Continued Progress

Again a long time between posts!

I've been getting to the car just about once a week.  Every time I go, I run it around the driveways and get it fully up to temperature.  Still haven't done anything with the exhaust, so still using the ramps to help back out of the garage, but I'm getting a lot more confident with it now.  Using the full choke to start from cold, and it takes a few turns before it fires, but once I've reversed the car from the garage, I can pretty much close the choke straight away.  I run the car round until it's up to temperature (which means that the gauge is reading right at the top at hot, but it hasn't "over-heated" yet - don't know if that's because I'm not running it for long enough, or if it's just where the gauge runs!.  I'm also keeping the fans running permanently with the manual switch, to ensure goos air flow across the radiator).  Once at temperature I stop the engine, and work on the car.

Once the brakes were sorted (I still need to get the warning light to go off, but I believe that will need me to bleed to the differential pressure switch between the two circuits, which I haven't got to yet),  I put back the rear seats, which I'd had to remove to get to the inboard rear brakes.  The back and the seat went in fine, but I struggled a bit with the seat belts.  The belts were only held at a single mounting point when I got the car, so I had to find all the correct bolts and mount them correctly.  I found a comment in a car forum on-line, that all seat belt mounting fittings are 7/16 UNF.  Steve had some spares, and with the ones I found with the car and his spares that he let me have, I got all four seat belts mounted correctly.  Unfortunately, the passenger-side one won't retract, so I'll have to replace that one, but the drivers side is working fine.  With the seat belts in, I was bale to work out where some of the trim fittings went in the car, so things are now looking quite good inside (and I've got a bit of space back on the shelves in the garage).

After the seat belts, I started to look at the door locks.  The keys won't turn in the barrels, so I've bought new barrels.  I started by taking the drivers door handle apart:

The parts of the drivers side door lock.

....and replaced the barrel in that one.  When I took the old barrel out, I found it was broken, so though I'd resolved it by just replacing the barrel.  However, although I can get the key to turn the new barrel, I can't work out how to keep the plunger extended when it's in the "open" position - I think I'm missing another part, but don't have one that came out with the original barrel.  The best way for me to see the "correct" set-up will be to take apart the passenger door handle.  I was reluctant to do this while that side was working OK.  However, now I've fitted new door seals, that one has stopped working properly aswell, so I'll take it apart soon to work out what's missing with the other one, and to replace its barrel.

I did try to find a locksmith that I could walk in to, to talk about the lock.  The only one I found to walk in to  wasn't interested in looking at an old automotive lock, and all the others that I've found on the internet, all seem to be mobile businesses now, with no home base to walk into - disappointing, but a sign of the times, I suppose.  I'll just have to call somebody out (at what $$ cost?) if I can't work it out from the passenger door lock.

Having been stumped for now with the door locks, I decided to go back to installing the seals that were missing.  I had bought a complete seal kit some months ago, so I went through that and found the ones that I needed.  I've now replaced the A-pillar, sill and frame seals on both doors, the main bonnet seal and the boot seal.  I need to see a car with the boot seal in place, because mine doesn't seem to be sitting properly.  (It's probably the wrong way round, but logically, it looks right!!).

Steve had a flat plastic tool that he lent me to help with seating the seals, but when he was away, I was struggling with a screwdriver to fit them, which wasn't working well.  Finally, in exasperation, I went to Canadian Tire, to see what they had on the shelf.  I found a nice little set of tools, designed for installing seals, which I bought, and which I found to work really well (photo below).

Seal Fitting Tools

There are two sets of these tools in the pack - the orange set is a softer plastic, and the black set is hard plastic.  I found the orange tool with the curved end was ideal for fitting the seals around the door frame, and used it continuously; the seal went in really quickly.  A good purchase!

Before fitting the seals, with Steve's help, I managed to install the two rear quarter lights.   I'd already worked out what fasteners I needed for the hinge plates (#8 UNF, I think), and once I'd got the countersunk version, we managed to get the hinge end in OK.  However, the tapped holes for the fasteners for the clasp at the back of the q-light were hidden behind the trim, with the trim not easy to get off.  However, I found some #6 UNF screws in the mess of parts that came with the car and, amazingly, they took up the thread with no problem.  A bit of luck, because it would have been a pain to have to work out what would fit in the hole, if I hadn't come across these.

That's the update for now.  I'll fill in on bumpers next time.