Thursday, September 28, 2006

More Chrome

First of all, here's a much better picture of myself in my current state. If you look closely, you can see that I'm still missing my backseat.














Yesterday the postman dropped off a big box filled with my chrome trim for my windshield. Right now, as you can see in the picture on the left, I've got just plain black rubber. The trim will fit over that. I should look like the picture on the right (except that I'm not a convertible of course).








Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Pesky Leak

The other night, Tom tested the sealing job he and Ariel had done. Unfortunately, there's still one spot that needed some more silicone. We all hope that this will fix it so that they can get on with re-installing my interior.

Tom took a look at my rear seat bottom. The frame is pretty rusty and the many of the snake wire springs are broken. The vinyl is in really good shape, but the cloth where it attaches to the frame is shot. Hopefully, he can attach new cloth and salvage the cover. The frame is another question. He can buy new snake wire springs, but is the frame is solid enough?

Last night he started me up to drive out of the garage and noticed that exhaust coming out my left side was cooler than the right. He checked the choke and it was already open compared to the right side. Another adjustment will need to be made someday. No wonder I've been running a little rough at startup.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Running Out Of Holes

Tom spent some quality time with me yesterday and painted on the POR-15 in the rear seat area. He used some fiberglass patches to cover the rust through areas. There are still a couple of holes that are so large that he'll need to use sheetmetal to cover them.

He also POR-15'd the groove around the trunk opening where the weatherstripping goes using a couple of small fiberglass pieces to repair some holes. There are still a couple of holes along the front edge that he'll fill with bondo before re-installing the weatherstrip.

Once those things are done, I'll only need the master cylinder rebuilt and I can get my new carpet installed.

My New Carpet's Here

Before my new carpet can be installed, it's imperitive that all my leaks be fixed. After cleaning out the old, loose silicone "fix", Tom and Ariel addressed my leaky rear window by putting a new bead of silicone between the rubber gasket and the cleaned glass. I also had a small leak at the driver's door that he sealed with the silicone caulk.

Then Tom capped the fitting in my differential and added about a pint of 90 weight oil to bring that level up to the bottom of the fill hole. He also removed my passenger door panel and handle and freed the button. Now passengers can open that door from the outside.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Rear End Issues

Yesterday, Tom decided to replace the axle seals in my differential. When he was preparing to top off my differential with new oil, he discovered that I was missing a plug. When a previous owner replaced my original differential with one from a '64, he forgot to plug the dipstick hole. That explains why on hard right turns, I leaked 90 weight. Tom also adjusted my rear brakes to prevent me from locking up my right rear on slick roads.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Time To Catch Up

I've been on the road so much lately, that I've neglected my blog. This will catch you up.

The transmission in Tom's Mazda was replaced, but he was still having problems, so I've been his daily driver for most of the last month. I've not given him any problems except for an intermittent desire to not start (turn the key and I won't crank so Tom installed a hotwire in the engine compartment to bypass the ignition switch). I finally was driven in the rain and made Tom aware of a touchy right rear brake (makes for exciting wet-weather driving) and multiple water leaks.

I'm back up on jackstands in the garage and Tom spent some time addressing my leaks yesterday. He also wirebrushed the inside floor where the rear seat sits and the two air ducts that also sit in that area. He drilled two additional holes for mounting rear seatbelts. He removed my trunk seal and brushed out the channel. All in preparation for a serious session with POR-15. He also re-installed my wipers so that they only wipe the windshield and he unstuck my passenger door latch so the button will open the door.