Rocky Start Resto..
Folks,
This will probably be my last post on this thread for awhile. I am not sure how I hurt myself but my L5 moved and dug in to my sciatic nerve for my left leg. I have had this before and it generally goes away in a week or so but this time, at 9 weeks, is still with me and I am spending a lot of time on my back so the work on the Duster has officially finished and my car will be spending the winter outdoors. Maybe, I hope, I will have the ability to work on the Duster during te winter however, my pain relief doctor is talking about operations. I have hurt so long that I have already turned down an elective operation slated for this month.
Where are we now ? We had the engine broken in and as I suspected, there was a problem. The PO had used metric bolts ( and it was also missing bolts) and the oil pump worked OK until the motor was spun up when it promptly died. I am not sure why anyone would put a old oil pump in a brand new engine but it no longer surprises me. After the new pump was installed I got a two thumbs up in regards to how the engine operated. The trans has been rebuilt with a shift kit and the rear axle has a newish pumpkin in it. I have bought the goodies to built new brake/gas lines and I have the other bits to attach the brakes.
This biggest problem we had this summer was water coming out with the sandblasters when we were sand blasting the body. We spent more time unblocking the blasters. We stared with a 5 hp gas..then a diesel rig that compressed air with a rotary system. We even had a water collector on each end of the hose. The rental companies said that the compressor worked well with air tools like jack hammers and would not put any type of water collector system on their rigs. . We gave up blasting the body and I started cleaning with wire wheel. I under coated as I went ..but the look sucked and I couldnt get the wire brush into the some of the small places.
I appologize for the quality of the pics.
So I went looking for another compressor and found one about 30 minutes away. Look at the size of the hose. We had to have a hose inside of the shield so we could breath and see what we were doing. Man, sand got everywhere ! It doesnt show much but sand go on my car about 60 feet away. Even broke two of my 200w ceiling lights.
Later, I covered all with 2 part epoxy. My next job was going to spray the bottom with chassis black..toss the gas tank on....flip the car and paint engine bay the body colour. Then push the car out for the winter. We have nixed that idea so I am thinking that we could work on it in the winter.
I should mention that I am inmpressed with the bottom of this car especially since the car was used in the winter. There is one hole in the bottom of the car where 3 pieces should over lap but one piece was too short so there is a triangled hole in the bottom of the car.
As you can see there a bit of tar still on the body..scraping, sand blasting and wire brush could not remove it so we are going to paint over it. This resto is being completed as a daily drive..not a show car.
Until the next post.
Grassy
Folks,
This will probably be my last post on this thread for awhile. I am not sure how I hurt myself but my L5 moved and dug in to my sciatic nerve for my left leg. I have had this before and it generally goes away in a week or so but this time, at 9 weeks, is still with me and I am spending a lot of time on my back so the work on the Duster has officially finished and my car will be spending the winter outdoors. Maybe, I hope, I will have the ability to work on the Duster during te winter however, my pain relief doctor is talking about operations. I have hurt so long that I have already turned down an elective operation slated for this month.
Where are we now ? We had the engine broken in and as I suspected, there was a problem. The PO had used metric bolts ( and it was also missing bolts) and the oil pump worked OK until the motor was spun up when it promptly died. I am not sure why anyone would put a old oil pump in a brand new engine but it no longer surprises me. After the new pump was installed I got a two thumbs up in regards to how the engine operated. The trans has been rebuilt with a shift kit and the rear axle has a newish pumpkin in it. I have bought the goodies to built new brake/gas lines and I have the other bits to attach the brakes.
This biggest problem we had this summer was water coming out with the sandblasters when we were sand blasting the body. We spent more time unblocking the blasters. We stared with a 5 hp gas..then a diesel rig that compressed air with a rotary system. We even had a water collector on each end of the hose. The rental companies said that the compressor worked well with air tools like jack hammers and would not put any type of water collector system on their rigs. . We gave up blasting the body and I started cleaning with wire wheel. I under coated as I went ..but the look sucked and I couldnt get the wire brush into the some of the small places.
I appologize for the quality of the pics.
So I went looking for another compressor and found one about 30 minutes away. Look at the size of the hose. We had to have a hose inside of the shield so we could breath and see what we were doing. Man, sand got everywhere ! It doesnt show much but sand go on my car about 60 feet away. Even broke two of my 200w ceiling lights.
Later, I covered all with 2 part epoxy. My next job was going to spray the bottom with chassis black..toss the gas tank on....flip the car and paint engine bay the body colour. Then push the car out for the winter. We have nixed that idea so I am thinking that we could work on it in the winter.
I should mention that I am inmpressed with the bottom of this car especially since the car was used in the winter. There is one hole in the bottom of the car where 3 pieces should over lap but one piece was too short so there is a triangled hole in the bottom of the car.
As you can see there a bit of tar still on the body..scraping, sand blasting and wire brush could not remove it so we are going to paint over it. This resto is being completed as a daily drive..not a show car.
Until the next post.
Grassy
