My 57 Fleetwood restorations photos with questions.

[57flw]

And a couple of pictures of the doors.

When the car came back from the sand blaster there were no major surprises to get too excited about.

After looking at the magnificent work that Lou has been doing on "Project Omaha" I thought it quite prudent to have a really good look and poke around the entire car to find the thin spots.

Well a few were located and not wanting the problem areas to show later some cutting and replacing was needed.

But overall the car is in very good nick.


Ken

[57flw]

For those who are following my updates on the rebuild, here is a few more photos of the body work.

Photo 002. Some repairs to the doors. This is the result from my last update.

Photo 019. This shows some of the colour of the satin black underneath.

More to follow.

Ken

[57flw]

And a couple more.

Photo 675. The floor interior is ready for what ever comes next.

Photo 681. Some real colour at last.

By the way you lot, it is not Pink, it is Mountain Laurel. Real men don't have pink cars, or so I have been told.

Ken

ps. I have been introduced to Skype by my Brother who is travelling around Australia in his caravan. I must be a bit slow because I had not heard about it. I was amazed that we could talk via a microphone and computer whilst he was parked on the side of the road.
How about that. The next thing you will find is that men have been to the moon!

I signed up to Skype. My contact is Fleetwood1957.
If anyone has heard of it give me a call but don't forget I speak Australian. Is it something like English but better.

Ken

[57flw]

Well I have been working away in the background just doing my thing, some mechanical stuff and plenty of cleaning. I will be glad when the parts cleaning has finished.

Here is a couple of photo's of the parts that take a lot of time to get back to a workable, clean and usable condition.

Oh how I miss having helpers. Those army days in the workshop were the good days. I like to remember the good days when one could say. Do This or Do That and the reply would be Yes Sir.

Oh well, enough living in the past, back to the real world.

A couple of dirty cross members.

Ken

[57flw]

Here is the pile of USA dirt I collected from just one of the cross members along with a dime from behind the back seat.

After quite a long time the part came clean, no thanks to my helpers, they are now ready for painting and fitting.

Next will be a couple of mechanical bits.

Ken

[57flw]

Time to fit the transmission to the engine after tightening the flex plate.

Then I show my skills, or lack there of, with a can of spray paint.

Ken

[57flw]

Bit more of an update in 3 posts.

Post 1

Engine and trans back on the chassis. This was a very easy task with nothing in the way. Wish all engines jobs were that easy.

Couple of photo's attached.

Ken

[57flw]

Post 2.

More cleaning up to do.

This time it was the power steering pump. It was nice and clean inside and even the filter screen was in a very good and clean state.

Pulled it to pieces enough to give it a paint job in my spray booth.

Two photo's.

Also cleaned up the Prop Shaft and fitted it after replacing the six bushes in the centre mount.

Ken

[57flw]

Post 3.

Time to sort out the exhaust system.

Did a dry fit to make sure it all lines up properly. Will get it welded before I drop the body back on so it will be easy to do a complete circle of weld.

Even put a bit of the shiny bits back onto the rear of the chassis to aid in aligning the exhaust. The exhaust tips pass through the bumper ends on my model, and I suppose some others as well.

Waiting on the replacement for my heat riser, that is in many pieces, before doing the welding.

Then I will need some advise on where all the parts in photo 60711 go.

Stay tuned.

Ken

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

The round thing on the second bottom right shelf sits in a position 90 degrees to where it is sitting now, and you have to put an expensive black with white stripe, (on one side) round squashy thing with a big hole in the middle of both sides and then blow it up.

Bruce.

[57flw]

Thanks for your input Bruce. I think you picked the hardest part.

I do not understand how all this works. Once I do as you say and spend all that extra money, then I put it in the boot (trunk for our US brothers) and hide it from view.

It just does not seem to make any sense.

Ken

[Roger Zimmermann]

Did a dry fit to make sure it all lines up properly. Will get it welded before I drop the body back on so it will be easy to do a complete circle of weld.

Why do you weld the exhaust system? Can you not use the clamps?

[57flw]

Hi Roger,

Nice to hear from you again.

The reasons I am thinking of welding the exhaust sytem are.

1. There is no cuts in the pipes that I aquired from the USA, so I have to put them in or weld. See photo.
2. I do not want any leaks at all so welding is a more sure way of having a silent system.
3. I thought by taking my age into cosideration and the fact that the entire system is brand new, with the good old American aluminized steel, it will give me a long life.
4. The system I removed was also welded.

Ken

[Roger Zimmermann]

Ken, my exhaust systems came the same way. I did 3 notches with a hacksaw on each tube and used clamps. Economical solution, tight and possibility to remove something "just in case".

Anyway, you are seeing the end of the tunnel!

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

I am with Roger here, and to stop it flexing out of shape, just add a tack weld, in a position so it is possible to hit it with an angle grinder from underneath, like when the car is on a hoist, so you can replace individual pieces when they rust out.

Believe me, they will rust out in places, especially on the top of where it goes over the rear axle.   The best way to stop a steel exhaust system from rusting out is to drive the car every day, and if you can't, go for drives of distances longer than 50 miles, so the heat will remove all traces of condensation.

Bruce.

[57flw]

Ok Roger and Bruce.

I posted what I was doing and received advice or suggestions on a better way to do something.

I have taken that advice on board and therefore spent some time removing the exhaust system, cutting slots in the places that needed them, and refitting the system. Well one side of it anyway.

As they say it won't happen overnight but it will happen.

And the work continues.

Ken

[57flw]

And the saga continues.
I suppose if one does a rebuild on an old vehicle one should always expect the unexpected.

It was time to instal the oil filter. Mine was originally on the right hand side of the engine but because I am going to fit Airconditioning it needed to be changed to the left hand side.
With this in mind I got hold of the correct brackets to allow for the fitment and did not torque the two head bolts that hold the bracket in place.
When I went to do the bolts up things did not "feel" right.
I removed the bolts and one of them ended up with no thread. See photo.

To make sure the thread in the block was fine I had to remove the head. Run a tap down all threads, for the second time, no problem found.
I can only suggest fatigued head bolts.
Naturally I will also need to remove the other head just to make sure.

The next hard thing will be obtaining new head bolts for a Cadillac in Australia.

Ken

[David King (kz78hy)]

Ken,

If you can figure out which ones you need, send me a list.  I have some left over from my project.  There are several the the same size.  The one that holds the A/C bracket on the RH side is the odd one.

Give me the lengths, and I will check.

David

[57flw]

Hi David,

I have yet to look at the air con bracket and how that mounts.
I am still getting over the fact that anyone would put a bracket of any kind under a head bolt. I have not seen this before. I always thought the head bolts only held the head down, not brackets for something else.

Many thanks for your kind offer of help.

I would feel better if I could replace all the bolts with new ones.

Ken

[David King (kz78hy)]

I gets better.  The aft A/C compressor bracket traps the valve cover.  You can not remove the valve cover with that bracket in place.  The top mounts to the intake manifold, the lower attaches to the head.

Make the A/C compressor the last thing you sort out.

Just a thought.

David