As you will know if you read the last post, I've contracted the services of John the Mechanic for next week, to do the bulk of the work on the braking system on the Red Lady. The benefit of adding a professional into the equation is, in addition to having actual work done, a large incentive to produce results of my own.
Since the car came back from the panel shop, painted, looking like a car but really just a shell, the work has been all my own. Only one smallish task has been done by a professional in the past 5 years, which was the installation of the headlining, a task beyond my experience if not my ability.
I noticed back when that was done (September 2009) that I was incentivised to do the tasks that necessarily preceeded the work of the upholstery man that did the headlining, such as sanding, painting the roof, and installing sound deadening material, because of the looming deadline of his arrival. Not wanting to waste the time of a professional by rescheduling or cancelling, I was forced to knuckle down and get things done, and this upcoming appointment with John is the same. Really, I could do this work myself. It's not beyond my ability, nothing about the car (except maybe the paint and body) so far has been beyond my capability. The difference between myself and a professional is the speed with which the task is done, and in some cases the quality of the result (and that difference can go in both directions- the 'professional' job of installing the exhaust manifolds on the Dodge demonstrated how shitty a job someone can do when they don't have the personal motivation of owning the car and caring about the result). The point I'm circling here is that I can keep deadlines when someone else is involved, but I slack off when I'm on my own schedule. The risk associated with taking this train of thought to it's logical conclusion is winding up with a chequebook hotrod, the idea of which I find most unpalatable.
Happily, I've done enough work myself on this car to be pretty confident that scenario is no longer possible. The hours and hours spent on my back underneath it sanding back 40 years of road grime and leaked oil can attest to that. However, I'm not willing, nor is my budget able, to allow the remainder of the work on the car be done solely, or even mostly, by paid help. I forsee one big task, and one lesser, that will involve a third party, and these are the wiring and the window channels, respectively. Both of these tasks I could probably do on my own, but every time I think about them I internally groan and roll my eyes. They're not fun, and that's the essence of it really, I want to enjoy the car, not suffer it, and though I see the logic in some suffering in exchange for the big payoff of finally driving it, under it's own combustion, out of the garage, the bottom line is it's been too long and I just want that day to hurry up and arrive.
27 January 2011
24 January 2011
Brake bits, and the leadup to the Big Brake Day
A couple of weeks from now I have a deadline to meet with the Red Lady. John the Mechanic is doing a day's work with me on Feb 7th, the goal of which is to have a fully functional brake system by the end of it. To facilitate this, I've been on a shopping errand today, to get the parts I'll need to have ready for the big day. As usual, I've made this task seem bigger than it really turns out to be once I get involved in it a bit.
A recurring theme with the car in the past 6 months is re-learning my own plan and inventory. The master cylinder, booster, and rear brakes were all purchased together way back in april 2004, nearly 7 years ago, so it's little surprise it now seems a bit unfamiliar to me. With experience and hindsight, I probably could have accomplished as good a result as I'm going to with less money than what I've spent on this brake system, but there's no use lamenting that now. On the plus side, the parts themselves are quality bits and they'll end up providing great stopping power.
The calipers on the rear brakes caused a bit of a grumbling discourse from the grandfatherly guru at Martin's Clutch and Brake this afternoon (I assume the guy in question is the namesake patriarch of said establishment) which was both somewhat amusing and somewhat insulting. I either didn't get, or have subsequently lost, banjo bolts to fit the calipers that came with my USA-purchased rear brake kit. The calipers used are from a '80-'85 Cadillac Eldorado (and other similar vintage American GMs) and at the time I purchsed them, I remember making the assumption that the calipers would exist on an Aussie car too, probably a VN-VS or something like that. Apparently they don't, and Martin somewhat derisively informed me that he hadn't seen the calipers before. He commented that I could have had a locally produced caliper that would do the job just as well and wouldn't have a weird metric banjo inlet (yes, metric, on an old Caddy, it IS wierd) but the essence of this is that he didn't have the banjo bolts, which he says are a metric 10mm x1.5 thread. Subsequent research seems to indicate that they are in fact readily available, but time will tell on that one.
Despite all this, I think I'm almost ready for the big day, at least as far as supplies go, but I still would like to mount the pedal and master cylinder ahead of time. The more I can get done before the day, the more I can get done on the day, so I'm hoping I can also accomplish a fuel line by the close of business on Feb 7th. At any rate, things are moving along nicely. More soon.
Total Spent Today: $186.10
Time Spent: About 2 hours
A recurring theme with the car in the past 6 months is re-learning my own plan and inventory. The master cylinder, booster, and rear brakes were all purchased together way back in april 2004, nearly 7 years ago, so it's little surprise it now seems a bit unfamiliar to me. With experience and hindsight, I probably could have accomplished as good a result as I'm going to with less money than what I've spent on this brake system, but there's no use lamenting that now. On the plus side, the parts themselves are quality bits and they'll end up providing great stopping power.
The calipers on the rear brakes caused a bit of a grumbling discourse from the grandfatherly guru at Martin's Clutch and Brake this afternoon (I assume the guy in question is the namesake patriarch of said establishment) which was both somewhat amusing and somewhat insulting. I either didn't get, or have subsequently lost, banjo bolts to fit the calipers that came with my USA-purchased rear brake kit. The calipers used are from a '80-'85 Cadillac Eldorado (and other similar vintage American GMs) and at the time I purchsed them, I remember making the assumption that the calipers would exist on an Aussie car too, probably a VN-VS or something like that. Apparently they don't, and Martin somewhat derisively informed me that he hadn't seen the calipers before. He commented that I could have had a locally produced caliper that would do the job just as well and wouldn't have a weird metric banjo inlet (yes, metric, on an old Caddy, it IS wierd) but the essence of this is that he didn't have the banjo bolts, which he says are a metric 10mm x1.5 thread. Subsequent research seems to indicate that they are in fact readily available, but time will tell on that one.
Despite all this, I think I'm almost ready for the big day, at least as far as supplies go, but I still would like to mount the pedal and master cylinder ahead of time. The more I can get done before the day, the more I can get done on the day, so I'm hoping I can also accomplish a fuel line by the close of business on Feb 7th. At any rate, things are moving along nicely. More soon.
Total Spent Today: $186.10
Time Spent: About 2 hours
07 January 2011
Trinkets: The expensive part
Buying the big ticket items for cars is rarely the expensive part. A new motor for example, you might spend a few grand on that in one chunk, but the peripheral stuff really adds up.
The motor in the Red Lady right now is a 4-bolt 350 with a 307 crank in it. It has excellent World Sportsman heads on it, an ridiculously big cam, and Victor Jnr intake, but unfortunately it also has a cast crank and factory rods. It's built stupidly. The top end is built to make horsepower that the bottom end can't support. For such a small-ish displacement (331 ci) the heads and cam will make power up around 7200 rpm, but the more or less stock bottom end will have flown to peices long before it ever sees that sort of engine speed. So it's not how I would build an engine. I really only bought it because it was cheap. I paid $2600 for it, and it was more or less complete, or so I thought.
It's not that I got ripped off, on the contrary, the heads alone on the motor are worth $2500, and a 4-bolt 010 block is probably worth $1000 on it's own too, not to mention all the machine work that's been done on it. It's just that there are so many little bits and pieces that are required to make it REALLY complete. The engine I bought was basically a long engine, plus intake. That means I had to add a carb, distributor, alternator, water pump, oil filter adapter and filter, fuel pump, brackets and pulleys, valve covers, torque converter, flexplate, water outlet.... the list just goes on for miles. So today I bought a few little things for the motor that aren't really expected in a "long motor" but that are necessary to have a running motor. The total was $121, and the parts were as follows:
The motor in the Red Lady right now is a 4-bolt 350 with a 307 crank in it. It has excellent World Sportsman heads on it, an ridiculously big cam, and Victor Jnr intake, but unfortunately it also has a cast crank and factory rods. It's built stupidly. The top end is built to make horsepower that the bottom end can't support. For such a small-ish displacement (331 ci) the heads and cam will make power up around 7200 rpm, but the more or less stock bottom end will have flown to peices long before it ever sees that sort of engine speed. So it's not how I would build an engine. I really only bought it because it was cheap. I paid $2600 for it, and it was more or less complete, or so I thought.
It's not that I got ripped off, on the contrary, the heads alone on the motor are worth $2500, and a 4-bolt 010 block is probably worth $1000 on it's own too, not to mention all the machine work that's been done on it. It's just that there are so many little bits and pieces that are required to make it REALLY complete. The engine I bought was basically a long engine, plus intake. That means I had to add a carb, distributor, alternator, water pump, oil filter adapter and filter, fuel pump, brackets and pulleys, valve covers, torque converter, flexplate, water outlet.... the list just goes on for miles. So today I bought a few little things for the motor that aren't really expected in a "long motor" but that are necessary to have a running motor. The total was $121, and the parts were as follows:
- Oil Filter
- Oil Filter adapter and the unique bolts that hold it on
- PCV Valve
- Timing Tab
- Exhaust flange gaskets (between exh. manifold and pipe)
- Fuel pump fittings
05 January 2011
Little Steps relating to paint- BillyBob
In between stages of work on the Red Lady's fuel tank (see below), I've also been doing little things pertaining to BillyBob. Yesterday and today, it was painting the rocker cover and sideplates, and preparing one of the doors for paint.
The stripping of old paint was already done on the engine parts back in December when I got them hot-tanked, which is basically a bath in boiling degreaser. It's not freindly to your skin, but great for engine parts, which basically come back brand-new looking. The paint is Chevy Orange engine enamel, and the engine will be getting a two-tone paintjob, with the block, sump and head being flat black and the rocker cover and sideplates being a nice contrasty bright orange. So far so good:
It's important to recognise the importance of these sorts of jobs- the ones where a substantial, satisfying result is achieved in a relatively short time. Stuff likes this gives me a boost with the shitty jobs that have less obvious reward, like the 60 or so hours I spent on my back under the Red Lady removing old paint, sound deadener, and accumulated road crud.
The other work I did today was sanding one of the doors for the truck, and later tonight I'll probably stick some red-oxide primer inside it. After that, it'll be ready to hose some primer onto it in preparation for the top coat, which I'm thinking will be orange, though a slightly lighter orange than the engine parts above. That decision is not finalised yet though.
Cost: $30.14 for engine paint, and a few bucks worth of sanding pads
Time spent: 1/2 an hour on the engine parts, and about 45 mins on the door
The stripping of old paint was already done on the engine parts back in December when I got them hot-tanked, which is basically a bath in boiling degreaser. It's not freindly to your skin, but great for engine parts, which basically come back brand-new looking. The paint is Chevy Orange engine enamel, and the engine will be getting a two-tone paintjob, with the block, sump and head being flat black and the rocker cover and sideplates being a nice contrasty bright orange. So far so good:
The other work I did today was sanding one of the doors for the truck, and later tonight I'll probably stick some red-oxide primer inside it. After that, it'll be ready to hose some primer onto it in preparation for the top coat, which I'm thinking will be orange, though a slightly lighter orange than the engine parts above. That decision is not finalised yet though.
Cost: $30.14 for engine paint, and a few bucks worth of sanding pads
Time spent: 1/2 an hour on the engine parts, and about 45 mins on the door
Fuel tank freshen up- The Red Lady
Been working on the fuel tank for my lovely red lady. It's in remarkably good shape for a 47 year old piece- gave it a kludge version of a pressure test with the air hose and some fuel, no apparent leaks despite at least 3 repairs, inside is spotlessly clean and you can even see some sort of marking inside- looks like a date code and some other factory markings, in some sort of ink.
Anyway, first step has been to strip off the old paint, and I've been using these plastic stripping wheels. I used them extensively on the underbody surfaces, which were not sandblasted when the rest of the body was stripped of old paint.
Although expensive (the 4-inch grinder mounted version was $24) they last quite a long time if you keep them away from protrusions and edges. I used probably 33% of the life of one disc to do the entire fuel tank, so this works out much cheaper than the faster-wearing but cheaper sandpaper discs, and the plastic wheel is much less abrasive to the steel underneath, while still stripping the old paint quite quickly.
Anyway, first step has been to strip off the old paint, and I've been using these plastic stripping wheels. I used them extensively on the underbody surfaces, which were not sandblasted when the rest of the body was stripped of old paint.
Although expensive (the 4-inch grinder mounted version was $24) they last quite a long time if you keep them away from protrusions and edges. I used probably 33% of the life of one disc to do the entire fuel tank, so this works out much cheaper than the faster-wearing but cheaper sandpaper discs, and the plastic wheel is much less abrasive to the steel underneath, while still stripping the old paint quite quickly.
It took about an hour to remove most of the paint from the tank, and a little more around the seams, in the grooves, and around the fiddly bits with some wax & grease remover and a scouring brush. Next is some cold gal spraypaint- this is a primer containing some sort of powdered zinc- so it's a sort of cut-rate galvanising process, though the results are far from as good as galvanising- as long as it avoids being scratched it will do the job. This is currently drying in the garage, and tomorrow I'll squirt some flat black top coat over it, and when that dries, it'll be ready to go back in the car.
Cost of this job:$75.19 (paint, stripping wheel)
Time taken: 3 hours, plus the time it takes to apply the flat black
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