She Ain’t Purty … Yet

Days 7 & 8

The Starting Point

Ball Joints, coil springs, tie rods and spindles removed. Brake lines disconnected.

Upper and lower control arms removed.

Side note:  See that small disc in the center? That’s the bottom of the exhaust manifold where a once-leaky heat riser valve used to be.  I disconnected the exhaust flange from the manifold and removed the old heat riser, leaving a hole that measured between 11/32″ and 3/8″.

Having failed to get a tap to thread the hole for a leak-stopping bolt solution, I wondered … “what soft metallic object between 11/32″ and 3/8″ could I find suitable for permanently blocking this hole in the exhaust manifold?

In decimal, the hole was between 0.34375″ and 0.37500”.  Just about exactly in between is 0.35500″ – which in caliber equals 9mm!

Over to the loading bench for an unloaded solid point copper jacketed bullet … held it in place and drove it in with a few strikes of the hammer and voila! Problem solved. No more manifold leak!

Moral always have ammo available … you never know when it might come in handy.

Next: Frame polishing – left side shiney!

Left side – painted.

Before and After – Right vs Left.

Note: I did this on half at a time because with freshly ground / polished steel you will see rust try to form almost immediately.  Doing this in two steps allowed me to beat the oxidation rate.

Both sides – painted.

Unwrapped!

There will be a pause in the day counter for a few days while new control arms and a new steering gear are delivered.

Meanwhile, she ain’t purty … yet.