3/31/00 Suspension Coming Together!

After my weekly struggle with the undercoating process (which is almost done!), I inspected the work François managed to put in on the front suspension. He got the right needle bearings for the king pin assemblies, and wanted to trial fit the front suspension before the springs are reinstalled. With everything in place we can see if there is any binding or roughness in the suspension travel, and address these problems now. François worked on the car Thursday, so when I arrived on Friday, the right side was done. Everything worked perfectly, and looked so nice all painted and nickel plated. François needed to work on a suspension piece at his shop, so the left side will need just a little bit more time, but so far it looks like everything will work fine. Compressing the front springs will take some creative engineering without the weight of the motor in the car, but we are in no rush. François says the rotors, and brakes can go back on, and the springs can be installed later. He obviously has a plan.

I  removed the pedal assembly from the car to undercoat the driver’s side floor pan. I already rebuilt this assembly, but I realized I forgot to paint the pedal levers. Since they will be seen inside the car, supporting the pedals, now was the best time to paint them. As I was cleaning the levers, I realized that the brake pedal “stop” was bent, allowing no adjustment of the pedal height. The current setting seemed fine, but it bothered me that the adjustable bolt was bent. If I put everything back in the car without fixing this problem, how much do you want to bet I’ll be needing an adjustment? I’ll be fixing this problem next week.

The stainless steel fuel lines came in the mail last week. It’s amazing how excited I can get over some tubing, but I guess you’d have to be a “gear head” to really understand! I pulled the old steel lines out of the car by cutting the line with a hacksaw at the bends. The last fuel line came out of the car spilling 20 year old fuel onto the floor. Stale fuel is a horrible smell, and reminds me of all the cars I’ve helped resurrect from some old barn or garage. Luckily that was the last piece of the fuel system that needed to be drained. Soon the fittings will be soldered onto the stainless lines, and a completely refurbished fuel system will be installed, hopefully not to be bothered with for as long as I own the car!

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