autolite's. I've heard a lot of good things about E3 spark plugs but the one thing that still looks funny to me are the electrodes. I've been using a single style electrode my whole life so this is a big change for me. I'll let you know how they work once I've had a chance to try them.
 

 

 
These are my dipstick handles that I made years ago but now I only need one of them. The one on the right was being used for my engine oil but after years of use near my headers the plating has faded near the top of it. What I've done here is switched them because the transmission dipstick was mounted to the firewall and was still in good shape. If I ever send in more items for anodize again, I'll be sure to include this extra one.
 

 

 
I sent in my headers and a few other exhaust pieces to get recoated with ceramic coating by a company called Jet-Hot. I've used this company before and they did a great job on my entire exhaust system the first time so I used them again for recoating.

If you remember I had to modify my headers and exhaust on the drivers side last month and after all that welding they looked pretty bad so I sent in my headers, collectors, one piece of exhaust tubing and all of my adapter plates to get redone. The reason I sent in both sides of headers and collectors is because I wanted them all to match. Plus they were getting dull looking compared to the rest of the system.

I talked with Jet-Hot before I sent them anything and they told me that all the pieces that weren't modified would be covered by their warranty. I had forgotten they had a 'lifetime warranty' and they would let me know how much the modified pieces would be after they looked at them. This sounded good to me so I put all the adapters in a small box, the bigger pieces were wrapped in bubble wrap and everything was placed inside of a big box and shipped.

A few days later I got a call by them telling me that they had come up with a price for all the parts. They told me that the whole order would be under warranty and would cost me nothing. Are you kidding me???  I could hardly believe it and said "Thank you very much" ....WOW...I could hardly believe it!!

About two weeks later I had my parts back and it was time to see how they looked. Each piece was wrapped and protected with white foam and the parts looked awesome. That was the good news but the bad news was that I couldn't find my adapter plates. I looked two or three times making sure I didn't overlook them but they weren't in the box. Thoughts of buying new ones and modifying them for my setup entered my mind and I couldn't wait to call them.

The next day (Friday) I talked with them and they said they had a small box of parts with adapters in them but they didn't know who they belonged to. They figured that someone would call to claim them and they apologized for the inconvenience. They also said they would send them out by FedEx right away and I should have them by Monday.

I received them the following week and couldn't be happier with them. All the pieces look great and if there is ever a time in the future that I'm not happy with the way they look, I can send them back in for recoating for free....as many times as I want....forever!!! If you're looking for a company that stands behind their work, take a look at Jet-Hot to do many different types and colors of ceramic coating for your project.

I'm getting ready to install my exhaust system now but before I do that I'm putting some anti-seize on all the threaded fasteners. The last thing I want is a bolt getting stuck in the head or the adapter plates so this is just a little insurance.
 

 

 

The newly coated exhaust system looks great again and now I can't wait to here it run. Most of the work under the car is finished but a couple of things still need to be addressed.
 

 

 
Once I had the exhaust system installed, I didn't like how close the brake master cylinder was to the exhaust pipe so I used my old insulation in that area. This stuff worked great before and was easy to install because it uses stainless hose clamps to hold it on. You can't see any in this shot because they are on the inside of the insulation as there are previsions for them. I've spent about 95 percent of the time under the car up to this point an can't wait to do something else soon.
 

 

I bought some different exhaust clamps (top) that looked like would be more forgiving than my other ones. This style won't deform the muffler when you have them clamped (like the one below) as it distributes the clamping force more evenly. They're made out of stainless steel so they won't rust and also notice the black rectangular area inside the clamp. This is a tar like material to help seal the area where the opening comes together. They also come with grade 8 bolts which is always nice. I've never used this style clamp before so I hope they work as good as they look. And did I mention that I can't wait to here the engine run again?

Next week I'll be working on some wiring, pedal pads, trans tunnel, shifter and if I have time maybe even doing some upholstery work.
 

 

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