It’s all a big blur!
So I’m a new dad, since February 24th when my wife gave birth to our son Greyson. He was a week late and we were at my father’s birthday party just the night before, I guess he did not want to share a birthday or want me to take my midterm (which I was not able to make up.) So we have been learning to live together for a couple of months now, it’s been a learning experience for all of us. . . except the cat who is so far unrelenting in her hatred of the new attention-monger. Having a new baby may have slowed the restoration down a little, but it certainly has not stopped! Here are some parts I have fixed in the past few months.
Restored the original bezel, pedal is new, and I also have new nuts.
Media blasted and metal blackened, I replaced a couple of washers but all other parts are restored originals. Not to mention that the parts suppliers want about forty bucks for the accelerator cable.
I took the brake assembly apart and media blasted each piece, painted it, replaced the pedal and restored the bezel.
The e-brake was about the same story except I also had to restore the handle and blacken the firewall mounting nuts.
I had to replace my reverse lights, which had rusted through the housing. I got really lucky and picked them up for a fraction of what the reproductions are going for. I cleaned them up and tool-grip-dipped them, now all I have to do is replace the pigtails and buff the bezel and they will look/work better than new.
My power steering pump and pulley were a mess. I broke it down one afternoon and cleaned up the reservoir and brackets. I ordered a rebuilt pump but couldn’t get the valve nut off. So I dropped in on my dad unexpectedly to ask for help breaking it loose, luckily for me he was all dressed up yet still willing to lend a hand. We replaced all the o-rings and got it back together.
The auto-shifter linkage was a real challenge. When I was media blasting it originally I found a finishing nail holding it together.
I found a date stamp on the shifter housing so I cleaned it up and cleared it, all other linkage parts were painted.
Old/New. I had to replace the bushings.
The clip on the right is an original Chrysler clip used in the seventies, the trans linkage uses about four of them. I didn’t know you could buy reproduction clips on the day I sat down to make new ones.
I replaced the shifter knob but was able to save the boot and bezel. I also replaced about half of the washers with some stainless steel- thicker than original washers to take some of the slop out of the linkages, worked like a charm.
Finally I switched out the finishing nail for an e-clip.
So this is an original disk/drum master cylinder. My car came with drum brakes front and back, which I’m swapping out for front disk brakes on account of the increased stopping power. By now you are probably as tired of reading as I am of typing. Lets just say it was as problematic as every other forty year old car part so far, it was re-sleeved by a machinist, I rebuilt it and it works better than new. Yes I scratched the lid, which gives me something to look forward to fixing after I bleed the brake system.
Missing Hardware: Replaced.
Two-color paint job on plastic: Executed
Emblems: Backordered.
