Greetings all. This weekend I took delivery of my '67 BGT and here are
my first impressions:
The car came with a parts car, and so spares are no problem. The car
starts and runs fine and there are no problems with the overdrive. The
original seats had been reappholstered in black and red valour, cheezy,
but I like them. The car arrived with the '71 seats installed, but I
switched for the more comfortable '67s. The only initial
dissappointment was the big chip of paint that had come off of the front
passenger side wing (seller adjusted price accordingly, very fair
indeed). The chrome wires and 185/70 14s were new. The car seemed not
to burn or leak any oil. Overall, the car was very good cosmetically
and has gotten lots of comments from neighbors and passers by. I have
searched and found no rust anywhere.
I drove the car from my house to my parents without any prior fiddling.
My imppressions were that it was way down on power and was running
extremely hot. Between the stock fan and aftermarket electric pusher
fan, the car struggled to keep below 200 degrees f. Also, the front
shocks were merely OK, the rear shocks and springs were completely
shagged.
That afternoon, I replaced the stock front sway bar with the special
tuning 3/4" variety. I also performed a tube shock conversion on the
back (more in a separate post). The handling improved dramatically. I
also changed out the stock wheel, as beautiful as it is, for a leather
covered 14" Mountney wheel. Much more practical and easy to deal with
for day-to-day driving.
Sunday morning, I began to tackle the engine. First, the dashpots had
no oil, so I added some. Second, the Lucas Sport coil had a
(broken)ballast resistor wired in where there should be none. I was
amazed that the plugs got any spark at all. I removed the resistor and
replaced the cap, rotor and wires. This netted an additional 200 - 225
RPM at idle alone! With the idle properly set, I checked the timing. I
don't want to use the word retarded, but let's say it was advance
challenged to be pollitically correct.
I took the advance from about 8 degrees BTDC to about 18 degrees. Also,
the vaccuum connection to the advance unit wasn't properly clamped down,
so I clamped it. Another 200 RPM gain at idle. After re-setting the
idle and re-checking the timing I took the car for another drive.
Power was drastically improved. This car actually has some decent zip
for a BGT, I was terribly impressed and had to be careful not to spin
the back tires on launch or coming out of turns. This was much much
better indeed! Also, the temperature came WAY down. After struggling
to keep below 200, the car might barely get to 190, even on an 85 degree
+ day in stop-and-go city driving.
So there's still more to do, mostly cosmetic, but I'll update the list
as I progress.
Cheers,
Andy
'69 B Roadster in pieces
'67 BGT In driveway
--
Andy Ramm
aramm@concentric.net
So much to brew, so little time....
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