<VV> fun times with the '60 4-door

[Tony Underwood]

If jackleg mechanicking interests you, feel free to indulge me.  If 
not, delete.


A few of you may know about my '60 4-door.   I've owned it longer 
than anyone else in its lifetime.   It is cosmetically unrestored, 
originally white over silver, so you can imagine what it looks 
like.   It has a few miles on it.  I'm not sure how many times the 
odometer has been rolled over.   Several years ago it got a fresh 
engine which replaced the original one that swallowed a valve but was 
running well before it ate, albeit smoking a bit which was no 
surprise and I blamed it nary a puff.   Current engine runs like a 
champ.  Powerglide is untouched since '60, judging from the looks of 
the hardware that holds it in.   It could use a band adjustment... if 
you unplug the vacuum modulator valve it works fine; plug in the hose 
and Lo is kinda sloppy and wants to slip if you lug it hard.   But 
enough of that for the moment.


The front suspension was becoming an issue.  It had gotten to the 
point that I could "tapdance" on the brake and feel the front end 
thump.  Steering wasn't as sharp and tight as it oughta be.  Steer 
gear was snug...  but that could not be said for the rubber bushings 
in everything with a bushing.  Cracks, splits, hard as concrete, and 
no additional applications of Black Magic helped anymore.

Oddly enough, tie rod ends, ball joints, idler arm... all passed 
muster.  No slack or play, but every rubber bushing was long since 
pretty much shot.   So, out came the front suspension.   On hand is a 
freshened up '64 suspension with some care and feeding already applied.

This is where things diverged from what should have been a simple 
swap into a rather interesting endeavor.


Once underneath the car, I eyeballed everything to see what was 
what.  It had been a couple years since I'd crawled around under the 
'60 4-door.   First thing I saw was a rust hole on the outside of the 
box member behind the pass. side wheel, behind the rear cage nut 
bracket location.   I peeled undercoating off around the hole and it 
grew.  The more I peeled, the more it grew.   It ended up about 6" 
long.   Behind the same unibody member on the fuel tank side, the 
hole was not a hole but an absence of anything.   The whole backside 
of the box member was gone.   This had not been evident last time I'd 
had the tank out of the car (admittedly a few years ago).

I went ahead and removed the suspension at this point since it needed 
to come out in any event... and broke the passenger side rear mount 
bolt off in the process.   Snapped it off flush with the cage nut 
inside the bracket (same bracket that was hiding the ever-expanding 
rust hole).   More on that later.

I poked around some more once the suspension was out and noted that 
the area was also a bit sooty which pointed to the somewhat 
perforated (and now removed) heater exhaust pipe as having been the 
culprit.   Vision of Challenger came to mind.   Glad the hole was 
directed to the right side rather than to the left towards the fuel 
tank or something etc although I doubt it would have actually done 
anything either way.   Anyway it appears the heater exhaust may have 
cooked the undercoating and whatever paint was originally there and 
allowed the metalmites to do their thing.  Things were somewhat 
aggravated seeing as how much of the heater exhaust pipe was long 
gone and what was left was half-flat from one-too-many impacts with 
whatever the car had bumped its way over in the course of a 
half-century and admittedly I bumped it over some things along the 
way myself.   Anyway... so, break out the zip wheel and angle-grinder 
and the MIG welder.

Then I stopped breaking out the welder.   I smelled fuel.  Looked 
closer and saw a damp spot on the bottom of the tank.   About 2 years 
ago I'd repaired the tank after a blizzard left an iceberg in the 
road that I missed in the dark (well I missed it but the car didn't) 
which rumbled under and out from under the car as I passed over it, 
bashing a small dent in the right front corner of the tank along the 
way, leaving a crack that was dripping enough to run out 1/4 of the 
tank overnight.    Next day at work I commandeered the crane (we have 
a crane) and picked up the front of the car enough to "dangle" it 
sufficiently to tilt everything backwards so the appx 1/8 tank of 
fuel was sloshed to the back of the tank, thus not leaking anymore, 
allowing me to run the extension cord, with a heat gun attached, to 
cook the corner of the tank warm enough to get the JB Weld patch to 
cure up without waiting for 36 hours in the cold (it WAS 
wintertime).  This held long enough to last until spring when I 
assaulted that corner of the tank with fiberglass resin and mat which 
is doing fine.

But this leak was something new.   So before I could put the 
replacement suspension back in I had to repair the structural rust 
issue and before that could happen I had to fix the tiny pinhole 
(which leaked more and more with each rub I gave it with a shop rag) 
leak in the tank which was located right on the right rear corner 
about 3" from where the MIG welder would shower it with sparks and 
before I could fix the tank I had to drain about 7 gallons of fuel 
out of it and then flush it out and dry it since the hole was right 
on the lowest corner and it had to be dry before I could fix the hole 
and I was NOT gonna wrestle around with pulling the tank out, been 
there done that and I was NOT in the mood, besides, the car was apart 
now and up on jackstands and last time I took the tank out I had 
better facilities than the back driveway.  So, drain fuel, then flush 
out the tank with volatile solvents, then run a hose down the filler 
spout and blow it out with air for about 20 minutes or so, then let 
it dry overnight.  Following day, I scuffed the bottom of the tank 
clean, 'glassed over the pinhole and everything else that looked even 
remotely troublesome and let it cure overnight.  Next day after work 
I assaulted the box member with the bodywork box and whizzer wheel 
and zip wheel and grinder and cut patches for the box member, welded 
in two (the front-side patches) and before I could launch into the 
harder-to-get-to backside, a storm came up that blasted through like 
something out of a disaster movie, made the news twice that 
evening.  I did get everything put away before the deluge.

That was yesterday afternoon.

Today I'm waiting for things to dry out so I can finish the 
welding.   What should have been a 3 hour job turned into a 3 day 
affair.   I did spend some spare time welding a nut to the 
snapped-off bolt shank in the cage nut in the suspension mounting 
bracket, hit the backside of the cage nut with a torch and backed the 
broken bolt shank right out, no problem.

So, by week's end, the rest of the welding should be finished and 
painted-undercoated and the replacement suspension installed and 
brakes bled etc and then test drive... and wonder what the '64 sway 
bar up front is going to do to the car's handling.


OK, that's it for now, you can go do something else constructive.   I 
didn't mean to waste your time; just felt like grumbling and ranting.   :)



tony..