Here's Sweaty Betty in all her glory. At some point, someone really loved her. I am her third owner. Actually, the guy I bought her from never registered her, so technically I'm her second owner. The poor old fella that originally owned Betty passed away and she was sold at an estate auction. Apparently he had been sick for a while and she sat for quite a few years. The last time she was registered was in 2008. She sat outside and it was just long enough for everything to start to deteriorate. When I got her, her bed was nasty. Like a hobo had taken up residence and did nothing but huff paint in there. I kid you not, someone had painted the inside of her bed with aluminized paint. After about two solid weeks of scraping, wire brushing and sanding, I was finally able to lay down some rubberized bed liner. She's not going to be a show car, I'm going to use her so I opted for quite a few heavy coats. One of the first things I had to do was get her running properly. This involved tracking down some vacuum leaks, flushing the fuel system, installing a new tank and a new fuel pump. You have to admire the care that goes into packaging components these days. That's one of those new multi-dimensional gaskets. Then it was on to the brakes. Oh god, the brakes! First things first, her pedal would go to the floor and stay there and she had zero brakes what so ever. After closer inspection the seals in the ass end of the brake master gave up the ghost and let all kinds of fluid into the booster which promptly killed off the diaphragm. If you've never installed a brake booster on one of these things, do yourself a favor and hire one of those cirque du soleil contortionists who has a trained octopus to help you with it. Mmmm... Looks delicious. Next on the list was shoes, hold down/return hardware, and wheel cylinders. That's a bit better. I also replaced the calipers and pads, as well as every brake hose on the car. When all was said and done, she stops exactly how she's supposed to and about as good as you'd expect a tank to stop. It's good to go fast but its WAY better to be able to stop. I've spent the last two weeks dealing with emissions control issues, locating missing parts and replacing broken stuff. She passed smog on the numbers side but had a few components missing. Tomorrow she goes back for smog certification and then finally into service. The "must do" list is finally all crossed off and I'm starting to look at Betty like she's a whole car and not just a huge pile of jobs I have to do. Today, I set about cleaning up her dingy dash. I really wished I had taken a before pic of this. So, there you have it. As I continue to play, I'll post up more pics and update her progress. But, as of today, Betty is a little less sweaty than she used to be.
Would have been a good time to upgrade to a hydroboost braking system rather than vacuum. With a hydroboost system you can lock up the brakes even if a cement truck is pushing you downhill.
Sweaty Betty ran but lacked the power I thought a 6.6 should have AND there was a strong odor of gas coming into the cabin. I posted in this ancient thread about it: http://www.ranchero.us/forum/index.php?threads/strong-gas-odor-from-engine.2584/page-2 Anyway, I yanked her carb off and found it to be a bit... Let's say... A bit crusty. Nah... That's how it's supposed to look, right? That reminds me... I need to varnish the bar top on the patio before winter comes. So, long story short I bought a rebuild kit, disassembled the carb, soaked it (Yeah, good luck trying to find a 3 gallon bucket of carb cleaner with the basket in it here in the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia) and put it back together. It's been a hundred years since I fooled with one of these and when I cracked her open, fond memories of screwing up my first one came flooding back. The power valve was shot, the accelerator pump had a hole in it and as you can see, the damned thing was full of crud. I can't believe she ran as good as she did. The end result isn't something that should grace the pages of a hot-rod magazine or anything but it's serviceable. 'Reinstalled everything and cranked it until the float bowl filled and VROOM. I did something right. At this point it was time for a celebratory beer. After Mr. Guinness and I did our business, I got out the timing light, adjusted the idle air screws and the idle control, put the air cleaner back on, closed the hood and took her for a test drive. Don't drink and drive, kids! Okay, so, when I pressed the accelerator, as I normally would, lets just say the wife wasn't too impressed by the sound of those 275/60's breaking loose, but I sure was, and maybe... Just maybe... I kept my foot in it longer than I should have. Yeah, I'm 12. But... My victory was short lived as when I came home and got to looking real hard, I noticed that huge lump of an AC pump dancing a little bit and I could hear that something didn't sound exactly right. I turned her off and checked things out and, sure as spit, the idler pulley bearings are shot. Yeah, sure, I could cut the belt as I doubt that the AC has any charge left to it -BUT- I'm anal, and have a touch of OCD and want things to be right. I've got one ordered from the parts store down the road, but damn, Betty! Give me a little break! I did manage to take care of a few little things after I got a visit from the big brown truck this morning. I was able to acquire some replacement dash vents that don't look like the smiles at a redneck wedding. And, I got that wiper Kah-NOB I was asking about in another ancient thread. Slowly but surely, Betty is returning to her former glory. Mark my words, after setting for as long as this thing has, the very next thing to go is going to be the water pump. Anyone care to lay a wager? Okay, so that's my status report as of today. It's Friday and I'm gonna walk away for the weekend, I think.
Great progress...enjoy the colorful writing style too You can either mix up a "rich" mixture of molasses & water (say...4:1) or get some Evap-o-rust and soak those rusted carb parts in...they'll come out lookin' real purdy.
Mineral spirits work well in my parts cleaner. Naturally they are working to get rid of that here also.
So, are mineral spirits what's left over after minerals are killed? Seemed like a good time of the year to ask.
Luckily, you can still get the 5 gallon can of berryman's carb cleaner (in AZ).....I just picked up a can a month or so ago....that smell brings back a lot of memories....constantly smelling like burned electrical was a major influence on me getting out of the auto biz.
The fat white zippy tie's a nice touch. Looks like it's holding down the #10 soup can/vacuum reservoir?
And yeah, doing any booster is a sore pain in any mechanic's body. Try doing one in a Pinto. I removed the driver's seat and laid on my back.
My 1/4" air ratchet became my best friend for those interference nuts over the long studs coming through the firewall.
Yup, there's two of 'em on that soup can. Only the best, Clark. Umm... No thanks, I'm good. It was tough enough trying to stuff my fat ass in past the couch in Sweaty Betty. I'd need a can opener to get that Pinto off of me.
Uh, you sound like me...overtall, overfat and overambitious. I lay across the seat to do underdash crap, and frankly, I'm tired of the brain drain from sitting up.
Well... I've got everything buttoned down and today she smog tests... again. We'll see. Fingers crossed. There she goes. There's also a poor neglected Falcon Ranchero setting in the parking lot just waiting for someone to take it home and give it some love. I hear Betty in the bay being spun up on the dyno... We'll know in about 15 minutes.
Another day, another smog fail. The smog guy, Tony says everything is fine. She passes emissions, she passes the visual inspection, and the new evap canister and parts I just installed are all functioning perfectly. It's the damned gas tank. He can't get it to hold pressure. That tank is brand new. The sending unit is brand new. The seals are all new even the grommet for that stupid little check valve on the top of the tank. I guess I have to drop this damned thing. I hate screwing with gas tanks I'm honestly at a loss. The only thing I can reckon is that check valve at the top of the tank is faulty. Tony says theres a "smoke test" that I can do, provided I have access to the machine that can find the leak. I have no idea where I could get my hands on one, let alone borrow it. Geez, you know, all I wanna do is drive this damned thing.
All you need is a shop vac with an extra hose on the output and a smoke source. Duct tape the vac output to the filler inlet, and suck up smoke from a source. Don't forget the large rubber hoses that run from your filler inlet to the tank. They can leak air without leaking gas.