The Frame - Part 2

 Now that all four wheels were back on the ground, the engine and transmission in place there was just a little touch up work before moving on to the body. The original exhaust were low dual zoom, glass packed chrome trumpets. I had taken the heater boxes off the engine during the rebuild and added straight pipes in their place. with a little searching I was able to find the original low dual zoom chromes at CIP1 Some high temp exhaust paint new gaskets and the exhaust was in place.

Rebuilding the pedal assembly and master cylinder came next. The master cylinder had been replaced within the last few years from the look of it, so just a rebuild. New clutch cable, accelerator cable, and hook up the emergency brake cables to a new chrome handle. New pads on the three pedals, then temporary hook up of the brake reservoir. Adding fresh brake fluid and bleed out the system, fine tune the brake adjusters, brakes ready to go..

Next was rebuilding the rear axles with new CV joints, boots, grease and them mounting them in place. Rebuild the shifter assembly and after some minor adjustments to it drivetrain was ready to go. One other modification I made was to the front bumper brackets. The single bracket welded to the front suspension seemed a bit week, and I noticed the bumper vibrated when driving. I added brackets between the welded brackets and the fastening bolts for the front frame extension. I had to add a little bend to the new brace so it wouldn't hit the body when put back in place. I think it really "beefed"up the bumper. It was now time for the frame to change places with the body and start work on the upper half.

Compared to the frame you may say there wasn't a lot of work required on the body. In reality there was. I planned on going through all the wiring, all the gauges, wiper motor and linkage, then dropping the fuel tank and painting the interior fiberglass before putting both halves back together. I am getting ahead of myself though and that will be covered in another blog.