These are all original screws and the chrome is still really nice on them. Only thing I am replacing on the interior is one of the coat hooks and the dome light

 

Finished the air cleaner today. K&N filter in and 4 speed only rubber plug installed. Sadly, The Turbo Rocket decal is slightly off by about 1/4 inch. I am considering warming it up and trying to peal it off and redo it. I used a little soap in lots of water to apply it so if I am going to take it off I need to today.

 

Erick I bet a lot of them were off more than 1/4 inch from the factory.

 

I am sure you are right. I decided to leave it

 

Is that the original decal?

 

No, these two decals are what Jim Noel has reproduced. They are by far the best one out there for the Jetfire. I have had the fluid tank decals reproduced but not these.

 

I'll likely have to do some decal reproduction myself. Good thing I have experience in graphics.

 

In which case, you'd want to weld outdoors on a windy day, since the fumes are supposedly highly toxic

 

I wish these cars were heavily galvanized! If they were, we wouldn't have to deal with rot so much. The only parts galvanized are these box "frame rails" that add the strength to the structure. These parts were galvanized first, then spot welded onto the rest of the assembly. Most of the car, like floor pans, rockers, inner fenders, pillars, etc. are all plain ol' painted steel.

You are correct though, if one welds galvanized, you should not breath the fumes. While these galvanized beams hold up well because they were galvanized, the non galvanized floor pans they are welded to did not hold up well, so when people install patches or new floors, they do have to be aware of those fumes.

 

These pictures from earlier in this thread show the galvanized "frame rails". They are those box sections running the length of the car.




This close up shows what's left of the galvanizing after media blasting. It's those silvery patches. The rest has been blasted away. It's not a thick galvanizing like on a gate hinge, or construction hardware, it's much thinner, smooth and even.

 

As many of you know from following my W-30 thread, one of my OCD's is to not have a single bug of any kind after a restoration. I want to turn the key and go for a drive in a new car. Well, Electric switches are one of the things I have to rebuild. The old grease in them make them not turn or "click" into each notch like they did when they were new. Also, most of these old switches have gunk built up on the internal terminals that make them intermittent in their function. This is the wiper switch from a parts car that did not work and wanted to rebuild it first before I rebuilt mine since I have never done one of these. Well, this one turned out good so I am ready to rebuild the original one.

 

I did not like how my original heater boxes turned out so I decided to do another set. I am much happier with these so now I need to transfer the parts over to this one. I tried the best I could to match the color of the original black and is as close as I can. I am NOT a painter but it is close enough to make me happy now. Here is the box I painted next to the original paint fluid tank from my car. My body guy talked me into using clear lacquer over the lacquer black I used. he said it will not dull as bad like this. Sure hope I am not screwing up with using lacquer on these parts

 

Seeing as most of them were dipped in cheap black enamel at the factory , I think you will be OK .

 

I got the garage cleaned up and pressure washed the floors and is as clean as I can make it so it was time to bring things home! I went out to the body guys house today and put a temporary rear end and front end in the car just to get it home. I felt bad putting nasty used suspension on the car even though it is only to transport it home. I will not bring the shell home till later this week or Saturday. I have to figure out where to put the hood and fenders because I will not be installing them any time soon. I am so far behind on this car that it may not even make it to the MCACN show. I will not get in a hurry so if I make it or not don't really matter. If I don't make it to MCACN then the 2021 Nationals will be its first big show. The paint job is far better quality than original but I also did not have him go to the extreme. I also have to paint the black under the fender wells and back wheel wells. I had planned to do that myself. I wanted the over spray like the factory did and then paint the black over it like original. I did not want to pay him to try to duplicate it like my wife's original paint car so I figure I can do that with the two cars side by side.

 

Love it!! It's looking so good. The bitch about painted wheels is, you have to take them to a tire shop an have them mount and balance tires on them. They're always so pretty before.

 

At least I have trim rings to help hide the scratches but those just add more scratches...

 

When comparing a repainted part to my wife's original paint car it looks like a good match. I got a color sample from Kolor Korect and my body guy also matched it to an original chip. Both come up with this exact color. Supposedly the original paint had this much metallic in it but you can't hardly see it now without looking really close. Her car has faded pretty bad but it is also 58 year old paint. In most light the color matches really well but in other light it is way off. Right or wrong, I am happy with it. The base clear is for sure not correct but I am happy with that also.

 

What was the spare wheel like on the car from the factory? Was it a matching 15" wheel, or a 13" black wheel?

 

Now that you know how to do the paint, you can fix the ding in your wife's car!

 

Yes, All tires and wheels matched. Actually, in the owners manual it shows that you are supposed to keep the spare tire in the tire rotation so that you wear out all 5 tires at the same time.

 

Her car has lots of dents and dings. Some pretty bad.

 

I ended up using two generators to restore my original. My original one was beat up really bad with lots of broken parts. I decided to use another Jetfire generator and use all the guys out of it so I could keep my original date coded tag and case. These are Jetfire specific generator part numbers. I believe the only difference is that the pulley on the Jetfire is a #5. My original tag is not perfect but good enough. All the hardware was zinc plated but I forgot to phosphate the two long bolts that hold it all together. I still have to do that and also put the condenser on it.

 

Do you mean to say that the'll be all chipped up? You don't have to worry about this any more at today's pro tire shops. The new machines install the tires without touching the wheels at the rim. Just use the stick on weights and you'll have no damage.

 

I am considering a change in plans for the engine. I have already pulled it down to just the rotating assembly and everything looks great in this engine. It only had 44,000 miles on it and didn't smoke or leak oil from the rear seal. I have NOS cam and head gaskets and new lifters and timing set. I am seriously thinking about just lapping the valves and putting the engine back together. Even the cam bearings are really good. The water pump and balancer are already rebuilt and I am still rebuilding the turbo and carburetor. With as nice as the engine ran I think this is what I am going to do.

 

That will definitely save time and money. I would probably still replace all the seals even if they weren't leaking. They are old and likely will soon.

 

I will replace all the seals and freeze plugs but not the rear main seal. It was not leaking and to this day I have never replaced one and it not leak a little. I don't understand what I do wrong but it has to be something. Sadly, these engines don't have a rubber replacement that I am aware of. Also, if I am not pulling the rotating assembly I don't want to pull the crank just to replace this seal.

 

The body is home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_cp...ature=youtu.be

 

Just pulled the suspension back off the Jetfire and have the shell on the lift. I decided to weigh the shell. I did not pull the doors off or the trunk lid off but I did weigh a door from a parts car that was gutted just like the ones on the car. I did not have a trunk lid to weigh but did weigh a 61 Buick lid. I am guessing they are really close to the same weight. Likely within 3 or 4 lbs. It comes to 702 lbs for the Jetfire shell and nothing on it. When I am able to weigh a trunk lid for Olds I will correct the total. Now I would like to know what the Cutlass shell weighs.

 

I might reconsider doing the rear main seal in you Jetfire . I think you will be quit upset if you finish the car( It's looking really nice by the way) and start driving it and it springs a leak. Especially now that it's 58 years old. Rope seals shrink.
It's a lot easier to do it now with the engine out as opposed to the car being assembled and then dealing with it then.
I've had a 8 of these cars over time since 1978, And every one of them leaks to some degree. JMO

 

I understand that but at the same time, It was not leaking for the past few hundred miles. The clutch and bellhousing was dry as a bone. I have a bad track record of rope seals leaking a little after I replace them. I have not made up my mind but I am leaning on not pulling it apart and rebuild it as a later time if needed. If there was a rubber replacement available I would for sure change it.

 

Here's an updated seal, replacing the wick with rubber. This one's for the early smallblock Chevies. If one's not available for yours, a Rover seal might work:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Chevy-265-2...8/190886026382



If your rear main looks like this, the following site should apply:

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread...nk-seal-advice

p2IB0Zg.jpg

 

It seems like this rear seal problem would be something the guys at D & D would have worked on by now. Might be worth a call to them.

 

Last I talked to him about it was in 2013 and he said there was not any available for these early 215's. Maybe something has changed? I will look into it.

 

Paint looks great! Really nice match to your wife's original car. How do you think the assembly will go on this in comparison to your W-30?

 

Much slower, lol. I am so far behind (about 4 months) from where I was supposed to be at by now. It was a much bigger job taking care of my wife after surgery than either of us thought it would be. She is doing much better now so I am getting back to this car. The largest problem is going to be rebuilding and restoring parts and assemblies with the body in the garage also. I am usually a pig when I restore assemblies and wanted all that done before the body was to come home. Other than that, many things are much easier on these cars than the 70 model year. The other advantage is that if I make a mistake on a color or amount of gloss on a part, almost nobody would know the difference, lol. Not to many OCD 61-63 guys out there.

 

If these cars were to magically somehow be worth close to $100,000 at auction, there would be a lot more OCD guys out there. Still, there's enough of us to keep each other honest.

 

There is no question that these cars are getting much more attention than they ever have. It is bad timing but I had a guy call me last night that wants me to come buy his parts collection out. Not sure yet what he has but with as many people starting to play with these I think I will look into it.

 

It just comes down to how much money he wants for all his stuff and how useful it is. It could be a good way to keep some side income coming in over the years, but I think you would have to get the collection pretty cheap to make it worthwhile. A lot of NOS would be good. A lot of rusty parts car stuff less so.

 

For sure. I don't need someone leftover just that will not sell. He knows that it has to be priced so that I can make money for my time invested. I will be talking to him soon. There is another guy I need to call tonight also that has parts he wants to let go of but I suspect his is mostly engine stuff and I don't need any more of that.

 

Playing with the new stamps I had made. At first I could not figure out how to do it and make it look right. I was having fits with it. I even tried making a jig to keep it in place and not slip around and smear the paint. I stepped away and said forget it for about a half hour. I went back in and had a thought. The paint had started to dry that I was using and was really sticky. I decided to try that and worked great. After loading the stamp with paint I had to use the stamp one time on something other than the car and then the car on the second stamping without loading more paint. I done this location first because it is not seen after the car is done. It pulled the paint up a little and not a perfect stamp but my originals were just like that in spots. I am going to leave this one as it is. I will do the others at another time.

This style stamp is not reproduced so I had to get them made. I guess they are the same as 65 442 inspection stamps so maybe I can sell these and get some of my money back.