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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Nidhg00670000 posted:Basically no-one bothers to work on 904s anymore because the 727 is so ubiquitous, but if you're not going for big horsepower a stock 904 will work just as fine, if not better thanks to be lighter and having less internal resistance. I see. That’s very useful to know. I don’t know what I’ll do for horsepower (and don’t know how much potential grief I could get from police and so on if I upgrade). Probably get it running first and worry about that later. Either way I’ll test it first in the car first because at this point I don’t trust what the PO (that only had the car for a short time) was saying about it (or anything). Could as well be that the 360 and whatever gearbox was mated to it was pulled out and the original put back in. Either way I’ll have to sort a ton of stuff before getting to that point.
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May 25, 2022 09:56
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Darchangel posted:This is pretty much the key to this kind of work. Yeah that’s a good tip as well. I’ll do some version of this! Also makes it easier to “time” different jobs. Spent 2 hours this evening doing some metal bashing and getting a big dent out from the inner fender in the engine bay as well as started straightening the lip where the fender attaches. A TON of repair work has been done here and I am considering making a whole new lip with fresh metal as the old welds aren’t great and go all over the place. I’ll give it a shot with all the indentations and so on. Metal working is pretty fun, and having a set of hammers and dollys is a must really. Can’t imagine doing this is just a normal hammer. I also started taking the fender trims off and put paint remover on one of the fenders so that I can see what horrors lie below and start getting dents out. There are some repairs with a ton of visible welds in the back. I probably will have to cut out a bunch from these as well. The biggest advantage of going through the car front to back is that I won’t have a ton of stuff to store, and hopefully can sort things out and get it back on the car. Small steps!
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May 25, 2022 20:16
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Ok so some more work done and some more discoveries. I'm moving up on the sockington scale...  Someone had just filled that hole with welds... I vacuumed a ton of crap out of there, so lets move up in the panel and see what behind door number one:  Doesn't show in the picture, but it was packed hard. Thankfully doesn't seem like the other side had the same problem. I need to find where all this is supposed to drain as well as cutting the scuttle panel off and see what's going on before repairing it. With the new information about it actually being a 273 mated to a A904, combined with all the dents in the engine bay I'm even more convinced that this car at some point was modded and then reverted to the stock configuration. I failed to get a good picture of those parts, but it's pretty consistent with what I've seen people do to get engine swaps to fit. Maybe that's why the oil filter was moved at some point as well. Bad before picture, but you can see one of the dents just below where the electrical tape is wound on the positive battery cable:  After some hammering:  I did some more work on it after that picture, but forgot to take a new one. It's probably at 90% good now, and I'll probably leave it at that. Like mentioned before the attachment lip (no idea what this is called to be honest) for the fenders are rough on both sides of the car. The rust primer spray (temporary) makes the previous welds stand out and yeah...  I think I can replicate it with a decent result with enough time, but the holes for the hood spring mechanism will be the hardest part. The passenger side is much worse and needs complete replacement. The reason all this wasn't easy to spot when I looked at the car is that it was hidden by some sort of seam sealer like material and thick layers of paint. I got the whole front bumper off as well as the lower part body work. Also took out the radiator which is looking tired. Inspecting the bottom there is further evidence of another engine (or setup) being in the car as part of the lower mount for the radiator and misc parts has been cut in order to fit a bigger radiator or something. MrOnBicycle fucked around with this message at 12:54 on May 26, 2022 |
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May 26, 2022 12:51
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Darchangel posted:My RX-7 rusted in a similar area of the cowl on both sides, which was a real pain, since there was *also* a brace welded over that area. I was just able to see the rust through some lightening holes in the brace. I'm glad I looked and found it, though. At least I didn't have to worry about the hood hinges, what with the reverse opening hood and all. It doesn't really show in the picture, but the welded part is very uneven and won't go fully straight. It also seems very thin in places, and will likely break / rust soon anyway. I think I'm going making a replacement a try, but I won't cut anything out until I'm happy with the replacement. That way I hopefully haven't painted myself into a corner and I'll just live with the current repair job. I'm dreading the cowl a bit more, but I'm thinking that a clean cut that includes the rusty part as well as enough of the cowl for me to see and work on whatever horror is on the inside might be a good way to go. If the part I cut off is in good shape I might be able to reuse it and repair the rusty parts and thus won't need to redo the curves and whole shape. I'm a big fan of Bilt Hamber stuff. Really good rust related products. I covered the whole floor after grinding it down with their rust converter and it is holding up. When I finish up the floor I'll cover it with their epoxy-mastic primer. I'll probably use this in most if not all parts of the car. For maximum protection they recommend zink primer before the epoxy, but that also requires clean metal. Problem is that it's not as cheap and easy to get hold of anymore as it was pre -Brexit. I'd like to have some solution that I can use for the whole car, that's also simple to apply. Epoxy-mastic is 2 component, so that will require more planning than say putting a coat of Rust-oleum on the car.
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May 27, 2022 16:44
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Ok so I pulled the engine but of course the transmission bolts didn't fit through the holes in the stand so I'll have to find and order some bolts that fit. For now the engine rests on a trashbag full of styrofoam and stabilized by the hoist. Also I'm super thankful that the transmission bolts weren't rusted solid or super tight because man those were hard to get to. The reason I decided to separate the two were pretty much because of the weight and that I was doing this alone. Anyway with that done I started grinding off the old paint and primer. I found that going over it with a flap disk for a first pass and then get the details with a finger sander works well on this area (with all the bends, angles and hard to reach places). Also a lot less vibration and I can grind down imperfections and old welds with more pressure. Pretty relaxing as well. Being that I got almost all of it down to clean bare metal and the places I couldn't get to were covered with primer and some old paint I decided to use zink primer to protect the 98% that was going to benefit most from it:   Found a bit of an "oof" when pulling off the exhaust manifold:   It seems like the broken off bit fractured off and fits almost perfectly where it broke. Worth trying to weld and grind, or will it turn to poo poo because the crack is where it mates to the engine? Almost did my first bit of interior work. The materials were super cheap so the cost of practicing is pretty much negligible:  While my Bernina is super awesome and I love it, it's not really built for this stuff. It punches through without issue, but the feeding and space between the presser and the machine is not optimal. I decided to mark out where all the stitches should be and then manually sew each with the machine and a quilting presser (for space). Aside from the annoying wonky bit on one of the seams and the edge trim not being 100% straight, I'm pretty happy with it for a first ever try. This is the first sewing I've done since middle school. I'm pretty convinced that I'll get some second hand walking foot industrial machine in the future, because this is a ton of fun. I'll also have a proper table to cut on so the bits can be more straight. My wife would kill me if I made marks on the table I had to use, so didn't want to risk using a roller cutter or similar. Edit: Forgot to mention that I drained the oil before lifting the engine and it was a mix of gasoline, some sludge and thick oil. Probably the same oil it had when it last ran god knows when. Nothing rusty and/or metal in it though. As soon as I'll find the bolts to get it on the engine stand I'll start stripping the engine and find out what's what. MrOnBicycle fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Jun 6, 2022 |
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Jun 6, 2022 11:41
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Nidhg00670000 posted:Welding cast iron is a bitch. To do it correctly you need to pre-heat the whole manifold since cast iron isn't very ductile, it cracks easily due to thermal stresses when rapidly heated or cooled. If you do it incorrectly the carbon (cast iron has a high carbon content) might also migrate into the weld and cause it to become very brittle and crack. Figures. The other header is fine though, so either I try to find a new drivers side one or go with a different setup.
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Jun 6, 2022 12:22
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:Your visors look fantastic! I re-covered mine as well but they look a bit rear end compared to yours as I did them by hand. Great work. You are much too kind! I have your thread bookmarked as a how-to for everything I need to do on my car (but mine is shittier as it turns out). Since everything will be drat expensive to try to source from the US to Sweden I'll be reusing / redoing as much as I can myself. At least to get the car running and driveable. After that I'll decide if I want to buy $1000 interior seats and so on. When it comes to the interior I'll try to get the car "livable and drivable" by doing the work myself. Big part of this project is me wanting to learn things as I go, so I'm not too worried about having perfect stuff. I'll be painting the car myself as well. In a way it's very liberating because I don't have to worry spending $4-5k on a paint job that I'll (inevitably) won't be happy with. As this obviously isn't a matching numbers original car I don't really care either.  Really in the end, sitting for an hour just spacing out while sanding old paint away is surprisingly relaxing and I feel it kinda restores the mind in an odd kind of way.
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Jun 6, 2022 13:55
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I guess I'll find a replacement since buying that kit and with the high likelihood of failure will make it an expensive experiment. My wife's dad might have one / know someone who does. Anyway here's some small progress as I got the bolts for mounting the engine to the stand in time:      Doesn't look too bad...? Was a ton of sticky gunk (old gasket material) that wasn't able to be sucked up by the vacuum or with the cleaning rags and fell into the engine as I removed the intake manifold. I'll be tearing it all down anyway, so hopefully not a big deal. There is some gunk in the middle passages on both sides (see picture), and I'll have to check the cam after cleaning off residual gunk etc. I continued the grinding of the front end:  Err... this doesn't look factory (the subframe):  I guess I'll see how horrid of a repair that was when I get to grinding it down and cleaning it up... This car has moved up a ton on the sockington rust scale. Some of it I would spot in a heartbeat now, but much of it was hidden behind paint and crap.
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Jun 11, 2022 16:07
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IOwnCalculus posted:That engine looks pretty drat good to my eyes. Something that old once ran with oil that would sludge / varnish up quickly if changes were missed but that engine really looks about as clean as could be expected. That's a relief to hear! This is the first engine I've even even opened up, so all I have is what I've seen on forums / YouTube. I've got 2 weeks until my vacation, and I'll probably try to strip it all down and clean it all then. Hopefully I can find a decent parts cleaner until then and it'll probably be bagged / cling filmed for a while after that while I sort out the engine bay, front bodywork and suspension. I also need to get the transmission out. I vacuumed some of the transmission oil out of the dip stick tube and it looked nice and red and had no weird smell, so at least that's something positive. I guess I'll remove the fluid and check the pan for obvious signs of damage. Other than that I guess I'll just have to wait until it's time to put it back in to see how it's actually doing. Unless there are some good ways of testing stuff when it's out. I don't trust anything the PO said, so for all I know the transmission might actually be working fine.
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Jun 12, 2022 11:29
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I guess part of the fun of these project is the discovery process. I only spent a small bit of this weekend tidying up in the garage and assembling the parts washer I bought. When I removed the engine I did a stupid lift that basically temporarily luxated my ribs from my sternum. They popped back instantly, but man it was a disgusting feeling and has been painful as hell since then. I couldn't do much more than the cleanup. Anyway I decided to also closer inspect the inner door panels and underneath the current trim the original could be seen... in perfect condition... except not potentially ruined by mold... Anyway I ID'd it as a 1966 Dodge Dart GT trim. ... I mean.. why... Same as the sun visors. They were perfect but someone decided to ruin then with fabric glue and put crap on them. I guess stuff wasn't very expensive when this was done. Some pictures:   2 days 'till vacation. Hopefully I'll get a good amount of poo poo done on the car. I might even be able to recruit my wife and brothers to help. We have to split the time fixing up the family house (where the car is at) though. As it stands there is not even hot water there. I also decided to bid on a 100 year old sewing machine because it's fun to sew poo poo. Don't think I'll win but still.
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Jun 21, 2022 16:55
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Just to keep the thread out of the archives (no idea what the time limit is). Not much progress during my vacation as I've had to prioritize the family home where the car is at. Leaking roof, mold creeping in, no heated water and now the water meter snapped off so there is no water at all. Makes it hard to work on a car. I've spent some time organizing the garage and bought a parts washer (where has this thing been all my life). Hopefully the roof with be redone soon, and we can sort out the water and redo what needs to be done. We are planning a big renovation of the house. As soon as the house is livable again it'll be much easier to work on the car as well.
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Jul 18, 2022 10:55
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Darchangel posted:That seems to be the way of things - particularly during vacations. Good to know as the project has slowed down a bit. I've been thinking about the seating solution as well. Restoring the non-original (they are form a '66 GT) isn't an option as it'll cost a ton and with the current wait times (IIRC) it'll be ages until I actually get the stuff, so I've been thinking about putting (like someone mentioned earlier in the thread) modern-ish seats in it. It'll have to be something with a 3 point seat belt integrated into the seat. Been looking at second hand seats from cars that are readily available here, and so far E46 BMW seats from a cabriolet seem to be a good option. Actually found a pair with very minor damage. Asked for a quote on price. Hopefully sensible prices. I'm still slowly working or recovering one of the original seat backs though as I'm eager to try to learn a bit of upholstery. I'll also try to get my rear end in gear and buy some board for making the door panels. I need to order some detroit loop carpet as well for the panels.
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Jul 25, 2022 19:17
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RIP Paul Walker posted:The sport seats in my E46 are not particularly comfortable IMHO. They aren’t *terrible* but they’re definitely the worst BMW sport seats I’ve sat in. I forget what made me daydream about this, but 90’s-00’s Cadillacs and maybe some other GM products have comfy seats with belts built in. Bad advice if you’re going for a sportier vibe but wanted to throw out my opinion on the seats. I've never sat in one so good to know. Might have to find a used car dealer with one and test. The junkyard came back with a price of $1k for two E46 cab seats that aren't even in perfect condition lmao. Screw that. Thanks for the tip of Cadillacs. I remembered that the STS is pretty common here, and has the seat belt integrated into the seat (at least in some of them). $150 a pop and located nearby so no shipping costs. They look pretty big though, so I wonder if they'll fit.
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Jul 26, 2022 11:39
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Small update and as a bit of reminder to myself: So we should finally have water (and hot water) back this or next week, which means that with the cooler temperatures it's time to get back into the project. I'm going to try to grind the whole engine bay and get it coated in zinc primer and then sort out the bits of metal where the fenders sit and get them welded in. I also need to remove the gearbox) I probably won't be removing the sub-frame until later as I might well have to move the car in case we can actually get hold of someone to do the roof during the fall. If not, I'm taking that stuff out so I can see what I'm working with. I've been doing a bit of paint / bondo removal on one of the fenders in-between other stuff, and it was pretty caked on. Hopefully I can panel beat it some to get it better before I need bondo. I don't like that the panels have separated in places though, so will have to figure out how to fix it in a way to isn't too much of a hack job. Also been doing more research when it comes to putting in other chairs. I think I will need to put the original seats (all of them) in order to get the car registered as it needs to be in original condition (apart from cosmetics). I guess I'll have to do my best to lessen the stink, and cover them up with some cloth or something. After it's registered and has passed the final inspection I shouldn't get much hassle since the car is old enough to not be included in seat belt laws etc etc. When it comes to priming, since 95% of the metal I've ground back so far has been clean (some places have pitting I can't get at without removing too much metal), I'm thinking Zinc primer should be fine... right? I think I mentioned I have epoxy mastic 2 component primer that can go over it, but I'm wondering if this is the best option for all areas or if I should save it for the areas with heavier wear. What would you guys recommend for priming the engine bay / behind fenders etc?
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Sep 5, 2022 14:45
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Darchangel posted:I use zinc primer for small areas I happen to be working on, but if I'm going to be spraying a large area, I prefer the catalyzed epoxy primer that literally seals everything up an d just straight up prevents moisture from getting to the metal in the first place. Yeah I should be able to do the epoxy over the zinc primer. I think I'll keep doing what I've been doing. The only annoying things is that I keep having to go back and redo parts because of the rust dust digging into the zinc primed areas and creating surface rust that doesn't just wipe off. I guess I'll do the heavy duty rust removal and then go back and do a second lighter pass on rusted areas. I also keep being undecided if I should just take it all back to bare metal, or leave the parts that are not affected, because the primer that is on the car is a very tedious process to get off... which in my mind means that it's actually doing it's job well and probably should be left on. But the "need to do everything 100% or I might miss something and regret it" part of my brain is telling me to get everything off.
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Sep 10, 2022 08:59
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Yeah true. Need to leave well enough alone.. there is plenty that isn't well enough that needs the time and effort. I'm thinking of buying a garage tent so I can keep the elements out and be able to work in any weather. Also need to be able to move things around and keep out of rain etc when it comes to renovating the house. I also decided to finally try my hand at making door panels: Thankfully the original panels weren't beyond being able to be used as templates. The door panels that were on the car were from a 66 (an up?) Dart GT. A pair of new ones are like $450 for a pair, which after shipping and taxes probably equates to something in the realm of $650. That's excluding the brightwork. So I decided to make a prototype panel with inspiration for the original design. I found out that the foam backing wasn't really suited for the 4 (like on the original) recessed lines, so I had to improvise or start over. I decided to try having 2 instead, and I like how it came out. Seems like I didn't put enough glue on the ends (which is why it looks a bit wonky to the left in the picture), but one end will be hidden by the sofa and the other looks better after I found a book that fit perfectly and could press it down. Anyway, here are the results of the back panel I made:  The lighting makes the drooping look worse than it is. I still have to glue the small edging strip that goes to the front on the carpeted edge. All in all, learned a ton.
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Sep 25, 2022 16:21
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Suburban Dad posted:You're doing good work, subbed. You should be proud of what you've done so far. Thank you very much! Really means a lot. I know work is slow, but having a thread is great for both motivation and for remembering things I've written down but forgotten about. Hopefully all the door panels will be done by the end of this week. Then they'll go into storage for a long time as I sort out the body... At least I can start looking for some arm rests (that are expensive as hell...). My father in law is a mopar guy and has some nice hookups. Promised to keep an eye out for some (along with other stuff). Even if stuff won't be going in for a while I figure it's good to keep an eye out for stuff I know I'll need as I'm certain that once I get to the point I really need it, it'll be impossible to find.Darchangel posted:Those look pretty good! Thanks! I'm using CRC fast glue (spray can) and Pattex Gel glue that seems decent. I'll try to find an equivalent to the one you linked though in case these start lifting. So far the parts that have a good amount of glue are holding (but that might change when they are on the car). I also bought some wood joists now that perfectly fit the indentations so I can keep them under pressure over night or so. Hopefully the front ones will look better. The material cost of the panels so far is Probably < $20 a panel, and the wood can be reused in the future if I redo them.
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Sep 27, 2022 18:30
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Small update: Front done. Went much better this time (after actually reading the instructions on the glue...) when I knew how I wanted it. The steel ruler I have somewhere would have helped, but I think it's mainly the foam I'm using that is too soft to enure that the lines are 100% straight in the valleys. If/when I redo them in the future I'll probably use much firmer foam or accept less plushness in exchange for cleaner lines. Anyway, here's the front panel:  ... compared to what was in the car when I got it:  The window "sill" will be painted red as well as to fit the interior colour as afaik it's more in line with how it came originally. I also ordered a 4x6m storage tent that will be a godsend for working on the car during the fall/winter/spring as well as be very useful for the house renovations as we'll need to be able to work on window frames / windows / move stuff out of the garage when we redo the floor. Expensive as all hell, but hopefully something that will be worth it in the end. I might also try my hand at making some DIY 3D printed arm rests as at the moment the ones that aren't costing an arm and a leg are out of stock. Would be a fun thing to learn as well, and I have a 3D printer. So far the only stuff I've made is a gasket for the voltage regulator and a part for my early 20th century Singer shoe patcher (lol).
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Oct 3, 2022 13:21
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