Spendin' money!

Yesterday was "Cyber Monday", the Monday after Thanksgiving when many of the online stores offer special prices.  No special prices were on my mind but I did spend a few bucks.  I called Chassis Engineering to confirm my order was boxed and ready to ship.  I had prearranged for billing and shipping any time after Nov 25.  They confirmed that all was ready so I told them to send the parts.  By day's end yesterday I had a UPS tracking number in my email showing delivery is scheduled for tomorrow.  Nice! 
     Next, it was a call to Kwik Wire.  Had a list of questions which were all answered, so I placed the order for a 14 circuit wiring kit along with a few accessories.  Powermaster was next on the list as they are the manufacturer of PowerGen Alternators.  The PowerGen unit is a one-wire, 75 amp alternator with internal voltage regulator in a case that looks exactly like the old GM generators.  I needed to discuss how to order one thru Jeg's with a 5/8" pulley instead of the 3/8" that comes standard.  The 6 volt generator that was on the 41 has the 5/8" pulley.  Got the part number for the pulley and called Jeg's.  Placed the order yesterday and the email acknowledgement shows shipping later this week.   That should take care of the electrical system conversion to 12 volt.  All I'll need to order to complete the electrical install is 12 volt light bulbs and a voltage reducer for the fuel gauge. 
     Summit Racing had the best price on a pair of American Racing/Ansen Sprint style slotted aluminum wheels.  Ordered a pair of 15 x 7, 5 lug, 4.75 bolt circle (Chevy pattern) wheels with 4" back spacing.  These should be a near perfect match to the 6 lug wheels on the rear of the 41.  The front tire size will be determined once the front end is back together so I can check tire clearance at the lower ride height.  I'd like to stay with the 215R70x15 tires that are currently on the car but I may have to put 205R70's on the front for clearance.  Summit had the wheels in stock and the email acknowledgement shows they shipped yesterday.  Looking like the wheels should be here tomorrow along with the front suspension pieces. 
     Last call of the day was to Dick at More Power to discuss a plan for the steering column.  I'm hoping we can duplicate the stock shaft and column/tube inside the car while shortening the assembly in the engine compartment.  The connection to the new rack & pinion steering from Chassis Engineering will require a couple of universal joints and an intermediate shaft to complete the new steering system.  Dick pointed me to the Borgeson.com site for a better understanding of the components needed for the steering and how it all goes together. 
     Dan is coming over tomorrow morning so we can move the old front crossmember/suspension out to my shed for storage.  Need to free up some space in the garage.  The fall weather has been very mild this year but it looks like snow is in the forecast.  I want to minimize the amount of time my PT Cruiser has to sit outside the garage so getting the front end back on the 41 or at least getting it rolling is a bit of a priority.  Stay tuned as the rebuild continues.

More stuff removed

Spent a couple hours in the garage this afternoon and removed the steering wheel/column/box as well as most of the wiring.  All the firewall wiring is off as well as everything under the dashboard.  Ran into something I wasn't prepared for however.  All the cars I've previously worked on had the wires leading to the rear of the car running in a channel along the driver's side of the floor.  A cover of some kind was then attached to conceal the wires.  The 41 surprised me as I found a group of wires going into the bulkhead next to the dashboard and running up the A pillar to the interior roof of the car.  Those wire then exit in the trunk right behind the seat on the driver's side.  At that point, they split and run to the lights on both sides and to the fuel gauge sending unit in the gas tank.  I don't know if/how those wires are attached in the roof.  I may have to remove the headliner to access any retention straps or clamps.  I sure hope not.  Here's a couple pics of the steering box/column/wheel removed.

I was also able to remove the radio, dimmer switch and turn signals.  The brake master cylinder and brake line to the rear is next along with the wiring to the master cylinder.  Then it's clean the dirt and grease from the frame horns and get a fresh coat of paint on them.  Wife and I are heading to Chicago for the next three days for a little Thanksgiving R&R.  I'll be back to work on Saturday. 

Time to get to work

As I indicated back in early October, the crossmember kit is on order with Chassis Engineering.  I spoke with them last week and everything is boxed and ready to ship after Nov 25th as I requested.  That should put parts here about Dec 1.  Now that my fall house projects are completed it's time to get to work on the '41 to make ready for the frame work.  This past Friday I picked up `15 - 1/2" flat washers from the local hardware to make removal of the hood springs possible.  I only worked on the car for a couple hours and had the springs off and the front bumper removed.

My friend Dan came over on Sat morning and helped remove the hood.  Next was getting the front end ready for removal.  Last year I removed and reinstalled the engine with the fenders and grille in place but this time all that sheet metal needed to be removed in order to access the frame.  This was the result at the end of Sat.  The lights are removed since they will be replaced with 12 volt bulbs.  It's possible to remove the front end with the radiator in place but I opted to remove the radiator due to the close proximity of the cooling fan and to enable access to the front of the engine to remove other parts.

Sunday afternoon, Dan came back and we simply lifted the front end off as one piece and placed it aside.  Next came removal of the driveshaft, transmission crossmember, transmission and engine. 

The engine was then placed in the cradle I built to enable access to the clutch and bell housing so they could be removed.  The engine can then be placed on the engine stand.  I'll need to replace the rear main seal to properly fix the leak.

Here's the view with the engine bay empty.

Amazingly, the bolts holding the front suspension/crossmember all came loose without any trouble.  Pretty cool since they've probably been there for 70 years!  We had to loosen the three large nuts on top of the shocks and pry up on the shocks a bit to allow access to the 4 bolts between the shocks and the outside of the frame rails.  The pitman arm was quite tight on the steering box so we opted to remove the two steering arms instead.  The steering box will be coming out with the steering column so it really doesn't matter which parts stay attached.  None will be reinstalled.  Here's the frame after the suspension/crossmember was removed.  And a shot of the pieces setting aside.

I had mentioned previously how badly deteriorated the wiring is and how the plan is to replace all the wiring with a fused wiring kit from Kwik Wire.  Worth another look at how bad the wires look.

The brake lines on the front had to be disconnected prior to removing the crossmember and I discovered another area that needed replacing.  Someone had spliced in a piece of brake line along the frame on the passenger side in the engine compartment.  Instead of using a properly flared piece of steel brake tubing or ss tubing, the splice was made using COPPER tubing  and a compression fitting!  That might be fine for low a pressure oiling system but surely NOT for a brake system.  I should be able to remove the steering column/box tomorrow as well as the radio and the under dash wiring.  Got some holiday traveling to do the end of this week so I should be back to work and back to posting more pics by the weekend.  Have a great Thanksgiving everyone - Go Lions!