Buddy Holly - Everyday

Another year has passed since the day the music died in 1959. I won't repost my thoughts about that fateful day as I've done that on previous anniversaries, so if new readers are at all interested, they can refer back to those entries.

In the meantime, I'll just post this Buddy Holly favorite and hope the words forecast recent progress on my lifelong project Plymouth.

I spent a few hours earlier this week finishing a few remaining wiring jobs. The battery ground cable is now bolted to the frame under the trunk and ready to attach to the battery when I purchase that.

Today was supposed to be sunny and warm like yesterday, but it clouded over and began to drizzle so I worked in the house creating continuity checklists. I actually began continuity and isolation tests yesterday, but when I soon found a short between battery-power and switched power circuits, I decided to first make a checklist to keep track of what I'm doing.

I also routed and tied in a few wires to the location where I'm placing the backup camera, but I won't cut a hole and install the camera until I finish painting the exterior.

The rear antenna cable is also waiting for me to locate the dual antennas. So far, everything I've found has been OEM NOS or used and is far too expensive for my non-stock '56. If I can't find reasonably priced aftermarket parts, I'll probably make new bases from casting resin to attach generic parts to the tops of the fins. No use putting lipstick on a pig!

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!

Hoodwinked

I finally got serious about repairing the hood.

It had been dipped in citrus stripper along with the car body, but sitting without rust treatment for a few years, it acquired a moderate coat of surface rust. The dip treatment also revealed numerous pin holes that needed backing material welded in.

Naturally, the worst damage was hidden by structural bracing that is not accessible with any kind of tool, so I had to rely on pouring rust treatment between layers and then flushing the excess away.

I welded small strips of metal backing in areas I could reach, and then sprayed a coat of Rustoleum Rust Reformer over everything, but I’ll have to trust body putty to fill the remaining pin hole areas I couldn’t reach to weld.


I had considered using the hood from the Fury parts car, but suspected it would also have  pin holes hiding under the three layers of paint that would need to be dip-stripped to reach the inaccessible areas. As least a hood is a bolt-on part, so it could be replaced in the future if the Bondo patch doesn’t do the job on this one.

I set the reworked hood aside and started fabricating a pair of brackets to tie the inner fender to the outer fender. Like so many small things, the original brackets disappeared somewhere, but replacements are easy to make.

I also did some final tweaking and tightening on the doors and fenders and got them to fit a little better. I’m still not totally satisfied with the driver’s side door, but to make it better would require cutting and rewelding sheet metal to create more clearance, so I’ll live with what I have. I keep telling myself it’s intended to be a driver, not a restoration,.


Since the weather turned cold again, I’ve decided to stay in the house this week before Christmas and work on completing the wiring diagrams. I will also need to create continuity checklists so I can verify  circuit redesigns and workmanship. It will be a welcome change to do something different again.

Mostly Invisible Progress

Despite a lack of updates to show with pictures, I've actually been working quite diligently. All the little things that require time and attention aren't often visible or impressive, but they have to be done sometime and I've been taking care of them before attacking bigger issues.

I finished fabricating and installing the door latches on the driver's side and discovered a problem that didn't exist with the other door. There wasn't enough clearance for the panhead screws that hold the latch to the door frame and they interfered with the door closure. Like so many other times fit issues arise with the less-than-precise production process of the fifties, it was a buildup of tolerances. The width of the door opening at the top was about 1/8' less than the passenger side, and the door had a 3/16" bulge in the same area, and that was enough to cause a clearance problem. It was resolved by countersinking the screws along with the Neanderthal answer often used by desperate rebuilders..."If it won't fit, get a bigger hammer!"  A couple of good whacks with a mallet finished the fix.

Once the door was installed and adjusted, I was able to reinstall and adjust the fender. It required Jerry rigging an anchor bolt setup to attach the lower fender. The stock sheet metal had rusted out and I missed seeing it when repairing the area and before installing the inner rockers. I still have to make a bracket to secure the inner fender/splash shield, and that will be welded to the bottom edge of the fender as there is not enough room to use bolts.

Next opportunity was dragging the hood down from upstairs storage and doing repairs. Removing the surface rust with a wire brush revealed several places where the metal had thin areas and more-than-expected pin holes, so I spent half a day repairing them. I plugged and rust protected the worst areas , but still have to weld backing material in two more places that will be hard to access. I considered using the hood from the parts car, and though there were fewer pin holes it would have required stripping three coats of paint, so it was a toss-up.

Phil, who owns the nearly finished stock '56 Fury I mentioned several months ago, stopped by yesterday to get a few trim  parts from my parts car to replace the ones he was missing. His plan is to sell it when finished, but is having the same parts availability problems we all face when working on '56 models.

Since I have nothing to show from my car, I'll post a few of his as it was last spring at the Goodguys show. As usual, I was having camera problems that day so none of the front and full side pictures turned out.

Good News...Bad News

The good news is the weather in North Texas has been almost summer-like for a few days, but the bad news is the weather in North Texas is almost summer-like!

Without the recent cold rain and winds, I've been able to do a lot of yard work. I cut the grass for the last time and then winterized the mower and small engines by burning up the remaining fuel and put in a small amount of fresh fuel treated with Sta-Bil.  Then I turned and added to the newest compost pile so the completed compost can be added to the garden beds where I'll plant a few things in January. I also dug up some dead shrubs and pruned a bunch of others, but still have two bird-planted mulberry trees to cut down. No rush for them, because the weather turns to winter conditions again tomorrow.

I was also able to check off a few things on my wife's honey-do list. She's been gone for a week and will be for another two weeks. While she's gone, she wanted me to do more shelf customizing in her studio, and build a work bench on rollers, so those projects are now done.

I had planned to link the youtube video of our completed studio, but it's been disabled by the owner so it can not be shown on other websites. Strange...you would think they'd want to advertise their products.

However, there was a bit of progress on the car. Today, I actually got back to making the mirror image parts for the driver's side door latches. I made a bunch of changes these latch assemblies so they are more compact and simpler than the passenger side. I hope the mods will provide more space for the power window hardware and controls.

One Small Success!

The passenger door latch is operating as designed, so I guess I can claim some degree of success!


It’s been a frustrating process, but the passenger latch now opens with both the outside and inside handles. Before I install it permanently, I want to remove it to adjust one end of one cable, so the latch opens slightly earlier in the handle travel. Right now it releases in the final quarter inch of movement. At least the inside handle works beautifully and releases at half-travel!


 The good news is that the oddball design functions quite well, but the bad news is that the hardware is seriously crammed together in a small space and I’m concerned about possible chafing of the cable jacket with time and normal vibrations from driving. The contact is bad enough that I’ve decided to make additional changes in the driver’s side actuator to reduce the package size and allow minor cable rerouting.  I’m a little worried that those changes could increase the cable pull-force too much, but I have to give it a try since the driver’s door will require more reliability and built-in adjustments than the passenger door, which does not get as much use.


For now, I’m busy fabricating the mirror-image metal parts for the other door and will probably postpone the actuator re-design while I test and evaluate the function of the first one.

The Problematic Latch Mechanisms

The smallest things so often create the biggest problems! I’m still fighting the problem of trying to fit my homegrown door latch controls inside the tiny door space I’m stuck with. I’ve redesigned, rebuilt and miniaturized parts wherever I can, but I’m getting frustrated!

I’ve been trying to avoid using electrical controls like door poppers, but I may be forced into doing so if my latest design won’t operate properly.


My wife did such a good job of hiding her GoPro camera, she hasn’t been able to find it yet, so I’m still playing with my crappy Canon. After resetting everything yet again, I was able to get a couple of pictures to focus, but it seems to change settings by itself while it sits in the drawer.  

Bear claw latch with adapter to operate inside and outside handles individually.

Outside handle actuator mechanism to convert door handle push rod to cable pulling action. 

Maybe I’m doing something wrong with the camera, but it seems that the more things a device can do, the more unreliable it is, and I don’t need or want most of the features available on what is supposed to be a very simple, basic camera for technically-challenged operators like me.

Return from Zombie-land

Ten days lost to the flu, and still not 100%, but a whole lot better than I was a week ago! I lost ten pounds since the flu hit, and I'm now at the low side of my target weight. I'll have to start eating again.

It's been years since I had the flu, even those years when I didn't have a shot. I had planned to get one this fall, but the bug beat me to it. Now I'm behind all the normal work required to own and maintain a home, so not much time to spend on the car project. Since I can only sneak in an hour or two in the shop when the wife isn't looking, I've not been able to start any bigger jobs.

There were some tolerance issues with the door latch setup, so I've had to re-make some of the parts, and that's been the focus since feeling well enough to do some light work. The biggest problem has been designing and fabricating parts that will fit in the cramped area between the window channel and the door sheet metal. It's the proverbial 50 pounds in a 49 pound bag! I'm anxious to finish the replacement parts to see if I resolved the clearance issues.

Tried taking pictures again after fiddling with the settings on my crappy Canon camera, but still can't get the dang thing to work right. I really need to talk the wife out of her GoPro!

This is the only picture that was even close to being in focus.

By next week, the weather should be cooler and more comfortable to work with the big overhead door open, and by then I should be caught up with the yard work...or maybe I'm being too optimistic!