The rest

Just a small "misc" post to inform you about all the little things that I did the past weekend.

I bent some new trans cooler lines. I also had to bend a new brake line as the one I bought was too short.

I didn't get a chance to replace the rotten sheet metal as Reijo was out of town (I'm not a good welder and he's a great welder so better wait for him ;).

Hopefully I'll be able to swing by the garage later today (despite my cold) and tomorrow (holiday here in Sweden).

Even more painted

These posts all start to look alike but that's because there's a lot to be painted right now. Despite it taking time it's still fun to see everything coming together.

The latest stuff

Not a lot done done since the last post but that's mostly because cleaning and painting the engine parts takes time. Not to mention that removing the old lines took for ever.

I did get quite a few engine parts painted. I also got new brake lines to replace my old ones.

I'm hoping to replace all the sheet metal for the battery tray by tomorrow as well as shape and install the new brake lines.

A deadline!

One of my garage buddies got me a time at the DMV the 22'd of May so now I have to get busy. :)

This is good because I have an actual date that I have to have the car done. It's bad because now I have to work on the car even if/when I don't feel like it which might affect the quality of the work done.

Still, no turning back now. :)

Replacing the battery tray

The battery tray and surrounding sheet metal was long gone on this car so Reijo helped me cut out the rotten metal.

The inner fender connects to the frame via a plate that in turn is connected to the frame via a rubber bushing. This plate was in pretty bad shape as well.

We decided to keep it though and after some intense wire brushing it looked almost decent. Since it's been eaten by rust we'll reinforce it with some new metal.

After this has been done we'll fabricate new sheet metal and start repairing the fenders. Then it's just a couple of coats of paint and installing the battery tray. :)

Painting the engine

Long time since the last post - I've been busy though. :)

I've gotten most of the engine painted, although it needs another couple of coats to look the way I want it. I've run out of paint though so I'm waiting for that at the moment.

The hardest part when painting the engine has - of course - been getting it clean enough to paint. There are a lot of nooks and crannies in an engine and it's surrounding parts.

With the use of power tool wire brushes and generous use of brake cleaning fluid (as suggested by a member of the V8Buick.com forum) I got most of the parts clean enough to paint though.

The second hardest part of this is getting paint in all of these nooks and crannies, without getting too much paint on all the other parts of the engine. I still have a couple of places where I'll need to touch up with some more paint.

I had initially planned on painting all of the bolts for the engine in black but that proved to be too time consuming (putting the engine together, paint it, taking it apart, paint the bolts, put it back together once more) so I just painted the bolts for the intake as for now.

I might paint other bolts - for accessories and such - in red (as these parts are in black), all depending on how much time I have.

The single biggest problem I encountered was when the gasket for the oil pan crept out as I put on the oil pan. I didn't notice either so it sat like this for a day or two. I managed to reseat it pretty good though so it should stay tight.

Painting the firewall and cutting out rust

Yesterday I painted the firewall. There are some areas that are harder to reach than others but I think it'll be quite good when I'm done.

I also started cutting out rusted sheet metal from under the battery tray. I'm guessing it'll be a bit tricky to repair as the inner and outer fender overlap but I'll cut out the bad and keep as much good as possible and go from there.

More paint!

Well, not a lot to add besides the fact that I painted even more of the engine room as well as my old headers and a couple of engine accessories.

I'll try and get the firewall done today.

Time for paint

I finally got the engine room as clean as I can, given the time and money I have available, and started painting it yesterday.

I'm using a matte enamel acrylic paint that others in my garage has used with great success. You might wonder why I went with matte and not semi-gloss or even gloss and the sole reason is that there was no semi-gloss and I think that gloss is too shiny.

My reasoning is that with a matte engine room the engine will stand out even more (which, by the way, will be painted in proper Buick red and have semi-gloss black accessories). This might prove to be completely wrong but then I have a reason to do it again. :)

Unfortunately the paint for my engine didn't arrive yesterday and since it's Easter it won't arrive until next Tuesday at the earliest. I still have a couple of things to paint over at my brothers place (where they can dry in peace) and the engine room isn't finished either so it's not like I don't have anything to do.

Still, it'd be nice to get the engine back together. I have a pretty ambitious idea for how to paint the engine, we'll see how far I get when it comes to implementing it. ;)

Cleaning

I've spent most of the past days cleaing the engine and the engine compartment. I finished up the timing cover, the waterpump and the intake yesterday.

I also got started on the engine compartment but I'll need to go over it once more to get all the old dirt and grime out of there.

The engine will be painted as soon as I get gaskets and paint. Should be fun. :)

Brand new parts and a gift!

Earlier this week I got the parts from TA Performance for the oil pump - all I'm waiting for now in order to put the engine back together is a set of gaskets and the paint.

I quit my job this friday and as a goodbye gift I got this very nice tool box. It's not the most expensive or robust thing in the world but it's still a great place to store my tools.