Waiting for Parts



I seem to be stalled on a bunch of projects in the shop. Sometimes with special cars, getting parts fixed, refurbished, or even obtained can be a challenge. Knowing who and where to get them is hard enough, but these days, shipping parts has slowed down, so it’s added to the struggle of getting cars fixed and sent out!

I sent the brake shoes out on this Alfa for relining, so I’m waiting for them to return.

In the meantime, I searched the car for other things that may contain asbestos and saw the familar white material on the back of the brake master cylinder heat shield.

I removed the offending panel.

The brown Dino is also waiting for water pump parts. I still had a lot of original hoses, and I think it’s time to replace them before they ruptured.

While the cooling system was apart, I wanted to take a look at the water pump so I pressed out the center shaft and started to clean up some of the scale and corrosion inside the water pump housing.

When cars sit for long periods of time, little spots of corrosion will form and as I removed some of the scale I noticed a spot that was getting a little deep. With a small pick, I managed to poke through the housing to an adjacent water passage. The solution was to either have this water pump housing welded and repaired, or get a new one. Since this particular water pump is available complete, I’ll get the replacement because it will be cheaper than finding a competent welder to do the work.

Tom Wilson’s White GTE is getting a whole bunch of things done and right now, I have the speedo angle drive out for repair, along with the water temperature sending unit. Hopefully I’ll have these back in a week or so, depending on the shipping.

The drive shaft needed to be balanced, but before I sent it out, I wanted to address some issues.

The driveshaft was powder coated, but the bolt holes were not cleaned out when everything was assembled. They were completely locked in place with the extra powder coating. When I tried heating the bolts up to pull them out, they would temporarily release, but would immediately re seize when the paint cooled and hardened. I ended up pressing them out with a hydraulic press! With everything finally apart, I spent the time and sanded the paint out of the holes so the bolts would slide in smoothly. This will make it a lot easier to assemble and disassemble in the future. I also cleaned the socket at the end of the driveshaft and added grease. This would ensure the driveline was working properly and well lubricated.

The fourth car stuck waiting for parts is the blue Dino. The speedometer was making noise so it needed to go to my gauge guy. The speedometer cable was not long enough to give me enough slack to release it from the gauge cluster, so I had to disconnect it from the transmission in the back of the car so I could unscrew the fitting on the back of the speedo. The car now sits in the air waiting for the speedo!

People see pictures of the shop, and notice there are no lifts for the cars, and always say I need to get a one. When I worked at Francois’ shop we didn’t have lifts either, and we were used to it, but when cars are sitting around my shop waiting for parts to arrive, I can now see a benefit to using jack stands. All of these cars needed to be up in the air to wait for parts. If I had a lift or two, I would have to put the wheels back on and move the car before I could put the next car on the one or two lifts I have room at my shop. Equipment purchased for a shop doesn’t pay itself back unless it’s being used, but moving cars to utilize the use of lift also wastes time and money. I’m fortunate to have enough room at my shop to leave a dead car in position on jack stands for me to work on the next car, but these days, it’s getting s little tight!