Interior scrub today

[lloyd3]

So much for paying somebody else to do it, eh? Got an early start to beat the heat. Cleared out my ridiculous driveway and backed out my '68.  Found a semi-useful portable vacuum (my Red Devil is evidently hors de combat?) and hit the carpets and floor mats first. Grime everywhere it seems (been needing to do this for quite a while now...like 2-years). Even vacuumed the pleats in the seats. Then I cast about for what might clean up the vinyl seats, settled on a damp towel and a Windex-clone and went to work. Much better. Then I cast about for a vinyl dressing of some type (chose not to go with Armor-All). Ended up with a Turtle Wax product for leather seats that says good for vinyl as well. Sprayed that on and worked it in by hand.  Hmmm...looking fairly respectable again, more shine and less grimy funk. Finally the dash. How in hell does one deal with the ribbed black plastic on '68s?  A clean, nappy damp towel yet again...and the Turtle Wax product for the padded stuff.  Better, eh? Even wiped down the boot on the shifter. I'd love to send the instrument cluster out for a refresh (getting faded and lightly obscured) but....other things always have priority here. Oh well.



Ok, just what does one do with the blasted seatbelts back here? They still look like hell.



And tomorrow morning....glass and then buff and wax.  Too hot to drive 'em (93 today), might as well shine 'em up. Coffee and cars in 3-weeks.

[Mytur Binsdirti]

[lloyd3]

Mytur: Appreciate it. Don't suppose there is a quick and easy way to de-grime an engine bay?  That part of the clean-up will be far-more challenging...

[Mytur Binsdirti]

Mytur: Appreciate it. Don't suppose there is a quick and easy way to de-grime an engine bay?  That part of the clean-up will be far-more challenging...

Time & elbow grease works for me.

[Homerr]

This guy does all sorts of videos on detailing.

Engine:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ZHLRAX_tU

More in-depth:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awLX5qlY-Ts

He sells his own stuff, but you can probably figure out substitutes with what you already have.  I think just seeing a pro detailer in action will make you better even if you only do 20% of what he does.


We have a small handheld steam cleaner and I use it on the engine from time to time, works great.  Similar to pic.

[lloyd3]

I will definitely watch the above. But for now, at least I can tolerate my interior again...



Under the hood requires some thought first. In the old days, I'd wheel into the carwash, open the hood and let 'er rip. That worked fine until my '70 Super Bee wouldn't start one day.

[b5blue]

That car is mighty fine. 

[lloyd3]

b5blue: You are too kind. It has always been adult owned (from what I've been able to research about it's history). That seems to have spared it from many of the indignities that most of these cars have faced.  It has also been mostly garaged, another big item for keeping interiors decent.

[b5blue]

Mine is a hammered old drag race car. Being a Fl. car the chassis is still solid though. 

[lloyd3]

Interesting. Mine was campaigned at a drag strip in Omaha by possibly two different owners, one in Nebraska and the other in nearby Iowa. None of these cars were ever babied but... a few got slightly better care. Drag cars at least get garaged in the Midwest. 

[tan top]

looks goods ! 

[lloyd3]

Homerr:  Looks like those fellows bag the carb to keep it from ingesting inappropriate fluids during the clean-up process. I'd also consider covering the distributer as well (for the same reasons). Modern stuff isn't so fussy about wet penetrations but this car has the factory Prestolite dual-point (not known for their water-shedding qualities). Mopar alternators from the 60s don't like getting wet either. I've got bugs and road grime everywhere underhood, and if not leaking valve covers, then at least seeping ones. I can almost see more black than Turquoise blue under there.  I've also got a (perhaps more recent?) leaking steering gear and, of course, the ever-ubiquitous main seal ooze. Over time those fluids seem to get everywhere and the grime simply follows.  



This was a few years ago, so it's even funkier now. Just looking at this pix reminds me that getting that firewall connector wet might not be such a great idea either...

This could be a can of worms.

[67440chrg]

Great car its nice to see a car look like it should. My 67 was beyond being factory years before I got it so its kind of late day two or day 3. Keep up the good work. All you need now is a couple of youngsters with ice cream cones in the back seat. My girls have grown up and I am not sure I have gotten all the sticky out of the back seat yet.

[lloyd3]

67440chg: Yeah, the occupant of the baby seat that used to be centered in the back is now taller than me.  Shocked that I didn't find a few cheerios in the seatbelt seams back there Tuesday. Over the time of my ownership (26-years now) I've always strived to keep it as original (or at least original-looking) as I reasonably could. For at least my first 10-years of ownership, junkyards were more commonly available and I could still find most of the parts I needed to keep it going (on similar cars of the era , i.e.. wiper arms, jack bases, armrests, etc.). The car was reasonably complete when I got it, so that was fortunately a minimal need.  All of that would be darn hard to do now as most of the yards I used to frequent are long-gone (because of all the growth here).

b5blue: From my research, (back before 9/11 this was much easier to do) this '68 was ordered (as a stipe-delete car) from Jim Earp's Dodge in Omaha, Nebraska . It was campaigned as a bracket car in the 80s at an old WWII airfield dragstrip called Scribner Raceway, near to Omaha. When I had it apart for a partial re-do it (after an accident in 2008), you could see the battery box tie-down points in the trunk, and the roll cage mount holes in the floor under the carpet and pad. It's got replacement quarters as well so I suspect it had been tubbed at some point.

[lloyd3]

Another hot and muggy day here today. This was in March...



Not that I'm looking forward to snow or anything like that, just a lee-might cooler would be nice though.

Also...bought a Husqvarna pressure washer from Costco yesterday. On clearance, it was only like $260 so....couldn't help myself. I've got a big stain job coming up where it will be useful as siding prep. It might also be useful underhood here on some of the more greasy locations? Have to approach that with some caution however....

[b5blue]

  26 years for me also. Delivered local as a "You Drive It" when new, a nicely optioned small block car. Mid 70's sold (possibly after a wreck) getting a 383 swap and driven till the drum brakes were toast. Bought for 500 in late 70's it was deemed not worth repairing by that owner's grandad and sold to Steve as his first car ever. He repaired it and used it 9 years while getting married, having kids and starting a transmission repair company. Then came 8 years of drag race upgrades/modifications just breaking into 12's when the trunk mounted battery's positive cable melted onto an exhaust pipe. The fire burnt the dash cluster and harness pretty bad but with a new engine harness and some patches it ran again. It sat behind the shop until I found it a year or so later while tracking down a Challenger my brother wanted. Steve and I became friends long before I knew he had the 70 and my first parts run included getting a rebuilt steering box. "Heading to Ted's" for repair parts (Since late 60's) I asked for a power steering box for a 70 Charger. The guy on the counter said "Hey I had one, it was blue." It was his granddad who said sell it to Steve.

[lloyd3]

b5blue:  Great story!  All these cars have a history worth knowing and then telling.  If you were a car guy, growing up in the 70s and 80s, then these cars were part of your story as well.  What amazes me is... that after all these years, when I pull the cover off of her I still get that "kick", that positive response to the visual. And...it's still very-much fun to drive.  Lots of fun for a fairly trivial investment all those years ago, eh?