Last Horrah

I think today is the last shop time I get until I return from Africa late next month. I pulled the dog bones and links on the rear suspension, and started removing the front suspension. I had hoped to get it all off so I could ship it to Paul Newman to get it fitted for spherical bearings. Unfortunately, the front suspension is taking about 3 times as long to tear down. I was one bolt from removing the left front lower control arm, when I found that I installed the bolt before installing the suspension cradle in the frame - the bolt doesn't come out, nor does the control arm. I started sanding the parting lines off all the forged components. I don't think I'll go as far as polishing everything, but I do want to remove all the rough edges.

I stopped by Eagleton this week, and it looked like they might be getting ready to start on it. :-)

A little sun for the chassis

Saturday I pulled the chassis off the lift, now that I have four tires again, and rolled it out in the sunshine. I then rolled it under the lift to use the lift to pull the engine and tranny out of it so I can detail the engine. Following the drivetrain removal, the chassis was rolled back on the lift so I can put it on jackstands, pull the suspension, send the pivoting parts to Paul Newman for spherical bearing conversion, and clean the chassis.

I've now got the engine on a stand. OSH had a no sales tax weekend so I picked up a couple cans of engine enamel and a can of caliper paint. The engine needs some serious oxidation removal. The whole engine will be coated in GM gloss black to hopefully combat this oxidation problem once and for all.



Hopefully this cleaner will help with that task. It worked reasonably well on the timing cover and valve covers.

The tranny is on a dolly. I took a ride on the bike up to OSH tonight to replace the 15mm deep socket that cracked when I tried breaking loose the last bolt on the torque convertor when I split the engine and tranny apart. I think this is the first real tool casualty of the project.

Got Rubber

Had the new back tires mounted up today. Expected the tires to be bigger - looks like no difference in the total tread block to be applied to the road, just bigger grooves between the blocks. Tires are 40mm wider in theory, but looks like they just pick up 3/4" over the old 235/50-17 tires they replaced.

The new backspacing on the rim is 1/2" more than the old rim, but with the slimmer tire bulge, they only extend 1/8" more back. I measured old and new tread depth to see how matched the two sets of front tires will be to the one set of rear tires. I've got 6/32 left on the old tires, and 10/32 on the new tires. There's half a chance I might wear out the two sets of front tires alongside the one set of rear tires.

Comparing the old (lower photo) and new (upper photo), you can see the deeper dish of the new back rims, and the greater groove size in the 275/40-17 tires.

Pomona Swap Meet

Took an early drive to Pomona today for the big swap meet. The key motivator was to visit the Al Knock trailer and figure out interior colors. I've been debating some sort of tan leather interior on this revision of Mutt. I took a look at the stock 1961 Fawn Beige, but it was a bit green/gold and not the tan I was looking for. We ended up settling on the 1970 Light Saddle color. Al Knock will do it in standard 1961 style with the custom color, including the molded dash pad. Door panels, kick panels and seats will be leather rather than vinyl, and I decided on the retro-mod kick panels with the 5" speaker hole. I also got some extra material for the wheel and the shifter console. Best part, with the show special, it came in under budget.

Heads on

Ordered up head gaskets and bolts from Summit Thursday, along with a Be-Cool LS1 style 61 Corvette radiator for Mutt, and had the stuff Friday, gotta love the overnight ground service from Reno. Seperately I ordered the new Michelin PS2 tires from Tire Rack. I'll get the tires mounted Monday - I had them drop shipped to Big O by my office.

I modified the passenger head to accomodate the stock temp sender, drilling out the head and tapping to 1/2" pipe for the sensor.

I cleaned up the block and all the bolt holes, reinstalled the heads, and bolted them down. I used a sharpie angle torque wrench. Next step was reinstalling the rest of the valve train. Pretty easy job with no body around the engine.

Tonight I cleaned up the valve covers. I also pulled the truck filler tube, putting the fill cap directly on the valve cover. Given the corrosion on the aluminum, and the close proximity to the beach, the plan is to paint the engine and accessories to avoid more oxidation of the aluminum.