Messages

I'm sorry ,too. There will be lots of grief in replacing everything.

I live in the sticks where onsite service means you just got screwed. Both Dell and Compaq have stood up to their warranty agreements well. I have friends that bought Gateway that were really screwed over on warranty. My family has been through 4 compaqs and 3 Dells, the warranty repairs have been fine. The only complaints we've had are about the tech lines. You get Bangladesh with most companies now. Hard to understand, very limited knowledge. But like most items, if you get a good one, you have no reason to find this out. If you let a new machine run for a week solid, you stand a good chance of finding any failures.

You don't have a 6 volt battery charger?

Pardon me for lack of explanation.  The SSB kit has needle bearings where the bushings were. The king pin has a reduced shank where the bearings are. You install one end of bearings, put the king pin and spindle in place and press in the other ends bearings. The kit comes with a sleeve to allow you to press or drive in the bearings. The only down side would be disassembly that would require pressing out the bearings on one end to remoce a king pin to take a spindle off. I bought mine through RB's auto at about a 10% discount.

If you don't have access to the cars wiring diagram, then it would be for very exp. only. The local dealer was king enough to loan me the service manual on the monarch  for a week so I could figure it out. As far as brand specific, I like the laa mopar idea, if you found a late model pickup with the 318 or 360, you could have fuel injection, overdrive trans, modern components.  If you use fuel injection, I'd sure try to use the factory harness on mopar. The aftermarket support is limited on that. Good luck.

I took the 53 for it's first drive since the rebuild tonight. The steering is very definately easier. I can't say how long they will last but in steering effort, it's a nice improvement. If you're going to stay with a straight axle, you should at least look at them.

I'm a believer in using a donor car. By starting with a 4 wheel drive, you limit yourself alot. I used older cars but took 3 to get most of my stuff. I started with an 80 monarch. I thought it had an 8" rear. Turned out it had a large tube 9". I used the fuel tank, all the brake system, wiring harness, tilt steering column, misc. stuff. I then used up an 83 tbird for the engine and aod trans. I could have used the seats but was going to use the bench from the monarch. Before I was finished, I ebayed a pair of 300m seats and a Durango console. When you start buying individual parts, the cost of your project rises dramatically. Being patient in finding the right donor could save thousands in short order.

Thanks for the info.

Off the tread, you might try Kirker automotive for paint. They only have 40 colors, though. I buy it from smartshoppersinc.com. The red urethane is $71 for 3 qts and 1 qt of activator.

Does anybody know if a newer GM disc brake spindle interchanges without too much work?

The thunderbird from 89 up is the independent rear. It has an 8.8 center section. The 83 to 88 all has the 7.5 which alot of the rangers and non v8 mustangs have.

I used a Granada on my 53 truck. I made a spacer for the large bearing, shortened the length of the spindle, threaded it some more, made an L shaped bracket to bolt the top of the caliper mount to. The bottom of the bracket bolted to the bottom bracket on the spindle. There may have been an inner bearing that was the correct size, I just didn't research it. I removed the entire brake system from the donor car. No engineering  needed. I just did install the Royal stainless king pin and bearing kit sold by SSB. My first impressions have been positive. If it lasts forever, it'll be great.

I just spent all day installing a repo grille and lineing up the hood and fenders. I didn't replace the hood hinges and they have a small amount of slop. I'm screwed. It's going to have to wait till later. The gaps are even but too large. The grille was a mess. I don't know if the grille is at fault or the truck itself. The original grille fit without  any trouble. There were several places the new one appeared  to be wrong. Out comes the die grinder and spacers. I'm determined to put the doors on and be sealed up tommorrow.  Weather forecast is for snow tom. I may shoot myself.

The ford sel. has 2 large post and 2 small posts. The large are battery in and starter out. The 2 small posts are extra voltage when cranking to the coil and the other one energizies the sel.

Everything looks good except the snow. I HATE WINTER.