John S's Journal

Thunderstorms through the night and rain showers off and on today and the air cleared up after being shrouded in smoke and ash for the better part of two weeks.

Pulled the plug on the GT gas tank and drained about a cup of old gas so that was a nice find. Cleaned some dirt and grime in the engine bay with some Simple Green, a soft brush and some water. Also sprayed some engine degreaser on the engine and suspension and let that soak in.

While the degreaser was working away, I washed and dried the exterior again so that I could start clay-ing the paint. I’ve never done it before but it went well and the paint feels nice and smooth now. Washed and dried it again and brought out the Meguiars compound and polish to see what the paint looked like with a little work. What a difference with just a little work so when the DA polisher kit shows up, it should really shine. Not the original paint from what zi can see, at least in some places but it is the original color despite being at least 34 year old paint and perhaps older.

Decided to drain the good gas out of the ‘70 as it was recently filled and it’s fresh. Transferred about 9 gallons in total to the GT so I’ll put some stabilizer in it and should be fine when I get ready to fire the engine up.
Hosed all of the engine bay and hit it with the leaf blower. I need to spray some penetrating oil on some of the nuts and bolts to loosen things up so things go easier when it’s time to pull the engine and gearbox.

Next plan is to rotate the engine by hand to move the Marvel Mystery Oil around in the cylinders, pull the valve cover and check valve lash, pull the Cooper can filters and have a look inside the SU’s, and see about converting the cabling from a dual 6 volt set up to a single 12 volt and move my disconnect and battery over from the wreck. I’d like to see if the fuel pump will pump some gas through the line at some point. I can always swap the pump from the wreck.