Slowed Progress

Not much to show for the 8 hours I spent working on the car today.  I started by grinding on the front steering arms to improve the turning radius, but that was not entirely successful.  Luckily, I don't think I damaged anything.

Then I installed the rear shocks, and noticed how tight things are back there with the sway bar in place.  The sway bar brackets almost hit the shocks, and the sway bar has to be positioned far enough forward that it doesn't interfere with the bump stop when the suspension is at full travel.  Here's a pic from each side.  The string is a reference showing the alignment of the sway bar relative to the bump stop.  I spent several hours sorting this out, and getting everything to sort-of fit!

 I was able to install the brake lines on the differential housing to the rear brakes, and then decided to tackle pulling the brake and fuel lines which go down the length of the car on the left hand side.  There is a forward and rear section of each, joined together by a coupler.  As an aside, I had to scrape the undercoating off the frame to get to the lines.

 I have new brake lines, so I wasn't worried about the old ones.  I had planned to use the original fuel lines... that is until I took one off and looked inside:

I could never make this clean enough to use!  I ordered new lines this evening.  I don't expect getting them until next week.  So much for getting the fuel system done.

The rear segment of the brake and fuel lines will be very difficult to get out in one piece.  They loop through and around the frame, and were clearly installed before the body was bolted on.  I need to read up on how to install them!

My goal at the beginning of the week was to get the car ready to install the engine... with brakes, fuel, steering, and basic interior (insulation, electrical) done.  Now I'm just hoping to get the wheels on and to roll it out into the sun, and maybe strip & paint the cabin floor with rust destroyer.


I'm a little disappointed.  Yet, everything I've done has been for a purpose, with not much time wasted.  The fact that I caught a head cold yesterday isn't helping.  I'm pretty tired.  Time for bed.

Rear Axles & Brakes

Well, I got the axle seals out this morning.

 They had a piece of leather covering a spring, which kept it sealed to the axle shaft.  They might still be OK, but since I have the axles out, I might as well replace them.  After all, the bearings were shot, so the seals can't be far behind, right?

 Looks like I can pry it out with a sufficiently long "convincer"

 Not working.  Need a new tool

Harbor freight to the rescue.

 Very clever tool.

 Now to clean out the housing, and get ready to install the new seal/

 Permatex on the edges, and the big socket to seat the seal in the housing.  Hammer not shown.

New seal in place.  Still has a spring, but neoprene instead of leather.

The brake backing plates are sandwiched between the axle housing and the wheel bearing cover.  Backing plates have gaskets on both sides.  Notice how there is a 5th hole on the bottom, but there are only 4 bolts on each side.  That bottom hole drains any axle oil leakage away from the brakes.  I thought it was a clever safety feature!

 Here it is in place, complete with painted axle.

 My first attempt at assembling the rear brakes.  I checked with some previous shots, and realized something was missing.

 That's better.

Here with the drum in place.  These will eventually need to be replaced, but they should be serviceable for the time being.  I adjusted the brakes, and then the parking brake cable.  Looking forward to getting the wheels on, and rolling the car out into the sunshine.  That should make working on the cabin much easier.

I had one medium size piece of heat shield left over.  I found an area in the rear of the tunnel that it would fit.  After trimming the piece and then cleaning the tunnel area, I put it in place.  I can now call the lower heat shield complete.  The mechanism on the right is the shifter and linkage.

A good day, but I'm afraid I'm coming down with a cold.  Going to bed early.  Goodnight!

Pumpkin

Back from Mexico.  With the holiday, this is a short week.  I didn't have anything urgent at work, so I decided to take the week off and try to make progress on the T-bird.

My goal for today was to get the entire rear end assembled.  As it turns out, this was rather ambitious.  I started by cleaning the 57 year old goo off the differential ring gear.  I didn't want to assemble the differential without first making sure the teeth were OK.

 The teeth looked ok, with some minor pitting but no unusual wear.  So I cemented a gasket onto the rear cover, and put it in place on the back of the pumpkin.  Oh, yeah... I forgot.  There are some other parts that get held on by the cover bolts... like the rear brake lines and distribution block.  Now where do they go again?

 It turns out that my replacement brake lines aren't exactly the same shape as the originals.  Only problem is that they mount differently, so I had to figure this out.  Not a problem, just takes time.

Several people have told me that the stock T-bird rear suspension doesn't stand up to spirited driving.  Typical of simple leaf spring rear ends, the rear wants to roll in a turn.  This keeps the handling "tight" (understeers), up to the point where the axle hits the bump stop (which happens fairly quickly with the t-bird's limited suspension travel)... then the outer rear wheel digs in, and the car becomes "loose" all of a sudden (oversteers).  This transition makes the car hard to control.  Installing an aftermarket rear sway bar can help this, but will make the handling looser overall.  Since I installed rising rate springs and a stiffer sway bar in front, I think this will be OK.  I'm fairly confident that the car will handle better, so I went ahead and bought a rear sway bar.

 I can't finish mounting the rear sway bar until the car is on the ground and supporting its own weight, but I can attach the brackets to the axle assembly and check for fit while it is still on jack stands.  I was a little worried about interference with the brake lines.  For good reason, it turns out!

Routing the brake line under the sway bar clamp is a very bad idea!

I did a little adjusting, and managed to make everything fit.

The next step is to replace the axle seals.  That's were I got stuck... I needed a special tool.  Off to AutoZone for a tool loan... but the tool they had didn't fit.  I ran out of time... but on the way home from Uncle Packard's garage, I stopped by Harbor Freight and picked up a tool that I think will work.

At least things are moving.  Hoping for more progress tomorrow.

Other Priorities

Last weekend, I traveled to my #1 son's college graduation, with my wife and my Dad.   Dad will be 84 next month.  He has stage 3 esophageal cancer.  I can honestly say that it was good to spend time with him.  This is one of those experiences that I will probably remember the rest of my life.

Next weekend, I travel to Mexico with my church, and we will build a house for a deserving family.  I'm looking forward to it, even though it will be exhausting!

Needless to say, not much is going to happen with the t-bird for the next few weeks.  I'm ok with that.

Shielding from the Heat

My employer provides a way for me to work 9 hour days, and take every other Friday off. Every other weekend is a 3-day weekend, so long as I don't have some pressing assignment to take care of. I've tried to make full use of those 3-day weekends working on the t-bird, especially taking care of things that can only be done on weekdays. This weekend was NOT one of those long weekends. In addition, I had a commitment on Saturday afternoon, and needed to spend time with my wife on Mother's day. Over all, I had about 6 hours to work on the car. This is a recipe for disappointment...
Saturday, I did manage to get the differential housing and springs painted. I was able to finish painting them with a brush in about an hour. It took me longer than that to prime them last weekend. I left the "pumpkin" in red lead primer. I don't know if that is stock, but I did find some pink paint under the grime I washed off, so I think it is likely. I know that the '57 t-bird differential (a "9 inch Ford", as opposed to the "Dana 44" on the '55-'56) deliberately left the gear carrier in red lead, while the rest of the housing and cover were painted black. I kind of like the look.





I also primed and painted the brake backing plates and the diff cover in gloss black enamel. I'm looking forward to putting the rear end and brakes back together.
My main achievement this weekend, however, was installing the tunnel heat shields. This was also a new adventure for me, but something I had determined was the right thing to do. This is not a stock item, but a significant yet subtle upgrade.
2-seater t-birds have a significant issue with heat. The engine compartment is just barely large enough for the large, heavy y-block V-8, and there really isn't much of anywhere for the hot air from the radiator and exhaust manifolds to go. There are no vents at the top of the engine compartment, so the hot air just builds up like smog in Los Angeles. The automatic transmission, at least on the '55 and early '56, is air cooled. This means even more heat under the car, right next to the driver and passenger's feet. The cabin floor had no insulation to speak of, other than a thin jute pad and some carpet. Early birds had a reputation for toasting tootsies, which led to the installation of cowl vents on the '56 and '57 models. My car has no such vents. What to do?
Well, for $100 I was able to procure a large sheet of formable tunnel heat shield material. This is very neat stuff, with a heavy textured aluminum sheet backed by about 1/8 inch of dense fiberglass insulation, and a very strong self-stick adhesive. The plan is to cut panels to fit various areas under the car, shape them to fit the countours, peel of the backing, and stick them in place. Oh, by the way, you better get it right the first time. Did I mention that the adhesive is very strong?
Somewhat daunted by this one-shot requirement, I wanted to make sure that the panels I cut would be close to fitting. I made paper templates for each section (4 total), and carefully laid them out on the heat shield material.






























I then stripped and cleaned the areas where these heat shields would go... left and right sides above the mufflers, and two sections in the tunnel. Once again, this is grimy, smelly, dirty work, and requires squeezing oneself under the lowest part of the car, holding a scraper or rag with lacquer thinner at an awkward angle and scrubbing as hard as you can, while chunks of debris fall on your arms, hair, face and in your eyes. Unpleasant. But, it had to be done. After 20 minutes or so, the tunnel looked good.





I installed the heat shields over the muffler locations first. Fit, cut, shape, fit, cut shape, fit, fit again, then finally, man up, take a deep breath, pull off the backing and paste it on. Straight. The first time.















Both sides done, no problem! Feeling good about this, I tackled the tunnel. Back section first, then the front section on the lower firewall.










No, it's not perfect. Some areas aren't straight. There are a few wrinkles that I'm not proud of. I got some dirt from my gloves on the edge of the white fiberglass, in a conspicuous location. But most people won't even know the heat shields are there, once the engine is in. I am very satisfied.
I'm sure there is some spiritual significance to my heat shield experience, but I really don't think a forced allegory is appropriate. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but I'm still satisfied. I had fun today working on Grandma's car. I feel blessed. That is enough.
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Entering Dark, Unknown Places

This weekend I went somewhere with the t-bird that I had been dreading. The entire underside of the car had been a pretty unpleasant place, but I had been deliberately avoiding the rear end. It had been covered with grime and mud, and it had been leaking. Because of the holes in the gas tank, it stank. Fixing differentials seems to be more of an art than a science, a kind of expensive black magic.





Frankly, I was a little scared of what I might find back there. There was clearly rust and grime, but I feared decay, neglect, and disappointment. Much like the dark underside of my childhood home. I don't like thinking about that either! But I felt called to face my fears, and enter into this unknown place... the one remaining area of the car that I hadn't yet touched.

Friday started well. I was worried that the drums would be frozen solid on the axles, and it would take hours or days to get them off. I was wrong! A little penetrating oil, and two moderate taps with the light sledge, and they each broke loose and slid off!




It had been a long time since I had worked on drum brakes. I was thinking that would be hard... but after reading the manual and finding the brake tool, it was no problem!















OK, well, the axles have to be hard to get out, right? The manual says I need a special tool, with a slide hammer. I don't have a special tool, but I'll try anyway... Hey, it's pretty cool how the hole in the axle flange lines up with the nuts on the housing!




No hammer required... the axles just slid out!









I took the drums and axles down to Tire Guy's shop, and left them for turning and pressing new bearings, respectively.
I was feeling pretty good about this. It seemed like the car WANTED to be fixed! I began to reflect on how much more pleasant life is when things like this go smoothly, especially when I was expecting the worst. Then I started remembering those times when I had made life unpleasant for others, even in their own pain. I deeply regret the way I acted then.

Saturday didn't go so well. Tire guy told me that the drums had been turned too many times, and were out of specification... the walls were too thin now, and they could overheat. I should think about getting new drums eventually. He pressed the new bearings on the axles, and I took them back to the garage and prettied everything up




While the paint dried, I installed the front calipers, and then the front sway bar. There is a good chance that I got it in upside down, but I won't know until I try to put the radiator, stone guard, and grille in place.















I worked entirely too late on Saturday night, spending nearly 8 hours under the rear of the car with a power drill and wire brush wheel. My hands were numb and my forearms sore. The amount of dirt and grime under there was really remarkable! Especially so knowing that the car sat still, covered, for the last 40 or so years! Where did all this dirt and grime come from? Well, probably from the neglect and abuse it suffered during its first 17 years of life.




Neglect for the first 17 years of life... that got me thinking. At 17, I escaped my home of origin and fled to college. I enrolled in ROTC, so I could be sure of staying in college... and away from home! I closed the book on my childhood, determined to move on and not look back. I found a very sweet, supportive, attentive woman who later became my wife. But I left behind my brother and sister, and they lingered in that neglectful environment for another decade.

How can I possibly clean that up? No amount of wire brushing will restore those relationships! Or will it... I am pleased to say that I now have a close, supportive relationship with my sister, and we relied heavily on each other through Mom's lingering heart disease and eventual death. Now that Dad's cancer has advanced beyond any curative treatment, my brother seems more interested in mending his relationship with me. I have longed for this for decades!

After the wire brushing was done, and the area wiped down with lacquer thinner, I drained the nasty old gear oil and removed the rear cover. I was curious, but kind of fearful.









Well, there are no broken teeth, and no hideous wear marks! There is, however, a layer of varnish, a very sticky thickened oil, on the lower part of the ring gear and casing. I'm guessing that this was deposited as the car sat in a single position, unmoved, for decades on end. I need to consult with Mr. Mechanic, but this varnish doesn't seem to effect the gears when they are turning, and I suspect that trying to get it off would do more harm than good.

I then focused on priming the differential "pumpkin", housing, and springs with red lead "rust destroyer". That's how I left the car for another week, until the primer dries and I can paint it over with chassis black, and start reassembly.




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