Aargh! and other things from working inside the dash

As far as I see, there aren't any. Babe's problem is that it rains, collects water deep enough to get to the rusted area, and it leaks in over the spare. The driver side, the cubby is dry, so I'm thinking the rear window seal's bad. I found clear caulk along the bottom

 

Check your drip rails too Andy; that's where I found a leak that traveled down the B pillar.

 

Admittedly, the driver's roof has rust down to the drip rail; I'll have to take a look.

 

Check UNDER the drip rail too- that's where I found a tiny hole that allowed water in.

 

I gotta figure out how to remove the trim first, to do a good job inspecting it.

 

I found the hole, it's under the left top bed trim. But, that's not why I'm posting. I pulled Babe out and took her for a gas-up and a 20-mile round trip, then parked in front of my apartment house. Later, I take the Exploder to go pick up my niece from work to take her home. When I get back home, I see something in the street at Babe's left front corner. So I get out and discover the lens had separated from the back plate and fell off:

*groan* So any ideas for regluing that? I don't have access to MEK. And it wasn't well-glued from the factory anyway.

 

Looks like a job for clear silicone.

 

If you want it to stay together permanently get a toluene based glue. You will have to poke around a bit to find it, and it will come in a tiny amount (it is the stuff glue sniffers love), but it will never let go.

 

When I sent my chrome off, they took pillar piece apart... I glued them back together with Gorilla Glue, per the instructions. little dab will do ya!

So far so good.

 

Just like Brylcreem, eh? I suppose I could give that a try, and seal it with clear silicone. There was a bu ch of garbage inside the lens, which I cleaned out.

 

I have model glue. But the last time I used it on a plastic lamp unit, it didn't work. I'm going to give the Gorilla Glue a try, soon as I get some money.

 

I'm not sure about Washington, but here you can go to Home Depot and get a small container of MEK or Toulene pretty cheap. Cheaper per ounce than model glue. I know in California you cannot do that anymore.

What sort of model glue do you have? Some of it won't work, needs to be MEK or Toulene based and even then it depends on the type of plastic if it works or not.

Yes, I build models also. Although I have been doing that about as much as I have been working on the Ranchero lately, meaning not at all.

Russ

 

I know what you mean. I currently do HO-scale trains, which are all over my living room, and I use the Testor's liquid plastic cement on them. It's what I attempted to use on my niece's '93 Taurus lens. I suppose I could try it on this one, as it is older plastic. What galls me is that in the original manufacture, they screwed it up, as one side was bowed by heat, so it never sealed itself at that point to the lens. I'll have to see if I can force it together, like with packing tape, then run a bead of it.

 

Look at the ingredients on that Testors glue.
Likely isn't the right stuff.
Bolt the base to the car, put the lens in hot water 160-180 degrees for a few minutes until it becomes pliable.
Have a hair dryer handy to dry the edges for gluing without cooling the item.
Put the bead of glue on the base, form the lens in place and hold it until it cools.
Will be better than new.

 

Too late! I'm already in the middle of gluing it; I taped it, then started layering glue on top and bottom. I'll do another layer later today, then I'll swap the tape around and do the sides.

 

I think they make a jb weld specifically for plastic. I would have tried that before model cement. I hope I am wrong and you get it all fixed up!

 

A new project, on the engine: apparently the front main seal has sprung a leak, along with the typical valve cover gasket leakage, so when I go to swap in the aluminum Lincoln radiator, I'll have to do the front main seal, AGAIN. Considering it hasn't been run on a regular basis for about six years, it stands to reason, it likely dried out. Same for the valve covers, but I have newer-style ones I'm installing, Ford authentic, along with a pair of '85 valve covers.

 

I hear you on not runnig alot, my 64 pontiac i have the same problem oh oil well

 

Yeah. So I popped the hood when I got home to check the oil and P/S; the oil level was 1 qt. low, so I topped it off. As I poured the oil in, i remembered I had bought full syn oil, so I have a feeling that had something to do with all the fresh oil slung all over the right front corner of the engine bay. The damper still has the crank sensor tone ring on it....