Gramma's Car: the new project!

[njsteve]

I still had the pressure washer that my buddy loaned me for cleaning the engine block a couple weeks ago, so I decided to throw Gramma's car up on jackstands and clean the underside. The frame rails look beautiful - never crunched in or rusted out! The only issue on the car is tail panel that is behind the urethane rear bumper fascia. Poorly repaired when the car was repainted 25 years ago. Glad I waited since they now reproduce the tail panel and inner reinforcement panel. Too bad I have to buy both full panels just to use the bottom couple inches of both.





The frame rails look great (though I proceeded to blow off the grime and undercoating that hid the original white overspray. Please ignore the graffiti-esque marks in the wheelwell body schutz that the pressure washer made. I used a wider nozzle later to clean that up.

[njsteve]

It's a slow day 'round here so me and the boy decided to play with the block. I showed him how to properly install the main bearings in the journals. (and made him read the tiny stamped print on the back of each bearing shell to verify that they were all the correct .010 undersize bearings).

We also painted the block with some of the leftover Bill Hirsch, Inc., engine paint that I had from when we did the 350. (1975/6 Pontiacs were painted a unique metallic blue color that looks very similar to Oldsmobile Blue engine paint. We used a sponge brush and it came out great. The stuff dries slowly enough so that no brush marks appear anywhere.