Hey mates newbee here with a question?

[Chazzer]

X, Great Post!

Thanks for sharing. It is always interesting to see what others do in their life away from their Toros.

Sounds like you have a clear idea on what you want to do with the ole 69. You definitely have some ambitious plans...it will be very interesting to watch you progress through them.

I can understand your desire to modernize and upgrade many of the components of these old dinosaurs.

I wish there was a way to modernize but still keep the original look of said components or systems.

Ciao for now time to do some wrenching on my 68 behemoth.

[xgecko]

Life away from a Toronado? Can you be more specific? I am not at all clear on what you are talking about here... There is life without or beyond a Toronado? Oh, right, that would be when I am doing something that brings in money so I can upgrade my Toro. Now I understand what you are talking about!

I do indeed have a definite plan to modernize my car as much as I possibly can. While I love the big 455, the handling & ride of the car and of course the fantastic styling inside and out, I want the rest to be as modern as is possible. I am building a driver, not a show queen, so it has to look good and perform even better.

It looks like my wife and brother-in-law have convinced me to swap out the '69 headlight covers for the '68 hex pattern covers. I had planned one way or another to replace the boring horizontal slats, but they both feel that painting and updating the hex pattern will look better than the stainless steel mesh concept I had. While it would be best to implement both and see what it looks like, I think given the ease of refurbishing the '68 covers I will give it a go. I can always use the '69 frames to make the Stainless Mesh covers and then see what they look like later when I have no other major pressing projects on hand.

I think I have found an electric actuator for about $130 that may well work to replace the vacuum headlight cover actuator. With a 3" travel it is just a tad longer than is really needed; I have to figure out what the best way to deal with that is - it may be as simple as just allowing the extra 1/4" of travel if the covers can deal with it, or I may have to extend the lever arms or find some other way of allowing for the slightly increased travel. There is also the issue of the overall lenght of the actuator being about 3" longer than the vacuum canister; again I will have to develop a solution for that. Luckily the nose of the '68 is now exposed and I can do my development work on that car. As long as I do not have to install a limit switch it should be as simple as coming up with a bracket, modifying the original mounting point to take the bracket and pass the actuator through and adding a headlight activated DPDT relay switch to turn it on and off. I'll post my findings once I have something working but for now you can check out the actuator I am considering here:

http://www.e-motionllc.com/18_stroke_Hi_Speed_35_lbs_force_std_actuator_p/fa-35-s-12-3.htm

In the meantime I will be cleaning up the shop so I can work more easily. I have the problem of having a fairly large shop with too much stuff even for it and not enough shelving and other organizational systems. I just picked up the first stage of another toolchest from Home Depot and so will be sorting the hand tools and trying to get more of them into a chest. This seemed to be the best value for a chest appropriate for the level of work I do; more than the average joe just maintaining his car but less than a professional. With decent gauge steel and ball bearing sliders, this chest can hold up to 1100 lbs which is way more than most of the comparably priced units. There is an intermediate and top chest to go along with it that I will pick up next month.

http://www.homedepot.com/Tools-Hardware-Tool-Storage-Tool-Chests/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbtsx/R-202017593/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I also picked up a decent service cart from Harbor Freight for just over $100 with the right coupon. It has ball bearing sliders as well in the 4 drawers it has, and I am hoping it will help me organize the tools I have out for work on the car. I have been keeping them in the top of a no-drawer service cart for some time and am really tired of rooting through the pile of tools to find the 1/4" wrench that invitably sinks to the bottom of the pile right next to the 3/8" socket...

http://www.harborfreight.com/hand-tools/tool-cabinets-and-carts/580-lb-capacity-four-drawer-roller-cart-95659.html