A few items that I have taken care of since finding a source for the brakes are:
RING GEAR -I had two flywheels and ring gear. Problem was that the flywheel on one had a nasty ring gear, and the ring gear on the other had a nasty fly wheel. Simple to solve? Well sort of. I managed to tap off the ring gear from their respective flywheels. One had been welded to the flywheel (the nasty one) and lucky for me(?) the welds had broken. A quick cleanup with a wire brush and I was ready to put the good gear on the good wheel.
Not having a oxy-acetylene torch, I used the next best thing... my back yard bar-b-q. I prepared myself beforehand, vice grips, oven mits AND gloves as well as a fire extinguisher... just in case. I did have my flywheel stored in the freezer for a few days prior to the operation in hopes that freezing would shrink it enough to help ease on the ring gear. Fired up and left for a few minutes at 600 degrees (that is hot), I prepared the flywheel on a paving stone to protect the patio from any potential damage. BBQ open, vice grips attached to the outer edge and voila! The gear slipped on effortlessly. There was a bit of a gap that remained, and I was worried that the two flywheels were different diameters (you never know). This concern was slowly put to rest as the heated gear and frozen wheel began to return to their original sizes. The real test will be when I try to start the car...
WIRING -I was going to save myself time by using the existing wiring. My initial inspections showed little deterioration, so rewiring could wait... until I removed a bracket that held in the wire loom for the headlamps. There I saw that the friction between the bracket and the wires had caused the cotton and rubber wire sheathing to deteriorate to the point that bare wire was visible. OK, I removed the entire harness, measured, bought new wire and will make an new harness. This has not yet been done, but is on the short list.
TOE & FLOOR BOARDS -As I will be installing a "new" engine and gearbox, I took a look at the floorboards in the front compartment of the car. Not bad, however some delamination. Well the car is not going anywhere, so with some plywood in hand, a new set were made. I combined the top and bottom toe boards. This does make the installation and removal a bit more complicated, but it is possible. New felt was glued to the edges (rather than tacked on as on the originals). I was going to replace the metal straps that run underneath, but they cleaned up so nicely, I decided to keep them.
INSTRUMENTS -With the wiring now out, I also removed the dash. A pretty stamped metal affair painted up to look like wood! The instruments look to be in pretty good shape. I just gave them a cleaning and touched up some of the tan paint on the edges of the multi-gauge. A fresh coat of medium brown on the bezles and that was done. The rest of the knobs, lights and switches were cleaned up.
STEERING -
With the engine compartment empty, why not take out the steering column? This too receive a good cleaning and a fresh coat of paint. Originally, the box too was black, but the chance to have a touch of alloy in the compartment prompted me to leave it "au naturel".
A long post for a long pause...
More in the near future.
