The Crusty Cuda: Whole lotta Shakin' (N96) Goin' on!

[njsteve]

I've spent the past week slowly assembling the front seats. It takes a lot of patience and hand strength to do all the pulling, hog ring plier-ing of around 800 hog rings (including 100 or so "duds" that had to be cut and removed), repositioning and strategically inserting of extra cotton material to get them to look correct over the original foam cushions. (the reproduction foam is not close enough to the original shape to spend the $300 on). A little more massaging with the heat gun should get the last of the wrinkles smoothed out. I have to do that on a separate day to make sure my hands are surgically clean. That is a "right out of the morning shower" sparkling clean, kind of job. If you have one speck of dirt on your hand, it will get on the white vinyl.

So here they are. Before and after...

I am currently working on the seat tracks, one of which self-destructed when I racked it too far forward. It threw the ball bearings out into low earth orbit. Luckily I had one left and was able to measure it at .310 (which is BTW, the same size as a 32 calibre shotgun pellet!). I was able to go to my local Home Depot and match it up to the .310 (5/16) ball bearings they sell individualy at .94 cents. Otherwise, I would have had to buy a can of 1000 of them from Amazon for $16. But then what the heck would I have done with all the leftovers? Hmmmm. Reminds me of that scene with Flounder from Animal House; "May I have 10,000 marbles please?"

[big gear head]

Looks great. I had to replace the foam in my seats 2 years ago because the original foam finally started turning to crumbs. Every time I got out of the car it looked like someone had been eating crackers in the back seat and got crumbs all over the floor.

[njsteve]

The front seat foam was in really nice condition other than what appeared to be a large motor oil stain on the passenger seat upper. As if someone knocked over a can of oil and let it soak into the seat back. Luckily the old burlap and vinyl absorbed the majority of it. All the rest of the foam was still nice and pliable. I used all new burlap underneath it. I only had to surgically glue a small section of new foam on the driver's side bolster where the seat cover had been repaired (badly) and they glued it directly to the foam.

I used all new foam, burlap, and cotton on the rear seats. (they dont use any molded foam - it's all regular flat material).

[CTBob]

Hey, Steve! Thanks so much for the photo rotation (so they're no longer an aberration)!

Thanks, also, for contacting "Rappin' Rodney!"

The seats look great! Yet another project victory, much worthy of the near-Herculean effort!

[njsteve]

I have been waiting for the slow delivery of the alternator parts - new front and rear bushings and brushes so I could rebuild the alternator. It's a 1970 model with a date code of the April, 1970, just in line for the April 30 build date.

The circular casting mark with the "70" in the center and the 12 pie-shaped sections around it is the casting date code. You count the pie-shaped sections with "dots" in them to get the month. At the last filled-in month you count the dots. It looks like one dot in the fourth section meaning it was cast the first week of April, 1970.

The assembly date is the 17th week of 1970 which would be about a week before the car's scheduled assembly date.

Sadly, it looks like this alternator was rebuilt and heavily sandblasted long ago, so the casting marks are not crisp anymore. They also blasted the front casting code into oblivion. I had to heli-coil both front mounting holes back to the original bolt size. It's not the prettiest looking unit but it's correct for the car as it is an original roundback early unit. The later models have a square back without the visible pressed in diodes.

At least the original stamped steel, single groove, pulley was still there. All the modern rebuilds have a solid aluminum pulley that sticks out like a sore thumb on a restoration. It's the Mopar version of the Ford "CAUTION FAN" sticker on seen on every "concorse" restored Camaro. ;-)

[firstgenaddict]

I know I am late to the party here...
In addition to flex agent in the clear Dave Beem turned me on to Spies Hecker flexible primer...
It is the best flexible primer I have ever seen, I have used it on endura parts since then.

It adheres incredibly well, doesn't crack, and remains fexible...
The rep painted a plastic beach ball allowed it to cure and then deflated the ball... the primer remains on the deflated ball... no cracking or peeling.

Dave's old ZL1 clone endura was painted for 10 years with no issues and I had a couple painted for 6-7 years prior to selling with zero issues.

[njsteve]

Here's a comparison of the correct 1970 round back versus the later replacement squareback alternator (with the aforementioned ubiquitous aluminum pulley).

[njsteve]

Got everything installed and the bracketry routed correctly. Even have a reproduction fan belt installed to match the cracked and frayed original one.

[njsteve]

Oh, and before I did anything greasy this morning, I got the passenger side seat installed. Which was after I got the seat tracks lubricated and reassembled last night. The key to seat track rebuilding seems to be soaking them for a week in purple stuff degreaser, scrubbing them with a wire bristle brush, then washing them in really hot water with dishwashing detergent, scrubbing some more and then soaking them for a few days in the evaporust to get rid of the rustiness. Then more hot water, then paint and reassembly with chassis grease. They work nicely now.

I'll try and get some photos of the driver's side seat track parts when I start assembling them in the next day or two.

[CTBob]

Lookin' great 'n better by the day, Steve! Nice progress!

Potential cautionary tale on the repro belts, though. Now, granted, this occurred about 15 years ago, but I bought a couple of new (at the time), beautiful & correct-looking repro belts for the hemi (including 1 for a spare). Properly adjusted, at any significant rpm, it would just throw it (much to my surprise & that of Al Cocchiaro). Reinstalled & readjusted = same result.Tried the second one = same result (again).

I replaced it with the new-from-Chrysler (non-correct-looking) equivalent, and, have never, subsequently had a problem. Perhaps, "these days" they've scienced 'em out better, or, perhaps, what I had was just the proverbial "bad batch," but if you're on a shakedown run, be sure to bring yer tools, just in case you're on the receiving end of a less-than-desirable occurrence. (At least, the current weather up our way isn't so overheating-potential friendly!)

…And, if, perchance, it/they do prove problematic, you can always install it for a show (which is why I kept mine)!