Scalped

The Caprice has been at the body shop for a while so I have been working on some other projects in the meantime.  

The brake light wasn't working on the Silverwing.  It turned out to be the brake light switch.  Fortunately, the terminals on the switch itself just needed cleaning.  Unfortunately, what should have been a 10 minute job turned into a very long job when the screw holding the brake light switch twisted off.  I ended up having to drill it out and re-tap the whole.  Now I don't have to use the foot brake whenever I want people behind me to know I'm stopping.

I think I've lost a lot of the photos I'd taken and I don't have any idea what happened to them.  We had a litany of brake issues.  I don't have any pictures from working on my dad's '75 Vette.   Dad has owned a '75 Corvette convertible for about 40 years or more and the brakes have never worked properly.  The car wouldn't lock the brakes up.  He recently took it to a shop where they spent several weeks and a lot of money replacing a bunch of parts and didn't fix the problem.  I told him to bring the car by and we'd take a look at it.  I thought the car felt as though the master cylinder was not engaging properly, but these cars are known to trap air in the lines are are difficult to bleed so we started out using the pressure bleeder to flush all the brake fluid in the car, which needed to be done regardless.  Since that didn't solve the problem I did some research and found that from somewhere around 1977 and back Corvettes had adjustable brake rods from the brake pedal arm going into the master cylinder.  We took the master cylinder loose, adjusted the length and that fixed the problem.  

Then while we were at it Dad helped me remove the old vinyl top and all the trim on The Caprice.

After removing the vinyl top the roof seemed to be in better shape than I had anticipated.  I drove to the body shop and we both agreed the top appeared to be in pretty good shape.  I then removed the headliner so the top could be repaired.  Unfortunately after the body shop removed all of the remaining glue and fuzz from the top it was evident that the old metal was in worse shape than we had first thought.

While The Caprice was at the body shop Dad and I tackled the brakes on his '61 Corvette.  It still has the original, single pot master cylinder and drum brakes, which had completely run dry.  We spent two days drying to get the brakes flushed and bled but couldn't seem to get it right.  To make a long story short we found out that a couple of the bleeder valves were partially stopped up.  

Because I apparently love being punished, I decided to drag my old '67 Camaro out and get  it going to drive while The Caprice was in the body shop.  When I went over to Dad's house to get it I decided at the last minute to get his '67 Camaro out and get it going instead.  His car hadn't been driven in about five years and needed some attention.

The points were stuck and the carburetor was leaking for starters.

I drove it to work one day and when I left to go to lunch I quickly found out I had almost no brakes.  They would barely, just barely, slow the car down.  I managed to get the car home and started researching the right master cylinder.  The master cylinder currently on the car was incorrect.  This is a factory disc brake car, so after a little research was able to find the right part.

Of course, nothing is ever easy and some modification was necessary to get the correct part and bracket to fit correctly.  When we went to flush and bleed the brakes we couldn't get the brakes bled, but because of our recent experience with the '61 we quickly knew to remove the bleeder valves and clean them out and that fixed the problem.

While The Caprice was in the body shop I picked up the back window from the body shop and took it to a window tinting business to be re-tinted.  The old tinting, which was over 20 years old, had turned purple.  While repairing the roof, the trunk and hood were repainted and the quarters received new clear coat.   

The route salesman for automotive clips wouldn't return my calls and wasted a week and half of my time, so I had to wait a few days for the clips to come in after I finally ordered them online.  I also was delayed by the window tint business, who continued to tell me the window would be done in a few days and over two weeks later, when I said I was coming to pick the window up regardless of tint, it suddenly was done.

One day a few months ago we had taken The Caprice on a round trip of over 100 miles, most of which was at interstate speeds.  When we stopped to eat and got back in the car a huge plume of smoke bellowed out when I started the engine and then it quit.  From time to time I could smell smoke at startup and from time to time it would still smoke on startup.  After doing a lot of research online I found out that the original design of the PCV valve was faulty and caused the PCV baffles to suck oil up into the intake.  A replacement part is available for a couple different generations.  Finding out which number applies to which engine didn't com easily, but I finally found the information below:

"This is GM's third attempt to mitigate the oil consumption issues plaguing LS1 engines and 1999-2013 LS engine trucks. For some reason the engine eats oil through the PCV setup and people who run catch cans catch a significant amount of oil. For millions of engines that don't it pools up in the intake. I was surprised when I pulled the intake manifold on my truck to see oil weeping out of the intake runner outlets.

New GM valve cover. Includes new gasket and grommets. Part number 12570427 for 2009-prior LS engines which has the hose connector barb for the PCV tubing. 12642655 is for 2010-2013 LS engines which uses a push on fitting connector."

The difference between the two is seen in holes located in the upper right of each cover.  The old style was a small, round hole that led over to the PCV valve.  The new cover has a redesigned inlet for the baffle that prevents, or in theory is supposed to prevent, the sucking of oil mist from the rockers at higher RPM.

After I got the car back from the body shop I installed the new valve cover, which was a very simple and straight forward procedure.  It was a messy job because the engine bay was absolutely covered in dust from having been at the body shop.  I removed the old valve cover.

I installed the new valve cover and put the coils back on.  I really like the look of the engine without the coil packs on top of them.  Maybe one day in the future I may relocate them, but for now it's much easier and more convenient to leave them where they are.

The top was fully prepared as though it were not going to have a vinyl top for protection.  The bodywork wasn't smoothed like a car that wouldn't have a vinyl top, but the paint prep was the same.

The hood and trunk were also resprayed as mentioned before.

I contacted two upholstery shops and they were all backed up for months.  One upholstery shop's son has started his own business and he has agreed to take me on and work me in.  I took the car down and we picked out material and am currently waiting on the materials to arrive.  Once they do the top and headliner will be installed, at which point I will then fix the floor pans.

I also sprayed down the engine bay using some degreaser.  I think the plan to make the engine look, as much as possible, like it originally came in the car has worked out well, though I still have the desire to fully detail it out.  Maybe one day down the road when some other things on the car are finished.