The Doba. (Buddies Cordoba fix up)

[shady]

I forgot to mention along the way that the stock springs are 770# rated, and the f150 ones are just over 1600#.
So we removed the overload and bottom leaf. If it's too much still we plan to remove the second leaf, and put the bottom one back in and try that.

As it sits we need to Fab lower shock mounts and we're ready to cruise.

 

[shady]

When we reinstalled the mounts and inner plates we glued/sealed it all together with windshield glue. It wasn't until after that that I decided I'd like to tie both sides together... So on the bottom across the back side I'll run a bar connect ing the mounts. And on top I'll add a bar across with plates that catch the bolts.

 

[shady]

Inner plates as done, and stiffening plates in back since we cut out part of the stock one running across there

 

[shady]

I bought some of the paper covered 1/4" thick foam board to use and template material for the shock mounts.

Going on vacation this week, but I'll spend all day Friday finishing this up hopefully.

 

[stump_puller]

Good job. Real good fix for those problem areas.

 

[shady]

It's not done totally yet. We're going to put a 2x2x3/16 square tube brace across the top plates in the trunk to keep them from twisting at the frame. And the outer corners of the new spring mounts will get bolted to the new rear flat pieces I put behind the bumper.
Plus those new flat pieces will get joined around the filler neck to make it a whole solid piece. It's probably way over kill. But he's hard on shit lol.

 

[Big Ray]

I always liked those cars. Must have been the rich Corinthian leather! Lol

 

[shady]

We got the shock mounts figured out and built. Just added them to the spring plates. It's finally movable .

But then realized that with the added height in the exhaust now contacts the mufflers. Only one really.
So we're going to move them straight back about 5". That'll get them far enough away.

 

[shady]

It's sitting in an odd spot here. But we noticed something was weird.. and sitting flat in the shop it still does.... It looks like the passenger front is twisted down.....

But floor to center of wheel well opening is the same in the rear, exactly. And the front passenger is only 3/8" different side to side...

 

[JoshHefnerX]

body/frame twisted or body mounts collapsing?

 

[shady]

Not sure. It's a torsion bar suspension in front. So may possibly just be torqued or miss adjusted.

 

[HankScorpio]

Does it have Corinthian Leather?

 

[tRustyK5]

These are unibody, so definitely not frame twist. The head on pic shows the front bumper is crooked on the car, not sure how much that is throwing off the visual. Sure sits 'stinkbug', a look I personally can't stand. How does it ride with the springs as they are currently? I'd want to ditch another leaf and get it closer to level...

 

[shady]

He wanted the rake. We're definitely going to have to take a leaf out I think.
The twist could be floor too lol. Wheel wells measure the same in back at center, and a half inch low on the passenger side at center in front. Bumper corner is only a half inch low on passenger too.

 

[JoshHefnerX]

Had a 75 nova that the body was twisted on it. Played hell getting the drivers door to fit/seal/close properly.

Whole car was a heap, but it was fun.

 

[Greg Ducato]

Seeing what you guys have to go through to repair and modify vehicles located in the rust belt of our nation makes me ashamed to call myself a builder. Nice work, that car should be good for a lot of fun on the cheap!

 

[shady]

Well he's finally driving this thing daily.
And it doesn't do too bad.
It could use some front end work, but what unrestored 79 couldn't lol.

Only issue now is we're having dial in issues with the engine.
We did a carb/intake swap to a 4 barrel with manual choke.
Seems to start ok on choke, but it's like a chainsaw. It'll sputter to life like once, then you have to open the come some and restart.
And it has to stay like that until full warm or it doesn't want to hardly move without dying.
You can kind of partially choke it and move on down hill or flat areas. But any load and it's done.
I thought fuel delivery, so we opened up the idle mixtures some. We're at 2.5 turns now which made it better, but seems way out to me.
Advancing it some helped, but we can't really tell where it's at actual timing wise. I think the balancer has spun some.

After it's totally up to temp it's not bad and can be basically normally driven with choke off.

Think it's time to take it to the race shop and let them have it for a day.

 

[JoshHefnerX]

I always do the mixture screws with a vacuum gauge hooked up. Adjust them for highest vacuum seems to help. But manual chokes can be picky. Any reason you didn't do a heat controlled one?

 

[shady]

We're planning on an electric at some point. But it was just the carb we had. It was the old Qjet from my big blue truck.

We did the vaccine gauge thing and it comes up to like 18ish, and Turing screws makes almost no difference at all. Not sure what to think of that.
Like if it's sitting at 18 even..... It MIGHT move to 17.5 if you turn a screw 2 full turns either way type thing.
I've watched a bunch of vids on it, but we're not getting that response like they are for some reason.

 

[shady]

I was thinking vac leak maybe, but then I wouldn't think I'd be getting as high of reading as we are.
Other odd thing is all the little ports on the front of the carb read the same at all throttle positions. None seem to be ported even though I know one of them is.