Here is what’s been happening since the last update.

When we started on this car it sat real low in the back end. I thought for sure that some of the leaf springs were broken or just plain wore out. But if you read the earlier articles you might remember that the rear spring mounts on the frame were bent in because of a weak area on the frame. We opted to take our chances and rebuild the old leaf springs hoping that the repairs to the frame would solve the problem of it sitting low. New springs are available but they are somewhat expensive. I thought it would be worth it to take our chances and rebuild the originals. We did an inexpensive rebuild to the springs just in case they don’t work and we have to replace them in the future.

The springs were disassembled and lightly sandblasted to remove the rust scale. We then purchased a quart of Rustoleum satin black from the local hardware store. I thought for this application it would be perfect especially five dollars a quart compared to fifty for automotive paint. We thinned it down a little with some lacquer thinner so that we could spray it through a gun. I was impressed with the paint because it really is tough. The downside is it dries slow. I purchased some Poly-Slide from Macs Auto Parts. It goes in between the leafs to prevent squeaks and makes the springs work better because they slide against each other easier. We then re-assembled them back together. So lets hope they work as good as they look.

This car has a hydraulic pump that runs all four side windows, the front seat and the convertible top. The pump was sent off to get rebuilt at a reputable repair shop. Later they contacted us saying that it couldn’t be rebuilt because the gear inside was frozen but we could update to a newer pump for nine hundred dollars. I really didn’t want to do that because we are trying to keep the car all original plus I want to keep the costs down for the customer.

So a few times a week for about a month I would surf eBay hoping to find something. I was lucky enough to find one in Canada. It was off of a 1951 Lincoln Cosmopolitan. The description in the auction said there was fluid still in the lines when it was unhooked. I kinda doubt that now.

This is the original pump beside the eBay pump. Notice the fluid on the floor when we took the eBay pump apart. The fluid had turned to what appeared to be sand and it smelled horrible.

It all has worked out good so far because with both pumps I will be able to make one good one. The gear in the eBay pump was good.

The frozen gear is in the case on the right. The eBay pump case is the left.

We started the body repairs to the left upper quarter panel. It was a nice panel to begin with but it needs to be nice and straight for the new paint. The body filler is super thin and there was only one small ding on the entire panel. This shows just how straight a factory panel is…..not very straight. A small skim coat of filler is better than a whole lot of primer to fill the factory waves.

Stay tuned!