Days 67-77

The paint-prep work got off the ground - and quickly stalled for lack of resources.  I had only purchased a small portion of the de-greaser because it is expensive and I wanted to verify it did what it is advertised to do.  I was happy with the results, but there is a necessary lag in ordering more.

In any case, I did get one batch of parts cleaned and rust treated.  The rusty bits have turned a satisfying rich gloss black color.

Unfortunately, it has been too humid to actually apply the paint.  All my sources tell me you want the parts to be as dry as possible before painting, otherwise you trap humidity under the paint, which allows the rust (despite the treatment) to start multiplying again.

So - for those that are eagerly awaiting something new and shiny looking, here's an "Oooh, Ahhh!"  moment:  my new front brake rotors have arrived! - (all the way from Italy, I might add.)

In the interim, I used my new wire brush to prep a few more parts.  To prove that I haven't (completely) just been sitting on my duff for two weeks, here are some before-and-after shots of the Intake Manifold:

The engines in these cars are German Ford Industrial Engines - usually used for airport tugs and the like.  Can anyone read the German on this part?

And finally - I ran across this color chart in an online forum.

The original color of my car appears to have been "Sonett rot".  Quite appropriate in my way of thinking. . .

Days 67-74

It was cold here the past week!

For those that think Texas is always tropical, here is proof it does (occasionally) drop below 32*.  I snapped these one morning while waiting for my windshield to defrost.

It's been one of those one step forward - two step back type of weeks.  I have been expanding my circle of resources by participating in a web forum.  Through that activity, I was able to locate the tail end of the ignition thought lost in former posts.  On the other hand, I have been pricing having my rotors and drums turned, and everyone wants nearly the cost of new parts to turn the old ones!  At this juncture I am considering carefully hand sanding the drums to remove any surface rust and replacement of both of the rotors.  I need to buy one new one anyway, and that way I would have a matched set plus a spare.

I started to wire brush some loose body parts, but didn't get very far.  Time for a new wire brush!  This 3" brush is down to 2 1/4".

I began de-greasing parts this weekend - and quickly determined I'm going to need a lot more de-greaser!  The process is going well though, and I hope to start painting soon.  I plan to spend evenings this week applying the rust inhibitor, which is the last step before paint.

I am also rebuilding the horns.  This is what they looked like before I started on them.

Very few moving parts, but a challenge to figure out nonetheless.  The key is that the electromagnet attracts the bellows towards the back of the housing, thereby opening the switch contact and turning the magnet off.  This allows the bellows to spring back - repeating the cycle.  In other words, the horn's vibration is modulated by - itself.  Weird, but cool.

Days 60-66

So, if you thought last weeks entry was dry, this one will make you wish you had more interesting friends.  (OK, I'm not into Facebook either - so we all might as well suck it up and admit that living vicariously through others sometimes leaves something to be desired).

This week I accomplished on the car:

Zero, nada, zip, zilch, diddly.

OK, it wasn't that bad, but there isn't much either to talk about or share visually either.  I was about to take my rotors and drums to be resurfaced, but decided at the last minute to clean them first.  I was glad I did, too, because once they were free of rust, one could actually read the engravings indicating the minimum thicknesses! (I bought myself a Clymer manual, but it has as much to say on the subject as the third paragraph of this blog.)  This brought to light something I should have noticed much earlier - which is that one of the rotors is much thinner than the other.  So thin, in fact, that it is already nearly half the minimum thickness.  (Not good!)

The rotor on the left is slightly thicker than the minimum, so I will have it "trued" and replace the one on the right.  Note that whoever surfaced the thin one not only doesn't understand the term "minimum", but took the majority of the thickness off of a single side. . .

The drums are both similar in size and have enough spare to be "trued" as well.

I also spent two days cleaning a half gallon tub of bolts, screws, nuts, washers, clamps and other doohickies.  (I'll spare you the visual).

This evening, this little guy took up residence in my shop and wouldn't leave.  As you can see, he moved around the shop quite a bit.  I think he was hunting bugs attracted to the overhead lights.

Days 53-59

It's been a slow week with little visible progress.  Partially, this is because of the cold weather - it just didn't seem appealing to be in the shop.  Partially it was also the fact that I had a lot of "real life" happenings this week as well.  But mostly, it was due to the type of projects I have been working on.

In earlier posts (Day 50) I had begun work on the wiper motor.  Reassembly was challenging, particularly getting the brushes into proper alignment and the motor casing back on.  I wanted to test the assembly, but it has a number of electrical connections and relies on several relays to work.  I attempted to reassemble the wiring harness and jump the assembly to my wife's car.  To do so, I first had to repair the main fuse panel.  There were four contact points that were missing or damaged.  I recreated three of these.  After re-installing the fuse panel I energized the harness and got - nothing.  Tracing the power from the battery outward, it quickly became apparent that the bottom half of the ignition casing is missing, along with it's power connections.

  So, at this point it appears that not only do I have to locate the missing part(s), but the entire current wiring configuration is suspect and will need to be traced circuit by circuit to figure out what was altered and what was not.  So, for now, we will just assume the rebuilt wiper motor works.  If it doesn't, I have two spares that came with the car. . .

I also finally pulled the disks from the front trans-axle assemblies, allowing access to the dust cover and hubs for cleaning.  My screwdriver didn't like removing the screws.

Once off, the dust covers were like no other parts I have cleaned to date.  The brake dust had baked onto the parts in a thick coating.  It took not only a wire brush, but chipping and scraping with a flat screwdriver to get down to bare metal.  Surprisingly, once off and brushed, the dust covers were downright shiny with nearly the original galvanized sheen.  The hub, shaft, and boots, cleaned up nicely as well.

Last Friday I wheeled the chassis outdoors and pressure washed it.  It took a lot of gunk off, but didn't improve the appearance significantly.  This past Friday I did the same with the engine & transmission.  Under the layers of grease were some rusty parts, and some (like the transmission housing) that look pretty good.  The biggest change - there are now identifiable parts in there instead of one gooey blob.

Yesterday we had a workshop with several other cub scout families to work on our derby cars.  Here is my completed car.  I will get photos of the kids cars up once they complete them.

       

Day 52

Cleaned up the radiator fill tube / engine compartment brace.

My son and I participate in Cub Scouts.  It is time again for the pine wood derby races.  This year I decided to build a car too.

Hmm, what to build. . .

Just like the real car, it needs a little TLC and paint, but it'll get there.

Day 51

Remember this guy?

This is what it looks like cleaned up. . .

Note that in the before photo, the left boot is scrunched up, and the right one bloated.  That is because someone had pumped the assembly so full of grease that the boots were packed solid and could no longer compress.  Every time you turned the wheel hard it would squeeze out some grease, which explains, in part, why everything inside the front wheel wells were covered with an 1/8" of goo!  Note too, the new tie rod ends - no grease fittings!  Keeping things clean should be a little easier this time round.

I also wire brushed the door hinges, seat rails, and several other parts.

And finally, I got the windshield fluid tank and pump working again.  As expected, the motor was rusted solid.  As also expected, a few whacks with a hammer got things humming again.

Day 50

Began rebuild of the windshield wiper motor.  There was considerable rust inside the magnet/coil housing, and I need to apply rust treatment and paint to the interior of the housing before I can reassemble, so it will be several more days before it is completed.  The switches and circuits all check out though, so it should work once it is back together.  The gears are all in great shape.