Carl 61 Fleetwood Phyllis

[Roger Zimmermann]

You can clean them, but they will never come back to blue. My '72 de Ville has green ones; I cleaned them at home into the bath tub; they are beginning to discolor. Age and sun are the culprit.

[Clewisiii]

Ok. I have been thinking and that is dangerous.

Now that my floor is good I am going to pull the body back off and put it back on the rotisserie.  I will install the engine trans driveshaft etc.  I will get it running, paint the firewall while on the rotisserie then put the body back on permanently.   I do not trust my skills to finish the paint and body work. So I will need to get the car running and driving.  Even if it is just a lawn chair.  The paint shop I talked to said they would rather work on a running car.  I still do not know how far off the paint is.  But these are steps I can take.

[Clewisiii]

Walking the engine back to the barn.  If I ever do this again I am going to get a new engine stand.  Those flat steel wheels do not like to roll. 

[Clewisiii]

Distributor question. I know that my distributor was clocked wrong from my engine rebuild.  From the shop manual it says the rotor should face to the direct back of the engine.  In order to do this I need to rotate the shaft on my oil pump to have the flat spot face the rest of the engine.  Any recommendations on how to do this. 

I thought I could drop the pan and spin from below.
Or I could reinstall the distributor. Turn over the motor yo rotate. Pull the distributor.  Turn engine back to TDC then reinstall the distributor.   Any other thoughts.

[Clewisiii]

Ok I think I have it all back together correct.  However I am missing a screw for my vacuum advance.  I know I have it.  But with everything still packed up from my remodel I probably will not find it for a while. 

I installed the distributor to use to rotate the oil pump shaft.  I rotated watching the rotor to estimate the shaft flat position. Then removed and rotated back to TDC. 

[Clewisiii]

So I am an auto engineer. But most of the things I design I only work on in a digital state. I mostly pass off the designs for others to put in to production. 

I am working on building up my own skills and competency.  That is really what the goal is for doing this 61 Fleetwood. It will never be worth the money or effort I am puttinb into it. 

FYI this is the first part I designed and developed. A seat back panel for chrysler.  Actually there were 8 different versions of this panel I made for this vehicle over a year. 

My first design had the edges of the lower carpet going all the way up into the lower curves.  But for material utilization chrysler vetoed me and cut it straight.  I think it makes it look incomplete.

[Clewisiii]

I must ask a question because I am young and ignorant.  And it has to do with the jack.  I would never actually use the jack to lift the car.  But I do want to make sure it works.  I have some work to do cleaning this up. Straightening some metal parts etc.  But I want to ask about the function.

If the tab is flipped to up then working the lever works the mechanism up the shaft.  If the tab is switched back down the mech quickly slides down the shaft unhindered. Under weight of car this would be quick and dangerous.  Am I missing a part of feature to control the down movement.  Or is that the way it is.  I know these were dangerous.  But that dangerous? 

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

G'day Carl,

Firstly, nothing wrong with these original jacks, as they are requires especially to lift the rear high enough to allow the rear axle to drop down low enough to allow for the removal of the rear wheel when at the roadside, with a flat tyre.   Jacking up the rear of our cars, especially the ones with Wheel Spats, and low rear wheel arches, it is impossible to get a rear tyre off without raising the body.

Now, as you have found, the raising is a simple ratchet the lever downwards to lift the section that slides up the post to rice in increments.

To lower the car, the "loose" lever is flipped the other way, and then, with the wheel wrench in the lifting tube, push downward, so that the jack piece raises a bit, and in doing this, the internal Paul will "flip" out, away from the rack, and then, whilst still holding the vehicle's weight on the wheel wrench handle, slowly ease the pressure, letting the lever lift upwards, allowing the slider to descend the rack and lust before ending the travel of the wheel wrench, the Paul will catch in the rack.   This allows you to raise the the wrench up a bit to gain a disconnection, and allow you to push it back down, to the bottom, and slightly raise the car a bit so that the Paul releases again, and continue the downward and upward movement, till the car is on the ground.

The secret of using these is to slightly position the jack under the Bumper Bar so that the base plate is slightly under the vehicle, with the upright at about a 5 Degree angle, up and away from the vertical.

Doing this pre-positioning, allows for the post to come to the vertical as the vehicle reaches the upward limit.   Failure to do this can result in the jack top getting really close to the body, or lights of the car.

These types of jacks have been produced by the Millions, and I have never heard of a failure when used as per instructions.

Bruce.

[Clewisiii]

Thank you.   I still feel worrisome about the mechanism.  But I would not use it due to scratching/denting the bumper.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

With the one for my '72 Eldo, I put a wool sleeve to protect the Bumper.

The thing about these Jacks is that the Factory made the Bumper Bars to accommodate the lifting piece.   I will have to take a look under my car and see what it is like.

Don't forget that the Factory would not want the jack to damage the bar, as this would lead to lots of customer complaints, and warranty repairs to fix any damage.

The Owners Manual will give precise instructions on where it goes.

Bruce.

[James Landi]

Having owned Cadillacs all of my driving life, Carl, and I'm 75, I have, on occasion used "the jack."  And yes, as reported above, they do work, but they are rather frightening to use.  To a greater or lesser degree, you're lifting the car on one corner and that's a lot of its mass, and, as you know, the bumper and associated assemblies have to do this without bending and/or distorting any of the assemblies--older cars that have compromised rusted assemblies are not candidates for this kind of lifting.  Also, the jack's "footing" must be on a surface that won't distort or sink, and the car must be on level ground.  We're fortunate that modern tubeless tires are not so subject to flats!   Thoroughly enjoying your work and narratives, Carl--- I owned a '61 convertible way back in the mid 60's when my parents' indulged me  while I was in college...you can only imagine how much fun I had--- the 61 is a stellar model...   Have fun,   James

[Clewisiii]

Thank you all again for the advise and direction with the jack. I put all the parts together and see how it works.  But it is obvious that this jack dropped the car at some time.  The side of the plate jaw is bent and does not hold the part well anymore. 

At first I thought I was missing a part where the spring steel sits.  Buy now I assume that that spring is just a detent to hold the jack bumper plate.

[Clewisiii]

It is probably going to take some time to figure out how to straighten this without doing more damage.  If I overheat to form I may weaken the metal.  It would not matter to me since I will only be looking at the jack. But it might be needed by someone in the future.

[Clewisiii]

So one note I do have my original wheel block.  When I was dragging the car out of the barn this was sitting on the ground next go it. I did not know if it went with the car but I decided no one would care if I took it.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Carl,

That bent piece is toast, and I would not recommend using heat to straighten it.   If it cannot be straightened cold, then toss it out and get another one.   Heating will result in one hook being a different strength than the other.

Looking at the way it was bent, I would say that the damage occurred when the previous owner used it incorrectly, and the car slipped sideways, and "fell" off the jack.

I can only surmise how this happened, but if one jacks higher than it takes to replace the wheel, there is the possibility that the weight (grip) of the adjacent wheel with the ground became non-existent, and the car wasn't properly wheel-chocked at the front, allowing the vehicle to pirouette on the front wheel that was unrestrained.

Bruce.

[Roger Zimmermann]

So one note I do have my original wheel block.  When I was dragging the car out of the barn this was sitting on the ground next go it. I did not know if it went with the car but I decided no one would care if I took it.

Those wheel blocks were used and were part or the original equipment for years. My '72 de Ville has one too!

[Clewisiii]

The last of my wall is closed up.  Funny even with the plastic lining as much as I could, and six inches of insulation, I could still feel cold air moving through the wall in the corner.   Now that it is closed up, and trimmed, I should have a lot less air movement.

The last big shelf is put together.  This is going to be for all the trim and chrome.  However they were out of the wire shelf panels for the shelving.  I ordered them but will not receive until early to mid January.

[Clewisiii]

Well after 2 years my shop is as complete as it needs to be to continue.   

It is time to strip this body again.  I need to fix the surface rust that has popped up over the years from my poor shop conditions.  But it should be much easier to clean up then it was the first time.  The body has no issues other then the corner of the firewall from raccoon urine. Bi had spent a lot of time on the body work of the body itself. 

The doors fenders and hood are another matter. They need to be stripped nearly entirely.  I will be able to save the front lip of the hood. But not the upper surface.   

I hope to get this back on the rotisserie by this weekend.

[Clewisiii]

I will need to think of a creative way to properly hold these for doing the body work.

I think I need to put more of a curve on the passenger fender. Mounted on the top and bottom it seems to flat in the middle compared to the door.

[6caddy2]

looking good Carl! You can make a stand out of 1x or 2x to hold the fender will you get it in shape, body work, then spray them, can get cheap casters for them so as to move them around that kick ass garage. can do the same for the hood. wood is pretty cheap and you can burn it when done with it. Just a thought!