CLANK V: P.O.D. RESTORATION
There's a time for doing it right, and there's a time for P.O.D. ( Paint
Over Dirt ). This was one of the latter times. I would definitely be a piker
if I didn't respray the engine compartment, now that the engine's out of it.
Yet I do not have the time to do a proper job of it ( remove all appurtanances,
strip down to bare metal, remove all rust, prime, paint.....) Since I already
have a new wire harness on hand, I removed the old one, and all the electrical
stuff; swabbed the engine compartment down with paper towels soaked in lacquer
thinner, and sprayed the sucker glossy red Centari. First I hit all the
complex areas with my airbrush, eliminating the need for extensive masking;
then I hit the larger areas with the touchup gun. Turned out surprisingly
nice, considering....
The engine itself, and its appurtenances, got nicer treatment: stripped
down to bare metal, acid etched, and sprayed glossy black Imron.
As well as the radiator protection bar. This had been bent in some unknown
calamity, and was covered with rust. I straightened it, rewelded it, stripped
it, and repainted it.
One interesting problem was the water temperature gauge. This was an
American-made one with a bourdon tube. I wanted to remove this gauge, and
replace it with a TR4 gauge out of my junquebox. The TR4 gauge looks correct,
although it is electrical instead of mechanical.
Unfortunately, that bourdon tube just wouldn't come out of the thermostat
housing! ( The complication here, for those who don't know, is that you can't
cut the tube. It's hermetically sealed, and filled with magical
temperature-measuring stuff. Cut it, and you throw the gauge away ) First I
tried an open-end wrench, which promptly rounded the corners of the sender.
After a few more half-hearted attempts, I got serious, and made the following
special tool:
First I took a cheap 6-point 5/8" socket and cut a slot down its side with
a die grinder. Then I took a 1/2"-drive sparkplug wrench and cut a slot down
ITS side, almost, but not quite all the way to the drive hole.
I then welded the two sockets together so that their slots were joined to form
one slot along this now very deep socket. When the completed tool cooled, I
went out and put the tool onto the sender. The long slot allowed the tool to
go on the nut without cutting the bourdon tube. I chucked the tool onto my
1/2" drive impact wrench, and pressed the button. The nut immediately rotated
a quarter turn! I put the tool away, and took the sender off the rest of the
way with an open-end wrench. Of course, now I have no use for the tool :-(. I
guess I'll have to bring it to work to sit on my desk :-).
The last thing yesterday was to replace the wiring harness. Now I remember
why I hate to work on dashboards. Oh my aching back! Got everything done but
the dash insert itself. Here's where I'm tempted to deviate from originality:
the dash insert on these cars contains most of the instruments and wires. I
would like to arrange one multiple-contact connector for the whole thing,
instead of just having a rats-nest of connections from the panel to the rest of
the car. I figure it will take a sixteen-pin connection, plus maybe ten more
pins for redundancy on the high-current items. It sure would make things a lot
neater back there!
I have one request for my fellow SOLs; does anybody have a TR4 "voltage
stabilizer"? This is a little box that regulates the voltage to the
temperature gauge. Actually, its a little more complicated than that: the
stabilizer actually PULSES the battery voltage, so that its *average* voltage
output is constant. Since the meter movement is bimetallic ( SLOW ), the
pulses are never seen. At any rate, if I can't find one cheap, I'll just make
an electronic one.
- Jerry
p.s. Does anybody know what's in a Bourdon tube?
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