1966 Polara 500 Ragtop

[Dsertdog]

Caught the rona?

Yes got diagnosed on the 12th. Been on heavy drugs since 16th, making good progress, but it's too cold to be out. I don't need pneumonia like my wife got with her China virus

Sorry to hear that
Hope you feel better soon

You've been a godsend Tom, getting this window mess fixed. I'm sure to have more questions when I get back to putting it back together. I hope you won't mind helping. Bless you!

 

[Dsertdog]

Hope your ok Al
If you need something call I’m not far away.

Ok Galen I will...wish I could be of more help. I hope you and yours stay healthy!

 

[Dsertdog]

Alright...!
We are back in business. Here we go!
Mrfixit's excellent directions allowed me to carefully disassemble the first pair of rollers.
Casting is filed and polished, rollers cleaned and the spring re-bent so it won't cock the rollers when installed.

I need to unfreeze the main roller. I'm going to try something non invasive 1st before I grind and drill off the roller axle.
It's good to be back.
I hope my wife continues to improve. 2 more weeks of oxygen.

 

[xxcarguy]

Glad your doing better.
Hope all works out for Theresa.
We will see ya out and about this summer!

 

[Dsertdog]

I decided to dunk the roller side in vinegar.
It's gentle acidity might loosen things slowly.
If not I'll add apple cider vinegar which is a bit more potent.

 

[traintech55]

I found out that repeated sprays of "PB Blaster" Works great. Don't forget to lube the hell out of everything before you reassemble the rollers.

 

[Dsertdog]

I got K&W knocker' loose...That's pretty good stuff too.
Perhaps that will be next.

 

[Dsertdog]

A little...er a LOT of K&W, and gently tapping ot the back of the axle produced the needed results.
The main roller is loose!
After coating every surface and the axle with dry graphite the unit was assembled and tested It works great, but the window frame track needs to be dressed and flattened so the roller has more traction.
Brought Ms. Ruby home today and took a photo. Drove her around town and took the dog for a ride.

 

[xxcarguy]

Looks great!

 

[Dsertdog]

The good, the bad and the ugly! The repaired roller assembly and the mess.
The repaired roller has been tested on the front rail and the glass frame until it worked. I needed to file and sand the rails in the window frame until the main roller. The sides of the frame grabbed the main roller and the round edge in the track didn't provide a lot of grip surface. So I flattened the edge and sanded down the sides and removed burrs from the roller.
Again, following Mr. Fixit's advice (which I should've done at first) I drilled out the rivet end of the pin holding the broken extrusion and filed off the head. Popped right out and I didn't break the glass! The pilot hole is deep enough for a rivet, but I'll probably use a machine screw and a drop of loctite instead.
I have a plan to repair the broken piece.

 

[Dsertdog]

@David Grippin sold me a set of seat belts with the correct buckles. Finally, I have a matched set.
3 soakings and scrubbings later. Just have to dye these bad boys black.

 

[Dsertdog]

So after attaching the broken pieces of extrusion back together with JB Weld, I built a "cap" if you will, out of a piece of sheet brass and used JB Weld to glue it to the extrusion

A quick check shows there's no interference with the window frame, so it should function just fine.

 

[Dsertdog]

Just a quick report.
Both quarter windows are working like they should, I just wished I had the cat whiskers to install.
The interior panels were scrubbed, given a couple of coats of Herb's spray dye, and put reinstalled over some fresh moisture barriers made from a piece of discarded drop cloth, if cloth could be used for that term. New seatbelts were also installed.

The corner panels were also re-dyed, but I ran out before completing both. Herb's interior spray is good stuff.

I wasted too much spray on the back seat panel. It would have taken way too much to cover up the fiber board.
So I ended up stripping off most of the dye and priming the panel with several light coats of white primer. Then I'll wet sand that after letting it dry most of the week, and shoot the dye on. Should be fine.

Meanwhile we continue to cruise around town because the weather has been nice between rain showers.

 

[Dsertdog]

It only took me about 6 months but the rear seat is back in!
To think... this started as just a speaker grille replacement. Simple enough, right?

 

[Dsertdog]

For those who may be curious how the rear seat panel turned out.

 

[Dsertdog]

New project this week.
Clean and paint the intake manifold.
Good thing I pulled it apart when I did. The valley pan was close to rusting through. I'm also glad I didn't buy the insulation pad kit. I won't be putting anything under the manifold for now. It'll probably keep the carb cooler too!

 

[xxcarguy]

Looks great.
Hope to see ya soon.

 

[cbarge]

The insulation served 2 purposes; noise reduction and reduce heat under the carb.
However to greatly reduce heat under the carb now is the time to block the exhaust crossover ports.
On both the 66 300 and my 68 Newport they have the exhaust ports blocked, 1 inch spacer under the carb, and use electric choke. Since both cars do not see winter weather or temperatures, the elextric choke is nice on cold damp mornings.
No fuel perculation or vapor lock even in 100 degree heat.
Hope this helps.

 

[Dsertdog]

There's been several discussions about this on FCBO.
All I know is that this is the only big block I've had with the insulator package. So far I'm not impressed and would rather have air flowing through that space.
I guess I need to see if an electric choke is made for the stock AFB. If not, I'm ok with how things are working for the moment.

 

[patrick66]

The Plymouth is looking great!