I finally have the car! It arrived while I was in Manila for 2 weeks. My wife took delivery and out went my old rover, in went the 19 foot beast. I got home this morning at 5 AM, and after a reunion with my wife, went to see her. There are a few more rust problems, the paint job looks better in pics than it does in real life, the dashboard is in rougher shape than i could see from pics (veneer, chromed plastic trim that is painted black and is peeling off, radio glass is broken...) but I'm just to be honest so thrilled with the car.
Battery was dead, would not crank at all. Could not get the hood open - found the alignment is off. Had to tug the hood a little toward the left while pulling the 1st hood release. then got it open. pulled the battery - yikes rusted out battery tray. no problem. headed to autozone. battery was a bit under powered and pretty old, core traded it on a new 750 CCA Duralast Gold battery. Have a Duralast in my rover I'm really pleased with... anyway, new battery, battery hold downs, and some rust converter, head back home.
wire brush and shop vac'ed the old tray, pliered out some really bad metal. Had a roughly 7 inch by 6 inch sheet of steel lying around the garage, so while the rust converter was brushed on the existing remaining battery tray, i made a new piece of tray, folded up some edges... primed and painted that and set it down in the tray. it aint perfect, and i will replace with a more correct job later, but it did the trick. got the batter in next, sized the hold downs, cut then down with my hacksaw, wired up the battery... and...
IT's Alive! 472 Cubic Inches of madness. Got state inspection - safety only is required in TX for a car of this vintage. thank goodness bc i dont think she'll pass an emissions test any time soon. Ran back to autozone for engine flush, oil fiter, 5 quarts of oil. checked transmission - no burnt smell in the ATF fluid. Air filter is new. belts look pretty much as new. completely out of PS Fluid. Topped that off.
So... the list (after a couple hours)
-obviously PS leak somewhere
-she leeks oil. quickly. so i'm going to need to find that pretty fast.
-really all of the rubber gaskets - doors, windows, vent windows, hood, trunk, top.. they all need replacing. will post some pics...
-engine runs a little rough esp at idle. going to edumacate myself on timing. would appreciate opinions on benefit of converting to a pertronix or msd electronic igniton and coil.
-will be checking the spark plugs as well.
-fuel leak somewhere
-vacuum supply and return for the heater core vacuum valve under the hood is missing
-ps pump is a little wobbly - pulley seems not to spin uniformly on axis. am going to investigate if bracket or literally the pump is to blame
-hood hinge alignment is going to be in the near future - will search this forum but anyone who has learned the tricks here please let me know what you already know
-comments on whether i should use ZDDP at time of oil change?
-steering wheel is toast. i'd like to replace it with original or upgrade to keep the center /horn pad but replace the wheel itself with a wooden one. right now i have a pimp-ish steering wheel cover on it. any recommendations?
-radio has power but is a lost cause - the glass is broken, the station identifier wire is gone, it wont tune, the antenna is stuck up. so anyone who has a working antenna they'd like to sell or knows an appropriate OEM replacement please advise. as for radio i'm going to be looking to put in some kind of classic radio look alike that will interface with ipod. not going for huge sounds and i dont want amplifiers visible in the trunk... i just want to replace the speakers in the dash and footwells, in the rear and have a working radio. so anyone with good recommendation which after market radio to get please advise - i definitely want to preserve the function of the two separate side by side radio control knobs
-missing passenger side speaker for the kick panel - anyone got one to sell?
-clock is not working - looks like i will be digging into the dash. i have restored an old car clock before, my first suspicion is it may not be getting power. are these notorious for breaking?
-dont seem to have any dashboard lighting, so again... thinking theres a problem with power to the dash in general
-missing trip odometer reset pin/button - assuming one from any GM car of the period would probably work, please advise if mistaken
-cruise control - missing the selector lever. if anyone has one to sell
-fuse block was just hanging under dash. can anyone take a pic how this is supposed to be mounted and post here? i have tucked it up in the dash now but it not screwed into anything
-speedometer surrounding trim is black painted. looks like chromed metal underneath. trim ring around the wood veneer is also painted black and the paint is peeling off revealing chromed surface undneath. which is original/correct? chromed? black painted?
- im going to eventually re-veneer this panel, but if anyone knows where i can get the veneer pre-cut with adhesive, that saves hours, please advise
-rust in rear right quarter, looks like i will need a patch panel there. trunk lid and other areas show obvious bondo... i'll save the body work list for another time.
Most of that above is just an awesome list of little projects. Not really concerned - its all consistent with what Carchex found when they went to check the car out for me. Got my Shop Manual and Body by Fisher manuals on CD... one step at a time, and with your help (all you experts out there) this will be fun!
BTW: drives like a magic carpet on steroids. Brakes supprisingly well in a hurry.