Thursday, April 12, 2012

Still pluggin' away.

Haven't taken any pics for a while because the majority of the work isn't very visible.  Here's a partial list of the things I've finished up. 
- The wiring is completed and tested.  All the exterior lights, turn signals, new led 3rd tail light, dash lights, and radio all work perfectly.  I replaced the tail lights rather than rewire the sockets.  I have to install the electric wipers yet and the heater assembly to complete the wiring. 
- The passenger side wiper transmission has a broken chain and I'm unable to fix it.  For now I'm going to install the wiper tower without the transmission arm on the passenger side and only use the driver side wiper if I'm caught in the rain.
- Got the firewall panel back from the powder coater and it turned out nice.  I talked to the pinstriper today and he promised to come here soon and have it done by next Friday.
- Ordered and received wiper tower gaskets, cowl vent gasket, headlight rims, clutch and brake pedal rubber stops, and door moulding.
- Dick at More Power was unable to modify the shafts on the heater fan motor.  His lathe is too big.  So, I contacted a fella I worked with a few years ago.  He has a small shop at this house and was able to use a small lathe he has to reduce the two shafts from 5/16" to 1/4".  He then cut them off to 7/8" long and the motor is now a near perfect physical match for the stock 6v motor.  This 12 volt motor has 3 speeds with individual leads and I've tested it with a 2 speed windshield wiper switch.  It worked perfectly without a fan load and I'm confident it will work fine as I plan to run it on only 2 speeds.
- Added a vent tube to the rear axle housing.  Never put one in last year so it seemed like a good idea.
- Took the front tires down to Maksim's earlier this week to have them balanced and new chrome valve stems installed.
- Installed the cotter keys in the upper and lower control arms and in the tie rod ends.  Also added one turn to the front springs to bring up the front end a tiny bit.
- Replaced the dual 6 volt horns with a single 12 volt Ooga horn from Harbor Freight.  Had to take the steering wheel off and take the top of the steering column apart to shift the horn ring.  It was contacting the turn signal arm and causing the horn to blow intermittently.
- Was told the stock knob for the windshield wipers would work with the new electric wiper setup - NOT true - at least not true on a 41 Chevy.  Instead, I opted to remove the choke and throttle cable knobs from the dash area by the radio and mounted the wiper knob on the left and the heater fan control on the right.  I found a couple of aluminum knobs with the right size hole for the shafts on the switches and the knobs match the headlight switch knob as well as the turn signal and column adjusting knobs.  Those should be delivered along with new headlight rim gaskets on Monday.

     I'm planning to get the car back on the road in the next week or two and then continue with the additional moulding and windshield installations as time permits.  I'll take some pictures of the finished wiring installation this weekend as well as progress I'll be making on the interior reinstall.

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