12/22/09

Ok, here is a big item a lot of folks will probably like to see... drive shaft stripes for a K code! As with the rest of the drive train, the drive shaft is the original from the K convertible. It's in very nice shape for being 45 years old! First thing I did was clean it with some mineral spirits in my parts washer, using a bristle brush. Hosed it off and was able to see some of the stripe remnants. They were barely legible, so I decided to soak the whole shaft in evaporust. I bought a 6' piece of 6" PVC tube and capped one end. Worked very nice and the stripes "came to life" after 24 hours of soaking. As can be seen, there are 4 stripes. I am including a drawing of the measurements From the back of the shaft going forward, there is a very wide white stripe, then a red one. Then about 20" further down, there is a light green stripe, followed by a green stripe. There are pink paint splotches on the back of the shaft on the yoke end. I didn't find any marks on the front yoke end. On the trans yoke, I found yellow paint splotches all over. It has C3 AA 25 stamped on the end on 3 of the corners around the center. Of course, this is a 28 spline yoke, so not sure what the 25 indicates. On each end of the drive shaft, it was marked 'AJ4683-A' with '2-12' on the opposite side of one end and '1-7A' on the other. I suppose they might be date codes or something, but don't know for sure.

Since all '65 hi-po's used the same drive shaft regardless of body style, I would say these are a good example of what was used at the San Jose assembly plate during '65 production. Of course, we don't know if the codes/colors might have changed during the year. Moreover, without examples, we can't be certain that the same color coding was used at Dearborn and Metuchen assembly plants. It's very likely they were, but just want to point this out. If you have a San Jose K code built around mid-year 1965, then I'd say you probably would be ok using these stripe patterns as a reference. Any other assembly plant would require more references to ascertain if they apply.

I included some 'before' pics to show that the stripes are invisible until cleaned. Click on the pics for the full-size images.







After mineral spirit cleaning:








After soaking (the red stripe dissolved after rinsing):










Here's the drawing. Note in the pictures I measured from the other end.

12/19/09

There was some recent discussion about the difference between the original Safety 800XP dual redline tires and the current reproduction. Unfortunately, there are gross differences between what came on these cars originally and the reproduction. I suppose something is better than nothing, but it's disappointing that so many details were missed in the replacement mold. The edge is wrong, the lettering is wrong, the red color is wrong, the placement of the red rings is wrong and the tread pattern is even wrong. NOS dual redline on the left, repro on the right. The repro is a well-used one as can be seen, about 10k miles on it.








Here are some pictures of the rear carrier. I found a few markings, which can be seen in the pics. This is the original carrier from the convertible, it has December '64 casting dates. The tag reads WCZ-H 3.50 5AA 921. The WCZ-H code is found in Ford documentation to be 3.89:1, but as can be seen, that is not what shows on this original tag. On the door warranty plate for the car, a '5' code is there, which is for the 3.50:1. I suppose this could have been a an assembly blunder. Unfortunately, the ring and pinion had been replaced, so I don't know what was there originally. Someone put a 3.25:1 gear set in, D2UW numbers on the ring gear. There is no damage to the housing or carrier, so I assume a prior owner simply wanted to go with a smaller gear.

12/16/09

Soaked the original front coil springs, appears that they were not painted. When I rinsed them off after soaking, there was no sign of black paint anywhere. Jeff Speegle mentioned that in an interview with an ex-San Jose plant worker, they made a comment about "phosphate" coil springs. I will most likely refinish them in manganese phosphate. When I cleaned the springs for the first time, I did find a single brown stripe on each of them, which was documented previously here on the blog.

12/12/09

Found out about a neat chemical called "Evaporust" for cleaning parts. I have been amazed with this stuff so far. It takes about 12-24 hours for it to work completely on parts that have a decent covering of rust. The results are amazing. Paint marks are preserved like I have never seen before. Here are pics of the lower leaves of the leaf springs. The yellow and green paint marks look great! These could not be seen at all with just a regular cleaning. With some mineral spirits, I could sort of see them, but after soaking in Evaporust for about 12 hours, came out looking new. I am thinking of putting together something large enough to soak the remaining leaves.





Of course, I had to soak other parts, including rear spring plates. In doing so, discovered pink marks on the u-bolts. Have seen this before on Unrestored cars, so was nice to confirm on another one.



Cleaned a set of rear brake plates. The white check marks were uncovered. Have been seeing this consistently on the San Jose cars from this time period. I suppose it was a check mark to indicate the brakes had been adjusted.

12/5/09

Suspension parts and stainless have been sent out. I'm having the upper and lower control arm ball joints re-riveted on original control arms. Should have them back in a few weeks. Sent all of the stainless trim to a place in South Carolina. Hope to have that back soon too!

In the meantime, restoration continues. Here are some restored rear bumper brackets. The captured sleeve nuts were originally zinc plated. To do these properly, the whole bumper bracket can be zinc plated and then the sleeves taped off for paint. The original sleeves have a unique number stamped on them too!





Decided to get the parking brake cables out. Found out the NOS ones are a little off in appearance and the rubber insulator detailing. So, will be sending these off to be tumbled. They should clean up fine, were not rusty. Found blue paint on the conduit ends and also the same blue on the rubber grommet. The prong clip was yellow.










I decided that I was not happy with the original windshield and found out about a local business that can buff glass. I had them do the windshield and some side pieces. It is a big improvement! Windshield was re-installed. Dash moldings and speaker/defroster grill installed.




Next up is the choke cable. I was able to find an NOS cable, but had to restore the mounting bracket and re-use the original knob. Turned out nice:





Last detail is something that would very rarely be seen on a restored car, which is an original date-correct battery tray. Most battery trays are eaten up with rust over the years. The battery tray is made of 2 sections spot welded together. I was able to save the lower piece which has the date and have it welded to an NOS top piece. Turned out great!

12/1/09

A little more assembly progress, mainly to the rear of the car. Transferred a nice set of original back-up lamp wires to an NOS set of housings. The later Ford service parts have some details that are a little off, so I chose to go with original wiring that was in great shape. To do this, the sockets have to be removed from the originals. This is time consuming, but can be done.












Here's a nice "rear" shot. Valence is completely finished with backup-lights installed... NOS gaskets, lenses, etc... Bumper guards are also installed.

11/23/09

Cleaned the original rear housing, looking for paint marks. Found a weird '5E' or maybe '3S' on the side of the middle. Not much other than that. A yellow number, possibly a '3' on the step-down. Red where a clamp was and a possibly the remnants of a white check mark near the fill plug. Did find a cool 'E' stamped into the RH step-down. The rear has been sent out for cleaning/stripping.









One of the original axle seals was still in place:




A really cool detail item which I doubt very many restored cars have is an original hood to cowl seal. These are notorious for cracking and breaking apart over time. I was actually able to salvage a really nice one from the red parts coupe. Original retainers were phosphated along with original screws.



With that fancy shmancy hood seal, had to add a little more "bling", so went ahead and applied the paint inspector mark. For those not aware, this is the proper style paint inspector stamp for a San Jose car built at this time period.



Next up is more "bling"... an NOS AM radio! I had a terrible time finding an original with nice enough buttons so threw in the towel and bought an NOS piece. The car is very deserving, so what the heck.



Last item is the fuel tank. Got it installed with an original C4ZF sending unit. Note original clips for the sender wire. The wiring is restored original.

10/4/09

More assembly progress. Steering box is now installed as well as the steering linkage. The steering linkage is composed of all NOS, period correct pieces. Original idler arm bracket was detailed and green paint daub applied. Engine mounts were installed along with original restored fasteners. Spent the remaining part of the day stripping/painting suspension parts such as the coil spring covers and front brake backing plates.