September
2008: Due to budget concerns the North St. Paul Friday night
cruise was supposed to end for the season but a local radio
station stepped up and covered the cost for a couple more
nights. Friday the 26th was the season finale, with daytime
highs in the 80's the turnout was tremendous. I spent the
evening hanging with some fellow Mopar enthusiasts and parked my
butt in a lawn chair to watch the endless procession of cars
come and go. It was the perfect end to an unusually short
summer.
|
| August
2008:The White Bear Dodge show in early August was great, the
weather was relatively nice for a change and it drew a lot of
cars. Once again, the GTX snagged a "Top 25" award.
The post show burnouts on Highway 61 were a riot to watch, as
usual. Billy left and made a u-turn at the traffic light to head
south on 61. Trouble was, the left turn arrow was red at
the time. Wouldn't you know it, one of White Bear's finest was
sitting at the light and when Billy made the u-turn on red the
officer lit him up and made the traffic stop in full view of a
couple hundred people. Luckily the officer was very
understanding and let Billy off with a warning, unfortunately
his pals won't be quite so easy on him...
We made the North St. Paul
cruise a couple of times, Porky's too if I recall correctly.
With summer winding down it doesn't take much of an excuse to
fire up the GTX and go for a ride. |
| July
2008: The weather cooperated and I was able to make a couple of
runs to Porky's this month. I hit the Friday cruise in North St.
Paul a few times as well. |
 |
July 25th
was day 1 of the Car Craft Summer Nationals, held at the
Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Despite numerous scattered
showers, it turned out to be a pretty decent day.
Saturday and Sunday were even better and the whole gang
showed up in force. Our small group that started out as
a few cars has grown to 25+ cars! Most are Mopars but a
few Fords, Chevrolets and Oldsmobiles add a nice variety
to the mix. The photo to the left shows a fraction of
the lineup.
I can hardly wait until
next year...
|
|
|
June 2008: The picture at the top of this page was taken by a
passenger in my friend Bill's '68 Road Runner, somewhere along
Highway 52 enroute to 2008 Mopars in the Park. Midwest Mopars
moved the Mopars in the Park Show out to the Dakota County
Fairgrounds in Farmington, Mn this year. The weather was perfect
on both days and the new venue was much better suited for a
large car show and swap meet, it just keeps getting better!
For a 2nd time the
GTX took top honors in it's respective class at Mopars in the
Park. Considering the number of very nice cars in the class, I
still don't understand how it could happen. A couple friends
also won their class so we'll be competing against each other
for "Winners Circle Plymouth", it should be a fun
weekend no matter what the outcome...
Midwest
Mopars - Mopars in the Park 2007 Photo Gallery
|
|
2008
Car Show Recap
|
|
Mopars
in the Park
1st Place
'68 - '69 B-Body Plymouth
|
|
White
Bear Dodge Nite Show
Participants Choice Top 25
|
|
|
A trans
rebuild was prompted by mysterious aluminum shavings in the
trans pan at every filter service. Noting my lack of success
with transmission builders, I figured it was time to learn how
to do it myself. Advice from "Pat Blais aka T'Flite
Patty", A&A Trans, Turbo Action and a few knowledgeable
members from Moparts.com helped me get past my "newb trans
builder" lack of confidence...
The Basic
Specs:
-
TCS
steel-sleeved aluminum front drum
-
wide
bushing '71+ reaction shaft support and rear clutch piston
retainer
-
New
bushings and bearings
-
B/W &
Raybestos
friction materials including bands
-
new
sealing rings, lip seals, gaskets, thrust washers
-
Turbo
Action "Pro Street" manual/automatic valve body
-
4.2
kickdown lever
-
12 front
clutch release springs
-
Heavy
duty servo springs and retainer
-
HD
low/reverse servo spring retainer
-
Bolt in
sprag
-
A&A
Trans deep steel pan and billet filter extension
-
9.5"
Dynamic converter
-
B&M
flexplate and MP hardware
-
Type F
transmission fluid
With Mopars
in the Park fast approaching there was little margin for error.
Once the trans was in the car and almost everything reinstalled
I discovered that the driveshaft yoke wouldn't fully engage the
output shaft. Though not visible to the naked eye, the core
transmission's output shaft had been damaged. So out came the
trans again! It was disassembled and the output shaft from the
old trans was swapped into the new trans. Again, everything was
reassembled, checked and rechecked before putting the trans into
the car for a second time. After a short test drive I brought
the GTX back into the garage to start cleaning it up for the
show.
|
| After
thoroughly cleaning and detailing the GTX, there was one final
detail to get the car "Ready". Paul's Chrome got the
finish panel back to me just in time, but it was worth the wait.
They repaired the pitting and polished it to perfection before
running it through their chrome tank. The results were
spectacular. Fresh textured argent paint from Totally Auto
covers much of the panel, along with satin black and flat red
accents. Lookin' good eh? |
|
| April
2008: Spring is slow to arrive and there's still so much work to
do around the new place. As soon as things settle down I can do
the trans swap and put a few miles on it before Mopars in the
Park... |
January
- March 2008: Preparing to move in March has kept me busy most
of the winter but I did manage to get a few things done. The 8
track quit working so the AM/8 Track was removed for servicing
along with the crossover box. At the same time, Greg Ward added
a remote iPod jack that's now hidden under the dash.
| To
compliment the new and improved AM/8 Track, replacement
speakers from S&M
Electro-Tech were installed in place of the badly
aged originals. The Mopar 3-speaker dash uses a pair of
3.5" round speakers on each end of the dash with a
4x10" oval speaker in the middle. They have the
correct 8 ohm impedance and feature modern high strength
magnets for better output and clarity. Honestly, it
probably sounds better than it ever did yet doesn't
compromise original appearance.I also shipped my finish
panel for replating and wrapped up building a fresh
trans for the GTX. It won't be installed until the move
is finished because the car has to remain mobile... |
|
|
