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KarensKaiser Review

GRAND NATIONAL ROADSTER SHOW

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January 21 to 26 2015 we took the 1953 Kaiser "Karens Kaiser" to the Grand National Roadster Show "The Grand Daddy of Them All"  We stayed at the KOA RV Park next to the Fairplex, unloaded the car from the trailer on Thursday morning and carried the display carpet sticking out of the passenger window. Waited in line an hour before they would let us into the building.  We got in, unloaded the carpet & lay'ed it down, moved the car in place and started the display setup that took 2 hours including the cleaning.  One of the outstanding was this hand formed all aluminum car.  This 1947 Hudson truck won first place and best paint.  Moor beautiful hot rods.  This is one of 13 contenders for most beautiful roadster.  The theme was The Grate Gatsby and lots of people dressed up.  This 1959 Cadillac De Ville is from Italy and was hung up in customs untill just before the show.  Lots of low riders...

68 Mustang #13 fix transmission

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 Last post the transmission would not shift into any gear except 3rd & 4th gear and I decided to take it out to see what is wrong. The drive shaft, exhaust pipes and e-brake cable were removed to make it easier for me to drop the transmission. The 5 pictures below came in reversed where #5 should be the one below, so bear with me and I will explain what had to be done. This one shows the floor jack on the rolling steel tool cart with an adapter and extension pipe to reach the transmission, rachet straps were used to hold up the trans. while the pipe extension was changed for shorter ones this was done twice to get it down to top of cart. This is the rebuild kit for my 1978 Sears floor jack with the exploded view of the pump assembly. Jack with tolls and parts before rebuilding. Disassembled jack parts. The reason the jack is being rebuilt is it would not stay in the jacked-up position (worn out pump parts) and I do not have enough muscle any more to safely lift the transmission...

68 Mustang #12 - It run's but there are problems

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 To get the car running it needed a fuel pump as the front cover on the engine did not have a opening for a mechanical pump (it is a fuel injected block with a in-tank pump). I have converted it to a carburetor that requires a low-pressure pump. I bought a Carter electric pump as I have had good luck with them on past projects. Next expensive item was a drive shaft that cost $350.00 from South West Speed Driveline in Arkansas. The driveshaft was painted before it was installed. It came with a transmission slip yoke that did not fit the T5 and I had to order a different one to fit the u-joint and transmission. I did not read all the information that's on their website and could have avoided the extra cost but that's what happens when you assume you know what your doing. When I tried to start the engine, it would not start using the key and did start using a handheld start switch on the starter solenoid, so I started tracing wires and found some misconnected wires from the wiring...

68 Mustang #11 New gauges/finish dash

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 I ordered a complete pre-wired set of gauges and received a do-it-yourself set. When I called the manufacturer, they said the box was mis-marked, and they would send the correct one and return this one. 7 days later I received the pre-wired and complete gauge set along with the senders. The advertisement and instructions said it was a direct fit and all I had to do was wire the 12-pin plug/pigtail into the painless wiring kit. Wiring the pigtail went good after all the wires were ID, as there were several spares or not used wires. Then when I tried to put the panel in place it would not set flush to the dash. The dash and steering column support metal interfered with the wiring and the back of the speedometer and tach. The wiring was moved and rearranged to clear, but the speedo & tach hold down brackets were too deep to clear the support. I cut the long machine bolts on the back of the speedo\tach but still had to bend the support to get it to set flush. The dash is now compl...

69 Mustang #10

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 I did not like the stance of the car, so I adjusted the front coil overs and lowered the front 3". Lowered stance not shown - I'll get a better picture. I put the car on skates and moved it to the car hoist, had to use a cable come-a-long as I did not have enough oomph in me to push it. With the car moved to the hoist the exhaust system was next on the agenda. Below are the parts that I had to work with, Muffler's (2), exhaust cut out system the is left over from another earlier project and 6 adapters that were purchased from Amazon. The mufflers that came with the car have 3" inlet & outlet, why the previous owner bought them is a mystery, so they required 3' to 2' adapters. The header flange required 2 1/2' to 2' adapters. The different components were mocked up under the car, spot welded then welded up on the pipe vice. with on side complete the same procedure was followed for the other side. The exhaust is lower than I would like it but the he...