Last days of chassis freedom

The last tasks prior to replacing the body have been completed. I installed the remaining shroud, the carb and the heater boxes. I redid some of the wiring: new spark cables, repaired back up lamp cable, and repaired the insulation on the battery to starter cable. Here's the finished engine from the back and from the side:

Very nice. You'll see the fuel filter is missing. I moved it to the the gas tank instead (to reduce risk of fire). I checked the grommets in the firewall and chassis; I replaced them as necessary (and as available). The best part was being able to put in the missing grommets on the accelerator cable shaft. That loose shaft had been bugging me for years! I used standard 1/2" hole plugs and cut the right size orifices in them. Worked like a charm. Here they are:

As an added bonus I just happened to find a replacement at the auto shop for the fan flap clippie thing that I had lost.

Next prep item was getting the body seal in place. I held it in place with glue and I out the body bolts through the seal to help keep it in place. A couple nails in the front where the pan curves were useful too. Where I cut the seal to turn corners, I used a bit of window ribbon sealer like so:

After I cleaned out all the threads for the body bolts we were ready to get the body back on.

I enlisted the help of Jenny, Nekarda, Anna, Hannon, and Alicia. We lowered the car down slowly; every several inches we re-tightened the straps holding it to the ceiling (if you don't know what I'm talking about look at this post). It all went as according to plan as it could. The body's now on the pan and all the (old) bolts are in. I still need to replace bolts, but this is how it will be for now.

All told I used my friends' help for just about an hour. Y'all MF'n rock! You're cheaper and more legal than hiring undocumented labor.

There she is all finished:

I've gotten so used to seeing the body hanging up high that it feels so short now. The garage also feels much more spacious.

The rear looks a bit odd without the apron:

Well that's it as far as restoring in San Diego goes. The project now moves to Corvallis, Oregon. To get the car ready, I'm reassembling a good part of it - fenders, running boards, bumper brackets, seats, steering column. Most of this will come right back off in Corvallis - bummer. I also acquired the rear apron at Interstate, so after a small break while I get installed in Corvallis and take a break from this project, I'll be ready to do body prep work. Damn it's gonna look good.

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Monday: 3 hrs, Wednesday: 7 hrs. Thursday: 4 hours (plus 5 volunteer person-hours). Moving-related tasks not counted

Reassembly

Sunday

Before getting to reassembly I made a quick survey and touched up paint and undercoating as needed; it was just a few places and it was quick. Next I assembled the freshly-powdercoated, old cylinder covers. They went in almost perfectly, unlike that aftermarket crap. Interestingly, the additional thickness from the powdercoating changed the dimensions just enough to be noticeable; I would have never thought it mattered. After that it was on to the fan cover. Reassembled the fan/generator/backing plate (vent hole is oriented down) and installed that whole puppy into the fan housing, then installed new flaps.

Getting the fan housing back on was more troublesome than I thought. I had to figure out the right place for the thermostat rod to go and it turns out that the piece connecting the left and right flaps has to go on after the housing is connected, not before as I was trying to do it. And it also turned out that something wasn't assembled right 'cause just when I thought I was done, I spun the generator and the damnit if the fan wasn't rubbing on something. I fiddled with the fan for a bit and by the end of the day it seemed that everything was properly adjusted and installed except for a bolt that I busted the head off of. Looking good!

The most annoying turn of events was when I went to install the thermostat bracket and realized that the engine block didn't have a stud for it. Really? After all that effort to acquire the missing parts?

From what I hear the later Mexican blocks omitted the bracket. Looks like somewhere down the road I'll have to drill & tap & install one - the boss is still there. I guess that's why the thermostat was missing. They must have thrown in out when the new engine went in. Lovely workmanship.

Monday

Bought a screw extractor of the right size and removed the broken bolt no problem. But after removing the housing (to replace all four generator backing plate bolts, cause why not?) I reinstalled the housing and the damn fan was rubbing again! After removing and replacing the housing like a million times I finally realized that the fan was rubbing because the powdercoating made the pieces thicker. I had used the same number of shims as before, but that just wasn't working. Adding a new shim finally made things better. In the process I also bent the thermostat bar just right so that the flaps move with no resistance... now if only I had a place to attach the thermostat bracket!

Of all the times I dis- and re-assembled the fan housing, I didn't lose a part till the very end – one of the clips for the flap system went into lala land. Seriously. I saw it fly off. Looked everywhere. Swept the ground and looked through the pile. Everything. Never found it. I don't think it will be easy to replace, but it can wait until the body is back in place, especially now that I have to remove the engine to replace the rear apron.

Having finished the fan housing adventure, I installed the front shroud. It went in nicely, though I can't quite remember exactly how the accelerator cable housing goes. I also got the intake manifold back in. It turn out that it's much easier to get the center portion of the manifold in before the fan housing and generator are in place, so I once again removed and replaced the fan housing.

While attaching the manifold to the muffler I stripped the threads for one of the bolts. I'll keep an eye on it, but I think it is OK. It still seems tight enough, but I'll inspect for heat leaks later when it's running.

Now all that is left on the engine is the rear shroud, lower shroud, carb, and heater boxes. If I want to use an impact wrench for the crankshaft pulley bolt, I'll need to to this before the rear shroud goes in. The heater boxes need welding, and it will be better to do this out of the car, but I'd rather have them installed so I don't risk falling behind schedule. The body needs to get back on for the move!

Rest of the week

Tuesday: Love for the Jeep. I took it to the shop for a good pre-trip inspection.
Wednesday - Friday: House-hunting trip in Corvallis.

Left to do prior to body replacement on this Thursday:

• Engine reassembly (almost done)
• Replace that little clip I lost
  
• There's a little asbestos(?) piece that slides inside the connector around the heat risers. It would be nice to find new ones... but it can wait
  
• Replace rubber grommets as needed
• Heater insulation replacement
• Put on body seal (using rubber cement)
• Clean out body threads
  

I think that's all... we're pretty close!

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Sunday: 4 hrs; Monday: 3.5 hrs

Projectus Interruptus

Picture that scene in a movie: the main character is doing whatever it is, and everything is going according to plan. Then the frame freezes, you hear the sound of a scratched record, and the main characters sports the most miserable, confused look on his face.

Yeah. Kind of a bummer.

Let's rewind a bit. I've been working rather manically on this project recently... with good reason. I wanted to finish the body work and paint before moving. And it was possible provided I put in the work and nothing went grossly wrong. And things were going well.

Last week on Wednesday I cleaned, degreased and primed the rear of the chassis and on Thursday I topcoated the chassis and finished priming and then painted the body on all parts that are not visible but that still need protection. And like that I was done painting except for maybe touch ups. I got a call from the powder coater that the parts were in. That would have to wait because I was up to the Bay Area for a wedding.

Here' s the painted area underneath the gas tank:

You can see that I opted for a yellow that would be close to the final color of the car instead of the black I did on the first coat. It's all aesthetics, but the price is the same, so why not? Here's the chassis in its finished state next to the original before all the painting and cleaning:

Not bad. Not bad at all. And look at that shiny new crankshaft pulley... more on that later.

As I saw it all I needed to do to finish on time was make a couple gaskets for heater ducts underneath the car, reinstall those parts, undercoat the car, weld the rear apron, touch up paint, reassemble the engine tin and assorted parts, and get the body on. The plan was to have that done in a week, with the biggest unknown being Matt S's schedule for welding.

On Monday I returned from SF, low on sleep. I picked up the parts and put a first coat of cold galvanizing on the sandblast only parts - intake manifold and heater boxes. Matt S says that it will withstand exhaust temperatures well. I got screws, gaskets, etc that I would need to reassemble the engine parts. Then it was off to spend a night in the desert to see a meteor shower.

Tuesday I had to go into work, but I went to the store, got more cold galvanizing, and finished coating the engine parts. The heater boxes look much better than before:

Now, on Wednesday I didn't have too much time - training, moving-related errands - but I got in in the afternoon. Before arriving I made some gaskets at home for the heater ducts. I installed them and finished undercoating. Here's the undercoating underneath the rear bulkhead:

Those two ducts sticking out of to lower edges are the heater ducts I was talking about. This was the most important area to undercoat because it will be inaccessible once I put the body back on - the transaxle will be in the way. I'm very happy with how well protected this area is. Here's one of the wheel wells:

Now, this area is not as important because it's accessible after the body is back on, but I thought that it would be easier and cleaner to do at least part at this stage. You can see that there is still an unfinished area near the row of bolt holes for the fender bolts. I'll finish once the body and paint is done and the fenders, bumpers, and rubber are back on.

Matt was gonna help me weld either that afternoon or the next morning, so I needed to fit in the new rear apron and do surface prep. And this my friends, is when the needle slid across the record.

At first sight, the part seemed to fit, but I then realized that the groove for the engine seal was not lining up. I measured the parts and sure enough, there was a dimensional mismatch of about 1" between the new and existing aprons. You can see it here:

Note how the groove for the engine seal is right up against the edge in the existing part and set down a bit in the new part. I checked the part number and verified that I bought the correct part. I then went to Vee Parts to ask about it and the guy was all like "oh, whatever, just cut the engine seal into three parts - it doesn't need to line up.... and we never heard about this before and we sell this to body shops all the time." Well, the parts aren't the same and I don't want to compromise the integrity of the seal that keeps exhaust heat away from the engine. That's not how air cooled cars work. Maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist, but it annoys me when people aren't interested in things being done right. Anyway, I called Matt to tell him he was off the hook on the welding job.

Not one to be easily dissuaded, I tabled this issue and got to work on other things. There's lots of engine shroud to reassemble. It's an easy task, really. La-di-da... install the piece in front of the pulley. La-di-da... install the pulley (the powder coating is well done - it took repeated blows from a hammer without leaving a mark). La-di-da... install the cylinder covers. La-di-da... install the lower air flow parts... and here goes the needle scratching over the record one more time.

The parts just weren't mating together.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm quite aware that I can make mistakes, and that's the first thing I assumed, but eventually, it became clear that the problem was that the new cylinder covers were just not the right size - about a half inch too short on the vertical faces. Seriously?! Why do people do this? And sure I could have concocted some fix, but the bottom like is that without the parts mating together, the engine is gonna run hotter, and I'll spend waaaay more moolah on a rebuilt engine. Arghhhh!!!!!

So what's the solution? Well remember that I got new cylinder covers because the old ones had a slight crack, so why not just get new ones? Why not? I'll tell you why not: because after market parts suck! Especially Brazilian ones. I much rather have a slightly cracked part that fits than a new part that doesn't... but this implies another trip to the powder coater and another delay. Having learned my lesson, I'm also powdercoating the other old parts that I was thinking of replacing (the ones that go next to the heater box come in sets of three - one was broken, but the other two were OK). I'm gonna use the old ones now.

Phew! OK. I'm done ranting. Sorry, but this was a big disappointment. Needed to get some frustration off my chest.

Thursday I got into the garage to do some work on the heater boxes. There are few little holes in them that I sealed with high temp putty. There are a few larger holes due to corrosion where the box mates with the curved part of the J-tube. There's no way putty will work on these. A thread on the samba suggests these can't be welded because the metal is too thin, but Matt says he can do it, and I'm willing to trust him. But he's out of town till about 10 days from now, so that's another delay.

That's it for work. I pretty much just took stock of where I was. I cleaned the garage.

So where am I? Well, the main task is to get the body back on the chassis and loose parts packed up either back on the car where they belong or in boxes for movers. I need to wait for the engine to be rebuilt before I drop the body back on, and that means waiting for the powder coater.

I need to resolve this issue with the rear apron. If I do it really soon, I might be able to get the body work done here in SD. Otherwise I'll have to wait for Oregon. This will involve dropping the engine to gain access to the weld locations. If I do this they'll be able to paint the engine compartment all nice and pretty, so maybe this is the best way to go... provided I find a good place near Corvallis.

As to resolving the issue with the rear apron, I need to figure out if there are better after market parts that actually fit. If so I can go that route. Or I might be able to scavenge a part off of an old car either at a junk yard or a reseller like Interstate. I'm leaning towards the latter route.

A couple things to resolve/do prior to replacing the body:

• Figure out whether the rubber body-to-chassis gasket is enough or whether I should use an additional sealer material
• Touch up some paint I pulled off with masking tape for the undercoating
• Replace a rubber gasket for the battery to starter cable - it will be much easier now
• Replace the foam pad around the heater duct inside the car - again, it will be much easier.
• And like I said, replace the engine shroud

It would also be nice to:

• Repair a few stuck/broken bolts in the fender-to-body connection
• Get the welding done on the heater boxes.

All these tasks can be done equally well with the body on.

That, in painful detail, is where I'm at. In some ways, this is a blessing in disguise, since now I don't have nearly as much to do on this project prior to the move. Suddenly I don't feel as pressured to get a million things done.

Sour grapes.

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Wednesday: 5.5 hrs, Thursday: 4 hrs, Monday: 3 hrs, Tuesday: 1/2 hr, Wednesday: 3.5 hrs. Thurs: 1 hr.

Body paint

Well, the game plan has changed. Drastically. I got and accepted the job at Oregon State, and I have less than a month to finish the project... or at least to get the car to a point where it's not in a bunch of little parts... so no more messing around. No more mister nice guy. I want to have the body connected by the weekend of the 16th and I want the car in the body shop early the following week. I ought to be able to do it unless I can't coordinate with Matt S to weld on the rear apron.

So all of last week was shot - 3 days in Oregon, one day wondering whether to accept the job offer, another day racing, assorted errands, and who knows what else. Ditto Monday. But now, I'm on task.

Tuesday the main task was prepping the body. I finished brushing (yes, with a power tool) - the wheel wells, underneath the rear bulkhead, underneath the gas tank, and where the body mates with the chassis. I didn't remove all the undercoating - I just brushed over it to see where it was loose and where it was solid. Anywhere it was loose I removed it and looked for rust. Anywhere it was solid I just left it in place. This was a very dirty job. Very. After using a power took to jettison dirt all over my body, I degreased and cleaned all surfaces and prepped for paint. The most annoying thing about this is that I can't wear gloves when working with water cause the gloves get all soggy, and I've been tearing up my fingers against pieces of sheet metal.

I then primed all surfaces and put a light topcoat on one (it was all the paint I had in the shop). Here are some before and after pictures of the area underneath the gas tank:

Like I said, the first top coat was very thin for lack of paint, but I'd say it's looking pretty damn good! Here are a few more photos of the area where the apron was removed, the rear bulkhead, and the rear wheel well:

You can see in the wheel well how I'm not treating the parts of the undercoating that are in good shape. I would say that this is another successful day. Not much left for the body to be ready. One more day painting - maybe two with dry time, reinstall the apron, new firewall and seals in the engine compartment. On the chassis side, I need to clean the engine, install the tins, and clean and paint the rear. This last one is the most time-consuming, but the nice thing is that since I have work to do on both the body and the chassis, I won't lose as much time to drying time.

I did a bit of work on the chassis today - adjusted the clutch and removed the fan cover. I'll see if I can squeeze it into the powder coater. If not, I may just reassemble it as is, or paint it, or buy a new one. We'll see.

Today: 5.5 hrs

Rebuilding some things and tearing others apart

The week of July 21st was a good week in Restorationville. It wasn't nearly as good of a week in Blogland - which is why it's almost two weeks later that I find myself on the keyboard. It's OK, I have a good excuse: I had a job interview at Oregon State and I had to prepare a talk on teaching at the lower division - a topic to which I've given much thought, but none of it organized. It took me way too long. Oh, that and a good day of paintball.

Sooo, what did I do? Fortunately, I've taken notes, so I don't have to depend on my lousy memory. I redid the pedal assembly - and it all went well this time. Because last time I discovered some problems with seam sealer bond, I went over the car lightly with a wire brush and verified the bond on the paint and seam sealer - it was all good. I gave it a new coat of paint to cover up the light scratch marks.

Next was to continue removing the rear apron. Last time I had tackled about a quarter of the spot welds. This time, I tackled the rest. But something wasn't right. I couldn't see how the damn thing would come off. I had followed the instructions from TheSamba and it just didn't seem to be coming out right (it would turn out later that it wasn't right because I didn't follow the directions right). Anyway, now that I had drilled holes in the wrong part of my car, I figured it best to stop and reassess before I did something stupid and frustration-inspired.

I moved on to the fan housing to drill out rusted bolts holding the flap system in the fan housing. This was one of two major remaining tasks needed to prep the tins for powder coating.

So that was Monday. Wednesday, I arrived on site with a rented impact wrench - the pulley would come off if it was the last thing I did! And even with a power tool, it wasn't on the first, second, or third try, but eventually, the bolt loosened. The pulley was too tight to wiggle off, so I had to spring for a pulley puller. But eventually, I got it off and got off the final piece of engine tin? Was it worth it? In a sense no - so much work for just a piece of tin, but really, to do the job right and for the learning experience, it was certainly worth it.

This whole thing caused me so much grief that I celebrated with a victory photo:

Now with all the tins out, I prepped them, took off any connectors, sorted them, and put them in the truck to take to the powder coater.

Next was to finish removing the apron. Here's where I realized that I was drilling out the wrong spot welds. I swung by Vee Parts to get the replacement piece so I'd have something to guide me. Now that I was able to visualize it, I took out the correct spot welds and the apron came out - nice and easy. In this picture you can see the correct spot welds to remove (the ones on the left) and the incorrect ones (the ones on the right where the parts are still semi connected).

Not to stop here, I continued working on the body - brushing and cleaning all surfaces that mate to the chassis or that are inaccessible once the two are connected. I got partly done - one more day ought to finish it.

It was a long day... which makes the following even more surprising. In an unexpected move, Restorationville and Forethoughtistan drastically improved diplomatic relations when I decided to use the rented impact wrench to loosen the bolts on the rear wheels so I could avoid scenes like last time with the front wheels. Genius!

Thursday I was working on my talk, but found time to make it down to the powder coater and drop off the parts.

All told: Monday - 5 hrs, Wednesday 7.5 hrs, Thursday 1 hr.