Thanks for taking the time to post and taking all the pics.
That car just screams MOPAR!
Car looks just plain mean.

Dave

After 4.5 months, time for an update.

I've been picking away at the car over the past few months, but never able to get anything back together. Over the past few days, that's finally changed, and it feels good. Here's what’s been done on the car so far :

Brakes- Where to start...in the front I guess. I caught a break with the rotors: they must have been NOS units hung on the car back in the 1980's as they were OEM thickness (.875). So, after soaking in Evaporust, a light cut and they were ready to go. I replaced all the front bearings and hung them on the spindles. For the calipers, I purchased a remanufactured pair from Calipers Online in March. I pulled them out of the boxes 2 weeks ago and saw that one was not reassembeled correctly. The heads of outer bolts that hold the 2 halves together are to have 3/8-16 tapped holes so the hose bracket can be bolted on. An e-mail to Mark at Calipers Online and he mailed out the correct bolts. With that, I was then able to get the new calipers on along with the new hoses and pads.
For the rear brakes, the hardware and shoes were very clean and fresh- looks like everything was done a short time before the car was parked. I replaced the wheel cylinders though, just in case. The metal brake lines on the axle were a mess and the vent bolt, which also holds the Y Block, was broken off flush with the housing. I got new lines from Fine Lines and a replacement vent bolt from Mopar. After extracting the broken vent bolt, the new lines were fitted. One of the replacement lines fit perfect, the other not so much: the bends were sloppy and no matter how I tried to massage it to fit, it was over an inch short. A few e-mails and pictures later, Fine Lines set out a new one... which did not fit properly either . This time the bends were nice and crisp, but the line was now over an inch too long and the final bend at the Y Block was 90+ degrees in the wrong direction. I shortened the line, tweaked the bend and all was good. The rear flex line looked like the original one, so this was replaced as well.

The master cylinder was pulled and soaked in PB Blaster as the piston would not move. Once apart, it was clear the bore was pitted beyond what could be cleaned up with a brake hone so I will be sending it off to Brake and Equipment Warehouse to be sleeved.

Fuel System- At Carlisle last year, I picked up a replacement 3/8 fuel line from The Right Stuff, and a few months ago bought a new Spectra gas tank and sender unit from RockAuto. Today, I finally got them installed. With the car already on stands and rims off, the only things I had to do were to pull down the right exhaust pipe and remove the right side shock- after that the line went in. The fuel line required only a very minor tweak- otherwise it fit great. The tank was next- the sender unit was installed, using the lock ring off the old tank (not the new one with the tank). The gauge of the metal with the new rings is not as thick when compared to the original. This slight difference in gauge can cause the sender unit gasket to not be compressed enough once installed, resulting in a fuel leak. With the sender and filler neck bushing installed (bought from Herbs), the tank was then hung in the car.

Drivetrain- Back in January, I started pulling the car apart to inspect the clutch and swap out the scattershield for the correct bellhousing. It got as far as getting the trans out, and then sat. This week, the rest was pulled apart. The clutch is in excellent shape- little wear and the flywheel is/was a new Zoom piece. The replacement bellhousing was mounted and run-out checked: .017 total run-out . I ordered up off-set dowels from RobbMc and hope to have it dialed in this week. While the trans is out, I am also replacing the hacked trans tunnel: the old one is out and I just have to burn in the new one.

Once the trans is back in and the brakes completed, the next steps will be to rebuild the carb, replace the engine bay wiring and battery cables (for safety's sake..), new fluids/wires/plugs, etc. and see if this will fire up

You're making some really good head way on the project Ed! Nice

Thanks James!

That's a great car , nothing looks better than a Black B body ...

Thanks John: I've always liked your Bee!

The offset dowle pins arrived from RobbMc on Wednsday, so that evening I tacked the job of getting the old ones out. After attempting to twist them out using a pair of Vice Grips, I got serious: I welded a piece of metal to each one, and jacked them loose with a 3/8 bolt via a tapped hole in the metal tabs.

The following night, I indexed the bellhousing and managed to bring the total run-out to .003. Then the clutch was installed. Today I installed the bellhousing and transmission as well as welding in the new trans hump.

Tomorrow I'll install the shifter and driveshaft, as well as put the carpet back down over the new trans hump.

Update 6/11/2012: Been pecking away at various areas, with a lot of small tasks along the way.

After the transmission install, I dissassembled, cleaned, lubed and reassembeled the Hurst shifter. Using a video on YouTube, it was not too difficult and was well worth it:

After installing the shifter, it was onto the clutch linkage. The rods, pivots and z-bar were in decent shape, but the frame bracket was toast. Using an oversize 1/2" washer, I repaired it. A word of advice if doing such a repair: mock up everything before welding in the washer if you are going to put it on the inside of the bracket. The additional material (washer) might not leave adequate room for the z-bar to fit in the car. DAMHIK. Damaged bracket:

Repair piece made out of a 1/2" washer:

Welded in:

Also I've reinstalled the seats, replaced the rocker arms, pulled the Radiator/alternator/water pump for replacement and started replacing some of the engine bay wiring. The plan as of now is to fire it up on 6/23. There is still a bunch of things to do, but it should be ready by then.

Keeping good pace Ed Looking good so far for the 23rd, looks like I can blow off that HS grad party out on the island

7/1/2012- It lives again……

Over the past few weeks, I’d managed to get some steady time out in the garage picking away at several areas of the car- flush/bleed the brake system, new radiator /water pump, new battery cables, new alternator, new engine wiring harness, NOS iron single point distributor- recurved by FBO, carb rebuild, and primed the oiling system.

All this time while working to reach this point of getting it running, I’ve always been worried (worried sick) about why this car sat for so long. Short of pulling the motor out and tearing it down, I’d inspected and checked as much as possible (leakdown, compression, inspecting the old spark plugs, checking all of the fluids, etc..). Each inspection came out good, not finding anything wrong. Other than some worn, non-OEM rocker arms (which I replaced) everything looked decent. Still, I had concern- why has it sat, why was it parked?

I still do not have the answer, as today it fired right up. No leaks, no smoke, no funny noises. We let it warm up and then made a couple of brief launches down the driveway with it (rock hard old Goodyears). So far, so good. Below are a couple of video links with it running:
http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh110...9-24-07_872.mp4

http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh110...41183534202.mp4
Next steps will to finish the paint cleaning/polishing, reinstall the exterior trim (grill, etc..), fix a few electrical issues, install new tires and get it registered.

Cool car!

Cool stone along the driveway!

looking good Ed

One of my favorite cars. Hope you get it on the road soon.

Thanks all for the comments. Picked up 4 new BFG Radial TAs at Carlisle today along with some other stuff. Hope to have it on the road in a few weeks for a shake down drive.

Saturday I registered it and since then I've racked up 140 shakedown miles. It rides very well, and I've not yet mounted the new BFGs. The carb is really worn out (throttle shafts have alot of play) so there is some surging. The rear should have a new pinion bearing installed. The steering is very good- tracks straight and steers well. Trans shifts well and the clutch action is smooth and linear. In 90 degree heat, even out on the local highway at 3000+ RPM it never went above 200 dergees.

I currently have the dimmer switch out for rebuild (Board Member DEVINISM): once it returns I have the dash light issue resolved. I cleaned up the taillamp housings, resprayed the lamp buckets with aluminium paint, cleaned the lenses with Mequiars plastic polish and reassembled them with new gaskets from DMT. The taillamp bezels are decent condition for their age: I simply cleaned the chrome surfaces with 0000 steel wool and reinstalled them. The grill and tailpanel I still have to address: I want to correctly freshen up the paint on them before putting them back on. I also have to clean up and install the hood inserts ( what color should I paint the mesh?).

Glad to have reached this milestone with the car. There is still more to do, but at least it's a runner now

Looking good, must be a great feeling to be getting it on the road. Keep up the great work.

Dave

i'm jealous because it looks great..
good work ed