There hasn't been much progress during the past two weeks. The second car (the 1976 302v8) has been moved to the shop and parts are flying off of it. The mismatch on the power steering linkage and pitman arm was because there are at least 3 different sized pitman arms from mavericks that we found. One could be explained by manual vs power-assisted steering. The third was just a later model year and was a bit bulkier. It's amazing the number of small differences from one model year to the next. For example, the 1970 model has a different sized hood prop rod from the 1976. The 1976 plastic grill has an extra bulky-looking vertical stabilizer piece on the front that was cast into the mold. Probably due to complaints about how easily they broke when mistreated. With any luck all of the steering, power cylinder assist and linkage should be all correctly hooked up in the next few days. Has anybody else noted that it takes almost freaking forever to get a dashpad from justdashes? Am I being unreasonable? Is Four months not very long to wait for a dashpad restoration? Does anybody know this guy and can tell me what to do to get him motivated to move more quickly? I would send over a car with girls and champagne to Van Nuys if I thought it would help.
Just a quick update on some of the final restoration issues. Marker Light Bezels I see these going for up to $60 each on Ebay for NOS. I am going to use an outfit up in Canada that chromes plastic pieces that will do these for $35 CDN each. www.specialtychromedplastics.com This would have been a real bargain 10 years ago when the US dollar was at 1.40 CDN. I should have them back in a few weeks.
Here is what I got back from the outfit in Mission, BC. The price has gone up a bit on the marker light bezels to $40 each. But when you consider that NOS is selling for upwards of $75 and isn't even as nicely finished as this. I'm seriously thinking of sending in my gas cap for $40 and then having a model artist finish it. I would pay about half the price of NOS and probably have a more mirror finish. I'll let you check it out. Do these guys not do absolutely outstanding work? http://tinyurl.com/2fayz9f my restoration project has fallen again on hard times. The 2 guys that had it ended up in a business fight and as usual my project got caught in the middle. For as many things as they got right, they did some really bone-headed things that are going to cost me thousands to fix. I'll post the gruesome pictures later when I'm in a better mood. Please be kind.
Here is the first problem. http://tinyurl.com/2d3om24 You can see that the one on the right had one of the threaded post was already broken off prior to painting. It broke off in high school when I tried to use a socket to tighten it (stupid kids). The one on the left was actually not broken prior to the restoration. I'm guessing that the solution they came up at the shop was to break off the 2nd post to make a matched set. Maybe not the best solution, but a solution nonetheless. I can tell you that they rattle like crazy if you don't have them securely fastened down. So, let's say that it wasn't a "good" solution. Does anybody have any good ideas how to fix this? The metal is quite thin. I suppose I could drill through the other side and countersink some metal screws and then bondo and repaint, but that seems like a lot of work and might not look so good when finished. I could try from the bottom side. First grind it flat with a fine stone and then drill ever-so-slightly into the metal from the bottom and then try to seat a replacement screw post with JB Weld; but too much heat and the paint will be affected. Does anyone have any other ideas?
X2!! I was going to send them my A/C vent, but never got around to it, I guess I'll do it this winter. Where did you get your top material? SMS?
Yes. It was from SMS. That brings me to another one of the problems from the restoration. http://tinyurl.com/3xvgxh3 Looks to me like they were trying to stretch the top during installation and ended up ripping it. Sad. It wasn't cheap as I recall. What's the best way to hide this?
Fixing Broken Grabber Hood Cowl studs Remember that I was faced with hood cowls that had broken studs. The first I had broken off myself when I was 17 y/o. The second was broken off recently during repainting. There isn't much to these cowl studs. I'm convinced that if you look at 'em wrong they will either strip or break off. These cowls need to be securely fastened down to the hood otherwise the rattle will drive you nuts. They weren't designed all that well from the beginning --casted pot metal with 3 studs which were later threaded. Remember, the maverick wasn't supposed to be an expensive car. There were basically two approaches that I was considering. 1) To use some kind of epoxy glue from underneath. Pros: don't have to repair and repaint the top side Cons: not as strong as drilling through, counter-sinking and then repairing and repainting. 2) drill through the top then counter-sink a bevelled flat-head screw in the hole. This would also require some epoxy glue to hold it in place. Then bondo and repaint. Pros: Really strong when finished Cons: Would need to fully repair and refinish the part. I opted for the first solution. First to use a dremmel tool to grind any remaining portion of the stud flat. then I used a drill bit to start a hole. Of course, the drilled hole will be rounded. This won't do because your flat head screw needs to sit flat in the hole. So you take your dremmel tool again and use it to go around the drilled hole making the sides of the hole steep and not rounded. It took about 30 minutes to make each hole exactly matched to the new screw head. I used nylon locking nuts and they seem to be holding well so far. I replaced all of the studs (3) on each cowl. Then you use your favorite mixed epoxy glue and glue the flat head screws in place. So far so good. I tightened them with a socket wrench and they didn't break off. I'll let you know if they continue holding after a small drive in a few weeks. All for now. Brent
You know you can post pictures directly on here by linking the URL. Go to your picture, right click and select "copy image address." Then come here and click on the postage stamp looking icon and paste the image address in there. Nice project!!!
Thank you. Yes, I do know that. However, this forum limits the size of the pictures that can be posted. My own hosting site doesn't care about photo size obviously since I pay for it. When we are talking about repairing something in milimeters I figure that people would appreciate something with much more detail. Also, the forum FAQ is a bit vague. If I were to post pictures directly on this site, could I delete the pictures 5 years from now? Who owns this website? Does this person claim any ownership of the pictures uploaded or information posted on the site? I administer several websites and these sorts of embarassing questions always come up. Therefore, I prefer to host my own pictures on my own site unless it's forbidden. I will soon upload some pictures of the cowl repairs in crazy detail. I'm planning a small trip in the next 2 weeks after most of the flying bugs have died. I am hoping that the repairs will hold. After that, I will need to replace the botched halo vinyl roof and then take the bumpers off again and have the bumper mats redone. The mats were mistreated and the rear got broken. Also there wasn't enough flex added to the paint. They are cracking pretty badly already after only a few months. Stay tuned! Brent
Recent pictures. It's getting there. http://tinyurl.com/3sak2n3 http://tinyurl.com/3wzrzda http://tinyurl.com/3tplo6d http://tinyurl.com/3ucle9w I can also show you extreme hood cowl repairs in the next set of pictures if my guy who builds models remembered to take pictures of each step of his stud replacement. Stay tuned.
