At this point, I'd finished with all my engine bay paint work and repairs, and I was sick of tripping over the engine and transmission on the floor. Time to get it installed!
It's starting to look like a real car again!
I immediately ran in to my first oversight. A seasoned FF-1 enthusiast will note that this intake manifold is missing an important hose barb for the heater core. I used a 1400 intake I had lying around because it was one piece and fit right on, but it turns out I can't use it. I started running coolant lines and found this right away.
Thankfully the parts car had the intake I wanted, a single piece but FF-1 specific unit, 1300g only. I quickly stripped it down and cleaned it up.
My first coolant hose mock up, you can see where I really needed that last hose connection.
Of course, I now needed to swap the carb throttle body back to the smaller base FF-1 style, so I took apart 3 carbs to piece together one nicely moving and functioning throttle body. I'm working on the throttle cable linkage now, it's been a challenge because the 1100 and 1300 are completely different and share almost no parts.
I didn't take many pictures, but I spent many hours drilling out all the broken front end fasteners on the car, more than 12 by my count. This allowed me to bolt up everything on the front for the first time in possibly 45 years!
Look, a real car! I'm stoked, it's really coming together! A recap of what you're looking at here: none of this car's original front sheet metal is present at this point. The hood, fenders, grill, and headlights are from the parts car, the turn signals are straight from Japan (used but extremely nice), and the green valance was from the Seattle trip. The bumper will be a project on its own, but the hood opens and closes with the latch as it should, a huge achievement! The holidays will surely slow my progress, but I'm pleased with how well it's come together at this point. Stay tuned for more!