The Restoration of Bessie

[mgbeda]

09-04-2013

I’m kind of embarrassed that I’ve gotten so little done in the last two months.  But a little progress is better than none at all, I suppose.

Since my last posting I finally got the correct front shocks installed.  And I spruced up the brake rotors and mounted those.   I cleaned and wire-wheeled them, then painted them with a super-high temperature paint.  Maybe that will hold, maybe not, but they sure look purty for now.  Then I got them resurfaced.  I’d been advised on this forum that new wheel bearings are iffy, and since there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the original wheel bearings I cleaned and repacked and reused them too.

Those are the two steps forward.  For the one step back I found that mice had built a nest in the headliner and chewed a hole in it.  That was the only part of the interior I hadn’t stripped, on the grounds that 1) it was perfect and 2) I figured I’d never get back in right.  Well now I guess that’ll be replaced too.  I suppose I would be more upset except it’s hard to even think about the headliner when your car has no engine or front clip.

I’ve had good luck finding parts lately.  I found a proper 1976 distributor in a local junk yard (I had replaced mine with one from a later model years ago, when I didn’t know any better) and I scored a very nice set of black rubber Caddy floor mats on ebay.  They aren’t even torn in the corner by the accelerator pedal.  The color may not be right, but when my Dad got the car in 1978 it had black rubber mats in it, so they seem right to me. 

I’ve enclosed two pictures showing the chassis, now with shiny rotors and shocks (I guess you’ll have to take my word that the shocks are there) and one picture of my floor mats.

Thanks for looking,

-mB

[Aaron Hudacky]

Nice progress!  I like seeing photos of the work you've done.  Its rare to see a 76 Cadillac of any model given this Mich attention, especially a Sedan deVille, and it s good to see.  Keep up the good work!

[mgbeda]

01-09-2014

Long time, no write.  Well there hasn’t been that much progress.   Lots of excuses, personal and otherwise, with which I will not bore you.  Acting on advice from my financial manager (the missus) I decided to temporarily defer things that require spending money (like installing new fuel and brake lines) in favor of things that only require time (like cleaning and painting).  I did get my original calipers rebuilt (thanks to Gold Line Brakes) and installed.  Then I cleaned the front half of the transmission so that is now ready to bolt up to the engine.  It was all I could do to stop myself from repainting the torque convertor, but that seemed just a little too nuts. 

On the engine I replaced the distributor with one from a junkyard that has a working centrifugal advance.  And I got a new replacement AC Delco vacuum advance.  I don’t know if it will be quite right; reading other people’s stories on the forum it seems like the replacement vacuum advances never are.  But I figured if anyone made an advance with the correct range it’d be AC Delco.

The biggest task I’ve completed in the last four months has been to strip and repaint the firewall.  I used wire wheels and some sandpaper to strip the firewall at least down to its primer, and then used phosphoric acid (The Must for Rust) to etch the metal before painting with three coats each of Zero Rust red primer and semi-gloss black.  It came out pretty well.  I even applied brush-on seam sealer (from Eastwood) around the heater box and wiper motor cutouts.  I put it on after the primer and before the top coats, just like the factory did it and every bit as sloppy, for the sake of authenticity (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it).

This year when asked what I wanted for Christmas, instead of some silly DVDs or clothes or such I was smart enough to ask for car parts.  I got a beautiful high flow water pump from MTI which will soon get painted Cadillac Blue and mounted to the engine.  And just yesterday a box from Inline Tube came, filled with a complete set of shiny stainless steel brake lines.  (We celebrate Christmas for a long time in my family).

Pictures for this installment are of the firewall, stripped, primed, and finished, along with a detail shot of brushed on seam sealer.  Last but not least, a couple photos of the best Christmas gifts a car nut could ever get.

Thanks for looking,

-mB

[Hankk17]

if only my '76 SDV looked as good!  looks fantastic Mike, keep up the good work!!

-Hank

[mgbeda]

03-24-2014

Well, I have made much progress in the last two months, and I don’t need to make any excuses because I rock!  It was a wonderful weekend for a car nut.  Yesterday, by about 4:30 MDT, I got the engine back in Bessie.  There was champagne in the Beda household last night!  (Cheap champagne; I spend all my money on car parts.)  Obviously a whole lot of work still needs to be done, but I really feel like I’m getting somewhere now.  At least Bessie (or should I call her Queen Elizabeth II?) now fits the loose definition of a car again: four wheels and an engine.

This didn’t happen all at once of course.  In the last two months I cleaned and painted all the various little brackets that go on to the engine, mounted the new water pump, polished the bypass valve on and mounted the new oil pump (with help from Marty at MTS, who also found me a good used water outlet),  got the exhaust manifolds planed and stripped, and then painted them with Eastwood Factory Grey manifold paint, replaced almost all the vacuum plumbing and the EGR valve, got my brake proportioning valve rebuilt, and sent off the power steering gearbox to be rebuilt (it’ll be done any day now).  I had hoped to get all the brake and fuel lines installed before the engine, but I’ve had some issues with the lines (as those who have read my posts on the Technical forum know) and I just didn’t want to wait any more.  At least I got all the front brake lines in, and the power steering return line.  I think installing the front-to-rear brake line may be a challenge, especially now that I am reminded how little clearance there is around that engine.

I wanted to say a few words about my now restored brake proportioning valve.  You can get new ones for around $90-100.  I have no reason to doubt they work fine, but I don’t like the way they look.  They are carved out of a block of brass and don’t look anything like the original cast iron ones.  But I found a guy in California (George at Harmon Classic Brakes) who restored my old one for just about the same price.  It’ll be a while before it gets tested of course but it sure looks good.

Near future plans are to clean up and reinstall the starter, fill it with oil, hook up my oil pressure gauge, spin up the oil pump, and at least get the engine cranking.  Then when I get the steering box back I’ll install that.  And I’m trying to find an EFE thermal switch (the ones the parts stores recommend have four or five ports compared to my two, and the parts manual doesn’t list a number for my car, so it’s going to be trial and error).  After that I start working towards getting the radiator and all its support structure reinstalled.  I’m not going to run out of things to do anytime soon.

So onto the picture show.  First a picture of how nice my restored brake proportioning valve looks.  Next…Paint Booth?  What’s a Paint Booth?  Followed by What’s a Curing Oven?  (At least my wife won’t get mad about this.  I don’t think.  Maybe we shouldn’t mention it though.)  Next is a picture showing my mostly finished frame and my mostly finished engine.  We’ve got to get these two together; they were made for each other.  Next we see the front wheels mounted for the first time in almost two years.  Next a shot of the engine about to be lifted.  And then the engine finally free of its mounting stand with motor mounts and flywheel reattached.  Next, the engine is in position and just needs to be lowered into place.  Shouldn’t take but a minute.   Finally, two hours later, the engine is bolted down in its new home.  One small step for GM, one giant leap for me.

Thanks for looking,

-mB

[Aaron Hudacky]

Your car is looking really nice! 

[57eldoking]

Nice and thorough work, keep the pictures coming 

[Jeff Moffo]

I give you a LOT of credit on what you have done and what you are doing.  I own a '76 Coupe De Ville and absolutely love these cars...
I laughed at the mats for the carpets in black rubber as originals are almost impossible to come by.  GOOD SCORE!!  The carpeted ones from '75 and '76, etc. (NOS) are like finding a needle in a haystack!  I keep my originals in a plastic bag in the trunk and use them "for special occasions!"
Keep up the good work!  Congrats on your achievements.

[mgbeda]

09-15-2014

“Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.”

I cannot believe it’s been six months since I got the engine back in Bessie.  And in those six months I’ve pretty much spent every spare minute (not that there are many of those) working towards my goal of getting the engine running.  Finally, at 2:42 PM, Sunday, September 14th, 2014, I succeeded. 

In all that time I did the following:

-Installed an NOS AC fuel pump.
-Cleaned and painted the starter and alternator (they’re not very old and work fine so I figured I’d reuse them).
-Got a good (for now) junkyard distributor and a new vacuum advance.
-Replumbed ALL the vacuum hoses.
-Took the radiator cradle and associated hardware to get powder coated.  Powder coating is a wonderful thing.  You drop off rusty old parts and they come back looking better than new, with no effort on your part.  I’d have the whole darn car powder coated if it would fit it the back of my pickup.
-Mounted the alternator  and the fan.
-Mounted the radiator cradle on new body mounts (Thanks to Scot Minesinger for advice on doing that.)
-Got the parts car radiator tanked and rodded out (Thanks to “The Johnny” Washburn for recommending Spike Radiator in Denver.)
-Installed a new “Radiator Air Deflector” from Rubber the Right Way.  Fit perfectly.
-Installed the radiator and hoses.
-Found a good original Y-pipe in a junkyard, and had that ceramic coated (That was probably overkill.  Ceramic coating is way more expensive than ordinary powder coating, and I should have just gotten it sandblasted and painted it myself.  But it’s done now, and it’ll last forever.)
-Cleaned and painted the catalytic convertor from the parts car, after checking that it flows freely.
-Installed the whole exhaust system (though I’ll replace everything behind the cat before I’m done).
-And in general cleaned and painted or otherwise finished every little fastener and clip that goes on or with all the parts mentioned above.  I guess that is a lot when you look at it.  But I had originally set the goal to have the engine running by Memorial Day, and I didn’t even make Labor Day.  See “Hofstadter's Law” above.

I’ve had a few problems minor problems.  I was very excited to find a set of NOS Packard Electric ignition wires for my car on ebay.  They had the right part number on the box, but they don’t fit.  I have them on the car now and they work, but a couple of them redefine the term “High Tension Cable” (and I’ve tried every combination of placement; they just didn’t come with enough longer wires). So back to the drawing board on that.  I guess I’ll never really find a set of Packard Electric wires, but does anyone know of a company that makes their ignition wires in grey, so at least the color would be right?  Black red and blue seem to be all I can find.
I found that the Moroso 62200 Oil Pump Primer worked just fine with my 3/8 inch power drill.  The drill was struggling a bit, but I got the pressure up to high normal (by the gauge) with no problem.  I used Bruce’s method of spinning up the pump every 90 degrees of crank rotation twice around.
It took me a while to get her actually running for more than a second at a time.  For the longest time it seemed the only fuel she got was what I poured in the carb.  I was ready to declare the fuel pump no good, but as a last test I disconnected the line at the carb and cranked the engine, and it started spitting out fuel.  I guess it just took a long time to get primed.

The engine ran a little bit rough and a little bit hot.  It got up to 225 degrees by the time I was done with the 20 minute cam break-in cycle.  But it was running at 2000-3000 while sitting still.  Also I haven’t set the timing yet , except by eyeball, so that could be way off.  I think the rough running might have to do with the fact that by the time I shut her down two (2) of the spark plug wires had fallen off the plugs.  (I told you they didn’t fit.)

After the run I found one small oil leak at the back of the engine.  I was feeling kind of bad about that, imagining a rear seal replacement needed, until I realized it was coming from the fitting I used to make the oil gauge fit.  This is only intended to be temporary (eventually I’ll put an original type pressure switch back) while I’m breaking in the engine, so that’s not a big deal.  (Except it’s getting my nice clean engine all oily!  Ew!)

Next major steps mainly involve raising the body so I can get at the rest of the frame and generally restoring things aft of the firewall.  I’m not even going to try to estimate how long that will take.  Let’s just say I’m really hoping to make the Vegas GN.

Here are some pictures:

First, this small flap mounts to the cradle behind the radiator.  Mine was cracked and they aren’t reproduced, so I used the old one for a template (next picture) and made one using a small sheet of rubber from Home Depot.  It came out pretty nicely.

Here’s the engine with the freshened fan and alternator mounted.

And next with the radiator cradle in place.

This oil leak was more worrisome before I realized it’s from something I intend to be temporary.

Just like a vintage British sports car Bessie has a genuine wood instrument panel.  In addition to the gauge set with voltage, oil and temperature I connected a green light to the climate control pre-heat switch to indicate the engine reached 110 degrees, and a red light to the metal temperature switch to indicate the engine melted.  I sure hope I never see that red light come on.

My brother built this Heathkit tach about 50 years ago.  It still works (I tested it on my ’75 Buick first).

Thanks for looking,

-mB

P.S.  It's too big to post here, but I posted a video of the engine running here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mgbeda/sets/72157647244843278/

[Aaron Hudacky]

Nice video.  That has to be great to hear your car run again!  I really like seeing your updates and look forward to the next one. 

[DeVille68]

nice, keep us updated

[mgbeda]

11-05-2014

A minor update.  Most of what I’ve done in the last month and a half has been in the way of refinements.  I’ve now timed the engine.  I knew it would be way off but still I was surprised that it was about 20 degrees retarded.  What surprised me is that it still ran.  Next,  remember the small oil leak from the back of the engine?  Even after tightening the oil pressure sensor it was still leaking, and getting worse.  Again I started dreading that there was some difficult seal problem, but then I saw that the RH valve cover gasket had pushed entirely out between two bolts (see picture).  It seems my engine rebuilder had the valve cover bolts only finger tight.  Not taking any chances I replaced the RH gasket.  Since the LH one didn’t leak I just tightened those bolts a bit (If it ain’t broke…).  I certainly hope that was the only thing he didn’t tighten.  With the timing set, the engine now runs smooth as silk.  Running her for 20 minutes last week (because I can) she only reached 200 on the temperature gauge, which is about where she always ran.  And it now looks like I’ve found and stopped all the leaks, which would be good news.

My biggest accomplishment lately is that I have now managed to get all the body-to-frame bolts out without breaking or stripping anything.  And four of them had absolutely no access to the thread side for purpose of squirting penetrating oil in there- they came out 100% dry.  I have found that when you really, really don’t want to break a bolt off it helps to use a two-steps-forward-one-step-back technique, where as you are backing the bolt out, if you feel any increase in effort stop and tighten it a little. Then work it back and forth until it unscrews more easily.   Today I used a jack to raise the body a few inches at each corner, confirming I hadn’t missed anything.  The body is ready to come off, once I tidy up some and build a little more support structure.  That’ll be exciting.  My goal is to have that accomplished by Christmas.

Thanks for looking,

-mB

[mgbeda]

1-10-2015

Happy New Year!  The body-off part of my body-off restoration has now come true.  I did previously say that my goal was to get the body lifted by Christmas, but the way I do things being only two weeks late is almost like being early.

The same one ton hoist I used to pull and replace the engine was used to lift the body from the front.  It’s not scientific, but I feel like it was working a little harder to lift the body than it did to lift the engine, so I’m guessing the body shell weighs around 2,000 lbs (and in lifting one half of it I was supporting about 1,000 pounds with that hoist).

I managed to raise the front of the body three feet before I ran out of chain (also it’s only about half a foot short of the ceiling at the top of the car’s roof).  But that should be enough to clean and paint the frame and underbody as far aft as the rear axle.  When that’s all done I’ll bring down the front and pick up the back end so I can do the aft-most third of the underside.

Before I lifted anything I put in longer bolts at the rear-most body mounts and screwed them in only six turns at first.  After the body had reached its final position I tightened those up snug so the back end of the body isn’t going anywhere.  Two four-by-four posts support the weight of the front half of the body, but I have left the hoist connected (with just a little slack) to act as a back-up support.  I will be spending a lot of time under this hovering ton of steel and I want to live to tell about it.

I only made one mistake while lifting the body.  I left one parking brake cable attached to the transmission cross bar and to the body, and didn’t notice until it was quite stretched .  So I guess I’ll be getting a new one of those.  But, for me, only one mistake is better than par.

That’s my only major accomplishment in the last couple months.  In minor news I also removed the headliner.  I had hoped I could leave that alone, since it was perfect, but a family of mice had other ideas.  It is no longer perfect, or even pretty good, so I figured I might as well remove it now and get that over with.  And readers of the technical / authenticity forum know that I unduly freaked out because I had the distributor installed upside down.  Properly timed, you understand, but about 180 degrees reversed from where it originally was.  Which meant that I couldn’t get my spark plug wires to fit.  That has now been fixed.

Obviously the near term plan is to clean and paint the underside of the body and the frame.  Also to clean the transmission, install the new fuel and brake lines, and get the driveshaft inspected, balanced and rebuilt if needed.  I hope to have this done by April, then to finish the back third by September and get her into the paint shop by fall.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures of my Sedan DeVille Funny Car.  First, two shots of the newly opened space between the body and frame.  This will be my home-from-home for the next few months.  The next shot shows the trusty hoist I’m leaving attached as a safety back-up.  Lastly there's a picture of the parking brake cable I unfortunately stretched out of shape.  But as I always say, you can’t make an omelet without breaking some legs.

Thanks for looking!

-mB

[James Landi]

Very clever approach regarding "separation and lift-off! " Bessie's frame looks very solid ... any thoughts as to why it is?  Appreciate your narrative and pictures.  James

[mgbeda]

5-29-2015

So as of 5-14, just over four months from the time I started, I have now completed removing the undercoating from… HALF of the area in front of the rear axle.  That’s half of two thirds of the total undercoating.  And that doesn’t include actually repainting, or even stripping the old paint, and I haven’t even started on the frame yet.  Having re-read my previous post, it is to laugh.  I will be lucky if I’m ready to lower the front of the body back down by Christmas.  I think I can officially give up the thought of having this car done in time for the Vegas GN.

This will probably not be a news flash, but removing undercoating is HARD.  And messy and a bit painful and very, very time-consuming.  The method I’ve finally settled on, after trying several, is first spraying an area with Eastwood’s “Undergone”, then waiting overnight.  Then I come back with a putty knife and screwdriver and scrape off everything I can.  I sometimes have to do this twice.  After I completed half the car I went back for a second pass with mineral spirits and steel wool and a wire brush.  I can’t say this method actually works well, but it works better than the others I tried.  Flat areas actually go fairly quickly, but it’s the little crevices that take all the time.  And the underside of this car has more nooks and crannies than a Thomas’ English Muffin.

At this rate it will be fall before I’m done with undercoating removal.  I’ll let you know.  In other news… there is no other news.  I include four pictures of the half cleaned underbody.  See if you can guess which side I did.

Thanks for looking!

-mB

[DeVille68]

at least it seems the undercoating was effective. 

[D.Yaros]

at least it seems the undercoating was effective. 

So effective that one wonders why remove it?

[mgbeda]

"So effective that one wonders why remove it?"

Because it'll look stupid with only half the bottom undercoated.

Actually I kind of wish I had just left it there, and touched up the few scraped spots.  But by the time i start thinking that I already had started taking it off and I hate to not finish a job...

As Dave Barry said, "There is a very fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness.'"

-mB

[DeVille68]

As Dave Barry said, "There is a very fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness.'"

-mB

nicely said! 

What are the next steps you will tackle?

[mgbeda]

Well, there is the undercoating on the right half of the car.

While under here I will clean up the transmission, and fit a new rear seal and pan seal to that.  The driveshaft will be inspected and possibly rebuilt.  The frame will be cleaned.  Then the underbody and frame will get painted.  New transmission, fuel and brake lines installed.  And lastly new body to frame bushings.  Then I can drop the front of the body back down and pick up the back half and start on that. 

It'll just take a good weekend or two, I'm sure.  ;-)

-mB