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Duane, an inspired idea to use clothes pins to hold up the tappets. I agree it is much easier working on the engine when it is out of the car. The oil pump should come off the engine easily. It bolts to the outside of the engine. If you get it out there will be a need to "time" the pump. The camshaft drives the pump and the pump drives the distributor and they all need to be coordinated. Better to do it right the first time.

(o{}o)

'"I....put the clothes pins on the tappets to hold them up when I can pull the camshaft out"

Better than clothes pins on the fuel line! ' Ozstatman

But that's where I keep them!

Like this?

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Yes, that's where I stored my clothes pins.

Got to work on the engine. I removed the transmission. Borrowed a puller to pull the cam shaft gear off and didn't need it. I did use it to move the crank shaft gear so the cam shaft gear would come off.
I had to tap on the oil pump to twist it to get it to come off. After it was loose it just pulled out. I already marked the distributor, so when I put the cam shaft back in and line up the cam shaft and crank shaft, putting in the oil pump should be easy.
I used a slide puller to get the cam shaft to move to start pulling it out. Once the cam shaft was out I removed the clothes pin from the stuck lifter and it fell out the bottom, I had already removed the oil pan.
When I inspected the cam shaft, I noticed the gears for the oil pump were broken off so almost a third of the gears were missing on one side and one gear was completely missing. I panicked and went to a friends house and he went back and found a NOS cam shaft in one of his sheds that was given to him and it didn't fit any cars he had so he gave it to me! What a relief. Now I need to get a tappet and a hydraulic lifter, along with a new timing chain and some gaskets. I heard that I don't need to buy timing gears, but just the timing chain. Any thoughts?

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It's standard good practice to replace both the gears and the chain. If you examine the gears closely it's quite normal to find some wear on them; a new chain with old gears will almost always result in a sloppy assembly.

It's very unusual to find that kind of wear on the camshaft gear so you best inspect the oil pump and distributor carefully to try to determine the cause.

Went on a spending spree. Bought new timing chain and gears, new gear for oil pump and oil pump rebuild kit, new hydraulic lifter (one) and a tappet (or cam follower). And had a local shop make 4 hoses for my power steering. The hoses were made in about an hour. When I did this for my 55 Clipper it took 2 weeks and it cost more for 2 hoses than it did for all 4 hoses for the 53 Patrician.

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Broke down and decided to send the engine out to be looked at by someone who knows what they're doing. I plasti gaged the main bearings and I found them to be between .002 and .004. I thought about shimming them, but I thought since I am this far down I might as well see if the bottom end needs anything. I have the new cam follower and hydraulic lifter, the lifters are getting hard to find. I also sent the lifters to be checked out. I would hate to have to take it part way apart to replace a lifter when I could have checked it before I put it back together.
Now doing a little sanding on the body and removing the taillights and the chrome on the trunk.

the lifters are getting hard to find

It shouldn't be any problem at all to get the hydraulic lifters, Kanters has had them in reproduction for some years. Fit tolerances in lifters are very tight, far tighter than any engine parts, so they are reasonably expensive items. When installing any new valve train parts, don't forget to read the shop manual and check the lifter to valve stem clearances.

It seems like nothing is going on when a lot is happening.
I dropped the engine off to get the crank reground. It's close so we'll just grind the mains and rod bearings a little. The machine shop will grind it then I'll order the bearings, I'll let the mechanic decide what size.
With time on my hands I thought I'd try and tackle the fenders and hood, since they are not in the garage. It's only 105F here, but if you're in the shade with a little breeze, even if it's a man made breeze, it's ok. I didn't take the fenders to bare metal and the body does not have any rust on these parts. When I sanded the rust down it went to paint or metal. So here's a shot of before and after. It's not perfect.
The worst I could do is mess it up and around the corner is a shop that will paint any car from $399. I already checked out what my 72 Dart would cost for a color change and it was $1600, a little higher than $399. So I thought I'd give it a shot. I know I need to do a lot of sanding and maybe more primer and sanding again to get it smooth before the final shot of paint.
I am having a hard time finding an interior door trim and arm rests. Ok there is one arm rest on ebay for $105 and I'm trying to go a little cheaper, I need 4 arm rests, mine are cracked. I have 3 door panels and I'm missing the drivers door panel, just need the trim.

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Got back to working in the Phoenix heat! Was 119F on Saturday and wasn't as hot on Monday when I was working on the hood and fenders. I resanded the hood and front fenders and resprayed the primer on them. I still got runs on the them but I'll sand them off. I took a pair of tin snips to the floor to cut the rust out. I had 'painted' it with 'Rust Mort'. I thought the stuff would work, it cleaned up my hood and fenders but not the floors. I bought some floor pans and since I don't have a welder I was thinking of using rivets, until I can get it welded or unless I find a welder cheap enough.
I found out the machinist was able to regrind the crank to 10 thousand off for both the connecting rods and main bearings. Will get to order them tomorrow.

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