Author: James

I'm just this guy, you know? Musician, Software Engineer, Loner-Dottie-Rebel in Asheville, NC

Road Trip and Lots of Progress

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I took a road trip to my parents’ house a couple of hours away. Well, normally it’s a couple of hours away on the highway at modern car speeds. I plugged their address into Google Maps and enabled the Avoid Highways option, so it turned into a 4 1/2 hour trip instead. It was a rainy Saturday morning, but was a nice drive nonetheless. I mounted a cheap action cam (Amazon link) to the windshield and filmed the trip.

The last time I was there working on the car, we found that the brake master cylinder was very old and weepy, explaining the near non-existent brakes. Also, the swing axle boots were completely destroyed. I ordered a Dorman master cylinder (Amazon link) and Beck Arnley swing axle boots (Amazon link) and ended up sitting on them until this trip.

We found that the car backs nicely up my dad’s ramps and that was super convenient.

Got the axle boots changed without any drama. The old hose clamps were much higher quality than the ones that came with the new parts, so we reused those.

Once the axles were sealed up properly, we checked the transmission gear oil and if there was any in there, it was well below finger-checker level. Put nearly two quarts of 75W-90 in before it was spilling over.

While that booty was up in the air, we continued the hunt for the mysterious clanging sheet metal. My dad found that adjusting the heat exchangers further out, adding more clearance around the exhaust headers, we could clang them around even less than before. We thought we had that mystery solved, but spoiler alert – something is still clanging around under there.

Up front, we found the last person who had the master cylinder out mounted one of the bolts in the firewall with no washer, so it was sucked in so tight, we had to try a bunch of different wrenches and sockets, trying to find one that would bite onto the little bit of exposed hex head.

A 1/4″ drive ratchet and socket ended up doing the trick, but the ratchet was so small, we couldn’t get any leverage on it to break the bolt loose. Ended up using a 3/8″ extension on the end of the 1/4″ ratchet as a cheater pipe and was able to get it broken free.

Once we had the old master cylinder out, we noticed the brake warning light switch was badly cracked and had been leaking, so with a couple of quick searches of parts stores in the area, I found an O’Reilly about 20 minutes away that had the part in stock (O’Reilly link). I was honestly quite surprised. I phoned ahead to make sure they could actually lay hands on the part. Sure enough, it was there.

Horizontal crack is noticeable in the pic above

For the trip home, I went the normal highways route, again recording video. Fun fact, I was able to make it up Black Mountain on I40 in 4th gear, never falling below 50MPH. Last trip I made, I was in 3rd most of the way up, struggling to even get it up to 50MPH.

Clang, Bang, What’s The Problem, Ma’am?

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The last couple of times I went out beetlebuggin, there was a terrible clattering coming from under the car. It definitely sounded like sheet metal rattling and would only happen when going over an especially rough patch in the road, like railroad crossings.

I still don’t have a garage or a lift or even a paved driveway, so it’s still a challenge getting decent access under the car to investigate. I went around, man-handling all the fenders, doors, and running boards, but couldn’t get anything to make a sound. I jacked up each corner and got each wheel off the ground, one at a time, and couldn’t find anything.

There is a drainage ditch at the end of my driveway and I have found that straddling the car across it gives much more (safer) access to the undercarriage.

From under there, I was able to find that the bolts connecting the heat exchanger to body heater pipes were missing and those assemblies were just loosely flopping around. There is a threaded bracket on the undercarriage, but I wasn’t able to find a bolt to fit, so I did the right thing and zip tied them snugly in place. The hose clamps were really loose, so I got them tightened up as well.

Took a little test drive and the clanging didn’t happen as often, but was still there on more extreme bumps in the road.

At Hominy Creek River Park

Oil Filter Mystery Continued…

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I ordered a couple of tools from Amazon to help extract that rusty mystery oil filter canister. (Amazon link)

The ratcheting three prong thing gripped really well, but was just crushing the end of the canister and was starting to twist the canister, so I switched to the pliers. Locked on at the very top and with barely any force or damage, was able to twist it off.

Not sure what I thought I was seeing before. There’s no blue text and it definitely doesn’t say Bosch or Bo… It’s a Hastings filter.

I had previously purchased a Wix 51515 filter, based on lots of info I found online saying that the standard PH8A filter for a Ford 302/5.0 liter (and many other makes and models) would work. When I tried to mount the new filter, it wouldn’t go on. There’s not a lot of room under there with the car on the ground to be able to see what was blocking it, but I tried for a while and gave up.

I drained the oil out of the old Hastings filter, popped it in a big Ziploc freezer bag and headed off to the O’Reilly Auto Parts down the street from my house. The staff were super helpful. They got out a pair of calipers and started measuring things, making several trips back to the oil filters wall trying to match the model.

I ended up with a Wix 51521, which is the correct oil filter canister for an 80’s model Nissan Pathfinder. When I got it home, it spun right on with no issue. Oddly, it’s the same outside diameter and has the same threads as the 51515, it’s just not as tall. The height wasn’t the issue with the 51515, so I will try mounting that again at next oil change, as I like the idea of a little extra capacity.

Stop calling them Saturday Updates

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Back onto the headlight bezel thing for a minute.

The new outer bulb brackets are the same size as the old brackets, so that’s not the problem. It looks like the bulbs are just sitting off center in the bucket. Kicking that can on down the road for another day.

There is this thing that also needs attention.

Which looked like this after a little while

and is now torn down even further… No spark. New points, condenser, coil, and a fresh fuse.

Anyway, back to the other lady.

I replaced the heat exchanger hoses (which were held on with black household caulk) and the air intake hose (Amazon link). All shiny, but man that original cardboard covered hose is so much sturdier. I will likely end up having to put that back on unless I can find one that isn’t made of aluminum foil.

More of that purplish paint back here.

Every couple of days, when I lift up the trunk lid, the gas tank has overflowed here around the fuel sending unit. “New gas tank” he said. Sometimes it’s a little puddle and sometimes it has flowed all down the sides and into the spare tire well.

I tried to measure the resistance of the fuel sending unit with a multimeter, to figure out why the gas gauge stopped working, but either I wasn’t doing it right, or it’s dead. But either way, new gasket and mounting screws with little nylon washer things to snug down in the mounting holes better (Amazon link).

Seeing as how the spare tire well is always wet with water (and hopefully no longer with gas) it’s pretty rusty down in there. I thought that would be a good, out of sight, place to do some painting.

I got some nylon cup brushes (Amazon link) and went after it in the wrong order (the softest one didn’t remove much, so I stepped up and removed a little more, then stepped up to the stiffest one and removed a little more).

Wiped it all down with acetone and started spraying. First with rust converter, then primer.

You can see that the factory Zenith Blue paint is actually blue, when you put a gray primer up against it.

There are some weird angles in there and I had a couple of runs. I’m a well-qualified rattle can spray painter, but this Krylon Fusion 2 in 1 really runs wayyy too easily.

I pulled the inspection panel covers off and gave them the business as well.

Rust converter
Filler primer
Low glass black engine enamel
Rebuilt.

And then a couple of quick coats of Matte Vintage Blue paint, Krylon Fusion. Oh, and I did wipe off that body tag and the gas tank with acetone after each coat to get rid of the over-spray.

Note: This color is apparently no longer available from Krylon. That happens SO OFTEN – I find something I like and it immediately is removed from the marketplace. I only bought one can and am now hitting every Ace Hardware in town trying to buy up all remaining stock. They are completely gone from Lowes…

Why are there flies all over my truck?

Anyway, with it all back together, it looks pretty sharp. The color match isn’t too bad for some random rattle can from Lowes.

I don’t think I would paint the outside of the car with it, but if I’m doing body work and removing rust, it would definitely be a better alternative to leaving it in primer for who knows how long.

Seriously, there are flies all over…

The Next Saturday Updates

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Back at it this weekend. I’ve got replacement headlight buckets to be mounted.

Rusty screws
It’s nasty back in there
Brake Kleened
Tight fit on that bottom mounting screw
Broken plastic
Hella SB12
That’s factree.
Another tight fit on the bottom mounting screw

You can tell in the last picture and the fact that the bottom mounting screws were so hard to get at on both sides, the bulbs are sitting off center, way down at the bottom right. The chrome bezels wouldn’t mount over the bulbs. That’s a problem for another day.

From the spare tire well fiasco, you can tell she had a front end shunt at some point. Also evidenced by the front trunk lid being smooshed in around the handle.

The front trunk is always wet (with water AND gas, more on that later). I tried putting a big fat weatherstrip seal around the underside of the trunk lid, but that didn’t work and quickly peeled off. $26 well spent.

While poking around, I found another area where water was getting in. The sunlight caught my eye.

Removed the handle and sprayed some rust converter on both sides.

I replaced the hood handle seals (Amazon link) and put a strip of copper shielding tape I had laying around (Amazon link), left over from a couple of noisy guitars I was working on last year.

In doing some further archaeology, I found there is another vinyl seat cover underneath the black vinyl seat cover on the driver’s side.

And just below that, I found the stickers on the new floor pans that were installed on both sides. It looks like 2009, but that may just be a part number or something.

“I’ve never seen such good floor pans in an original car” he said. “I’ve never seen such an unmolested original car” he said. I’m happy it has new floor pans in it and a rebuilt engine, but that’s not the original engine, either, friendo.

These are good things, I suppose, more work has been done than I thought, but the “original” was what I thought I was paying up for. Oh well.

There appears to be a bug on my backup camera.

Saturday Updates

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As I was poking around, I finally found an actual rust hole. If this is as bad as it gets, then the old girl is doing pretty OK.

This is at the top left corner above the engine bay, behind the air vent louvers. Not even sure how you would get up in there to fix it.

Next, the headlights were both aimed in crazy directions. Derp eyes for real. The screws to remove the chrome bezels to get back into the headlight buckets where the aiming screws are located was not going to be easy, on account of these rusted screws that wouldn’t turn with a screwdriver. Soaked them in PB Blaster for a couple of days.

There is some of that purplish blue paint I mentioned in an earlier post.

Harbor Freight sells the best screwdriver for the job.

With the headlight bezels removed, I could finally get at the headlight aiming screws.

There were broken and missing screws, more rusty metal, and alas… The nylon blocks that the headlight aiming screws screw into are split and just spin without moving the headlight.

Well, at least I was able to find the right screws to replace the rusty chrome bezel screws. I took the better of the two that I had removed to Napa and they were able to identify the size and thread pattern for me, though they didn’t have any in stock. They are #10-32 machine screws. I bought some at a little Ace Hardware down the road that were 2 and 2 1/2 inches long. The ones that came out of it look like 2 1/4″ which they didn’t have in stock. The 2 inch ones worked fine.

I also made a trip to a little tire shop down the street from my house and got the new tire mounted on the Empi wheel. When I got home with it and tried to put it in the spare tire well, it had apparently shrunken back into the old smooshed position.

Metal memory.

So I got the scissor jack and scrap wood out again and made it fit.

Spare tire, well…

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The car didn’t come with a spare tire, but did come with four “spare” rims and tires, the Empi wheels shown in the listing pictures. I had been carrying one of those wheels in the front trunk, but had to lay it down horizontally on top of the gas tank. The tires that were mounted on the Empi wheels were quite a bit wider than the stock size and it wouldn’t stand up in the spare tire well.

I ordered a new tire off of Ebay (Kenda Komet Plus Kr23 – 165/55r15) in the narrower stock size. That tire wouldn’t fit in there either.

Looks like she’s had a bit of a smoosh in the front.

Using a scissor jack (which also didn’t come with the car – Amazon link) and a couple of pieces of scrap wood, I was able to stretch it back into shape and got the tire down in there.

Steering wheel stuff

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The steering wheel is in pretty good shape, considering the age, but there are some cracks that I couldn’t stop absentmindedly picking at while driving.

Shopped around online and found the old school lace up vinyl steering wheel cover (Amazon link). It was so cheap and chintzy that it tore while driving with it the first time. That’s the electrical tape at the bottom left.

It looks like the steering wheel and horn are from a 65-66 model. I originally thought the bottom ring of the horn was broken or sawed off, but not the case. Spent a few bucks to get a shiny new horn ring and button for the crusty old wheel.

I haven’t been able to make the horn work as good or reliably as it did originally. It’s either blaring non-stop or you have to hold your mouth just right to get one side or the other to actually make a toot.

An oil filter, you say?

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Somehow, I owned this car for two weeks before I realized it had a screw on canister oil filter, which was not from the factory. I snapped some blurry pictures from a blind angle up under the rear of the car to try and find some more details.

It appears to be an Empi Full Flow Filter Oil Pump (Amazon link), though there are a variety of different brands in slightly different styles available. This one most closely resembles the Empi, from what I can see.

There is an old, rusted oil filter on there. Lots of rust around the edge of the canister. It has been on there a while. Hopefully, there were other oil changes done without changing the filter.

I’m pretty sure the oil sump cover with drain plug is an after market add-on as well. I haven’t found a definitive answer as to whether or not this car actually came with a drain plug or only the outside sump cover which is removed to drain the oil.