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So... I bought an unregistered 1965 Dodge Dart GT that has been sitting for about 20 years after the guy parked it due to a slipping gearbox. The car and another car was bought by the guy I got the car from. It has a 360 V8 in it apparently, but I don't know when the swap was done. The body is in ok shape. Has filler in all the suspected locations (rear wheel arches), and a big spot of rust on the back rear right corner. The frame seems solid. It's undercoated so I spent ages crawling and feeling / tapping as much as I can. I have likely missed something, but it felt and sounded solid.  (Can't find the other photos of the outside, so this'll do) The rust:  The plan is to get it running and driving as soon as possible so that it can be registered and inspected. To achieve this, the absolute first part is to clean as much as possible. Since the car had been sitting for 20 years, the obligatory mouse infestation had occurred and the interior floors were filled with whatever poo poo they had dragged in:    It was also made worse by the car sitting (I suspect) outside for months after it was sold to the guy who then sold it to me, and having rain leak inside. Hello mold! After removing the seat and a ton of vacuuming, the floor mats were still disgusting as hell: [timg]undefined[/timg] After even more cleaning and removing of interior, this is what I'm left with:   ... and this lovely thing:   Car used to be red I guess. I did a thorough clean of the doors and gave them a healthy dose of Bilt Hamber Dynax-UC (anti-corrosion). Was little to no corrosion that I could see. The front seats have seen better days, and the vinyl (it is vinyl, right?) has split in its seams and the drivers side is also missing the seat base foam.  The rear bench is in much better shape, but have some worn seams and a few small holes / rips. I cleaned it and gave it some TAC systems leather/vinyl/plastic treatment to give it some protection while it's outside of the car. I didn't remove the rest of the bench from the car as it was stuck on something, and I didn't want to pull before I can see what it's caught on.  After cleaning and treating it:  As you can see in some of the images, the door cards are shot and need redoing. After taking them off and looking at the back, it seems like it should be a pretty simple job to use the old one as templates and make new ones. I've been looking at some interior pictures of GT to see what the correct colour combination etc would be. It seems like the OEM door card style is one colour with more complicated stiching. At least the trim is in nice shape (I just spent some time with chrome polish, and they came up great). All the armrests are missing though, so will probably try to source some. The headliner and sun visors are / were clad in velour. That's coming off asap. I guess that's where the first day of work got me. Like I said, cleaning everything will be the highest priority as I don't want to sit / work in mouse crap and mold. Now that almost all of the interior is out I guess I need to look closer at all the patch welds and the gearbox lever welds and see if they can be left alone or need redoing. While I'm in there I want to wirewheel everything so I don't miss any rust and the treat with rust converter and Bilt Hamber Epoxy Mastic. Next time I go see the car I'll try to clean the engine bay so I can see what needs buying / doing to get it running.
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Feb 11, 2022 14:00
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Nice project. In Ohio, we'd call that "minimal rust." It barely registers on the Sockington scale. What's with the autozone chrome on the bottom of the driver's door?
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Feb 11, 2022 14:31
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meatpimp posted:Nice project. In Ohio, we'd call that "minimal rust." It barely registers on the Sockington scale. drat if it barely registers on the Sockinton scale I'm in luck (so far)! That autozone chrome was actually part of the Dart GT trim, except on my car they didn't think to put the third one back (that goes on the front fender), and they can be pretty expensive for what it is. There are supposed to be 3 on each side. I found one here in Sweden to buy for the front left side for about $30 excluding shipping, but I'll see if I can find a set first if I decide to buy. With the amount of chromed stuff on old cars I got the feeling I'll be getting arthritis in my fingers from all the polishing, but then again it often comes up really nice even if it looks like poo poo at the beginning.
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Feb 11, 2022 14:55
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MrOnBicycle posted:drat if it barely registers on the Sockinton scale I'm in luck (so far)! I'll be damned. I looked up some pics and saw the missing piece on the fender. I don't think I've ever seen that setup, and I've looked at muscle cars for decades... And polishing chrome is rewarding, so enjoy it!
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Feb 11, 2022 18:55
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did it have a vinyl top? the trim around the roof makes me think maybe, but i am also not super familiar with darts. if it did, is the roof mostly intact? car looks like a pretty solid start to a project. how close is it to running? does it turn over by hand?
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Feb 12, 2022 07:30
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Must've been some big rear end mice to get the driveshaft in there  . Glad to see you started a thread, man. I don't know poo poo about Mopars other than some of them used left-handed threads on one side's lugs and the parts are expensive. Excited to watch.
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Feb 12, 2022 16:05
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Raluek posted:did it have a vinyl top? the trim around the roof makes me think maybe, but i am also not super familiar with darts. if it did, is the roof mostly intact? Boaz MacPhereson posted:Must've been some big rear end mice to get the driveshaft in there Thanks! I have yet to inspect the driveshaft, but at least they duct taped the bearings (or whatever the parts are that can fall out). I hope it's ok. Picture from the front. It has those quick access hood pins instead of a latch. Not too fond of them, but they are pretty handy. I think the trim that goes around the grille and lights is in the trunk, but they also looked bent and buckled. I'll see what I can do to straighten them out and if they can be saved.  Engine bay:  Not a fan of PO leaving the coolant hose off the top of the head like that. There is some dirt inside. It is dry though, so hopefully I can vacuum out as much as possible and then flush the hell out of the system. I'll do that after the water pump is off it though. I have no idea if water pumps on these old engines are rebuildable or you replace the whole thing like on modern cars. Either way, don't want all the crap in it if possible to avoid. Also obviously missing an alternator (generator?). At least now I have a picture so I can remember how many belt grooves so I can order one.  Engine serial number.  Unboosted brake master cylinder? Looks poo poo, but if it can be rebuilt (unless new ones are cheap) I'll give it a go.  The oil filter has been moved it seems. Common mod? Either way I'm not a fan until I've inspected how everything is done, which will have to wait until I get the car on QuickJacks.  Last but not least, a real tired looking Holley carburetor. I know nothing about carburetors more than the basics of how they work. I hope this one isn't too far gone, because I'm looking forward to rebuilding one. That being said, I have no idea what model it is (except it looks pretty small) and I didn't find an obvious serial number on it. Googling some makes me think I didn't look hard enough, and it's somewhere on the base. Having just said I don't know anything about carbs, my reptile brain is going "biggur bettur", so maybe I should be on the hunt for a bigger carb already ?The game plan for the next time I'm at the car is to clean up the engine bay so I can better see what's what, maybe take the carb and brake master cylinder off for inspection and cleaning. I'll probably start on wire-wheeling the inside as well after I get the rest of the interior out. It's still cold and nasty outside, so that will limit how much a can be arsed to do. Edit: Seems to be a newer gen brake cylinder on it, and they are like $50 so screw rebuilding poo poo. MrOnBicycle fucked around with this message at 18:10 on Feb 12, 2022 |
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Feb 12, 2022 18:05
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good thing it's not frozen! i think that is one of those funny 2-barrel carbs that only has one throat. Like a Holley 2280. Looks like they were used on 80s trucks, so maybe that's what your motor is from. I think I see a plastic sensor on there, too, so that means its not too old. if you wanna have some fun with it, you'll want to find a 4-barel intake and carb of your choice. that has the double benefit of removing whatever crud fell in the coolant passages lol the oil filter relocation might be because the stock location interfered with something (crossmember or steering linkages or whatever), or they just wanted easier access for changing it. as long as it wasnt a total hackjob, i dont think thats too concerning Raluek fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Feb 12, 2022 |
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Feb 12, 2022 20:47
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Raluek posted:good thing it's not frozen! Yeah, as I didn't manage to get a good hold (without ruining my coat) on it when I went to look at the car I was a bit nervous. Thanks for finding the link about the carb! I'll need to take it off an find the serial number, but that carb page seems very useful!
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Feb 13, 2022 13:56
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A recent Vice Grip Garage involves a '77 Dodge pickup with the same engine and carb. For your entertainment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcAHeO08qCk I'm only 15 minutes in, so I don't know if he gets into the carb.
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Feb 15, 2022 01:05
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Nice! Will check it out! I’ve been cleaning up the worst of the crap in the engine bay as well as doing some more digging and uncovering past sins. I’m going to have to do some welding in both the drivers side and passenger side floor pan since it looks like someone did a repair patch that was just put over the hole and welded. The conversion to floor shifter is also a bit lacking. A panel is riveted on, which then has pretty poor looking welds (I think I posted a picture of it earlier). There are also holes near the torpedo wall where they didn’t properly weld and/or fill the gaps with metal. The center console that came with my car is a later one, and I like it and will be keeping it. I need to fabricate some brackets that look like the OEM ones so that it can be properly secured. I also removed the fender plate with the specifications and decoded it. Everything is as it should be, but I could have sworn that the car was white from factory. This because as I’ve found that the current black paint is flaking off and under it is white. The floor pans are black -> white -> yellow primer. The car has probably been painted red at some point in it’s life as there are oversprayed parts with red on them etc. So could be that during it’s almost 60 years long life it’s been repainted white, possibly red and then black. Black paint with red interior looks nice though, so will probably keep it black. I also started wire-wheeling the floor to reveal any potential hidden rust, and so far it’s been minimal apart from the above mentioned places. The layer before bare metal is yellowish and must be a primer of sorts. Either way it’s not coming off easily and seems well bonded to the metal. I’m thinking that I’ll leave it be where it’s not flaking off since it seems to have done a good job so far, and I should leave well enough alone. I’m giving the rest a good dose of Hydrate 80 rust converter. Before:  After some time of wire-wheeling:  Nice looking weld:  You can also see the rivets that hold the metal sheet in place. The welded part of the shifter can be disconnected from the rest of the mechanics, so if (I should, shouldn’t I) I remove the riveted metal sheet and weld in a better looking metal sheet (where I can better control the rust proofing) I’ll be able to orient it again without a major hassle.  I think this section of rust was fixed by someone slabbing on a sheet of metal on the underside and then welded it on. Doesn’t look like it was cut out and replaced. I’m going to cut this out and weld in some fresh metal. The rest of the patches in the flooring basically look like this:  … which should be fine, right?
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Feb 15, 2022 19:25
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MrOnBicycle posted:
That's the part number and casting date for the intake. If I'm reading that correctly the intake is from a 66-69 273 engine. The casting number for the engine block will be on the driver's side, below the exhaust manifold.
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Feb 15, 2022 19:25
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Nidhg00670000 posted:That's the part number and casting date for the intake. Ah, so that's where it's at. Tried to look down, but too little space to see it right now and it started raining a ton so I decided it was time to go home. I at least found the markings on the carb. It's a Holley R-7890 2859.  Going to be interesting to actually see the block ID. I'm convincing myself more and more that it's not a 360 in the car. While I did some cleaning I found the oil dip stick. I was looking for that since I first saw the car. For some reason I totally forgot about it. Seems like the dip stick tube either has broken of or was removed. I'm also really scratching my head regarding the original colour on the car. I mean it doesn't matter really, but I'd like to understand what's been done to the car. Like I wrote earlier the paintjob to black is dogshit and in parts (inside the car) it flakes of when my vacuum nozzle touches it. All parts have white paint and usually primer under the white paint. Some parts have black, white and red. Maybe parts from a different car after a collision or rusting? Either way I'm going to have to repaint this sucker at some point, and so far black is probably the best contender as it'll match the fender tag (lol). With how much crap there is on the engine, open orifices and the wrong colour of the block (lol) if it turns out to actually be a 360, I'm thinking I should probably get an engine hoist and stand and pull it out. Would also give me a chance to check out and rust proof the engine bay... hello project creep. At least it's not a modern car with millions of wires, sensors etc.
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Feb 16, 2022 16:01
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Darchangel posted:A recent Vice Grip Garage involves a '77 Dodge pickup with the same engine and carb. For your entertainment: sir, that's a fuel make it happener
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Feb 17, 2022 06:32
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EvilBeard posted:sir, that's a fuel make it happener I'm aware. It'll be fine. <shakes head> No. It won't.
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Feb 19, 2022 00:02
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Did some minor stuff yesterday. Finally got the spark plugs out (21mm) and went in with my cheap rear end endoscope to see what horrors lie inside. Didn't seem too bad, but the picture quality isn't great neither. Actually looks better now that I can inspect the pictures on a computer. There is some black goop around the piston edges in some cylinders: and one cylinder had what looks like flakey stuff at the very top (looks like the piston doesn't travel that far up?)  I took pictures of every cylinder, and it seems like the walls are clean and seem to reflect the piston head. Two cylinders were near TDC, so it was hard to see anything. Most piston heads seemed clean enough that I could see the lettering. The spark plugs all looked the same (out of focus), i.e black. Means it's been running rich?  I sprayed Liqui Moly fogging oil before closing up. I also took the carb off and vacuumed the intakes etc. I also decided to try some paint remover on the floor of the car to hopefully speed up the removal of the lovely black paintjob, and left it for a couple of hours while I did other stuff around the house (car is at our family house which needs a ton of renovation done) and the paint stripper worked great on the black paint. The white paint underneath and yellow primer was pretty much untouched which is both good and bad I guess. In a way it would be nice if it ate through everything, but then again if it is on there so hard that it resists paint stripper and takes ages to remove with a wirewheel, I'm happy. Also uncovered some more small rust spots in the floor which is good. Would never have spotted it without paint stripper and wirewheeling. I took all the stainless steel / chrome trim home with me and spent some time cleaning it. Still waiting on the papers for the car to arrive, which is a bit annoying as I want to register the car before I start ordering a ton of parts.
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Feb 19, 2022 09:08
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Cool project. Did you get a chance to figure out which engine is in it? Also for just paint removal I have found these are absolutely incredible vs wire wheels. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07VGSDRC5?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title builds character fucked around with this message at 14:55 on Feb 20, 2022 |
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Feb 20, 2022 14:53
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builds character posted:Cool project. Did you get a chance to figure out which engine is in it? Not yet. I've tried to look down and use the endoscope, but haven't been able to see the engine code just yet. Thanks for the tip! I actually remembered that those exist just today, so I'll be buying some next time I'm there. Pretty lovely weather next week with rain and snow, so not likely to get much done.
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Feb 20, 2022 15:10
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Did some more staring at pictures and research (i.e. learning what the hell I'm working on) and realized that the front seats aren't the original 1965 Dart GT seats. This is good news in a way since the later model seats are a much simpler design, which in turn could potentially mean that we could give repairing them to a functional state a go. I really need to have a set goal for this car, but one that doesn't bite me in the rear end when it comes to either having to redo things or get stuck with a project that became much greater than it was supposed to. I also think (and correct me if I'm wrong) that with the current state of the car, trying to make it 100% original (or even close) would be foolish and stupidly expensive. That being said, getting the model correct things where I can is preferable but within financial reason. I also want to do things "properly" (again within reason) so that at least the next owner won't lament too much. I guess a project of itself is to avoid project creep. So the things I plan to do in order to have piece of mind for myself and make it driveable are: * Finish removing old paint etc on the floor pans and weld in new steel where needed. * Remove the engine and gearbox and disassemble enough of the engine so I can inspect it and clean if needed. Especially the coolant system as it's been left open for years. * While the engine is out I'd like to remove old paint and inspect the engine bay as well. * Fix the interior so we can sit in it without getting sick or get impaled by seat springs. * Inspect the gearbox and see what's actually wrong with it and get it fixed.
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Feb 21, 2022 16:57
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Spent like 5 hours grinding the floor of the drivers side. Turns out flap discs are the best when it comes to cost + time + effort. The strip 'n clean discs I bought wore down very quickly if they touched harsh edges etc, and at $12 a pop I liked the flap discs more. I had to use my Ryobi battery powered grinder as the flap disc was too large for the old (dangerous) wired angle grinder. I did eventually find a flap disc at home that fit, and that really sped the process up. With battery power I got like 20+10 minutes of grinding before both batteries were empty. I happily discovered that the paint stripped I had tried last time had continued to work while I were gone, and had removed much of the white paint. So I have added another layer to the passenger side so it can do its magic while I'm gone. Even if this was more work than I planned, it's nice to see how the metal actually looks. Also been grinding down old welds so it looks nicer / has flatter surface.   The purple stuff is Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 rust converter. Right or wrong, I chose this because of the small pits of rust that I couldn't get out mechanically. Works as a primer what the epoxy I'm putting down next. I'm sure it'll be fine.
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Feb 23, 2022 08:44
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That floor is looking a lot better. Yeah, the rust converter is a good idea. A good epoxy primer is also not a bad idea - it seals up any rust away from air and moisture, so effectively stops it where it is. For the seat, if you want to be cost effective, and have some fabrication skill for brackets, you can acquire bucket seats out of something else and just use those until you can afford to mess with what's in there. One thing to note is that you will need seats out of a coupe if you wan to easily access the rear seat. I've run into that issue on my previous 2-door Jeep Cherokee, where a prior owner installed 4-door Grand Cherokee seats. No flip/fold forward feature.
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Feb 23, 2022 22:03
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Darchangel posted:That floor is looking a lot better. That's a good idea and yeah I might do that if I get to the point where I need seats faster than I can fix the old ones. Especially since they aren't model year correct anyway. Been distracted by the horrible poo poo happening in Ukraina, but felt that I needed to do something so I went to the car and did some more gridning. Takes much less time now that I know what combination of tools to use. The passenger side had much more poo poo hidden, and has small pitting in many places as well as small rust holes ( I like how wire wheels just uncover them by eating away all the weak stuff quickly). Definitely going to have to do some welding there. The hardest bit might be the inside door sill, but it'll be fun to try. I'm just nervous about what I'll discover underneath when I start removing floor metal.     Sorry about out of focus, but this is supposed to show a bit of rust and bulging of the "seam":  Doesn't looks too bad as of now, but will try to clean it up further and see. I also (finally) got so annoyed at the damp moldy smell that I decided to rip out the headliner. Some PO decided it was a good idea to take what I assume to be a perfectly good original headliner and ruin it my painting it white with glue and sticking a nasty velour sheet of cloth on it. I all ripped to hell when I took it out, and I now know where the mice had their palace. This is just the tip of the iceberg  :  The metal had rusted from all the pee, and some of the stuffing they took for their nest is stuck hard to the inner roof. Thankfully only surface rust. The car was painted in that yellowy pea soup primer that I showed in other pictures. No other paint. I also decided that it's probably a good idea to try to remove the dash trim etc so that I can better access the firewall and rat nest of wires and most importantly not ruin it with splatter from the welding that is going to have to be done. Much plastic here, so the risk is high. The first hurdle is that someone decided that it was a good idea to weld the steering wheel instead of using, say a nut on the bolt. So as you all can see this escalated a bit, but I'd rather take it back to a level where I won't be annoyed at myself for not going a bit further. Going to take longer, but looking forward to learning poo poo along the way.
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Feb 27, 2022 16:35
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Yeah, all that headliner is gonna have to come out. Bummer. Make sure you keep those bows in good shape and save any clips you come across. I actually managed to cast a decent replacement headliner clip out of resin when I replaced the headliner in my Nova.
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Feb 27, 2022 16:44
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:Yeah, all that headliner is gonna have to come out. Bummer. Make sure you keep those bows in good shape and save any clips you come across. I actually managed to cast a decent replacement headliner clip out of resin when I replaced the headliner in my Nova. Thankfully I got it all out without too much of a hassle and without getting too much mouse poo poo on me. My Lidl shop vac has been a drat trooper sucking all that poo poo up. None of the bows broke, and are in good shape except for some surface rust. One of the metal clips that hold the saw tooth brackets broke (but was at the biggest concentration of mouse piss, so didn't stand much chance I guess) though. I was planning on replacing the headliner either way because it looks like poo poo so I don't mind too much, but it's kinda annoying that I find what looked like (under the circumstances) a good headliner underneath. Same story with the sun visors. Oh well.
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Feb 27, 2022 17:17
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MrOnBicycle posted:Thankfully I got it all out without too much of a hassle and without getting too much mouse poo poo on me. My Lidl shop vac has been a drat trooper sucking all that poo poo up. None of the bows broke, and are in good shape except for some surface rust. One of the metal clips that hold the saw tooth brackets broke (but was at the biggest concentration of mouse piss, so didn't stand much chance I guess) though. If you're careful, you might be able to salvage the guts of the visors, anyway. I was able to peel the covering off mine and re-cover them with leftover headliner material and some trim fabric. Here's my post about it: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3651725&userid=99421&perpage=40&pagenumber=4#post459665653
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Feb 27, 2022 18:04
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:If you're careful, you might be able to salvage the guts of the visors, anyway. I was able to peel the covering off mine and re-cover them with leftover headliner material and some trim fabric. Here's my post about it: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3651725&userid=99421&perpage=40&pagenumber=4#post459665653 Nice! My visors are pretty much intact except the PO have splattered glue all over them. If I could get the glue stains off them, they would be pretty much OEM except for some pitting on the chrome clips. They are black though. To be honest, the different paints etc on this car is super confusing. Even parts that generally don't get replaced have weird colour layers.
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Feb 27, 2022 20:54
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MrOnBicycle posted:The first hurdle is that someone decided that it was a good idea to weld the steering wheel instead of using, say a nut on the bolt. What in the… why would you do that? Wow. quote:So as you all can see this escalated a bit, but I'd rather take it back to a level where I won't be annoyed at myself for not going a bit further. Going to take longer, but looking forward to learning poo poo along the way. It always escalates. Don’t worry about it. All you can do is decide what’s important, and do that. It does get frustrating, that’s for sure. Work on the stuff that makes the car drivable and livable first. Cosmetics second, unless it’s easy and cheap. To be honest, though, sometimes a quick project to make something look nice does a lot for the morale.  MrOnBicycle posted:Nice! Maybe look into vinyl dye if the glue is t ruining the texture. Color change is fairly easy. Paint and body shops do this all the time - one may be willing to do a color change for you if you don’t want to/don’t have the equipment ( the best stuff uses spray guns.)
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Feb 27, 2022 21:37
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Darchangel posted:What in the… why would you do that? Wow. There are two welds on either side of the bolt that holds the steering wheel. Why you would do this when the threads look perfectly good is beyond me. The steering wheel has a Valiant badge on it and is clearly not even close to what was fitted originally as it has it's separate ignition lock. I can probably grind off the welds though. I wonder about the threads though. Yeah that's the plan. Fix the inside and get it livable so it can actually be driven without becoming sick in the process. I think right now I'll focus on sorting the interior as it's easier with regards to the outside climate and being important for it to be livable. Next big step will probably be to pull the engine and transmission. I'll probably clean the engine bay and sort any potential rust there then and put it all back in. The electrics will need sorting as well (looking forward to that part) as there are some PO fuckery going on there as well as it'll probably need a refreshing on all wires to be reliable. I need to get the car up on my QuickJack to inspect it from below better. When it comes to cosmetics I'll try to revive the existing trim as best as I can, and I'll probably try my hand at painting the car myself. I'll probably paint it black as it's what's on the fender plate that the car came with. I have no idea what the actual factory colour was, wand if it's been changed at some point in it's life. I've seen some white, rust red and pea soup yellow colour so far. The condition of the current paint is super poo poo, and most of it is flaking off easily. I think the general plan is to make the car driveable with repairs that are decent and with decent cosmetics. I kinda like ratty looking cars, but not if they are looking poo poo because someone was lazy and did a super poor job. Edit: About dyeing - looking into it as it would be awesome to find a dye with the metallic red colour of the original interior so that I mainly have to worry about the texture of the vinyl. I've gotten some samples, but as of now I haven't found vinyl with the correct texture. I want to make the door cards myself as they are missing some original trim and will be super expensive to get full replacements off. Also Boaz MacPhereson, thanks for the link to your thread. I'm reading through it right now. So far plenty of stuff in common (except I couldn't drive my car lol). MrOnBicycle fucked around with this message at 12:10 on Feb 28, 2022 |
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Feb 27, 2022 22:18
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MrOnBicycle posted:
Good poo poo, that. I bought some over a year ago and my first test for it was to coat the sheet metal backing plate/stop for the little air gun range/shack thing I built in the garden. The stop is just a sheet of 2mm steel and it was previously untreated so was getting weathered and rusty so I coated it with Hydrate after pulling off most of the rust. Like I said it has been over a year sat outside in all elements and it has shown zero change from what it was after it had dried that first time. I'm going to strip some off in a couple of months to see what the underneath is like but I'm impressed at how hardy it seems to be. Also I love Darts. Such cool looking cars. Good luck with this!
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Mar 1, 2022 17:23
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Olympic Mathlete posted:Good poo poo, that. I bought some over a year ago and my first test for it was to coat the sheet metal backing plate/stop for the little air gun range/shack thing I built in the garden. The stop is just a sheet of 2mm steel and it was previously untreated so was getting weathered and rusty so I coated it with Hydrate after pulling off most of the rust. Like I said it has been over a year sat outside in all elements and it has shown zero change from what it was after it had dried that first time. I'm going to strip some off in a couple of months to see what the underneath is like but I'm impressed at how hardy it seems to be. Thanks! Yeah I'm a big fan of Bilt Hamber products. Been using their cleaning products for car detailing, and the rust stuff is supposed to be top notch. Shame that Brexit has made it more expensive to import (and Swedish retailers have insane prices), but I'll probably bite the bullet and get more stuff when the time comes. Hopefully I can find some Euro retailer with decent prices.
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Mar 2, 2022 07:17
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I'm working my way up the Sockington scale:   I forgot to take pictures before coating it all in rust converter. I wasn't really surprised at the rust I found in the passenger foot area. Seemed to have been rust growing between the top of the chassis rail and the bottom of the floor pan. The inside of the chassis rail was solid but full of dirt (has round openings along it). My shop vac hose fit well inside it so I sent it on an expedition and from the sound of it I vacuumed out a ton of crap. I didn't have time to start any welding, but will do it next time. I also spent a ton of time with a dremel and one of those super flimsy cutting discs to try to free up the welded in steering wheel. I got though a lot of it, but in the end I said gently caress it and got an angle grinder. The steering wheel is worn as hell and has huge cracks at 3 or 3 bases. I didn't manage to save the thread of the main "bolt" unfortunately. The weld had gone into all the threads and pretty wide. I was hoping to maybe get it off with minimal damage and then thread chase so it would work. I still need a puller to get the steering wheel lock, but I guess I need a new steering column? Either way I need a new steering wheel. I also would really like to get the whole dash panel out. I really don't want to accidentally get weld splatter on the plastics of the dash or ruining stuff. It's also much easier to clean and restore if off the car. The wiring looks crusty and messy as well,so I guess I am planning to redo all the wiring as well. I take smaller stuff home to my apartment so I can clean stuff in the evenings or have rust remover baths going for screws and smaller stuff. I decided to try using a brass wire wheel on my dremel tool to clean chrome and my god was it great to use. No scratches, much faster and great results. Of course pretty much everything has pitting somewhere, but it's still a night a day kinda thing. Speaking of shiny stuff. Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely not everything is chrome when it comes to trim. My gut feeling says that most outside trim is polished stainless steel? Like the edge trims and maybe the bumpers? Finally I also started to take the carb apart for cleaning. It's rusty and stained on the outside, but the inside looks clean. TLDR: Hello Pandoras box of crust. Edit: I guess I can try to weld up the shaft threads and cut new threads in them and use some plastic filler to restore the steering wheel as well as till up the inevitable angle grind marks on the metal around the shaft. The whole steering column is probably from a Valiant that's slightly newer (there is a ignition lock cylinder on it). It needs cleaning up and painting anyway. MrOnBicycle fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Mar 14, 2022 |
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Mar 13, 2022 18:54
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Ordered a steering wheel puller and got the steering wheel off which in turn allowed me to get the dashboard off. Also got the dash padding off so it can be restored. The wiring in this car is a rats nest and I don't get how a car from the 60's can have that many wires and sure enough most go to after market stuff that aren't attached anymore or to dead ends. Got a few pictures, but in all honesty I doubt it'll help much and when I redo the wiring I'll just use the factory wiring diagram. Thankfully it seems like both the steering wheel and the column can be saved from the PO's dumb welding that I had to cut. With all the potentially flammable and easily ruined stuff out of the way I tried my hand at welding, which was both harder and easier than I expected. I got caught up in it and totally forgot to take pictures, but I welded the hole in the chassis that can be seen in the previous post. I only have a flux core welder, but after some trial and error and remembering that I bought better flux core wire (which made a big difference) I managed to get it in and learned a ton. Before doing any of the thinner metal places I'm going to do some practicing though because there were plenty of hurdles, with the biggest one being getting consistent welds and not burning through. It seemed like I could start a weld in one place with no problem but the next time I started the weld it would instantly burn through. Also sometimes it wouldn't spark, which perhaps is cause by the clamp not conducting properly in the place I've put it? I also crawled under the car and saw that I have a 2070741 differential which google tells me is a Chrysler 8-3/4" differential. I couldn't get far enough to see any numbers for ratios etc. Hopefully the paperwork will turn up any day now as I contacted the seller who finally got round to sending it (on the road a lot or something). I don't want to start spending a ton of money before I know the car can be registered.
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Mar 20, 2022 06:42
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Fluxcore welding is pretty easy, but just because it is what it is, it's tougher on thin stuff. MIG allows you to use a thinner wire with a bit lower amperage, and probably some cooling effect of the gas helps. I literally didn't even open the wire that came with my cheap fluxcore welder, instead going straight to Miller welding wire as recommended by veterans, hopefully making my experience better. I've since upgraded to a medium tier MIG (older Hobart 120V machine) and it welds so much nicer when I don't forget to turn on the gas.
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Mar 22, 2022 20:16
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Sorry about the lack of updates. I've been ordering and collecting some stuff that'll help me progress as well as trying to find materials. The PO is deciding to be annoying as gently caress and never getting round to posting the documents for the car. I've asked the national archive in Sweden to send me copies of what I hope are earlier registrations of the car so that I don't have to wait for the PO to get his rear end in gear. I'm going to spam him until he does though, just to be annoying. I've also ordered and received an engine hoist and engine stand, as well as a MIG/MAG/TIG welder that fit the budget and had decent specs. Looking forward to trying it out since it has digital interface with presets etc. All I need is to go buy some welding gas and wire and I'm good to go. I was planning on going this weekend, but the weather decided to turn to poo poo, and I don't want all my new stuff to get soaked in rain. In the meantime I've ordered some samples of vinyl so that I can hopefully find something that's close enough to the vinyl on the front seats to replace. Thankfully also found a store that sells foam in bulk so that I can make custom replacement if needed. Right now I am attempting to clean the old foam (since it's in good shape). We'll see if it's possible. Darchangel posted:Fluxcore welding is pretty easy, but just because it is what it is, it's tougher on thin stuff. MIG allows you to use a thinner wire with a bit lower amperage, and probably some cooling effect of the gas helps. I literally didn't even open the wire that came with my cheap fluxcore welder, instead going straight to Miller welding wire as recommended by veterans, hopefully making my experience better. Yeah I've given up on fluxcore welding for this project. It's great for the task I bought it for, i.e. welding up the leg of a cement mixer. Edit: ...and I got photocopies of the old registration documents from the national archive today, with what I hope to be enough information. I like how MOPAR vin numbers seems to have the first two characters very shallowly stamped, so I almost missed it the first time round. Thankfully everything seems a 100%, so shouldn't be a problem getting the car re-registered. Going to do it ASAP, and hopefully it all goes smoothly and I can start ordering poo poo for it. MrOnBicycle fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Apr 11, 2022 |
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Apr 11, 2022 14:17
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Good news: Papers have been sent and hopefully it'll be no problem. I also found vinyl for the seats where the pattern fits very well but I'll need to re-colour it all when done (which shouldn't be a problem). My wife dug up the old Husqvarna (Viking internationally) Type 21 which turns out to be a bit of a monster of a consumer sewing machine when it comes to power. For fun I tried to sew with a normal needle through the sun visor (non wooden board part ) which is the cardboard-like material + the fringe material, and it only slipped a couple of times. I've then spent some time servicing it and it should be good to go. I've sidetracked a bit as looking at sewing machines has been pretty interesting. Keeping my eye on a Bernina 910 that might be a steal (auction). Both should be enough to do anything that I need. Might not be 1:1 stitching length etc compared to the original seats, but I don't give a poo poo about that. If I can save hundreds to thousands on interior costs I'm happy for it not to be perfect. I'm also super interested in learning as it's been on my "want to learn" list for ages. I've also disassembled the backrest of one of the seats, and at the moment it seems like the foam can be saved. Hand washed it and let it soak in washing liquid for ages, and has now been drying on the balcony for a couple of days. I'm going to steam it as well, and hopefully it'll remove any remaining bad smells. Last option will be to ozone machine it. I've also found a Swedish company that sells all the fabric and hog rings etc that's needed to put it back together (without charging an arm and a leg). Also, does anyone know what material the cardboard-like fabric of the sun visors is called? Trying hard to not buy tons of poo poo before the car is registered though. Hopefully it goes through in time for the warmer weather which will speed up work. Bad news: Due to German connections for argon/co2 gas being different to Swedish, and welding wire going out of stock just as I was about to get at the store, I'll have to wait for adapters and orders which means I won't be welding this weekend. At least it gives me more options with regards to what wire to get. Don't think we have Lincoln stuff here (which I've read is great). Maybe ESAB wire or something.
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Apr 16, 2022 07:36
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Small but significant update: The car has now passed the first step of getting it re-registered, i.e. the verification of origin. The next step is bringing the car to an inspection where they check that the car matches the documents. After that it's a normal inspection to make sure it's safe. After that the car will never need another inspection. I have finally gotten my new welder put together, and am practicing welding before doing too much welding on the car. Also been practicing some sewing and working my way up to doing some upholstery. Planning on doing the sun visors first. All in all this means that I should be able to start buying things for the car as well. Fun times! A poo poo ton of work ahead of me though as it seems like every drat time I look at the car there is something new that I want to fix in the future.
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May 10, 2022 16:20
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Excellent. Let the flurry of rebuilding commence! Or maybe a slow trickle with bursts of mild flow, like mine.
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May 11, 2022 22:42
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Darchangel posted:Excellent. Let the flurry of rebuilding commence! I'd say I'm in that same burst of mild flow category. I've been practicing welding some and am getting better at it. I finally decided to put the front up on jack stands in preparation for pulling the gearbox and engine, and to get a better view of the stuff I'm welding. Big oof though:   I kinda saw this when I went to look at the car, but not how bad it was. The way the car sat made it hard to examine it properly, and I was kinda hoping that it either was the undercoating that had been dripping, or a repair that was good but looked ugly. I didn't bring my calipers, but a rough estimation is that the thickness should be about 2mm? Looking at it closer, it seems like someone probably just welded some metal over the rust holes... I'm thinking that I'll probably remove the engine and transmission first to reduce the load on the rails, and the either weld 3 separate pieces in an U shape (one at a time) or perhaps shape one pice into a U shape and weld it on. The latter is probably much better for strength, but I'm worried about the rail getting weak when cutting the bad parts out and bending. Also, finally got stuff out the way so I could get a look at the block number which is "2465330-1". That would mean it's a 273 that's in the car and not a 360 that the seller said. I wonder why they had to hack up the transmission tunnel to put what appears to be a TorqueFlite A904 in it when it was what came in stock... unless it was put back in after having "bigger" stuff in it? I don't think I really mind it being a 273 in it instead as it's what it had originally. I don't get this:  This can't be right? Anyway, I decided to just go gently caress it and go through the whole car. Started from the front, and got the fenders off. One looks to be in good shape, the other one looks like it's had some "repairs". Hopefully I can make it look better. I couldn't get all of the bumper off because of course someone decided to use 2 hex female bolts size 11...  Doesn't look too bad so far, but I'll have to grind it all back to see. ... and yes the drive is overgrown. I'm splitting my time between the car and doing stuff to the family house where the car is at.
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May 23, 2022 16:12
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MrOnBicycle posted:I'd say I'm in that same burst of mild flow category. I've been practicing welding some and am getting better at it. I finally decided to put the front up on jack stands in preparation for pulling the gearbox and engine, and to get a better view of the stuff I'm welding. Big oof though: I think that area of the "frame rail" just gets smacked a lot when driven, or people like to put jacks or jack stands there (incorrectly) - my RX-7 is pretty bent up there, too. That may not be rust - possibly just an attempt to strengthen it. I'd still probably grind back those welds and take a look to see what was there and what was done, at least on one side. quote:I don't get this: There should be a flat cover plate there: https://www.google.com/search?q=Tor...sclient=gws-wiz
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May 24, 2022 16:24
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Darchangel posted:I think that area of the "frame rail" just gets smacked a lot when driven, or people like to put jacks or jack stands there (incorrectly) - my RX-7 is pretty bent up there, too. That may not be rust - possibly just an attempt to strengthen it. I'd still probably grind back those welds and take a look to see what was there and what was done, at least on one side. Yeah could very well be that it's been smacked, rusted and someone decided to weld patch panels on top of it or a poor-ish attempt to strengthen it. The caved in part happened after the side collapsed when I put it on jack stands (despite aiming at the "walls" and not the "bottom" part as per the manual. Either way I'm hoping it won't be too much of a nightmare to fix. The inside is full of dirt and crap. There are also some minor holes in other parts of the frame rails. At least the parts where the torque rods fit seem to be rust free. I'll be cleaning all the old under-seal off as I work my way through the car. Also massive thanks about the cover plate. I've not worked with transmissions more than on modern FWD cars where this hasn't been a thing. Now it all adds up. From what I've read, the A904 is the "weaker" version of the 727 if you will. I have no idea how bad the slipping that the PO was talking about it, or what condition it's in really. I guess it'll have to wait until I've done the structural repairs and put the engine and transmission back in. Unless I see a cheap cover plate come up, I think I'll hold off on it until then. So much other stuff to do... like the wiring need a complete redoing as it's basically 50% housing indoor grade wire. Actually really looking forward to doing the electrics. This project so far has been a roller coaster where I get to the car and see the tons of work needed which almost makes me want to give up, but then I just go "gently caress it" and start doing something and just relax. This is supposed to be something for fun, not work, and once I put myself in that mindset and just go with the flow it really is super enjoyable and low stress. Even stuff like using hand tools despite it taking longer is pretty relaxing.
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May 24, 2022 17:43
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