First Pics of ERA #795

kevins2 · #1 (**permalink**) 12-24-2012, 08:02 AM

Made a road trip to ERA last Friday to pick up my "half roller". Ripped open a trailer tire getting the trailer into ERA's parking lot. The ERA boys had the spare mounted on the trailer in less than 3 minutes. Couldn't get the trailer lock open so I said "Guess we'll have to cut it off" The ERA boys came out with a cut-off tool and the lock was off 20 seconds later. Their customer service knows no bounds

Photos in my album.

Dan, you asked about the engine. I have an opportunity to buy a side-oiler short block and am arranging to have a local engine builder disassemble, clean, magnaflux and possibly pressure test the block. Hopefully the block, crank and rods can be made like new again and that will be my starting point.

Merry Christmas....Happy Holidays, everyone. I'm off to spend some quality time in my garage

Regards,

Kevin

patrickt · #2 (**permalink**) 12-24-2012, 08:13 AM

I clicked on your album and there's nothing there.

lippy · #3 (**permalink**) 12-24-2012, 08:17 AM

Nice, congratulations. I have ERA 797 but mine is significantly behind yours. With some luck ERA will get it to the paint shop in Jan and I may get the car delivered by end of April. It's been a long time.

kgs365 · #4 (**permalink**) 12-24-2012, 08:32 AM

Kevin

the car looks great...I was up there 2 weeks ago and it looked even better in person!...good luck and get wrenching!

Kevin

kevins2 · #5 (**permalink**) 12-24-2012, 08:57 AM

Thanks guys,

Lippy, I mailed my deposit to ERA on Dec. 23rd, 2011 so it was 363 days. I agree it is a long time, but well worth the wait. Working with ERA is a very pleasant experience.

Kevin, I remember seeing your car when I visited ERA...sounds like you did the same. They all look better in person

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Patrick, try again. There are 10 photos there and it seems others have seen them. Maybe you got there before they were processed? I just uploaded them.

Regards,

Kevin

patrickt · #6 (**permalink**) 12-24-2012, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevins2

Patrick, try again. There are 10 photos there and it seems others have seen them. Maybe you got there before they were processed? I just uploaded them.

It's there, and it's beautiful. You can't post too many photos, IMO. The more the better, and the high def ones are the best. Congrats.

My favorite:

tkb289 · #7 (**permalink**) 12-24-2012, 04:22 PM

Kevin,

Congratulations on taking delivery of 795, and just in time for Christmas ... now the fun really begins!

Time to start a build log and keep us posted

- Tim

427 Street · #8 (**permalink**) 12-24-2012, 08:53 PM

Great! I am looking forward to the updates. Connecticut Custom Car painted my car...yours as well?

kevins2 · #9 (**permalink**) 12-24-2012, 10:08 PM

No, mine was painted by Brandon at Big B's Auto Body. Used to be called Tony's and is the other painter that ERA recommends.

I can certainly post updates but I'm not planning any major mods, so will be pretty straight forward.

REAL 1 · #10 (**permalink**) 12-25-2012, 08:27 AM

Outstanding color. Wheel centers match stripes too.

DanEC · #11 (**permalink**) 12-25-2012, 05:24 PM

Beautiful car Kevin. Looking forward to following your progress with it.

Dan

kevins2 · #12 (**permalink**) 12-31-2012, 03:19 PM

Have been working on the car with my son...mostly on wiring and suspension. My wife and daughter peeled the protective film off the aluminum and promised to come back to do the trunk.

The dash and firewall are wired and the wiper motor and mechanism are in. Love that old timey looking Lucas wiper motor.

Added a stainless steel accessory outlet and the heated seat controls hidden under the dash in the flange (Go ahead and flame me for the heated seats. I enjoy cold weather riding on my Harley and love the heated grips... I'm sure we'll enjoy the heated seats in the Sping and Fall).

Suspension is mostly in. I don't have the jam nuts for the tie rods, so will install them when I receive the nuts from ERA.

Oil cooler is mounted.

Mounted the MSD box and noise filter capacitor on the bottom of the glovebox frame.

And, lastly, the metal reinforced boots for the lower ball joints require some persuasion to get them mounted. The recommendation was to get a short section of exhaust pipe, which is the perfect diameter to whack them in place. Well, I didn't have an exhaust pipe laying around so, before running out to the auto parts store, I rummaged through the pantry and discovered that a can of sardines in tomato sauce is also the perfect diameter

I was more than happy to sacrifice the contents of that can to turn it into a tool. One whack with a plastic mallet did the trick. Asked my wife why she bought sardines in tomato sauce and she has no recollection of why or what she was going to do with them. Sure am glad they didn't show up on the dinner plate

Have a Happy New Year!

Regards,

Kevin

patrickt · #13 (**permalink**) 12-31-2012, 04:21 PM

Yay. That's a great post. More, please....

lippy · #14 (**permalink**) 12-31-2012, 04:35 PM

I think the heated seats are a great idea. Was that option supplied by Era? Any details you can provide would be appreciated. Thanks.
Lippy

kevins2 · #15 (**permalink**) 12-31-2012, 04:54 PM

Patrick,

I'd love nothing more than to keep it coming but, unfortunately, I have a week-long business trip coming up and several days of preparation to get done before next Sunday. It will take all the discipline I can muster to stay out of the garage and get my work done. So, probably not much to post in the near future.

Lippy,

I purchased the seat heaters from cobraheat.com (warmseats is the name of the product) and had them shipped directly to ERA. They inserted the pads in the seats (the pads can be cut to conform to the seat size) and the connectors come out the rear of each seat in the center. There is an upper seat back pad as well as a seat pad, so should be pretty effective. Peter makes a note on the work order for Doug to see and Doug screws the side panels on rather than riveting them in place so you can remove them to route the wiring. He even drilled holes, inserted grommets and suppled some rivets in a little zip lock baggie to put the side panels on! So, when finished, nothing at all will be visible. Doug will also give you a drawing with recommendations for mounting the controls under the dash using the supplied "L" shaped brackets. I chose to cut those brackets in half and use the half that the switches snap into and drill holes to mount them directly in the dash as you can see in the photo. There was a nominal charge for their part, but no big deal.

Regards,

Kevin

DanEC · #16 (**permalink**) 12-31-2012, 05:58 PM

Great progress. I'm impressed you didn't have any more of a struggle with the front suspension assembly. Keep the reports coming.

Dan

kevins2 · #17 (**permalink**) 01-01-2013, 08:54 AM

Dan,

My son benches 240 so he laid on his back and pressed the control arms up and in and moved them around while I pushed the bolts in. I'm sure it would have been a real struggle if I did them alone. It was actually pretty easy, although I did hear him grunt a couple of times

Not to hijack my own thread, but you've been a bit quiet lately. Let us know how you're coming along. As I said earlier, work is about to get in my way for a bit.

Regards,

Kevin

DanEC · #18 (**permalink**) 01-01-2013, 04:33 PM

Kevin - my car kind of had to take a back seat to an on-going home improvement project this Fall. Another delay was waiting on the ceramic coater to finish the exhaust. I planned to get back into it over the holidays but came down with the crud and winter blahs in general. I did get out a couple of hours today to work on hanging the mufflers but nothing photogenic to report yet.

Take care and enjoy the project.

Dan

KevinW · #19 (**permalink**) 01-01-2013, 05:01 PM

some great pics - looks like it is going to be a great car.

tkb289 · #20 (**permalink**) 01-02-2013, 10:53 PM

Kevin,

Nice photos, you are making good progress. Bet you can't wait to get back on it ...