Seff

I need advice - is a honing the right thing to go for? Oh, and more to come as I take her further apart. I left some rust-combating-stuff in that rightmost cylinder overnight and the surface of the piston was easily cleaned off - but the stuff on the cylinder wall is still stuck.

72 cutlass455

might be better off sending the block to a machine shop to check it out and to get it hot tanked to remove all the scale in the water passages. I would think that engine is stuck with all that rust in that cylinder. Honing might not solve the problem.

Seff

It does indeed not turn at all, at least not yet. Thanks for the suggestion; it seems likely to be what I end up doing. :/ I'll keep you guys posted.

Seff

Is that the normal look of an automatic crank?



The oil was muddy, but this half of the engine looks relatively healthy, no?

72 cutlass455

The bottom end most times will not suffer as much corrosion as the heads. But it will have to be checked that the bearings are still ok. You could put some penetrating oil in the rusty cylinder quite a bit of the oil and let it work for a few days it might break loose. Or it may need to be removed at a machine shop either way that cylinder hole may need to be bored out to save it.

Seff

I thought the very same, and have let it sit to soak with what dad called "rust loosener" in it for the week while I'm on base. How finicky/hard/soft is the block material - can I gently apply fine steel wool to try to remove the surface rust and/or to clean up so I can determine how much rust there ACTUALLY is, or would that completely ruin the cylinder wall?

72 cutlass455

The thing you can,t see may be the worst. Where the piston is frozen to the cylinder wall will be the deepest. And the rust on the cylinder looks like it would need to be bored out and rebuilt. At this point you could use steel wool to see what is there and will not do much harm.

Seff

Right, gotcha. I'll see how it looks next weekend.

Seff

These look healthy, I think? (You'll hear me saying this about 18 million times - now you're warned.)



This DOESN'T look healthy. :P Took about an hour of hammering a stick against the backside of the piston to get that far, at which point it got PROPERLY stuck - so I pounded it back down, and then up until it came out. Good fun.



Not quite as hard to lift around anymore - will make my day easier for a while, I think.





All the piston heads look like this or fresher. I'm naively hoping that they'll clean up nicely and be reusable.



Lined up nicely so I know what goes where. Gonna need to make more tables!






That's about as bad as they are. All of it seems to be surface rust. Can I take care of this myself, or will I need to find a machine shop to get them honed?


Going back tonight/tomorrow, we'll see what falls off the girl then. :P

72 cutlass455

The engine needs to be checked to insure all bearings and parts are good and are within tolerances. If they check out ok would have the shop hone them. But it appears that engine had many miles on it and will probably need a proper rebuild.

jturkey69

im not so sure the pistons can be saved, but after a thorough cleaning, and pulling off the rings, you will have to inspect the ring lands for any deformities. Along with that, the wrist pin area also would have to checked over. I have reused pistons before, and had to knurl a set for one engine back in highschool, so it could be doable. when I used to help my uncle build engines, my job was to teardown, mark rods, hot tank, and rebuild the heads. back then (1990) he used an old school boring bar. the heads may need valve guides, so keep that in mind as well. The block looks like it has a bit of a ridge, but as has been said, get it to the machine shop, and let them check it over.
seeing that you live in the country of my favorite band of all time (Volbeat) are parts available to you? best of luck on your venture!!

Seff

I don't see the ridge in the bridge, I must say. A machine shop has already been contacted.

---
Parts aren't easily available here, but I think I'll make do with some improvisation, and a few expensively shipped parts from the US. This was never intended as a 'back to factory condition' restoration, but rather to make an infinitely more lovable daily/weekly driver than the droves of four bangers we have over here.

Seff

Stuff's coming off fast!


Gee, I don't think that yellow one is original...


Mm, wires!



Looking great for a 39 year old car.



I have a million screws and a million parts at this point. That chassis manual I bought will come in handy, I think.


Closer to being ready to get washed and then painted.


That rust in the trunk was worse than I though. :/

jturkey69

wow...trunk may have seen better days, but the fenders, and front clip are looking better then a Wisconsin, USA car!!! glad to see you havent given up hope!!!..ours goes into the bodyshop tomorrow for some rust repair, and primer, and maybe even a paint job!

Seff

Not even close to giving up hope. :P

Seff

One of the places I feared was a lot more rusty, what with there being a window right above it and it being shaped more or less like a bathtub.


Wirebrushing shall commence soon!


Again, the lack of grave rust warms my heart. That little hole by the chrome thingy will get some attention, though.








Somehow that looks slightly off... :P











Surprised how nice this looked under the dust. No build sheet, though.


While I remembered to take pics of these two as well.


Took one look at the exhausts and determined that I didn't NEED to get them out at the moment.





That's my custom ventilated trunk, folks.

jturkey69

LOL...good to see more updates!! I should prolly update our thread in a week or so...have to find all the pics.

oldsguybry

hey Seff , good find , its in a decent restorable shape , about the same as mine....I had a question for you...in one of your pictures of the interior ( the one with the " wirebrush shall commence soon " quote at the bottom of photo....do you or anyone else here know what to use to get at the rust where the metal is doubled up between the back window and side window ? I have a fair amount of surface rust myself in that area on my 72 CS ( same color ) and was not sure how to deal with that area .....

Seff

I have no earthly clue. I may simply stick some sandpaper in there and remove as much as possible by hand. I'm not removing the moisture pad thingy stuck to the roof either, even if there's rust under it, since I don't see a feasible way - I'll admit that I'm very new to this, though, so the experienced guys might very well correct me. :P

oldsguybry

I was thinking sanding by hand and wirewheel , and for anything that I cant get to.......possibly use acid and then coat it.....I thought that 3M makes a product that you can pour in there and your wheel wells or anywhere else you cant get to where the metal is doubled up and it seeps in between the metal suposedly and neutralizes it.....maybe one of our experts can give us some pointers or other ideas

Seff

I looked into it today, and it seems I can get a sandblasting apparatus for my washing-thingy, so I'll do that. As visible below, sanding won't work for every part of the car.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Surprise, surprise. We now know where that rust in the trunk came from.


Even after sanding quite a bit, my roof's pitted. I'll have to sandblast this, I think.


A few hours of sanding put a dent in it, I'd say. Still faaar to go.


AC goooooooone. :P


Didn't expect THAT. :/

jturkey69

Wow!!..your really making progress!!
My question is...wouldnt sandblasting have a potential of more pits or tiny divots? Thus making it more of a paint to smooth out?

or would you use a different material (fine media?)

442_Mustang

Sandblasting will warp the metal. If you can clean most of the rust, you can use naval jelly from a hardware store to remove the rest

oldsguybry

I wouldnt sand blast body panels , you may warp them leaving a nightmare to fix. I used a sandblaster in the trunk pockets and anywhere else the metal is thicker , but I wont take the chance on the body panels even though I have a low pressure sandblaster.....I'm glad you mentioned sandblasting though , cause thats what im gonna use on the rusty interior part of the roof where the metal is doubled and then use some neutralizer on the rest and then coat it....for now I have bigger eggs to fry , both fenders have to come off , and I have to remove inside fender supports in order to get at all the rust I cant get at , and I have to add another coat of POR-15 to the trunk pockets.

oldsguybry

I heard off that before , but never used it...how does it stack up against using an acid with zinc....like what you use before applying POR-15 or using something from Eastwood.

Seff

I'll reconsider sandblasting the roof, but the insides and corners I can't get to with the sander will be blasted. The idea with blasting the roof was to get into the tiny pits I have across the entire thing, but I guess I'll look into this naval jelly stuff - does anybody know what substance it is and how it works? I doubt it's called 'naval jelly' in Denmark. :P

"Wow!!..your really making progress!!"
Yeah, I didn't buy this thing to have it standing around, if you know what I mean.

442_Mustang

I had a hood that had been stripped and never primed and it was all surface rust and pits. I used naval jelly and a scuff pad to scrub out the pits. I believe it has muriatic acid in it. It removed all of the rust in the pits. Just do it section by section.

Seff

Hmm, sounds quite like what my roof looks like, so I'll give that a try. Nasty surprises reared their ugly head today, though. Apparently this is one of those 'growing experiences' they all talk about. :P

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Someone was afraid of having their ride stolen - I might just reinstall this thing, for added security.


Lotta wires, momma. This'll be fun to figure out... :S


...I SUSPECT I need a new speaker - this thing looks less than... fresh. :P


Sunshine! Time to get 40 years of AZ dust cleared out!





Couldn't pass up the chance to blitz the lot of you. Nice weather.






Seems I'll have to find the big welder. Oh well, it's all practice.


Oh, and this thing has about 3 mm of play. Luckily, that's easily fixed, and it seems pretty damned trivial at this point.

Jamesbo

Man, You're blowing and going

Thanks for the update

Seff

Hah, that's not a phrase I'm familiar with - something to do with the speed I work at?

You're welcome - always fun to hear some feedback (and much-needed advice). :P

Jamesbo

I guess it means you are going so fast you are running out of breath.

Seff

Hahah, you don't know what you were just saying? Nice. :P

Thinking that I'll go clean up and take the front end apart, since I have the energy anyway.

442_Mustang

That frame will need some loving...

oldsguybry

wow , I never seen a frame broke like that , what do you think could of caused that ? ....you really ripped that car apart quick , you have some serious energy like me , but I take to many breaks lol

Seff

Since it's on the same side as the yellow parts, I assume it's been crashed in some way or another, warranting the substitution of said parts - that would also explain the bent rear frame member, since they'd possibly have to yank it out of any holes they might've put it in. I took a wirebrush to the crack last night, and it looks like someone tried and failed to weld the frame back together - guess that's a really good reason to sell an old car if you just lost your job like the left over letters from the previous owner suggest.

442_Mustang

You should have the frame measured and straightened if necessary.There may be problems aligning the suspension and body panels in the future.

Seff

I'll start by putting the front clip back on and seeing what that does to the crack.

Seff

It was time wash the engine before I send it off to the shop, so I figured that I'd take it a little further apart, which turned out to be a good idea - I doubt a timing chain needs that kind of slack. :P


Engine after said wash, which didn't seem to be very effective - I managed to blow tons of orange water out through the channels, though, and determine that the block's leaky at the little seal things. Yet another thing to take care of, and probably a headache I'll leave for the shop to worry about.





More sanding! Got a fair bit of the other side done as well.

Seff

Got my sandblaster thingy gizmo today, tested it out on my fender.


Had the sense to snap a picture of what it looked like before I blasted it all (Boy I feel mighty referring to 'blasting').



After blasting.



After sanding a bit. Considering the depth of the rust, I'm feeling good about this.

oldsguybry

wow , that looks like a lot of work , I may have to rip my motor apart this summer too , well ...not that much , but it has a knock I gotta try an fix.