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Hi everyone -
Thought I'd bring the group up to date on my
Imperial's transition from barn fixture to living breathing (and God knows gas
drinking) automobile.
A week ago Sunday I went out to the "Rust Farm" to
bring my baby home. Gary was all ready with the tilt bed and I got busy
getting it running to drive it to position to be loaded. I came armed with
a new Group 27 battery, coil, new plug and coil wires and various
fluids. I rigged a new fuel supply system by stealing my lawnmower's 2
gallon gas can, 4 feet of rubber fuel line and a new clamp; running the hose
from the can's place between the grille and radiator support to the fuel
pump. I pulled the plugs, hooked up the battery and ran the starter for
about 2 minutes sporatically to get the oil flowing in the engine. I then
reinstalled the plugs, swapped out the coil (the old one was leaking oil out of
the tower) and plug wires crossed my fingers, gave her a dose of Starting Fluid
and turned the key. Nothing. We tried it again and on the third
attempt - my creature came alive! The lifters took a few minutes to quiet
down, but there was no blue smoke out the pipes. It wasn't long before the
auto choke kicked down and she settled down to a nice quiet, even idle.
Even the guages were working. The transmission was a little more reluctant
but after a while even that got with the program. I then got behind the
wheel and drove her over to the tilt bed shut her off and loaded her up and we
headed for Portland with lots of stares and finger pointing along the way. About
45 minutes later (Gary doesn't mess around behind the wheel - it usually take me
an hour to make the trip) we pulled into the alley beside my house, unloaded her
and I started her up and gingerly backed her into the garage. I say
gingerly as one system that definately did NOT come back to life were the
brakes. Needless to say the push buttons on the transmission got quite a
workout.
Last Thursday, armed with a new master brake
cylinder I attempted to correct the braking issue. I replaced the master
cylinder and attempted to bleed the brakes but all in all I pretty much wasted
my time. The lines are hopelessly clogged and corroded as I pretty much
though they would be. My next main project is to replace all the lines
and wheel cylinders when the weather gets a little warmer (I'ts supposed to
snow tonight here).
On a lark, I decided to see what the engine was up
to so I reconnected the battery, gave the gas pedal three slow trips to the
floor turned the key..... and she fired right up - with silent lifters and no
smoke. The transmission was back to normal too - at least as far as
response goes. Naturally with no brakes I haven't had the guts to go
around the block to see how the upshifts are doing, but I'm
hopefull.
Later this week I'll replace all the fluids and
drop the gas tank which thanks to this group I now know how to
drain.
Just before today's sunset, I gave her a much
deserved and much needed bath and I must say she cleaned up pretty
good.
At some point in the future I'll send this story
along with some of the many pictures I taken of this project along to the
website, but for now, I'm feeling pretty good about the whole
thing.
One interesting sidelight out of working on this
car again is pain, or should I say the lack of
it and memory. I have been all over and under this car in the past two
weeks doing things that when working on my other cars and with my arthritic back
usually lays me up at least a coupe of days. Also I spent a lot of time
working on this car when I was in my early twenties and a lot of time has passed
since then. Interestingly enough when working on her this past week, my
poor old brain was able to recall what size sockets and wrenches went with what
bolt and nut. I couldn't tell you what I had for breakfast yesterday, but
I remembered the bolt at the top of the master cylinder cover took
a 7/16th box. Now I know we tend to make a lot of claims for our cars
in this group and I'm not quite ready to say that with this
Imperial I've found the Fountain of Youth, but when I'm working
on her I'm thinking better and in much less pain than I experience doing simular
things on other projects.
But enough of that. More to come when time,
money and progress permitts.
Thanks for letting me rattle on
Jim L. in OR
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