Off season Aspen projects have begun

[Aspen500]

Seems like once you hit 50, the past 50 years catch up with you all of a sudden. It isn't the thought of actually doing the exhaust, it's the up and down of crawling under the car, then getting back up over and over and over.

 

[M_Body_Coupe]

Seems like once you hit 50, the past 50 years catch up with you all of a sudden...

Nooo....take that back...!!! I just turned 50, what are you doing to me?

But truth be told, yup, I have to agree...there are some crazy ass engine/car wrenching things I did when I was 20-something (or even earlier) that today I would simply flat out walk-away from!

 

[Oldiron440]

Just wait until you get to 60...

 

[Aspen500]

A guy at work turned 50 last year and he said it's like everything changed all of a sudden. One time I always remember is when I was about 20 years old. I was staying at my uncle's for a month in the summer working in his body shop. He would have been pushing 50 at the time. One morning he came down the stairs with kind of a groan. I gave him some sh*t and said "oh come on, it can't be that bad old man!". He laughed and said "You wait, YOU just wait". I'll be darned if he wasn't right, lol!

 

[Duke5A]

I was about to give you all shit, then I realized I'm not that far behind. Lol.

 

[Aspen500]

Yep, just wait a few more years, you'll find out! lol

 

[Oldiron440]

It's nice when young women hold the door open for ya....

 

[Aspen500]

Ordered some poly shackle bushings from Mancini and, while I was there, ordered a front sway bar bushing poly kit. Also decided to order new hood pin scuff plates(Year One). They were brand new in 2012 and now they're, well,,,, scuffed and bugging me.

 

[Aspen500]

New hood pin scuff plates are on and look much better. To keep them from getting so gouged up, decided to install the primary latch and an inside release cable. Then I can raise the pins up slightly. Right now, the pins hold the hood shut, along with the secondary latch. I redid the primary and striker a long time ago, but never put them on the car and also had the remote cable on the shelf from a parts car. "Restored" the cable assy and now only have to convince myself to make the 3/4" hole in the firewall (without chipping the paint).

For the 1st time in 30 years, the console lid latches and latches securely and won't open up randomly while driving down the road. Got a new repro lock assy from Tony's Parts. They're made for early B and E body but fit an F-body console perfectly. The housing looks different than F-body but makes no difference in fit or function.

Still waiting on poly spring shackle bushings and front sway bar bushing kit from Mancini. I think they may be closed for Christmas and New Years(?) so maybe next week I'll hear something from them on the order.

 

[Aspen500]

Got the remote hood release and primary latch installed, mostly. Still need to find a couple correct screws to attach the handle to the dash, and also get the clip that holds the cable housing in the latch. It works good and after adjusting the hood pins up a tad, the scuff plates won't get scuffed as quick this time.

 

[M_Body_Coupe]

That paint finish is beautiful...!!!

 

[Aspen500]

That paint finish is beautiful...!!!

Thank you very much!

It was my first time using HVLP guns, which had a huge learning curve I found. Don't even want to think about how many hours there was of 1200, 1500, 2000 grit wet sanding and buffing......................Can't even imagine being physically able to do that now, lol!

 

[Aspen500]

I had ordered poly shackle bushings and poly front sway bar bushings kit from Mancin on-line. No charge on the Visa yet, no order confirmation either. Sent a couple emails, 2 weeks later still no response. Called them, no answer. Not sure what's going on there, hope they're not out of business or something.
Anyways, unless they had them in stock, wouldn't make much difference. The ones they sell are Energy Suspension brand so,,,,,,,,,went to Summit and found the bushings and kit. "Out of Stock", estimated arrival date of 02.28.22, rats. Found them in the Prothane brand and even worse, estimated arrival date 03.31.22 Thanks Brandon.

Guess it's time to dive back into the luggage compartment project at long last since I won't be doing the suspension for a while. Now watch, nobody will have heavy duty Velcro tape in stock that I need for the trunk panels, it'd just figure lately. Oh well, improvise, overcome, adapt. (To steal a phrase from Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Hiway)

 

[jasperjacko]

Yeah, everything on back order.

 

[80mirada]

I've been waiting on a vacuum guage for my dash since October

 

[Aspen500]

This is actually the first time I had a problem with something being backordered in something like 15 years. Was probably around 2005 or so, waited 5 months for a new toneau cover for my Dakota. Wouldn't have been so bad except ended up going all winter with an open bed. You know, snow and ice.......................

Looked around at a few more places to see if I could find bushings. Jeg's doeasn't even list shackle bushings, other than MP rubber ones. Checked B- and E-body, nil. As for the front sway bar stuff, um, nope. On a chance, checked Speedway Motors, nothing listed that I found. Even went so far as to check JC Whitney of all places. Who knew they were still around? They don't have anything either. Guess I'll just have to wait.

 

[Duke5A]

Mancini is just up the road from me. I was in there a week before Christmas to get the fittings to plumb my oil filter relocation. Everything seemed fine. They were busy.

 

[Aspen500]

Maybe that's it. Would still think I'd at least get some sort of order confirmation. Maybe it didn't go through and got lost in cyber space. Wouldn't be the first time with Frontier Yahoo email..................... What threw me is when I tried calling, I didn't get a busy signal, it just rang and rang and no answer.

 

[80mirada]

I think they close for the holiday week. At least I remember them doing that in the past

 

[Aspen500]

Appears I won't be able to get poly shackle or sway bar bushings until late April at the soonest Tore into the instrument panel to find, and fix, an annoying, irritating, constant buzz/rattle noise. Don't even have to be moving, just have the engine running in gear. Made sure all the wiring harnesses were secured well, wrapped foam tape around wiring where it contacts a surface, and put foam bits in the plastic harness routing clips. Amazing all the white plastic stick on clips were still attached. After all that, it turns out that the noise was probably the glove box lamp. It sticks in a hole and doesn't fit all that tight, and even with the glove box door closed it can rattle. So, a cut a piece of dense foam and put between the switch and side of the glove box so can't rattle. Also made a metal bracket to fix the broken mounting tab on the far right. Bad part about doing noise repairs in winter,,,,,,,,,,,no road test to see if it was a success. Time will tell.

These were taken before doing any actual noise abatement work.