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

[birdsandbees]

Fuel line clamp clip in place waiting for correct bolt.

Front passenger side brake line hooked up and retainer clip in place.

Drivers side brake line hooked up.

New Spicer U joints for the drive shaft.

[birdsandbees]

Pressing the old U joint out of the yolk and then threw the yolk in degrease solvent.

Replaced the rear leaf spring shackle that broke on installation. Starting to wish we'd taken my springs all apart and done them completely, but not happening now.

[birdsandbees]

Why your write yourself notes and a snag list. Almost forgot to torque the pinion nut before drive shaft installation. This was fun at 230 ft -lbs!

Dick I bought Spicer U joints from put the retainer clips on.. too pissed off to figure it out today. Thinking dual channel locks tomorrow to get them off..

Degreased drive shaft yolk into the Evaporust bucket. Once clean it will be coated with RPM.

[birdsandbees]

Drive shaft yolk out of the Evaporust.

Cleaning up the transmission seal surface on the yolk, 80 grit then 150 to get most of the imperfections out.

In the toaster for some heat and a coat in RPM. The other metal plates are jack hold down plates for both my cars. They were rusted when received..anyone heard of spraying some oil in the zip lock bag?

..and THANKS Wes !!! For a near mint headlight switch connector / wires to replace my burnt crusty one. 

[BLK 68 R/T]

Looking good, gotta love being at this stage of the restoration, installing clean parts 

[birdsandbees]

Not sure I'll get much more done until Fall. Time to switch gears, look after a few airplane customers I still have and get my own airplane ready for another season, as I need to get my wife up North to our Fly-in Camp for the summer in the next 3 or so weeks. I'd love to get the car finished up and driving, but keeping my Honey's lungs working in the Northern fresh air is more important!  
...........

Rear end got 2 quarts of this limited slip fluid and 2 quarts of 80W90 gear oil. Glad I hung onto these 1980's CTC bottles as I trust nothing on the shelves these days with "dinasour blends" or synthetics. My rear end gears are 51 years old (66 charger) and mint, I'll stick to old school oils.

Still pissed the guy I bought the drive shaft U joints from put the clips on so they wouldn't get lost. Finally figured out how to get them off clamped in the vice and the cheap shit still deformed. Had to go to Carquest and buy some new clips for installation.

Yolk to drive shaft assembly done.

Drive shaft in with new U clips to attach it to the rear pinion flange.

[birdsandbees]

Trans filled with 20W50 engine oil. I've researched and researched. We always used 80W90 gear oil, but nobody seems to sell any that is non Hypoid these days. Synchro gears won't work right with hypoid -5 type oils. Redline sythentic MT90 is what a lot of guys are using, but I'm not spending $120 on oil to fill a transmission. Service manual says Dextron II  is allowed.. right up to SAE140 gear oil, so with 20W50 (100 weight like booze "proof") I'm good .... I hope!  

[CDN72SE]

That driveshaft is definitely looking good. 

[birdsandbees]

Twinkle dinkle we call that colour!  Numerous coats of epoxy primer applied and then sanded down until we got the pit marks to disappear and then a couple coats of Twinkle Dinkle. I think it mimics bare cast pretty good, my pumpkin is media blasted and clear coated to see the reference. Figured it was better than the shaft rusting again.

[timmycharger]

 

[birdsandbees]

LOL Tim! Yah it came to a screeching halt... life got back in the way and we're off to our Northern Ontario camp in the AM. Probably no updates until October on my rebuild. 

[Dino]

October!!

Now wait a minute! How vital is that camp thing?   

[birdsandbees]

As much as I'd love to get the car back together and running, the wife's breathing and staying alive comes first. Need to get her to fresh air for the summer.

Be back in a few weeks to cut grass and a few other things. If we get stuck here for a few days I may just get the torsion bars back in, fuel tank, etc..

[timmycharger]

Oh man! At least you got a big chunk of it done so far

[birdsandbees]

Home for 2 days to cut grass and clear up a few things and I of course checked in on my sleeping baby. Hopefully I can wake her back up in early October!  It all depends on when the weather turns as to when I'm allowed to come home and get back to work.

[lukedukem]

I've been waiting for this thread to kick back off. October isnt to far.

Luke

[CDN72SE]

Ditto, glad to see you got a chance to do some work. 

[birdsandbees]

Well still a few things left to take care of on the "ta du" list around here before I can get back on the car, but at least one of the "ta du" items was cleaning the shop up somewhat and I have that almost done at least. A few more things to get ready for winter and then I can get to work. First items will be torsion bars back in, bump stops, shocks tightened up and fuel tank in place. Or that's the plan anyhow...

[birdsandbees]

Todays score from a young lad, about 24, that was plugging away on a 70 Dart in his parents Burlington garage.

Not a scratch, Pentastar logo and date code is for '69 showing it's original and not replacement glass. Well worth the 6+ hours on the road, 50 bucks in gas and only $80   for the glass.

Takes a load off my mind no longer needing to worry about somehow getting the scratches out of my back glass!  

[BDF]

 Good deal!

[birdsandbees]

Varsol'd the butyl off today and one cleaning with glass cleaner. It has a few light scratches I can probably buff out, but it's 1000% better than my original!

[darbgnik]

Varsol'd the butyl off today and one cleaning with glass cleaner. It has a few light scratches I can probably buff out, but it's 1000% better than my original!

Be careful with it!

[tan top]

 

[birdsandbees]

Still have the best wife in the world.. 35 years and going ! My early Christmas present came Purolator today. Gal has a heart of gold (to put up with me and my toys).

[BDF]

Very nice, a great wife is a blessing!