Geez Kev, you are on fire right now. Can't believe how much you got done within a short couple days. Making me feel like I'm slow as molasses, lol.

I didn't know the springs for the door handles go under the panel, good to know. Also a good tip on the pins for the handles. I have no pins for mine so I'll keep this in mind when I finally get door panels put back on.

-Kevin

Quote:

I will go back and check the minor adjustment. They were all dragging some when I checked them before, so I was surprised the pedal still had so much travel.

Is there a measurement I'm supposed to be looking at for pedal to cylinder rod? And how is it adjusted?

On that note, I need to figure out how to adjust the clutch pedal too....I have several inches of play before it engages.

-Kevin

Got some stuff done today. Flushed the brake system and bled all the brakes until it was clear. The old fluid was dark brown, nasty stuff. The brakes work much better, though there is still much more pedal travel than I would expect. And this is after adjusting all the brakes.

Retorqued all the head bolts to 60 ft/lbs, and all of them definitely needed it. Warmed the car up and adjusted the idle mixture screws and it idled much better.

We took it for a quick test drive and even jumped on the street for a few hundred yards. Stills shakes when accelerating, but overall rides smooth. I'm able to lock all four tires with the brakes on gravel, which the car didn't do before the rebuild.

Once we get the carb rebuilt I'll redo the tuning and see how it runs. Slowly making progress.

-Kevin

Attach file:

---

  Filthy brake fluid.jpg (79.19 KB)


  First test drive.jpg (142.49 KB)


  First test drive 2.jpg (95.06 KB)

Quote:

I'll pull the front wheel cylinder off and see if NAPA has a match. I agree, I'd rather be on the safe side.

The car had a frame-off restoration sometime in the last 20 years, and all the brake components were replaced, axles serviced, etc at that time. The car has probably only seen a few thousand miles since then. Besides a bunch of brake dust and some unpainted surfaces, the rear brakes looked excellent. I pulled everything apart to check the wheel cylinders, check for axle leaks, and eval the shoes. I feel comfortable leaving the rears as is . Should I need to get back in there, it will not be difficult. The drums came off without too much effort.

-Kevin

While waiting for the carb kit, my brother -in-law and I took a look at the brakes.

Things looked good inside all of them, except for the driver's front brake cylinder. One of the boots had a small bit of moisture in it (see picture) so I'm assuming it's leaking? If so I will replace it.

All the shoes had plenty of meat left on them. We messed around with the brake adjustments a bit but most of them felt pretty good already. We tried adjusting the eccentric on the passenger front (the first wheel we took off), but it wasn't operating like it did on my car. Overall things felt pretty good on all of them.

The pedal is pretty soft, and the brake fluid has been sitting around for 7+ years, so a brake flush is next. I ran out of brake fluid, so Saturday morning we'll do that. Hopefully that gives me a nice firm pedal.

-Kevin

Attach file:

---

  Front brakes.jpg (109.77 KB)


  Inside drum.jpg (86.69 KB)


  Possible leak.jpg (119.38 KB)


  Rear brakes.jpg (114.04 KB)


  Passenger rear brake.jpg (99.06 KB)

Waiting for a carb rebuild kit to come in from Daytona.

Meanwhile, I noticed the distributor was installed in the wrong position according to pictures of how the car was originally, as well as other Super 8's. So I removed the distributor, set the engine at #1 TDC, and clocked the distro to the right position (vacuum advance), used a multimeter to set the points correctly, then redid all the plug wires into the correct places and order.

Also confirmed the vacuum advance is working correctly. Car started right up and seemed to idle a bit better than before, though I didn't test it long. Once the carb is rebuilt I should be able to dial in the last of the tuning.

Lastly, I need this adapter plate for the manifold vacuum line. We had it when the engine was first disassembled 7 years ago. It's long gone. I would like to get the vacuum lines all back together before I put the front end back on. Does anyone have one??

-Kevin

Attach file:

---

  Distributor clocked wrong.jpg (124.07 KB)


  Distributor corrected.jpg (134.59 KB)


  I need this piece.jpg (102.64 KB)

I got a lead on a replacement bumper for the Panama. It was 3.5 hours away, but one does not turn down a bumper for $100.

Made the drive and met a nice family. The guy has a '54 Panama also. This was had a Continental kit added to it, non-original paint, but fully original interior in good shape. A solid driver.

The bumper is in much better shape than my original, though definitely not perfect. My old bumper had all the chrome peeled off the lower half, and the lower edge was all sorts of bent from jacks in the past.

The new one had some bad pitting on one of the guards. I replaced it with a good one from my old bumper. I polished out the other defects the best I could. I cleaned all the rust off the inside, converted the remainder with Ospho, then painted it black. The overall finish is much better than my old one but still not perfect. For $100 I'll take it though.

-Kevin

Attach file:

---

  Red Panama.jpg (125.60 KB)


  Panama with Contenintal Kit.jpg (91.12 KB)


  Original interior.jpg (118.33 KB)


  New bumper outisde.jpg (165.78 KB)


  New bumper inside.jpg (155.70 KB)


  Cleaned and Ospho.jpg (111.49 KB)


  Painted inside.jpg (142.54 KB)


  Comparison.jpg (136.51 KB)


  Pitted guard.jpg (110.68 KB)


  Rust under the edge.jpg (77.75 KB)


  New bumper installed.jpg (136.38 KB)


  Bumper installed 2.jpg (122.64 KB)

Thanks for the reminder about Daytona. I had forgotten about them. Looks like they have a kit, so I may go with that. But if you have one and aren't going to use it, I'll buy it off you.

Stromberg EE-23, stamped "10-28".

-Kevin

My brother in law and I were able to pull the fuel pump and rebuild it with a kit from Then and Now. It took quite a while for the kit to arrive, almost a month.

The kit was great, and they had a video of their machinist rebuilding nearly the exact same pump. It made the job easy for us, especially with it being our first time opening a fuel pump.

The fuel pump no longer leaks. Now I need to figure out the carburetor rebuild. I'm not seeing a kit from Mike's Carb Parts. I'll call them on Monday and see.

Also need to go through the whole ignition system. The car idles rough and is really rough on acceleration. I noticed today that the distributor is "clocked" one mounting hole off where it was before, and where other cars have it mounted (3 mounting holes). Does this mean the oil pump was installed incorrectly? I remember we set #1 at TDC and put the distributor on according to that. But I want to go through and check it all again. Something isn't adding up.

-Kevin

Attach file:

---

  Rebuilding fuel pump.jpg (130.16 KB)


  Rebuild successful.jpg (109.08 KB)

Thanks for the link Bob! I went ahead and ordered it.

-Kevin