Back in the Saddle

It's amazing how far behind you can get by taking a two week "vacation. When I got home, the yard looked like a parched jungle despite having an automated sprinkler system for much of it. The lawn wasn't too bad, but I've spent a week trying to resuscitate wilted trees and shrubs. Unfortunately, I fear that several will not make it. Besides the heat damage, my Knockout Roses were hit with a virus..."rose rosette"...that's said to be fatal in most cases. No more roses for my yard, even the ones that claim to be disease resistant.

Small jobs are all I've been able to get done when it comes to the car. I had to make some dimensional changes on the seat mounting brackets, but now have the seats placed correctly. I'd like to take the seats in to be reupholstered, but they want the rear seats at the same time and I have yet to start work on them. Since the bench portion will be highly modified, it may be awhile before I get them ready.

After comparing the ivory color I used for the steering wheel column and dash to the exterior color and the fabric, I decided it contained too much yellow to match properly, and it was too shiny. I found a more muted cream color in the paint store book, so I had them mix a pint and add a dab of flattening agent to soften the shine. I should be able to re-paint the steering column this weekend.

The rear seat arm rest panels were in pretty bad shape with rust damage. It took lots of time with a wire wheel and sander to get them ready to re-cover.

Still trying to come up with a period-appearing design for the horn ring and steering wheel center trim, but I'm not satisfied with anything I've tried so far. It's not needed anytime soon, but it's a project I can contemplate when I have only a few minutes at a time.

I ordered Duplicolor, ceramic, silver engine paint online yesterday and it's already been shipped, so maybe I can begin assembling the engine in the next week or two. It would be nice to get some of the big parts out of my way so I can quit stumbling over them.

More Parts and Material

A Cloyes double roller timing set from Rockauto, and Melling pushrods from Gary Pavlovich are all I needed to build the long block, but that will have to wait until I get back from my two week trip north. I still don't have the oil pump, but it's been shipped and should arrive before I leave.

 

The seat fabric arrived much faster than expected, and as soon as I finish locating the passenger seat in the correct position, I'll visit the upholstery shop and make an appointment to bring them in.

I also received a sample of the leather I'll use to wrap the steering wheel. The color is "Sand", which looked perfect on their website, but a bit too brown in real life. The picture I took makes it look even more brown, but with gold highlights that aren't there under normal light. I'll take it with me when I select vinyl fabrics and see if I can make a match that looks nice, but I'll probably use black since at least some Furys came with a black steering wheel and they looked fine.

Still unsure what to do about the ignition. The original points distributor is in great shape, and with the horrible quality of so many foreign made car parts, I'm hesitant about converting to an electronic system. If the points and condenser go bad along the highway, I can swap a set and get it running in 10 minutes or less. The car will not be raced, and I doubt I would wear out a set of points in my lifetime, and it won't be driven in cold weather, so I just might stay with the old technology...at least for a while.