Here's the quick before and after on the parking brake. The finishes where they left things natural are hard to replicate, but the Eastwood "Detail Gray" comes close.

 

-- Edited by davepl on Monday 26th of February 2018 12:11:52 PM

I agree.  Your refurbishing job makes the parts look new!

Pretty much all abrasive blasting. Glass in some cases, black oxide in the rough metal cases. I've had reasonable luck masking and just being careful not to direct the spray of abrasive into moving parts. Then blow it out with compressed air and it's usually OK.

That might be true for parking brakes but not for power steering pumps, for example. Some stuff you just can't blast...

Looks good. Ahh, it also looks like the pin that operates the neutral safety switch is in fact on the clutch pedal.

Yes, it's correct. In the thread where you were talking about the neutral safety switch being bypassed and needed a new one, I thought you needed a new pin as well. I bought a reproduction pin, but can't remember where I got it. Glad you had the original pin.

Here are my pedals all restored and happy, at least as best I could do with the used parts I had since the brake pedal isn't reproduced and is super rare to find!  Then I wrapped them in baggies and they'll stay that way for a while!

-- Edited by davepl on Friday 2nd of March 2018 10:28:50 AM

nice job

You do nice work Dave. What finish did you use on the box? 

Got my block and crank back from the machine shop. So lucky that the damage that occurred from sitting happened to be in the cylinder that was already sleeved... only a 12.5% chance, but that's how it happened!

If you recall I bought this project with the drivetrain "already rebuilt".  But the cylinder needed a redo, and they found a LOT of things wrong.  Good thing we didn't just fire it up!

They went 40 over and new pistons. They were going to reuse the rods but two wrist pins fell out when they were disassembling (something about the last guys sanded the rod end?). So new rods. Crank .010 under I think. Big fat sleeve where that little thin walled sleeve was before.  The crank was already wearing in the beaings weird on the old rebuild so they cut the caps and line-honed the block as well.

Waiting on the heads, will start reassembly on Thursday I believe, then on to the dyno, then paint, then into the car so it can leave for metalwork!

-- Edited by davepl on Wednesday 28th of March 2018 11:00:07 AM

Here's Larry Webb, Q-Jet and Rochester FI guru with over 60 years at GM, tuning my carb. He actually had my friend that runs the shop turning down Q-jet rods on the lathe, which I didn't even know was possible!  That's not me in the background though, just FYI.

Made 402hp and 498 lb-ft of torque (at 2900). Valve floats at 5200, which surprised me, but the cam card even says "Valve Float: 5200". I'll post a dyno chart later when I get the raw numbers.

I did note that the increase in displacement is 3% from the overbore, and 103% of 390hp is 402 exactly!

-- Edited by davepl on Saturday 14th of April 2018 09:38:11 AM

-- Edited by davepl on Saturday 14th of April 2018 09:38:37 AM

I have a 4" zip disc, I can give that a shot in a few places. That standard 3" cutoff disc is slow going, most of it has been sawzall!

Here's how I painted my last one, which is how I'll do this one I expect. Bolts in place and so on, as you say, but likely a little more detailed than Tonawanda. No overspray

-- Edited by davepl on Saturday 14th of April 2018 12:08:21 PM