Yes, it is a manual choke. I removed the choke cable and have it soaking in parts cleaner right now. It was pretty rough and hard to control how much choke there was when I started it.

The garage setup is the advantage of having just bought the house last summer and having gotten the car shortly after. I didn't have time to acquire more than the garage could handle with the car in it before I got the car. And old items got re-purposed.

The workbench actually was an 8 foot tall 6 foot wide bookshelf we built 5 or 6 years ago. Wife and I disassembled it and built a nice sturdy workbench out of it. The parts shelf was an entertainment shelving unit that I made a few years ago and was going to turn into a rolling tool cart but I got lucky and local Sears store closed (boo), hence the nice Craftsman tool chest I wouldn't have otherwise.

The whole car needs cleaned pretty thoroughly. Right now my goal is to have it drivable by August. After that I'll start cleaning it up and making it really nice.

Unsure the order I'll go in for that, but that is the fun of restoration. You can go in pretty much any order you want.

 

Not much to report, but progress nonetheless.

Got the front drums removed. The drivers side was rusted so badly it took 20 minutes of mallet swinging to get it off, but it came off. Couple wacks on passenger side and it jumped off like it wanted to run away.

After getting both off I found I had two different drums. I have wacked the snot out of the drivers side drum and then some, but the hub won't come out. I'm thinking it is more than rusted, maybe designed to be one piece, and am ready to give up and just get a new hub and bolts.

You can see the difference here. The one on the left has an extra piece you can see on the lower left side of it. Nothing through the back, so I'm not sure what it does, the other one doesn't have that.



So after getting those off I removed the backing plates so I could clean them up. Lots of dirt and stuff packed into them. I apparently didn't take pictures of these, so I apologize for that. After clean up I realized I didn't get any lube for the brakes to put them back together so I moved on to shocks.

This went much easier than I thought it would. Took 15 minutes to do both front shocks.





I'll get some lube for the brakes and work on those today, hopefully.

 

How do those bushings look?

 

Terrible They are on the list of parts for my next order. I forgot to order new brake lines as well. I'm going to go as far as I can with what I have before I order more parts though, I don't want too much stuff sitting around. I'm convinced Gremlins came with my house. That or underpants gnomes...but its never underpants that disappear.

 

instead of putting the drums back just buy a disc brake kit to replace them....

 

He said he didnt have the funds to buy disc brakes yet.

 

Great restoration you got going man

are those shock absorbers 6 cylinder specific or is it the same banana for the 8.

will you replace the springs eventually?

 

Not sure what you mean by banana. I got them from CJ Pony, who I most likely won't do business with anymore unless ya'll can convince me otherwise. Lets just say they ran me through hoops on a part return when they sent me the wrong thing. Anyways, they are what was listed for 64-70 in my price range. On a side note, Glazier/Nolan is some of the nicest people I've ever done business with. Just my opinion.

As MustangFTW said, don't have the funds to do disc brake conversion. Keeping drums on all four wheels was 1/4 of the price of a front disc conversion. If I was starting out by stripping the whole car or planned it to be a daily driver I would have gone that direction. Unfortuntaly I don't have the time, money, or space right now to do it that way.

My plan right now is to make it drivable. I have an outbuilding at my house, that, at some point in the next few years (yes I know few most likely means 10 to 15, but a man can dream) will become my shop and I'll strip it down and replace a lot. Right now it is just gravel out there. We're (wife and I) going to lay concrete and get a small lift, but it will be awhile. I figure I've got the car. Instead of killing myself doing just a couple of things when money comes in, why not spend what will likely be about a 1500 bucks and make it drivable. Enjoy it as is till I can do more with it.

My current list:

-Finish up brakes
-Install Dual Bowl Master Cylinder
-Replace bushings
-Clean up and protect Gas Tank area in trunk. Edges are rusty, want to nip that before I put tank back in. Thankfully tank is ok and doesn't need replaced.
-Clean up and protect wheels, slap on some new rubber
-Fix the shifter; has that wonderful looseness
-Patch a couple of small holes in the back seat floor pan. (Not sure how yet, can't weld, don't have a welder, don't have the money to buy a welder and teach myself)

After that I should be able to drive it. Engine is in pretty good shape and tranny appears to work. Didn't test extensively as three of the four tires no longer held air, at all, and they had been flat for a long time, so walls were majorly damaged. But, it still has fluid in it and you have to shift to Neutral to move it so I'm optimistic. Electrics are good as far as I can tell. All lights still work and turn signals work. So, all in all, I got lucky on a drivable car for minimal money.

Interior might be a winter project. It is in shambles, carpet is gray, almost white, instead of the blue it should be. We'll just have to wait and see. Right now I just want to cruise in it by August, money permitting.

Thanks for the comments guys. And anything you think I'm missing feel free to let me know. I don't get angry at suggestions. I'm learning just like everyone else.

 

yeh, im doing about the same thing, i just made it drivable, hopefully down the road ill be able to do a full blown resto drum all around is no bad, do you have manual brakes? i have manual brakes and new drums all around, just need to get used to it my friends were like WTF woah, when they drove it lol.

i have the same problem with the shifter, im too lazy to go check my local shop for the bushings and i dont like ordering small parts online :P.

 

Yes, I have manual brakes as well. As for the shifter; It has the looseness, but it also doesn't latch in place. The buttons are stuck as well. Haven't even bothered looking at yet since I'll be replacing parts on it anyway.

Anyone have recommendations on installing the dual bowl master cylinder? I won't be doing it real soon, but knowledge ahead of time is always helpful.