[Rachelsdad]

Congrats on the tires and the toys!

For years (decades), I lived with a non-inductive timing light (my dad bought it in the late '60's, early '70's, along with the analog multimeter I have). I finally got myself an inductive timing light with integral tach a year ago, I guess.

Timing lights were much more useful when fuel was "as expected." They are still useful, particularly for beginning the timing process, but a good set of ears has to take precedence. We'll go into all of that in due course.

Now, I think you mentioned Pertronix, which takes the place of mechanical points. If that's the case, you likely won't be using your meter for dwell angle setting, but you can do lots more with it.

Last thought about your tires: ISTR some wide white fake sidewall things available at some point. If these are still available, they might get you the right look and save your budget. (For all I know, I might have seen them in a JC Whitney catalog in the 70's.... Until recently, wide whites haven't been "things" for me.) Edit: These are/were called "portawalls" or "Port-A-Walls" - I had to think on that for a couple of minutes.

[Jack Gifford]

Originally Posted by Rachelsdad

... ISTR some wide white fake sidewall things...

I've used Porto-walls back in the day. I don't recall wide-white ones ever being available. Mine were all about 1" whitewalls with about 1" black between the rim and the whitewall, to mimic whitewalls of the sixties.

[Rachelsdad]

Originally Posted by Jack Gifford

I've used Porto-walls back in the day. I don't recall wide-white ones ever being available. Mine were all about 1" whitewalls with about 1" black between the rim and the whitewall, to mimic whitewalls of the sixties.

Jack, I did a quick search around the net, and it appears that both 2" and even 3" Portowalls are available here and there (eBay, Amazon, etc.). Who knew?

Originally Posted by Parkman51

So, for today's two questions...
1. According to the manuals, you're only supposed to apply weatherstripping sealant to the bottom third of the doors. Assuming this is correct, why would it be so? Wouldn't it be better to have the whole thing sealed?
2. Other than the above, what are some other bits of physical/appearance maintenance I can perform while the rest of the car is napping?

Okay, so... It is fine to put adhesive all the way up and around. You don't want to over-do it, of course, as then you'll have some messy cleanup, but you want the seal to be tight against the door. As for why the manual says that, my only thought is that the bottom 1/3 was considered the bare minimum for the weatherstrip to seal, leaving the clips and screws (if any) to hold it in place. Ignore that, however; your thinking is correct.

As for other things to do, you could get under the front and check for play in the various steering components and grease things up. Be sure to clean the zerk fittings well first, so you don't push dirt into the joints with the grease. You want to put in enough grease to make the boot puff up (assuming there are grease boots at all on these cars), but not so much that it's blowing out all over the place. I use a pneumatic grease gun except for my silicone grease which I use for polyurethane bushings (irrelevant for this discussion). That said, a decent hand-operated gun should do fine. Get the right sized tubes for the gun, of course (or vice-versa). Good use of your downtime. Edit: Looking at the ship manual now, I see that my prior mention of zerk fittings and such seems to have been off-base, as I can't even find points to grease. (Guys, a little help here?) It does seem like (and ISTR) wear may occur in the kingpin bushings, so the wheel-wobble would help identify that. Again, I'm somewhat out of my depth WRT kingpin suspensions, so I'll need to defer to those who know.

Back to Pertronix for a moment: I may have been thinking of a different thread. Honestly, at least for pedagogical purposes, I'd stick with points and condenser for now. You can always upgrade the ignition at a later date, and learning - and applying - the theory of how these things work is valuable in and of itself.

[Parkman51]

Today, I...
Removed the emblems (tapped them out from behind with a square rod)
Cleaned and polished behind them to remove any buildup (the adhesive remover I got last week does wonders to knock stuff loose)
Drilled a wooden jig to temporarily hold the emblems
Wire-brushed to remove flaky white paint, cleaned up the corners with steel wool
Primed
Painted



Tomorrow I'll let the paint cure all day. The day after, I'll do some very careful masking and then paint the lips white, then top with a clearcoat.

[Parkman51]

Decided to advance the procedure slightly, and masked this evening. White paint tomorrow and clearcoat.



Plus, great news from White Post - they shipped me something today! Wonder what it could be...

Tomorrow, I think I'll order a hatful of rubber from Ames, I've got a few bumpers and stops to replace around the car.

[Parkman51]

Added the white paint, but unfortunately it bled in places under the mask I added, so the finished product is rather sloppy. Still, valuable experience was gained - I'll strip the paint and try again!