What did you do to your Car today?

[Frosty]

12 minutes ago, JUSTA6 said:

I ordered a medium shirt when I replied that I wasn't going to make the weekend.  Good luck with all you have going on.

Okie Dokie!

[JUSTA6]

 

5 hours ago, Frosty said:

Okie Dokie!

Was all about the Dixieland show, but its memorial day weekend and I need to get back up north.  Already marked on the calendar. 

[EricL9]

Welded in some cutouts! Letting that 6.0 breathe.

[Frosty]

11 minutes ago, EricL9 said:

Welded in some cutouts! Letting that 6.0 breathe.

Somebody is taking after Indymanjoe and plans on disturbing the peace! Nice.

[Ringo64]

1 minute ago, Frosty said:

Somebody is taking after Indymanjoe and plans on disturbing the peace! Nice.

What peace?  

[Frosty]

54 minutes ago, Ringo64 said:

What peace?  

None in Joe's neighbor...but there are awesome burn out marks in the street! 

[JUSTA6]

1 hour ago, EricL9 said:

Welded in some cutouts! Letting that 6.0 breathe.

NICE,  another form of Prius repelent.

[EricL9]

21 minutes ago, JUSTA6 said:

NICE,  another form of Prius repelent.

Better believe it! After my cam swap and DOD delete last year, I've been running pretty rich. I had the car running in the garage with the cutouts open for a minute or two and my eyes started burning. #Merica

[Frosty]

I love the smell of unburned hydrocarbons in the morning! Apologies to Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore.

[360Rocket]

Nice work Eric. My C6 runs Billy Boat bullets with no resonator or cats with LG motorsports long tubes. Luckily I got cool neighbors that like it.

[Frosty]

Must be nice to have both a GTO and a C6 period. 

[Ringo64]

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

Must be nice to have both a GTO and a C6 period. 

I could go for either  

[360Rocket]

latest project. When I buy a car, I like to take it apart and inspect so I know what needs attention and what I can consider done and reliable. I pulled the gas tank to 1. Look for a possible build sheet and 2. check the fuel lines and look for body rust. Well I found plenty of rust between the tank and trunk floor and in the axle tub for lack of a better word. So for 2 weeks I've been sanding/grinding, primering, chassis painting, and then truck bed liner all surfaces including the suspension, floors, torque boxes, shocks, exhaust, axle,frame, and tank , She shouldn't see a speck of rust for a couple of decades hopefully,The truck bed liner only really went on the floor panels above the axle and the underside trunk between the gas tank and the floor above the tank  here's some pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 3, 2017 by 360Rocket

[Frosty]

Some how we got lucky this weekend. The boy didn't have any baseball tournaments scheduled over Father's Day weekend and the wife told me that my nephew Owen is looking forward to riding in the convertible again at the Hadley Village 4th of July Parade that the Widetrackers participate in every year. This means I finally had some time and permission to work on Lucy. 

If you recall, I took Lucy to a car show in the early spring with JUSTA6 and Indyman Joe - only to discover the top would not come down. At first I thought I had a bad switch, turns out to be leaking hydraulic lines. After 45 years, the originals gave up. I guess somethings just don't last anymore. Anyway the following weekend I bought new lines from National Parts Depot in Canton, MI ($100). Got them installed only to find that the upper hoses would not fit into the upper connections on the rams. The old and new lines have a slightly different thread pitch. So I had to buy new rams to fit the hydraulic lines. So a $100 repair ballooned into a $350 repair and that was when I ran out of time with the kid graduating from high school and time to uber clean and repair the house in preparation for a high school graduation open house that is still a month away (July 15th). Along with that came the start of travel baseball literally every weekend in June and July - except for Father's Day weekend.....

Which brings us up-to-date. So Lucy sat for the last six weeks untouched with the dash torn apart (I originally thought it was the power switch) and the back seat completely torn out of it.

I used the blue painters tape to differentiate the upper and lower hose lines when I was replacing lines one at a time, starting from the motor in the trunk. Some of that saturated Dynamat and sound deadener has yet to be removed when this photo was taken.

If you look to the left of the red fire extinguisher, you will see that I had to cut out some of the Dynamat and sound deadener because it was saturated with transmission oil (a.k.a hydraulic fluid). I had to do the same thing to the passenger side as well.

I removed the front seats for two reasons - it made getting in and out of the back seat a whole lot easier. It also made working under the dash and putting the dash back together much easier.

I finished installing the rams, bleeding the system, and making sure there were no hydraulic leaks on Saturday, then the rain came in Saturday night. So I was left with putting the car back together on Sunday after I had Father's Day brunch with my dad. I started around 3:00 pm and I finished at 9:00 pm.

Along the way, I was cleaning every part before I reinstalled them. I would clean them with degreaser, leather cleaner, or protectant, or perhaps all three. I also took the time clean the entire carpet (since the seats were out) with carpet cleaner and then I put stain guard on it and my new carpeted floor mats.

I still have to clean the dash, the door panels, some parts of the seats, but the interior is essentially clean.  Now I have to wash the car thoroughly on the outside and detail the engine bay.  I have to replace the front dash courtesy lamps but I can get the bulbs at Autozone.

Bleeding the system was a royal pain. I was constantly having to jump into the trunk, lay down, add oil, get out, test the system, do it over again. I must have done this half a dozen times on Saturday. For the longest time, I was afraid I was going to burn the motor out since it was not lifting the top until it got sufficient oil/oil pressure in the system to get it up/down properly. I hope I don't have to do this again anytime soon. I hope I didn't jinx myself either....the motor/pump is the only original thing left in the mechanical part of the system now.

JUSTA and Indyman will love this - I blew the fuse to the power windows putting the dash back together, so I ended up replacing that fuse before I could put the car away. I had a similar problem at the car show with JUSTA and Indyman. This time I was prepared, I had bought a whole lot of fuses of different amperages when I started this project. It was a 5 minute fix this time.

So now I am ready for the 4th of July Parade with my 6-year old nephew Owen and his 4-year old brother Max.

Edited June 19, 2017 by Frosty

[Ringo64]

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

After 45 years, the originals gave up.

I think you had a great run  

[Frosty]

1 hour ago, Ringo64 said:

I think you had a great run  

Maybe. 

[JUSTA6]

Still think NPD screwed you into new rams with the wrong hoses.  Those same rams have been used in every brand convertible made.  Got my originals from a 80's K-car (used to raise/lower the hood on the Sunbird) After a mishap of the latch not opening before hitting the hydraulics, i replaced the destroyed ram with one from a 70's caddy.  Glad Lucy is back together N ready for some fun.

[Frosty]

I think you are right JUSTA. I just found out about a place in Flint that will make custom hydraulic lines for cheap too. Dang it.

[360Rocket]

Nice work Frosty.

[Frosty]

Thanks buddy.

[Last Indian]

Really nice car Frosty, love the interior color combo! Sorry about the thread issue, you said the pitch was different, makes me think they use British pipe instead. British pipe is one thread different, 19 tpi instead of 18 tip. If it was meteric the diameter wouldn't be close. Either way too bad! 

[Frosty]

Thanks Last Indian. The problem is two fold - the threads are slightly different. Further the top portion of the old ram is plastic with plastic threads, the new rams are all metal. So I was afraid of stripping the plastic threads of the old rams with the new threads since they wouldn't seat like the bottoms did.

Another slightly annoying issue is the lines you get are the same length but the original lines are slight different lengths between the upper vs. lower. So you have more line coming into the trunk area (not a lot) than you did before.

 

 

Edited June 22, 2017 by Frosty

[JUSTA6]

Cleaning the GTO for this weekend.  Installed the last interior missing piece.  Windshield trim for the headliner.  Forgot I found this piece last fall until cleaning the trunk. Sealed the breather leak in the valve cover, so I can sand/repaint exhaust manifold today.

[Frosty]

What kind of paint are you using on the exhaust manifolds JUSTA?

On 6/20/2017 at 10:20 AM, Last Indian said:

Really nice car Frosty, love the interior color combo! 

I got the two tone interior idea from a '56 Buick Roadmaster Convertible I saw at a car show many years ago. I get a lot compliments on it because a lot of people wonder if it is stock. It's subtle yet bold thing.

[JUSTA6]

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

What kind of paint are you using on the exhaust manifolds JUSTA?

I got the two tone interior idea from a '56 Buick Roadmaster Convertible I saw at a car show many years ago. I get a lot compliments on it because a lot of people wonder if it is stock. It's subtle yet bold thing.

Eastwood silver High Temp Exhaust......brush on....badass stuff!!!!

5 hours ago, Frosty said:

Thanks Last Indian. The problem is two fold - the threads are slightly different. Further the top portion of the old ram is plastic with plastic threads, the new rams are all metal. So I was afraid of stripping the plastic threads of the old rams with the new threads since they wouldn't seat like the bottoms did.

Another slightly annoying issue is the lines you get are the same length but the original lines are slight different lengths between the upper vs. lower. So you have more line coming into the trunk area (not a lot) than you did before.

 

 

My old ones have the plastic top, which broke (bummer) but saved my Sunbird hood from bending in half.