Day 24 - 8/27/11

Today was a day to tie up the loose ends. Last night I polished the A pillar window seal stainless and polished the hood molding (not shown). Then I got the seat belts out of the water to hang to dry and polished the underside. A while ago I polished one of the two headlight doors, so today I did the other. After that, I've been meaning to wash up the front park lights and tail lights so I finally did that as well. Over all the polishing days, the window moldings have gotten pretty well taken care of, but the upper windshield molding was really covered in debris. I'm taking caulk, house paint, and tar. So, my dad broke out the lacquer thinner and it made quick work of that. Then, I gave it the mega polish and it looks almost better than new! I reassembled the headlights (housing, bulb and ring) but we maxed out the monthly flickr space so you'll see the rest next post.

Did this last night, every little bit helps!

Hung the seat belts on the rear of the car to dry.

This is one of the better ones, but overall they cleaned up pretty good.

Looking good to go!

You won't even see this, but I'm not putting dirty parts back on my car!

Lots of dirt.

More polishing away!

No more debris! I love the look of polished stainless/chrome.

In the process of putting the headlight assembly back on, more next post.

Day 23 - 8/25/11

Today was another of one of those slow days. I was looking for some 'smaller' projects to do. I remembered we took out he seat belts a while back. They were kind of stiff and crusty, so I soaked both the fronts and rears in two buckets over night. Then I was looking on the parts table for something to polish and found the rear Chevelle emblem, I got the face pretty good, but the sides of the letters are 1 really close together and 2 starting to blister and the chrome is coming off. After that, I decided to cleanup the driver side front park light molding. Later I was looking under my hood, and saw that some needles and debris collected behind the washer container, so I took it off cleaned it up and put it back on tomorrow.

Its amazing what water can do.

It looks better that it actually is.

I tried really hard not to scuff off any more paint than what has already came of.

Every little bit makes it look that much better!

Day 22 - 8/23/11

I haven't done much on the cleaning scene lately so I got a jolt of energy to clean and polish some stuff.

They shined right up.

Previous to cleaning and polishing.

Washed all the parts before polishing, I like to hang them to dry...

I studied the handle for a minute and figured out how to take it apart.

Clean that grease off!

Good to go!

I tried to unscrew it to take it apart, but the 40 year old screws rusted to the housing.

Got it apart with a little help of PBlaster.

That's not very attractive.

I'd have to say that steel wool it my friend. Done for today.

Day 21 - 8/22/11

Today my dad took me to the DOL to get the title transferred and got the new registration. We couldn't keep the cool old '80 title though. I was able to help out the forest service so that sure made my day! Then we went to see our buddies at Cost Less Auto Parts (old Dusty's) to get some gaskets for the power plant.

Got my high performance FEL-PRO gaskets. Reasonably priced, I didn't know the intake/exhaust kit came with the flange doughnut, so I'll return it (along with the extra quart of ATF).

Day 20 - 8/20/11

This morning my grandpa came over to help put the brakes together on my dad's '34 Ford. After that, my dad and I took a look at the sail panels. They surprisingly came out really easily.

Taking off the headliner retainer molding.

Slowly and carefully picking the lip of the material around the bend.

A simple design: material wraps around three sides and floats the fourth side.

Got them out in one piece!

Next step: Taking the visors off without ripping the headliner.

Success!

Day 19 - 8/19/11

Today is yet another big day, we found an exhaust manifold!! I got a call from my grandpa and he got in contact with one of his old buddies. He's a Chevy 6-banger diehard and he happened to have an extra of what we needed. Theoretically the car will run a lot smoother and quieter without the exhaust leak. So after VBS we went out to his house and checked it out.

Here's his three part garage.

Part One: Where the fabrication and stowage takes place.

Motors waiting to be rebuilt.

A lift for lifting, and a sandblaster for blasting.

There it is! Old and new!

Part Two: The assembly and final adjustment room. He has a very nice dog.

Closer look at part two.

The motor in his '47 Chev is a 250 from a '68. The manifold I picked up is from this motor.

We found are way into part three.

Part Three: The delivery room.

Taking the intake off, we tried to take it off at his house, but we didn't want to break the bolts.

All taken off, ready for reconditioning.

As I've said before, yes I do work on my car!

Used a 3in angle grinder with a scotch-brite pad and got the surfaces cleaned.

Checked for being straight and flush.

He didn't think so.

We decided it would be best to resurface it, for maximum gadget adhesion.

Cleaning up the treads.

Taking out the rivets on the old manifold, we managed to save two out of the three.

Got it taken off in one piece.

Before cleanup.

After cleanup, I used the same method with the grinder, but I also had to use the razor to get the stubborn pieces off.

Cleaning more treads.

Bad, good, good, not necessary. All done for today, big day.