This Diary is built "upside down", meaning the newer stuff is on top, older on the bottom.

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April 4, 2007

Its been a while since I updated the site, here's what happened since the last update.

At this time, I don't have any pictures to share, so you will just have to use your imagination. I decided I wanted to add a little color to the chassis, so I painted the pedals Red. Last Saturday March 31, Greg came up from San Jose and we began lowering the floor pans. Unfortunately, it wasn't until after he left I realized we lowered them the wrong way. We did a "wedge" type drop, instead of  a bucket type drop. So, I need to remove what we did and do it right this time. Greg was a HUGE help, I couldn't/wouldn't have started this without his help. THANKS GREG!!!!

I hope to get some pictures up with in the next week. New job means I can't just update this whenever I feel like it.  :(

March 23, 2007

I dropped the engine a few days ago. Came out pretty easily, once I removed the CORRECT bolts. Here's the engine just after removing. 

Yesterday I picked up torsion arms with the freshly pressed ball joints. Last night I put it all back together and it looks faaaaantastic. All pretty and shiny and black. This morning I put the spindles and brakes and wheels back on and eye-balled the alignment. I couldn't resist bouncing on the front beam :). All that is left for the front is to install the shocks, I'll take care of those in a few weeks. 

Now that the beam is mostly settled, its time to work on the pan again. The underside this time. I want to make sure the underside is in good condition so I know whether or not to recoat the underside. With the assistance of Dad, we "Flipped My Ride". Sounds like a cross-over TV show. Part "Pimp My Ride" and part " Flip This House". I could run with this tangent, but I won't for your sake. 

With my trusty putty knife I took to scraping off areas of the undercoating that were flaking or appeared to be hiding some rust. Once this was scrapped off, I wire-wheeled the areas with rust. I have a good amount of holes in the pan from previous people drilling out the spot welds for the seat rails and for bolting the new seats in. Since I'm not sure where I will be placing my seats, these holes will be filled or patched.

Progress on the car is going to slow down a bit now. I got another job that starts this Monday. So while I'm excited to have a job again, I'm bummed I won't be able to put 6 hours a day into the car. 

March 16, 2007

Looking back as the pictures of what I did today, it doesn't seem  like I did very much. But it feels like I did.

I started painting the beam and pans yesterday. More clean-up and a first coat of paint. Today I finished painting the beam and pans and mounted the beam. I finished painted the frame head too. I had to redo the drivers side as some brake fluid leaked onto the paint and ate it up. I took some of the bolts and various hardware to the wire-wheel and cleaned it up all pretty and shiny like. The beam bolts really stand out. Looks nice, too bad they'll get hidden by the body. Oh well. 

And here are the results.....

The frame head all pretty in... uh, Black. The hole in the head is where the old fuel line ran to connect to the tank. Still need to pull the old fuel line out, it wont be used anymore.

Here are the pans all painted up, except for the area that will be cut out and dropped 4" so I can fit in the car. 
hmm, bad glare on the pans.

I cleaned up the steering box as well, no pictures though, not really worth it. Also clean up the upper and lower torsion arms. Again, no pictures just an honorable mention.

March 13, 2007

Its been a busy couple of days. I removed the front beam a few days ago and bought some new parts for the front end, 4 new ball joints and a new steering coupler. Below are the usual pictures of the progress.

The front beam just after removal. At first I thought, cool, 4 bolts to remove the beam, no problem, this'll be done in 5 minutes. Then as I removed the 4 bolts, I realized the brake lines were still attached to the master cylinder. That took 30 minutes to remove those. After that, the beam practically fell off the frame. 

A close up of the frame head. Nice.... 40 years of road gunk....
(Do you like my hi-tech brake hose plugs? 

The frame head after MUCH wire wheeling on it. I was using a Roto-Zip with a wire wheel attachment, but it overheated on me. 
Started smoking and eventually got too hot to hold. I ended up buying a 4" grinder and wire wheels to match to do the job. So
much happier I did. Oh, I sprayed the frame head with the same rust stop paint I used on the tunnel.
I had some left over. (That's a naked beam you see there as well. I'll get to that.)

On Wednesday I tackled the pans. I was planning on replacing the pans, having them cut out and new ones welded in, but
after getting 2 estimates, 1 for $750 and another for $1200, I figured I should clean up the pans and see how bad they are. This 
is the before picture.

Pretty ugly and funky. I have ruined 3 pairs of shorts from sitting on the bare pan. 

Here is the pan after an afternoon of wire wheeling like a mad man. The driver side isn't bad at all. The rear of the passenger
side is rusted through in a few spots, luckily, I think that's part of what will be removed when I lower the floor pans. Both 
sides have holes in the pan from either seats being bolted in or someone being drill happy.




As you can see by the Red circles, these are rusty holes. The Red ellipse... I have no idea what that is, but I though
I'd point it out anyway. 

Here is a quickie shot of the beam all naked and wire wheeled mostly clean.

I got ahead of myself with cleaning up the floor pans, but they really needed it! And I rationalized if they were clean, and newly painted, I could sit on them and stop ruining my shorts. Next plans are to rebuild the front end. Its all off the beam and in its appropriate pieces in the backyard. I have the ball joints and steering coupler already. What I'm going to need next are the tie-rod ends as they are worn, the boots are torn and leaking grease, Steering dampener, shocks and that should do it. But that'll be enough money spent for a while. I'm glad things aren't as bad as they could have been. The Beam could have been rusted through in spots or the seals could be shot. Just for good measure though, when I go to get the ball joints pressed in, I'll take all the parts and have the shop give them a once over. 

March 7, 2007
A BIG jump forward in time....
I have the car back at my house after almost a year and a half and a house remodel. Its time to get serious about restoring the car. First order of business is to remove the body so I can restore the chassis. Its a lot easier to do if the body isn't on. The plan is to start at the front and replace and clean up items as I go. All the suspension parts will be replaced with urethane parts if possible. After the body was removed I degreased and pressure washed the chassis to remove as much of the 40 years of GUNK on the chassis. I'll have to scrape off what the degreaser and pressure washer didn't get.

Here are some pictures of the results.

After the top was removed.

Empty chassis after a nice degreasing and pressure washing.. The tunnel has been treated with Stop Rust paint, then will be painted black.
Ill have to remove the floor pans, both are rusty after all this time and there are several holes from the seats being mounted through the floor.

Body off and on cinder blocks, badly covered with some plastic to keep the birds and trees from pooping on it.

Side skirts.

Rear Bumper.

The Hood in all its splendid funky broken glory...Thank God for Sterling Sports Cars

IN THE BEGINNING....

May 26, 2005
I have won an auction on E-Bay for a Sterling and I now have it home. Its time to take a good look at it and see what I have gotten into. I pulled it out onto the driveway and propped up the canopy to start looking at the wiring under the dash. Also need to clean up the hydraulic fluid in the front and inside the car.

Here is what I found inside the gauge pod. mmmm, I like spaghetti... just not in my car.

I found that several of the wires were melted and bare copper was exposed. I'm surprised something hadn't caught fire yet.

Next I decided to look at the engine. Knowing what I know about engines I said.... hmmm, look, its an engine..... It did start and run though which was a BLESSING, because I don't know squat about engines... yet.

After a long days work in the sun, I had removed the dash, the seats and that's about all there was to remove really. Time to straighten out the wires to see what I have, what is good and what will need to be replaced. Boy, this will be FUN!