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I finished my last two inspection stamps today. They are not even close to as nice as the originals but they will have to do because I am not very good at it. I could make them better but I would have to get a different style stamper and use yellow ink instead of paint. These are good enough for me. I guess I have seen some really poor stampings from the factory also but the ones on this car were really good.
Eric, what type of paint are you using for the stamps? I think it looks fine...don't beat yourself up over it. You're doing a great job!
I experimented with different things but found what worked best for me was Krylon yellow spray paint. I spray it on a piece of metal and lightly touch the stamp onto the paint. It will be loaded up to heavy with paint so I will lightly touch it to a piece of metal one time then wait. I let the remaining paint get tacky on the stamp and then put it on the car. If the paint is not tacky the stamp will slip around and smear. With it tacky you can touch it to the car and it not move. The problem with this, it lifts some of the paint back up if it sticks to the stamp more then the car.
This has been a long road of not really being in the right mindset to build this car. With all that has happened since the beginning of this year and being really far behind on the car I just couldn't get excited about it like I should be to be able to get the quality of work I wanted. To top that off, There is a certain order that I want to assemble this car. It could be done in a different order but that is not how I wanted to do it. Now that I have the front suspension temporarily in the car and will soon have the rear end in the car I am now excited about building it. I will now be able to roll it on and off the lift so that it will be safe to open the doors without hitting the posts of the lift. After it is a roller I will be starting on things under the dash and firewall. I do want to put the headliner in it while it is still warm weather so I could work that in first. When the rear end is in the car I believe I will be making really good progress.
In the mean time, I decided to put the cluster back together now that the parts are painted.
It all looks so good. It is a bit of a bummer about the pits in the front suspension frame, but you'll likely get over it in time and if you don't, you can always take it apart and fix it.
I pulled the rear end out of a 63 Jetfire parts car this morning and gathered 2 other rear ends hoping that one of them had good brake hardware. I am switching to the 63 automatic adjust brakes and I have 3 63 parts cars. Luckily, the one from the 4 speed parts car had really good hardware! I don't think I am even going to repaint the springs. Most of the non painted parts were originally bare steel but I blasted them and phosphate coated them instead.
I dropped off the rear end parts at my rear end guys place and should have it back Tuesday. He is only pressing on the new bearings and setting the pinion and case. I will assemble the rest and install the brakes then. If all goes well, I will have the rear end in the car Saturday.
Made a little headway today. I was up early so I decided to work on it some before Church and again later. II saved the original dash insulation because this type of insulation is not available and I wanted it original under the dash. I am highly allergic to this insulation so to keep it from flaking off and floating in the air I clear coated it. Not is is all stuck together really well. I spray glued it into place and then started working on the wiring harness wiper linkage and dash pad. May be a couple days before I work on it again.
Last winter I re-loomed the entire wiring harness. Only one wire had a bad spot in it and that was for the backup lights. I had an NOS kit for the backup lights so I was able to change it for an original NOS wire.
A little while back I was removing this insulation from my parts car and of course it was way to far gone to keep. As I'm pulling it all out and throwing it in the trash and the air is starting to fill up with all this crap floating around, it was only then did I think- Hey, this was 1962 and this stuff was on the FIREwall. I bet it's loaded with asbestos. And there I was with no mask, or respirator. Duh! With all the dumb crap I do it will be a miracle if I never get cancer. It is what it is and what's done is done I guess.
I'm hoping and assuming that you can buy some sort of modern material to cut and replace this with? I have not removed this insulation from my convertible yet, but I don't have high hopes that it will be reusable. My biggest hope is that it holds together well enough to be used as patterns. The one in the parts car weren't even good for that.
I noticed this insulation when I took my Dynamic 88 apart too .
You're probably right about asbestos ,
But I've breathed so much brake dust over the years , for me , it doesn't matter .
NOTHING is going back in it's place .
Installed the heater box, fan and duct. Also installed the wiper motor after I had lost it. Took nearly 2 hours before I found it... My memory sure isn't what it use to be.
Last edited by jensenracing77; Aug 29, 2020 at 02:01 AM.
Installing the original headliner back in the car. I have the front and back done and glued, just have to stretch the sides. It is possible that this will be slightly loose but not sure. I am installing it back exactly where it was so all the screw holes line up in the exact same place. So far it is going really well. I will know more tomorrow when I do the sides.
Yes, Just had to polish the rear ones. The top middle one has really thin chrome and decided to use a repop for it. I was going to send this one off to be re-chromed but the repop lenses do not fit the original housing. You have to use the repop housing also. The original lense is not broken but it is dry rotted and ugly. Luckily, the original tab locations are correct. The repop housing is actually for 64 to 67 from what it is listed as.
People think that I am crazy on this one but I am reusing the original weatherstripping, fuzzy's, and rubber window sweeps. The weatherstripping is not mint but it is still very nice, the fuzzy's and rubber sweeps are nearly mint. I can always replace it later if I need to but this original stuff is still nice and pliable. I washed it with dish soap and a tooth brush. Took a lone time for it to completely dry in the sun. Had water inside the foam for a long while. I have temporary trim pieces holding the headliner so those look funny for now, I will install the original stuff closer to when I have the interior done.
The passenger side glass is finished but still need to work on the driver side. Lots to do still on that side. I was board with working on the glass last weekend so decided to rework the heads. All I done was to take them apart, clean them up lap the valves and stick them back together. With 44,000 miles there was not really enough wear that I was worried about it. I am not pulling the rotating assembly out of the block either. Just cleaning it up and putting it back together with new gaskets. If I need to rebuild it in the future I will but just don't see the need to now. After the first year it will not likely get more than 1000 miles a year anyway. The engine ran great before and did not use oil.
The passenger side glass is finished but still need to work on the driver side. Lots to do still on that side. I was board with working on the glass last weekend so decided to rework the heads. All I done was to take them apart, clean them up lap the valves and stick them back together. With 44,000 miles there was not really enough wear that I was worried about it. I am not pulling the rotating assembly out of the block either. Just cleaning it up and putting it back together with new gaskets. If I need to rebuild it in the future I will but just don't see the need to now. After the first year it will not likely get more than 1000 miles a year anyway. The engine ran great before and did not use oil.
I guess you got the vent window rubber issue resolved. What ended up being the problem there? Looks great as usual!
I guess you got the vent window rubber issue resolved. What ended up being the problem there? Looks great as usual!
Not yet. The problem is on the driver side and not got back to it yet. I had an NOS one for the passenger side and fits perfect. I am dreading going back to that project and been putting it off. I started cleaning on the block and tops of the pistons today and kept looking over at the bench where that vent window assembly is sitting. I am about ready to tackle it again but I sure wish I had an NOS one for the driver side as well. Not a single person I have talked to that installed these Steele Rubber repops had a problem so I want to think it is something with my parts that is wrong but who knows. I will find out soon enough.
A little more cleaning to do on the block and it will be ready to go back together. For a year I have been back and forth on if I wanted to do a full rebuild on the engine. I have decided to leave the rotating assembly alone. The cylinders look great, it ran great and used no oil. The rear main seal was not leaking either. I have an NOS cam that is going in it and NOS head gaskets. The deck and heads are very nice and flat so I don't see any problem with using the NOS steal shim head gaskets. I will replace the timing set and oil pump. I also have had the water pump and balancer rebuilt. I do plan to slip the old cam and timing set back on it to check where the cam is at with the original timing set so that I can match it with the new timing set and NOS cam.
A little more cleaning to do on the block and it will be ready to go back together. For a year I have been back and forth on if I wanted to do a full rebuild on the engine. I have decided to leave the rotating assembly alone. The cylinders look great, it ran great and used no oil. The rear main seal was not leaking either. I have an NOS cam that is going in it and NOS head gaskets. The deck and heads are very nice and flat so I don't see any problem with using the NOS steal shim head gaskets. I will replace the timing set and oil pump. I also have had the water pump and balancer rebuilt. I do plan to slip the old cam and timing set back on it to check where the cam is at with the original timing set so that I can match it with the new timing set and NOS cam.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I agree with the plan. If it were me, I would use modern head gaskets rather than NOS, but that's just me.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I agree with the plan. If it were me, I would use modern head gaskets rather than NOS, but that's just me.
If the deck surface was pitted slightly or not as flat as it should be I would be using the new style gaskets. With this one being so good I want to keep the original compression so I have to go with the NOS gaskets. The new gaskets will lower the compression some. I have not calculated what the difference would be yet but I do plan to.
The front and back glass are in. I put the back glass in myself using a string in the gasket. I had a glass place come to install the windshield. It is glue in and only has about a 1/4 inch pinch weld area to glue to. Even they were nervous about installing it but it turned out great!
This morning I put the old cam and timing set back in the engine to locate where the cam was at. I pulled it back out and installed the NOS cam and a Cloyes roller timing set and got it set back to where the original was at. I should have the heads back on it and much of it back together later today. I will be making lots of progress over the next few days.
Really clean, well thought out work, man. And your photos and descriptions are first rate. Thanks for keeping us updated. Learning by watching!
Thanks. I should have lots more pictures over the next week. My wife and kids are leaving for 4 days and I am on vacation so this car is my focus. Not sure if it will happen but would like to have this car finished before the end of the year.
Engine is mostly together. I had the water pump rebuilt nearly a year ago and just noticed that they painted it. Sure wish they would have left it bare aluminum.
