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.

Have You Ever Seen The Rain?

With car progress on hold for a few days, I'll offer another musical interlude.

Though my impressionable youth was lived mostly in the days when performers got haircuts and dressed up, there were a few during the crossover era when talent and good music still reigned, but the hippie look became the uniform of the day. This group was probably the best example of the looking ugly, but singing great!



 

Checking In

Tax time and spring yard work has taken priority over fun time in the garage, so nothing of importance is happening with the Plymouth. I did get most of the flower beds cleaned and tilled, and today I have to order 12 yards of hardwood mulch to finish them. With my bad back, that part of the job will take several days to complete, as shovels and wheelbarrows do a real number on it. I hate when real work interferes with fun work!

The lighter weight sheet metal I ordered arrived a few days ago, so I can get started on the console structure and AC ducts once I get my tax info to the preparer, and the mulch spread.

After that is done, I think the next project will be determining a location for the terminal strips and interior fuse block so I can begin running wire from the back of the car. The firewall is quickly running out of accessible space, so maybe I can fit them in below the armrest storage bin.

Console and Shifter Issues

If there was a way to record and measure the amount of time expended on highly modified projects such as my ’56 Plymouth, I think it would reveal that it required at least ten times as much time to plan and to contemplate, as to do the actual work. Simple restorations are lots of physical labor, but factory parts are available by part number and the non-production time is mostly spent trying to locate those parts.

When we choose instead to restructure and modify a car for whatever reason, it’s a constant challenge to find substitute parts to replace or improve upon the OEM version. When we also choose a project vehicle that is not among the enthusiast’s favorite models, there is virtually no aftermarket support for parts and materials, and the option is often to make them yourself, or have someone make them to your design.  

While designing and fabricating some parts is a simple job, others require extensive planning, are labor intensive and often require testing several iterations before it works properly and/or looks right. Since my fixation is to emulate a style that “might” have been created in a factory design studio, I often go overboard in building, changing and then changing again, before I’m satisfied with the results. The center console is my latest frustration.

If your read some of my earlier posts, you know that my original intent was to modify a two speed pushbutton shifter pod without a Park feature, to operate a later three speed version of a A-727 transmission that is shifted with various lever designs, and to incorporate a Park lever adjacent to the shifter pod. I was successful in creating a shifter that does the job, but I’ve not been able to get it to operate with moderate enough finger-force to make it practical. I could have used an earlier transmission that used a cable to shift, but it didn’t meet my desire to create something totally different. Now that I’ve spent many, many days to design, test, redesign and test some more, I’m faced with the possibility that I don’t have enough time to resolve the remaining problems and get the car on the road by this time next year. That means that the console design I had originally planned must be modified to allow a ’65 Valiant floor shifter to be used…if I decide to go that way.  I’ve spent the better part of two days figuring out how to incorporate the shifter housing into the console design, yet be pseudo-stock appearing either with the shifter installed, or without…if I find the time and talent to resolve the pushbutton force issues.

I made a rough cardboard mockup of the basic console design, and incorporated the ductwork needed to add a third A/C vent below the dash. From that crude design, I’m able to determine accurate dimensions, so now I’m waiting for the 20 and 22 gage sheet metal to arrive so I can begin work on the real console.

Interior Door Panels

I stopped by the upholstery shop today and picked up the door panels he completed. I had been worried about the color mix, but I really like it. It's not much like the OEM Fury interior, but since my car is highly modified, I prefer it over the somewhat orange tone of the original.

Now I have to decide what to use for arm rests and door handles. I'm still planning on power windows, but need to select the switches and decide where they should be located. There will also be a 2" wide diagonal strip of stainless to separate the black vinyl from the patterned fabric.

I finished forming, but still have to paint, the metal Heater/AC duct adapters for the defrosters and the crossover from the unit to the driver's side vent, but also need something to route the air across the console to the floor, as there's not enough room below the glove box to use flexible hose. The duct will have to be wide and nearly flat to clear everything, or I might design the console with the hose routed inside.

Wiring and A/C Plumbing

Not much accomplished since the doctor's orders to limit physical activity. I've tried to concentrate on finishing my wiring diagrams, but it's been a much more complicated project than expected.

I've done some wiring on the dash, but first have to determine clearances for everything that needs to fit behind it. The centrally located glove box really eats up the space if I intend to keep it the stock size, and the new radio eats up more space than expected.

I'm mocking up the AC ducts and hose layouts so I can get a better idea how to route the wire bundles and where to locate the connector breakouts so they are easily accessed when the dash and console are installed.

New bushings for the windshield wiper pivots arrived, so that's another light job I can work. I decided that I could do a better job of prepping the bezels before having them re-chromed, so I spent a couple of hours sanding and polishing and they do look better now. Compared to the original condition, they look pretty good!

I also have a few other parts that need re-plating, so I'll call the shop next week and find out when I can bring them in.

I stopped in to check on my seats and they are making good progress, but I told him to take his time and put any hot jobs ahead of them. As anxious as I am to see the finished product, I really won't need them until sometime this summer.