More Options...

In a stroke of luck, I ran across someone parting out a 1967 4-door LTD on Craigslist. It had power locks AND power windows. Because of the way these options were implemented (a single box that attaches to the console or the lower dash) I was able to upgrade to power windows.

A special thanks to Bryan (and his son) for taking the time to carefully remove all the required parts and pieces for me, and to label them to make it easier to install later.

I was also able to locate the shift indicator lens for the floor shifter. It isn't perfect, but it is all there.

Lastly, I opted to pick up a set of rear springs for the car. The ones on the car now are shot. I had a "good" used set that I had picked up some time back, but I just wasn't feeling very comfortable with the idea of using the used springs, so I called up Eaton Spring (a Michigan company) and they hooked me up.

Now I need to get the drywall hung and up out of the way in the garage so I can get access to the springs. No more low-rider after those are replaced.

I will try to get some new pics up soon, but there aren't many photo ops with what I have been doing lately.

More to come soon...

I have been in the process of adding a 4-post lift (BendPak 9ST) and it has been eating up my time. But, I will be back at the wagon very soon! Keep an eye out for more to come...

Seats Are Done! almost...

I "finished" up the seats on Thursday this week, but haven't had time to get some pictures of them, so I made a point of getting some tonight. The upholstery is on, but I need to do a little tweaking to them just yet and then hit them with a heat gun to shrink up the vinyl and work out a few wrinkles.

Overall I am very pleased with them and I think they will look awesome in the wagon! This certainly wasn't the quickest part of the restoration, but in the end, I think the hard work that went into these makes the difference.

Can't wait to get them in the car with the console. I haven't photographed that yet (the black one I showed earlier is from a '68 and I found a "correct" Mercury '67 one) because it looks like I may not add the power locks in lieu of power windows! I have them lined up and hopefully will see them in the next week or so as I need to get the wiring run before I install the seats so I don't tear the seats up working under the dash.

Hard to believe these are the same buckets! Anyhow, here they are!

Seats Are Almost Done...

Only thing left to cover is one bucket seat upper and then I can begin reassembly of the seats. I'm very excited to see all of this in the wagon. Going to make a huge difference in how it looks.

Once the seats are wrapped up and the trim is back on them, I will post a picture of the full setup.

Started to Cover the Seats!

I got started on covering the seats with 4 out of the 10 pieces I need to do having been completed. Lots of work left to do, but so far I am pretty pleased with the final product not that I have it.

More pictures to follow as they are completed!

Seat Covers Are Here!

I was beginning to think this day would never come, but the seat covers arrived this afternoon. After a quick inspection they look good.  Some errant black marks in places that look like they will clean off easily enough, but good.

Now starts the process of recovering the seats. Hopefully this will go smoothly without any issues on fit or workmanship. I'll post some pictures soon...

Heads Are Back...

The heads are back from the machine shop and after I wipe them down and give them a quick coat of paint, they will be ready for installation.

I had the combustion surfaces cleaned up, had a valve job done, the springs tested, shimmed and installed, and new valve stem seals added. $247 seemed like a very reasonable price to me.

I can almost hear the starter cranking the engine ...

Delayed again, but ...

Well, the 5th slipped to the 6th, but the covers are now on their way here. Looks like Monday and I will finally be able to get started on covering the seats.

So, I finally had to get around to prepping them for new covers. This means reapplying the burlap with wire supports. I have found rear seats and bench seats can be an excellent source for large, very clean, original pieces to do your seats. A few hog nose rings and they were ready to cut. Using the hog nose ring cutters that I have to trim the steel wires, I followed the perimeter trimming them, then floowed back up with scissors for the burlap.

On to the opposite side and repeat.

And before the foam can go on, I add a perimeter of 2" thick poly roll cut in roughly 3" wide strips. These will help prevent the covers from being torn by the frame and distribute some of the pressure so they will look smoother along that edge.

Good news is, I shouldn't really have to do much of anything with the middle or third row seats. Hopefully more to post on Monday!

Light at the end of the tunnel?

After yet another delay, I have finally been given a date for the seat covers: September 5th! With any amount of luck, I will have them back here that weekend and I can FINALLY finish up the seats.

While waiting I have finished up porting the heads and sent them off to the machine shop to prep them for installation. I have also finished the driver's side header and will hopefully knock out the passenger's side before the seat covers get back. Starting to feel like I might hear the motor run soon...

More to come as I have it ready.

No Seat Covers, Yet ...

I just called the upholstery guy back and heard that it will be another 2 weeks before he can START them! Grrrrrr! At least the bucket frames are ready to assemble. I just picked up some new padding to run on top of the foam which is supposed to offset any flattening in the foam.

I will fully prep them for covers this weekend so when the covers are actually done it's just a matter of putting them on.

In the meantime I will work on wrapping up some of the other projects (adjust shifter linkages, finish headers, etc.) so it will be ready to go when they get here.

Here are a couple pics of the finished seat frames:

Work On The Seats...

I heard back from my upholstery guy earlier this week and looks like I will have my seat covers within the next two weeks, so I got started on cleaning up the buckets.

I had already started the lowers and made some repairs, but I needed to finish disassembling the uppers and make any repairs that were needed to them as well.

After getting the covers off I noticed that there are definitely some areas in the foam that will need some work. Peeling that away revealed a couple more broken springs and the latch assemblies were frozen in place. I clipped away the remaining hog-nose rings from the frames, dumped out the remaining garbage from inside the frames and bagged them up for my blaster guy.

Today I dropped them off for cleanup. 2 hours and $100 later, I have shiny clean frames that needed to be primed and painted. One of the bases had another broken spring which I quickly welded up and them put them in primer while I assessed the damage to the uppers.

Before sending the uppers out I disassembled the rod assembly that runs from the release handle down to the latch and worked both free with a few taps with a hammer. Working it back and forth several times smoothed out operation so it could be blasted in different positions to eliminate as much rust as possible. Getting them back post blasting required working them once more to remove any debris.

After repairing the damage to the to the one upper that had some rust issues, they received a coat of  zinc-rich primer and the bases got a coat of Eastwood's Extreme Chassis Black followed by the uppers. With the high humidity it will be at least a day before they dry enough for me to start building up the seats for the new covers, but they are now well on the way!

A Little Change...

Well, I haven't been able to get as much done the last couple of weeks due to the fact that I have sold my Cobra project off. I had three projects and room for only two, so one had to go. Sad to see it go, but it means I will be able to do more with the remaining two than I had originally hoped.

This will also give me some additional room to get things done, so it isn't all bad.

Anyhow, more updates to come.

Replaced the Gas Line...

A little over a week ago (sorry for the delay!) my buddy Paul was out and we got to work on pulling the gas line. Like any of these "little" projects, there are always seven other things you need to do along the way, so a simple job turns into an afternoon project.

We started by getting the back driver's side of the car up off the ground pretty high to drain the tank, but quickly decided to drop it altogether so we could inspect it as long as we were in there.

To get the tank out, we needed to remove the wheelhouse pan that protects the tank, and to get to that, you really should pull the wheel. Since I haven't checked out the rear brakes yet, now seemed like a good time.

The brakes looked great, but the drum was a completely different matter. It showed heavy wear, so we lifted the other side of the car, pulled the drum, and headed up to the parts store. They measured them up, but couldn't find a spec anywhere in the store or on the web. Ended up getting the number from the counter guy and headed back home to look them up in the shop manual. .100 over max on one, and .120 on the other. Nearly 1/8" beyond max wear means I have a new set of drums in my future. But for today, they go back on.

The tank itself comes out pretty easily. after covering my head in Texas dirt and old mud dauber nests I got the tank free. Less than 1/2 cup of gas left in the tank and it looked very clean with just a little varnish. This tank will get a little cleaning, and a fresh coat of paint, and then it will go back on as is.

Next we stripped out the old fuel line. It was a clear plastic flexible line running from a 24" long rubber hose all the way to the front of the vehicle. We had a roll of new steel fuel line the we unwound and started to fish through. I was tricky getting it to have just the right contours so it would drop into the clips without binding against anything. LOTS of tweaking the line.

At this point, the line is run, but hasn't been cut to length. We have a little extra at the tank, and the engine compartment end will be finished after the intake and carb have been mounted as I may run this up along the firewall so I don't have to have a fuel line on the front of the engine. I think it will look much cleaner that way, but we'll have to see in a while.

More to come!

Fixed The Door Handle...

Yea, I know, it may not seem like a big project, but if you had to reach in through the window to open the door every time, it would start to seem awfully important to you, I bet.

Anyhow, today was the day to fix the door handle on the driver's door, and while I have it apart, insulate the door, clean it out, and grease the window tracks. The button from the handle was completely gone, however the inside handle fortunately still functions normally.

After removing both window cranks (yes, you read that correctly, the vent uses a crank) the door handle, arm rest, mirror adjuster bezel, lower trim, lock pull knob, and one mounting screw at the top, I popped the 6 door panel clips and removed the panel.

The factory tar-coated craft paper "seal" was still intact and in pretty good shape, all things considered. But, I'm upgrading, so off to the trash it went revealing avery nice door with a pile of spray-on sound deadener in a pile of the inside of the door. It tends to dry up and release from the door skin over time adding rattles to the door, and plugging up the drains on the bottom of the door.

Note: the redish color at the center of the door is the factory red-oxide primer, not rust. Fortunately, rust is pretty hard to come by on this car. There are a couple places, but we'll address those in the future.

Anyhow, the door handle removes with two nuts from inside the door and pops right out. Easy to do. Sure enough, the button was gone and nowhere to be found in the pile of rubble at the bottom of the door. I cleaned and vacuumed out the bottom of the door, then turned back to the repair. I already had purchased a handle from a '67 Monterey for a donor. The handle itself was in fair condition, but the button only had a couple pits on the bottom, so I removed the button and installed it onto my handle.

Reinstalling it was almost as easy as removal. The only tricky part was making sure the handle gaskets stayed in their proper orientation which really isn't that hard to do. They run between the handle and the door face and you can see the thin black line at the perimeter.

A quick open and close test confirmed success! Before going any further I went ahead and hit the tracks with white lithium grease to help keep operation smooth.

Now all I needed to do before reassembly was add my new insulation. I am using the same material that I did on the floor (bubble wrap with aluminum facing). I have a 2 foot wide roll which is perfect for the door completely covering it top-to-bottom leaving a small amount of room to trim to fit.

I lined it up on the door, presses where the handle and cranks go to mark it and then punched holes with a screwdriver. From there I used a couple pieces of the aluminum tape to hold it in place and cut an "X" for the window adjuster to poke through. Finally I trimmed to fit while on the door and taped it down as I went.

From there I just reassembled the door. Although the insulation is thicker than the factory tar paper, if you keep it cut back just a touch, it will have almost zero affect on how your door panel lays when installed.

Seat Repairs...

I have three broken springs: one in the front, and two on the outboard side of the base. For a while now I have been trying to find seat springs or a donor seat base to repair it, but to no avail. One guy on eBay wanted $35 a spring while another person I contacted offered me 2 springs for $50, but I just can't justify it after only spending $185 for the buckets, console and shifter.

So, today was the day to fix the seat. The front spring I just welded up. Done and done.

The second one was a little more work, but still pretty easy. Since both pieces were there, I just used a couple of hog-nose rings tie them together and then welded them together. Worked just fine.

The third spring, on the other hand, was broken beyond repair. Fortunately I remembered that I have a 1968 Mustang bucket seat that I had picked up for about $20 a while back, so I thought I would check to see if there might be a spare on the base. No luck, but I did notice that the spring coils were the same.

Time to break out the pliers, a hammer and a vice and see if we can bend the spring to match. It was little bit of work, but I managed to get it bent and to get it pretty darn close without any concern of snapping the spring.

Once installed you almost couldn't tell it from original. A cheap fix, and it feels just like the opposite side of the seat. Now I need to address the upper seat backs as the driver's side latch isn't working properly, and it will need a couple spot repairs due to rust. More to come!

Carpet Installation, part 2

Taking advantage of the sunshine and hot weather, I spent a little more time working on the carpet install Saturday and Sunday. I started by digging out the remaining old seam sealer that was left in the back seat area, Cleaned it up, and finished putting down a new coat of seam sealer that will hopefully last for many years to come. Following that, I finished up laying down the new insulation/sound deadener.

All said and done, I probably have less than $75 into the entire deal with enough leftover material to just about do a second vehicle.

Next up I started the carpet install. Starting with the back seat and working my way forward, the fit was pretty good. But, a couple points of note:

1) The pans are quite deep which mean you will have bunching in the corners as the carpet comes out of the wells and transitions into the rocker area. No avoiding it, just minimizing it.

2) Because the carpet is for a 4-door, and this is a wagon, the carpet is too short in the back corners next to the second-row seat hinge. It's an easy enough fix with the excess that will be trimmed away.

I let the carpet warm up on the blazing hot asphalt before fitting it to the pan. This seemed to help some with getting it to lay right. But, like every other set of carpet I have installed, noting is quite 100%, so a fair amount of stretching and fitting is required prior to trimming. Do not expect to just drop this in place.

The front is a bit more work to fit. I did get it most of the way in and cut the hole for the shifter. Fortunately this doesn't have to be to machining tolerances since I will be using a center console. Just the same, I kept it pretty darn close.

Next time out I will have to finish up fitting/trimming it and cut the hole for the high-beams switch. Tomorrow night after the kids are off to bed I will probably stack up some books in the corners to help the carpet relax into the correct form. A nice, easy project.

Prep For Carpet Installation

Spent a little time working on the wagon today after taking several days off from it due to my busy schedule this week. Today I decided to get the shifter in the car.

But, before I could do that, I wanted to redo the seam seals along the toe boards and floor pan edges up front. And, I also wanted to start the insulation on the floor so I didn't have to work around the shifter for either process.

I highly recommend redoing the seam seals in any of these old cars. Mine looked nearly flawless with only a small amount of surface rust at the seam, but any rust means moisture is leaking past the seal. As it turns out, you could pick better than half of the seal out of the joint with your finger and it would come off in large chunks. After this much time, the caulk they use has all but released and the area is very porous.

It took me literally 15 minutes to pick out 98% of the caulk and vacuum it up. Anything that wouldn't pick out of deep grooves easily that was still soft I just left. Otherwise it was just some very light duty scraping with a putty knife.

Once that was cleared out I washed everything with Simple Green and let it dry. At 90+ degrees and light clouds dry time was quick. Next I hit all of the seams with DupliColor Rust Fix. It will convert exposed surface rust to a black oxide substance on the surface and should significantly slow any rust processes down. And since this car won't see salt, the treatment might very well outlast me.

Next, after allowing enough time for the Rust Fix to flash dry I stuffed the seams with strip caulk so they were filled and covered. It will remain pliable for about the next 40 years, so once again, this should be a one-time fix. Then to complete the seal I used Eastwood Products Seam Sealer. It comes in a quart can is is brushable. I use a 2" stiff China brush.

The consistency is pretty much exactly the same as Bondo. So is the smell. So is the color. And I have a sneaking suspicion, so is the chemical make-up. I will investigate further to satisfy my own curiosity, but for now we'll pretend I didn't spend $20+ on a $8 can of Bondo.

Anyhow, the sealer bushes on a bit messy looking, but do your best not to dab. It will lay down and smooth out to a great extent all on it's own.

This will start to set up pretty quickly and the surface will dry to the point that you can work over it or even paint on it within probably 30 minutes. The odor will last much longer. After 7 hours it is still strong.

Next up I started to lay in the new floor insulation. The original asphalt insulation is very heavy, and not nearly as effective as many newer options. I have also heard that it can sweat and trap moisture between it and the floor pan when changing temps or humidity quickly such as we get when night falls and temps can drop 30+ degrees in the evening creating large amounts of condensation on vehicles.I can't personally confirm this claim, but again, the threat alone is reason enough in my opinion.

So with all of the different options out there, what I have opted to use is what many guys I know are using as well and that is, as Home Depot markets it, barn insulation. Basically its a roll of bubble wrap with a very thin foil surface on either side so it will reflect heat, and insulate noise.

I have used this in my basement to insulate the heat ducts for years, so I know it works. It's also very easy to work with, and a LOT LESS EXPENSIVE than other products such as Dynamat. It forms and contours to the floor quite well. It cuts with scissors, and you use aluminum duct tape to tape it down. The results speak for themselves.

Once I got to this point it was time to install the shifter. I punched a hole in the insulation, drilled my mounting holes, added the strip caulk to the bottom of the shift hump, and then ... scratched my head. The shifter mounts to a reinforcement stamping the bolts up from the bottom of the vehicle, and the bolts go in through the top, through the floor pan, and into the reinforcement plate. This left me without an ability to hold the plate in place while trying to bolt the shifter in place.

I ended up having to wedge a board up under the car to prop it up in place so I could get the first bolt to catch. After that it was smooth sailing. I got everything bolted into place and filled in the entire perimeter with strip caulk to seal it off. And, it looks great! But, when I went to shift into another gear I discovered the that my '67 shifter I am installing fits differently than the '68 shifter I used to cut my hole.

I had purchased a '68 console originally that came with the shifter and the section of the floor pan that was cut out as well. I used that as a template to cut the new hole which turns out to be too small for a '67 since the shifter now hits the floor pan. Doh! This will be correct next time out with the nibbler from the underside, raining tiny crescents of sharp metal down. Oh well, a small price to pay to have it right.

Seat Covers Are Delayed!

Well, I just got off the phone with my upholstery guy and it looks like my seat covers are going to delayed. Apparently while working on another seat he fell off of his workbench and may have broken his arm.

Now I'm looking at 4-7 weeks, so we are into August before I will be able to drive it. Very disappointing, but I guess that gives me a window to finish everything else up. Time for a full-court press on finishing the rest of the work that needs to be completed before the seats go in, not that I have run out of things to do yet.

Too Many Irons In The Fire

Well, the shifter is being held up by clean-up of the mounting fasteners. They were rusty and I didn't want to bolt rust back on the car. Hopefully that will go in over the next day or two.

And, as a result, the carpet hasn't been fit yet either. Fortunately this isn't a race and with more kid's birthday stuff this weekend, a power outage, and other mini projects, it wasn't going to be. But that's OK because I DID get the old seat covers pulled and shipped off to the upholstery guy on Saturday.

Last night I spent a little time doing some quick sketches of what I would like them to be when completed. I am dialing back a bit from what my ideal would be in order to keep prices down however, which is a good thing. Even the less expensive approach will be pretty spendy considering the car was only $1,300 in the first place, and new upholstery will be more than half that cost again. But the impact will be huge!

The look will be correct for the era, while adding a bit of a "sporty" feel. And reuse of the bright trim will really make this dazzling! Now I just have to wait 3-4 weeks for my new covers, and hopefully no more than that. I guess I will use that time to finish up the headers, finish porting the second head, finish disassembling the seats, frames and interior panels for blasting and refinishing.

Plenty to keep me busy in the meantime.

Starting To Install Shifter...

The new carpet came on Thursday and I wanted to get it opened up and check the fit, so Friday while the kids were napping I pulled the carpet and sound-deadener out. Thinks were pretty filthy, but the floors look amazing! For 45 years old, there is only light rust staining in a couple spots by the seams.

This is why you buy cars from the South and out West. It cost me about $800 to have it shipped here, but if this needed new floors and had the typical rot you see from midwest cars, you would easily pay that in repairs.

I also took this opportunity to cut the hole for the floor shifter. Got to use my new "nibbler" for the hole. What a great tool. Especially if you like 10,000 tiny crescent shaped razor sharp slivers of metal. But, it did a great job.

First Header Well Under Way...

All I can say is, making your own headers is a lot of work! But, I have three of the first 4 tubes in without having to jack up the car ... yet. I just need to do the 4th primary tube and weld on the collector before I can call it done-ish.

I still haven't decided what I will be doing for the final finish, but I'm thinking about alumi-coating.

I am eager to get this one done so I can move on to the second, and considerably easier, side!

Starting On the Headers

I've decided that I really didn't want to put the old truck exhaust manifolds back on the car. They are ugly and are quite possibly the worst performing manifolds available for the car. Even after taking time to port one of them I'm just not convinced that I will be happy with them.

So, I've decided to add headers. There's a couple of problems with that: the headers hang very low, and they start at $369 + shipping!

For my family cruiser wagon I really don't want exhaust that I am having to weld skid plates on to, so I decided to go another route - I bought a kit to make my own. I must be out of my mind! But, we're going to give this a whirl. Below are a couple of pics of where I am at as of last night. I am starting with the hard side. I figure if I can do this side, the other side is a cake walk.

Engine and Trans Installed!

This past weekend I spent half a day getting everything set and installed the engine (long block) and trans in the car, but not before adding a B&M shift kit and installing a new Lokar shift arm so I can convert over to a floor shift.

The shift kit took a while to do, but was pretty straight forward. The shift arm is a dream - what a great product! If I don't have to stay stock, I will never worry about trying to find a correct stock part for the shift linkages again. Great quality and well engineered. The only downsides were it it is much larger than a factory shift arm, so clearance could be an issue (I had to flip mine backward from what I had intended to clear the tunnel) and the price - it was $65 which is roughly double what I could have paid for other alternatives, but this looks great and is very well engineered.

More to come to get things up to date...

Transmission All Cleaned Up

When I started, the transmission was black from bellhousing to tailshaft due to the massive oil leak where the previous owner attempted to modify the oil pan. He also drove on a lot of dirt roads leaving an oil and dirt cake more than 1/2" thick in places.

Once I cleared that away, which was a very tedious process, it revealed the the blue paint that covered everything, including fitting, linkages and fasteners. I decided that so long as the trans was out I might as well make it look nice.

Once again, a very tedious process. But after I repainted the trans to look like a factory CJ trans, it made the effort all seem worth while.

It rolls again!

Well, I had a couple of days where I could throw some time at the car and the results speak for themselves. I have the suspension back on the car (except for the front sway bar) and the tires back on the ground.

It was a lot work. Following the shop manual to reinstall the springs, it turns out, is not possible unless you use a spring compressor, quite possibly my least-favorite automotive tool to use. But, once I conceded that it wasn't going back together with out one, it went fairly well.

The only hick-up is one of the shock absorber studs on the lower control arm snapped off on installation. I'm not suce what all is involved in the repair, but it is a little bit of a disappointment. to have to go back in and repaira part that I already restored. Oh well. Could have been much worse.

In addition to the above, the firewall is painted, harness is cleaned and retaped, and all vacuum hoses that were still on the car have been replace with new. Next up will be the sway bar and a couple of other small details up front, and then I need replace the rear springs. The gas line needs to be replaced as well, but I'm thinking I will be waiting until the engine is back in the car since I want to run it by the firewall rather than around the front of the engine.

Tomorrow, I roll it out and do some cleaning in the garage. More updates to follow...

Reassembly begins...

Been working on reassembly as well as clean up on the parts that I haven't had a chance to clean up yet. All of the vacuum lines that were left on the front end have been replaced with new, the harness has been cleaned and retaped, and the brake lines have been cleaned up at the front of the car.

I took that wiper motor apart and did a quick detail on it, so it looks much better.

Part of this project is converting from power drum brakes to power disc brakes off of a '68 Galaxie wagon, so I needed to change out the booster which needed a little detail work to get it presentable. Just the usual wire-wheel, a little sanding and steel wool, rust converter,and then paint. It is now installed with the previously refinished bracket. The actual master cylinder is on order from Rock Auto, but won't arrive until the middle of next week, but there is plenty left to do before then!

I cleaned up the rag-joint which is in great shape (thank goodness!) since this has tilt steering, and the rag joints in good used condition fetch about $80-$100. After clean up was done, I reinstalled the power steering box, and then finished up the heater core cover and mounting plate.

The cover was a little extra fun since it has damage in a few places that had to be repaired with plastic epoxy first.

Last thing done ... upper control arms are installed. I hope to get the rest of the suspension, minus the coils, in place tomorrow. Hope to post some pictures then as well.

More to come!

Restoring and painting the front frame...

Okay, it has been way too long between posts, but I have gotten quite a bit done. But I get to talk with pictures (click them for the full-sized image) today, so here we go!

I finished cleaning up the front end. Not perfect, but that wasn't my goal. It will be very nice, watch and see! The first step after everything had been degreased, wire-wheeled, and wiped down was to spray everything with rust converter.

Next I used Eastwood Products Internal Frame Coating to get in all of the tight spaces. Then a coat of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator. 

Before top-coating, I went ahead and hit the seams with new seal sealer and body putty.

And finally a coat of Eastwood's Extreme Chassis Black. It is lookin' good now. I need to finish up cleaning up some parts for the reassembly!

I will post more pics of progress as they become available.

Thanks!