One more thing finished...

Ok, I've been buying a lot of stuff for the car, but until today I haven't really "finished" much.  The motor is pretty close, but I need more constant encouragement.  This afternoon, my Wife and I put the steering column back together, using several reproduction parts.  It is now ready to go back into the car.

As a reminder, here's what it looked like when I pulled it out of the car.

The adjustment sleeve is still original, with plenty of pits in the chrome to remind me of "the reality" of my journey.

I visited the car in the shop today.  Paint guy says he will be painting the top and the engine compartment over the next two weeks.  Uncle Packard has made room in his restoration garage for me to work on the car and install the engine.

As much as I would like to finish the car all at once, I know that's not possible.  My boss gave me an excellent bonus this year, and I sold some stock, so I think I have nearly enough funds to finish the car.  That said, my responsibilities at work are ramping up, and I may not have much time to actually get the work done.

Still, it feels good to get one more thing finished.

Missing Pictures

I also just noticed that I'm loosing pictures from my previous posts.  I'll look into that and update this post.

Update: some picture links can't be restored.  I don't really know what's going on, because the original images are still in Picasaweb.  Please be patient as I try to figure this out.

Seat Work

As you may recall from a previous post, I acquired a replacement seat frame back in May 2011, from a very friendly guy on the other side of the country.  It turns out that this is from a 1957 T-bird, which is actually a good thing.  As you may also recall, I consider the '57 seat to be more comfortable than the original '55 or '56 seats.  T-bird cognoscenti might take offense that the seat is wrong for my '55, but most people won't notice or care, and anyone who rides in it will be more comfortable.  Here's a pic of the seat frame in my garage, sitting on the power seat rails.

I've heard complaints that the T-bird doesn't have much leg room for tall people.  While I'm not very tall, both my boys are over 6ft, and my wife has very long legs.  I'd really like to find a way to move the seat a little further back from its normal position to better accommodate them!

The "4-way" power seat (up, down, forward, back) uses two motors, each connected to its own gearbox and screw mechanism.  Every '55 T-bird came with this kind of power seat.  The front-back motor connects directly between the bottom of the seat and the floor, making the seat move back and forth on the sliders.  The up-down motor connects to a mechanism that is much more complex, using a clever series of linkages to raise and lower the sliders, and the attached seat.  The mechanisms on each side are connected by a heavy duty pipe.  Here is what the left mechanism looks like:

Note the shape of the bottom plate.  It "kicks up" at the front and back to precisely fit in a matching depression in the floor pan.  Simply drilling new holes in the floor and moving this mechanism back a few inches may not be feasible, since it will tend to tilt the seat forward.  I'll try looking into this once I have the car back from the shop, but it will also require moving the motor attaching points on the floor.

Here's the seat on the rails in the fully "down" position.  The seat frame is about half an inch off the floor.

 At fullly "up", the seat is 2 3/4" off the floor

This clever mechanism leaves very little room to shift the seat position on the rails.  In the down position, the mechanism limits any further rearward movement of the seat.

Seat fully down and fully forward

Seat fully down and fully back... about 3 1/2" of travel

So I'm not going to be able to move the seat position on the rails, and I suspect I won't have much luck moving the seat rails back on the floor.   Well, at least I found a good deal on a blue '57 seat cover on eBay:

This commits me to a blue-on-blue color scheme for the interior, a direction I started down last August.  Uncle Cord has finished repairing the steering wheel, and is eager to paint it.  I think I will keep the current dark blue-green color on the dash and garnish rails around the top edges of the cockpit, and paint the lower part of the dash to match the medium (Dresden) blue of these seats.  The steering wheel should match the green of the dashboard.
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I try to fix the things I know are shortcomings on this car... brakes, handling, insufficient insulation in the cabin floor, the seat...  These seem like "defects of character" in what is a beautiful, elegant car.  Since I haven't driven this car in recent memory, there are probably many others.  Some of them I can change, some of them I will have to live with.  Still, its far too easy for me to concentrate on the "defects", and not enjoy the beauty.  It's a little disappointing that I probably won't be able to "fix" the seat.  That doesn't change the beauty of the car.

When I inventory my own "character defects", those things in me that I find unattractive or ungodly, I tend to dwell on the negative.  I want to "fix" them, or to be fixed, which sets up a low level anxiety, and contributes to my feelings of inadequacy.   I don't think that is what God want for me... I think he sees me as attractive, with beautiful lines and balanced proportions.  He remembers how he made me, and he knows how to re-make me, to restore me.  He has also allowed for tasteful improvements, and I believe he wants to talk to me about that!

Spindles and Attitude..

I found a bunch of boxes at my doorstep on Friday.  Here's what was in them:

11" disc brake kit, with 1.5" dropped spindles.  These are modified from Ford Grenada spindles & brakes.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, disc brakes are an important safety upgrade for the car... especially during panic stops.  Drum brakes are typically more difficult to modulate during panic stops, and people who are not used to them are much more likely to lock the wheels.  I was resisting the expense of this upgrade, but Uncle Packard and Mr. Mechanic convinced me not to be a tight-wad where safety is concerned.  I bought this kit from a very cool guy in LA who has been making them for decades, and has continued even after his partner died two years ago.  I needed the kit in preparation for rebuilding the front suspension, which will happen when I get the car back from the paint shop.  That may happen within a month or so...

Besides the brakes themselves, I'll needed to upgrade the master cylinder.  This is another eBay find...

Chrome plated dual disc-drum master cylinder, with proportioning valve.  Dual systems like this isolate the front brakes from the rears... important for safety, and for accommodating the different needs of discs vs. drums.

Since disc brakes require more pedal pressure than drums, and since I want the car to be easy for friends and family to drive, I think I need to keep the power brakes.  I've decided to use the original power brake servo on the front discs only.  I don't have room under the hood for another servo for the rears, but there will be plenty of power for the rear drums without the servo, and the proportioning valve will balance out the brakes nicely.  Lots of baby birds run this setup, and it seems very effective.  Mr. Brakes (the guy who did my steering box) is rebuilding the power servo now.

I got the dropped spindles because I think the front of the stock t-bird sits a little high.  I occasionally see restored of baby birds going down the road with the nose up in the air... maybe it's because of sagging rear springs, or maybe the passengers are a little heavy... but it isn't very attractive.  Even in stock trim, the front seems to ride a little high for my taste.  What do you think?  Here are a pair of red 1955 T-birds, one stock and one lowered.

Box stock, the front end sits a little higher than the rear.  I think this is consistent with the early '50's vision of "speed", kind of like the car is leaning forward.

I really like this shot - lowered with skirts.  Note how the body line is more level, and the car seems more balanced.
This is the look I'm going for... stylish, elegant, but with attitude!  A black air dam under the bumper might look good...

In 1955, the stock T-bird's 5.5" of ground clearance was considered very low.  Roads could get pretty rough, and the owner's manual had several cautions about the low ground clearance.  Today, however, roads are much better.  Both my dearly departed 1987 Formula Firebird, and my current 2004 GTO were built with 4.5" of ground clearance, and my 1978 MG Midget had considerably less than 4".  I only got in trouble a couple of times, once breaking an exhaust flange over a speed bump in the MG, and another time getting the Firebird stuck in the sand on a desert road where I had no business driving.  An expensive mistake, costing me a new catalytic converter.  Outside of that, my only scrapes have been on obviously-too-high speed bumps.  I'm confident that lowering the front of the bird an inch won't have serious consequences, especially since I intend to keep it on paved roads!

Drop spindles maintain the correct steering geometry of the front end, unlike "lowering blocks" that simply let the suspension ride a little lower.  Of course, lowering the car will reduce the suspension travel a little.  To maintain good ride quality and still keep the car from bottoming out, I've decided to substitute variable rate front springs (built for a 95 Ford Aerostar).  This is an inexpensive and common swap with '50's Fords... it seems that Ford engineers have used the same front end dimensions for decades!  Even though they are a few inches shorter than the soft original fixed-rate springs, because of the variable rate they will actually raise the front back up about a half-inch or so.  I think the car should end up with about 4.5" of ground clearance, just like my GTO.

I've been thinking about these modifications for months, and it's kind of a relief to finally make a decision and get the parts.  I won't be waffling or obsessing about different alternatives any more. I have clarified a vision and set a clear direction for this car, for what I want it to be.  Each decision makes the vision more concrete, and brings it closer to reality.  Week by week I see incremental changes in the car, I see abstract concepts taking on corporeal substance in my garage, and I give thanks.  This is how transformation happens.
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I talked to a sponsee recently about setting a direction for his life.  He has kind of stalled out in his recovery, so I asked him to visualize what it would be like to live new and different way.  He knows that God doesn't usually choose to transform us in an instant, but rather as the cumulative result of our daily decisions.  The consistency of those decisions reflects our character, and our integrity.  Making those decisions in a manner consistent with who we want to be, or better yet with who God wants us to be, is what I refer to as intentionality.  I think my sponsee got it.

I rest in the hope that, over time, the parts that accumulate in my spiritual garage as a result of living with intentionality will bring me to something truly beautiful, truly unique, and that I will be blessed.

New Chrome, New Attitude

Last week I had lunch with Uncle Cord.  Uncle lives about two hours away, but my new job assignment is taking me close to him on a regular basis.  He has been asking for a way to help contribute to the t-bird project.  The car is special to him, of course, since it was his mother's car.

Well, Uncle Cord has also restored many classic cars, and he knows chrome.  As you might guess, his current project is a Cord 810 Beverly Sedan.  Together, we took the pitted windshield doglegs from the t-bird to his friend at the chrome shop.

Inside of the driver-side windshield trim piece "dogleg" after grinding away the rust.  There are many rust holes all the way through the metal.

The passenger side piece isn't much better.

"Chrome Guy" took one look at these pieces, and declared them unsalvageable.  Uncle Cord didn't agree, and asked chrome guy to strip the parts.  Chrome guy knows Uncle pretty well, so he winked at me and said "you know, he always needs a project"!

I got estimates to re-chrome the steering column parts.  It turns out that most of the parts are cheaper to replace with reproductions than to re-chrome.  I did leave the steering column tube to be re-chromed.

I also gave Uncle the steering wheel, which is a cracked and broken mess.  In his profession, Uncle has gotten very good with fillers and adhesives, and fine detail work.  He asked to take on the challenge of restoring the wheel.  Here is what I turned over to him:

The wheel is plastic over a steel core.  The plastic has shrunk and cracked.  Uncle Cord wants to fill the cracks and refinish the wheel.  Man, that looks like a lot of work!

The worst section of the wheel is pretty ugly!

Yesterday, I had lunch with Uncle Cord again.  He showed me the doglegs after stripping (sorry, I didn't take pictures).  I thought they looked pretty sad, but he is convinced that his welder friend can attach a backing plate, and that he can flow in brazing rod to fill the holes.  It may take several passes, but after  layers of copper plating and buffing, Uncle believes that the pieces will be suitable for chrome.  Well, OK.  I'm gratified by Uncle's enthusiasm, and will accept his advice on this.

I also dropped off the door window posts with Chrome Guy.  These are pot metal, and had to be removed prior to painting the car.  The chrome is badly pitted, unsuitable for even a "driver".  I also picked up the steering column tube... it is beautiful!  Here is a before and after shot.  Inspiring, huh?

On the long drive home, I took a short detour to pick up the rebuilt 3-tooth steering box from a steering and brake shop.  While it cost more than I thought, I'm grateful to have it done.

I also left "Brake Guy" the brake power assist unit from the car.  His price to rebuild it was less than I would pay for parts!

I count this as progress.  The goal of restoration is simple in concept, but progress toward it quite complex in execution.  This kind of progress demands clarity in a plethora of daily decisions, as well as perseverance in response to unforeseen obstacles.

Kind of like life.  Like sanctification.

Hope and Discouragement

It's been two weeks since I posted.  During that time, I went through a trough in my motivation.  I knew I had to spend some money on the car, and I didn't want to.  I started to wonder how long this project would take, and if it was even worth it.  At the same time, I've been making a transition at work, and having motivational issues there as well.  My old feelings of inadequacy seem to be coming back.  I started having unpleasant, confusing dreams featuring frustration and shame.

While I still wrestle with inadequacy, somehow I did muster the nerve to order the next round of parts.  Uncle Packard's financial support and enthusiasm, discussed in my last post, helped me take that step.

Last Thursday, I went back to the body shop.  Body guy had been busy, and the body has been stripped.  Sorry about these crappy cell-phone pictures...

Looking at the car this way, without the rust and patchwork of green paint and primer, I finally can start to envision how gorgeous this car will eventually be!  It might be harder for you readers, but for me, standing in the shop, it was an ephiphany.  This car CAN be beautiful, after all!  This very car, the one I longed for and dreamed about so long ago, the one that focused all my frustration, the one I abandoned, neglected, rejected...

Maybe there is hope for me after all.  Like this car, perhaps my perceived inadequacy is really a temporary condition.

Encouragement... And being cared for.

I spend a good portion of yesterday with Uncle Packard.  I always enjoy spending time with him, but yesterday was special.  We talked about my Dad, about art, about family history, about life's struggles, and about the T-bird.   His candor and calm self confidence was very reassuring.  I felt genuinely cared about, and cared for.  This is something I have needed... my Uncle providing something that my earthly Father could not.  I just drank it in!!

I started by laying out my plan for the car, step-by-step with key milestones... in a flow chart.   This is how my brain works... trying to make order out of chaos, or at least understand the key dependencies.  Pretty pathetic, huh?

My "restore the T-bird flow chart".  Red things are key milestones (engine running on a stand, body painted, car moves under own power, car street legal/first cruise night).  Blue things are at the body/paint shop.  Yellow things are tasks I must do myself.  Green things are other expenses to plan for.  Grey things are moving the car.  Things in the turqoise box have already been done. 

Uncle Packard had previously volunteered a space in his 3-car garage/workshop for the car, which is close & convenient to the body shop.  I'm hesitant to inconvenience my Uncle in this way, at least until I have a clear understanding of the objective, and the "exit criteria" (how I expect to get the car out of Uncle's garage).  I grew up seeing too many "projects" become permanent unfinished space-hogging fixtures.  Uncle suggested that I would be done when we move the out of his garage under its own power!  This made perfect sense, and I was able to quickly factor that into my plan.

We talked about brakes and tires.  Uncle Packard mentioned that Mr. Mechanic advised  installing disc brakes on the t-bird.  I was avoiding this for financial reasons, but I can see the wisdom of doing it.  Disc brakes are MUCH more controllable during panic stops, and everyone is used to driving with them.  Uncle Packard also advises keeping the power assist for the front brakes, because it will make the car more consistent with modern cars.  This alone makes it safer, especially when friends and family drive the car... and safety should not be compromised.  I now need to decide between a disc brake kit using dropped spindles (to lower the front an inch or so), or simple bolt on conversion using the existing spindles.

After I talked about the expense of this project, and my sense of urgency making the car drivable while Dad is still alive to ride in it, Uncle once again made a gracious financial contribution to the project.  This touched me deeply.  It affirmed me, and made me feel that my efforts are valued.  Thanks, Uncle!

This is a good place to point out that it is almost impossible to make money restoring cars... unless you are willing to take short cuts, or are very lucky on eBay/swap meets, or find an almost limitless source of free labor!   Before he sold the car to me, my cousin took the car to a reputable t-bird restoration house and asked for a quote to restore it to "driver quality".  I have gone over the itemized list, and I agree with everything on it.  The total, with parts and labor, is nearly $60,000.00!  My cousin then asked the price of one of the other driver-quality t-birds on the restorer's lot, and was quoted $40,000.  Restoring this car would incur, on paper, a $20,000 loss!  At that point, he knew that this was not his hobby, and he had to sell the car.  That's when he called me.

My spreadsheets show that I will have spent around $30,000 to restore this to "driver quality".  I am relying on Uncle Packard's network to keep my costs down.  If I were to sell it in that restored condition today, it might bring $25,000.  I'm clearly not restoring this car as an investment.  It has more significance to me than that.

We then went to Uncle's favorite tire dealer.  The car will need tires before it can be driven, and Uncle trusts his dealer.  I'd like the look of wide whitewalls on early T-birds.  Tire Guy can get wide white radials in the appropriate size (205/75R15), but couldn't answer my questions about safety of tubeless radials  on the stock "tube style" rims.  He did mention availability of replacement steel rims, which is encouraging.  Uncle Packard then told Tire Guy that he would be buying the tires for me!  Yet another affirmation!  This graceful gesture makes all my previous obsessing about tires and wheels seem pointless!  Yes, I might be able to fit an inch wider tires under the skirts, given the right rims... but Uncle's grace makes that a bit less important.

We then visited the body shop. You need to know that Body Guy is 90 years old, has owned this shop for over 60 years, and absolutely loves his work.  Retirement is the furthest thing from his mind.  He even had a heart valve replaced last week, yet he was right there in the shop directing things yesterday!  The atmosphere in the shop is significantly more optimistic now that Body Guy's surgery was successful, and he is quickly on the mend.  I have had the opportunity to meet some extremely interesting and engaging people in this hobby, and Body Guy is way up there on the list!

I could say a lot more about Body Guy, and how he is an example of aging gracefully.  He is a true craftsman, and an artist in sheet steel & lead.  His workers are also extremely talented (Body Guy is pretty picky).  They have finished the obvious metal work on the t-bird, and are now stripping the built-up layers of paint in preparation for painting the body.  Here are some shots:

Hood has been carefully fitted, and holes filled.  I don't want any emblem on the nose.  Note that the windshield has been removed.  This was necessary in order to straighten the cowl.  The passenger side door now closes and latches, for the first time in 30 years! 

A better view of the front.

The layers of paint on the left fender add up to about 1/16", too thick to paint over.  No wonder the green lacquer was cracking!

After fitting the trunk lid, Body Guy noticed a 1/4" misalignment to the body, and wanted to bend the rear of body back to match it.  Unfortunately, he also found a lot of bondo back there, which would all end up cracking and need to be redone.  I decided that I could live with the 1/4" overhanging trunk lid.

Body Guy's son is 65 years old, and is the shop's main painter.  I'll call him Paint Guy.  Paint Guy had previously agreed to paint the engine compartment, and yesterday he recommended that we take the car to Uncle's garage after that is done and install the engine.  Once we can "drive the car out" of Uncle's garage, we can bring it back to Paint guy, who has agreed to paint the body and the hard top.  This should minimize the risk of scratching the body paint when installing the engine.

I'm left with an action to call Mr. Mechanic on a couple of issues (disc brake recommendation, front suspension, etc) and purchasing what I know I will need for the next phase (suspension parts, brake parts, exhaust, fuel system parts, electrical system, cabin insulation, etc.).  I also need to look into upholstery.  I can't drive the car out of Uncle Packard's garage without a functional seat!

It was a remarkable day, full of hope.  It was also healthy.  Healing.  Redeeming.