| Sunday 23 Sep 01 |
I recovered the front seat this weekend. I did not buy the $200 foam that is available. Instead, I used carpet jute padding and polyester batting. I recovered the seat caps with black vinyl. It turned out pretty good. Amy, the dogs and I ended up sitting in the car for about 10 minutes tonight. I hope I can get this on the road before the end of October. :) |
| Sunday 24 Jun 01 |
Well, today was frustrating. I still haven't been able to get the hood aligned. I've been working on this for almost a month now, and it hasn't gotten any better. I ended up chipping the paint on both fenders to add insult to injury. NOTE: Fender covers are REQUIRED!!! I've installed and removed shims to the tops of both fenders, both sides of the radiadiator support and fender tie bar. |
| Saturday 28 Apr 01 |
Preparation for front end sheetmetal install. Painted battery box, fan, radiator baffles, radiator support, fender tie bar semi-gloss black. Polished driver door stainless, painted fender extension supports and fender extension bumper brackets. I can't believe I found everything. I have extra fender extension supports and bumper brackets!!! |
| Saturday 10 Feb 01 |
I installed the back glass today. Flowable windshield sealer. Driver's side windshield trim, completed steering column assembly, stainless A pillar screw problems, started engine. |
| Saturday - Sunday 16-17 September 00 |
I cleaned up the garage this weekend, and once again started the project in ernest. Bill and I tried to install the windshield, however, we discovered that a sedan winshield won't fit in a hardtop. Check on EBAY for a good "daily driver" windshield. I finished up the heater restoration, installed the cables and controls, so the dash is really starting to look great. Also, I worked on the website while I watched the MSU vs BYU football game. Check out the Assembly page |
| Wednesday, 7 Jun 00 |
I was still on vacation today since my parents came to visit this week, so I had a chance to work on the car a little. I cleaned up and painted parts for the clutch linkage, installed the driver's side header and installed the trunk lock. I ordered a clutch cross shaft busing from Danchuck, however, since I have a 4-speed instead of the original transmission, it didn't work. I built up the linkage with a grade eight bolt, two fender washers, and ten flat washers. The flat washers fill up the volume inside the top of the z-bar linkage, and the fender washers keep the whole thing in place. I'll bolt it all together with a nylock nut and spray on a little lithium grease. We'll see how it works. |
| Wednesday, 7 Jun 00 |
I was still on vacation today since my parents came to visit this week, so I had a chance to work on the car a little. I cleaned up and painted parts for the clutch linkage, installed the driver's side header and installed the trunk lock. I ordered a clutch cross shaft busing from Danchuck, however, since I have a 4-speed instead of the original transmission, it didn't work. I built up the linkage with a grade eight bolt, two fender washers, and ten flat washers. The flat washers fill up the volume inside the top of the z-bar linkage, and the fender washers keep the whole thing in place. I'll bolt it all together with a nylock nut and spray on a little lithium grease. We'll see how it works. |
| Thursday, 1 Jun 00 |
I installed the ignition switch in the wiring harness tonight. Really simple, step by step process. It just kills me to cut the extra length off of my $300 wiring harness. It will make for a cleaner install though. When I carried the ignition/turn signal harness out to the car, the ignition switch hit the passenger door and chipped the paint. :( !@#$!@#$ "We just cain't have nice things..." |
| 23 Apr 00 |
Painted headers with POR-15 hi-temp paint in aluminum (silver) today. They turned out great. Need a second coat per instructions. Bill and I installed the passenger side door since Amy's family is coming to visit. I have to clean all the car parts out of the guest bedroom. It lined up pretty good. There is a slight warping of the door at the lower front corner, but I don't think it will be noticable once the whole car is finished. |
| Week 28 Feb - 3 Mar 00 |
Researched the history of the car a little. I found the guy my dad bought the car from in '87. He said he only kept the car for a year, and paid $1800 for it. The guy he bought it from lived in Jackson, MS. He is looking for his bill of sale. The search for Mrs. F J Carroll Jr. continues. I've contacted several people in MS, but no luck yet. |
| Week 21-25 Feb 00 |
I decided to go ahead and install the rear drums for now, and replace them when I get the whole thing running. Who knows, maybe I'll find a GM 12-Bolt to put in. I had President's Day off from work, so I spent the whole day working on the brake system. I was really suprised how well the original "long" brake line polished up. I just scraped away the big stuff with a hacksaw blade, and then cleaned it up with some steel wool soaked in mineral spirits. All nice and shiny. I clear coated the long line, both rear axle lines, and the front lines with high temp engine paint. I rebuilt every wheel cylinder, and installed new shoes. I used a little anti-seize compound on the adjusters. I've worked with frozen adjusters, and it's really no fun. :( I finished up the brake system. All I lack is tying it into the master cylinder when I get it rebuilt and bleeding the system. TIP: If you have a stripped spindle nut, don't order one from the resto magazines for $5 - &10. I got one from Discount Auto Parts for $2. The package even included a washer (wrong size) and new cotter pin. |
| Thursday, 17 Feb 00 |
BAD NEWS!!! The drums are too thin to resurface. New drums cost $55 each from CCI and Danchuck. What to do what to do... I'll check the front drums before I work the brakes up this time. If the drums are bad, maybe I should reconsider the disk brake conversion. I can convert to front disks for $300, and I'm going to have to spend around $170 to get the existing brakes up to snuff. We'll see... |
| Wednesday, 16 Feb 00 |
I finished assembling the rear brakes tonight. Take special note to ensure the wheel cylinder has the line fitting pointing toward the rear of the car, or your existing brake lines won't line up. I ended up using a rebuilt wheel cylinder from AutoZone, and the line points the wrong way. At least I had already planned to replace the brake lines. Now, I just have to get the drums resurfaced. |
| Monday, 14 Feb 00 |
Bill came over tonight and helped me put the trunk lid back on the body. We adjusted it as best we could, but you can still see light around the gasket. I'll have to think on how to fix that. I did a little research on my CD-ROM, and found how to adjust the tension in the windshield wiper cables. They are spring loaded, and you press the shaft in, and it releases the spring tension on the cables. Anyway, I was able to get the wiper transmissions installed in the firewall correctly. I started installing the rear brakes tonight, but didn't get very far. |
| Saturday, 12 Feb 00 |
Today, I cleaned up the wiper transmissions and center assembly. I spray painted the center transmission with hi-temp clear, and installed everything. It's a little tricky to get the cables twisted correctly, but it all seems to work. The wiper transmissions don't seem to be aligned in the firewall correctly. I'll have to look into that. |
| Sunday, 7 Nov 99 |
I cleaned up the heater box and defroster vents, and painted them and the brake hardware with POR-15. I plan to spray the outside of the heater box with grey paint in an effort to make it appear original. |
| Saturday, 6 Nov 99 |
I torqued the body mounts down today. I need to go back and torque down the motor mounts. After lunch, I cleaned up the emergency brake hardware, and painted the firewall. |
| Sunday, 31 Oct 99 |
I installed the new PST body mounts tonight. Bob, Bill, Jeff, and Jim Rose's Grandfather In-Law lifted the body while I put the mounts in place. I know that sounds like a raw deal for them, but my fingers were in danger of getting smashed. :) |
| Saturday, 30 Oct 99 |
I painted my floor pan patches and seams with POR-15. I had to remove the rear motor mounts and lower the engine to get access to the transmission hump. NOTE!!! I should have done this earlier and avoided this problem. I used the excess POR-15 to paint the underside of the roof since the insulation was off anyway. I'll give the floor boards 24hrs to cure before I put on the seam sealer. |
| Wednesday, 13 Oct 99 |
I finished mounting the rearend tonight. I cleaned up the floorboards a little, and I'm ready to patch some of the pin holes with POR-15 and fiberglass reinforcing fabric. |
| Tuesday, 12 Oct 99 |
I put the rearend back together, and filled it with gearlube. After spinning it a few times, the rearend sounds a lot better. |
| Thursday, 7 Oct 99 |
I pulled the rear end out of the car tonight. During all the towing, pulling and pushing I've done, some strange grinding noises have started to iminate from the rear end. The gears aren't chewed up, and there's no sign of galling or chipped teeth. I'm concerned the bearings are shot. I called Reider Racing today, and it's going to cost me ~$250 to have the differential rebuilt. Maybe it's time to look for a GM 12-Bolt. |
| Sunday, 29 Aug 99 |
Wow, where to begin. Halfway through the painting process, I had to move from New Mexico to Georgia. I dropped the car off in Mississippi, and starting my new job, and began looking for a house. We built a house, and I had the car painted in MS. I brought almost everything to GA over the 4th of July weekend. I'll be filling in the rest of the details ASAP. Check out my new counter. :) |
| Wednesday, 18 Nov 98 |
I've talked to almost every paint shop in town, and the consistent price I get is $2500 to finish the car even if I provide the materials. I decided that was total BS, and went back to work this afternoon. I bought a pair of halogen lights so I can work after dark now. I sanded the quarter panels with the inline air sander and 180 grit paper. It really helped with all that dry spattering. I'm going to go over the whole car, do some nit picking, and prime the body again with thinned primer. It won't be perfect, but it'll be close. |
| Saturday, 14 Nov 98 |
Another winner week at work. I even took off Wednesday - Friday to deer hunt, but that was fruitless. I saw 36 doe, and not a single buck. Oh well, back to work. I started sanding down the primer with 320 grit, and it's not going well. I the places where it sprayed on dry, it didn't come off, and in other places I've already sanded through. At noon, I was fed up with everything, and went into town to get estimates to have it painted by a body shop. |
| Sunday, 8 Nov 98 |
After a frustrating week, today was fairly successful. I was able to get my doors, hood, trunk lid and fenders primed today. It took me over an hour to mask off the hood and fenders, but the actual painting went pretty fast. I had time to put the weatherstriping around my truck windows this afternoon after I finished. |
| Saturday, 7 Nov 98 |
Fill, sand, fill, sand,... this seems like an endless cycle I've fallen into. I guess if I want everything to be perfect, I'll never be finished. I started at 9am this morning, and quit around 4pm. I think I've got everything ready for primer tomorrow. The hood and splash pan still worry me. I should have picked a lighter color for the body though. The dark, "Midnight Blue" will show every little wrinkle. Oh well it's a little late now. |
| Thursday, 5 Nov 98 |
I hate how short the days are now. By the time I get off work and over to the shop, I've only got about 2hrs of daylight left, and of course I can't sand inside the shop. Tonight I sanded until it got dark, and then hauled everything inside to put on more body filler. Body work is getting really old. |
| Wednesday, 4 Nov 98 |
I took off at lunch today, but didn't get too much done on the car. I spent most of the afternoon replacing the wheel and inner spindle bearings on my truck. The groaning noise just got to be more than I could take. I did have a chance to work on the master cylinder I got out of the junkyard. I destroyed the cap getting it off. Ended up drilling holes in it and breaking it into small pieces to get it off. The reservoir is pretty rusty, but the bore is in great shape. Nothing a rebuild kit won't handle. |
| Tuesday, 3 Nov 98 |
I spent this evening tearing down my truck's front spindle to replace the wheel bearings. I found the culprit of my groaning noise that's been haunting me for the past two years off and on. A $7 bearing that fits inside the spindle for the 4X4 axle shaft. I'll have to finish it tomorrow. |
| Sunday, 1 Nov 98 |
At long last, I was able to prime the body again. I put on two thick coats of PPG 271 primer. That should be all I need. (Famous last words.) The gun had some problems and kept sputtering. I hope it won't be too hard to sand out. We'll see. |
| Saturday, 31 Oct 98 |
I finished up my body work today. At least I'm calling it finished. I started this morning around 10:30, and finished up at 4:30. Fill, sand, fill,... I'll be glad when this is over. Ready to prime the body tomorrow. |
| 30 Oct 98 |
I found a radiator shop that will rebuild my heater core this morning. He said it would cost about $200 to rebuild the radiator, so I'll just buy a "new" one. I found a 15" steering wheel from Grant for $100 through Autozone. I'll hold off on that for a while. This afternoon, I continued with my body work. It seems that all I do is fill and sand. It is getting better I suppose. It started raining, so I'm not sure what I'll be able to do tomorrow. John finished up the brake lines, and finished masking off the tranny to begin painting tomorrow. |
| 29 Oct 98 |
Picked up a trunk lid lock tumbler and assembly at the junkyard today. I got that and a brake master cylinder for $20. I thought that was a pretty good deal. I spent the afternoon sanding the fenders, doors, hood and trunk lid. After that, Stan and I pulled a dent out of the passenger side rocker panel and welded up the holes. John spent the afternoon cleaning up the engine, brake lines and brake components. |
| 28 Oct 98 |
We got alot accomplished today. Ran into town this morning and picked up a few supplies. I found a set of used tires with plenty of tread left for $135 mounted and balanced. That will work out quite nicely until I can afford a new set. I spent the afternoon sanding the body and the hood. After it got dark, I put a some body filler in a few places on the body. I quit around 6pm since it was too dark to sand outside, and the hobby shop won't let you sand inside. Johnny finished cleaning the engine, and the brake components. (10 hrs) |
| 27 Oct 98 |
Another busy day. John and I spent most of the morning cleaning up the engine block getting it ready for painting. We also clearcoated the brake hardware. After lunch I masked and primed my hood, fenders, trunk lid and doors. Stan came by around 4pm, and we put a guide coat on part of the car, and sanded about 1/3 of the body. I can see now that I didn't put enough base coats of primer on. After supper, I began rebuilding my hardtop flippers. The CCI Tech Books and the "How to Restore Your 1957 Chevy" have very detailed directions on how to go about doing this. (10 hrs) |
| 26 Oct 98 |
The Auto Shop was closed today, so my father in-law, John Hooks, and I ran around town running errands. We picked up paint to repaint my engine and tranny, looked for antennas at the junkyards, took my ignition, door, and glovebox lock cylinders in to have them rekeyed and we cleaned up all the brake parts. This may not sound like too much, but it took us most of the day. (6 hrs) |
| 25 Oct 98 |
This was another entire day spent on body work. Putting the putty in and sanding it down takes a long time. I'm really beginning to appreciate good body work. (6hours) |
| 24 Oct 98 |
Today was a Saturday, so I got a lot accomplished. I picked up a new inner wheel bearing, oil seals, another 1/2 gallon of primer, a quart of black paint for the interior, and some 320 grit sand paper. I went to the junk yard, and found a turn signal housing from a '55 station wagon that only cost me $2.00.
At the hobby shop, I put body putty on the fenders, hood, trunk lid and doors. They are going to turn out pretty good I think. I hope to get to put primer on them tomorrow. |
| 22 Oct 98 |
Enough frustration. When I get finished, I'll be finished. If I have to load everything up in boxes in the back of my truck and haul the whole thing to Georgia, then so be it.
It rained again today. I had planned to take off at lunch today, but I got caught up at work, and didn't get away until 1PM. Then when I left work it started raining. Looks like I should just wet sand the car and be done with it. :) Anyway enough ranting. I gave up on my "scheduled" tasks, and worked on the overlooked things today. I took the splash pan and cowl vent grill to have sand blasted today. It turns out my radiator and heater core are shot, so that's an expense I didn't plan for. Stan and I scraped some sort of rust preventative coating off of the inside of my doors today. It came off pretty easy, just took a little time. After Stan left, I mixed up some putty cote and started filling dents in the hood and fenders. That passenger fender that was so dented is going to turn out pretty good I think. |
| 21 Oct 98 | It stopped raining at lunch today, so maybe things will dry up. Stan and I moved the car inside so it would dry out. We had plans to start filling in the dings with putty cote, but I decided to put POR-15 on the inside of the fenders, under the hood, and on lots of the engine compartment components. I painted until 8PM, and still didn't get finished. The POR-15 goes on a lot better when it is hot. It was around 68F in the booth, and the paint seemed thick. There's always tomorrow. |
| 20 Oct 98 | It is still raining!!! You have to realize I live in the High Desert of New Mexico, and if it rains for more than an hour, it's worth noting. Not much to do. I had planned to put POR-15 on the hood, fenders, and front clip parts, but now everything is wet. I scraped some sort of sound deadening material off of the inside of the hood. I put POR-15 on the "extra" holes in the Bel-Air fender and covered them with reinforcing cloth and put another coat over the whole thing. It looks like that will work fine. I was home for supper, and that made Amy happy. |
| 19 Oct 98 | It started raining this morning after I got to work. It doesn't look like it's going to quit any time soon. I cleaned up the splash pan and the front clip components in hopes I'll get to put POR-15 on them tomorrow. I had to drill out the bolts that attached the chrome fender extensions to the splash pan. |
| 13 Oct 98 | Today wasn't too fruitful. I had to run in to town to get some painting supplies, and by the time I got back it was already 5pm. I cut out the rest of my patch panels for the rear fenders, rocker panel, and passenger floorboard. It's hard to believe that took me two hours. |
| 10 Oct 98 | This was a very busy day. After I got Amy out of the bed, we towed the car over to the hobby shop. I started working on cutting out the floorboards and some other rusty spots this morning. I'm using an old hood from a truck as donor sheetmetal for the patch panels. I got all of the rusty spots cut out, and patch panels cut out for the floorboards. |
| 5-9 Oct 98 | I spent this week sanding out all of the old body filler from the car. There weren't too many spots, but it just took a long time doing it by hand. |
| 3 Oct 98 | I went to the local junk yard and got a splash pan today. I can't believe I actually found one in pretty good shape. It only cost me $20. That much better than the ~$200 price tag I saw for a repro pan. Still no luck finding a horn ring. It looks like I'm going to have to go with an aftermarket steering wheel for right now. |
| 28 Sep - 2 Oct 98 | Trying to recuperate this week. I've been traveling for the past two weeks, and there's lots of things to do around the house. I still had a little time to plan though. It looks like I can finish up for about $2500. I still want to put a budget page up on the web, but we'll see. I'm going to have to do without some of the interior stuff, and I won't get the bumpers rechromed right now, but I'll make do. |
| 18 Sep 98 | Well, I beat my deadline. I got the body primed before I leave on travel this Tuesday. The primer wasn't any trouble painting. It just goes on thick. I can't believe how good the body looks now that it's all one color. |
| 17 Sep 98 | I got the bottom of the body scrubbed and under coated today. I panted it with the POR-15 semi-gloss black I panted the frame with. It looks pretty good if I do say so myself. I went ahead and painted the "wet" areas of the car while I was at it. All of the interior floorboards, the trunk, drip rails, and front and rear glass areas got a coat of POR-15. |