Fever pitch

Post date: Apr 8, 2015 1:08:08 PM

Another three weeks. I've definitely gotten bitten by the bug to get this thing on the road, so I've spent at least a couple of hours every day working on something. It's all small odds and ends, so progress comes in bits and spurts.

I painted a big batch of misc front end parts - pulleys, headlight brackets, accessory brackets, etc. I thought I had the 2k Underhood Black on the shelf, but nope. Of course I didn't check until I was ready to start prep. Quick run to English Color but they didn't have a low gloss black handy. I ended up with the Omni gloss black (need to look up part #) and used the universal matting agent (need to look up mix ratio I used) to try to flatten it. It was still a strong semi-gloss, and arguably full gloss. The mix I did, per the spec sheet, should have been a satin, but oh well. That's the thing with matting agents - just have to mix and spray.

Once the headlight buckets were assembled and mounted, I put in the conversion headlights and finished the wiring. Easy. Even broke out the polisher to clean up the stainless trim rings.

Then there was the Great Olds 455 Blue Compo. I need to get the pictures collected and posted. I had several different paints: unknown 15 yr old (probably Year One), two recent Bill Hirsch, one 15 yr old Bill Hirsch, new Fusick, new Supercars, and new Tamraz. They are all completely different. Sadly the old Hirsch is my favorite.

I got the fluid coolers mounted. The F150 tranny cooler worked surprisingly well - just bent the tabs, re-tapped one for 3/8" instead of metric, and welded on some supports. It's supposed to be mounted by three points but I'm just using two. Put a bubble flare on one line and an AN fitting on the other. Easy. Only problem is one of the tube fittings is mangled, so it might leak. Fingers crossed. I then tried to make some brackets for a PS cooler. Instead of the silly zip-straps I wanted to braze the bracket to the cooler. Bad idea. Quick way to ruin paper-thin aluminum. So I got a nicer cooler that has reinforcements with holes. So the brackets are just some bent up 16ga steel screwed to the cooler. Much easier.

Got the fan all wired up. Running straight from the fuse box. The largest lead from the fuse box was the box fuse - they're actually called fusible links, style FMX - is a 10 or 12 ga wire, about 10" long. That's small for 60A, which is why the fan lead is 8ga. Maybe I should do two leads? That is probably asking for trouble. I ran the fan for 5 minutes on high - the lead got slightly warm, but not terribly.

The next area was the Ardiuno will need some debugging before it can be trusted. So I took one of my Lincoln LS fan adapter controllers, put in a big honking pot, and now have a manual fan speed controller. That's about the only thing that worked on the first try over these past few weeks. Well, the first test try worked great. Then I soldered it all up and tested again. Only this time I wired it up backwards. TTL chips don't like being wired up backwards. Good thing I always keep several of every chip as the magic smoke keeps coming out.

Got the PS pump mounted up with the Woodward reservoir. There really isn't enough space where I wanted to mount it - next to the alternator - and moving it to the fender kinks the feed hose. I temp mounted it to the alternator bracket anyway and bled the system. Looks like stuff actually works. Shaun had the good idea of putting in an angled adapter. So I have some misc parts and another pump coming in. My hope is to tap the pump for 1/2" NPT and put in a -10AN fitting, then a 60 or 90deg fitting. It'll work if I'm lucky.

I guessed entirely wrong on the fittings on that reservoir, too. The return is -6 AN ORB, and the feed is, uh, custom. Talked to a guy at Woodward who said the housings are actually small fire extinguishers. The threads are just over 1", the hole around 0.95", and 14 TPI. No idea WTH that thing is, and he wasn't terribly helpful. I got Kim Barr to machine down the -10 fitting they provided to a 5/8" barb. Plans still in work, but it functions. Oh, and I finished the pressure hose using Aeroquip stuff. It's a neat blue, so I covered it with clear shrink tube.

I had trouble with valve cover gaskets. Mainly, I've never had a good V/C seal. The fancy Oldsmobile script covers are actually quite a bit smaller than the normal Olds covers, which means it needs extra space with the Hardland Sharp rockers I'm using. A 1/4" gasket didn't cut it, but adding a thin rubber one to that was good enough.

So what did I do? Got 3/8" billet cover spacers. RTV'd them to the covers. So now there's a strong flat sealing surface. Only problem is it's 3/8" tall. Plus, to make it crazier, I'm using the fancy 0.2" thick rubber/steel gaskets. So that's plenty of space. Had to back out all of the VC studs and put in fresh blue loctite. The three rear nuts on the passenger side are finicky to get to, but otherwise looks ok. That sucker better seal.

Then the failing of the steering column paint finally got to me. Needed to redo that and a bunch of misc plastic parts while I had the paint going. That was, well, an adventure. It all came out looking great though! Got the dash, lower vent, glove box door, ashtray door, rear window trim panels, and column trim panel painted up. Oh, and apparently the turn signal switch - brand new - is already bad. Won't cancel left turns. Something's slightly wrong with the cancel spring. The Standard Products part (which that one is) costs $35. The ACDelco is $55. Gah.

The overhead courtesy light worked on the first try. Well, once I futzed enough for the thing to get grounded.

I found an A/C panel with defrost switch and light for a good price. Need to convert that to a momentary switch and figure out some trickery. The aftermarket defrosters switch 5V as a signal to turn on the unit. It's a nicely compact control unit - not much larger than a relay - with a bunch of surface mount components. Looks like the jerks feed logic level out to the switch to run the LED. Shooting 12V back down would certainly fry the board, so...... Trickery.

Mistakes from the past three weeks in order of severity:

*) Fried a 494 wave generator ($1 chip)

*) Got the black gloss level way wrong

*) Ordered a bunch of the wrong size AN fittings

*) Broke two courtesy light switches. The stupid things are metal clad plastic! They have to be torqued down to ground well, but that breaks the plastic housing! Gah!

*) Made a couple of scratches and nicks on the fresh column paint. Good thing its on the bottom. That's what I get for wrenching on the thing on my bench which is not exactly a clean environment. Even with shop towels spread out. I really need to make a top for that thing.

*) Painted the cracked ashtray door. The good one was placed on a different shelf well out of harm's way. And where I completely forgot about it.

*) Blasted, cleaned, primed and painted valve covers. Then realized the baffles were filled with grime, grit and dirt. Off to Barr for a dunk through the tank. And redo.

*) Destroyed on $30 fluid cooler.

*) The Year One Dark Blue vinyl paint looks pretty purple compared to the color-matched DBC paint I'm using. Need to test spray some vinyl instead of metal to see what really happens.

*) "Goof off" is slightly diluted acetone. Learned that when trying to remove glue from one glove box door. It disolved the plastic, ruining that part.

*) Had to re-prime the column three times

And the winner:

*) Dropped - and significantly damaged - the upper column housing. Good thing I've still got that "spare" car. It'll work, but it's ugly now.

Immediate plans:

Get the column reinstalled, finalize PS configuration, bleed brakes, double check shifter linkage (hitting header), get dual gate restored, get carb back from Sparky, figure out if I should do the hood hinges or ship them out,

oh, document all the interior wiring, finish the dash wiring, maybe even test it.

Get some glass installed.

Light the candle.

And another million odds and ends, like the A/F sensor, console wiring, bumper brackets, reman tail and turn lights....... Oi.