Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so here's why we've been driving around without a hood, 80's style

remember a year ago we took the hood down to bare metal and than painted the top green and POR15ed the belly

well I screwed up I used Muriatic acid instead of Phosphoric acid (hey acid is acid ain't it) and make a long story short the rust came back

I saw a car show not to long ago where the builder wanted to do a fake "patina" on his Rat Rod and said all you have to do is put some Muriatic acid on a brand new sheet metal and that will accelerate the rusting process, oh great

gentlemen having done all that hard work, this honestly made me sick to my stomach

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so absolutely hating to do things over (like most of you I'm sure) and since this hood has reversed tacoed on me on the freeway and since I have a lead on another hood, I put absolutely minimal effort in prepping this thing for a re coat with POR15

so first I washed the darn thing in Phosphoric acid, than washed it off with water, oh and rain

after that I just knocked off only the minimal loose rust so we will see how POR 15 really sticks to all this rust, after all that is what the directions say, they don't tell you to take it down to bare metal

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

now I have half donkeyed things in the past, seldom but sometimes I do, and let me tell you I am amazed when some of those doings / projects actually out last or out perform the ones I nearly killed myself on doing right

so here is that hood re coated with POR15 in disgust - may it Rust in Peace

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

That hole is to prevent an air lock. If the thermostat seals well you can trap an air bubble behind it, then the thermosat does not see a 'wet' hot condition and may not open in a timely fashion. The classic symptoms of this is poor heater performance (since flow is impaired) and high engine temperature (since the temp sensor is often below the trapped air bubble, and / or not at the thermostat), or on fuel injected cars using dual sensors, poor performance (car knows its hot and starts adding fuel and pulling timing... but the gauge says all is good). This is particularly common on the first fill and break in start up which is why 'some' people recommend no thermostat (FYI that is the wrong answer for anything but a drag car that is going to go get a hose stuck in it for cooldown. Engines like to run at a steady temeprature where they can be tuned for efficiency). Back in the day I improved cooling performance or driveability on many a car by drilling that small hole to allow air to self purge.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

POR-15 is a water cured urethane (not really a paint). It needs something rough to grab on. It will not stick unless the surface is contaminate free (clean) and rough. That's why it works good on rust (lots of little cracks and pores) and simply does not stick on clean smooth surfaces. It doesn't really chemically bond well, the attachment is more mechanical. It works by sealing the air away from the rust site, stopping firther oxidation.
Muriatic acid on the surface under it created a new layer of damage between what the POR was bonded to and the good metal. Now the POR is no longer 'attached' to the surface and just flakes off. BTDT.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

went out and bought more legos today, surely there's got to be a bypass hose solution somewhere among them

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so our mission should we choose to accept it, SIMPLE... replace that straight 3/4" hose fitting with a 45* degree one, connect the bypass hose and have a beer, how hard could it be?

alright, so we got the old fitting out, did a stare and compare for the audience, and screwed the new one in, using that white goop on the threads, which is absolutely fantastic, love that stuff

well, it all screwed in nice, and looked good, but it did not work, the hose was too kinked, and we did not have a pre molded one to use, so back to the drawing board we went

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I know, let's give that 90* fitting a try now with its little buddy the extension it should screw in just fine

ok, stare and compare - check

screw the base in - check

screw the 90 in - check

looks kinda hokey and too modular but it will pass the 50 feet rule, and still impress the ladies I'm sure

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

OK, let's conectize that bypass hose and have that beer, lets go

again, someday we will find a molded 3/4" hose to take this one's job, but for now it will do... [say it with me now] IT'S A TRUCK !!!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and for a test drive we went, we had to see if running a bypass hose would test any different than running the heater core, and it looks good, no difference a bit cooler actually at 184* F but that's because it was a bit cooler outside today during the test, 86* F instead of 88* F like yesterday

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

FORUMnians let me take you to the College of NPT Knowlege, for those of you uninitiated NPT stands for National Pipe Thread, or as I like to call it Eh Close Enuff thread size, for instance believe it or not the sizes of the temperature sending units below are 1/8", 3/8" and 1/2" in NPT lingo, and not that at all in the real world, but that's par for the course, their accompanying adapters, reducers as they are sometimes called, or even shims I placed next to them so you can see how we can take the 1/8" thingmajig and make it fit into the 70's heads or the 90's heads

word on the street is that when you buy a universal gauge these days it comes with a sending unit in a size of 1/8" and places like Summit know that you need 3/8" so they throw in the 1/2" adapter for FREE, LOL, others like Autometer (pronounces: OVERPRICED) will give you a couple adapters like the 3/8" and 1/2", guilt I think, guilt makes them throw those in, ha ha

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

gentlemen, clearly there is no shortage of work in The Greg's Garage, and what I should have been doing was bolting up the hinges so we could put the hood back on, or troubleshooting that annoying ticking sound, or dialing in the timing advance, but instead we did what any unreasonable Hot Roder would do, we tinkered with something totally else

I mean we can't have that water temp gauge sitting atop the dash like that, that's Amateur Hour people, - amateur hour, what are we Ford Owners or something...

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

folks I don't know about you, but I have never been more underwhelmed with a tool than I am with the Dremel, it never ceases to unimpress me, it's such a toy, such a gimick tool

here we are trying to cut some measly plastic and all it does is what it always does, it just melts it

even when we went out and spent like $15 bucks on these tiny cut off wheels, all they do is melt the plastic, oh excuse me, melt it less, ha ha

I think they do such a lame job at cutting so they can sell you yet another attachment, like their lame sanding wheel, ha ha

so here we have it, 1, 2, 3, and 4 holes trimmed and sanded semi flat

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so time for a trial fit, fits pretty good, almost perfect, now the old gauges believe it or not where not really on center in those holes they are kind juxter posed so we could kill ourselves sanding and trying to get our perfectly centered but than the holes may end up too big, so we are just going to call it good enuff

with the provided back clip this is almost too easy, and how sexy is that, I mean have you seen anything sweeter

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

as you can see we installed the oil gauge already above the water one, and also installed the oil pressure sending unit, but did not have a chance to run the wires yet, we will do that tomorrow

here is my old oil pressure sending unit on the left compared to the Summit brand one on the right

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I also returned the water temp sending unit to it's natural habitat in the left cylinder head between the #1 and the #3 cylinders and plugged the holes in the temporary water outlet, I will be putting my old one back on tomorrow, no need for all those scars and holes and clutter, so unpleasing to the eye, and the Pebble Peach judges are such sticklers for de-tail

can't wait to test drive the truck tomorrow and see how much hotter if any the water temp gauge reads now that the sending unit is in the cylinder head

Also Note: and I may have said this before, eventually I plan on running two water temp gauges, pulling signals from both cylinder heads, (now accepting donations, lol, jk)

I also must have set a Wold Indoor Record for the most times draining the coolant and refilling it freestyle in 72 consecutive hours, ha ha, no kidding and not a drop went a wasted, ok a few drops snuck by, sue me

and those hose clamps, or as I like to call 'em Weapons of Mass Destruction or WMDs, those will be replaced with T-Bolt style ones too, man I can't stand those slotted sharp as a knife ugly blades

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and I leave you with a little then and now, engine shots, oh how far we've come Rusty

... yes the wiring is still a mess

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Rusty marks incredible improvement as I can see :D good job!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Sorry Gregski but I am going to be a bit critical here and say that NPT actually stands for National Pipe Thread Taper. This is because if you look at the actual threading you'll notice it is "tapered. :)

The rest is looking good and that engine bay looks awesome. If you are wanting to NOT have a kinked hose you could look into either a internal or external spring like they put into the lower radiator hoses.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Very nice Greg. I really like to alternator relocation. It adds symmetry to the engine. That green wire looped around the heater hose is a nice touch too, it adds a little more green accent to the green engine bay. :)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

How come you didn't just come off the very front of the intake and into the pump. That's where the bypass hose was on our work truck. Just curious. Looks great either way. The engine bay looks great

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Thanks for making me laugh, that made my day!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

OK, so first thing today we checked that transplanted reverese switch from the Muncie to the New Process transmission and it works beautifully

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

then we took the truck for a test drive to see what the coolant temperature sending unit would read now at it's new location in the driver side cylinder head and it reads about the same 183* F granted it was a bit cooler this morning

however note the almost 10* change ie increase to 192* F when the truck is turned off in the garage at the end of our 30 minute test drive, ever wonder why the electric fans keep running after you shut your car off for a while while you hit the liquor store? well they is a coolin your enjin, my German automobile even had two water pumps a mechanical and an electronic and it ran the electronic one after I shut off the car as well as the fan to keep the coolant circulating even after the car was off, food for thought

so now do you see why the Greg stepped down to a cooler thermostat of 180*, he don't want them Vortec heads a crackin' after he turns Rusty off one Hot August Night

~ I'm just sayin' folks, I'm just sayin'

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

remember how the Greg deleted the High Beam / Low Beam switch off the floor, well now no headligths work at all, IMAGINE THAT?

so next we had to install a loopback wire to get the lowbeams to come on, no that's not a fuse in the wire, we had to use a butt connector on two wires with blade connectors already on them since we did not have any spare blade connectors to build a new wire, yes we are poor right now

hey it's a temporary permanent solution, you know what I'm sayin' Vern?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

then it was time to wire up that brand new made in the U.S.A. Summit brand oil pressure gauge, and so we did

here it is on for the very first time

00 and OIL how simple is that - sometimes less is more

apologies for the camera it don't like things shining lights back at it

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

reading 48 PSI of OIL pressure and 140 degrees Far -n- High for the coolant temperature while the truck warms up

things are looking good...

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and with the truck warmed up 22 PSI OIL pressure while sitting at a red light idling with the truck nice and warmed up at a cool 185* F, ha ha

did I mention I absolutely LOVE these gauges ! love em!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so a little recap on my hood hinges

in the beginning they were rusty, typical for 40 year old

so I used Muriatic acid to clean them up real good down to bare metal - that acid was a mistake

then I painted them black (no primer, the paint said primer was optional)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so I neutralized them in baking soda water and then bathed them in Phosphoric acid this time, then I shot them with paint over rust primer and than a couple coats of semi flat black paint

you have no idea how much I dreaded doing this over again

hey if Hot Rodding was easy everybody would be doing it!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

now a good way to test if your hinges are shot is giving them the good ol' wigglability test, there should be no play in the rivets, you will know what I am talking about, best to have the hood off for a true wiggle test of one hinge at a time

mine believe it or not are nice adn solid, no free play, so I just needed to grease them before installing them, I thought about using a suringe or something to get some whitle grease in there but the tolerances are just way too tight, so I shot them with my trusty chain lube that my garage door guy turned me on to, and this stuff is AmazeBallz good, a few squirts with a can with the red straw attached for pin point accuracy and they were ready for another 40 years (provided they don't rust up again, ha ha)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

let me show you the best way to clean your old rusty bolts...

... BUY NEW ONES!

be nice to me and I may even tell you my supplier

I used to clean them, I used to wire wheel them and sometimes they even cleaned up pretty good, but then what do you do with them how do you prevent them from rusting up again, how do you coat them, that silly Eastwood black coating kit is a joke and a total waste of money, so these are so cheap when you buy them in bulk and all the threads are perfect, it's becoming a no brainer

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

How do you prevent the hood from popping up at 75 MPH on the highway?

You install a second hood latch!!!

No just kidding, I had to buy a second one cause the big spring broke in mine.

Funny story actually. Originally my little spring was broken, so I bought a used baby spring at a junk yard, then after I painted my latch I noticed now my big spring was broken, so I thought that's strange, how could I have missed that, and why would I have painted a broken latch (it's all riveted so it's hard to just replace that big spring)

So I bought a second latch with both good springs. And so I dipped this one in a light bath of water and Phosphoric acid (like a 25 to 1 mix) to take the rust off and a day or two later I go to take it out, and its all shinny and rust free, but low and behold the baby spring is half gone, the acid must have ate it... which is what I think happened to the big spring on my original latch.

So are springs made out of some type of different metal that does not respond well to acid baths?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

what, this is boring?, I know right, well the point is there was a ton of work in this radiator core support replacement Willy, and you know what they say the devil's in the details... but hold on, we are almost done, I promise...

*** Added a TABLE OF CONTENTS to the very first post with the Thread Numbers. ***

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

with the belly of the hood re POR15ed I thought this was a perfect opportunity to try out my Summit thread chasing set, and it worked great, though I didn't know if I was supposed to lube it with something or not, so I used what I had some good ol' trusty WD40

The Greg is trying to do things right, trying to do it right, that's all

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I even managed to get that big hood release spring back in while keeping the scratches in the new paint well within the recommended tolerances, ha ha

not too shabby if you ask me

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

one last thing I had to do before putting the hood back on was to take a stab on troubleshooting that ticking noise as it was driving me crazy and preventing us from hearing that wonderful Flowmaster note (yeah remember we got a new exhaust on...)

so we took the distributor cap off of that ProForm H.E.I. unit, and wiggled it to see if there was anything a loose in there, and nope, it seems solid

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

this exposed the white rotor, so we pinched it between our index finger and thumb and wiggled it a bit back and forth and it seems like there is a bit of play there and it's not as tight as we expected or would have hoped for

so we took the white rotor off to take a peak underneath, and I gotta tell you this entire weights and shafts and cams conglamoration is loose like a goose, I mean it aint gonna come apart and granade itself but it clunks and tings and pings when I wiggle it

so I took some white lightning grease and using a tiny flat screw driver lubed it up some, now I don't think I is supposed to do that as it will probably fly right off, but a few dabs here and there at least to keep it quiet during a test drive would be a win, would help us pin point the culprit

but no, the tapping noise is still there, mostly on accelaration now, but I am still convinced it's coming from that distributor

I just wish I had a stock OEM GM factory HEI distributor to wiggle to compare it to, I have said this before, we learn tons from staring and comparing, and in this case tandem wigglin'

Gentlemen I believe a GM Chevrolet Performance H.E.I. distributor part number 93440806 will be on our door step early next month in a brown box with the words Summit on its side, as the finance minister won't allow it this month, ha ha