Catching Up One More Time

Now, where was I when the demands of daily life interrupted my old-car playtime?

Ahh, yes…several things. First, a four-day visit by daughter and her family from Washington state. They felt right at home as we received a record September rainfall total. Other things included the better part of a day installing security cameras and hanging pictures in granddaughter’s new rental house, building shelves in wife’s art studio, lawn cutting, weeding and trimming between downpours, repairing plumbing, repairing lawn equipment, and a dozen other unexpected honey-do’s helped put a crimp in my car-related plans.

Computer problems also returned. Everything in my browser locked up and it took half a day to figure out how to unlock it. It wasn't hacked, it just lost all the settings and I had to reset everything, including every password!

The rains have made this part of Texas the greenest I’ve ever seen it at this time of year. Of course, that means mowing my acre and a half every five days. More work, but I love the  fresh look, and watering grass and shrubs in this clay soil is expensive. Some flowers that normally bloom in spring are even making a second appearance!

Yesterday, I managed to fabricate the remaining custom parts needed for the steering wheel, but the epoxy adhesive I used to bond parts inside the center cap apparently didn’t like the damp weather, and never set up properly. I’ll have to find a product that tolerates high humidity better or wait for the air to dry out before bonding metal to metal.

At least the horn rim parts that will be chrome plated only need final tweaking and polishing before I take them to the plating shop.

Then it’s back to wiring the interior, since I now have connectors and terminal lugs to finish the steering column bundle. I hope other demands for my time don’t pull me away from the car again, until I at least reach the point that I can install the dash and console.

While I'm at it, there was a Facebook question about the location of a body part on a '56 Plymouth. I took a picture of my installation on posted it there. If you don't visit Facebook, here's the picture of the rub strip that protects the quarter panel window frame.

Finally, here are some photos that Geir Broen sent me of his Plymouth projects in Norway. His clean '56 Savoy is in storage for the winter, and he's working on the '55 station wagon body while the chassis is also in storage. The engine for the '55 is a 241 Hemi from a '54 Dodge.

As usual, body mounts are badly rusted, so he had to make replacements for the rear. I'm really impressed by the quality of the fabricated parts!

Steering Wheel Mockup

It’s been an interesting wait for parts and materials to arrive. Since I couldn’t do much with the wiring until I got parts, I took off in a completely different direction.

For literally years I’ve been trying to decide what style steering wheel I wanted. I didn’t really like any of the aftermarket designs, as they don’t look right on a ’56 Plymouth, but after I changed the original plan to use an aftermarket Ididit steering column in favor of a 70s Dodge truck part, there were suddenly many different stock wheels to choose from, but despite a wider selection, none of the stock wheel looked like it might have been a factory product in fifties.

A couple of the smaller diameter OEM wheels might have looked good enough, but with manual steering, I decided that one  a 17” rim was almost a necessity. While waiting and procrastinating, I suddenly visualized what I wanted, and I’m glad to say that it’s based on the stock ’73 part from my own truck when I replaced it with one from a ’76 Cordoba!

So, for much of the last three days, I’ve been designing parts to make modifications using the OEM center cap with the Plymouth ship logo that came from the Fury parts car and a horn switch from a Volare wheel.

To make the horn bar design appear more period-correct, it had to be bright to match the dash and interior trim, so I started with a stainless-steel center cap from a big truck road wheel and cut it to fit.   Horn bars are made from 18ga sheet metal that will be chrome plated to match the center cap. Not sure if I will need to add anything to make it look more stock. I'll decide that after the rim is leather wrapped to match the upholstery.

I know the description is confusing, but here’s one photo that shows some of the basic parts loosely assembled. 

Meanwhile, I received the new fuel pump for my truck from Rockauto, and got it installed. Like everything else, it took three times as long as it would have when I was younger and more agile, but at least it’s in, and the engine fired immediately. One other good thing that was discovered was that when I removed the filter, the short rubber hose that attached it to the tank line was badly deteriorated and would have soon sprung a leak. It’s funny that the piece between the filter and the carburetor line was like new, yet they both came with the filter and were installed at the same time.

Last, but definitely not least! Geir, the knob you sent arrived on Saturday and it’s mounted, so here’s a poor photo of the completed tach panel.

Thank you so much for your generous help, and if I have any parts you might need for your project, just let me know and it’s yours!

Waiting Again

Once again, I’m awed by the number of things it takes to essentially build a car from scratch. With temperatures remaining near the 100*F mark again, my days in the shop are short, so instead of attacking bigger and more visible jobs, I’m taking care of many little things that have been put off at various points. There are wire bundles to re-tie, screws to install or replace, paint to touch up, clamps to install, etc.

My recent effort was to finish all the under-dash wiring. By the time I was 90% complete, I found myself with a tangled and ugly mess in the area above the steering column. Too many individual crimped-disconnects to keep the bundle looking neat, so I decided to stop and replace the disconnects with a couple of multi-pin connectors to terminate wires from the steering column outward.

I first tried to locate mating connectors from my stock of salvaged parts from other cars, but nothing really worked out well, so I ordered a set of Delphi Weather Pack connectors that use the same contacts and tooling as the new bulkhead connector. They won’t arrive until next week, but I think the wait will be worth it.

The wait for parts will give me time to revise and update my hookup block diagrams in the cool of the house. Once again, I’m having to make wiring changes to accommodate integration of stock OEM switches, additional new equipment, and modernized circuits.

And just to add annoyance to my life, my truck decided it didn’t want to start. I was going to back it out of the garage so the door will open far enough for me to crawl behind the dash to verify some color code differences in the main bundle. My truck is a ’73, while the column I transplanted into the Plymouth is from a ’77 or ’78. The new ignition switch I installed is common to both columns, but is wired differently and I can’t check the differences until I pull the truck far enough out of the garage to see the connections.

In this hot Texas weather, if a car sits more than a day or two, all the fuel in the carb evaporates and the engine must crank until the carb is pumped full. The truck has been sitting for about two weeks, so I didn’t think too much about it not starting immediately, but I finally realized that apparently no fuel was getting to the carb. A shot of starter fluid made it fire off to verify the ignition is fine, so now I have to pull the fuel line to see if it’s pumping. To do that, I have to move some junk from in front of the truck so I can crawl into the engine bay to reach the lines. Everything I've done lately seems dependent upon doing something else first!

Even though the fuel pump was replaced when I rebuilt the engine about 2,000 miles ago, I’m guessing it died. It came from Rockauto, so is probably another quality part from China.