The Donor Life
By: Michael Mondie
What a wonderful day! Today I ordered my FFR kit through Gordon and continued work on my donor parts. Ordering the kit was an exciting milestone to meet. To me it signified victory over the forces of evil (wife, checking account) that have tried to stop my quest for a cobra. For me the no turning back point was when I purchased my donor at the IAAI insurance auction in December, I then strengthen my position with the ordering of the necessities. AFR heads, F cam, Holley carb, rockers, and RPM performer intake! My wife on the other hand had a slightly different view on the whole project and was willing to sacrifice the several thousand spent to purchase a more "practical" vehicle, but alas the dilemma was over.
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Spending the rest of the day in my garage I embarked to continue on the path of completing the donor part preparation while waiting on the delivery. I had come pretty far before this point, ripping apart the donor (very fun), pulling my first engine (ask me about my sawsall and seatbelt technique), and of coarse pulling the harness... umm yeah. By the time I was done only a bare shell of a frame was left, and reminded me of my Navy days when I lived in Ct and would drive through the Bronx and see the stripped cars on the highway. I could actually lift front of the car it was so lite, this was actually the source of a new problem... how would I get rid of this!
My wife was a joy during this time, I had kicked our new VW Passat out of the garage and moved in this wrecked beat up 90 Mustang for ~ 1 and a half months! I'm sure you know the story, the new car was never driven by me and as a result the garage was an issue with you know who.
Well back to my day! I had bought a t-bird rear to get disc brakes and better gear ratio and it was time to clean and paint! While I thought I learned my lesson (working on heavy stuff alone) on the "trail of tears" dragging this rearend to the front of the junkyard last month, I was still stuck trying to get the rear up on a high platform to ease working on it myself. I'm somewhat young still (30) and write off temporary pain as an inconvenience, what was important at the time was that I did succeed! Cleaning and pulling off the clutter items on the rear was a breeze! What I will suffer from is that putting back together thing later, do yourself a favor and buy a digital camera! After cleaning I pulled out my trusty can of FFR lifeblood POR-15 and went to work. POR is the greatest! After coating one side of the rear I decided to get the gas tank ready to paint. When I parked my donor for the last time I did not make sure the tank was empty so now I needed to finally get rid of the gas. I had found some lawn sprinkler poly hose that I used to siphon the gas out into a gas can, I then made several trips to my car to empty and start again. There is nothing worse than going to suck on the siphon hose and not having the other end submerged in gas, I inhaled a few fumes that I'm sure killed the wrong brain cells. After getting the gas tank empty it was time to flip the rear and POR and finish the other side. My dog came out into the garage and I managed to get a little POR on her, I laughed because it was my wife's dog and I knew POR does not come off... I must have been cursed because unknowing to me at the time I had got POR on my face below my eye! With that I will close, I typical day in donor land. I completed the rear painting, choked on some gas fumes and POR'd everything. I can't wait till tomorrow!
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