856666

Nice thread,

I recommend the Body Spacer kit that goes on top of cross member in case of body sag. Otherwise the top of the trans will rub the body

Phil

mccarley

Thanks, I will look into that. Do you know who sells one?

mccarley

Just one picture today. It says it all. It came UPS today.

Tom Austin

. . . "Body Spacer Kit"???

This is a very simple (and inexpensive) DIY project. Go to your local Home Depot and buy a $4.99 cement "float". When you get home, tear the metal handle off the rubber part - and throw the handle away! Cut the rubber part in half lengthwise! PRESTO! . . . instant Body Spacers! I used these for my T5 5 speed install and picked up @ 1/2 per side . . . very worthwhile!

Tom

JohnZ

Here's what was part of the Keisler kits - don't know if the successor company has them or not. They're about the same thickness as a hockey puck.

mccarley

I was just going to post the same picture. I got my kit from Silver Sport Transmissions and their kit came with the exact same parts. They were calling them seat supports. I did not realize what they were for until I saw them and looked up their use in the instructions. Looks like I am a set.

mccarley

I seem to be coming up on a lot of road blocks with the chassis assembly already.

Waiting for one serrated washer for the front suspension. I was suppose to have two in the kit I ordered for mounting the front lower "A" arms and there was only one. I had ordered the kit a long time ago so that I would have it, and now I am waiting for the replacement part from the vendor. This has the whole front suspension on hold.

Waiting for all the rear differential parts. I started to polish the carrier but need to go tomorrow to get some other polishing discs for the inside.

I have not ordered the trailing arm parts yet, so I can't work on those.

So, I started to remove the dash from the inside of the car. And a good thing I did. I knew from looking under there that there were some loose and cut wires. I also found several splices and a melted wire. I had cut open the loom to look at one of the splices and found the melted wire in there. I planned on replacing all the wiring anyway.

Also removed the brake pedal (I have a new brake/clutch combination), hood release, parking brake handle, and heating unit, etc. The heating unit seems to be in good condition, but needs a little rework. I also notice that only one of the windshield wiper rods was connected to the motor ?? (looks like a new motor??)





Old dash harness





Melted wire





Dash gone

I may start cleaning and scraping off old insulation inside here if I run out of things to do. I think there are some metal mounting plates that need to be replaced and I want to paint it.

Vet65te

Sam - Not sure if you mentioned it before or not but now is the perfect time to add Power Windows if you go that route?
Mike T - Prescott AZ

mccarley

I have not mentioned it, but I definitely want to do that. I just have not given it much thought yet on how to go about it. I need to find out if there are mechanisms that will work in my doors or if I need to get new doors, or what?

Vet65te

Sam - When I added PW, my 65 Coupe was a rolling shell after the body-off in the very early 90's so everything was wide open and accessible. Back then, I wound up buying factory PW out of another midyear. I do like PW and intend on adding it to my 56 Nomad and 61 Vette. The aftermarket kits I picked up came from Auto City Glass. Another vendor I've heard good things about is Nu Relic Power Windows. Take a look at the underside of your non-PW console and you'll see a raised outline where the PW switch opening will be. You have to be careful and it's slow going for cutting and filing but it will work out fine.
Mike T - Prescott AZ

mccarley

Well, I have spent the last couple of days polishing the posi case that came out of the car. Some bad news.

First the case had 18-10 spider gears in it and I was hoping for 17-10s. I was already going to order a steel bearing cap from Tom's Differentials and now it looks like I am also going to order some 17-10 cut tooth spider gears.

Second, after explaining to Tom that I had a case with the small window in it, he said that I had better look it over real good for cracks. He said to look around the big window closest to the ring gear mount. Guess what. Yep, cracked. So I guess I will be getting a new posi case from him also.

At this point I have new ring and pinion gears, All new Timken bearings, posi case rebuild kit, and I have had the carrier and cover powder coated. So, I guess I need to soldier on. With all these new parts on hand I do not have much choice.






Posi case before polishing





Some polishing done. Notice the small window. I am told that these are not very good cases.





Big window polished





The crack.

mccarley

I received my stainless steel fuel line a couple of days ago. The car had a pretty new steel line on it, but I decided to go with a stainless steel line while I had the car apart. I will probably do the same with the brake lines later.

I do not know what type of fastener was originally used to mount the fuel line but the frame was drilled and tapped for 5/16-24 threads. I was worried that these would strip out. Not a lot of meat in the frame thickness and not a lot of threads even with the fine threads to tighten to.

I got the fuel line out of the box. It was bent in half for shipping. I carefully straightened it out. For the most part it was formed pretty good. I had to do a little reshaping where it was routed at the front of the car and some more at the center of the car where it goes into the frame.

I chased the threads with a tap and started to mount the fuel line. And yep, a couple of the threads stripped out. I didn't tighten them much before they went. I decided to drill the holes out and install some aluminum rivet nuts. This changed the threads to 5/16-18 and gave me more threads to tighten on. They worked great.





This was one of the original 5/16-24 threaded holes in the frame.





This is the same hole drilled out. Notice the rivet nut sitting on top of the frame.





The rivet nut being installed. This tool sucks the part of the rivet nut on the inside of the frame up against it.





Here is a rivet nut at a different location of the frame. See how the inside portion is pulled up against the frame. Mushroomed





Done and installed. A little lock tight and we are good to go.





Fuel line along frame.





I had to to some extra bending to get the fuel line to fit real nice in this area.

mccarley

I have been reading every post I can find on rebuilding differentials and posi cases in the forum. There are a lot of them and I have been learning a lot. Since my new posi case will not be here until next Monday I figured I would spend some time and make some of the tools that I will need and have read about.

The first two pictures are of my new pinion flange tool. I used a piece of one inch black pipe, shaped a piece of 3/16 steel plate, and used three 5/16 bolts with the threads cut off.

The last picture shows the flange wrench, the five ring gear bolts that I cut off and slotted, the old pinion flange nut that I removed the locking feature on, and the old pinion bearing that I ground down the inside so that it is no longer a press fit. I will use all these items to set up my new pinion gear and to install the ring gear onto the posi case.

Thank you everyone on the forum that posts all the good instructions and information on doing this stuff. It is always very helpful.





New pinion flange wrench. Three fingers for a little more leverage and stability.





New pinion flange wrench on the flange. Notice that I shaped it so that I can get a socket in for tightening and loosening.





Pinion flange wrench, setup pinion nut, setup pinion bearing, and ring gear alignment studs.

mccarley

Well, I finally got the replacement washer (special serrated washer) that I needed to install the front lower control arms. I was supposed to have two of these in the hardware kit that I had ordered a long time ago, but there was only one. I had to wait almost three weeks to get the replacement.

Now that I have this the lower control arms went right on.




Missing special serrated washer




Special washer installed on 9/16 bolt of lower control arm.




New lower control arm.

vwtdi

Lookin good! Slow and steady always wins (except 100 meter dashes).

mccarley

First of all, I do read the instructions that come with any parts or kits I get just to make sure that I do not miss anything. Sometimes I choose to ignore something just because I think that I know best, sometimes it works out, and sometimes it turns around and bites me in the butt.

After installing the lower control arms the instructions said to re-install the shocks or in this case install them. I thought that I would wait so that I did not have the pressure of the shocks pushing down on the control arms. I figured that it would be easier to install them later after more of the suspension was installed. WRONG. I went ahead and installed the mono spring and sway bar before I realized that I would not be able to get the shock on past the spring. I had to take it all apart.

And secondly, I am really getting tired of opening up boxes to find hardware missing. In this case the shocks. One box had the upper mounting bushings and hardware, the other didn't.

O.K., I have taken the mono spring back off and now can get the shocks on. This is when I find out that I only have half the hardware that I need. The shocks of course use a metric M10 lock nut at the top so I had to go to the hardware store to get one of those. I have a few metric nuts and bolts, but nothing that size. The shocks (or shock in this case) came with rubber bushing to use at the top. Fortunately I had a spare set of polyurethane sway bar bushings that were very close to the same size and that I think will work better anyway.




On the left the rubber bushing that came with the shock. On the right the polyurethane bushing that I am using.

Now I can install the shocks. I stick one up in its pocket and loosely mount the top (finger tight). Next I push up on the bottom of the shock to align it with the mounting holes on the lower control arm and fight to get one of the fasteners started. After that I try to start the second fastener. Crap, it will not start. The holes do not line up. What the . I take the shock back off. I measure the hole centers on the shock (2-3/4"). I measure the hole centers on the control arm (2-5/8") What the . I go measure the hole centers on the old control arm (2-3/4"), . My choices are to alert the manufacturer of the control arms and spend weeks or months trying to get new ones or modify the shocks. I went with modify the shocks. Open up the slots 1/16" on each side with a burr tool and done.




The slot on the left is done. Just need to remove the material that is marked on the right.




Shock installed




Using polyurethane bushings at top.


I hope that I never have to replace these in my life time. It would require removing the mono spring and possibly modifying the shocks. Fortunately these are Bilstein high end shocks and should not have to be replaced for a long long time.

mccarley

After getting the lower control arms and front shocks installed I am ready to install the front mono spring. Or really re-install the front mono spring after having to remove it to get the shocks on. The second time is a charm. There are eight 5/16" bolts (4 on each side) that hold the spring to two pivoting blocks. You have to drive them up slowly until tight. I think that I will loosen them up when I am ready to lower it to the ground and put wight on it and then re-tighten them up.

rene-paul

I did a bearing/seal replacement on my 63 3:36 open diff. [Gary and his paper helped];
I used my original ring and pinion. I learned alot, I should have used the later pinion.
I too built my own pinion holding tool. The crush sleeve is tough with hand tools.
I found the solution from RATECH, they manufacture a "smart sleeve" that requires less rotational torque to "crush" their sleeve. I over crushed the 1st one but the learning curve was quick and OK second time. Check them out.
Brgds,
Rene

Bluestripe67

I installed a set of Bilstein shocks and had too slot my fronts also. I talked with VB&S at Carlisle about. They were aware and were working with the manufacturer. Dennis

63redvette

I consider the factory welding splatter the mark of an original...don't kick yourself for keeping it. Shows the original 1960s technology.