"I'm Not a Car Guy." - A 1967.5 1600 Refurb Saga

[DAC21]

Well said Greg!

[funkaholik]

like the difference between venison and packaged chicken.

Even for a guy who doesn't eat meat, this is a perfect analogy.

Peter, as always, I thoroughly enjoyed your post, even if all the news isn't sunshine and kittens. This is a monumental task, but breaking it down into bite-sized jobs, combined with your OCD-level attention to detail, will keep moving you towards the finish line and you'll know that every aspect has been done right. Painting the rear brake backing plate silver instead of black is genius. That way any future leaks will be spotted immediately. Wish I'd thought of that!

Do you have any roadster friends near you in SD? It would be awesome to go get a ride in a roadster whenever the project feels overwhelming.

[iloveredmeat]

[/quote]

They say hindsight is 20/20... take my experience and know it's worth all the effort!

Well said Greg!

Agreed!

Thanks, @Gregs672000. Your thoughts hit home and really do help. If you're not a life-coach or something like that, you should be. I will keep everything you said in mind to help me across the finish line.

Painting the rear brake backing plate silver instead of black is genius. That way any future leaks will be spotted immediately. Wish I'd thought of that!

Uh oh... if that's genius, it's by dumb luck. Had I known they were supposed to be black, I would almost certainly have painted them black. I have no idea why I painted them that color... I can see the black paint in the photos! I'm going to blame it on the fumes from painting the drums.

like the difference between venison and packaged chicken.

Even for a guy who doesn't eat meat, this is a perfect analogy.

Wait... you don't eat meat? Reevaluating our friendship.

Seriously thanks. I know you and I share the compulsion to do it as 'right' as we can, so you can understand when I paint 6 layers with 3 different paints on the BACK of the grill surround that you can't even see. Sheesh.

[2mAn]

So… it’s been a minute…

Gas Tank After:

Saw that hole and this was all I could think about lol

2reqtg.png

I know its not the real solution but in this never-ending project situations a little humor helps.

Honestly, the update looked pretty damn good all said and done. in the wise words of Ross Geller from Friends.. PIVOT!

[SOUPY]

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[/img2]DAC21 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:58 pm
Per Curtis's effort, wiper nut and gasket that fit his 1967.5. Check out this thread and Curtis's post. viewtopic.php?p=326231&hilit=wiper+nuts#p326231
Oh awesome! Thank you! I hadn't seen that.

Feeling a little relieved, but still need to figure out how to get the nuts off! Maddening.

I'm assuming you're talking about wiper nuts, but after reading some of your post, I'm not sure! LOL! Anyway, I had one I couldn't get off, drivers side,66, no way to grab the little bugger from underneath, so I took a sacrificial 3/4" deep chrome socket modified it to fit over the wiper linkage and grab ahold of the little nubs and with someone holding that socket with a ratchet, was able to finally get nut off that PO had cross threaded!

[iloveredmeat]

Saw that hole and this was all I could think about lol

2reqtg.png

I know its not the real solution but in this never-ending project situations a little humor helps.

Honestly, the update looked pretty damn good all said and done. in the wise words of Ross Geller from Friends.. PIVOT!

Hey Simon!

Made me laugh, so it worked.

And thanks, I did get incremental stuff done, but man, the time + effort x frustration was huge for what did get accomplished.

I reckon anything is better than nothing.

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[/img2]DAC21 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:58 pm
Per Curtis's effort, wiper nut and gasket that fit his 1967.5. Check out this thread and Curtis's post. viewtopic.php?p=326231&hilit=wiper+nuts#p326231
Oh awesome! Thank you! I hadn't seen that.

Feeling a little relieved, but still need to figure out how to get the nuts off! Maddening.

I'm assuming you're talking about wiper nuts, but after reading some of your post, I'm not sure! LOL! Anyway, I had one I couldn't get off, drivers side,66, no way to grab the little bugger from underneath, so I took a sacrificial 3/4" deep chrome socket modified it to fit over the wiper linkage and grab ahold of the little nubs and with someone holding that socket with a ratchet, was able to finally get nut off that PO had cross threaded!

For this particular post, yes, the wiper nuts. Ha!

That's a good solution, I may well try that. Thanks for the idea!
Peter

[notoptoy]

RE: The wiper nuts, I used a Dremel and cut out a chunk of each and broke off the rest. One must be very careful not to cut into the post/arm pivot threads. It worked well for me. But having seen the sacrificial socket trick above, I like that too.

[iloveredmeat]

RE: The wiper nuts, I used a Dremel and cut out a chunk of each and broke off the rest. One must be very careful not to cut into the post/arm pivot threads. It worked well for me. But having seen the sacrificial socket trick above, I like that too.

Oh gosh, I've been more concerned about the nuts than the ‘post/arm pivot' mechanism. I was thinking that the nuts were more difficult to replace.

What did you replace your nuts with?

Will a good long soak in PB Blaster or similar help to loosen the washer nut?

Sheesh. What an odd little (huge?) hurdle.

I'm going to have to do some serious strategorizing...

Thanks for the cautionary

Peter

[notoptoy]

The soak certainly can’t hurt, but didn’t work for me I had the whole deal where the pivot arm was starting to twist in the middle and bugger up everything. Cutting it off was the easiest solution I could think of at the time. I got replacements from Moss on recommendation from this forum. I do have a 67.5

[SOUPY]

Agree with notoptoy, PB blaster did nothing to help mine even after 2 weeks! Dissimilar metals? I would think it would be much harder to find a replacement pivot than the nut. Either way, be careful!

[iloveredmeat]

The soak certainly can’t hurt, but didn’t work for me I had the whole deal where the pivot arm was starting to twist in the middle and bugger up everything. Cutting it off was the easiest solution I could think of at the time. I got replacements from Moss on recommendation from this forum. I do have a 67.5

Agree with notoptoy, PB blaster did nothing to help mine even after 2 weeks! Dissimilar metals? I would think it would be much harder to find a replacement pivot than the nut. Either way, be careful!

Thanks guys. Good to know.
Peter

[iloveredmeat]

After my Pity Party Post, I've actually accomplished some fulfilling stuff. Though none of it helps to get my car actually running, it does feel like progress. As I'm 500 miles away, the only thing I can do is fiddle with the small parts I bring down here. That means I spend an unreasonable amount of time restoring the trim and accessories and stuff.

This episode: Grill restoration and some shiny bits:

For whatever reason, my 1600 had a 2L grill on it. I've been told that a lot of folks did that way back when the 2L grills cost less than putting my daughters through college. As far as I can tell that is the only non-stock part on the whole car.

I'm mostly committed to restoring the car close to original, so I've gone back and forth between using a 1600 grill or the 2L grill that was on the car. I am taking personal liberties here and there - like instead of black instrument bezels, I did dull silver as God intended, a 2150 stroker, custom suspension, etc.

As a result of my impulsive over-purchasing syndrome, I found myself with two additional grills, a 1600 and another 2L, both of which needed restoring.

I started restoring all three grills at the same time. The first step was straightening any metal as best I could. Then I took them down to get further straightened and triple plate re-chromed. The center bars of the 2L grills are stainless, so I had those straightened and polished. The 'D' emblems were re-chromed. I then completely stripped, sanded down to bare metal, straightened, primed, and painted the back grids. This was a ton of work, but all of them turned out really well.







Since there was no painting required on the 1600 chrome, that grill was finished first. And it turned out amazing… and I sorta regret it, but I sold it in order to add to the depleted Roadster Fund (I've sold off my fly rod collection to fund the project thus far).



I then went after painting the middle bars and the emblems for the 2L grills. I spent a crazy amount of time working on the emblems… had some trial and error, as I had to redo my first attempt, but I learned a lot and found a pretty good path to getting them looking really good. I hand-painted self-etching primer where needed. Because they're wedge-shaped, I then made a little foam 'tray' to hold the emblems perfectly level, so I could paint/pour semi-gloss enamel all around the center 'D', and it would dry level and smooth. That worked really well. And for the inside of the bars of the emblem, I just painted one side and after that dried, I flipped it over and painted the other.







The middle bars are deceptively a pain in the butt. Lots of tight little masking required. But I got them masked, primed, and painted with a satin black.







Then I masked the chrome surrounds and painted the backs of the chrome with a series of paints which kind of makes it look bead-blasted. This will help with rust, but is mostly overkill because you can't even see it when the back grids are on there.





Next was hardware and assembly. I bought all new stainless everything, and even cut new studs for the D emblem attachments.







All in all, I'm really happy with how they turned out and I feel some satisfaction from the effort.

If my math is correct, I still have one too many grills, so I'll be selling one of the 2Ls soon I suppose.

With my chrome job, I also sent out a bunch of little bits, so next task will be reassembling some of that stuff - like the wing windows.

I'd much rather have a running car than a pretty car… but this is the path I have to take… so onward. Baby steps.

[spl310]

They look nice! I need to rework one and buy one of the Vietnamese surrounds.

[notoptoy]

That is some amazing detail work and looks fantastic. Any progress is good progress! Keep up the great work.

[theunz]

Fantastic! You could probably pay for your restoration by restoring grills for others. Something tells me however that you would end up working for minimum wage