Kaftan

@wndsofchng06 @First Born It's been absolutely rewarding, fun, and exciting!! Part of me is already queuing up the next list of repairs I'd like to make. But another part of me wants to leave the car as is, just for a little while longer... to take a few more drives before the weather turns too sour... :)... It's amazing how much attention it gets when rolling through town! But the whole "no rearview side mirrors" and "making sure I brake early" leave me so focused that I can't make a lot of eye contact with passers-by, ha!

The AACA forums foil me once again. For those who couldn't get the video to work the first time, here's another option: https://1drv.ms/v/s!AqCFK2cqVyp23PpA0oACU_lsbCaE6Q

Top o' the Monday evening to you all! This weekend has been a blast. After swapping out the battery (junk battery again - this would be the third battery I've put in since I began!) and buttoning some other things up (fuel, change air filter oil, battery braces, refill tranny gear oil, license plate, etc etc), it was finally time for a little excursion into the wild! Here we go, ready to come down off the stands it's been on for many months... And here's a short clip I've got for the drive: First-Drive.mp4 I didn't capture any film of the drive in process, but it was great!! With the exception of the awful, horrible transmission noise. But the brakes performed great, the steering was tight, the engine was smooth, and the transmission [mostly] shifted like a dream!

@old-tank: Hmmm.... with an explanation like that, I'm thinking I'll go back and change it to the 50W! My thought process was, "Lighter oil means less work for pulling in the air". That's what I get for 2nd-guessing the engineers! I'll certainly switch it to manual spec next time I tinker Thank you for the heads-up!!

Oh whoops!! I forgot to mention the transmission updates. So! I also changed the oil in the transmission. Which is an inaccurate statement, because when I took out the drain plug... it was BONE DRY. I proceeded to fill it with 75W-140 gear oil, then buttoned it up. Here's a picture of what I worked with... This is from the back of the transmission facing towards the front of the car. As you can see, the drain and fill plugs are clearly visible. So after firing the car up and shifting through the gears, most of that unsettling transmission noise went away! There's still *some* noise coming out, but it's much better. Unfortunately, though, I checked the transmission for leaks two days later - it had dripped roughly 20-30 drops in that short time period. Now we know why it was dry to begin with.... I tried to ascertain where the leak was coming from, to no avail. I'll have to clean out large chucks of dirt 'n grime before I can see where it's bleeding from. At this point, it appears as though the transmission will need to be removed in order to replace some old seal(s). When I do that, I may as well change out the bad seal(s) at the rear differential that are slowly leaking, as well. That may be an opportune time to pull the engine to rebuild that... Any thoughts??

Been slowly checking things off the list over the past couple of weeks! First, in response to Mr. @Buicknutty: I cannot, with any confidence, claim that the clutch is properly adjusted. However, I crawled under the car to examine the shift linkages, and noticed *all* of the related bushings are basically garbage! As we speak, I have a bushing kit on the way from Bob's Automobilia. As I'll describe later in this post, there's been more developments with the transmission... But before we get there, a brake update is in order! I ended my prior post with a "before" picture of the front right brake. I had also planned on replacing the tie rod ends (existing ones were garbage): Here's the old one, after cleaning the grime off... Here I'm removing the old one, with the adjuster sleeve still attached... Here's the adjuster sleeve between cleanings... And here's the final pic; new cylinder, new tie rod end, new hose, and parts cleaned up... Here's the "before" on the front left brake... When I was removing the brake hose here, I inadvertently twisted up the brake line. So! I had to make a new one. After practice bends and many, many practice flares: Here's the old one with my finished new one; you can see my twist at the top of the old... And here's the after, all cleaned up; new tie rod end, new cylinder, new brake hose, new brake line... My dad came over to inspect the brakes, and here's a pic of him making some adjustments to the rear right.... ...but all the other ones were good to go! We bled the system out, and the brake system appears to be tight and ready for action!!! That's another mission-critical system complete :). At some point, I also realized I had never cracked open the glove compartment. So I managed it open... Little more than a few old maps and an old thermostat.... The after pic... And the remains of the decal on the inside (which I though was kinda neat, ha)... Since my battery kept going dead, I figured there was a drain somewhere in the car's plethora of exposed wires. So, I installed this batter cutoff switch. I just piggy-backed a metal bracket onto existing firewall bolts, thereby avoiding any irreversible damage that would have otherwise occurred! Ta-da.... I also turned my attention to the air filter assembly. I started by giving the filter element a soak in kerosene (as recommended by the manual). Here's after I cleaned up the lower oil pan... Here's after I cleaned up the outside of the element section... Here's the oil I chose for the filter (manual recommended 50w, but I wanted lighter)... And here's the assembly all reinstalled! At this point, I decided to button some other things up. Such as: The wheels! And the rusty fender skirts! I took a damp towel to the fender skirts to clean the white residue off of 'em, and reattached the hood, but failed to take a picture after doing so, heh. So now, the car is ready for it's initial test run around the block!!! It's been a while in the making, but I'm stoked!! More pictures and videos to come, once it takes place