Headlight Buckets Installed

Parts arrived for the headlight bucket and I completed the remaining part of that job. The clevis pins were a couple-hundredths longer than the OEM part, but they work fine. I needed one pin, but had to order a bag of 25 for about six dollars including tax. When it arrived by UPS the tiny bag was packed in a box big enough to hold hundreds of pins! Cost of shipping?...$8.90! To cap it off, the day after I finished repairing the bucket, I was looking in a box of small junk and found one of the stock pins!

The adjustment screw was a little bit more of a problem. I couldn’t find an aftermarket source for the nylon nuts  or brackets for the adjustment for the adjustment screws, so I ordered a pair of screws and nuts, then made a bracket to attach a modern screw assembly to the shell. The best fitting modern screw and nut was for a Jeep, but it required a different shaped bracket cutout to secure the nut. No big deal to make the bracket, but because the Jeep nut was shaped differently than the original, the
nut centerline was off by three hundredths, so I had to file the slots in the light retainer ring about that much deeper to allow the screw to turn freely enough to adjust the bulb position. I also had to shorten the screw about a half-inch to fit inside the shallower bucket, but that was simple enough. If not pretty, at least it works!

The new welding helmet showed up a few days later, so was able to finish one of my wife’s projects and I'm ready to weld on the car again. Naturally, the day after it arrived, it went on sale for seven dollars less! My timing sucks when it comes to buying things.

 I had ordered a rebuild kit for the 4-bbl Edelbrock carb on my ’73 D100. The crappy alcohol-tainted gas sure gummed up the insides, so it took a lot of scrubbing and blowing to get it clean, but the old truck sure runs great now! It only had about four thousand miles since I installed it new about ten years ago, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.


After I took it for a test drive, I decided to track down the funny noise I always heard before the engine warmed up. It sounded like something rattling in the suspension, but it turned out to be the thermal fan clutch wobbling on the shaft. Glad I found that before it came apart and destroyed the radiator.

Now maybe I can get back to the car again.

Don't Like our Weather? Just wait a minute!

While I wait for the parts I have on order, I thought I'd share a North Texas weather report.

Last evening I locked up the shop in 71F weather. with a forecast of mid-30F temps and heavy rains with up to four inches of rain expected overnight. There were also tornado watches and flash flood warnings. This morning I got up to 34F with strong NW winds and a chance of mixed wintery precipitation. When the first light of dawn appeared about 7 am, I looked out the window and it was snowing so hard I could barely make out the neighbor's house across the street. An hour later, there were two inches of snow on the ground and it was 28F. A 43 degree drop in about 12 hours!

I love Texas, but the weather can often be interesting.

I did get a few things accomplished yesterday. I got all the front lights wired and protected with a corrugated sleeve, so now the front looks a little cleaner. The parts to repair the one headlight bucket have been shipped and that's about all I need for the front.

It's supposed to be in the 60s and 70s again next week, so if the parts arrive I might get back to work on the car for a few hours.

Lousy December, but Happy New Year!

Okay, I know I haven't been posting about my progress, but I've had reasons!

Beginning a few weeks ago it seemed like everything around the house began to self-destruct. First the dryer, followed by the water heater then the dishwasher and the ice machine plus  a continuing battle with the restricted flow in the hot water

When the wife got home, her car battery died and caused her to miss a doctor's appointment she had waited a month to get, and then my van battery had starting issues just before a HID headlight burned out. That was a quick way to spend over $700 replacing both.

Yesterday, I went to replace two patio floodlight bulbs and lost one of the lens screws. Yep, it was metric and I scrounged for an hour finding one that would work.

Since Christmas, it seems like every day I have to assemble some type of furniture or other junk my wife bought, or fix something she broke or wants to change in her studio.

When I finally got a chance to spend a few minutes on the car, the welding I had planned was put off because my helmet won't darken!

On the bright side, I hung the neon Forward Look sign my wife gave me for Christmas on the shop wall, and it looks great.

Also got the '55 parking lights installed using an adapter plate, but on another down side, I've been working on headlight buckets and don't have enough parts from the four I have to make two good ones. Naturally, while you can buy a pair of rebuild kits for a '55-'57 Chevy for about thirty bucks, I can't even find good used ones for the Plymouth that aren't gold plated.

I sure hope the new year puts an end to the kitchen appliance and car problems. None of the failed machines is economically repairable, and between buying new appliances and repairing cars, I'm spending my restoration funds on everything but the Plymouth!