The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster
I seem to be on a bit of a roll with The Great Pumpkin here, been enjoying getting it back into shape.
Took out the rear end today to clean it all up and to give myself room to finish the undercoating removal. Bit of an adventure with the transmission jack but gladly there were no mishaps. While taking it out, I was surprised to find the right rear shock bolt basically finger tight. Somehow one of the pinion angle shims was crooked too. Doh! I did not do a very good job painting the housing either, looks beat. I’ll do a better job next time, promise. It will be so much more pleasant to put everything back in with no rough, dirty undercoating to scrape the crap out of the backs of my hands.
After talking over the idea with a few of my brain-trust people, the idea of putting a Dana in this car has been shelved. Not to mention adding 50 lbs. of unsprung weight, it would be bonkers for me to spend $3K on something I really don't need. Not sure what the heck I was thinking. It made sense at that one moment but after sitting with it for a bit things became a little clearer. Glad I did not pull the trigger on that one. Moving on...
From the cleanup in aisle 3 dept., I knocked out the right rear wheel well during today’s snow storm. Guess the undercoating really did do its job preserving things and I am thankful for that. This is all factory original sheet metal here that has not seen the light of day in over 50 years. Still just heat, scraper, Goo Gone and elbow grease. Yeah, the scrapes are an unfortunate consequence of using a putty knife but it will get primed and re-coated again so hopefully no harm, no foul. Lot of odd contours to navigate.
This wheel well and outside of the frame rail took a couple hours of work with about an hour and a half clearing the driveway. Still a few small stubborn spots left, I may just leave them, don’t want to spend my entire life removing every last bit of undercoat from this car. Besides, I still have to do the other side and the remainder of the floor. Almost a shame to put a coating over it again but that’s how the factory did it and it seemed to be the right thing to do.
Can’t see it in the pics but the outer edge of the well behind the wheel lip was “clearanced” with a hammer by the previous owner, hadn’t ever noticed it before. Kinda funny too because it wasn’t even necessary, the tires fit no problem. Oddly there are some tire rub marks on the other side too, guessing there must have been a different wheel/tire combo or they hadn’t moved the springs in yet. Who knows. Incidentally, the hammered area is the only place where there’s any rust. It’s just surface though.
Fore.
Aft.
This pile is getting bigger.
I need a shower! More to come.
I seem to be on a bit of a roll with The Great Pumpkin here, been enjoying getting it back into shape.
Took out the rear end today to clean it all up and to give myself room to finish the undercoating removal. Bit of an adventure with the transmission jack but gladly there were no mishaps. While taking it out, I was surprised to find the right rear shock bolt basically finger tight. Somehow one of the pinion angle shims was crooked too. Doh! I did not do a very good job painting the housing either, looks beat. I’ll do a better job next time, promise. It will be so much more pleasant to put everything back in with no rough, dirty undercoating to scrape the crap out of the backs of my hands.
After talking over the idea with a few of my brain-trust people, the idea of putting a Dana in this car has been shelved. Not to mention adding 50 lbs. of unsprung weight, it would be bonkers for me to spend $3K on something I really don't need. Not sure what the heck I was thinking. It made sense at that one moment but after sitting with it for a bit things became a little clearer. Glad I did not pull the trigger on that one. Moving on...
From the cleanup in aisle 3 dept., I knocked out the right rear wheel well during today’s snow storm. Guess the undercoating really did do its job preserving things and I am thankful for that. This is all factory original sheet metal here that has not seen the light of day in over 50 years. Still just heat, scraper, Goo Gone and elbow grease. Yeah, the scrapes are an unfortunate consequence of using a putty knife but it will get primed and re-coated again so hopefully no harm, no foul. Lot of odd contours to navigate.
This wheel well and outside of the frame rail took a couple hours of work with about an hour and a half clearing the driveway. Still a few small stubborn spots left, I may just leave them, don’t want to spend my entire life removing every last bit of undercoat from this car. Besides, I still have to do the other side and the remainder of the floor. Almost a shame to put a coating over it again but that’s how the factory did it and it seemed to be the right thing to do.
Can’t see it in the pics but the outer edge of the well behind the wheel lip was “clearanced” with a hammer by the previous owner, hadn’t ever noticed it before. Kinda funny too because it wasn’t even necessary, the tires fit no problem. Oddly there are some tire rub marks on the other side too, guessing there must have been a different wheel/tire combo or they hadn’t moved the springs in yet. Who knows. Incidentally, the hammered area is the only place where there’s any rust. It’s just surface though.
Fore.
Aft.
This pile is getting bigger.
I need a shower! More to come.