workin on the gal

[pyro]

Couldnt find the old post of what you are doing to your ride.

Been very busy. Picked up a 63 Cad parts car. Been stripping parts, ebaying them and storing some also. Finished putting the front of the motor back on the 63 MM. Has todrill & tap 3 bolts going into the front of the motor. Fires up now. After a nameless asshole stole my money, I had to pull the other leaf spring assembly off to take to a shop to have 2 sets made. Very expensive. They will be finished on Monday. Drained the gas tank, and put new rubber fuel lines in. Found out the gas gauge worked, so now I have 6 gallons of bad gas. The tank is in good shape, but dented up on the bottom. Will probably put a bigger tankon sometime later. Rebuilt the carb, but have not installed it yet. Picked up a master cylinder, brake shoes, wheel cylinder kits. Have to change the rear axle brake lines, as they are damaged. Still lots of work to do till i can drive her.

[eric anderson]

labor of love though right, it's a lt different than having to work on the daily driver all night just to get to work in the morning ain't it

[pyro]

finished putting in the new leaf springs. What a royal pain in the ass. Never did that job before, never want to do it again.

On to the brakes now. I need to source out a new hose for the rear brakes. I have everything else. Need to run new lines across the differential.

[Morella]

finished putting in the new leaf springs. What a royal pain in the ass. Never did that job before, never want to do it again.

Did you have to compress them? On the Chrysler, I'm hoping that I'll never have to do it, because they are actually way too long (unarc'd). I guess that is so that they will lift the car better once they expand, but you have to put in a special tool and compress them to make them shorter before they will come out. It is a job that I would send to a spring shop, or even n*rig it with air shocks if it ever started sagging.

-d

[pyro]

Here is the ride height after the new leaf springs in the rear. The springs were arched so much, I had to put a jack under them to flatten them out to get the shackle in place. sourced out a shop in town that is making a new rear brake hose for the axle.http://www.nationalhearse.org/forums...269069&thumb=1

[pyro]

took her around the block after the brake job. Disk brakes on the front aare going to be a priority.
I ordered side pipes and took teh car to the local garage to plum them up. It was done, and the mechanic was backing her off the lift when both side pipe covers caught on an edge on the lift. The covers are fucked up, anf the car is still sitting at the garage. The guy is paying for new covers, but I am stuck waiting on the mail to deliver them.

[Baker]

How much did you pay for the leaf springs?

There is a place in stl that tells me they can make me a set for a pinch over 300 for my 65 MM

[pyro]

It just doesnt end.... Brakes are done, drove her to the local garage to get the side pipes put on. The manager and lead mechanic/fabricator looked at the side pipes and exh work to be done. They said no prob. 2 weeks later.... The side pipes were put on,but not plumed up to the exh mainfolds, but the car needed to come off the lift so an alignment could be done on another car. When the car was being backed off the lift, the side pipes got caught and were damaged. Waited 4 days for the new parts to come in. The shop paid for the parts. Then the fuck mechanic didnt listen to me when I said "weld the new pipe to the old pipes coming off of the exh manifold, because if you try to remove the nuts from the studs, the studs will probably break" Gues what the phone call weas about. Then the mechanic sais he cant make the bends needed to get the plumbing to go to the side pipes. The shop paid for a tow truck to take the car to a local exh shop. I think they just wanted to wash their hands of a shitty situation that could only get worse.

The exh shop sais "no problem". Afdter a day sitting there, they look at the car, and see the rusted exh manifold and say they cant get out the broken stud. I bring them a good exh manifold to put on. Then they call abck and say " I'm having a hard time getting the exh manifold bolts out, I dont want to break them". Now I'm paying for a tow truck to take the car back to my house. Remember that I drove the car to the garage in the first place, but I had some sort of an exhaust sys on. No I dont have shit for an exh. I know I can get the manifold off, but will I get unlucky and break a bolt in the head. Air hammers work great in getting stuck bolts out. Then another tow back to another exh shop. Fuck me.......

[eric anderson]

i know how you feel, after replaceing alot of things it's time to replaced the exaust manifold gasket. but someone has broken 2 studs so the heads gotta come off. might as well replace exaust gasket and head gasket on the other side while i'm at it. i want the car to make it to monsterbash 2010. i will do most work on her but shegoes to the shop tommorow $600 later i hope she is right and i don't havethe problems u did , hope yours comes hojme soon too

[northgahearse]

i know how you feel, after replaceing alot of things it's time to replaced the exaust manifold gasket. but someone has broken 2 studs so the heads gotta come off. might as well replace exaust gasket and head gasket on the other side while i'm at it. i want the car to make it to monsterbash 2010. i will do most work on her but shegoes to the shop tommorow $600 later i hope she is right and i don't havethe problems u did , hope yours comes hojme soon too

600.00 for what head and manifold gaskets?
damn just damn

i spend about that doing all gaskets and timing stuff on my 472,500 and 425s
guess thats all labor.....

i put off fixing a manifold with busted bolts for a few years never got a shop that wanted to do it .. so i grew some balls and drill my own now ..... its a pain but 3 cars done 2 to go ..... good luck with it all hope to see ya at the bash

[eric anderson]

600 to replace both head,valve cover and exaust gaskets, valley pan and send the heads to a machine shop to drill the broke studs. i debated doing it myself but needed to get ready for my yard haunt and wasn't sure about my skills. glad i sent it off. 11 studs broke and the exaust manifolds are seized to the heads, we send heads and manifolds to machine shop, they seperate them, tap the holes and due to excissive carbon build up hot tank them and lap the valves. heads look great now and i repainted them and intake, passenger manifold found to have 3 small cracks, mechanic says his dad is a welder and can weld them with a nickel rod. i've been told it's better just to replace. any suggestions?

[Baker]

I'd recommend to repair them; adds more to the originality. Don't replace it unless it drop dead has to (No pun intended)

[pyro]

Its aboutt what you can afford, and the availability of the parts.

[pyro]

Going for round 2 at the exh shop. Got the head back on after I had to pull it to get the exh manifold off. 3 stuck bolts that the local machine shop got out by drilling them out.
There is nothing that needs to be removed, so the shop has no excuse at to not hang the side pipes. I even put new studs in the exh manifolds.

[pyro]

Been driving the ol man for a while now. Lake pipes spund bad ass. Been working on small stuff, like rebuilding the headlight switch, restoring the instrument cluster, getting the correct rims and hubcaps on, getting the heater blower to work. The water control valve is toast. Its connected to the heater core. have to do that still. Put seat belts in the back seat so the young lad can drive with me. The floor up front is too rusted to install seat belts. Just waiting my turn at a buds body shop.

On to the wipers. They dont work. All the tests show the motor locked up. To get the motor out, the top vent grill must come off. To get the top vent grill off, 4 bolts must be removed. To get the 2 rear bolts that are under the fender, the fenders must come off. Sonava bitch! I fenagaled a scribe, coat hangar, screw drivers in between the vent slats to get the motor out. God help me in getting that fucker back in. Good news is; I got the motor freed up and working. Just have to find a rubber cup to fix the washer pump.