On the DL for a Few Days

I often wonder how I got anything done around the house when I was working a full time job with lots of overtime and then working two weekends a month in the Air Force Reserve, but I think I did more then than I can now that I'm retired. I could work eight hours a day now doing nothing more than household chores, yard maintenance, and trying to catch up with my wife's special projects. I guess I'll blame it on body wear and the years catching up.

The insurance adjuster was out yesterday to document the hail damage from the hail storm a week ago. The roof survived with only minor cosmetic damage, but the 70mph wind must have lifted a shingle or two in a valley over the kitchen. I now have a leak to repair, but with all the serious roof damage in the area, I haven't found a roofer who wants to take on a small repair when there are entire roofs nearby that need replacement. I'd do it myself, but my wife won't let me climb on a roof anymore.

With all the things going on lately, not much has been accomplished on the car. I screwed up my back when I had to carry the old dog to the vet. She's only forty pounds, but it was enough to irritate something so I can hardly bend over. If I do, it's hard to stand up again, so I'm limited to light weights and not much bending for now. No word from the upholstery shop yet, but with a bad back I really don't want to mess with the heavy seats.

I did receive a couple of things I ordered last week. I got a roll of 1/8" thick adhesive backed closed cell foam to use for insulation and sound control on the inside firewall. If my back is better tomorrow I'll try to get that applied so I can permanently install the AC mounts and determine the exact dimensions for the hoses. That same material is recommended for doors, and I should have enough left for them.

The cable for the trunk mounted battery also showed up. Now I can try routing it to see which way works best and determine where the battery will fit. The plan is to run the cable through a conduit inside the console with a feedthrough terminal on the firewall.  Then I can feed battery power to the inside relay panel from that point without having to go through the firewall connector.

I dropped off the wiper bezels at the machine shop last week to have them ream the holes and install the new bushings. The bushings measured the same OD as the old ones, but apparently the plating built up inside the hole and I really didn't want to mess with re-sizing either the holes or the bushings.

Vintage Air

What a surprise to see the AC parts I ordered around noon yesterday, show up on the UPS truck right after lunch today!

Unfortunately, I will have to fabricate another sheet metal part, as the hoses will be too short to bend around internal obstructions.

Since I was in the area, I visited the upholstery shop to check their progress. One of the bucket seats was almost done and the more I see the fabric and vinyl combination, the better I like it. He's predicting everything will be done by late next week.

Chrome Plating Results

It’s been a busy day for car stuff. This morning I researched which parts were needed for the AC before I can install the dash. Got that done and ordered a control panel and everything needed to fabricate the under-dash evaporator to firewall hoses. Every part was in stock and will be shipped tomorrow, so they should be here next Monday.

I also ordered the 15’, AWG 2 battery cable that I will need to relocate the battery in the trunk. There sure is a huge price difference for the same product on different websites. The same brand and part number varied from $22 with free shipping to over $100 plus shipping.

Around noon I got a call from the chrome plating shop to tell me my parts were ready to pick up. The charge was $300 for two bumper wings and two pot metal wiper bezels. They did a good job on all the parts and I was especially glad to see that the plating process did cover the minor blemishes left after my repair with Muggy Weld. He didn’t break down the price of individual pieces, but since the usual charge for a bumper is around $300 and the bumper wings together are nearly the same size as a typical bumper, he didn’t charge much for the bezels. About eight hours of my time and twenty bucks in material probably saved me $200, and I learned how to use the product if I ever need to do it again. In these pictures you can see the bezel repair stages.

This afternoon the upholstery shop called with a couple of questions, so he’s back to working on the seats and rear side panels. I’m still not in a panic for them, but I am getting anxious to see how they look.

Despite lots of house duties I’ve been getting a few things done with the dash wiring and am nearly ready to install the firewall connector. But, before I install the dash, I think I’ll paint the roof so there will be less masking and chance of damaging anything.

Shifter Decision

The pushbutton shifter option won’t happen for now. If and when I get the car running and licensed I’ll see if I can make the buttons easier to shift, but my first priority is to make faster progress on the things that can be accomplished.

The decision to go with a floor shift meant I had to clean and paint the manual shift version of the upper dash board, and I completed that this morning. Now I need to make progress on as many of the firewall and under-dash tasks as possible.

Holes in the firewall for the AC lines and heater hoses are cut, and I finished mounting the evaporator. The wire bundle pass-through hole size and location still needs to be established, but I’m first going to order the switches and console relay/fuse panel, to help determine what wiring can stay inside and how much will go through the firewall.

The stoplight switch on the stock ’56 is hydraulically operated and mounted on the master cylinder, but that has been changed to a disc/drum dual reservoir system. For the new setup I used the switch from a ’79 Aspen and designed a bracket to mount it under the dash to be mechanically operated by the brake pedal.

I did get more wiring installed on the dash bundle, but progress is slow. It’s very time consuming and confusing trying to meld and configure wire bundles from ’56, ’64, ’65, ’66, ’81 and 2001 Mopars, a full set of aftermarket gauges, a modern sound system with GPS, relay controlled headlights, power seats, power windows, and all the non-stock interior lighting and wire routing. It will have roughly three times as many circuits as the stock ’56 Belvedere, so it will require both battery and switched 12 VDC busses for fuses under the hood and inside the console. The battery will be relocated in the trunk to make room under the hood for the relay panel, and for better weight distribution, so that adds a new dimension to the wiring. I’m nearing completion of the dash wiring, and even got the GPS antenna mounted atop the new dash. It's ugly, but necessary.

I visited the upholstery shop and told him I’d like to have the seats about the first week in May, but it remains to be seen if I will be ready for them, or if he completes them by then.

Monday morning I took the rear bumper wings and windshield wiper bezels in to be re-plated. The highly rated shop I originally planned to use in close-by Gainesville apparently shut down, so I had to locate another place in Fort Worth. They quoted a fair price, and the shop was neat and organized, so I have my fingers crossed. He wasn't excited about having to do the pot metal bezels, but if he can plate them with no more defects than were visible up on my repair and polish job, I'll be happy. More and more plating shops around here are closing rather than spend the money to comply with federal law, and those that have survived have really jacked up the prices.

I picked up two pairs of 5-1/2" Kenwood speakers so I could install the wiring, then discovered they only included 12" of wire for each speaker! I managed to scrounge up 50' of speaker wire, so at least got that part covered

Stolen Moments

Getting closer to having some time to work on the car. I did manage to dodge yard work for a couple of hours and used that opportunity to finish the AC ductwork needed to install a third vent above the console where air can be directed as needed. It's not fancy, but the visible part will receive some bling so it matches the dash

I also spent a short time wiring the dashboard after deciding where to locate the inside fuse panel. Because of the tight quarters behind the dash, I picked the next best location for easy access…below the arm rest storage bin in the console.

I’m now about 99% sure that I will use a floor shifter instead of agonizing over the pushbutton problems. When I finish my honey-do list and have some free time again, I’m going to try a couple of things to see if I can make the buttons easier to operate, but if they don't work, it’s full speed ahead on the floor shifter.