New Year Post

Today is the 2nd of January of 2019, I have had this car for 8 months and it is now all apart except for the engine; I'm still waiting on that.  I will start the new year with an update.   To start with I removed the doors.  The hinges consist of steel pins going through aluminum bushings, which are corroded together almost beyond movement.  Not sure how I will get these moving freely.  I tried soaking in penetrating oil for several weeks but with no change.

Here is a photo of the left door hinge.  They are hard to get out because it is difficult to get a wrench on the forward screws which are also rusted in.  The doors did not fit very well so will have to be re-aligned on assembly, that is to be expected.

Next the headliner came out.  The fabric part separated from the foam backing which had turned solid.  The foam came out with a putty knife and could be vacuumed up off the floor of the car.  The headliner is secured all around the edges by a rubber cord pushed into a narrow slot.  The rubber, of course, had hardened so it was a long, patient job to pry the cord out of the slot in small chunks.  Here is a photo of the slow process.

And here is a photo of the foam mess after scraping it off the roof.

The windshield came out in one piece after careful breaking out of the rubber seal that it was set in.  I would like to try to keep the original windshield but it has faint scratches from bad wiper blades.  I will try to polish out the scratches.  Some You-Tube videos say that it can be done.  Here is a photo of the corner of the roof and A-pillar with the glass removed.  There is surface rust but it will clean up with bead-blasting.

After jacking up the car and putting the body on saw horses I used a transmission jack to lower the rear sub frame out of the car.  The rubber bushings that mount the radius arms to the bottom of the body were rusted to the body.  I cut through the hard rubber with a hand-held jig saw to get the arms out.  The sub frame and all rear-end components were heavily covered in rock-hard grease and dirt, even rocks had become encased in the grime.  A chisel and hammer were needed to get the hardened sludge off.  The e-brake mechanism had gotten out of adjustment somehow and been disconnected by John or his mechanic.  When the car was parked in 1990 it had no hand brake.  I think it can be restored with some new parts.  Here are some photos of the rear end removal.

Above is one of the radius-arm bushings sawed through.  These bushings need to be replaced anyway.  The 1/2 inch bolts holding the small ends of the radius arms to the hub carrier were also rusted in and had to be driven out, destroying the bolts.  They are special bolts that I will have to fabricate myself or buy new from the vendors.  I think I will make them myself.

Here is the sub frame being lowered on the transmission jack.

The same from the side view

And it's out!

What a mess to disassemble!  It took me an afternoon to get the garage floor clean again.

I don't have the special Churchill tool to push the spindles out of the hubs, and a simple screw-type puller would do nothing.  I had to modify my 20-ton press and make threaded flanges to screw on the hubs (left and right-hand threads) and press the spindles out.  It took another day to build the tools, but it worked fine.  I don't have the hubs out of the hub carriers yet.  It has turned too cold to work in the garage (+9 degrees F this morning).

The differential gears feel fine just turning them, hopefully they will not need replacing, same for the  bearings.  But the diff had been leaking oil badly so all new seals will be in order.

I have taken another load of parts to the Chrome shop in SLC, this batch includes the bumpers and lights.  Also took a box of parts to the Zinc-plating shop in Springville including all the front suspension A-Arms and shafts.  Both shops are slow, it will be 6 to 8 weeks before I get the parts back, but there are not many shops left around here that will bother with miscellaneous automotive parts; they only do commercial work.

Here are the to-be-Chrome parts.  The bumper over-riders have holes drilled for the oval front feature piece but those ovals are damaged beyond repair both front and back on this car so I am going to leave them off.  They seemed to be an accessory on this year model anyway; they are missing in many photos that I have seen.  I have asked the plater to strip the chrome off of the over-riders and I will pick them up and braze shut the holes before the finish Chrome work.

Here are the A-Arms and bonnet hinges going to the Zinc shop

Since it has been too cold to work in the garage recently I did some indoor work.  Here is the new leather key fob I made to replace the original.  I kept the original but it broke apart about as soon as I arrived home with it last April  I also had a couple of extra keys made.

By this day 2020 I should be using this key, although not on days like today.  The Vredestein tires I mounted are not recommended for use in temperatures below 40 degrees F.  This will not be a winter car.  Anyway, they put salt on the roads in winter here!!!