'70 Sport Custom Rebuild- She's been adopted!

[sargentrs]

So after a dismal attempt to paint my interior, 2 years ago, I lost motivation (and funds) and she's sat for too long now. Met a guy in my area that is retired and paints/refinish cars and trucks in his spare time. He has a shop and everything but here's the great thing. If you have a location and a good air compressor, he will come to your house and paint your vehicle for $24/hr! Over 35 years professional experience in autobody work and show car paint jobs to his credit, even a portfolio he carries on his phone. Since I had done most of the body work already and supplied materials, he resanded my butcher job, filled what I missed, brought his professional paint guns, and resprayed my interior and inside doors for 8 hours = $192. I am very pleased with how it turned out. Photos don't do it justice. However, this is the milestone I've been waiting on so I can begin reassembly of my interior. We're back!

[crazyhorse]

Mr Sargent congratulations .
What a deal.

[jimmy828]

Some people have all the luck! Looks good Sarge. Sometimes patience is a virtue.

[sargentrs]

Thanks, guys!

Jimmy, virtue my a$$! I've been dying to make some progress. Time to blow the dust off of some of my parts and start putting her back together.

[jimmy828]

Thanks, guys!

Jimmy, virtue my a$$! I've been dying to make some progress. Time to blow the dust off of some of my parts and start putting her back together.

I know how you feel Sarge, i have not driven my ole 69 in 5 1/2 years. If i can get the brakes in working order and the driveshaft installed i can at least take it for a test drive.

[cole71]

Glad to see you're back at it again!

[sargentrs]

Thanks, Cole! Your build has been an inspiration to me. Well done!

[sargentrs]

Now that the interior is painted, and before I install my firewall pad, I wanted to make sure my pedals were ready to install. Brake pedal's already done so dug out the E-brake pedal to start on it. First off, when removing, one of the studs broke and the other bent.

[sargentrs]

Since I don't have a drill press, I doubted I'd be able to grind off and drill out the studs so thought I'd try something else. If you look at the back side of those spacer blocks, you'll see there kinda "swedged" in. So I took my grinder with a cut off wheel and shaved the heads off.

[sargentrs]

As it turns out, and I don't know how they did it, there's a pin that went through the hole in the bracket and then it had that big round head on it. Best I can tell it was a thread stud with a flat, round head and the spacer must have threaded onto it. All of mine was rusted solid so no way that was coming off. The spacer is 3/4" OD x 7/8" long and the threaded stud is a 5/16 UNC thread about 3/4" long.

[sargentrs]

A little searching and I find that McMaster Carr has a zinc plated unthreaded spacer the perfect size. Now to blast and paint the pedal assembly and that sucker will be ready to bolt in. I'm thinking a couple of 5/16-18 x 1-1/2" bolts should make it all pretty much the same as before.

[flyboy2610]

Thanks for posting this, Randy!

That will be one of the things I need to do to Frodo when (if) I ever manage to find time to work on him again!

When you install those bolts, it may be a good idea to tack weld them to the bracket. Otherwise it will be a two man job to tighten down the nuts in the engine bay, or else find someone with some reeeeeeaaaaallllyyy long arms!

I would also give those spacers a tack weld or two, as well.

[sargentrs]

My thoughts exactly, flyboy! Thanks

[sargentrs]

So had a little time this morning and been thinking about my truck a lot. Ran down to the man cave and blasted, primed and painted my E-brake pedal assembly. Didn't feel like breaking out the paint gun, mixing up the materials, etc so rattle canned it. Since it's inside and won't be in the elements I figure that'll be good enough. Blasted to bare metal, 2 coats of Rustoleum self etching primer and 2 coats of Rustoleum high gloss black.

[sargentrs]

While I was waiting for it dry between coats, I set about cleaning up the cable from the pedal to the equalizer. Picked up a gallon of some great degreaser and a 5 gallon bucket at Home Depot. Poured about a half gallon of cleaner and a half gallon of water and coiled up the cable in the bucket. Let it soak about 30 minutes and then a good scrubbing with a small wire brush. The degreaser was supposed to be mixed 25:1 so at a 50/50 mix it cut the grease and grime great. Only spent about 20 minutes scrubbing and it rinsed off clean. Since some water probably got it the sheath, I hung it upside down for about 30 minutes to drain. Then cut a soda straw and slid it down between the cable and the sheath and dripped lightweight oil down the sheath, working the cable as I went. Spent about an hour, off and on between coats of paint on the pedal, dripping oil in there then hung it up to let the oil settle to the bottom and soak the cable. In a day or so, I'll hang it one end down to let it drain. The cable is in great condition with no fraying or breaks