capgage

Hello- Please contact me if anyone has one of these available, or maybe a referral. Driver and Passenger side are the same- this is for the main door window, not the vent window. Thanks, Mark mschmerbeck@austin.rr.com

Hello- Please contact me if anyone has one of these available, or maybe a referral. Driver and Passenger side are the same- this is for the main door window, not the vent window. Thanks, Mark mschmerbeck@austin.rr.com

I recommend the torch method. This is the best way I have found to go, and I have done it using just a propane torch. You should be safe unless you are going to purposely put your hand in the torch, pick up your workpiece with bare hands after torching, or are planning to put your face next to the melting undercoating and inhale deeply. I know you don't want to go the sandblasting route for the undercoating. Wise choice there - not that there is anything wrong with sandblasting, but I can't imagine that sandblasting would be very effective at all with removing undercoating, unless you are talking serious industrial pressure blasting. BUT - you probably would want to clean up the parts with some sort of blasting AFTER the undercoating removal. This is just based upon my experience.

Does anyone know whether a 56 rear convertible seat (model of the car is unknown) will fit into a 58 Century convertible? Maybe with some cutting from/adding to the seat springs... Hollander lists a different part number for the two, but I suspect it may be very close and wanted to throw the question out there. I managed to get my hands a fairly solid rear seat from a 56 buick convertible, and have not had a chance to test fit it yet to my 58 Century convertible because it is not at the house right now. Just kind of wondering what I may be up against, if anything. Mark

Try Krylon Ford Green (sorry I don't have the number...) - I have used that Plasticote Alpine Green also, but the Krylon Ford Green is a dead on match as far as I can tell, comparing it to parts that still have the original paint on them. The Alpine Green is a little too light from what I could see.

OK, one more - that last post was me. As if this thread was not irritating enough, I forgot to log in. I am done with this one!

Tim, No sweat - I'm actually glad to know that you do know your stuff, actually probably better than me since you actually have tried the conversion for real! I just wanted to make sure, also, that this guy didn't get the idea that you could just sort of do without the torque tube itself, and get by with what suspension parts are already there - and that the torque tube is ONLY for keeping grime off the driveshaft and for sealing the rear of the transmission and the front of the differential. Not so as you know. I was misreading your comments to suggest that. This torque tube thing has come up so many times, and I guess the nerve you hit had less to do with your specific comments, and more to do with coming up against people (mostly non-Buick) again and again, who either do not believe the that torque tube exists (really), or they simply will not understand the torque tube design no matter how much you explain it to them. These types will also not believe it when you tell them, that once you remove the engine/transmission the rear end is not supported except by two springs and one radius arm (I know theres a better name for it but it eludes me right now) - and that the rear end moves around all over the place, loudly, when you try to maneuver the car on/off trailers, etc. Actually you know, it's sort of hard to know who said what since most of the replies are anonymous. Yikes! Sorry for teeing off on you like that. I am now in the rough and can't find my ball. Mark

I suggest that you crawl under your 50's BUICK torque tube car, and see what you think might happen if you were to remove the torque tube, (assuming you could find a way to hold the rear end oil and transmission fluid in.), put the driveshaft back in, start your car up, put it in drive, and go. Now, while you were under there, I hope you were able to locate the panhard bars that transmit the thrust of the rear end to the frame, prevent the rear axle from trying to spin backwards as the wheels drive forward, and prevent the whole car from rolling (tilting) to the right as you accelerate. Cause if they are not there (they are not), well, you are in for some interesting effects as your rear tires slam in to the front of the fender wells, your driveshaft pushes into your transmission and rear end (possibly desroying both), etc. But wait, I forgot - the radius member could handle all that, right? Sorry for the smart a$$ remarks, but you are just begging for it by talking so big about something of which I guess you THINK you have knowledge, but which you do not. Just go look at a Buick, like I said. "So again the torque tube was to keep road grime out and lube the front joint!!!" - and many other things, my friend (see above). Not just that. Mark

Ah! :Q Your old friend Overanalysis gave you advice on the plug thing. He made you second guess yourself! I have that same friend poking his head around here very often as well- Glad to have you here! You'll get that engine out. You are learning the best way - by doing (and being very careful doing it, while also thinking hard about what you are doing as you go.) The fact that you second guessed yourself demonstrates it! Mark

Too late for that (though I was thinking the same thing I admit)- Will, he is talking about the spark plugs. There will be no compression (which would normally hinder your turning the engine by hand), if they are removed. What John O said is the same thing I said in the other post. Put the crankshaft bolt (aka "harmonic balancer" bolt to me because you have to remove it to remove the harmonic balancer and any pulleys which are bolted to it) back into the crankshaft, tighten it by hand, and then turn it (again tightening it, clockwise) with a socket and a large "breaker bar". A breaker bar is like a ratchet, but with without the ratcheting mechanism, and is much longer for more leverage. A socket fits onto the end of it which is pivoted so you can use it at many angles, unlike a standard ratchet drive. Mark

I just realized last night--- My post above assumes that you have also removed the transmission cross member! I you don't disconnect that, you should not have to worry about the axle moving. Sorry about that! All else still applies though. Mark

Matt, I understand completely your point of view on this. In fact, let me know what you end up with as a solution because I want to do the same thing eventually to an engine I have.. Group, So what would your position be on modifying firewall plates to match the change to another factory paint color, or to another factory interior color scheme or style? I know that there is a company out there that MAY do this (though they do not directly say that they will), they definitely do restorations and reproductions though, matching fonts and all. www.datatags.com Actually, these guys may be a good place to inquire about the engine stamp fonts. Mark

Will E- Yes, you need a jack under the transmission. As someone said on another thread here recently, the engine/tranny is a three point mount. One on each side of the engine, and the third on the rear of the transmission. So when the engine and tranny are unmated, the front of the transmission will go down. Point is you don't want to have your hand up between the engine and transmission as you loosen the flexplate from the torque converter, without having the bell housing bolts holding the engine and trans together. Instead, you want to (roughly in this order)- 1) make sure bellhousing bolts are holding engine and trans together (hand tight is OK) 2) block the rear wheels solidly so that the rear axle cannot move forward any more than it already may have moved since you have already been lifting the engine 3) remove dust cover (you already have two bolts off there) 4) disconnect flex plate from torque converter (three bolts)- you will have to turn the engine a little once or twice (manually) to access all the bolts. One method is to use a socket on the harmonic balancer bolt to turn the engine. 5) put a jack under the transmission, and jack it up so that the transmission is supported but only slightly lifted. Make sure the jack will allow the trans/engine assembly to roll forward, not sideways. It may need to move a little as you pull the engine out. 6) similar to what you did with the transmission - jack the hoist to raise engine up slightly. 7) carefully remove bell housing bolts, while staying out of harm's way as much as possible. As you remove the last one or two, the engine may begin to separate from the transmission, but may not. 8) continue lifting with the hoist. You will see the rear axle move forward until either the tires hit the fender wells (maybe), or until the blocks stop the axle. 9) It is at this point, when you continue lifting, the engine WILL now separate from the transmission and come on out! The torque converter should not fall out - but I guess watch for it anyway, taking breaks between hoisting to look under there and make sure. By the way - on your car, the flexplate is triangular shaped and does NOT have any teeth on it. The gear teeth are an integral part of the torque converter on a dynaflow engine/trans. The flexplate has a hole at each "vertex" of the triangle - this is where it bolts to the torque converter. Oh yeah, and just in case, mark the torque conveter AND the flexplate so that you can put it back together the same way to preserve balance. There are other ways to determine which of the three possible ways to orient this is the correct one (like if you use a different engine) - but marking it will preserve your sanity slightly. Mark

It's definitely 3 bolts (flexplate to torque converter). And be careful! I am not confident that the torque converter on a dynaflow is supposed to just slide off like on other later automatics. You may need to relieve the tension on the lift, to get the transmission and engine sitting back together, maybe even install at least a few of the bell housing bolts (hand tight), before you go loosening the flexplate from the torque converter. Otherwise you may have the transmission falling as the last of the three bolts is removed. You may want to talk to someone who has installed/removed engines before you proceed...it's dangerous to you and the car if you don't know what you are into - having said that, it is easy and you should not be intimidated, just make sure you know what you are doing by talking to others (as you are doing here...duh) Good luck!! Mark

camman-<P>Any luck?<P>I too have been searching high and low for these. When I was going through some of my grandfathers old tools and stuff recently, I found a bag of assorted ITW Shakeproof washers and guess what - a few were the exact match of the captive (SEMS) washers you are looking for.<P>I contacted Shakeproof, sent them a sample of one washer, and another sample of the fender bolt & washer. <P>Well, they went through "all" their files, even the prints for obsolete items, and said they never made that lock washer. I am still suspicious, though. How did it get in that bag then? And at that, I had a few copper ones and some steel ones, just like all the other assorted washers in the bag. <P>By the way, on the bag it says "Shakeproof Washers - so ingeniously designed, you can even play games with them!" I though that was funny.<P>Anyway, I have decided to just keep as many of these bolts as I come across, and blast them and get the best ones cad plated for reuse. <P>I have asked this question on the board before, and got no responses. I do not know what the point deduction would be for not having these correct fender washers, but I would not suspect you would want to have any home depot zinc plated hardware on there. Having said that, I do know that CARS sells the fender washers with the inverted head.<P>I do not know what people do about the lock washer though. Remember, it not only has to keep the bolt from backing out, but also has to keep the sheet metal from sliding underneath it. So you would want to use some kind of funtionally equivalent spring type lockwasher. The square washers have internal teeth to prevent backout, and also act as a clamping "spring" when torqued so that the sheetmetal can't slide.<P>Mark

Tom H,<P>Can you tell us more about your portable blasting booth? I was thinking of doing something similar with one of those canopy frames, like the ones people use on the beach or for camping.

bwahaha- (evil laugh)<P>The 40# pressure units are on sale for $80 for the next week or so at Harbor Freight (just bought one, haven't used it yet). <P>I take back my statement from earlier about your compressor not being able to run the pressure blaster - apparently it takes MORE cfms to run the suction unit than the pressure unit.<P>My compressor is a measly Campbell Hausfield 5.5HP, 20 gallon tank (actually, I've never had much of a problem running my blast cabinet with it). We'll see if I can't burn it up and upgrade to a 220V 60 gallon compressor (more evil laughter).

Wal Mart has them!

Will,<P>Don't be upset - that pressure blaster needs a bigger compressor than what you just bought to run it. You did the right thing.<P>In a cabinet, aluminum oxide is the best for removing the rust. Next best in the cabinet is glass bead, it's less harsh on the surface.<P>For outside blasting, it is too expensive to use either of these if you ask me. Your best bet is blasting sand - since my last post I have found some locally. I looked up masonry supply on yahoo yellow pages. I will not be using the play sand after all. I just had to dig a little to find what I needed.<P>Use a painting-type respirator, as mentioned above...<P>Shoot me an email - mark_schmerbeck@amat.com<P>Mark<p>[ 08-05-2002: Message edited by: Mark Schmerbeck ]

Will,<P>As you are finding out probably, sand suppliers have been gotten ahold of by the litigators and all will tell you not to use their sand for blasting - will even tell you it is a carcinogen, causes silicosis, etc. Which I do not doubt it would if you sandblasted without a respirator every day. Most of us do not do that.<P>Consequently, sand is not available in different grades as far as I have seen other than play sand, all purpose sand, and garden sand (which seems chronically moist). I don't know where to go to buy it in grades varied for blasting purposes anymore.<P>So I am planning on using some play sand also, since at least it is much more uniform (though admittedly course) than the all purpose sand which seems to have all grades of sand combined in it.<P>About eight years ago I was able to buy "blasting sand" at Builder's square. The play sand I just got at Home Depot to me looks to be the exact same grade as that old blasting sand that I am now running low on.<P>Jim, all sand contains silica, right? I just went by 84 lumber and all they had was the all purpose sand used typically for concrete. I wish I could find the "silica sand" that you are using for outside blasting, sounds like that's the stuff you want.<P>In my cabinet I use aluminum oxide. You can buy aluminum oxide and glass bead at Harbor Freight. They also sell an apparently decent pressure unit that I want to get for outside blasting (I'm now using a craftsman siphon unit). Maybe by the time I get the pressure unit I will also find the better sand to use.<P>Oh yeah, I think I'll need a bigger compressor at that point to. I'm now using a 5 hp 20 gallon Campbell Hausfield, which I am thinking cannot last much longer with all this blasting. Don't the pressure units require more CFM? (maybe at lower pressure though...)<P>Mark

tony, ntx:<P>How would you match the gun head (are you talking about the ceramic nozzle?) to the size and type of media?<P>Will,<P>I have found that if I am running low on sand, it doesn't flow as well. Maybe you should try adding some more to the bucket, so there is more weight above and therefore more pressure at the bottom of the bucket where your pickup tube is?<P>Also - you are wearing a good resipirator, right? Even when I wear one that is as airtight as I can get it (this is not an air fed one, but is approved for "nusciance dust"), I find that my nose and throat are irritated the next day. That silica is really bad for you long term.<P>Mark

A good WD-40 soak inside should hold it until you get it running, at which point it should not rust anymore due to the massive amounts of air and gasoline vapor flowing through it.

Brad,<P>The 20% molasses 80% water solution actually begins to ferment after it is left out for a few days (uncovered).<P>I think that the process actually somehow consumes the iron oxide, actually "eating" it away, using it as energy for the fermentation process! <P>It works very quickly once started. You will know the process is happening once the bubbly froth start to gather on the top surface (still no parts in the solution at this point). It actually starts to smell like beer.<P>Try this: after you put your parts in (I used a stainless steel collander from Wal Mart as a basket), sort of stir and pop all the bubbles away to get rid of the froth. Come back 30 minutes later, and you will see that bubbles have started to rise to the top to form an outline in the shape of your part!<P>I think what happens is the rust is eaten from the surface, and the residual gas sort of slides on the surface until it reaches the highest point, at which time it leaves and floats to the surface.<P>For example, if you drop a rusted nut in there, you will begin to see bubbles lined up in a hexagonal shape.<P>Pretty interesting, I know. Oh yeah, this is the point at which it starts to smell like puke.<P>Have fun!<P>Mark

I have done the molasses thing - it works very well.<P>Downside:<P>Washing the molasses / water solution and resultant black crud off the parts before you treat them is problematic. You can't really get all of it off without using water, and at that point you are already starting the rusting process over. If you don't coat with WD-40 immediately, you will see rust within 30 minutes. Once you WD-40 though, the part will be good for a few days before you soak it in some solvent or something before further treatment (painting, blackening, etc.)<P>By that time, you would have been better off beadblasting.<P>Also, the solution smells remarkably like vomit.<P>Upside:<P>Cleans rust from the parts VERY well. No pits or anything from blasting.<P>Cleans areas that would be otherwise inaccessible with blasting (inside manifolds, water jackets, etc.)<P>Biodegradable (as mentioned above)<P>A cheap, safe method if you do not have access to abrasive blasting equipment.<P>Mark

Who is reproducing curved auto glass (besides possibly this fellow on ebay)?<P>And you are saying they are back-date coding it too?