Leaf spring mounting pads needed the same treatment as the springs as well as sanding with 60 grit.

 

Needed to scrape the grime off the fuel pump with a razor blade as a first step. Painted the water pump and fuel pump with RustOleum "high heat" (gray) which is sold as coatings for home barbeques and such (found the paint left over from another project). First photo shows water pump after Ospho wash (the surface rust was first removed with a drill using a grit covered brush/wheel). Water outlet painted black with some left over caliper paint.

 

Follow-up to post #99: The tweaked trunk has been reworked with mixed results; three corners are passable and the passenger side upper corner remains a little high. Being the fact I want to bring the vehicle home as soon as possible, I am going to forego any more fine tuning and approach that imperfection some other day or week or year (lol).

What we did was bang/bend the hood down where it lay up in the air in the passenger side lower rear corner. Then we noticed the sheet metal surrounding the passenger side hood hinge had split somewhere along the way.

So I asked the welder to clamp the sheet metal down closer to the hinge where it belongs and add a small reinforcement plate around that area to repair it once and for all. However, he added no plate and just welded on the sheet metal using MIG or TIG (see last two fotos).

The end result is that the passenger side upper corner of the trunk is a little too high (see foto #1). I see no way to adjust it "down" by loosening or readjusting any hinge fasteners.

Other fotos in order: Lower passenger corner, lower driver corner, upper driver corner, passenger hinge, driver hinge.

P.S. Edit: Sometime in the near future I may attempt to shim the driver's side hinge to find if that will lower the passenger side rear corner a bit more.

 

Preview of the finished project.

 

Update: Back to the motor; cleaned up the mounting for the alternator by using spacers in place of the hodgepodge washers, spacers, and nuts. Alternator is offset to the outside to utilize the front crankshaft pulley (rear pulley is being used by power steering pump). This "genius" arrangement is the result of a previous owner removing the factory A/C. I am slowly gathering up some factory A/C parts in order to get it back to original state.

 

Fabricated an inner bracket for the Federal P/S pump. Previously, it was only attached with the outside bracket.

 

Update: Body shop dust clean-up and "wax". That Mexican body shop "Los Pelones" (the bald guys) had a constant layer of gray dust on the floor. Now at home, I brought out the leaf blower and vacuum cleaner to spruce up the interior before applying seam sealers and sound proofing (but first I would like to install the motor/transmission, roof insulation, headliner, dash, front and rear glass).

As a second step, I sponged off the floor with water mixed with some powdered laundry detergent. As a final step, I tried to apply some Meguiars liquid cleaner wax. Sponge kept getting nicked from the spot welds, but I trudged on and forward. Later we may have to clean up seam areas with wax & grease remover to make the sealer stick. Whatever wax got spread around, I am sure it's a very thin layer. This is a dusty neighborhood (dirt roads) so something to help keep the dirt from sticking is a must.

 

Update: Used a toothbrush and chrome cleaner to polish the factory steering wheel spokes and center; then cleaned up and "waxed" under hood area (same procedure as in post #133). I will need to remove the power brake booster and master cylinder in order to clean up those two elements.

 

Update: Interior trim, dash, and dash pad are ready to go. Same acrylic enamel used as on the body racing stripe and upper door (plus a different shade per factory specs for the speaker grill area). After cleaning and de-rusting, RustOleum was used on the inside areas that remain hidden after installation.

 

Update: Brake booster degreased. Then three steps to finish up: light coat of Ospho (foto #1), RustOleum red primer (foto #2), SEM trim black that I had leftover from painting backlight louvers for a BBody (foto #3). Don't know how well the trim black will hold up under the hood.

 

Update: 904 Transmission rebuilt by local shop. Changed out the over-running clutch and the discs. I am brushing on a coat of RustOleum clean metal primer (white) so we can more easily locate any transmission leaks after installation (first two photos are how the trans looked when I delivered it to the shop). I painted only half today because it takes a lot of elbow grease (and time) to remove the baked on crud leftover after a spray cleaning.

The model number on the 904 matches the transmission used on the '65 Formula S models, as shown on the Mopar master application list I found online.

 

The floor/trunk patches were not leveled out by the painter. Result is that his final coats did not cover the rough edges of the black 3M panel adhesive used to fill the welding pinholes. That's what happens when one is not on-site to oversee every little detail.

The remedy was for me to sand them back down with abrasives attached to a power drill and Dremel tool. I pre-treated some spots with a little Ospho. Then brushed on two coats of RustOleum clean metal primer (white). That was enough of a fix, however I went one step beyond by spraying on one coat of RustOleum High Performance Enamel (black). Henceforth, future generations will have no problem finding where the patch panels are located thanks to the color contrast. Eventually, insulation and carpeting will cover the scars.

 

Update: The gold plastic cover for the trunk latch was split open on top (the weakest point) and one seam was split open on one corner. I super-glued some small nails in the defective areas (for reinforcement) and then covered them with a generic two-part epoxy (one part black, one part white). Smoothed the hardened epoxy out with a Dremel tool/sanding disc. Then one coat of white Fusion plastic paint (no primer needed per label) followed by one coat of black RustOleum plastic paint. We "lost" the original gold color of the piece (except on the hidden inside portion), but black will do just fine. Also reinforced the two holes in the sides for the fasteners with the same epoxy mix (one hole had become elongated).

 

Update: Original Torque Convertor has a drain plug. Now empty, it was degreased (fotos #1 & #2), received treatments of Naval Jelly and Ospho (photo #3), RustOleum red primer (one coat-photo #4), and RustOleum high-performance black enamel (one coat-photo #5). I see one should pre-fill with 1 quart ATF before installation. I will also install the snout spacer (photo #6) that was previously not installed by previous owner and necessary to mate the 1980 318 block/crankshaft to the 1965 torqueflite 904 (I ran the motor/transmission about 2,000 road miles without the spacer as well).

 

The only wiring harness not requiring repair was the rear tail light harness (just cleaned it up and wrapped with tape and plastic tubing). The wiring harness/positive battery cable hooks were wrapped with shrink tubing as a final step (mostly 10mm wide tubing) as well as under dash hooks (I'll being doing all of the metal wiring hooks, whether the factory coated them or not).

 

The under hood wire loom clips were cleaned in Evaporust and then a series of three shrink wraps were slipped on and shrunk. At the "joints" and ends of the shrink tubing I applied a dab of rubbery "liquid tape".

 

The transmission crossmember was degreased, primed with RustOleum clean metal primer (white brush-on), sanded with a scratch pad, one spray coat of RustOleum color coat, and one final coat of RustOleum clear (still wet in photo). If you notice, the crossmember has been modified to accept TTI 2.5" dual exhaust system.

 

Cleaned up the voltage regulator and license plate lamp, applied Ospho, sprayed on SEM trim black, and reinforced the area around the lens screw holes with a two-part epoxy (that area had some visible cracks). The lens itself was amazingly clear so I did not even bother to polish it up. Note: The voltage regular had a mud/dirt hornet nest attached to it when I took it from storage, which caused some rust to form underneath the area where the "nest" was attached.

 

The undercoating from front splash guards was removed at home (quite a chore scraping and using rotary attachments on hand drill). They were taken to the sandblaster, then wax and grease remover prep, Ospho, and one coat of RustOleum clean metal primer (white brush-on). One of the elements was rust-pitted with some holes through it. Since I did not feel like farming it out for fabrication repair, I applied some left over 3M two-part panel adhesive (black) to patch it up.

The two rails above the side windows that have teeth to hook the headliner must be stainless steel and did not need sandblasting, I cleaned them up at home with a drill and rotary brush, Ospho, and clean metal primer.

The exhaust manifolds were sandblasted, cleaned with wax/grease remover, treated with Ospho (Ospho residue removed the following day with scratch pad), and painted with VHT high-temp. I don't like the sliver (too shiny for my taste) but it stays for now.

 

The paint stripe (gold) was done at the body shop using the same acrylic enamel formula (Dupont/Axalta) we used on the body (white). Not rattle can at all. I was not present for the stripe painting, I can see it is slightly off center toward the passenger side (but don't tell anyone).