The New, Newer Project: Part Tres...

[Ryan1969Chevelle]

No stone left unturned.

Ryan

[njsteve]

I did a bit of cleaning today. I covered the front end and the engine compartment with a giant plastic sheet and then cleaned the underside of the hood where 40 years of the A/C compressor had been spraying oil. I guess after all those years of emulsifying, the A/C oil residue actually dissolved some of the original overspray from the underside of the hood. I also pulled out the washer fluid and antifreeze overflow reservoirs and soaked them in hot water and detergent. They cleaned up nicely. Both of them had gunky residue layered at the bottom.

I then went for a ride to my buddy's garage and checked and see if the A/C worked. I wanted him to be looking at the sight glass when I turned the A/C on to make sure there was actually R12 in there. (I didn't want to just turn it on, just in case it was empty, and possibly burn up the overheat switch).

Miraculously he said that it was only slightly low on the fill. Looks like it has been holding pressure for all these years!

[njsteve]

I also adjusted the rear brakes. I had noticed that the pedal, while firm wouldn't do anything until halfway down and then the front discs would grab very hard. I carefully removed the original Tinnerman star clips that hold the rear drums in place and pulled the drums. It was all untouched and original in there. The brakes really needed to be adjusted. It took two full turns of the adjusters to get the shoes out to where they would actually contact the drums. I then reinstalled the drums and the Tinnerman clips and went for a test run. It worked like a charm. Now it stops like a normal car.

When I got back from the test drive I pulled the Radial T/As and installed the set of 40-year-old, Firestone Steel Radial 500s (three NOS tires and one of the original tires from the car). She looks a lot different with the GR70x15 Firestones versus the 255/60x15 T/As.