Scrub, scrub, scrub............. Sriripped off the entire front suspension off the parts car for the really nice rust free parts. That will keep the LeSabre a roller while I ready all the front end parts. Next up is getting all the mechanical stuff ready to be checked, refreshed, resealed, rebuilt or repainted. 50 years of nasty grunge......... I've spent hours with the Hotsy pressure washer on the suspension, engine compartment, transmission, and all of the 401 components. No romance here. Just down n dirty work. Steve weim55 Colorado
Brakes and Firewall stuff... I need to address all the items that are more accessible with the engine out. First is the master cylinder. One of the few mods I'll be doing is changing over to a dual pot master cylinder. It's just a must for safety. I will not own and drive anything with a single pot master ever again. (yea, I have one of those disaster stories to go with that statment....) One of the problems with this swap is since the car is a stick shift the clutch linkage comes out of the firewall right next to the master cylinder. So that means, A: 3 speed cars weren't available with the power brake option so I have to stay with a manual system. B: The master cylinder must have the lines come out the passenger side to clear the clutch linkage. C: The brake light switch is a pressure switch screwed into the master itself, unusual indeed. In the pics of the original you'll see the brake light switch and how close the clutch linkage is to the cylinder. So close that because of wear it's sawing into the cylinder. Not good........ AAFD over on the HAMB board turned me on to the perfect master cylinder. A NAPA 36237 for 70s Jeep CJs and DJs. Correct line outlets, bolt spacing AND it has a port for the brake light switch! Too cool! Tomorrow I'll go about getting it put on the car and running the plumbing for the system. Steve weim55 Colorado
Dual Pot Master Cylinder Install. This would have been a peice of cake on a Dynaflow car but with the clutch linkage to deal with this is a whole different story. Not too tough, just time consuming. By modifing the linkage pivot, the firewall mount and the master cylinder itself I can still run the original components for clutch linkage. My son had an old '59 chevy pedal swing that had all the components I would need to complete the rest of the changeover. Shallow head master cylinder bolts to clear the clutch pivot mount, longer cylinder pushrod mated with the original to fab a new one the correct length, a pedal stop for under the dash since the original unit doesn't use one. Running the new lines was straight forward. Was able to retain all of the original plumbing past the original junction block on the frame. The prop valve is off a '69 Chevy truck. Perfect because is has 4 total ports. Most others have 5, 2 ports for the front outlet lines instead of one. Less work as I can keep the original front junction block and lines untouched. Had to notch the master on the left side to clear the the swing of clutch linkage. All I have left to do at this point is weld in the pedal stop when I have the dash apart and paint the unfinished parts. All in all it turned out pretty clean. Steve weim55 Colorado
Firewall...... All the working stuff that hangs off it. The heater on this thing has a vacuum operated air door and the fan switch is on top of the plenum box bolted to the firewall. Cable operated and completely seized from sitting 35 years. Take it all apart. Clean scrub and lube everything, go to try it out and rusty control cable breaks in half. Damn. Ah... but we have a parts car 20 feet away (I love parts cars....) with a non rusty Colorado cable! Takes care of that function. Every part of that system, the fan switch, the vacuum pot and vacuum switch still function well with a little clean lube and adjust. All works great! Took off the blower fan and lubed that, tested it and works good. The wiper motor barely worked. Wipers would move slowly a couple of inches and then trip the breaker. Same story as everything else...... take it apart, clean lube and adjust, remount. Wipers work smooth and good. OK..... that takes care of the engine compartment. Next I gotta get cracking on that drivetrain. I don't know about makin' that July 4th date to have her makin' noise but I'm sure gonna try............. Steve weim 55 Colorado
Bad Weekend.... For LeSabre duty anyway. Family commitments and a broken riding mower wiped out '60 time this week. I was able to take a couple of hours today to strip the front suspension off. All of the good stuff from the parts car as well as new parts are in and ready to go. Hope to have the complete front end and brakes done by the end of the week. Losing this weekend puts me behind but I still hope to have the 401 churning some horsepower in its new home two weeks from now. Added a couple of bonus pics. I picked up my son from camp in New Mexico and spotted these three black hardtops off a twolaner sitting on the side of house in Nowheresville.............
Front Brakes and Bearings All of the front brake components are off the Invicta parts car. Compared to the LeSabre setup, everything is the same. Someone had done a full brake job many years ago but the shoes and drums are just broken in. Quality rivoted Bendix shoes and hardware. Just cleaned and lubed everything throughly. One of the wheel cylinders looked like it had been leaking for years. It ruined the hub spindle seal and filled up the hub with brake fluid. The inside bearing race was pitted badly on that hub. Was the brake fluid the cause of the race failure? I stole the good bearings and races from the LeSabre hub to replace the bad ones. I ordered NAPA replacements for the wheel cylinders and brake hoses. When got these a few weeks ago I noticed one box of each of these were made in China. The other USA. The USA wheel cylinder is a dead on match for the original. The China cylinder has a loose but acceptable fit in the register hole, casting looks nothing like the original. It's the one in the pics. The hoses look the same but the China item is printed "SUNSONG" Jeeez....... do I want something that says "SUNSONG" on a '60 Buick?!............Oh and sealing washer that came with the China hose was the wrong size. Useless. I ran the china parts since the other NAPA stuff I checked was China too. And it's gotta get done. Will I regret this later? Steve weim55 Colorado
Front Suspension All of this is from the Invicta parts car too. Everything was original and in amazing condition for it's age. Only the lower ball joints, sway bar bushings and shocks needed to be replaced. The original Saginaw idler arm, tie rod ends, upper ball joints and power steering box are still tight and like new. Every component of the center link was perfect. Barley noticeable wear. Throughly clean, inspect, adjust grease and run. Kanter lower ball joints are a slightly different style and cast instead of stamped steel like the originals. They fit great. Sway bar bushings from Kanter are universal and needed a little grinding to fit the original mounts which you have to run because of the unique frame spacing. Kanter end links are nice quality, solid tight rubbers. Fit perfect. The Invicta sway bar is a little bigger too so i ran it. One of the LeSabre coil springs was weak so I ran the Invicta springs too. The coil diameter is the same but the Invicta spring has another 1/4 coil in it. (the LeSabre spring is on the left in the pics) The manual steering center link is a little bit longer on pitman arm end but everything else is dimensionally the same. Pitman arms are diffrent too. NAPA shocks were wrong, have to finish the job with the correct ones later. All the front suspension flew together nice. Be great to have some power steering too!
Wheels and Tires. This seemed easy enough....... grab the four correct '60 rims between the two cars and go. Good thing I checked to see if any of them were bent. Three out the four were bent. Of the six remaining wheels, five of those were bent too! OK...... thought I could steal the rims off a '70 Electra parts car I have. Negative.... the center register hole at the hub is smaller on the '70. Won't work. Damn. I was able to grab the two best rims of the bent pile and carefully hammer 'em straight. Problem is all four of these rims are different from one another. Two 15 x 5.5s for the front and two 15 x 6 for the rear. This bugs the heck out of me but they'll do the job until I can find a matching set later. Just did a quick clean, power wheel strip, hand sand and paint the rims black. The LeSabre originally came with the small center hub cap and body colored rims. Caps are supposed to be "BUICK" in block letters. Cool, but almost impossible to find in usable condition. I found a set of '61 caps that are close (in the pics) but these won't fit three of the early wheels that I have on the car. I'll have to run the optional full '60 covers (which are pretty damn cool too!) until I change the wheel situation. Had to paint all the rims black since you can see through the vents on the full caps. I hope to find a set of old aftermarket chrome reverse wheels with the correct Buick centers. Blast 'em, paint 'em body color with the correct caps. Would fill up those wheel wells and give it a little meaner, cop car package look. I found out why so many of these wheels were bent. When I tossed the first one on my 40 year old Coats tire machine I didn't get wheel screw on the machine completely tight. It bent the center of the rim instantly when i started the bead breaker! On closer inspection these old wheels are some fragile junk. Thin, poorly stamped, little reinforcement. The '70 wheels are three times the quality and structure of these old things. The old wheels wouldn't survive a minor curb hit. Hence why so many of the ones I have are junk. A couple a little bits...... Lug "bolts" are different front and rear. Wheels have protruding "bumps" for the bolts that secure the brake drums in the lug area. Holes for the pins too. The center register hole is the biggest I've ever seen on a Buick. You can't just toss on any 'ol 5 on 5 wheel on an early Buick. Tires are just some old 225 75 15 whitewall radials I had sitting around. They'll do the job.............. Steve weim55 Colorado
Very cool. Interesting about the wheels. Also, the brake light switch looks similar (identical?) to my 55. Although, the master cylinder on a 55 is not so easy to see under the floorboard!:laugh: :idea2:I don't guess, you would want to put the Dynaflow in the Lesabre? I love to drive a Dynaflow car!!! :grin:But, I bet it will be fun for you to drive the 401 with 3 on the tree!! I was 14 years old the first time my Dad and I restored our 55, 35 years ago! I'm 49 now and Dad is 81. We didn't have to replace any floor panels, but we took the floor all the way down to bare metal and came back with primer, paint, undercoating, jute mat and carpet. We also pulled the engine. In the same type "professional" shop you have, the driveway in front of the house!! What fun for you and your son. Keep up the good work.
Bham, Thanks for the words. I'd have to admit the Dynaflow worked really well in the parts car. Good power and takeoff even with no "gears" . The three speed has become a bit of a can of worms as I'll describe later. I'll stick with it though. The Nailhead is next on the list...... Steve weim55 Colorado
Nailhead. Like the most of the stuff from the parts car the engine has turned out to be a winner too. I ran about a half of tank of fuel and drove the old Invicta around 50 - 75 miles or so to make sure the 401 was worthy before I pulled it for LeSabre duty. It ran great. No leaks, no smoke. Super quiet and smooth. No lifter noise. One of only things wrong was the outer ring of the balancer had twisted in the rubber so the timing mark ws about 70 degrees off. The plan: Pull it apart enough to inspect and reseal. Once apart the news stayed good. Clean inside, no surprises. Timing chain worn, fair amount of sludge in the pan. I replaced the timing set. At 50 years and lots of that spent sitting around the oil pan developed alot of sludge and the pump pickup was sticky and 1/2 clogged with the stuff. It's a good thing I took it apart and cleaned this out. It's the one thing I found that could have done in the engine later had I left it as is. Cam looks good. Pulled a rod and main cap. Bearings are original and look great. Super nice timing cover. Perfect exhaust manifolds. All the bolt ons will clean up nicely. I got a replacement balancer from Del DEADMANSCURVE here on the board. In the pic you can see how the original twisted compared to replacement. The timing mark should line up close to the same as the crank keyway. I plan to run a temp gauge but I also want keep the original COLD HOT dash light sender. Had to remove the other water jacket plug in the right head for the new sender for the gauge. Had to use heat to get that out. Man that thing was stubborn! I didn't get the engine back in this weekend but if I have Friday off from work I hope to get it together in the car on that day. Be chippin' away on it all this week. Steve weim55 Colorado
Nailhead continued............... My son Kenny and I spent a good part of the weekend just cleaning engine stuff. Refinishing, refreshing. Kenny handled the scrubbing of the big engine parts and painting some of the bolt ons. That's him at the 401 table in the pic. I did all the little stuff and started assembly. You'll see my shade tree parts washing system in the pic. The first can is 1/2 full of solvent. Dump in the bolts, heat in the sun, shake n' bake...then into scrub station. After that evaporate dry in the sun then into "wash' container on the right. Fill with boiling water, add some dish soap, shake n' bake some more. Presto! Nice clean engine parts! Cheesy but effective..... I''m adding a PCV system to lose the stench coming out of the breathers under the hood and to keep the engine compartment cleaner over time. Del DEADMANSCURVE set me up with a right side 425 valve cover that has the PCV hole factory. The later nailheads use a smaller hole for the hold down bolts. Wanted to match the holes on the '60 cover so I can use the same bolts and grommets on both sides. I drilled the holes out slightly, then backed the hole with a piece of pipe, grabbed a tapered punch, hammer, and tried to "roll" the edge to duplicate the '60 cover. Close but not quite...... It'll do though. The timing cover had the usual Buick problems. Two broken off bolts from the water pump and missing clogged up dowel holes. A little heat to break 'em loose, they screwed right out. Chased all the threads and added a TA 360 Rubber balancer seal to replace the old rope seal. Water pump is the 3 blade non AC unit. The radiator hose neck is corroded pretty bad. I'll epoxy up the pitts and run it. New timing set from TA too. Steve weim55 Colorado
Exhaust The 401 has some of the most perfect exhaust manifolds I've ever seen. All the studs, bolts and washers are original and nice. Not all that uncommon here in Colorado. The only problem I had to correct was one of the heat riser bushings was worn creating a small exhaust leak. While I could have replaced the bushing I felt there was no point in keeping the heat riser. I just tapped the holes and plugged 'em with bolts. Same story with the exhaust heat holes in the intake manifold. Exhaust heat is never ever good around carburetors. My opinion... I cut out some quick sheet metal plugs for gasket openings and bolted her down. I had the manifolds blasted and then painted 'em with POR High temp cast color. Used a foam brush, 2 coats. I'm happy with the finish. I'll let you know how this stuff holds up. Bolted 'em on with no gaskets as original. I used the 401 Y pipe and headpipe mated to the original LeSabre muffer and tailpipe. While all this stuff are the original 50 year old items they're solid enough to get by. I really want to upgrade this exhaust but the $$ and time factor warrant using this old stuff for the time being. For flow it's terrible terrible....... Small pipe (tailpipe isn't even 2"..) with horrible kinks, bends and flat spots. Duals would be nice upgrade but to do it properly the left manifold is different for factory duals (I don't have one....) plus the 3 speed shift and clutch linkage leave zero room for the pipe down the left side. Not sure what I'll do for the future just yet.
Engine Paint Ordered 2 cans of Buick Green from TA. They razor off the color color ID from can. Turns out it's some type of Ford Green. No problem though. I think the color match is close enough. You can see the original color on the intake manifold next to the fresh sprayed green. Works for me. The original color on both engines, 364 and 401, look to be the same. As a side note I found out both cars are Kansas City assembled, 1069 units apart. Interesting....... A couple of original engine cars that I've seen from other plants seem to have a metallic type of green instead of the solid green my engines have. True? The bellhousing, power steering and generator brackets are also painted engine color from the factory. The bellhousing mount throttle stop and generator adjustment bracket are not. (no paint... cad plate??)
Steve, I don't know how I missed this thread! Great work! You've made a TON of progress. Cleaning, painting and detailing original parts can be some of the most rewarding work you do to your car. Keep up the great work! The hotsy really made a big difference. That is one investment I would like to have, the do-it-yourself car wash stalls just don't have the heat or pressure to really clean. Colorado cars are super solid.
Man you're really coming along! Great Work! :TU: It seems that, no one really has the exact nailhead green without mixing. IMHO, cars has the closest match. Here, is a link to a thread on engine paint:Smarty:; http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=207375
