mudbone64

Yea, we could get out the torches, find some leaf springs and some shackles and uh, well, uh, no.

mudbone64

Man, I don't know how many hours I've got into the clean-up and paint of this wiper motor. The motor being such a 3 dimensionial part makes it very difficult to get cleaned up. It isn't perfect but it'll do.

gear-banger

Man, you are the Charlie Daniels of the rattle can!

So what about that 4x4 idea?

mudbone64

I'd say I better be. The whole freakin' car is gonna get the same treatment. Atleast outside of the body paint.
You got Ian Johnson's number?

SunsetC6

Nice job. Looking good. When you start removing, cleaning and refinishing or rebuilding parts, you have a long, long road ahead. Good way to look at it with no set time frame. That is how I look at the '59 right now.

I will continue to follow this one....

gear-banger

No, not that kind of 4x4. I'm talking about lifting the body using 4x4s.

mudbone64

I know exactly what you mean. Quite honestly cleaning and refinishing parts on this car is a cake walk compared to this:

I did this one several years ago and everything you see was blasted and painted. What I like about my '64 is no a.c., no p.s. and no p.b. as opposed to my '72 where it was power everything. Nevertheless, you are correct. The road will be long and the car will be finished when it tells me it is finished.

mudbone64

Sorry about that cheif. I've been thinking about the possibilites but the floor board being lower than the rockers does pose a problem. I'm going to continue to think about the options. I've got Ron lined up to come by and assess the situation. He's got a fork-lift and a bobcat. He suggested ramming the bobcat into the side of the car and lifting like a there ain't now tomorrow. I'm looking for something a little more subtle than that.

mudbone64

I had some gouges and scratches on my inner fenders and decided to fill and sand them. Please keep in mind I've never done any body work period. So, armed with a new can of filler I proceeded to learn what is quite possibly the number one rule when using filler: never, ever apply more filler than is required to get the desired result. All I can say is "oh my freakin' back". I'd post some pics but the laughter would be uncontrolable.

mudbone64

Before and after:


Aftepacking the box with as much grease as I could get in it and getting the lower seal installed I finally have the steering box back togethor.

I'm not really happy with how far I was able to pull the pitman arm up. I don't know if I got some paint in the splines in the arm or what but my impact would not pull it up far enough. I expect I'll have to use a longer wrench rather than my impact after I get all of the steering gear togethor and re-tighten the pitman then.

mudbone64

Does anybody need an 8174 block?

After getting tired of borrowing everybody elses' engine hoist I finally manned up and bought my own so tonight me and Ms. Mudbone pulled the engine out. All went well but I always get extremely nervous with all of the weight hanging over the front of my car. I will say this, pulling/reinstalling a sbc is so very much easier and makes me so much less nervous than pulling/reinstalling a bbc.

I do have a question. Does anyone go to the trouble of grinding the rivets off and removing the windshield washer bottle and the expansion tank brackets? I'm not sure I'll get the finish I'm interested in getting without remving them. I suppose the only thing is getting the rivets re-installed properly. Any tips?

mudbone64

I've removed the gas pedal/carb linkage and was wondering if anyone could tell me the proper paint color(s).

My guess is the rod going from the gas pedal to the firewall is semi-gloss black, the small plate/bracket that mounts to the firewall is natural or silver and the arm going to the carb linkage is natural/silver. Any help is always appreciated.

Trophy Blue

Stay off of the computer and get back to work!!

JohnZ

The rod to the accelerator pedal is black phosphate, the pivot tube that screws to the floor pan is zinc-plated, and so is the lever.

mudbone64

Yo, cut me a break would ya? I've been out in the garage most of the day and this firewall clean-up is some back breakin' work. It's almost incomprehensible that I'd do this crap for fun. But then again, I'm not always comprehensible.

Thanks for the information. I'm getting back on the job now before Trophy Blue kicks my differential.

gear-banger

I'd paint it "white lily chrome".

mudbone64

I purdy much did. I decided black oxide primer would be an acceptable substitute for black phosphate.

mudbone64

I do have another question. The other day I was reading a thread where someone mentioned using laquer thinner to clean the bottom side of the body. This evening I used some thinner to clean a portion of the firewall with some good results. My question is because the thinner does such a good job of removing nearly all of the paint and other sealers located on the firewall, do I run the risk of compromising the glue between the multiple panels located on the firewall?

mudbone64

Time to put-up or shut-up:

I bummed a set of lift straps from my Corvette mentor so the heat is on to get my body off. Hopefully some time this week I'll find the time and willing bodies to help me to get the task completed.

mudbone64

Oh did we have fun in the boonies last night:





Who let the homeless guy in my garage?


Being that this was the first time I've ever removed a car body, the entire operation went as smooth as I could expect. I must have had my cherry picker moved too far rearward because the front end was hanging much lower than I would have liked. We placed a padded bar stool under the front end to level it out while we drug the frame out sideways. There wasn't much weight so there was no danger of hurting anything. I did run a ratchet strap from the cherry picker down to the fuel filler kneck opening to support the rear of the body.

I wrapped a 24"+/- long piece of 2x4 with some old sweatshirts, placed it under the body and the wrapped the ratchet strap around it and hooked the other end to the cherry picker. This really gave some support and did no damage to the body.

The 4x4s didn't flinch but the 1/2 inch diameter all thread rod did bend a little. I feel totally comfortable with my rig and I must give vettjam credit for at least part of the design. vettjam used steel but I'm much too chincy to spend the kind of money required for that so I went with the 4x4s.

Here's the part of the rig that hooked on the cherry picker:

The 4x4s went directly under the bottom nut.

Oh well, that was fun and I was totally psyched to perform the task but now it's time to figure out what I'm going to do about my frame issues.