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.

Console Switch Mods

Console wiring took a back seat to a need to design a different way to mount the HVAC switches. Originally, I mounted them directly on the front plate with the aluminum trim in place. When I tried to wire the switches, I found it difficult to see the wired terminals, so I decided to mount the switches on a smaller bracket that could be removed from the console for better access and visibility.  I threw together a quick mockup and it works fine. In fact, it works well enough that I’m not going to make a neater permanent bracket. It won’t be visible when the trim is installed, so why waste time making it pretty when it functions perfectly well as is.

 I finished wiring the switches in place and installed a few other wires that route to the console bus.  I also ordered a bussed terminal strip to use as a central ground point under the dash, and it should be here late this week.

While I wait for that I’ll make a few wiring changes in the dash bundles before the dash is installed. I expected a need to revise some circuits as I got deeper into the merging ’56 and ’66 parts with the truck steering column wiring, and it was a good guess.

FWIW, I still need another knob like the ones shown in the last photo. If anyone has one they can spare, please let me know. It can have any engraved legend, as I will fill the engraving with Muggyweld before having them re-chromed.

It Must be Raindrops!

Rain at last! 

I had begun to think we had seriously angered the rain gods. There have been several heavy rains within a few miles of us in the past two weeks, but we received nothing more than sprinkles until yesterday. Yesterday morning I found 1.35 in the rain gauge, and over last night, another 1.40 fell. Then it started again this morning and so far, we added another 1.25 to the total. We could use another inch or two before it quits, but I'm very happy with what we got! The three-inch wide cracks in the clay soil should close for the season and I can probably stop hauling hoses around  to water shrubs every few days.

Before the rains began, the temperatures were in triple digits again, so a couple hours a day working on the car was all the air conditioner and I could handle. I'm still routing and terminating under-dash wiring, and it’s still a slow process as I have to create hook-up information as it happens, so I can keep track of the configuration for future reference. I'm nearing the point where I can permanently install the console frame, and soon after that, the dashboard can go in. Hooray!

With luck, the weather should moderate soon, as the nights are getting cooler and longer and I can open the garage doors in the morning to cool it off. Now if I can just pump up my enthusiasm a few notches! Seeing the interior come together should help that problem a bunch.

Interior Wiring Progress

The weather has cooled somewhat. Today it was 95 compared to 105 last week, so I’m slowly easing back into harness. My little window air conditioner keeps the garage comfortable until mid-afternoon, so I’ve been able to spend a few hours on the wiring. 

I’ve moved to the interior and now have the bundle to the firewall connector mostly terminated. Most of the wires left to install are those coming from the switches after the dash is mounted, and I'm nearly done with terminating those already attached to the dash side.

It looks like a rat's nest now, but it will look better once I start forming and tying the mess into neat(er) bundles.

Next  priority will be the A/C controls  and console wiring.

Nature's Revenge

Nature’s revenge for a mild spring has been over a week of 100F -plus heat. Not that it’s uncommon in North Texas to have stretches of temps over 100, but the last two weeks of June were drier in our immediate area, and July so far has had spotty precipitation. It was about ten years ago that it was over 100 for 45 consecutive days, and we are still far from that this current year. Not time to complain too much yet!

Despite having a lawn irrigation system, it’s been dry and hot enough to require watering shrubs. Mine are four years old, but still need supplemental watering, so I’ve been dragging hoses around for the better part of three days. Oh, well, I’m the one who decided to buy a treeless lot and create a place that looks like it was landscaped decades ago.

The A/C in my workshop cools fine when temps are in the 90’s, but works too hard when it gets hotter, so I’ve chosen to stay in the house when I’m not watering. Next week the afternoon temps are forecast to drop 8-10 degrees, so I should be able to work on the car then.

I have been working on interior hookup details for a few hours while I’m stuck in the house, but now I need to spend time inside the car verifying my plans before I transfer the info into a MS Publisher drafted format.

The lousy television programming  today has convinced me to watch more old movies, and I'm amazed at how may cars were provided by Chrysler Corporation. A black and white movie...with a quickly forgotten title...starring Jeff Chandler as a county sheriff featured lots of '56 Mopars. His patrol car was a '56 Belvedere that was a little upscale for a cop car, and the main bad guy drove a '56 New Yorker station wagon, so Chrysler didn't go cheap cars on the cars they provided. A '56 Dodge pickup, '56 Dodge wagon and a '56 Imperial were others that showed up in several scenes.

Speaking of other '56 cars, this one-of-none Minnesota-licensed Fury convertible was interesting. While I yearned for a set of "cruiser skirts" for my '53 Plymouth in about 1958, I don't like them on a '56. I don't mean to criticize the owner's choice, and they do accurately portray the era, but my mind has changed over the years. The stock lines are too graceful to deviate much. I know some will think the same about mine, so I guess I shouldn't judge.

Life

Probably not a subject for a car blog, but I guess I need time and a place to just talk a little about life.

A week ago, my oldest granddaughter and her husband became first-time parents of a healthy baby girl…our first great-grandchild. It made me feel even older than I normally do, but it also made me thankful and proud. Another generation for her parents and grandparents to love and nurture…a generation destined to take my generation’s place in the family structure. Sadly, most of my family lives over two-thousand miles away, so it will be some time before I get to see more of her than pictures.

Then comes the kick in the gut to make you remember the other side of life…the end.

It seems when a new life arrives, nature demands balance. First, my granddaughter lost her little dog only a couple of weeks before he could meet their new baby, and now, our fourteen-year-old Shar Pei...my dog by her choice...is gone.

A few days ago, she staggered into my office in obvious distress. She had almost no control of her back legs and she was hurting. A quick trip to the vet, several X-rays,and nearly four hundred dollars later, we learned that arthritic bones in her spine had bridging that aggravated her spinal cord. They could treat, but not fix, so we came back home with three different medications and the vet’s assurance she would improve. 

She spent a restless night on the floor by my bed, and by morning she could only stagger around in confusion and her right side appeared partially paralyzed. We called the vet and said that since she was in obvious pain, wasn't eating or drinking, and was spitting out the medications, we thought that maybe it was time for her to go and asked if they could come here so she could die at home without the cold stainless steel of an examining room table under her, and scary smells around her. The answer? “Sorry, we’re awfully busy and can’t come until tomorrow”. 

My wife asked if one of the vets could stop by after their office closed, but they said no. Now, I certainly understand not wanting to inconvenience other patients, and even to work after the whistle blows, but if not for one house across the street, I could see their hospital about a half-mile away from here. I guess animal pain isn’t a good enough reason for one of their three vets to take a few minutes on the way home to stick a needle in a suffering pet.

The next night she was much worse, and I spent the entire night on the floor beside her. As long as I was touching and petting her, she was mostly calm. Then, in the middle of the night, she had an episode that had her groaning and wailing in pain. All I could do was hold her. I couldn’t ease her pain, and I couldn’t bring myself to shoot her. All I could do was cry like a baby and curse the vet who couldn’t spare a minute. 

After an hour, she relaxed, and I thought she was gone, but instead, she seemed to have passed out.

When morning came, she was still not moving, but she was breathing.  When she awoke, she appeared slightly improved, and staggered around the house looking confused. 

A different vet came at 8, and after seeing her said she could probably still recover, but that she could, and likely would have another episode that could be days, weeks, or months away. He asked if we still wanted to euthanize her. That was a horrible decision to have to make.

She had gone deaf in the last year, and had cataracts that had already limited her vision and were getting noticeably bigger. Her hips were arthritic, and she had difficulty jumping down from the bed where she had slept by my feet since she was a puppy. Her mind and her disposition were as sweet and loving as always, but she had been getting old very quickly.  With torn hearts we told him to go ahead, even though there was hope we might be able to keep her a little longer.

As if I was being punished for that decision, as I was driving her to the pet crematorium, my van had a blowout in a highway construction area and I couldn’t get off the road for nearly a quarter mile. By then the tire was shredded. AAA road service quoted an hour and a half, so I braved the 100-degree temp and wrangled the donut from under the belly of the van and did it myself. I was filthy, stinky and disheveled by the time I got there, but I didn’t really give a damn.  

So, that’s a long, unwanted explanation of why I have nothing to report about my project. I haven’t been in the mood to do anything. I question our decision and wonder if it was merciful, callous, or selfish. I don’t know that I will ever accept that we made the right decision. She’s no longer in pain, but ours is worse...at least for now.

The house feels empty and everything I try to do is missing something important. I didn’t realize what a huge part of my life that old dog had become.  Bonnie was a good dog.

                                                                      About one year old                                                             

                                             

                                                                           A few days ago

A Peaceful Alternative to Deafening Fireworks

Underhood Wiring Done!

All the underhood wiring is complete unless I run into something that needs to be repaired or modified, or if I decide to add another circuit. It was a slow process, but I'm pleased with the results so far.

I also got a start on the interior wiring. I'm laying out the wire bundle routing and making hook-up charts and plug maps. Most of this part of the wiring should be a bit easier, but then I've said that before and regretted it!

This phase will require installing the console and dashboard, so I'll have some design problems to resolve during installation. I've been putting that part off until I was confident the basic structure would work out, and I think it will with minor tweaks.

Got a few photos, but had the usual camera issues.