1. It Ain't Easy Bein' Green 2. Hot Wheels 3. Details, Details 4. Sound Blaster 5. Road Test 7. 2010 Snowball Rally 8. Engine Woe/Getting Even Chapter 3, Details, Details
The car has rounded several corners, and has settled down into a daily driver to work with no major problems, so I'm starting to think that it's primarily sorted out and "dependable" .
August 2008The major error on the project was not asking the right question of the engine rebuilder. He cleaned the engine but did not have the block hot-tanked.
Consequently, the coolant turned bright rust within 2 days, and that looks to be the way things are going to be, which is a disappointment to see in the new radiator and plumbing and so forth.
Any engine rebuilds in the future will absolutely include a trip to a radiator shop for a dip in the hot-tank. I have a spare 66 and 72 engine, so may disassemble, have cleaned, and store on a pallet if I can.
For awhile the car was burping up hot rusty coolant as soon as it was parked, but I reinstalled the burp-tank and that immediately ceased, so that's good news.
The latest projects have included details and clean-up, including putting a fused relay on the horn circuit. I have three all-metal horns from a 1940's Chrysler under the hood, and they draw a lot of juice, but make the car sound like a freight train. Some guy was doing a bone-headed merge and essentially stopped in the fast lane in front of me. I watched him literally jump in his seat and then proceed to get really, really mad at me. Time and money well spent on that.
The wheels continue to rub the rear fenders when the car leans. They were also rubbing the inside of the fenders up and inside, but I got cranky and fixed that by sawing out the metal in there.
Big mistake. Lots of road noise as the trunk cavity was essentially open to the outside world at that point. I found a welder on CL and had to pay $150 to get new panels put in to correct my mistake. Tires clear them now at least!
I am hoping and praying that getting custom sway bars fabbed will take care of the remaining rubbing when it goes around corners by reducing the tilt of the body.
I purchased the sound deadening material online and skipped paying nearly double for the name brand stuff by buying the stuff in bulk in two dense rolls.
The stuff is essentially a sheet that has a thin aluminum top layer, a 1mm center layer of butyl rubber, and a bottom layer of paper that is peeled off to reveal the rubber, which is tacky and sticky and gets pressed into and onto the sheetmetal under the carpeting and seats.
The aluminum can be cut with a utility knife and the instructions say to try to get the largest piece that you can onto any resonant sheetmetal.
I did this in the inside door skins, on the floors, and on the underside of the trunk and under where the speakers go.
Additionally, I had them send me a thin foam rubber blanket that went from the top of the rear seat all the way to the bottom of the front seats.
Results are nothing short of miracle. I spent about $300 and the resulting car is one step away from a modern car for quiet with the windows up. The pipes on the car are sill audible, but they quiet down above 1200 rpm, and the car's interior is now sedate and quiet. My main gripe is that the wind noise from the non flush drip-rails is now very obvious whereas before it was just part of the overall noise in the cabin. What can you do?
Guess I'll have to get a radio to turn up so that I can mask it!
This has set the stage to make a sound system sound its clearest and best, as it won't be trying to overcome nearly as much ambient noise.
Since the radio I have is defunct, I'm pleased just to drive down the road in comparative silence. Perhaps I'll take a db measurement if I ever get the stock 72 4D out at the same time to compare? I'll bet this is at least 10db or more quieter, and that's a big deal. Each bump on your stereo that you can hear is about 3db, as people generally can't differentiate changes in volume that are less than 3db, so it's sorta like that...
Still to go: I have a NOS antenna that I found, and have a set of deep recaro seats floating around in the garage. These are the kind with the head-rest, not the speed-racer kind, and I'll mount them up along with the center stereo console that I got. -That's the one shown on the site with the flip up lid for the stereo. I drilled holes for and mounted a spare IMPERIAL script from a 196o that I had lying around, so that looks classy, even if the console appears to be a bit tall for what I have going on in there. Perhaps I'll have the bottom sliced off and take out a channel and reweld it or something. Will have to see. Seats and console plus as-yet not gotten 4-point harnesses will complete everything but the electronics package, sway-bars, new front glass, and paint job.
I'm starting to fixate on green now. 1999/2000 VW bugs come in a pearlescent green that you may see around. I may do that, but since dark colors are what make the chrome pop on these cars, I think that a deep metallic forest green may be the final contender for the car color. Mid 1990's Cadillacs had a nice deep green...
I'll make up my mind later - maybe at the painters when I get that far. I have to get the body repair done first before I decide what color it will go into anyway.
More as it comes.
