Now Complete Restoration / Pulling my 1969 'Bee down for strip and paint

[birdsandbees]

BTW.. last two pictures show why you should never question colours in pictures!!! .. especially Orange !

[birdsandbees]

Bought two rear windshield trim clip kits as the first one looked like they forgot step three to make a lock tab... second set I bought not much better. Original in middle, with tab to actually hold the trim..  Megaparts clips on the left.. zero lock tab at all. Original with full tab.. Year One's offering with a HINT of a tab that still doesn't catch trim edge.

Cleaned up the old clips that were good.

..and modified 4 new clips to complete the set, by using a punch to make a tab.

Clips all in place on the rear frame.

[birdsandbees]

Clipped in trim and making sure it fits correctly before window install. Edit.. a nice clear view of the headliner install as well ! 

Windshield smells nice.. didn't do any good scratch wise.

Polishing compound helped a bit.

Polishing compound took out a few minor imperfections.

[birdsandbees]

Getting close to good enough to put it back in the car.

Hey... let's try this. Aircraft acrylic scratch remover. Works better than polishing compound. Will be spending a few hours tomorrow with this I suspect....

[hemi-hampton]

Cerium is what you need to rub out glass scratches. LEON.

[birdsandbees]

Thanks Leon.. read that. Need to see if I can get some locally.

[birdsandbees]

Found my car polisher and a fresh bonnet and tried the scratch remover.

It did a nice job cleaning up the inside, but I still have what appears to be major scratches on the outside. Looks good on the blanket though.

1/4" spacers as per the factory service manual. (weren't enough as the glass barely caught the upper lip... need 3/8 to 7/16 spacers to center the glass)

Put some rubber blocks in place to simulate butyl sealer thickness.

[birdsandbees]

And did a dumb thing and flipped the glass into place solo!

NOPE.. can't live with these scratches at this point of the rebuild. Need to find a local glass shop with an old master or order new back glass, but it's $542 + tax. Almost twice a windshield which makes little sense as it's single layer glass.

Door glass guide pins that run up and down the vent pillar. Repo on left.. original on right. No wonder everyone is complaining their windows are toooo tight to crank.

New guide pins need a good 40 thou ground off them to work correctly.

[hemi-hampton]

Yeah, those scratches in the one pic look pretty nasty. Good luck. LEON.

[birdsandbees]

I think I've puttered long enough, time to put the engine / front suspension and rear end back into the car! Just afraid I won't get it rolling again before heading North and then the hoist is tied up into late Fall if we need it. Down to 4 weeks before heading for our camp and many other things to get done before hand.

Waited a week and sanded the air cleaner lid again to get some imperfections out.

3 coats of "Fram" Orange and 1 clear. All it needs now is the Chrysler instruction decal put into place.

[birdsandbees]

New reproduction upper control arms. Bushings so cheap one fell out, the others I could remove with a light tap. Should be press fit.

Thankfully new bushings were part of my PST super front end kit. These are definitely a press fit... so at least the UCA's are correct and it was just undersize bushings.

Pulling the bushing into place. Make sure if you have one of these Mancinni tools that you lube the hell out of the cheap low grade steel threaded rod or you'll seize the nuts  

Bushing set into place.

Video of the wonderful UCA bushings and how good they fit! https://youtu.be/RjVy4lGHXzw

[birdsandbees]

All four bushings done, time to swap out the cheap upper ball joints for my good PST ones.

Takes a special socket..

Crap ball joint out, ready to put new ones in.

Drivers side UCA in place.

[birdsandbees]

Read here that a good starting point for alignment is front all the way in and back all the way out. True?? EDIT... I did it backwards, should be all the way OUT at the front and IN at the rear!!

Passenger side UCA in place. Now ready to put engine/ K frame / front suspension up into place!!

[green69rt]

What vendor shipped you those repro UCAs?

[birdsandbees]

What vendor shipped you those repro UCAs?

tomsclassic on ebay...  Auto City Classic, Inc.

Can't complain too much I guess.. he took my offer at $85US and with shipping they cost me $128 US / $185 Cdn.

Had intended on swapping out the bushings and ball joints from the get go...

[cdr]

Read here that a good starting point for alignment is front all the way in and back all the way out. True??

Passenger side UCA in place. Now ready to put engine/ K frame / front suspension up into place!!

You want the opposite.  for more caster

[birdsandbees]

Read here that a good starting point for alignment is front all the way in and back all the way out. True??

Passenger side UCA in place. Now ready to put engine/ K frame / front suspension up into place!!

You want the opposite.  for more caster

THANKS!.. looks like I got it backwards!! Just want a starting point, have a good guy willing to do my alignment on all 4 to get the front end right and rear axle bolted down straight. EDIT.. and just looked at my own disassembly pictures and about where mine were.. full out at the front and almost full in at rear! 

[birdsandbees]

Great way to start a Thursday!  Snugged up the cam bolts and a crack appears. Wish it had been noticed before paint!

Jammed a screw driver in it before removing the cam bolt.

Ground the crack with a little spherical ball in the dremel and then TIG'd the crack shut.

Repainted and we're back on track to get the "heart" back into this car.

[hemi-hampton]

I got that same cheap front end tool kit from Mancini 10+ years ago. I remember my tools threads constantly stripping out & having to buy new long stronger bolts all the time. LEON.

[birdsandbees]

I got that same cheap front end tool kit from Mancini 10+ years ago. I remember my tools threads constantly stripping out & having to buy new long stronger bolts all the time. LEON.

Seized it on the first bushing as the rod threads broke off! Had to heat the nut and moved it just enough outward that I had the length to JUST get the nut on the other end to do the other three bushings. The tool ends themselves are well made and fit nice, just needs some grade 5 or 8 threaded rod and not Home hardware crap.

[birdsandbees]

Realized I could leave the rear end on the engine hoist to roll it under the car...

... just had to remove the post!

Doing the shop shuffle. Have a LOT of respect for guys that can do a resto in a single car garage! I certainly couldn't!

Hope it works, because going outside's not a good option on dirt.

[birdsandbees]

Gonna just make it around the loop.

Successfully in the hoist bay.

Belly shot.

Lookin spiffy, first time it's been high enough for a good shot.

[birdsandbees]

Almost a shame to hide that with a fuel tank!

Waiting for my 15 year old nephew to get out of school and give me a hand putting the rear end in.

[CDN72SE]

Wow 

[birdsandbees]

Passenger side shackle bushings went in easy.

Drivers side some worker in Taiwan forgot to bore the sleeve to size and I had to sand down the OD of the bushings to get them in.

Easy way to get the inner bushing in.

Some counter weight before the rear end gets hung.