Now Complete Restoration / Pulling my 1969 'Bee down for strip and paint

[birdsandbees]

She even got it in blue to match the car!!! 

[VegasCharger]

Still have the best wife in the world.. 35 years and going ! My early Christmas present came Purolator today. Gal has a heart of gold (to put up with me and my toys).

[Dino]

Still have the best wife in the world.. 35 years and going ! My early Christmas present came Purolator today. Gal has a heart of gold (to put up with me and my toys).

Got one of those. Wife, not plate.     

[birdsandbees]

Finally finding a bit of time to get back on the Bee.

How hard can it be to put the torsion bars back in.. just remember that there is a Left and a Right !! In my case 779 is left.. 778 is right. On my Superbird 781 is left and 780 is right.

Some cardboard to protect the paint.

Would be so nice if restoration parts suppliers took the time to use the correct durometer of rubber, instead of just making things look correct and taking our money. Warming the torsion bar covers up in hopes I can get them over the hex end of the bar.

[birdsandbees]

Wasn't a hope in hell by hand, so looks like I have to sacrifice my favourite funnel.

Funnel wasn't quite large enough, so I had to make a cone from some aluminum tube.. the 2 step program.

In place and..

Presto.

[birdsandbees]

Some white grease in the lower control arm socket

Same on the other end and gently PERSUADE the bar into place.

Torsion bar in place on the drivers side, just needs lock ring that I forgot to RPM so it was ready.

And progress stopped right there. Do you know how pissed off a guy gets, that's been in injection moulding for 33 years, when this shit happens on a cold flow line!!! Now to figure out where to get another set and wait a few weeks to put the other torsion bar in. Just hope the next guys seal looks the same, as the other isn't coming back out!

[Charger-Bodie]

Little wax and grease remover makes the boots slide right on. Even the poly ones.

[birdsandbees]

These weren't sliding onto anything without the effort I went through. Searching through my parts purchases, these came from PST with my front suspension kit purchase. I won't be ordering from there, as someone got into their files and scammed my entire M/C information and put me through 7 months of hurt chasing and reversing all their website registrations on my monthly bill (even after M/C issued me a 3rd new card!). We know it was there as they tried to register their domain purchases using my business name as the "name on the card" and not my name. Was only place I ordered from that way for tax saving at the border.

EDIT: also looking at PST's website, I see they're not selling this style in poly anymore.. and are offering a cone in poly or regular OEM rubber ones. I wonder why...  

Ordered a proper part number and logo set from Greg at Oldsmoky's a few minutes ago. Guess I'll be pulling the installed bar..

[FJMG]

Wow, a few minute job turns into another waiting game...

Thanks for the heads up on PST

I recently had my CC info scammed at local gas station. Fortunately Bank stopped my card when I tried to purchase locally while someone was buying gas in Florida!!!!
The thing is that in my case it may not even be gas attendants as scammers can install the reader /copier on the back of any CC machine. One giveaway is when there is a label indicating  "Pin not working, slide card".

[birdsandbees]

More parts in the easy bake oven.

RPM'd the fuel / brake line clamp bolts & clips, torsion bar clips and rear axle bump stop attach plates.

Verifying from the old brake line that I put the retainer clip in the correct spot.

Takes a bit of twist and deform to get them to stay in place.

[birdsandbees]

Brake line clip in place.

Fuel line same deal on the other side.

Drilled and tapped the new rear frame rail holes for 5/16-18 to mount the axle bump stops (to match the bolts I had).

Retainer plates slid back into the rubber after being RPM'd, ready to install.

[birdsandbees]

Axle bump stop and fuel line loop clamp bolt in place.

Brake line loop clamp bolted in place.

Fuel line loop clamp bolted in place on upper shock mount. There are two holes there, mine was originally in the one closest to the passenger side.

[green69rt]

Just read about your problems getting the TB boots on.  I used deep well sockets to stretch them out enough to get them on.  Get a socket that's just a little bigger than the hole and use soapy water to help slide the boot over the socket.  My sockets have a nice smooth finish so went fairly easily.  Next get a socket just a little bigger and put it end to end with the first one.  Slide the boot off the smaller and on the bigger.   It took me a couple of tries to not just push it off the smaller and push the bigger away..  Keep doing this with increasing size sockets till the socket is about the same as the end of the TB and then place the socket against the end and push the boot off the socket and onto the TB.   I wish I had taken pictures or the process but my hands were a little busy.  I think that on each socket-to-socket push, I pushed the boot backward so that it rolled inside-out.  This made the following steps easier for some reason.  Each socket transfer was part slide and part "roll", this made things go a LOT easier.  After the boot was on the TB it was easy to just turn it back to right side out.  A little tricky but after I did the first one and learned the trick the second one went on in minutes with no cussing!

Looked back thru my pics and found a couple!  First pic is getting it on the final socket.  Pic 2 is transfer from a smaller to larger.   Hope this helps.

Edit: keep remembering stuff.  In the pic you can see I started with a spark plug socket then put the hex end of the spark plug socket into the next socket, that helped keep them lined up.

[birdsandbees]

Good deal. The "funnel" way worked fine, well other than the crap cold mould line that split wide open on the 2nd one! Have a proper OEM set coming from Greg @ partsmix, but of course now I'm going to need to pull the torsion bar without screwing up the paint so I have set of boots that match. Hoping removing the LCA pivot nut and giving that a wack back will get it started out, I drove it in good  !

[Charger-Bodie]

I've done over 50 sets of these over the years with nothing more than wax and grease remover solvent and my bare hands........ just don't understand why so many struggle with them so.

[birdsandbees]

I'm no weakling and no way they were spreading over that hex with one hand holding the bar and other working the boot. These PST things are as hard as hockey pucks and you can see one ripped open on a smooth tube spreading it!

[birdsandbees]

Another crack that should have been tackled before paint and when the inner fenders were off! Clutch z shaft pivot mount on the drivers frame rail.

Dollied flat, back into place and the crack ground for welding.

Hopefully this is the last time I have to set my paint on fire !! Maybe if I had of used water based paint it wouldn't burn!!  

All TIG'd up. Burnt some paint and almost my clutch rod boot, but I had the air gun ready!

[birdsandbees]

Ground fairly smooth.

Repainted on the inside.

Repainted and cleared on the outside. Back to plowing $(*%**!!$ snow !

[birdsandbees]

New Spectra fuel tank, tank outlet/sender from Right Stuff, filler neck, R.E.M. tank mat, ground strap and filler cap.

Got a lock ring with the sender and the tank. Think I'll go with the tank mfg's on the right.

Cleaning the mfg oil and wax substances off the tank.

Now I know why body shop workers are always so happy! All cleaned up with reducer and I'm pretty much tanked!

[birdsandbees]

Tank on my "rottisserie". Bottom clear coated.

Top clear coated. Probably should have bought a stainless tank, but it is what it is!

[Charger-Bodie]

Reducer buzz don't last long....

[birdsandbees]

Reducer buzz don't last long....

LOL.. I know. Not my first buzz, but got to thinking about the guys that live in this stuff 10 hours a day.

[Charger-Bodie]

Reducer buzz don't last long....

LOL.. I know. Not my first buzz, but got to thinking about the guys that live in this stuff 10 hours a day.

I'm prettt well used to it. Only time it hits me is if I'm out of the shop for a week or so.

[birdsandbees]

2 sets of fuel tank strap J bolts / nuts / washers (that I don't think were originally used) and fuel line ground strap RPM'd.

Fortunately I accidently ordered a second pair, as I didn't realize the tank strap kit came with J bolts.

The bolts that came with the straps are 40 thou larger in head diameter, heads are thicker, no chamfer and they don't fit into the trunk floor slots!

The ones I accidently ordered from elsewhere do fit fine.

[birdsandbees]

That said, both are longer than originals and came with thin, incorrect nuts. Guess I'm either cleaning up the old or finding some new tall nuts somewhere.

Started bending up my tank straps to match the old. The end section is welded on one side of strap and prebent "T" ends.

Got around to the other end and something is obviously wrong! Why do I get the shit made by hung over employees on Monday mornings..

Original fuel line vent retainer clip.. currently in the Evaporust bucket. A new clip didn't come with my fuel line kit.