Showing posts with label 1965. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1965. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Trunk restoration (part 2)

Picking up where I left off with the trunk,

I used a vacuum cleaner to suck up all the dust and sand that was in the wheel wells and behind the rear quarters. Reason for doing this was the rust prevention product I was going to spray with an air gun next. It's important that the spray reaches (or seeps into) all nooks and crannies. Dust and sand get in the way and soak up the product. 

The product I used is Caprotech RX5, "a transparent product with a strong penetrating formula, penetrates through existing rust and bonds to the metal, completely isolating existing rust". The air gun is intended to be used with undercoating and rust prevention products (not with paint). It came with two nylon hoses about 2.5 feet long; one has a tip that sprays 360 degrees, the other one has a grip and nozzle that's at an 90 degrees angle. The two 55 litre LPG made it a bit difficult to see if I had reached everywhere so I simply sprayed until drips were forming at the lowest points on the outside of the car (doglegs, rear wheel arch etc.) 
 


Next I doubled-up on the sticky-back asphaltic sound deadening material where the factory placed it but I also stuck it on the trunk floor and the flat pieces that go over the 'frame' rails. If you knock in different areas you get a very good idea where you do and don't need to put this stuff. I'm not going to place additional sound deadening material because that was already done in the passenger compartment when a PO had the interior redone. 

So far I was only able to fit the first five pieces of the trunk kit from Leather Restorations/Jim Wallace. They cover the upright area in front of the rear bumper and tail lights. It took a bit of trying because I had to take into account the hoses, lines and cables from the LPG installation. It covered up 90% of that mess, which is better than I had expected. In a normal trunk the kit would fit no problem. Good stuff. Though it a good idea to test fit everything before you start spraying glue. 


At first I thought to cover-up the two LPG tanks with old leather travelling bags or suitcases. But this called for using parts of the trunk kit that just don't fit right or look presentable. Instead I opted to build covers for both tanks that - as luck would have it - fit very nicely with the trunk kit pieces I still can use. They line-up with the largest piece in the trunk kit - the one that covers the floor and gas tank.

I used hard-board, duct tape, bendy plastic and PVC pipe (for the rounded edges). It's a cheap and effective solution but it takes a few hours of cutting and fitting and cutting and fitting and cutting and fitting etc. It doesn't look like much now but wait until they're covered with the extra trunk liner material I ordered with the trunk kit.



Thursday, September 4, 2014

The need for my steering gear mounts - replacement kits


This video graphically illustrates the need for my steering gear mounts - replacement kit. Not only do worn out steering gear mounts lead to annoying and costly repairs. When they break they are potentially dangerous: imagine driving around with a steering gear box that's no longer attached to the frame:


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Monday, September 1, 2014

62-68 Continental & 62-66 Thunderbird steering gear mounts - replacement kit

This kit is a direct replacement for the three original 'steering gear mounts' or 'insulators' (C3SA-3C716-A). These were installed on 62-66 Ford Thunderbirds and on 1962-1968 Lincoln Continentals (used on vehicles built after July 13th 1961). The kit includes three solid steel donuts and three grade 8 bolts (the original lock washers and thick metal washers can be re-used). The bolts are sourced from a reputable US supplier. 

The three new bolts included in the kit are necessary because your three old ones will be too short. The old bolts thread into the insulators which in turn thread into the steering gear box. The new bolts will simply go through the solid steel donuts and thread directly into the steering gear box.

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$75 shipped within the Continental US (USPS)
Combined shipping available
Sold on eBay (seller 50-c). Current listings:
1962 1963 1964 Lincoln Continental steering gear mounts - replacement kit
1965 1966 1967 1968 Lincoln Continental steering gear mounts - replacement kit
1962 1963 1064 1965 1966 Ford Thunderbird steering gear mounts - replacement kit

€75 shipped within the EU (without Track&Trace).  
Other shipping options and combined shipping available
I use PayPal. Contact me at: continentalcarparts@outlook.com

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Specialist parts suppliers sell sets of rebuilt insulators between $135 and $195 and even up to $300! I put together a replacement kit for myself and a friend but had enough material for a few extra.  

Why use solid steel donuts instead of (rebuilt) original mounts? The original mounts fit between the frame rails and steering gear box. Being rubber-impregnated they were intended to isolate vibration and road feel. Not only did they fail to provide an improvement to the luxury feel of the car, they turned out to be a design flaw - and even a liability. They were discontinued in 1969 as Ford found that the rubber would degrade, causing the steering gear box to twist at odd angles that other steering components weren't designed to tolerate. This causes premature wear in the Pitman arm, idler arm, centre drag link and steering coupler - resulting in a car that wanders over the road and has loose steering. When the mounts become even more loose, the steering shaft can rub against the shift tube, physically moving the shift lever as the wheel is turning. This is a dangerous situation. The combination of excessive movement of the steering gear box and the force exerted on it, can even cause the bolts to snap off. This is an even more dangerous situation.

 

 



 


This is what my old original steering gear mounts looked like. Note that the mount on the right had almost no rubber left on it. 

 Original steering gear mount (not included in the kit)