SeventhSon

Yeah, I think Dale called it. When I came home today I rummaged through the boxes of new parts and found the new replacement grommets that go on the valve covers and I agree - that's probably it. And yes, they do bake and turn into bakelite! I'm very happy with the chrome too - at first Steve Polsky of Metro Plating told me Feb. 1 they would be done, so I figured I had another week to go. Surprise, got them early! Very nice - very happy with them!

After work I made my way to Falls Church and picked up the suspension parts. Very nice job they did - I couldn't do it myself because of the lack of tools and expertise, so I'm lucky I found the right folks to do the job. Thanks to Dave Thibeault for pointing me to those right folks. And a big thanks to Craftsman Automotive in Falls Church, VA for doing a great job! I still need to clean the parts up and paint them. When I first took them to Craftsman we agreed that paying them to clean and paint the parts would be an added expense, so I was fine with doing that part myself later. It's been a long and expensive day, but I am very happy with the results, thanks to some excellent people.

No sooner had I returned from Maryland when I got a call that my front suspension parts were ready. Wow - all these parts coming in, I can start putting this thing together!

I got a call right before lunch that my valve covers and lifter valley cover re-plating was ready, so I drove over to Maryland at lunch to pick them up. Very nice job they did - I'm very pleased with how they turned out. Thank you Metro Plating and Polishing of Kensington, MD!

Well, black it is. After hearing from all you guys and confirming with Nimesh Solanki, it is: black. Thanks for the info, everyone!

Dale, I think you're on to something. I bet you're probably right - I hope so because that would be the least problematic answer. Roger - thanks for the info, I should have ask you first since you are the master artist of the models of these cars. Not sure how mine got orange paint on it - I think I'll paint it black. Hmmm...a Rolling Stones song comes to mind....

Don - I agree, I will take a closer look at that oil pump. I looked at it the other night and the pickup was pretty clean, just a small piece of debris that I have to pluck out of the screen.

Thanks John - I was looking around that site but didn't find anything about oil pan color.

A couple of more pictures to show scale of size compared to the nickle. Also, a picture of the oil pan - does orange vs. black signify anything? Is is just what they had on hand that day? I think the engine block is orange too, when you scape away the grime.

John, I'm hoping that the pieces came from the topside, that way it may be easier to correct. I can't think of where else in the bottom end they could have come from, definitely an automotive seal of some type. Paul, great advice - I'm going to use it, too! The oil pan is currently orange (mixed with spots of rust), I'll post a few pictures of it in a while. I'm thinking the pieces may be valve seal related too - I'll have a look at the topside of the engine to see. And I really appreciate the advice on getting the pan seals on correctly. When I got the car there were several new gasket sets laying on the back seat, one of which was the oil pan gaskets. I looked at the cork seals and thought, "Jeez, where do these go?" So, now I know, and I now know not to cut them to fit. A big help. I was going to use that set but decided to get a new set from SI because that old set has sat in that car in the searing Texas heat for over 20 years. Best to have some fresher gaskets. Thanks for the advice, everyone.

Kinda what I was thinking Larry - I'm going to have a close look at the valve spring seals.

Well, the the debris in the first picture is definitely plastic or Bakelite, and as you can clearly see it is some sort of seal or bushing(?). The debris in the second picture is more like coal, possibly a carbon build-up that ended up in the oil pan. It's the first picture's contents that concerns me. Where, oh where did that come from?

I don't think I'll start pulling bearing caps at this point. The engine sounded nice when I took delivery of the car, no ticking or knocking, no screeching either. I'm going to take a closer look at those pieces I found - maybe they're part of the supercharger impeller that had deteriorated and were blown in through the breather tube. I hope that's all they are...

Well, I bit the bullet and removed the oil pan. In the process I found that the starter wire sheathing was brittle and cracked (surprise!), exposing the copper wire. Another thing to fix. On the bright side, the oil pan was pretty clean for a 49 year old car. I just found a coating of sludge maybe an eighth of an inch thick in the very bottom of the pan. On a more ominous note I was unpleasantly surprised to feel several chunks of what I thought was metal as I was wiping the sludge out of the pan. I collected several pieces on a paper towel, along with some sort of blowfly or insect (how did he get in there?) to examine later. I tried to pick some of the pieces up with a magnet but it didn't pick them up. Not metal, but what? I'll have a closer look tomorrow when I have more light and a magnifying glass. Tomorrow I'll paint the outside of the pan, first I'll hit the rusty areas with Rust Reformer, then I'll paint it with orange paint. I want to get the pan back on pretty quickly and move on to something else. What that something else is depends on when the parts I have out for rebuild come back.

Thanks Richard, I'm going to experiment with some things, if only to hold off the inevitable, which is, buy all the rubber for the car and install it. The hardest thing to do is always the right thing to do. Today I finished re-installing the fuel tank, except for installing the new rubber fuel lines in the various spots. I thought I would get by the auto parts store today for the fuel lines but I didn't because of the weather. So, I used the time around the house to work on the tank re-install. I finished tightening the holding straps, put a new electrical connector on the lead wire to the sender and hooked the wires back up. While I was in the back of the car I decided to see how the interior would clean up. Some good, some not good - ah well, more fun inside the car once I get the mechanical stuff sorted out. After I goofed off for a while I returned to the tank and worked on fixing the filler tube where previous people had sort of mangled it while getting a locking gas cap off. I was able to straighten the lip enough to take the gas cap, then I used a Dremel tool to smooth the lip so the gas cap would go on smoothly and stay put. Not perfect, but it will do. Then I installed the filler tube along with the rubber filler hose. Then I got under the car and installed the brass petcock. Enough for today - more fun tomorrow!

Roger, that's a great analogy. If someone could find the formula to turn an 80 year old face into a 20 year old face they would be very, very rich! I didn't think I could get the rubber to like new - I was just hoping to find something to soak into the window seals and maybe swell them up some. All the door, trunk, and hood weatherstripping is going to be replaced in the coming weeks.

I ordered some strangely named rubber refresher from Amazon and received it today. It's a German product - hence the odd name. Not that Germans are odd, just a different language. I thought I would see if I could coax some semblance of pliability back into the rubber seals around the windows, etc. However, I think the bottles are too small - I need it by the gallon. I also need a paint brush to apply it liberally. Oh well, I'll rub it on and see if it helps any. I installed the sender unit - after comparing the two to see if they matched on the low end. The new one is a tad higher than the old one - that's good, right? A little higher and it'll show empty when I still have a couple of gallons left. One of the mounting holes got some tank sealer in it and the screw wouldn't fit any more, so I took a drill and knocked some of the sealer off. No problems after that. I know I'm going to have to remove one of the screws to put the ground wire on - easy enough to do. The tank is back in - not all bolted in, but well on the way. Next up, the dreaded oil pan removal. Remove the 100 lb. starter motor, the greasy inspection plate, the breather tube. Someone beat me - I'd rather do that than take this oil pan off. But, once it's done, it's done and I'll be happy it's done. I do want to see if there is any sludge in the pan. I also want to see what the drain plug threads look like, I haven't taken a close look at the plug but it looks like some vice grips have been gnawing on it.

Yes, I have a pickle fork and it worked great on the 3 other tie rod ends but this last one wouldn't give up the grip. And since I'm working with limited space, no vice or anvil, and lots 'o neighbors I thought I would just ask the shop mechanic if he could pop it out. He said, "No problem, sometimes ya gotta heat 'em up." Which I've also done before. But it's all good now, I dropped the control arms and spindles off at a shop that Dave Thibeault recommended and I'm happy to have that part of the work in the right professional's hands. So tonight I received the Stewart Warner fuel sender unit. I was going to put the SunPro sender unit and the SW unit side by side and compare them and make a decision on which to use. But, when I took the SW sender out of the box and started looking it over I decided it was the unit I wanted to go with. It's a simpler design but looks like it is well made. About half the cost of the SunPro. Also, the original sender is an SW. So I followed the instructions, cut the float rod to the prescribed length for the tank depth, bent the float rod at 90 degree angle and inserted it through the center of the sender unit. Then the float rod is supposed to lock into 2 plastic "grips". As an added precaution I took some of my new best friend, JB Weld, and applied it to the rod at the grips, just for extra hold. I then checked the resistance and I was getting around 240 ohms when the float was all the way down (empty) and around 30 ohms when the float was all the way up (full). So, I'll install the sender in the tank tomorrow night and put the tank back in the car.

Yep - Avanti Turquoise was the original color of this car. Ah well, I guess someone wanted a little change of pace. I kind of like Avanti Red myself....

Not too much accomplished tonight except for collecting all the old parts in need of refurbishing and the new parts that will be needed for the refurbishing. I guess I will have them remove the tie rod that I could never get to let loose, clean the parts, install the trunnion bushings, install the lower outer control pin that holds the king pin, and install the king pin bushings and bearings. Then I should be able to install the king pins after I reinstall the control arms. I hope. I also removed the gas filler in preparation for the gas tank reinstall. The guys who busted the locking gas cap off kind of mangled the filler neck where the gas cap fits on. I'll see if I can straighten that a bit. You can also see the original color of the car where the filler tube came off.

Very nice John, I love the color! Have a safe trip home.

Well, the right side A-arms are off! Whew, I'm glad I bought some long wrenches before I started that. A breaker bar with socket won't fit in the tight area on these A-arms so it had to be wrenched. With long wrenches, for leverage. So I stopped by Sears and picked up 3 long wrenches in the sizes I estimated the nuts and bolts to be, and I got lucky! They worked! Now I need to gather up the parts and bushings and carry them to the machine shop. I ordered a Stewart Warner sender unit on Ebay today, just to see if it's a better fit than the SunPro sender I just bought. I read about the SW sender on the Bob Johnstone site today, so I looked for one. I got it for $25 new, and that includes shipping. I'll look it over and decide which one to use.

Ah, I took a quick look under the drivers side dash looking for fuses - I'll check the other side when I get a chance. Paul, that's something that has been puzzling me about the bushings on the A-arms. I understand that the arms can't be over tightened or the bushings will squeeze the shaft and it will cause binding. I need to relay that to the guys at the machine shop - hopefully they've done a couple of these old setups before. Richard, I got a different meter tonight and I was get a reading on some objects laying around - wrenches, toolbox, etc, but nothing on the sender unit. There is a post on Bob Johnstone's website where a guy rebuilds his sender. I'm going to check that out tomorrow. Thanks guys, for checking in and the advice. Tonight I was able to remove the left side A-arms. Whew!

John, I tried that the other night. My gauges seem to be "dead". Not sure if it's a fuse issue - the only lights I could get to work were in the radio. The red lighted dial! Bill, first time I've heard "yahoo" something - funny! Thanks for checking in with what I'm doing.

Last night, before fooling around with the fuel sender unit, I removed the lower king pin knuckles from the A-arms. they came off relatively easily, as I applied the 2 foot Pipe 'O Leverage to them. Now I can concentrate on removing the A-arms so I can take them to the machine shop for cleaning and bushing replacements. At the same time I'll take the spindles in for fitting of the king pin bushings. The last picture below shows the core exchange parts read to be packaged up to send back.