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The Green Coupe rides again!

FM Former Member
This weekend, Tom, Danny, Wild Bill, Kelly and I spent some time sorting out the Green Hornet. Work included the installation of the refurbished engine, relocation of the oil cooler and the installation of a new fuel pump in a new location, restoration of the water-damaged floors, wiring, tins and TLC on several other pieces of the car.
Danny and Bill did some top-end work on the engine after discovering that the push-rod tubes had been flattened somehow in shipping from California. They also had a bit of work on their hands with the new air conditioning compressor bracket; it needed to be finessed with a grinder in order to fit around an exhaust flange.
Kelly did a great job of stripping all the garbaged insulation off the pans inside the car, which ultimately got a fresh coat of bed-liner and a reupholstry job by Tom -- JPS had re-backed the carpets and they went in with a pretty painless bit of massaging by Mr. DeWalt.
Tom chased after his bumpers, looked into wiring problems and prepped the car for our efforts this week; he also gofered all the little issues that came up from start to finish. Tom's Dad went halfway across creation looking for replacement push-rod tubes, ultimately making one decisive run to answer the mail.
I pretty much took pictures. And made some tins. And breathed in some methylethylbadcrap. What a hoot.
Enjoy the photos!

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FM Former Member
This weekend, Tom, Danny, Wild Bill, Kelly and I spent some time sorting out the Green Hornet. Work included the installation of the refurbished engine, relocation of the oil cooler and the installation of a new fuel pump in a new location, restoration of the water-damaged floors, wiring, tins and TLC on several other pieces of the car.
Danny and Bill did some top-end work on the engine after discovering that the push-rod tubes had been flattened somehow in shipping from California. They also had a bit of work on their hands with the new air conditioning compressor bracket; it needed to be finessed with a grinder in order to fit around an exhaust flange.
Kelly did a great job of stripping all the garbaged insulation off the pans inside the car, which ultimately got a fresh coat of bed-liner and a reupholstry job by Tom -- JPS had re-backed the carpets and they went in with a pretty painless bit of massaging by Mr. DeWalt.
Tom chased after his bumpers, looked into wiring problems and prepped the car for our efforts this week; he also gofered all the little issues that came up from start to finish. Tom's Dad went halfway across creation looking for replacement push-rod tubes, ultimately making one decisive run to answer the mail.
I pretty much took pictures. And made some tins. And breathed in some methylethylbadcrap. What a hoot.
Enjoy the photos!

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  • 090708 coupe before
  • 090708 bent tubes
  • 090708 relocated pump
FM Former Member
The water damage from the Great Carlisle Flood left the floors with a lot of rust and insulation that wasn't very pretty. Kelly showed up Saturday, and drew on his own post-Carlisle experience; he was expert at removing the garbaged materials from the steel floors.

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  • 090708 pans before
  • 090708 Kelly ECU
  • 090708 Kelly LS pans
FM Former Member
Someone got my camera while I wasn't looking. That's yours truly in the engine compartment, tinkering with the rubber seal around the tins.
Meanwhile, Wild Bill chased gremlins under the dash, trying to eliminate a bad ground as the reason for the headlights not working. Between Bill, Tom and Danny, the headlights and every other bulb on the car eventually got power and lit up.
The aerial is post-installation of the engine.

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  • 090708 Cory compartment
  • 090708 Bill under dash
  • 090708 coupe engine in
DaveOBrienDaveOBrien
You guys are to be commended on doing all this work to help Tom. The speedster knowledge it that garage this weekend was phenomenal.

Helping Club members in need is what being part of a club is all about but this is so far beyond the usual its amazing. Especially because we are all spread across the county.

Makes me proud to be a member of the SOC.

Thanks
Dave
FM Former Member
The air conditioning compressor bracket looked like it would be a bolt-on part, but the exhaust on Tom's coupe might have been different from the exhaust on the car used to test the bracket at JPS. Tom's pipes have heater boxes on them, and the radius of the pipe it needed to go around wasn't ideal for the hole in the bracket. Danny, Kelly and Bill fiddled with the bracket for almost an hour before finally getting it to work by cutting off a flange from the bracket itself.
Danny's Subaru wagon served as the toolbox for the engine crew.
Bill, ever the trooper, continued to hang out under the car, connecting exhaust pieces. We were confident the car would be in working order before we disbanded our party Saturday night. It was, largely thanks to Danny and Bill.
The snail was on hand for the firing, and Danny adjusted the carbs with it. The engine ran as advertised; there were a few setbacks, but it seems like Tom's in much better shape than he was before. It certainly sounded better. One rocker arm had .026 play in it, but the valves were in good shape.
We'll let Merklin handle that little detail.

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  • 090708 AC bracket install
  • 090708 exhausted Bill
  • 090708 seven pounds
FM Former Member
Engine stuff here. I took the first picture because I liked the way the engine was glaring at the car. The car just sat there, looking at the engine out of the corner of its eye, saying "What? Like this is MY fault?"
The second picture is the sheet metal work to surround the engine, complete with some fancypants trim rubber from the RV maintenance shop around the corner. Ironically, the camper joint is called DeWalt's RV. I don't know if there's a family connection.
Kelly, Bill and Danny put the engine on Bill's motorcycle jack just prior to installation. You'd be surprised how easy it is to put an engine in with one of those.

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  • 090708 engine tins
  • 090708 engine jack
FM Former Member
Tom bought a can of pick-up bed liner for the floors. I don't remember the manufacturer, but it was probably Duplicolor. Really smelly stuff, and it worked like a champ. The set-up time on it was supposed to be an hour or two, but it hardened pretty fast. After about an hour or so, Tom put the first pieces of carpet back in, eventually getting as far as having the driver's side done with the exception of his seat heater connections.
Yup. Heated seats. I didn't believe it myself.
I asked him about those, and that's when I took photo number two.
The unheated seat in the third picture will become a heated seat when he plugs in the seat-heater cables into the seat-heater plugs on the heat-able seats.

Really? Come on, Tom. Dang.

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  • 090708 pans lined
  • 090708 Tom poker face
  • 090708 seat installed
FM Former Member
Just an artsy picture of the engine and the car. Something about it said 'barn find.' It will be, for whomever the new owner is. That car's been vastly improved over what it was a few days ago.
The second picture here is a fortunate accident. I was pushing the exposure and experimenting with the camera. I like how it came out.
The third picture is how the car looked when we closed the door at about 9 p.m. last night.

Tom, thanks for giving us a chance to do that work. I'm pretty sure it'll help you out, but you should know that this was the best car-related weekend I've had this year. Please also thank the family for putting up with us, especially your missus.
I've got one more picture, the obligatory group shot, but it's a little over-exposed and needs some tweaking. I'll post it sooner or later.

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  • 090708 ECU engine
  • 090708 bumper
  • 090708 coupe finito
KaryadiKaryadiCA, 2007 JPS Coupe
Great work guys, amazing what you guys can do in a weekend. I would have loved to be there to learn about the car inside out.

When I looked at Tom's chaffed fuel line, that is what I believe caused my engine fire. Now my fuel line is clipped to the fire wall on both sides.

Tom, I hope you can keep your car as it looks great, and I hope it will run great.

Eddy
FM Former Member
Danny had to machine the bracket intended to hold the air conditioning compressor. The exhaust pieces prevented the bracket's arm from reaching its bolt, so he decided to remove it -- after several tries -- and used the shape of the exhaust to his mechanical advantage.
That took a great deal of tinkering. That desk was the best bench-like surface available to clamp the part to. There wasn't a vice handy.
The second picture is the relocated oil cooler. It used to live in the fenderwell behind the driver's door, but there wasn't room anymore with the splash guards installed, so Tom and I tucked it in behind the tire. It fit perfectly in the driver's rear corner. I was a little worried about the splash zone from the tire when I put the same model of cooler in my own car, but it's been there for almost two years and is still working just fine in all weather conditions -- Tom's ought to be safe.
The third picture is the old fuel line, chafed where it passed across the fan behind the doghouse. The fuel line now splits behind the fan, and is clamped to the firewall on the passenger's side. There's a "T" fitting on the centerline.

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  • 090708 AC bracket fab
  • 090708 cooling fan
  • 090708 chafed hose
FM Former Member
Cory, don't sell youself short. You did a lot more than "just take pictures". I mean, who was there a day early to cut the tins and install them? Everyone worked on this car with a git er done attitude. The car WILL be running by Saturday night was the goal, accomplished. The filter and fuel pump are now hanging out in front, as is a fuel pump relay. On the firewall is the regulator/tee combo.

Break it in slowly, check the oil often for consumption, there weren't any leaks that I saw. The carb linkage isn't my favorite, that may need to be addressed(the nylon bushings are sloppy, brass would be better there or heim joints).

Also replaced(again) was the brake pressure switch. Honestly these parts must be junk because just about everyone has to replace these all the time.

Tom, thanks for the hospitality. Dogfish Head Ale rules!!!
FM Former Member
Oh, yeah. I forgot the other tins picture.
There are now two splash guards installed in the back third of Tom's car. I whacked these guys out the old-fashioned way, using JPS' supplied templates and an old-school pair of tin snips. The templates worked out very well, and Tom supplied me with the fancy trim rubber to help seal most of the gaps. He (Tom) back-filled the splash guards with an expanding foam after hanging the tins with self-tapping machine screws. If that combination doesn't hold the rains at bay, nothing will.
The trim rubber had a sort of aluminum taco in a 'C'-channel that was easily compressed to grab the sheet metal and hold its contours.
Glad I brought a rubber mallet and a ball-peen hammer.
I really want a pair of those tin snips for whatever holiday is coming up, though. Those were really nice, and made short work of the rolled, 18-gauge aluminum Tom pulled out of an attic somewhere in the barn.

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  • 090708 splash guard
FM Former Member
Michael, the back of the pan, where the base of the back seat starts, does have spray-in foam added. Tom took a great deal of attention to sealing up the holes he found, using light on the inside of the cabin to see what he could of cracks or gaps from the outside and underneath.
I took a pretty good look, and I think he got all of them with the expanding foam insulation.

Thanks for the props on the pictures, guys.
WildBillWildBill
Had a good time hanging out wrenching with the guys. It's good to meet up more than once a year at Carlisle. The p/rod tube snafu put us back a few hours but in the end all turned out good. I liked how the bed liner stuff turned out and will probably do that to my car. The fumes were strong though and I kept asking Cory if he was OK. He sorta was levitating an inch or two off the ground at times. I kept telling him "Dave's not here"! It was really hot and humid at the start, but Hanna's rains cooled it off a good bit. The sweat was rollin'!
I slept good that night.
At first fire, the engine really purred! No leaks, drips either.

~WB
El FrazooEl Frazoo Supporting Member
Well geeze fellas, it ain't rocket science, ya know? Just so many nuts and bolts. With Danny and Bill all over the mechanicals, all the right tools in Pip's traveling fix-it shop, the deal was done and done well. The engine did sound very good and fired up almost instantly. It got no street time that night (all hands pretty pooped, and it was dark) but it ran for a while in the garage. And our uninvited guest (Hanna) turned out to be a pleasant enough addition of cooler air later in the day. It rained hard for a while with some wind, but by evening was done. The late night ride home was dry.

Tom still has some stuff to do to get the engine tins on right, install the A/C, etc. and clean up the insides, but the Green Coupe (aka Green Hornet) looks as if it will rise again from the ashes (or should I say smoke and puddles?). The only rocket science here will be how that little coupe goes once all is pointed forward. W/ that engine in there running properly, the car will be a rocket. Then, the only question will be: who will be the owner??

And I am not sure who to blame for the bunged up push rod tubes. Guess we'd have to put that one on whoever designed and lashed up the crate the engine came in. JPS? He will never say. Just another chapter in the horror story of the JPS Coupe #2. A story w/ a happy ending yet to be written.
El FrazooEl Frazoo Supporting Member
Note to Tom:

How about the last few niggling details? The tins, A/C and so forth? Any attention devoted to that? Keep us posted, and also give news about the BIG MOVE, when that happens. I wonder if you have shared the info about the crushed push rod tubes w/ JPS, just so he could know that as far as the Green Coupe is concerned, things he has had a hand in are going along much as they have been: AFU.
TomD (hacksaw57)TomD (hacksaw57)
Sorry guys - I have been pretty darn preoccupied with moving to the great state of Indiana. Wanted to be selling my snowblower and moving to Lane country, but the RV industry just won't let me go.

New job: AVP of Dealer Development for Coachmen RV Company. I start Sept 15 (that's this Monday).

So the green coupe is going with me and has found a very reputable shop to do the final fixin' to make the car a bargain (and a joy) to the next owner.

Many thanks to the gang for all that was accomplished. Cory, Danny, Bill, Kelly, Alan, Rocky - you are the best. Thanks also to all that helped or gave advice along the way.
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