:haha:

Trying to avoid that............

Might be a while on those carburetors. According to his facebook page he's pretty backed up.

"I'm just going to do a light restoration"

I can accomplish what my vision is WITHOUT taking the body off.....:grin:

I was able to clean and polish the area under the cowl vent prior to re-assembling everything. One common theme I have found on this car - when the previous restorer cut and buffed the paint he left compound slag/spatter EVERYWHERE. It was under all the trim and moldings - and now under the cowl vent and on the wiper arm spindles. It has all been properly cleaned up. The fasteners that attached the cowl cover were improperly painted body color. I wire wheeled the paint off to re-install for now but have a set of correct and properly plated fasteners coming in the bunch that is on its way with the chassis stuff.

Wiper motor is installed and functioning. Probably the first time the washers have worked in decades. Probably never need them but they need to work in order for things to be properly sorted........

https://youtube.com/shorts/A7zU9mVJo14

Not much to update on things while I wait on the carbs to come back. When Dave was up for Jefferson he helped me yank the front seat out and we dropped it off at the upholstery shop. I had the (hopefully) correct seat backs cleaned up and dropped off last week so he can work the swap into his schedule in the coming weeks and that will be done. I decided to take off the steering wheel to touch up the paint - scope creep yet again.........

In other news.........Bob Gagliano tagged me on a an old photo posted on FB that he thought might be our car racing at the International Amphitheater in Chicago back in the day (bottom of first pic). Mom was able to dig up some old photos (some of which I have shared here previously) that included one of the car in the staging lanes there and she did recall that Eddie raced the car there - so who knows. The car in the FB post appears to have bucket seats so that would eliminate our car if so - hard to tell from the pics if there are SS emblems on the rear quarters, and the RF fender appears to have some damage which I don't ever recall in the history that I am aware of on our car.....but the setup on the car is pretty close to the actual pictures we have from back on the day just below the FB pic......:dunno:

Also sharing some cool photos from when Dad did the quickie restoration back in the 1980 timeframe. That is Stretch sanding the hood when prepping to paint the car in our driveway in the last photo. :grin:

Getting closer........:beers:

Lol:haha:

Looks like Tony Przybyla(sp?) in that pic with Stretch.
Love that pic of Moms wagon. The transmission from that station wagon is in my Camaro.:biggthumpup:

Yes it is

Great old pics! Thanks for sharing!!

Cool classic shots, Jake - that 'hive on Josephine Pesci in the 2nd Amphitheater pic is ultimate indoor aero! Outdoors, a crosswind could send her control module spiraling into a negative-g roll, though ...?

Made enough progress in the past couple of weeks to share an update......

Distributor was put on a machine and gone through, new points installed and dwell set, made sure advance curve was working, and then everything lubed up. I installed a new Brillman brass contact cap and rotor and cleaned up and painted the cast iron housing. Got the distributor re-installed and put on a new set of dated reproduction wires while I was at it.

I tested some NAPA aluminum brightener on the intake to try and clean that up a bit with the carbs off. I think someone cleared it and the clear is yellowing now - so that will take a little elbow grease to deal with.

I thought a reproduction Brigance rear plate frame would be neat (not sure they ever made them) so I got one of those and installed it.

I was able to talk Tim out of the Ammon R. Smith plate he bought here last week and he was kind enough to let it go. Even though the car is from Brigance I thought it would be a neat period touch to have a real one on the front of the car.

My original chassis and body hardware finally showed up yesterday so I spent some time last night with an air ratchet and started buzzing off the incorrect stuff and installing the correct stuff. Still need to swap out the front and rear bumper bolts, trans mount bolts, and front body bolts. Part of the fastener purchase was a good original idler arm and the correct fasteners for that.

Next weekend I have a meeting set up to get an original idler pulley assembly, original fan clutch, original radiator tanks and straps and maybe even an original voltage regulator.

Hoping to have the bench seat back next week sometime and get that re-installed for the last time.

While the seat was out I wanted to clean up the steering wheel, thinking I could dust some of the silver color paint on it as it was worn. After further inspection once it was off, there is some minor cracking at the hub, so that is at the painters getting repaired and re-painted.

The journey continues.........

A random photo from Jefferson weekend. The Dykstra boys must have been trying to figure out a way to pull the chassis and get it back together by MCACN.

Of course, their other hidden talent is finding a "good" shit hole bar:beers:

An acquired skill that has taken years to perfect and needs to be practiced somewhat regularly to maintain proficiency :beers:

----Something I'm well known for discovering!....Bill S

OK - back to the regularly scheduled programming.......

Picked up the bench seat with the side trim installed last week and set it in the car so it is out of the way. I am waiting on some correct seat mounting hardware to replace the hardware store stuff prior to bolting everything down for the final time - should be here early next week along with a replacement steering column mounting bracket. Mine has 2 of the 3 studs broken off that mount it to the firewall - noticed that last week when I was replacing the incorrect nuts on the engine compartment side. Have to remove the steering column and clutch rod to replace - not looking forward to that one........

This morning I was able to connect with a guy that I've been communicating with via phone for the last several months who lives in Chicago and has some really hard to get and very cool pieces that he was willing to sell me (some off of his car which has a similar build date as ours). Detail kind of stuff for those that know what to look for (as I am learning).

I was able to get a correct fan clutch, correct NOS idler arm (spare), an original idler pulley setup as removed from his car, correct upper and lower radiator tanks, an appropriate radiator strap (radiator shop can build the core around these parts) , and an impossible to find assembly line voltage regulator dated correctly for our car as removed from his car. Fan clutch and voltage regulator will be sent out for restoration.

He also put the fine tooth comb on our car while he was at my place and discovered a few things that he is going to source from his stash to correct (fuel pump, oil fill cap, hood latch).

This just keeps getting better and better, loving the attention to details!!

and spendy and spendy……..:ooo:

----Some great scores there, Jake! Keep up the momentum, pal. You're closing in on it....Bill S

Great stuff....keep 'er up!!

In between several family events over the past couple of weeks I was able to get the seat re-installed, some more chassis and front bumper bolts swapped out, sent out the voltage regulator & fan clutch to be restored, dropped off the radiator pieces last week to have the radiator guy put it all together, and got the steering wheel back (looks like jewelry). I was able to blast and paint the idler pully assembly and steering column firewall bracket too. This weekend I will get the column pulled and bracket replaced. I know the upper bearing will need replaced in addition to who knows what else. Keep moving the ball forward.

----Man, that wheel is gorgeous!....Bill S

Your Dad must be grinning from ear to ear!:grin:

X2!!

That steering wheel is a work of art! Compare that to todays boring interior cars.

I ended up having some time last night so I decided to tear into the steering column. I was able to get everything out and replace the column/firewall bracket. I will see if I can figure out how to get into the column itself to get the upper bearing out for replacement and replace the rubber covering on the knuckle just outside the firewall.

----Keep the faith, Jake. You can do it....Bill S

Jake is Proof we don't need as much sleep as we age. :burnout:

----LOL!!!!....Bill S

LOL - that's Dave (A12pilot) not me.

Love your 409 !!!

Sunday afternoon I was able to get the column blown apart. Ordered a new upper bearing (backordered of course) and lower boot. Dropped off the blue painted parts at the painters this morning along with the glove box door for a freshen up. Picked up the "new" radiator yesterday afternoon, forgot to tell him not to paint it. Dropped it off with the interior bits to get the tanks and straps cleaned up a bit with a better looking paint job than the radiator shop could do. I went with a high efficiency 3 core unit as that seemed to be the best solution for how I will be driving the car. Fan clutch is done and should be here tomorrow. Replaced the 4 main rear bumper bracket bolts last night.

Keep the ball moving forward.......

I picked up all the painted stuff Friday on my way home to get started on this weekend. Since I got the Chevelle mostly sorted out I had some time today to dedicate to the 409 project. Got the correct radiator installed and while I had the cooling system drained down I took the heater control valve off and painted it black as it should have been. Installed the restored fan clutch and realized the fan I painted when we did the motor looks a little tired, so that will get cleaned up prior to reinstallation. One of the items I had the painter take care of was the glove box door as it was nicked up pretty good from hitting the shifter ball when it was opened. I tried brush touching it up and made it worse.......but it looks great now and since he did the column parts it was not much more to spray that at the same time. I brought the actual steering column tube to him as well as the engine compartment side was fubar'd and I couldn't fix it with a rattle can, so now that looks too nice as well. I am waiting on the upper bearing and the lower boot cover and then I can start reassembling the column. I received a good non power steering center link and the driver side sway bar bracket for a non PS car so I think I have everything to make the conversion now - but that is on the back burner for a bit.

Keep moving the ball forward and it'll get done eventually........

I've been sneaking in some time on the 409 here and there making progress....

I think I'm done taking things apart now and parts are finally going back on the car.

As I mentioned earlier, when I got the correct restored fan clutch back I couldn't put it on the fan the way it looked, so that went off to the painter........along with the generator bracket and heater control valve. Picked all that up yesterday and re-installed last night. I got the lower steering column joint rubber boot last weekend and assembled the lower column and then installed it earlier this week. Waiting on the upper bearing still so I can assemble the upper column and put the wheel back on it.

Also instsalled the correct idler arm and hardware/spacer earlier and was able to get the non power steering center link sandblasted, will paint that this weekend.

The car was invited to participate in an event on July 25th down in Hinckley where a guy has recreated a 1962/63 Chevrolet showroom. "My Car Story With Lou" will be there to get the story on the car if all goes well. Hoping Eric can get the carbs back in time for that.

Lookin great!!!!!!

----Good progress, Jake!....Bill S

Wow,looks great Jake! Make sure it's not going to be too nice to drive,lol!!

Couple of small updates.......

I never liked how the original Brigance sticker looked re-installed as it was a bit too narrow to cover the removed Super Sport trunk emblem holes and I didn't want to use the remaining original I had left for this purpose. I went to my local sign guy and had him scan in the remaining original decal and then manipulate the image to fit the space I wanted to cover making it slightly larger but not out of proportion. (Original on bottom, new repro on top)

They were able to use the same reflective material as the original and 99.9% of the public will never know it's not an original - and it now fits perfectly. He made me a bunch extra to use up the whole sheet so if anyone needs a Brigance sticker let me know.....

Same sign guy also made me a show board and I'm happy how that turned out as well.

The "special washer" for the steering column was delivered today so I'm hoping to get back on assembling the upper column pieces in the next couple of days if I can carve out some time.

That's cool Jake, these little details really make a difference!!

The show board is nice too!!

X2!!