Mabel's Strip Tease

Well, Mabel bared all last night, interior stripped down to naked metal. The old gal is definitely showing the signs of her age. There's more than a few places in the floor pan where you can get a roadkill's eye view of the pavement whipping by under your feet. If her drivetrain were in place, that is.


Things weren't helped by the nasty old rags she's been wearing. At some point the interior carpeting had all been replaced with a rough-shod application of orange mat. There were portions of that rug that were damp even after being in a (mostly) dry garage for the last 10 months.



Nothing too interesting under the seats:


1 Quarter (1993), an old school pop top (I'll hazard from a beer can), one York "Xtra" peppermint patty wrapper, markings indicate maybe a 1983 vintage. Does that qualify as an antique? Previous to this expedition we did find a 1980's era Washington State ferry schedule under the seat, as well as the VIN plate.


In my prescient visions, I see a lot of grinding and welding in my future. Call it a hunch. :)

POWER

The Engine is pretty well assembled, and the tranny is attached. Boy is that thing heavy. Putting all that in place in one piece is going to be a challenge.

Tranny's Done

Got the Cast Iron Powerglide back from the overhaul shop. No problems were found. The overhaul was preventative in nature. Can't wait to get it in, but we have a lot of work to do first.

Engine Block Boring

The cylinder bores checked out to be 0.010 worn, not real cylindrical, with a bit of houglass taper. Into the boring machine she goes. It will take 0.040 oversize to get clean and true bore holes. Not bad, as this is a standard size piston. The engine should be ready for reassembly next week. The last 3 photos are videos. Click on the arrow.

CAST IRON POWERGLIDE

The damm thing weighs a ton. It takes a crane to get it in the van or on the bench. And to think, Doug and I pulled this thing out with the engine attached. We got it cleaned up and off to the rebuild shop. Below are the photos of the initial disassembly. All the hardware looks good. I got the overhaul kit in todays mail, so next week some time, we should get it back.

Engine tear down

As much as we were trying to avoid rebuilding the bottom end of the engine, once it was out and up in my shop, there was no turning back. I pulled off the flywheel and housing and mounted it on my stand. I stripped off the harmonic balancer, timing gears, and removed the cam. I reamed the ridge off the top of the cylinders and pulled all the pistons. Then out came the crank. The cam looks OK, but we will probably replace it anyway. There are signs of wear and some pits, besides we already have the new lifters. I found broken top compression rings in the #2, 3, & 7 holes but no damage. Cylinders and pistons look pretty good. All the bearings looked real nice, as do the journals. I got everything cleaned up and brought it up to the machine shop for measurement and assessment. I am hopeful that we can hone the cylinders, throw in a new set of rings and bearings and get away cheap. I don't want to bore it out unless I have to, as that would mean all new pistons. We'll make the decision by the numbers. Should know more in a few days.

Engine comes out

After much consternation, Doug and I decided that it would be best to yank out the engine and tranny. Cleaning the engine compartment will be much easier and I can do a much better rebuild on the engine when I have it out and on a stand. So Fathers Day, Out it came.

I picked up a good crane off Craig's list, set it up and we had the whole thing out in pretty short order. That assembly is HUGE!

We split the tranny off the engine and loaded it all up for a trip up to the Spa.