BigKev - Under the trim it's pretty close to the rest of the blue on the panel. It's more of a blue-gray-green. I borrowed a bunch of samples from an upholstery place here in town and none of them were a match. They were all closer to the sample I got from SMS. Too blue and not enough gray. They didn't have a lot to choose from though.

I might try an upholstery shop further away to see if they have a better selection. Just not sure how interested they would be in having me buy vinyl from them without having them do the work. But then again, if they help me out I wouldn't mind giving them my business to reupholster the seats.

HPH - They also said this was an exact match. It definitely is not. The seat cloth sample and the ivory vinyl is dead on though. For sure I will get those materials from SMS. I couldn't find an ivory vinyl that was close from other sources.

-Kevin

My vinyl sample finally showed up from SMS, after over a month and many emails and phone calls. I think part of the delay was the post office...apparently they issues with the processing and managed to tear the envelope in half. They taped it back together and put it in a baggy. Eventually it got to me.

The blue vinyl is definitely thinner than the ivory vinyl they sent before. It's a totally different material. The blue is lighter than what I have on the door panels, but I have no idea how accurate the old color is. I wish I had a good survivor or a restored car to measure the color off of.

The Ivory vinyl and the blue cloth sample were sent to me a year ago. The cloth color is darker than I expected it would be, but the material is definitely correct. I'm just surprised at how different the blue on the cloth is from the blue on the vinyl. Thoughts?

-Kevin

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Don't tempt me Mike. That's a great car and a great project. I've always had a soft spot for the 400's....

-Kevin

I read up on how the Ranco valves work, and I think I have a pretty good understanding of it now. With that knowledge I should be able to check the valve I have to see where the problem lies. I looked under the dash to see if I could see the plunger moving, but I'll have to take the valve out to do that.

What I'd like to have is a simple on/off valve controlled with the dash lever. The Ranco valve is thermostatically controlled and my understanding is it doesn't always work well.

Since I didn't have the motivation to dive into that last night, I instead turned my attention to the various lights that had stopped working: one of the reverse lights, an interior light, and both front parking/turn signal lights. All were fixed by disassembling the light, cleaning the contacts, lubing the spring that pushes the center contact, and reinserting the bulbs with dielectric grease. Simple fix and small progress.

Youtube has lots of great resources on how to go about this. Essentially cut out all the bad metal, use cardboard to make a mock up of the piece to be replaced, cut out donor metal, bend to shape using whatever tools necessary, weld.

I agree with Ross and BigKev....much easier not to butt-weld. Especially in the trunk area. You're not doing smooth-surface body work. Sheet metal is very thin and burns through very easily. It will take some practice to get it down. Best advice is to tack in one spot, then move to another far away and tack there. Lots of small tacks later you have a completed weld. Trying to do it continuous makes it much easier to melt and burn through.

Thanks for the tips guys. When I got the car the heater valve was missing and the hoses were hooked directly up to the heater core. I had heat then, though the airflow was really bad due to sand/dust everywhere, bad duct hoses, etc.

I'm not totally sure I understand how the heater valve works. I assumed that if the rubber gasket was good that it wouldn't need to be rebuilt. So that must not be the case. Looks like I'll have to remove the valve and see about disassembling it. But if the actual valve is brass, then I'm not sure how to go about fixing it. The heater valve I have is from Ross's stash...it looked to be in good condition when I got it.

In the end it's not terribly critical to have a working heater, but I'd like to try anyways.

-Kevin

Today I took advantage of mild weather (40 degrees) to top off the Panama with fresh ethanol-free gas, then put in some stabilizer for the winter. Took it for a leisurely drive to cycle the stabilizer.

Couple notes. Car was somewhat rough when I started it. I hadn't had the chance to run it for at least a few weeks. After it warmed up it smoothed out nicely and drove fine. Definitely needs a tune-up.

Secondly, the heater is not working. The flaps are correct, the cables are mostly adjusted, the heater valve should be working, the heater core is cleaned, and heater hoses are all new. When I check the hoses they are cold, including the hose from the top of the block. Does that indicate some sort of a blockage?

-Kevin

Quote:

How would one determine if the intake gasket is an issue? I ask because I likely need to do a tune up on my car as well. I hit most of the major points listed above when I first got it running, but I haven't done much over the past year besides drive it. I'm enjoying the conversation here...it gives me a few ideas to hopefully improve the running of my car.

Thanks Howard for the link to the Service Bulletin. I'm having the same issues as Mike, so this will be very helpful.

-Kevin

When you have the tires off, I would take the wheels and either get them powder coated or painted. That alone will make a huge difference. I wire wheeled mine....it was messy but cheap. Then epoxy primer and paint. But it would've been better to send them out for sandblasting.

-Kevin