Phase two, and a lesson in old car parts

  April, 2010. When you're working on an old beast like this, it's a lot different than a newer car. If you need a door or fender for an S10 truck, you'll have several to choose from at the scrapyards in any decent sized city. You'll also probably still be able to get new ones.

  If you're working on something sixty years old, things are a bit harder to find. You quickly learn to keep a list (either on paper, or in your head) of things you know you're going to need at some point. And whenever you find any of these parts in any kind of usable condition for a reasonable price, even if you won't need it for months, you buy it when you find it.

  The week after we got the car, we decided to head to Logansport, IN- The 51 chick's hometown. There is a junkyard in town that keeps a lot of old stuff. Of course, everything is relative. Many people think a 1999 vehicle is old. When I say old, I mean 1965 and older.

  Heading up 31 on the North side of Indy, we came upon a couple of junkyards that have newer cars. As we approached, Lori asked if I wanted to stop. I told her "No- they won't have anything old there." by this time, we were passing the front gate, and she asked "Oh yeah- what's that?" I turned to look, and sitting right nbext to the front gate was the unmistakable nose of a 1950 Chevy, with a 1950 Buick next to it. We quickly turned around to check them out. The Chevy was a four door, so no use for the door, but the front fender was in usable condition. Not perfect, but very repairable. I stopped and asked if they were selling parts off of the car, and how much for the fender. Decent price, so I went back the next day and got it. The junkyard in Logansport had a lot of neat stuff to look through, but nothing for me.

  My nephew Justin (part of the extended crew) came to check out my new toy, and was both impressed and intimidated by it. I say intimidated because he has lots of skills, but sometimes does not have near the self-confidence that his skills and abilities warrant. His comment: "I wouldn't know where to start- it needs one of everything."

He shot a quick video of the old 216 firing up and idling. Not bad, but needs tuned.

  Time to address a serious issue. I cannot build this car in the driveway.

So, I took a Saturday in mid-April, and cleaned and reorganized the garage. The Fairlane was pushed out of it's cocoon of the past 12 years, and all of the bullshit in the garage was tightly consolidated to one side. Everything in a garage falls into one of five categories: it is a project, it is a tool, it is a part, it is raw material, or it is bullshit. 51 chick's book collection is very cool. I'm glad she has it. But in a garage, it is bullshit. Once the BS was consolidated to one side, I was able to reorganize the tools in such a way to leave a nice work space for the car. So, in it went, and phase two of the build started.

  First, I got it's butt up in the air, and started on the rear brakes. The odometer on the car shows 97, 000 miles, but who knows how many times it's been around? When I took the rear wheels off, I found something VERY interesting.

  That small clip you see on the wheel stud is a clip used on the assembly line. They put the clips on to keep the brake drums from faling off as it moves along the line. Someone may very well have taken them off to do a brake job, and put them back on afterward, but I've never known anyone to do this. These things may mean that the car has never had the rear brakes worked on, and the last time the brake drums were off, Harry Truman was president, and the car was on the assembly line in Flint!

  The rear brakes were a mess. The axle seals had gone bad, and everything inside had a nice sticky coating of gear lub on them. So, I started with new seals, then new shoes and rebuilt the wheel cylinders. The steel brake lines weren't leaking, but, at 60 years old, I wasn't going to trust them. All steel lines were replaced up to the passenger's door (I'll get the rest when I do the front brakes), and the rubber hose at the rear axle was replaced, too. Once removed, it was easy to see that every one of the steel lines was very corroded, and would have been a problem fairly soon.

  While I was loosening one of the brake lines, I lightly bumped the fuel line with my wrench, and it started leaking gas, so I replaced the entire fuel line while I had the back end in the air.

  On the last Wednesday in April, some inspiration pulled into the driveway!



 

My bud Tim was getting married that Saturday, and planned on using his '59 Chevy that we restored years ago as a getaway vehicle. But, the wipers weren't working, and the forecast called for a chance of rain, so he and his son Jacob came up so we could work on it. And of course, I showed them the new project. With an inbtensely rusty old Chevy in the garage, it was nice to see a pretty one that was rusty when we got a hold of it. I CAN do this sort of thing!