8/24/09

Finally! All the fastener phosphating is finished. As you can see in the pic below, this is a considerable amount of fasteners that were re-plated. I counted around 800 pieces. Basically, this is about 3 cars worth of phosphate finish fasteners. So far, I am very pleased with the results.



During the refinish process, it was easy to see some trends when it came to San Jose fasteners. The most predominant body fastener is the star HTS bolt. There are probably 50+ of those that were refinished. Next most common would be the double ticks. Finally, the next one would be the HTS star with concentric circles. For the small sheet metal screws, like that attach the splash shields, they were all the diamond marking. Most everything else was pretty consistent with other assembly plants. Refinishing these fasteners will yield an extremely accurate representation of what was used at San Jose around Feb. '65. There will be no reproduction fasteners on this car.

Here are a few of the odd-ball bolts. The first one is the RBW. There was only one of these in the mix. I actually don't know where it came from or which car. There was a slight bit of pitting on this bolt, so not sure I would use it on the K.



Next are a couple of other one-off bolts. There were just a handful of disc washer bolts used at this time in San Jose.



Now to something a little more interesting. Ever wondered how accurate the AMK bolts are? Here's one side by side with an original. The one on the left is a refinished original, one on the right is an AMK one. Of course, I have not made a large study of HTS star bolts to determine if there were variations in the logo. But, if you look closely, you can see there is a subtle difference in the 'S'.



Here's an original refinished bolt on the left compared to an excellent original on the right. The phosphate match is pretty much dead-on.



For those interested, here is the label of the solution I used:



Will be going to CA this week to the MCA National show. Hope to start doing some serious assembly work when I get back!

8/17/09

Here are the pics of some phosphated fasteners. The picture was taken with a flash, so keep in mind that the color is slightly darker in appearance. Also, notice that there are varying shades of color, which are a result of the type of steel and the forming process. The solution used was manganese phosphate, I have found that zinc phosphate is way too light. The solution was primed in a stainless steel pot with a pad of coarse steel wool for half-hour at 180-185F. After that, my fastener batches are left in the pot at this temperature for 15 minutes. Take everything out, rinse/brush off with water, dry off and then dump in oil for 24 hours. The pic of the finished fasteners is with some oil still on them. I'll let them drain another day or 2 before cleaning off the oil. Just as a reference, you can see what I started with!





Next up, another obscure detail. Still not sure of the answer to this, but here goes! The San Jose headlight dimmer switches used at this time in production (Jan/Feb '65) had a round top head and somewhat short cap (in comparison to other versions.) I have 2 switches from the 2 coupes and 1 from the K convertible. Unfortunately, I never thought to measure these when they came out of each car. What I have found is that 1 measures about 2" in total height while the other 2 are 1.90". They are all of the same design. Have FoMoCo on one of the plug spades and "1-5" cast into the middle section of the switch body. Of course, my curiosity got the best of me, so I checked in the assembly manual, which states there is an A & B version, but does not indicate what the difference is. The 1965 assembly manual and also the 1968 have the same notation. Checking the single year 1965 master parts catalog, there is only one dimmer switch version that was serviced, which is the -A. Nonetheless, the service parts could be several varieties. I have not seen an NOS version of these San Jose switches. My initial guess is that the longer dimmer switch is for convertibles, but I need more information to make a better ascertainment. Here's a few pics to show my findings:







Last item to share is another obscure detail. We know that 2 speed wipers were optional equipment in 65-66. We also know that the wiper motors are different for each system, as is the wiring setup. But, did you know that the mounting bracket for the motor was unique for each motor!? I certainly had never discovered this until recently. Can't say it's much of an exciting find, but interesting to know for future reference. The bracket on the left is for single speed, the one on the right for two speed.

8/16/09

Under dash area is now being assembled. Spent some time over the past 6 weeks documenting the various shades of black painted parts throughout the car. This will take some of the guesswork out of painting parts when it comes time. Have also spent a considerable amount of time getting my phosphate/oil process down. Finally have settled on manganese phosphate. Will post a follow-up on that in the next few days after I complete all the fasteners.

For now, here are a few pics from the under dash area. As you can see, the firewall pad is in gorgeous condition. It is the proper "dotted" San Jose variety. I highly recommend that anyone trying to do a high level restoration search out the correct firewall pad for your car. Reason I mention "correct" is that there were 4 versions of these through the '65 model year. The main differences are the dotted and textured firewall pads. But, the other difference has to do with the A/C hose location where it goes through the firewall. In early '65, there was not a knock-out plug on the firewall for the A/C hoses. Instead, 2 holes were drilled out and rubber grommets for each hose used. There is a punch-out on the firewall pad to reflect this location on a factory installed A/C car. On later cars, there is an oval knock-out, which has an accompanying oval punch-out on the later firewall pads. The change probably occurred sometime in March '65.

One unique detail that some may note is the felt shifter rod seal setup. The seal and retainer are the original ones from the K convertible. A unique piece that most associate with 64.5 cars, but like many of these "64.5" parts, they were used well into '65 production.

Another minor detail to mention is the firewall pad clips. The San Jose ones used at this time period simply had the 2 tabs near the head. No teeth locks.