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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