Beemon

Wow, I would definitely prefer that. I hate pot metal and the pieces I have do not tuck behind the window on one side.

And they probably cannot be used in the 2 door hardtop, huh. I wonder why the difference?

I rebuilt a 55 chev wiper motor and a 56 Buick power antenna. They all seem to be the same basic motor. On both, the lubrication was a very thick, hard, what used to be lubrication. My antenna motor didn't work specifically because the grease had hardened. You have to be very careful because the wires are so old and brittle, it's easy to pull them out (and just as easy to solder new ones in place) And, since you're in there, it's always good to check the carbon brushes. I replaced the wiper motor brushes with generic ones you can buy in the fastener section of the hardware store. For lubrication, I used a moly-graphite lube. Im sure the general purpose red lube would probably work just as well.

Also, I found out that my grandfather had hit someone in the 60s and had gotten rear ended by someone at some point, too. Minor fender benders I guess. Whenever I asked him about why the front grill was broken, he always said it must have been my grandmother. Lol

Thanks for the heads up, Bloo. I might take more than what I need off that thing... Seriously guys, the car is not going anywhere. I've been going from local shop to local shop trying to get an insurance adjuster quote and damage and repair and so far it's been looking expensive. I went down to Vancouver today to scout parts. They had 2 Century's and 2 Specials. All the parts are there, but they are rough. I am still waiting to hear back from L&L Classics and I've been in contact with Desert Valley Auto Parts, too. At Vancouver, they want $960 and that's including a solid, dented fender and a moderately weak hood. DVAP wants $1575 for their parts. There is absolutely nothing local to me on the regular outlets (craigslist, offer up, etc.). Unrelated, I found this stainless steel A-pillar piece on the white Century 4-door hard top. Does anyone know if this was a retrofit thing?

You better install that McCulloch supercharger now!

No I didn't, but as John said, the car is most likely going to be considered a total loss so it probably won't matter anyways.

I take it you're not excited for the Green New Deal? On the bright side, maybe aftermarket manufacturers will make hydrogen or electric retrofit kits.

Not much left to bring home I'm afraid, lol

Well, I was looking to replace the front grill pieces since they had been broken either from an unspoken parking lot fender bender or car port abuse. I guess now is as good as any time to do it. I was coming home from the university last night and was traveling around 65-70 MPH on Highway 26. About 10 miles outside of the town of Washtucna, this ample sized doe jumped down off of an embankment and right into the front of the car. I am pretty sure the deer did not suffer, and the death was instantaneous. When I found it over the ledge along the highway, all that was left of it was four legs and a head. All the damage seems to be cosmetic and I did not puncture the radiator. In this scenario, there was nothing I could have done. I've been in a few of these situations before, so I did not apply the brakes until after the deed was done (not that I would have time to), and thankfully I did not swerve to miss as I think that would have assured the destruction of the car and myself, given the state of the steering box (thanks LC). This all happened probably around 7:30 PM. That's usually the "witching hour" for active nocturnal animals this time of year. After contacting Washington State Patrol, they told me on record to continue on if I felt the car could make it and to keep a look out for any dangerous, erratic behavior from the car. I eventually made it to Othello, where I collected my thoughts and removed the front fender spear. Thankfully, it was not broken and did not deform from the collision - about the only good thing in the aftermath. I carried on all the way home. This car has always given me more than 100%. Destroyed cylinder walls, , punctured radiators, bad steering box and pump, three generators, a starter failure, brake failure and so much more. I've come too far to let these setbacks hinder my enjoyment and plan to fully bring the car back. That being said, I am meeting with the insurance company later today to appraise the damage and cost of repairs, as well as finalizing the state patrol report. Once I know exactly how much I'll be getting back, I'm going to use my credit card for the bulk purchase and pay it off when the check arrives (if I even get one). The optimist in me says I can get back on the road by the end of the week if I structure my time on break. Right now, this is the itemized list of things I need moving forward: Driver side Century fender Century/Special Hood 'Grill Grill Emblem Mustache Bumper Bib (that part that goes on the bottom of the radiator core support and acts as a loose seal between the bumper and the radiator on the bottom) Hood latch support Driver side inner fender Headlight Bezel The metal is so mangled that I do not think it can be pulled. I have seen amazing work done on these forums, but the fact of the matter is that I do not have the space, time, tools or the money to invest in an operation to fix these parts myself. I can't imagine what it would have been like to have been in a modern car.

This was about 10 miles out of a town called Washtucna going westbound for spring break.. after getting off the phone with state patrol, I was advised to carry on if I felt the car was okay. She carried me 4 hours home without issue other than limited visibility and I made it in one piece. She's too important not to, I just don't know when I'll be able to. Im meeting with the insurance company tomorrow after I finish the incident report with the state patrol. We'll see where it goes from there, but from price matching online, it's going to require about 2k without paint. That whole corner is unbelievably mangled and I am not a metal worker nor do I have the tools or the shop. The itemized list I'm looking at includes driver front fender, hood, mustache, grill, grill emblem, bumper bib, inner fender and latch support. Vancouver, WA has two 56 Centuries, I just need to figure out if I'm actually going to get money from this or not. It was a 70mph collision with a 150lb animal. That's about 0.89MJ of kinetic energy. I do not think the animal suffered considering I splattered it Chris the highway and kart wheeled the catcher's 10 feet off the other side of the highway. I barely felt it and the only thing I could do before hitting it was get out "oh sh-". It was unavoidable, and would have otherwise totaled a modern car. I consider myself lucky it was a side front impact and the deer didn't go through the radiator core. The smell was awful for the first 2 hours back home. The car had red racing stripes down the side. Honestly, i'm surprised the deer's legs were still attached to the body.

You should have seen the other guy.

I needed to fulfill my Arby's thirst while studying for back to back exams.

Studded snow tires are expensive! Here's some more: This was the spot I got into last night This is the spot I just got in to. As you can see, some people still haven't left their spots (yellow car on the left) because it just gets piled up behind them to the point where you need a shovel, a pick axe and some good tires. I can't remember seeing people use chains, either, in my entire life. However, I did see someone else on campus with chains so I didn't feel alone. I'm sure if the car had a posi, I could have gotten out. One tire would grip, the other wouldn't. Then, when I had chains on one tire, that tire did nothing and the tire without chains would spin... It was a vicious cycle. The other night it was -8, I was glad to see that there wasn't a pool of anti-freeze underneath the car. That would have been rough.

I'll have to show you guys where I parked later.

There was nothing to it (except laying on my back in the snow for an hour and a half trying to figure this stupid "easy install" chain link). The good ladder chains are at home and way too expensive to ship, so once I'm back for spring break, I'll definitely be using my big boy chains and not this baby chain stuff.

No, you need to buy a rag joint conversion for it to work. I'll get you part numbers when I put it together over spring break, hopefully

I just ended up buying the kit. I wouldn't bother personally, I posted pictures above and the bracket is awful. He wouldn't sell just the bracket, so I had to get the box, too. It came several weeks later and its from my favorite rebuilder. 🤢 So I think you would probably be better off buying an OEM junkyard model. I plan on making a bracket and saving it as a DXF file to share here on the forums so anyone with a CNC plasma cutter can make one.

Without getting political, the north pole is migrating into Siberia so you should expect to see Atlantic temperatures to rise and Pacific temperatures to fall marginally. This is what caused the polar vortex to split, not global warming or whatever the red herring is these days. I think this is normal for my region, but it hasn't be recorded for some several years now so it was expected, but unexpected. It is manageable, the problem is that there is zero maintenance done in the parking lots. So while the roadways are bare and wet, nothing but chains will get me out of the parking lots... so I wait.

No sir, there's more than a foot of snow on the ground.

Oops, I went into two parking spots...

The dwell does climb on deceleration, but I knew that already. I'm pretty sure that is a worn timing chain. The distributor itself is bulletproof, I rebuilt it myself after I pulled it from a 65 Riviera and checked it with a dial indicator for runout on the shaft. I also shimmed it at the bottom so it only has about .012" end play. I'll double check the advance wire. I'm running an Accel dual point breaker plate with NAPA HD points, so maybe the lead wire is not where its supposed to be. I've just never had issues until now. The reason I suspected the condenser is because it's a Mallory. I'm starting to wonder if they're junk... I'll also recheck the dwell, too. One of the benefits of finding a Corvette dual window cap is that I don't need a distributor machine to balance the dwell, just a match book.

Points

I went out to start the car today and it didn't want to fire. When I did get it start, it ran until it died out. After getting it to fire off again, it back fired and the air horn caught fire (I couldn't see it, but you know the smell and sound of fire in the carb). It did this twice before I could get it started again. I'm starting to think I have a bad condenser instead of a bad U-joint...

I thought digging out the first time was bad, now I need to chisel through compact ice!