Scott's 1964 Galaxie 500 Project

[DanStokes]

Those are going to look GREAT! I love polished aluminum bits - though I'm not good about keeping them polished.

Dan

[Scott Liggett]

Those are going to look GREAT! I love polished aluminum bits - though I'm not good about keeping them polished.

Dan

I have never owned polished aluminum bits because of the needed polishing.

[squirrel]

If you live in the right place, they don't need polishing very often. But if you don't...yeah, dull is better!

[Scott Liggett]

I have been plugging away on the car, an hour here, an hour there. It also distracting me from me looking at the Impala and its messed up engine. I think I finally broke it.

[squirrel]

Looking better! but you forgot the distributor

[Scott Liggett]

Looking better! but you forgot the distributor

One step at a time. One step at a time. It's coming.

I put the air cleaner on to see how it no longer matches the engine. Cal Custom still makes stuff and I found a finned aluminum air cleaner I like for around $80.00. I also needed it on because I was causing a lot of dust sanding the radiator support and splash pans to paint them.

[TheSilverBuick]

That does look good!

[STINEY]

How did you clean the brass tank? Looks like it was dipped?

[squirrel]

looks to me like elbow grease?

[Scott Liggett]

How did you clean the brass tank? Looks like it was dipped?

The radiator shop blasted. He told me the media he uses, but I forgot exactly what it was. I know it isn't silica based.

[STINEY]

Looks like walnut shells to me. My blasting friend uses them a lot.

[Huskinhano]

A little of topic but for small parts I have a hand held HF blaster that I use baking soda in. It's great for aluminum parts that you want more of a natural finish. It won't pit it but it'll leave a matt finish. The carb on my wife's 69 Mustang was really nasty inside the float bowl. It cleaned up nice. Sorry for the hijack Scott.

[Scott Liggett]

Last night, I got the engine buttoned up. It took a while to get the block heater fittings out of the block, but I remembered I had these Craftsman easy out things that dig into the bolt, or in this case a steel NPT tube with two male ends and it took it out of the block in 10 seconds. I haven't used these in a long while so I forgot I had them and foundered about for a couple hours.

The engine didn't want to start. I had spark, timing was pretty much dead on while cranking, but it didn't want to fire. So, I sprayed Brake Clean into the carb as a primer because I didn't have any spare gas and no ether lying around.

It fired up but ran like crap, whistling away like a huge vacuum leak, and something banging away in the accessories. The pulley on the generator literally split in half at the bottom of the belt groove so the pulley fan was flapping about making a nice racket. I didn't have it running long enough to figure out the vacuum leak. I suspecting that the new carb spacer isn't sealing with the carburetor or intake manifold, but couldn't tell where right away.

One step forward and two steps back.

[Scott Liggett]

I solved the vacuum leak by going back to the original carb spacer with the heater hose fittings. I am still not going to use those. In trying to get it started, starter just quit. Only clicks, I crawled under to notice that the main body is loose from the mounting flange. I was thinking that I may have something really bad happen, like something down the intake ports while I have the intake off. So, I rotated the engine with my big ratchet. The engine moves easily enough, but the starter is grinding like it was full of rocks. I have never heard a starter make any noise rotating the engine by hand. I called the parts to store to get another one on the way before I pull the starter tonight to warranty it.

This car is turning into one of those that wants to fight you the whole way. It must be rejecting its cleanliness.

[Deaf Bob]

It has that no nose long shaft out there.. Might have lost a clip or broke the spring..