Old guy44

Never could understand people that need to ruin something that they are apparently jealous of. I painted a Chrysler Cordova black with a blue pearl tint coat and dark blue tinting in the clear coat. When done the car highlighted blue. It was some kind of super hard paint that apparently EPA put the kybosh to because I tried to get some more of it for another project about 6 months later and was told it was no longer available. I was in a hospital parking structure and someone tried to key the trunk. It did make a mark that easily polished out. Don't know what the stuff was but it was so toxic that there were warnings all over the can about using a specific face mask and changing the filters if you smelled anything funny.

Last car I painted in lacquer was a '57 Cad Eldorado Brougham. Had the car for a little over a year and decided that red was not the color for that car. In those days I used to block sand down to bare metal with a long board leaving the original paint in between the highs and lows for filler. The lows the were still low got spot putty. Back in the late 70's as memory served me all the spot putties were lacquer based but I won't swear to it. At any rate I seem to recall that the paint was Ditzler but again wont swear to it. I do know that the paint,  primer and thinner all had the same label. Car came out great but about 8 months later the primer started checking under the paint on the left quarter panel. Never had it happen before but someone that I knew wanted the car and had been bugging me about buying it so I sold it. He took it down to metal just like I had and it did the same thing to him same spot. Damdest thing I ever saw.

Maybe it is our blazing California sunshine but everyone I know that has used a clear coat paint on their car had to redo it within 7 to 10 years. I suppose it is possible that they have perfected the system but I for one have no intentions of giving them the chance to prove it. The paint that is on my Pontiac was designed for commercial use, trucks, trailers, farm machinery etc. and is a single stage. The guy I buy it from painted his 90's vintage ford truck with it about 10 years ago and the truck looks as good today as it did the day it was painted. The truck is not garaged and is parked in front of the paint store every day. Granted it does not have the depth or shine of a clear coat but it looks good in the grocery store parking lot and will probably still look acceptable when I am no longer able to drive. After that it becomes someone elses problem

Precisely the reason that I will not put a clear coat paint job on anything. Have never figured out why it is that the clear coat peels but the base coat hangs in there. 

Have not found one that works in P and N which means as I found that you need to stop and put it in park if the motor dies. Not good depending on the situation. 

If I can find one that was designed to attach to the top of the steering column it is not too much trouble to just pull the column and make it work.

Frosty,

I will go with your theory, It is as good as anything. 

Started me thinking about your neck of the woods. My sister and her husband lived in Michigan in the 60's and 70's. I can remember as a kid visiting  and all the cars of that era with a few winters under their belt were largely rusty lace on the bottom foot of the body.

The 63 has a square top on the fender, the 64 and later have a rib on the top. The reason for that is that as you are working on the engine you will put little dents in the top of the fender so in 64 they made a rib. Mine were block sanded before they got painted and installed. now I look across the fender while driving and there are little dents all the way down.

My comment was regarding rust. For some reason the right fender is very prone to rust even in our dry climate. I could find good left fenders all over the place but not a right, I wound up rebuilding everything, but it is a daily driver and will never see a car show judge at least as long as I own it. So I live with it.

I'm in So Cal so there is almost no time that I cant go topless. I took the kids to Disneyworld one summer another lifetime ago and you could set your watch by the rain. Oh its raining it must be 2:00. I am better off than Del on that account.

Sorry about the rust repair there, here we just mig weld them in and go on with life. I was fortunate with mine the only rust repair I had was behind all 4 wheel openings. 

I have to ask do you know what the right front fender is like. Mine was so bad I was looking for another one and could not find one in California! Something about that fender that they go south in a big way.

It's actually a good price unless all the floor panels are rotten, and then it is acceptable.

As a teenager I used to help run three garage stills. Made raisinjack. More of my checkered past. Got pulled over by the cops one time with a small still in the trunk of my Corvette (a regular occurrence) fortunately I was sober and did not get shook down.

Depending on the octane we called it fightin likker or courtin likker. He must have had some of the courtin likker.

Update on brakes. I did not want to take an 80 mile round trip to burn in the brakes so as I was driving I did everything I could to heat up the brakes and finally got them "burned in". I am driving it harder since I know that I can stop and found myself in a panic stop condition. I reacted by jumping all over the brake pedal. No tire squeal no diving just excellent stopping power, just what I was looking for. I would imagine that I could put enough pressure on the pedal to lock up the tires but the fact that they are not inclined to lock is a good thing. 

The one thing I did not go into in the narrative was the booster and master cylinder. They both came with the "Disney animation" front disc system I previously installed. It is about an 8 or 9 inch double booster with a 1" master cylinder. With the cam that is in the engine it develops around 20" of vacuum at idle, probably more decelerating. I would like to be able to say that I engineered the hydraulics but the truth is that it was just dumb luck. Normal stopping requires more pedal pressure than any of my other rolling stock but I would not change a thing because it would take a lot more pedal pressure than my normal reaction under panic conditions to lock, and you can push harder and stop faster without wheel lock. Almost as good as antilock without all the hardware.

This thing just keeps getting better.

On 10/20/2021 at 11:40 AM, 64 kiwi boni said:

would be nice to find a 57 2 door hard top chieftain to do the cruise in and then bring it home !  

You got me to thinking. I used to have a friend with a talent for finding the unusual. He stopped by my dads shop one day with a 57 Pontiac but it was the Canadian version. It was sitting on a Chevy chassis and I will swear that it was slightly smaller than the US version. That would be the one to get at least you can get chassis and suspension parts for trhe tri year Chevys. 

I don't know what happened to it because shortly after he was on his way to a Texas penitentiary and I never saw him or the Pontiac again. Needless to say I used to run with a very questionable crowd. I survived the crowd because I realized early on that our penal system does not punish you for what you do, they punish you for what you get CAUGHT doing. 

The value of anything is what someone will pay. 

Just trying to find another home for the leftovers of my 63 Catalina. I have the rear brake cables left over from the Wilwood install. The foot vents that came out because I needed the cavities for other things. They have good rubber on the flaps and good chrome on the knobs. The 389 with a bad rod and the Roto Hydramatic / Slim Jim whatever you want to call it. The trans only has 45,000 original miles on it, it shifts as good as any I have driven and it is perfect for a rebuild as it has never been apart.

If someone needs it you are welcome to it. This is the honor system guys I would like to give this to someone who needs it not someone that wants to pick it up for resale. I will ship the vents and cables if you are willing to pay for the shipping. Engine and trans local pick up only, I can help load it.

I just need to clean up and hate to throw something away that someone else needs

I have come to the conclusion that I am probably better off parting it out as opposed to trying to get the electronics in a salable condition. I have been going through the mechanics and mechanically it is in great shape. The problem is that the great running engine connected to a recently overhauled transmission are dragging around all those German electronics.

I want all of you guys to swear that if I ever look cross-eyed at another German car that you will drag me into the middle of a parking lot and put me out of my misery.

I finally made a cardboard template of the profile of the hubcap.  When I compared it to the bump on the inside of the wheel I found that the "locking ring" on the inside of the hubcap was right on top of the bump in the wheel. I went in with an air cutting tool and reprofiled the bumps in the wheel so the locating ring on the hubcap was inside the high spot. They stay on so well now that it is difficult to get them off. I will post a picture if you like. 

Right now I am all consumed with the electronics on a god forsaken old mercedes POS. I have come to believe that the only good mercedes is one that has been through the crusher and is on its way to Japan to be turned into a Lexus

I can tell him how to keep the baby moons on the front wheels. I lost at least 6 of them before IU figured it out

OK guys got the front brakes on and discovered a minor modification On the caliper bracket you should move the 9/16 bolt hole about 1/4 inch further out. That is an additional 1/4 inch between the 9/16 hole and the closest caliper mounting hole. I needed to do a little grinding on the spindle support on the left spindle because the caliper would not bolt down. had to grind clearance so an additional 1/4 inch would be advisable. Also those calipers are a little bitchy to bleed. I spent at least an hour and a half trying to get a brake pedal on it last night. I thought about it all night and today I unbolted the caliper on the top and swung it out so it was completely vertical. I took one of the old style oil cans, the one with the pump handle on it cleaned it out and filled it with brake fluid. got some clear plastic hose that I could hook to the oil can and to the brake bleeder. I opened both top bleeders connected the oil can to one and a hose to the other that drained into a clean jar. I just kept pumping fluid through the caliper until all the bubbles disappeared. When the oil can got low I just poured the fluid from the jar back into the oil can. Took a couple of minutes of pumping for all the bubbles to disappear. closed the bleeders and did the same thing on the other side. Bolted the calipers back down and had a full solid brake pedal. That is what I plan to do when I install the rear kit. 

I still have not done the rears but with the fronts done my pedal pressure is less than half of what it used to be and I believe that with slightly more pressure I could lock up the fronts. Something that the cheapo kit I had that was based on the single piston GM floating caliper would never do.

The two chassis modifications I have done that have made the most difference in the car were the Alden coilovers in the front and the Wilwood brakes. Of the two I have to put the Wilwoods in the number one slot because I think it is more important that I can stop better than the car in front of me rather than out handle him.