August, 2008
This month I finished some parts of interior restoration. Let's begin with the easy ones.
Restoration of air conditioning and heater plenum
As usual app parts hes been sandblasted. Plastic case was glued and some putty ws needed to cover holes. I painted the plenum with epoxy primer and epoxy black paint. All flaps hes been zinc plated. New heater core was ordered an installed. All has been completely assembled. The results look perfect. Look yourselves.
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| Fan - assembling | Result... | |||
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| Other view | New heater core. | |||
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| Plenum assembly with new heater core and original air condition core. | and ready... | |||
Master cylinder
Brake cylinder was sandblasted and painted and completed with orignal parts. I will test if it leaks in future. As this is quite important part it maybe results that I would need to order a new one.
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Completion of the dash
The das shell was sandblasted and painted with epoxy primer and than with acrylic black. Plastic panels has been blasted moderately not to damage the texture. Then I used and plastic activator for better adhesivity and painted black. The Chrome trim was simulated by masking and painted with chrome/silver spary paint. The results are not perfect but this was a cost effective solution. There are really chrome simulating paints at the market available but they are incredible expensive. I maybe decide to use it in the future.
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Seat and upholstery
Next thing was to remove old crappy upholstery . I removed it from rear and front seats. The front foams are a lot damaged as well. I will retain the back ones as they were in good condition. All of this stuff is ready for garbage. I welded the broken seat frame and completely sandblasted it during one afternoon. All has been painted with epoxy primer and than black acrylic.
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| Removing the upholstery covers. | Welding job needs to be done on the driver seat broken frame. | |||
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| I have completely sandblasted front and back seat frames. | and painted with epoxy primer and than black. | |||
Engine
I finally decide its right time to do an engine tear down. I have been able to start the engine when it was still lin the car but it runs quire rought. Also the cooling was not working at all. I have cleaned the engine with solvent and started to go inside.
The condition seem to be not good just after removing of valve cover due to some messy and oily things inside.
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| After removing of valve covers. I was able to seen the old oily stuff. | ||||
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Removing of the heads was quite easy. I have recognized that engine was never bored and piston chambers has still original diameter of 4 inches. Although a lot of wear was visible.
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| Head removal. | Ford 2 V cast iron heads. | |||
Engine is 302 and is not original to the car. The original was 351 2V Cleveland. According to block casting number I was able to recognize that its coming from 72 Ford Fairlaine. The year is quite important for ordering the right parts for build up. By the way at this year the main changes were: New double fuel pump eccentric. Also a new pollution standart require to use an ERG system in 1972.
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| Casting number - you can know a lot of about engine from this number, year and vehicle family is important. | And now moving to the crankshaft. | |||
The timing chain and wheels condition was to put into trash. I am just wondering it is still working . The camshaft still looks usable.
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| Timing chain. | This one already passed his life a long time ago... | |||
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| The camshaft removal was quite easy then. | ||||
The disassembled block and head I took to machinery shop for measurements. The results was definite: Bore for 0.03 " , machine crank and rod bearings to 0.01 ". The head valves were damaged baldy so there was no choice to purchase new ones. As I planned some small performance upgrade I ordered following parts at first instance.
Front lights buckets , pedals...
During the last August weekend I start to restore front metal headlight buckets The repair consist of sandblasting, bonding and painting.
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I sandblasted other pars, oil pan and pedals.
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| Oil pan. | Zinc plated (yellow dichromate now), steering column, dash brackets and a lot of others... | |||
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| Zinc plated throttle and brake pedals. | I finished parking brake pedal finally. | |||