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

[scuncio]

Steve, what paint did you use on the radiator? Car looks great.

[njsteve]

Fingers had painted it a flat-ish black radiator paint but I recoated the top in a light dusting of Rustoleum semi-gloss black.

[scuncio]

Thanks!

[A12pilot]

Excellent!!!! Looks awesome Steve!!!! Nice progress. Seems like the cruise is set to 55mph and you’re just humming along.

Cheers
Dave

[njsteve]

I tried installing the "best quality reproduction" antenna yesterday...yeah right. It jiggles all over the place when fully tightened. The mast stud jiggles in the mast and the threads in the base have way too much play. When fully installed you get a 1" wobble at the top of the antenna. It would rattle like hell if you drove this way. Of course the seller gives the usual "I've sold thousands of them and never got a complaint".

Well, I'd be happy to give you thousands of complaints now to make up for it.

[mockingbird812]

Top notch Steve. Love the hand-off between you two gurus.......seamless!!!!

[njsteve]

Team Cuda strives to maintain the same level of sarcastic professionalism (or is that professional sarcasticalism?) regardless of geographic location.

[A12pilot]

Yes, we are a one stop shop! The next A12Pilot Project will more than likely be a Pontiac, which my team mate has extensive esperience in doing junk to.

The plan will be to buy it, paint it, ship it to the North East division of Southern Classic Restoration, Engineering, and Wrecksurrection, or “S.C.R.E.W.”, then have Steve finish it, then ship it back to me to enjoy and then sell. All in all, we should be in at about six time what the car would be worth and be so far upside down that walking into a mini skirt Party at a roller rink would leave nothing to the imagination.

Remember our bumper stick that comes free with each restoration; “This car is SCREWED.”

Cheers
Dave

[mockingbird812]

I think rather than....

“... we are a one stop shop!”

It is really...

We are a two stop two shop!!!!!!!!!!!

[njsteve]

More reproduction blues: 1) not enough mounting clips came with the new door top "belt" moldings. You need 18, they send 14. 2) the matching belt moldings that go on the quarter windows should have a hole for a Phillips screw to attach the end to the top of the quarter. No holes. Nothing like drilling a hole in a brand new anodized aluminum molding. 3) One of the long door belt moldings had a crack in it.

So I installed the dampener springs on the front 11" drums. That was exciting. The new springs are about 4 inches shorter than the stretched out, rusted originals, which no longer have any tension. The directions said to cut up a coat hanger into "S" hooks and use them to hold the opposite sides of the springs while you roll them onto the drums. That takes a whole lot of patience, agility, and skill. Those three items are currently on backorder here in Joysey. It took five tries per wheel, with that high tension spring flinging around the garage at crotch level at Mach 2. I have agility now!

Here's a shot of the S hooks for the half second the stretched spring stayed in place when I took the picture. It the rolled off and snapped back to its original size. Smarter idea was to take the next photo after it was fully seated. And the original, rusted "formerly known as a spring" on the floor below it. The 50 year old originals were so tired they fell off the drums and when I tried to straighten them, you could hear them cracking apart.