Greetings!
Boy, I was just looking at the photograph of my hand holding the little black gizmo and the thought came to me: "If anyone wanted to have my finger prints, this image is the one they should save". Pretty soon, photographic resolution will be so explicit that they'll be able to take DNA samples from the picture.
I'm holding a small roller bracket that fits inside the front of the door of Gary's '51 Chevy coupe. There's a bracket that bolts to the body and as you open the door to a certain point it's designed to catch on this roller and hold the door in place as you bend over the seat and pick up the jello salad you made for the church picnic. It had come loose many years ago and when it didn't close properly, someone slammed the door with great force, bending the steel bracket and binding the roller. I would have shown a picture of the mangled unit but I left my phone at Tim's Repair in Sunnyside (509) 839-5139, so I had no camera phone. Anyway, I found the problem, bent the piece back into usable shape and welded a pair of nuts on each end to replace the missing cage nuts that broke out of it long ago. I media blasted it, painted it and replaced it in the door and now it's ready for the next church picnic. Its a small accomplishment, but one that will make the car much more enjoyable for many more years.
I'm on a mission to get this thing running by the 4th of July. I'll still have chores to do on it, including a complete paint job. The last time Gary was visiting the secret laboratory here in Outlook he mentioned that he'd decided to have me paint it and even picked out a late-model Cadillac color. I want to be able to drive the car to Sunnyside for trunk upholstery and muffler work by the 4th of July. To that end, I've been mocking up the front sheet metal making sure that everything will work well with the new engine and transmission. You can see both inner fender panels on now. I've modified both to fit closely around the new independent suspension components and made a pedestal to support the battery box.
This doesn't show it but I've got the new polished aluminum radiator mounted in place and I finally found an upper radiator hose that works well. I'm saving the hose reorder number as well as the air filter element reorder number so that Gary or Jason can easily find maintenance parts if they need a replacement. I think this is very important. Just because I had to try 27 radiator hoses doesn't mean that the owners need to do the guesswork all over again just to perform maintenance.
The new radiator is very close to the water pump pulley, but it'll work. I'm not yet sure just what I'm going to use for a bottom radiator hose because it makes a very tight 90 degree bend in a short distance. I might use muffler tubing and attach rubber to each end to keep it in place. We'll see.
While I'm mocking up the front sheet metal, I'm also media blasting things and repainting. Here are the horns, one mounts on each side of the cars by the headlights. One has a dent in the middle of it and the other has a cracked tip. I'll make them look new and I'll test them before I re-attach them. I'm thinking of mounting them both in rubber, as long as it doesn't diminish the sound. I think it'll be less annoying to the driver/passenger that way. The electrical lead coming out of the horn is permanent, I can't replace it without grinding out the rivets. I plan to cover the fabric insulation with heat shrink tubing to help protect it and make it look new.
Tomorrow I'll be doing the wiring to get spark to the engine and introduce the original under-dash components to their new roommate: the computer. If any of you know where I can find affordable new sun visors in black, or the outside windshield escutcheons, let me know please.
Thanks for taking the time to look things over. Check back often!
Doug
Boy, I was just looking at the photograph of my hand holding the little black gizmo and the thought came to me: "If anyone wanted to have my finger prints, this image is the one they should save". Pretty soon, photographic resolution will be so explicit that they'll be able to take DNA samples from the picture.
I'm on a mission to get this thing running by the 4th of July. I'll still have chores to do on it, including a complete paint job. The last time Gary was visiting the secret laboratory here in Outlook he mentioned that he'd decided to have me paint it and even picked out a late-model Cadillac color. I want to be able to drive the car to Sunnyside for trunk upholstery and muffler work by the 4th of July. To that end, I've been mocking up the front sheet metal making sure that everything will work well with the new engine and transmission. You can see both inner fender panels on now. I've modified both to fit closely around the new independent suspension components and made a pedestal to support the battery box.
This doesn't show it but I've got the new polished aluminum radiator mounted in place and I finally found an upper radiator hose that works well. I'm saving the hose reorder number as well as the air filter element reorder number so that Gary or Jason can easily find maintenance parts if they need a replacement. I think this is very important. Just because I had to try 27 radiator hoses doesn't mean that the owners need to do the guesswork all over again just to perform maintenance.
The new radiator is very close to the water pump pulley, but it'll work. I'm not yet sure just what I'm going to use for a bottom radiator hose because it makes a very tight 90 degree bend in a short distance. I might use muffler tubing and attach rubber to each end to keep it in place. We'll see.
Tomorrow I'll be doing the wiring to get spark to the engine and introduce the original under-dash components to their new roommate: the computer. If any of you know where I can find affordable new sun visors in black, or the outside windshield escutcheons, let me know please.
Thanks for taking the time to look things over. Check back often!
Doug
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