Oh happy days!!!!!
While I really haven't done much this week, only put in about 7 hours
from Sun. to tonight, but I really feel elated!!!
The new fuel lines arrived sometime last week. I had hoped to get them in
last weekend, but I didn't. Sat. I got up early and took the Spit out for
State inspection. She passed!!! When I got home about 10:30am I was wasted.
I guess it is all the pollen that has been blowing around lately. I ended up
going back to bed and sleeping until about 6pm. Then Sun. wanted to work on
the Brick. Got out for a couple of hours, and worked on the wiring some and
a few little things. But that was it.
Monday night my neighbor, Jim - with the muscle cars - came over and we got
the new fuel and brake lines in. That was a great boost. I was almost ready
to bolt the body down. I had to get the vent line in. Jim said that the
old one looked good enough to use, so I spend an hour cleaning it up. When
I was all done, I got the bright idea to blow through it. Guess what, it
was clogged, or so I thought. After careful examination, I found that it
had been crimped. Don't know if that happend in the last 5 yrs. or if it
happened at the factory. That ended Mon. night.
Tues. I made a new vapor return line. I had bought the material to make a new
line, about a year ago. It isn't near a pretty as the new lines I had made,
but it should be functional. Then I got Jim again, and we were going to drop
the body. I started looking for the body cushions, washers, standoffs, and
bolts. I couldn't find the washers that I had made. So I spent the rest of
the evening tearing the shop apart trying to find them. After an hour or so
of looking, I found them. In my hand the whole time. I'd painted them black
and didn't see them in the bag with the body cushions. That ended Tue. work.
Tonight, Jim came over again, and we dropped the body. Started by filling
the nuts on the chassis with anti seize. Then took a body cushion and a
washer and taped them over each of the mounting points with masking tape.
Slowly we lowered the body onto the cushions. Starting at the rear, we
slid the stand off tubes into the lower cushions, set the upper body cushion
and washers on the top of the mounting points, and started trying to get the
bolts in. The 4 in the trunk were a piece of cake. The "B" pillars were
a problem, so we moved to the "A" pillars. Once the 6 bolts were started,
we lifted the body just a little, to releive the pressure on the body mounts.
This allowed us to manhandle the body just enough to get the bolts in the "B"
pillars. Now all 8 bolts are started and the body is sitting down on the
chassis!!!! Hooray!!!!
I guess the next step will be to try and clean up my garage a little so I
can walk around in there. With all the boxes that have been stored under
the chassis and the body for the last 5 years, now sitting in the 2nd bay,
and the engine craine holding the body up, you were hard pressed to walk
around in the garage at all. After I get the area cleaned, I'll start
putting the steering column, brake power booster and Master cylinder in.
I should be able to finish off most of the rest of the little items, like
the accelerator pedal, dimmer switch, etc in the week. I also still have
to clean the "B" pillars and reglue the quarter panels to the "B" pillars,
and the trunk floor.
I noticed tonight that the quarter panel, at the front of the fender arch is
about 1" or better away from the sill plate and the inner fender well. That's
going to be tough to pull in.
The next major step will be hanging the doors. I can't wait!!!!!
John
John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
48 TR1800 48 #4 Midget 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V
75 Bricklin SV1 77 Spitfire 71 Saab Sonett III
Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
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