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Well the shipping on that seal from Napa is $9. So with tax it does cost about $20.

I called the local Napa and because the local warehouse doesnt stock it, I would have the pay for the shipping to the store, also $9.

So now I ask myself, spend the $20, wait a week for the part to show up, try to replace just the seal, and hope the rest of the mechanism works, or spent $75 to have it professionally rebuilt and gone through completely.

Well I decided to try to rebuild the Ranco H-16 heater valve myself. So I order the replacement seal from Napa and it's on the way here. Here is what that magic seal looks like:




In the mean time got the valve taken apart without breaking any of the brass tabs. The old seal was pretty much gone, and there is alot of pitting on the body plate side of the seal. So I will grind in smooth, and use a little gasket maker to ensure a good seating.

Everything at this point has been glass beaded clean, and once the new seal arrives I will get everything put back together. I have taken pictures during disassembly, and will during reassembly and turn those into a how-to article.



Now that Halloween is over and I got all the boxes and storage bins that were littering my garage floor back up in to loft, I finally have room to move around in the garage again. So more project updates soon.

With the Heater Valve rebuild complete, I can now move on to other things. It's basically pitch black outside when I get home. So I am trying to get some of the bench-top projects out of the way. My next project is to make some of the gaskets I need. I bought a sheet of cork gasket material from NAPA. I need to make the following gaskets:

Brake Backing plate to "grease trap" gaskets
Air-Duct to firewall gaskets
Taillight to body gaskets

Also when I first got the car, I ordered a replacement thermostat from MaxMerrit. It was the old bellow-style thermostat. Well after looking through the SC's, I noticed by '54 Packard was recommending the capsule style thermostats. So I will just go buy a modern capsule style one from the local Kragen up the block.

Then I need to run new transmission coolant lines, and also drop the tranny pan and clean out the filter.

Well, nothing much got done this weekend. Amazing how the day can get away from you. I did go buy a couple of parts. I bought a modern style thermostat to replace the bellows style one, and I also finally found the right sized fan belt.

The original belt that fit my car was a 41" belt. But since I swapped the generator for the alternator the mounting point is a little further out than normal, so the 41" belt was to short. But a 42" belt fits perfectly, I had tried a 43" belt, and that was too long.

Also I managed to paint the fuel-pump shield engine color. Rather than brush paint it like I did the engine, I just shot it with the HF HVLP. I will wait to reinstall that on the engine until I have all the new tranny lines run. On the '54 GearStart, the lines run down the passenger side.

Well finally made it back into the garage today. Work, Honey-Do list, and some medical issues have way-laid me for the last couple of weeks.

I was tired of having the all the tires and other parts laying around. So I put the rear tires back on the car for right now to get them out of the way.

I also had the hood hinges laying around, and now since the firewall is all painted and cured, it time to get those refurbished and back on the car. So the first pic is what the hinges started out like. The second pic is what they looked like after a quick blast with glass bead. The third one is after I removed the springs. I ran it back though the blast cabinet again to get the hidden aware that are not visble one I could move the assembly. The springs are sitting in some Evapo-rust over night to get all the rust out of the inside surface of the coils where I really cant media blast. The first coat of cadium paint is currently on the hinge assemble. (Pic to follow tomorrow). And once the spings are rerusted, then will get painted black. This is called out for in the PI Judging guide. Cadium plated hinges with black springs, and this was confirmed on my car. There are traces of black paint on the springs. After everthing is painted, I will let it all cure for a couple days before putting the springs back on.

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One other note, I bought an air-line filter for my blast cabinet, and this made all the difference. It allowed my to use the blast cabinet without the glass bead clumping up, and will also help out later when I stay spraying the DTM primer. I also had a smaller compressor that I bought years ago before I bought the 26 gallon one I have now. I decided to also plumb the smaller compressor into the air system, so when I need the extra CFM, I can have both compressors running to help keep everything going. With both running, and the blast cabinet gun fully open, it maintains an even 100 psi of working pressure at the cabinet. Plus it adds an extra 4 gallons of reserve to the system.

i am running a cheap water trap from Lowes and it works pretty good. also my tank is a 2hp 30 gallon and running non stop i run about 100psi also. it runs the whole time though, doesn't seem to mind though.

what does the PI book say about 55 hinges and springs....same colors like yours?? i have to do mine over again as well.

any chance on uploading that PI rules book? or i guess that would not make them happy since it would probably kill there sales and violate copyright laws i am sure.

later dude,

Hank

The Engine Bay Judging guide portion is only like $20 from PI. It was well worth the money spent, and for anyone doing a restoration, I encourage you to buy a copy as the reference with pictures really helps out. As this is a current original club project, I am not going to step on their toes, and besides that it does fall under copyright.

Not that being said, there is nothing wrong quoting information from it when asked.

"1951-56 Hood Hinges are cad. plated while the springs are black"

Guide includes a picture that they use for reference on this, and my springs showed traces of black paint.


Also the line filter I am using (pictured above in the previous post) was bought from Harbor Freight, and was $25.

Back in the garage this morning, and got a few things accomplished. All the paint on the hood hinges was done, so I put the springs back on hinges. A brake service tool worked really well for that. Then I reinstalled the hinges back onto car.

Also while I was up under the dash, I reinstalled the Ranco heater valve. With the valve back in place, now I could install the new heater hoses. I still had the old hoses, so I used those as guides to cut the new ones to the correct length. I discovered I was missing two of the original style hose clamps. So I looked back through my photo archive of pictures I have taken of my car, and sure enough the two clamps that attach to the head and waterpump were using modern style screw-band clamps. So I will have to find two original style clamp to complete the set.

I also took a picture of the rear wheels back on the car with the full wheel covers in place. The more I look at it, the more I think I will go with the thin-white wall tires. The all black just looks off, and the wide-white walls are just not my taste as I would like a sporter look.

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Yea, I think the thin whitewall would set off your rich blue (I assume your firewall color is the exterior color?)

DanL

PS: Did you see what Guscha did with your "squirrel-power" comment in "Behind the scenes at PInfo?"

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