rob1960

I finally got around to redoing my front seats after collecting parts for 3 yrs(I put up some pics in the upholstery forum. While out in the garage working on the seats I noticed an oil leak under the engine cross member. The engine has always been dry, even the rear main. After checking things out I found that the POS a/c compressor was leaking out the big rear case o-ring! The compressor was only 4 yrs old! The car was converted to R134a before I bought it. What a mess it made!! The stuff in the R134/oil eats paint & it got all over the lower control arm & frame. I can't believe I didn't notice it but I don't drive the car that much(the front seal did leak a little). I had the car nicely detailed & there was no way I could clean it up without ripping out all the suspension on the rh side!! When I took the compressor apart it had the old style black o-rings that don't work with R134a??? Since all the a/c compressor & hoses were out I did a little more detailing on the evap box(refinished the poa valve,blower resistor, etc. Of course since I had the rh wheel house out I pulled the one on the drivers also so I could do a little clean up on that side too! And while the wheel houses are out I might as well put on my new front bumper, core support bushings, big swaybar & on &on!!! At least the compressor was in good shape,no metal chunks, nice hone marks in the cylinders,I'd never had one apart that far before! It's quite a piece of engineering. It's all back together & detailed. I used a new style one piece front seal,anyone used one of these?? While I could get to the upper fender trim clips I also redid my stripes. It had incorrect black ones & I made up some in an orange-red.(Please don't be too hard on me "stripe police" I know it's not a W36 car) I was going to leave them off but the stripes left faint marks in the paint that I didn't want to try & buff out so I just made new ones.

rob1960

Spent yesterday refinishing all the bumper brackets & hardware. Could only work to around noon, boy was it hot here yesterday!! I had the big bumper brackets outside baking in the sun & they got so hot I almost couldn't pick them up!

classicmuscle442

Very nice detailing under hood.

rob1960

Finished up touching up the frame so I can install the new front bumper. I lowered the frame & replaced the 6 body bushings along the main rails plus the core support bushings, They were much easier to change than I thought they'd be. They all unbolted with no problems!! The bushings were in reasonably good shape for 50+ yrs, Only the 2 front ones at the firewall had age cracks but the metal part inside the rh mount at the firewall was pretty rusted but luckily the frame was fine(It's an area prone to rust on a/c cars). The mounts right before the rear wheels were just the "pucks" with no bolts but the kit I bought from Inline came with a bolt in mount for those locations & since there were already nuts in the floor pan I put in the regular mounts,(Inlines instruction sheet which was the body mount page from 1970 showed W30s & W31s having a regular mount there & since mine's a 4spd & I'd already added the '70 up 4spd frame braces I figured it wouldn't hurt. I repaired the center grille support on the core support. It had a dent in it & it was bowed a little from a previous "oopsy" before I bought the car & it always bothered me. The a/c parts are ready to go back on, the condenser's flushed out along with the evaporator & hoses. I'm so thankful to have the time off work to get all these little projects done! Hopefully I can finally get things back together this week. I'd like to make the Alliance show again this year.

rob1960

Finally finished everything up yesterday! I put on the new bumper but I'm only so-so with it. It's from Tamraz(AMD) It fits ok but I can't get it closer to the fenders with out it being too high at the front. The A/C blows nice & cold again!. I ended up replacing all the body mounts since I had the whole kit. Only had 2 bad ones, the rt frt one at the firewall that I mentioned before & the rt one just behind the rear wheel. I thought I was in trouble when I went to loosen the bolt & a pile of rust fell out of the mount. I can't understand it, all the metal in it was completely rusted away & the bolt was loose & I thought it was just spinning but it unscrewed with no problems. The frame was fine & so was the trunk floor brace,just a little surface on the brace that I hit with a small wire brush & some rust treatment stuff. I know it's almost 51 yrs old but it seems weird that the only the one mount would totally rust out like that on a car with floor pans that are original & nice. Water would have had to get inside the mount somehow. All the bolts came right out. I was lucky! Just got to wash her up & go for a blast after sitting for over a month! May not get to do that for a couple of days though, it's suppose to rain for the next couple of days. Hopefully we'll have nice weather for the Alliance show next weekend.