Thursday, July 31, 2014

Parts arrive for both cars...

I finally found an early, correct rear hatch striker plate.

On the Ferris blog, I cover with a little more detail the other various parts I received today for both cars.

One nice thing is that in spite of the rapidly shrinking list of required parts, they seem to be getting a little easier to find.

A little patience, along with a long restoration process, has paid off with NOS parts.

I've got grand plans for getting things done on the car this weekend:

  • replace master cylinder
  • bleed brakes
  • replace shift arm on transmission
  • replace leaky axle boots
  • install fuel tank
  • install OEM muffler, heater boxes and elbows
  • alignment
  • fix rear seat
In a few days, the reality of what I've accomplished will hopefully match my ambition.

The second tail light should arrive in the next two to three days-I'm looking forward to how they'll look when installed together. 

More to come...

Monday, July 28, 2014

New technology for an old car

I received a functional sample of a high power single contact LED brake light bulb today.

It fits and functions as I expected-although I've only tested it under sundown conditions.  It is at least 5x's brighter than the stock bulb which is not very bright.  I know that antique vehicles have dim brake lights and pay attention to them when driving behind them but I know that most other people don't pay that much attention to them.  I'd prefer that, as a driver of an antique vehicle, I don't become a statistic.

I'm going to do additional testing during normal daylight hours.  I think that'll be the real test of form and function since pretty much anyone can see brake lights during the darker hours of the day.  If it's just as bright during the day (red car, brake lights, day light) I'll be satisfied with the testing.  I may just push the car outside in the morning and check it out...still no fuel tank in the front end (blah!).  I'm also waiting for the box from Germany with my bumper bolts to attach the rear bumper.

These bulbs might be expensive but I consider it cheap insurance in preventing someone from rear-ending me in traffic because they didn't see the brake lights.


Sunday, July 27, 2014

A little more progress

 Prepared the cleaned and powder coated fuel tank tonight.  Fuel sender is mounted, new fuel sock and gasket attached to the bottom.
Nice and clean on both sides!

Next up will be installing the cotter pins in the tie rods, settling the lock plates and then installing this fuel tank.

Then I'll tackle the rear end-replacing the axle boots and muffler with a NOS unit and get the glass pack / header off the car to be sold.  One piece at a time...getting there.

I also greased the front end.  I wound up using a whole cylinder of grease but I know it's greased thoroughly and should last a while.

I pulled the front horn grill cover to check the respray color against the original Ruby Red and found that they're not even close!

The center 'nose' piece is noticeably a different red than the Ruby Red of the rest of the piece.  Pieces like this will ensure that when the car is painted that it'll be closer to the original color.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Moving forward


 I made some time to work on the car today.  This picture was taken near the beginning.  I'm not great at tracking progress with photos.  Actually, let me rephrase that:  I'd make a horrible photojournalist.

The general goal was to find and fix the cause of the 'floaty' steering and I believe I've accomplished that part today.
 A brief comparison of the newly *rebuilt* steering box vs. the one that just came out of the car.  I got curious and opened up the fill plug and discovered that the box is full of oil but it's likely broken down after 50 years.  The box was tight but the operation was not smooth.

I also replaced the pittman arm with a refurbished part (new grommet/bushing).  Much tighter and definitely an improved feel.
After five hours of distractions and work, I managed to install the rebuilt steering box, reconditioned pittman arm with new bushing, new VW Mexico steering coupler (which didn't quite fit properly), two reconditioned tie rods, four NOS Lemförder tie rod ends and a Cofap Brazilian steering damper, as well as install a good used bearing cap.  In addition, I made adjustments to the speedometer cable (NOS unit not one that I recently purchased) and cleaned the front beam a little more.

I didn't get it finished up today because I discovered rather late in the day that I didn't have the cotter pins for the tie rod ends.  I didn't engage the lock plates in the event I need to make some last minute adjustments.  I'll take it for a basic alignment once I find a shop that can do it and then engage the lock plates.  All in all, everything cleaned up nicely and I was able to get quite a bit done.  I was hoping to finish it up and install the newly reconditioned fuel tank but I didn't quite get that far.  One more day like today and I'll be able to finish it all up.

Friday, July 11, 2014

When things go awry...


Sucks when you buy a part, wait for that part to arrive to finish an open task and then discover that the part doesn't fit.

The square shaft of the speedometer cable does not fit or engage the speedometer.

How awesome.

Fortunately, I have one GEMO speedometer cable that I can use for now.  I was hoping to get both of them working without having to tear into the GEMO parts.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

New lights arrive!


The headlights from Iran arrived today.  They're as close to perfect as I could hope.

As soon as I receive bulbs for them they'll go into the car.  I placed an order with Wolfsburg West for the bulbs and new seat belts for the back seat.
Reverse side is clean!

The order I placed two weeks ago should arrive tomorrow-just in time for the weekend.  I'm hoping to get the car back together and take it out for a test drive with a fresh fuel tank, new steering box and tie rod ends.