Cadillac & LaSalle Club Discussion Forum

I’ve actually been working on restoring Ol’ Bessie for about four and a half years now, part time, with a few interruptions.  I'm starting this Restoration Blog now for three reasons: 
-I’ve “turned the corner”, so to speak, and am finally starting to build up instead of tear down;
-Lots of the work needed now is cleaning greasy parts and refinishing them, which is my least favorite thing to do with a car;
-With that in mind I am worried that I may start to procrastinate and that Bessie could turn into one of those never-finished restoration projects.  By blogging about my progress I hope I will feel somewhat accountable to my loyal readers (you know who you are) and if I go too long without making forward progress I hope that some people will start to nag me to get my lazy butt in gear again.

THE STORY OF BESSIE
Bessie is a Commodore Blue 1976 Sedan deVille that my father bought in the summer of 1978 with somewhere between 10,000 and 12,000 miles on her.  Though she was sold the first and second (i.e. last) time by Central Cadillac in Cleveland (my hometown) the first owner apparently kept her at his winter home in Florida, so she was only used half the year.  We were also told she was chauffeur driven.  She was certainly the nicest car we had ever owned to that point, and made quite an impression on me as a young boy; I spent much of my pre- and early teens polishing her.  She would also, sadly, turn out to be my father’s last car.
She got to travel a lot in our family’s possession, going as far south as Washington D.C. and as far north as Quebec City during our family summer vacations.

I quite literally learned to drive on her (after which EVERYTHING else seems a compact).  Around 1988 I took her over as my own car, with about 80,000 miles.  I drove her from Cleveland to L.A. where we started a new life.  From then until 1995 she was my daily driver, and ran up another 100,000 miles, including numerous roadtrips, some to go to about any Grateful Dead show within 500 miles, a couple of trips to Sun Valley, Idaho, back and forth to Cleveland one more time, trips to see the Indians’ spring training in Tuscon, Camping trips (sleeps three comfortably), trips to Vegas, etc.  I did a whole lot of living in that car.  By ’95, prompted mainly by a series of four (4) failed Aamco transmissions, she was semi-retired; no longer a daily driver, though I kept her in running condition.  She still looked good, despite being ravaged by 10 years of rustbelt winters.  My Dad had her repainted in the early 80’s, and I did so again in ’93.

In 2004 my wife and I moved to Colorado, and of course Bessie came along.  She continued to get “special occasion” use through 2007, though she was showing her age, mainly in the interior which started to crumble.  In early 2008 I was checking out something underneath and I noticed, to my horror, a crack in her frame just ahead of the left rear wheel.  Further exploration turned up more cracks and holes in that area and beyond.  The repaints may have kept the body shell looking nice, but those Cleveland winters, plus 180,000 not so easy miles, had taken their toll; her back was broken.
Of course there was only one sensible thing to do at this point.  That’s right: perform a frame-off restoration, and while I’m at it throw away the frame.  Seeing as paying someone else to do this would probably cost around $50,000 for a car that goes for about $5,000 in pristine condition, and seeing as a ’76 sedan with a broken frame was worth about bupkis on the open market.  I figured I had nothing to lose by trying to do as much work as I could myself.  I’d always been a “car guy” and had worked as a mechanic in the mid 80’s while I was going to engineering school in Cleveland.  My plan was, and still is, to do the work that isn’t easily seen and then pay someone to do the finishing touches, like paint and upholstery.  I got a non-running parts car with a solid frame and then commenced to spend the next four and a half years completely tearing apart both cars so that I could put together one good, nay perfect, ’76 Sedan deVille.

And that brings us up to today.  The “new” frame is completely stripped of parts from the firewall forward.  I have now started cleaning it up in preparation for paint.  My plan is to scrape off as much 36 year old grease as I can with putty knives and wire brushes, then use mineral spirits and simple green to clean it up more, then use some “rust-convertor” product to etch the metal and lastly paint it semi-gloss black.  After that is done I can put back the suspension and various fuel, brake and steering lines, then put back the engine before moving aft to clean that section of frame and underbody.  I’ve already had the engine rebuilt; probably jumped the gun there, because it’s been sitting and waiting since May, and I don’t think it’ll get run again until the end of January.

Now for a few pictures.  This first one shows Bessie during a family vacation back in  August,  1978.  The chubby kid polishing her is me.  Shame about my ruining the picture like that.
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Next are a couple of pictures from 2008, just before I got started on the dismantling.  Still pretty nice looking, until you look closely at the left rear bumper.  Gee , you don’t think that’s a sign of anything serious, do you?
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Here are a couple of pictures showing the state of the frame.  These are just the most obvious spots; there was significant rust pretty much everywhere.
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Lastly we come to the present.  Bessie’s engine has been rebuilt, and repainted with Bill Hirsch Cadillac Blue.  The rebuilder said it still had cross-hatch marks on the cylinder walls, but after 180,000 miles I figured a rebuild wasn't a bad idea.  And here’s the frame that needs lots of cleaning and painting.  I am open to advice about that, with a couple limitations: no sandblasting (because I don’t have the equipment and I don’t want to deal with the mess) and no hosing off (because it’s inside a garage with no drain and it has no wheels, so it’s not moving for a while).
I hope to provide updates weekly or bi-weekly at the least.  And I encourage you to get on my case if too much time goes by without me making any progress.

Thanks for looking,

-Mike Beda

Nice post,
Good luck finishing it. We all know it's a labor of love and these cars are an important part of our lives.
Ken Dennison CLC#26801

Great story. I worked for an over the road jewelry sales rep in the late 70's and  put thousands of miles on a 1976 Fleetwood so I know how great these cars are to drive. I used to get the car serviced at Webb Cadillac in Jenkintown, Pa and loved the car.

I did that job for 18 months and couldn't stand it any more so I quit.
The Fleetwood got traded for a 1980 Seville when I left and he retired.

Good luck with your car.

Brian

See how it’s changed?

Okay, it may not look like much but I have been working at cleaning the frame up, and it’s quite clean in spots.  I still have a lot of work to do to get it clean enough to paint.  There’s a lot of nooks and crannies that I don’t know how I’ll ever get clean.  Especially the insides of the fully boxed sections, which I can barely touch, much less scrub.  Anybody found a good way to clean the inside of a frame?

I’ve read on this forum that these frames are supposed to be painted semi-gloss black, but it doesn’t look to me like this was painted at all.  If it was, that paint sure came off easy.  On the other hand it seems like being covered by a layer of grease is a great preservative.  Maybe I should introduce some oil leaks in my rebuilt engine to keep that rustproofing system going.

The third picture below shows the kind of welding GM did in the mid 70’s.  My shop teacher would not be happy.  In addition to all the splatter there are a lot of pieces of welding wire left stuck on.  This is just one of many places like this.  On the other hand the welds have lasted 36 years, so I guess they’re good enough.

The plan for now is just more of the same, so don’t expect anything interesting to happen for the next week or two.  Thanks for looking, and thanks for the encouraging words, Ken and Brian.

-mB

See how it’s changed?

Seriously I’ve been working on this quite a lot.  If you don’t believe me ask my wire brush (third picture).  Guess I’ll need a new one of those.  The second picture shows a before / after comparison looking at the left hand side.  Although the before is more like a midway.  It still doesn’t look like much for all the hours I’ve spent on it.  That’s one of the reasons why I hate cleaning.

Anyhow I think I’ve gotten the outside surfaces of the frame as clean as I can (although I will pass over them with a wire wheel before I’m finished).  Now I have to try and clean out the enclosed box sections, like under the engine.  I’m becoming resigned to not being able to clean these out thoroughly.  My only idea is to use a long handled brush and a shop vac to suck out as much grime as I can, then maybe some Simple Green to try and get some grease off.  On the bright side if I can’t see these spaces now no one will ever be able to see them later.

For the next step I plan to use this Eastwood product: Internal Frame Coating w/Spray Nozzle; Item #12515 Z.  Has anyone here had any experience with that?
http://www.eastwood.com/internal-frame-coating-w-spray-nozzle.html

My goal is to get this front frame all painted by New Year’s so in January I can start putting back the front suspension and engine.

Thanks for looking,

-mB

Taking on a frame with a hand held wire brush is a lot of work. I generally start by steam cleaning/power washing them and then sand blasting. You have to get it degreased and then get the rust off. Using a wire brush or wire wheel will knock off the loose stuff but you still need to degrease it to get paint to stick.

In the days when we weren't so carefull with the environment or or health I'd put it in the yard and use gas to degrease. Not recommended!

Yeah, tell me about it.  I have been using mineral spirits as a degreaser, and just before priming I'm thinking of using Prep-All® Wax & Grease Remover.  I'm hoping this will get the frame clean enough.

The problem I see is that most of the best and easiest ways of cleaning a frame involve moving it somewhere.  The garage where the car is has no drain so power washing, or even hosing down, is out.  I don't have sandblasting equipment, or even a compressor, and I've kind of shied away from sandblasting because of the sand-everywhere thing.  I like the idea of Prep-All because it doesn't require rinsing after use (though I am thinking I might try using a spray on degreaser and rinsing with water in a spray bottle and a basin underneath, especially for the internal sections that I can't even see much less scrub).  As always I'd love to hear about good or bad experiences with these products I'm considering.

Thanks for your comments.

-mB

Eastwood makes a super-powerful frame cleaner that really cuts through the grime.  But DO NOT get it on the car's paint!

Hi Art,

I couldn't find any mention of that Eastwood frame cleaner on their site or the web in general.  Do you know exactly what it's called?  Are you sure it's from Eastwood?

Right now there is no paint to worry about on the whole car.

Thanks,

-mB

12-24-2012

Merry Christmas Eve, everybody.

My work has suffered a setback.  I’ve discovered a rust hole in the NEW frame.  I have, of course, been cleaning the frame for the last two or three centuries, and have progressed to the inside of the frame.  Here on the left side just aft of the front wheel (see first two pictures) there’s an oval hole (next picture).  Inside there is a bulkhead which closes off the frame.  This only exists on the left side, not the right; it may be related to the steering gear mounting.  It’s not completely inaccessible in there (there’s that oval hole and a few smaller ones further forward) so there’s ways for water and dirt to get in, but not out.  As I was poking around trying to clean in there with fingers, brushes and a coat hanger I found chunks of rusty metal no longer attached to anything, as seen in the next picture.  (I neglected to provide a scale, but the largest of these chunks is an inch across).  That’s bad.  I decided to drill a small hole through the bottom to act as a drain hole (that’s the smaller hole on the right in the picture of the bottom).  This also let me clean more dirt out, rather than just moving it around.  As I continued to poke around I managed to poke a pinhole through the bottom with a coat hanger.  That’s very bad.  I ended up enlarging that pinhole with a drill (it’s the larger hole at the left of the same picture), which was way too easy to do.  On the bright side I now have more access to this hidden area.  On the dark side THERE’S A FRIGGIN’ RUST HOLE IN MY FRAME.  Discouraging, to say the least.

I can’t face the idea of buying another parts car after spending two years tearing this one down.  And there’s no guarantee that the next one would be any better.  This one looked mostly rust free from the outside (the body as well the frame), and the hole is in an area that looks positively shiny on the outside, so there’s no way I could have found it on an assembled car.  I haven’t found anything more than light surface rust anywhere else on the frame, inside or out, (though I’ve only really gotten into the front third of it so far) and I’m hoping I won’t.

So my new plan is to continue cleaning out this area the best I can.  Next I will treat the inside with some sort of “rust converter” to hopefully stop the rust where it is.  Then I’ll have to weld an external patch on the bottom of the frame to make up for the strength and stiffness that’s been lost in this area, and finish by using the Eastwood internal frame coating.  Needless to say I’m not going to make my goal of painting the frame by year’s end.

The fact that this spot is rusted out on such an otherwise rust-free Colorado car makes me think this is a serious design flaw, having this water trap right here. It’s probably a good idea for other ’76 and similar owners to check this area and maybe add their own drain hole.

Thanks for looking,

-mB

Don't you just love the sight of the factory welds where they just "spray" the weld around and hope it gets into the right place.

Shouldn't be too hard to fix, but cut out all the bad stuff and cut out a patch piece of the correct thickness and weld it into place.   But, do it better than the factory, and it will last forever.

I would say that this vehicle had been driven in some dusty areas, then the dust turned to mud when it got wet.

Bruce. >:D

Makes sense, Bruce.  It is very dusty here in eastern Colorado, and to this day dirt roads are not unheard of.

Happy Boxing Day!

-mB

3-13-2013

It took me more than two months, but I finally finished my frame repair.  I was going to just buy some steel and make a patch myself, but the metal shop I went to offered to take my template and cut out the thing for $25.  Seemed worth it.  I ground away everything that seemed thin from the bottom of the frame and took the newly opened slot all the way back to the interior bulkhead that indirectly caused the problem (by trapping dirt and water there).  The place where I originally thought the bulkhead was turned out to be about four inches forward of where the bulkhead really was.  All the rest was a lot of clay-like mud, now chipped out.  I painted the top of the patch and the bottom of the frame with some eastwood weld-through primer so there wouldn’t be any bare metal in there.  Then I clamped the patch in place and started welding.  Welding upside down is hard and a bit painful (as some slag dripping off the frame burned through my welding coat and two more layers to settle on my chest).  The frame curves up a little bit at the back of my patch.  I shaped the patch to that by welding the front (flat) part in place and then using a small jack to press the back corner of the patch up to meet the frame.  I used a propane torch to stress relieve the bend as much as I could.  Then I welded the back part in place.  I ended up doing three passes of welding with grinding in between to try to fill and smooth the entire seam.  I still ended up with a few pits, so for the very last step I filled those with epoxy and shot a little primer over everything to cover up the shiny bare metal until I paint the whole frame.  I know no one will ever see it, but I still want it to look as good as possible.  Since the patch is a little thicker (they didn’t have .150 thick steel so I got 3/16”) and much larger than the hole, this part of the frame should actually be a bit stronger than when it was new.

Now I have to get back to the cleaning of the inside of the frame.  I’m actually almost done with that; at this rate I figure another two hours.  I hope that this weekend I can get the internal frame coating applied.
I learned a couple important safety tips that I want to share.  The short version is brake cleaner (aka chassis cleaner) is nasty stuff.  I know that should be obvious and they have plenty of warnings on the can.  But one cold afternoon I was cleaning with that stuff, and it was cold so I had the doors and windows closed, and after a while I started feeling pretty woozy.  I went outside, but I still didn’t feel right.  After this went on for over an hour I started looking up on the internet just what I had done to myself.  Turns out I was accidentally “huffing”, and the effects are about the same as getting extremely drunk.  I spent the rest of the day somewhere between wasted and hung over.  Still it could have been worse;  I came across this article:

http://www.brewracingframes.com/id75.htm

I have posted this on the general forum too, but I think it bears repeating:  Never MIG or TIG weld something you cleaned with brake cleaner.  The combination of the cleaner, argon gas and heat can produce a super deadly nerve gas.  And I had used that to clean the frame where I welded the patch; fortunately enough time must have elapsed between cleaning and welding that the cleaner had all evaporated.  From now on I’m using simple green.  I’d rather have a dirty frame than a coffin.

I’ll leave you all with some pictures of my patch job.  First is the patch, with weld-through primer.  The top hole is for a fuel line screw, the larger bottom hole I added for drainage.  Next we have the hole I opened up in the frame after I ground away everything that seemed rusty.  Then there’s the patch clamped in place, and next a view of the jack I used to bend the back part of the patch into place.  It worked pretty well.  The next two pictures show the patch welded in place and ground down to something like even (bottom and side views) and last we have the finished product with a quick coat of primer (bottom and side views).  Once everything is painted black I think it’ll blend in pretty well.

Thanks for looking,

-mB

4-8-2013

Finally I’ve finished cleaning and painting the frame, or at least the part forward of the firewall.  After patching the frame the rest of the job went smoothly.  I cleaned the frame as well as I could inside and then used Eastwood’s “Internal Frame Coating”.  It comes in a spray can with a long flexible wand you attach to it so you can get it inside enclosed areas.  It did a pretty good job coating the inside of the frame, but, wand or no wand, gravity seems to dictate that the bottom parts get better coated than the top parts.  Then again gravity will also make water and dirt collect on those parts so I guess it comes out even.  They say it takes two cans to do a whole frame, but I used three cans just on the front third.

After that I cleaned the outside of the frame one last time with Simple Green.  Then I used a couple wire wheels to polish everything up.  Those worked great.  I couldn’t get over how shiny everything came out.  The picture below doesn’t do it justice; the brownish patches are really reflections of the bare wood walls and butcher paper on the floor.  After that I wiped everything down with rubbing alcohol.  Next I wiped everything down with Krud Kutter rust remover, which is basically phosphoric acid.  And finally another wipe down with alcohol.

Then I had at it with Zero Rust paint.  I did two coats of red primer followed by two coats of black.  Took a little over three hours.  Considering most of the frame was just fine after almost 40 years with the little or no paint the factory put on I’m sure this will outlast me.

With this done I can finally start reassembling the car, starting with the front suspension.  This will be the first time I’ve put something back together instead of taking things apart, so this is kind of a turning point in the restoration.  I’m excited.

Here are a few pictures.  First the shiny frame after being wirebrushed.  Then the frame in red primer.  And the frame with the final black coat on it.  Lastly here’s how the patched area looks after paint.  You can see why I don’t plan on doing the external body work.  But it’s strong and hopefully no one will ever see it again.

Thanks for looking,

-mB

Nice work there, Mike!

The rear frame, where the control arms connect was where my 1970 rusted out. I had it repaired One side then the other, but there were too many other issues with the car after 17 years in the NE rust belt, that i finally gave up the ghost on it.  Good luck getting the 1976 finished. It's one of the last of the real long ones.

5-31-2013

Look, Ma, a Front Suspension!

Okay, it still needs a few things, like strut rods, tie rods, shocks, brakes, wheels, an engine, fenders, etc.  But at least things have started to come together, instead of coming apart.

Of course no restoration work comes without headaches.  Everything has, literally, taken twice as long as I thought it would.  Okay, I’ve heard that before, but the sad thing is having heard that I doubled all my time estimates and it STILL takes twice as long.

For instance I took my control arms to a local shop to have the ball joints and bushings pressed out.  When they pressed out the upper ball joints they threw away the ball joints AND the camber bushings. They also tore up the bushing hole in one of the lower arms with an air chisel.  The shop manual says that if that surface gets scratched you have to replace the arm.  I hope they meant to say “or grind, sand and polish until the surface is smooth again,” because that’s what I did.  So when time came to get the new parts pressed back in I took the arms to a different (pricier) shop.  Who put the upper ball joints in upside down.  You can’t win.  In the meantime I found a new pair of camber bushings for 70-71 Cadillacs on ebay.  My parts catalog says they are the same 70-76, so I bought them.  After trying to attach the spindle to the upper ball joint I realized the stud was coming out at a very weird angle.  Long story short, those bushings are definitely different from the originals; I don’t know what year they do fit.  So I had to pull the bushings out of the parts car.

Once all these hassles were dealt with the rest of the assembly went pretty smoothly.  I used Detroit Eaton springs which fit perfectly (thanks to Mike Harnack for the recommendation).  The left spring took me about three hours to get in.  After learning a lot of lessons the right one took 30 minutes.  What worked was jacking up the frame further (so I could fit my big floor jack under the lower arm), letting the car down on the lower arm which compresses the spring a bit, then jacking the lower arm up, which compresses the spring more.  No big surprise that with the engine and front clip removed there isn’t quite enough weight to compress the spring so you can get the lower ball stud nut on.  On the left side I got past this by using a ratcheting tie down to pull the lower and upper arms together.  Probably not very safe, and it broke the tie down ratchet, but not before getting the nut on.  On the right side I used a different approach: Pile every heavy thing in the shop on the frame, then sit on it.  And bounce.  That worked easier and didn’t break anything.

Next up will come the rest of the front suspension, the brakes and then the fuel and brake lines, then finally the engine can go back in.  My goal for that is end of July.  Does that mean it’ll really be the end of September?  I hope not.

Pictures enclosed: First, the frame, now with upper and lower arms and springs.  A shot of all the junk I piled on to weigh down the front end.  And a picture showing how the jack went under the lower control arm.

Thanks for looking,

-mB

Enjoyed reading your story. Good luck with the project.

That's an amazing job you're doing with that car Mike!

07-02-2013

Thanks for the encouraging words!

Not that much progress to report at this time.  Two of the cars I actually drive have demanded my attention lately.  I have gotten more of the front suspension in place now; the steering linkage, sway bar, strut rods and the rotor shields.  I would have the shocks in except when I opened the package of two new AC Delco shocks I had mail-ordered I was (wait for it) shocked (bet you didn’t see that coming) that only one was usable.  The other was made with an incorrect short bottom bushing.  The sealed boxes had the same part number and all, so it had to be a mistake at the factory.  Glad to see that GM has fixed their quality control problems.  I had to mail that back and I’m waiting for a replacement to come.  But that just seems to be part of the hobby.  Next up will be brake rotors, then calipers and wheels, which will be exciting.  To me.

I enclose a couple views of the front frame now with more stuff bolted on, and a picture of the mismatched shocks.

Thanks for looking,

-mB

Hi Mike

I am enjoying following along with your restoration.  Your garage with the front of the Caddy disassembled is a familar sight -  I have 72 Eldo that I am trying to restore also, but is taking forever.

good luck!
John McLaurine

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

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!

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

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

-Hank

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

Your car is looking really nice! 

Nice and thorough work, keep the pictures coming  8)

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.

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/

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. 

nice, keep us updated

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

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

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

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

at least it seems the undercoating was effective.  :D

Quote from: DeVille68 on May 30, 2015, 04:11:28 PM
at least it seems the undercoating was effective.  :D

So effective that one wonders why remove it?

"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

Quote from: mgbeda on June 01, 2015, 02:42:15 PM
As Dave Barry said, "There is a very fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness.'"

-mB

nicely said!  8)

What are the next steps you will tackle?

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

Hey Mike - how's Bessie looking?  it's been a long while since an update.  Hope everything's OK with you and it.