Still going - slowly

Post date: Mar 16, 2015 10:57:37 PM

Wow, two months and not much has happened.

The driver's inner fender just will not line up right. I'm starting to think it's the fender and have put out feelers for a replacement. Got all the front end wiring documented and got a new fuse panel from an F150 wired up. Fits in there pretty well!

Found a small windshield washer bottle for $17 that can tuck next to the fuse panel, and found a pretty recovery tank on Amazon. Of course, it was advertised as a recovery tank, which means it actually is an expansion tank. One of those mystery products where there's no telling what you'll really get. A bit of manual labor and it's set up like I want it. Should hide pretty well up by the headlights. It had some wings that I cut off, which gave me an excuse to finally use my buffer! Messy, but easy.

Got all the headlight mounting bits pulled apart and blasted. Need to modify the buckets for the conversion bulbs, paint and mount. Good thing I had two complete sets - needed them to get all good parts. Well, ok, needed them to get all pristine parts.

Finished the fuel system by mounting the filter and re-making the front flex lines.

Another sign of the illness:

I restored the stupid horns. I mean, really. That was just silly. At least I didn't buy the resto rivet kit and just used bolts. The horns are really simple. The funest bit was tuning - you wire them up and tweak the preload until they pull 5 amps. So fiddling with a custom-headed (and very sticky) screw while a horn is blaring at you.

I did learn a few fun facts through this though. One of them is that GM made a bunch of different horn notes (4 I think?), with each marque using a different set (I think caddys used three!!) to make their distinct sound. One of the Olds notes isn't reproduced, so repops can't sound like Olds! Hah!

I think I've dumped around 20 hours into the accessory drive on this thing so far. It really, really should be done at this point. To recap, the problem is I'm using a N-style Saginaw pump. N for Non-Submerged - remote reservoir. Of course, those don't have the same mounting pads as the normal P-style, but they're a whole lot closer than the TC pumps. I currently have a pump from an '83(ish) DeVille Diesel. Had to helicoil the upper ear for a 3/8" bolt, then ream out the lower ears to put in steel sleeves to get a tight fit on a 3/8" through bolt. I sure hope this pump body is good. Still haven't popped it open to validate.

There were three major revisions to the bracketry. The last time actually went pretty quick as my welding got halfway decent.

The lower rear PS bracket just got a nut welded onto the back of the hole so I can just run the bolt home.

The front bracket was more interesting.

The lower ear tucked towards the back of the engine. That had to be cut off, flattened, then put back just right. The arc of the upper hole is different, so the top of the bracket was cut off and relocated. There's a tab out on the end to support the lower alternator bracket, so that had to be re-fabricated. Lots of fun because the pump has to be able to swing right under there. I did take the opportunity to tap the bracket so don't need to fiddle a nut into there.

The prior tries had the pump wildly too far back, or flat out not straight. Finally got the 350 up on a stand to mock all this up. Also mounted the starter so I could put on belts and make sure it all ran true. Looked pretty good when I was done, although I chose to do that part while Keri was trying to nap. Ooops.

Also had to futz with the adjustment slots - needed to get the pump closer in so the stock belt can fit. Will need a longer alternator belt.

The only issue I have at this point is the only press-on pulley I can find doesn't have holes in it to get at the mounting bolts. Which means I have to drill holes. Which will be tough to get dead-straight to keep in balanced. I have a minor hope of replacing the press-fit drive shaft with a keyway shaft, which then gives me loads of pulley options.

My hope was to use the 403 alternator bracket - big aluminum thing - since the old bracket had a big arm reaching back to the intake. Well, that 403 bracket doesn't line up with the stock pulleys. So I just cut the arm off the old bracket (never bolted that extension down anyway..........) and will paint it up. I also ordered the fancy billet bracket from Ram Air Restorations. Looks like the alternator just mounts straight to a bulkhead, so I should be able to mill/shim that easily to get the right alignment.

What's next: get a batch of stuff painted black, then can mount headlights and A/C condenser. Then I can fabricate PS and tranny oil cooler mounts. I think that just leaves finishing the electrical (documentation, checking, and figuring out the @#%$@#$ wiper wash setup). The carb is out getting plated, and I need to get the dual gate rebuilt.

Crawling forward! The to-do list is getting shorter at least.