64polara

heres the rust.

its not rotted. its just really really dis-colored because that's were the tarp was rested with water on it.

deadkelly

i really am starting to like those old polara's .
mate just be careful when it comes to pulling off those chrome strips & the like . they are easy to damage & loose . can't you work around them for a while & maybe get the car running stopping & handling OK before doing the bodywork . body work is very involved & not the easiest thing to pull off first time around . i find body work can & usually bog you down & depress you , as it's never ending & wouldn't that cold / snowy weather affect the bondo & painting surface ?

i think it's important to have small victories here & there to keep you motivated & keep buying small or single tools every week until you have enough tools & experience to tackle the involved bodywork . maybe spot fixing some of the rust & surface rust .
well mate i hope it all turns out well for you keep us posted .

64polara

ya, it was like 40 degree F, but then we had a HUGE cold front and it is 5 degrees F today!

no way any paint or bondo or anything anytime soon.

im probably going to have to wait a little bit on much body fora little bit anyway, because after i get the valve seals done (should be done this weekend) if the smoking doesnt stop, then my nieghbor hank, says ill probably need rings. that will completely ruin this project for me sadly.

but, if everything goes smoothly, and i dont need rings, i should have that 4 barrel set up on in a couple weeks or so.

here are pics of the intake. couple questions. where would find, and what would i call the gasket for that metal piece for the coolant that geos in the front of the intake manifold. also, on the 2 barrel the fuel line screws into it, how would i make that fuel line fit this carb?

deadkelly

are your heads coming off to do the seals ???
if so give everything a really good clean .
if you heads do come off can you afford to mill .020" off the heads & mill the manifold to suit ?? call for a quote ? get hank to lap the valves lightly also . can you get a die grinder ??? if not can you get some stones for a drill ??? i you can you could lightly grind the inlet opening to your head . a little bit you could grind .020 " off the top & two sides of the port window as far down as you can reach . not to much though . you almost can't stuff it up if you only do it a little bit . just make sure you do the same amount to each one . i don't really recommend that you do the bowls though . thats best left for some body that knows what there doing . you could how ever ask a machine shop how much to mill your heads .020" & a light bowl blend to your inlets . I'd say $100 -120 might get this done . that plus your carb & inlet manifold would a little bit of performance . if you already have headers & 3" exhaust . you should pick up as much as 20 + hp .

64polara

well, today i tried to find out a little bit about the lights. i figure done thing out. i know nothing about electrical.

i found the fuse box (under and behind the ash tray.) i noticed that im missing the fuse for "ACC". what is ACC? where can i find fuses for this car? could all my electrical problems be because of blown fuses?

i really don't know much about electrical at all. i cant even find the brake light button for the pedal.

i tried looking up help online on Google, but all it came up with is electrical stuff with like honda and Toyotas. guessing those are a bit different. if there is any threads or links to diagnostics and fixing electrical problems, that would be great if anybody knew any. i should begetting a manual tomorrow or the next day, if that helps.

thanks

samuelcosmo76

The switch for the brake lights is the little white plastic thing that hits the pedal when you're not stepping on it. If you look at the pedal, follow it up towards the dash, the switch will be there on the side of the pedal facing away from the engine.

You can get fuses at any auto parts store.....they're called "bus fuses."

deadkelly

just recapping on what i said before about milling your heads & bowl blendinding your inlets & stoning / grinding your inlet port windows ( you can safely grind as much as .040 each side & .040 off the top of you inlet port windows on your head , as far down as you can reach ) . you could also shop around for the thinest head gasket you can find for the best price also for a bit more compression . you could also use a air filter top eleiment for your air cleaner . the more air you can get into you engine the better it will go & living in a place that gets cold enough to snow . that dense cold air will really help you make a a good hp gain . it will make the biggest hp gain for your money ( compression + head work ) you add a windage tray & then a mild cam ( 340 cam ) or better you will start to feel it really pull & rev . good luck & enjoy .

theomahamoparguy

the ACC stands for "accesorry" like when you turn the key counterclockwise the accesories will work that usually only come on when the car is running. (some anyway). Some times platinum plugs will clean up a little bit of oil smoke out the tailpipe. I used to use bosch plat. in my '66 slant six Belvedere for that reason.

64polara

would ACC be head lights to? im hopping all new fuses will fix my electrical problems. if not, where would i start? arethere like spots that are known o go? i think i read somewhere that there's somewhere on the firewall to check first, because rain usually burns out a certain thing or something. i might, and am probably wrong though.

if the valve seals don't stop the smoking, and i do need rings (praying it doesn't) would the car still be registrable? like, could i get the car legally on the road even if it does need rings? i can only imagine how bad it would be for the engine, but i would love to get the car to the summer nations (car show) this July, but i would almost defiantly not be able to get the rings done by then.

oh, and also deadkelly, no im not taking the heads off to do the valve seals, so sadly i cant do porting and such. but ill keep all that in mind once i have extra dough to put in the car, once i get it legal.

64polara

i fount this on the harbor site, couldi use it for anything to test electrical stuff?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=66804

samuelcosmo76

you can usually tell if a fuse is blown by looking at it....if the metal strip is busted, or if there's any discoloration, chuck it. Put one in the "ACC" spot and see what happens...if it blows again, you have bigger problems that you'll have to sort out. fuses are cheap!

Instead of getting all that crap from harbor, I'd go to radio shack and pick up one of these:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2103176
A multimeter is super useful.

Did you find that switch for the brake lights?

64polara

oh, i was expecting one form Radioshack to cost way more, thanks!

uhgh, i didn't get to even try to find that button again. its been drizzling rain and snow for the last couple days, and my garage sucks, i don't have much room to get a good look underneath. school takes up a lot of day light hours, so working on the car has been a bit slow, since it gets dark around 5-5:30.

that multimeter. where would i connect that to the car? and what exactly would it do? again, i really am terrible with electrical.

samuelcosmo76

i feel ya....I'm a senior now so i get out pretty early, but daylight doesn't last long enough these days! haha

You can use the meter for so many things. Most importantly, you can check for shorts (things connected that shouldn't be) or opens (things that should be connected but aren't). There's a feature where if the two test leads touch, it will beep. So for example, you would take out that brake switch, put the two leads on it, and it if beeps when you push the switch, you know the switch is bad. the same thing with fuses....if it beeps when you touch it to the fuses, you know the fuse is good. get it? haha

64polara

hmm almost i think, haha. wait so if it beeps for a switch its bad, but if it beeps for a fuse its good?

samuelcosmo76

no wait i think i just made that a little confusing. haha

if it beeps, it means current is flowing. so since current would flow through a good fuse, the meter would would beep. so basically, knowing that about the fuse, that's how you can check it.

64polara

ooh. so should the brake button beep to? shouldn't current be running through that also?

samuelcosmo76

oi vey! man you gotta read up on your electrical circuits! haha

its a switch, so when the brake pedal presses it, no current runs through it, and vice versa.

64polara

ohh. sorry about that. im really just terrible with anything electrical, i have almost no idea how any over it works. i have never done anything electrical in my entire life. i was kind of hoping this car would teach me something, haha.

samuelcosmo76

it will! there's nothing wildly complicated in these cars, so its a good place to start.

64polara

igot a link to a polara wire diagram, so that should help. i found the brake switch. i think its suppose to be in that little hole connected to the brake petal right? if i found the right switch. its connected to a little bracket holding it in place so it cant go anywhere. the bracket is bent a little though, so the button is turned a little bit away from the pedal.

heres a picture i made to sort of explain: (sorry, i don't have a camera)

i drew in the picture, how the buttons bracket is bent a little so the button is pointed a little bit away.

also, the pink wire was not connected. once my dad gets home ill start the car and push the button by hand to see if the lights work.

64polara

well, before i did not fully understand, but i do now. when the brake pedal is not being pushed teh button is pushed in, breaking the circuit , then when the pedal is pushed, the button is let go, making the circuit.

since i connected the wires, and the button was a way from the pedal, i didn't even realize, that the brake lights were on! they must have come on when i connected the wires. so know i know they work.

now the problem(s):

how do i get the button to go behind the pedal where it should be? just take the bracket off and bend it to the right spot?

also, i don't really understand why the guy who i bought it form didn't figure that out. he seemed like he really knew a lot about cars. he must have just not put a lot of effort in to it

now i have to see if when the button is pushed the lights turn off. ill check that once my dad gets home.

also, (keep in mind that since the button is not being pushed the brake lights are stuck on this entire time). after the left blinker is put on and turned off, the rear right light goes out, but the left is still on. then the rear right will only go on after i put the right blinker on for a second. should i worry about this?



EDIT: well, i have found something out. my brkae lights, even with the ignition turned off, are still on.

samuelcosmo76

yeah that makes sense....the brake lights work whether or not the car is on or off. so yeah, get someone to look at the lights when you hit that switch. also yeah, try to bend it back to the right position....maybe someone kicked it out of place somewhere along the line.

good luck! :-)

scotts74birds

Here's a link for wiring diagrams. http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=26

theomahamoparguy

alot of times the button bracket gets bent out of shape when the master cylinder is changed. ( pulling up on the brake pedal to dislodge the rod going into the master cylinder) Yeah, just bend it and do whatever to get it to line up. Also notice that the button switch has some adjustment to it. (it should have outer threads and a skinny nut for adjusting the in/out) I say "should have" but not 100% sure for 1964.

64polara

i changed the oil. the oil was thickish at the beginning, but then it got pretty watery near the end. guessing bad? i put 4 quarts of Pennzoil, and 1 quarts of mystery oil. i might be wrong, but it think the smoke looks a little lighter now. could just be me though.

i should have the brake light done in the morning, it got dark out pretty quick.

oasplinter

yup

64polara

the brake lights are fixed! way bigger PITA than i thought. my and my friends backs is now broken. underneath dash for a solid hour. valve seals tomorrow. then only head lights and windshield wipers left to be road worthy

EDIT: while under the dash, i noticed the shifter for the push button thing. has two spots for wires. i cant find any thing for it on the wiring diagram, but there are 2 brown cables sort of close to it, could those be it?

theomahamoparguy

easier to work under dash with the fron seat removed. (hehehehe.......oh well) dont know what wires go to the pushbutton. (maybe for the little lights in the shifter - the buttons are supposed to light up)

64polara

what? they are?! that is BA. could it hurt anything thing, to plug those wires in and see if they do anything? i just dont want to mess up the already sketchy electrical system.

64polara

ok, so this is what what down today:

i got the car over to my neighbors garage today. he showedme on one cylinder how to change the valve seals, then let me do the other 3 on that side. (i only had enough valve seals for one side, im an idiot) 2 out of the 4 cylinders all had no more valve seals, they had broken off. the ones that were still there were rock solid.

so i got one side done. then we cleaned all the spark plugs, and hank noticed that two spark wires were touching the header, and got burnt. the pipe comes way up, and right by the spark plug boots. hank pulled the boots tighter upward with a zip-tie (he called it a band-aid fix), but it only pulled the boot 1/4 to 1/2 inch away form the header. is there anything i can wrap the boot/wires with to protect them? i need 2 new wires now, but i don't want to burn any new ones either.

hank said one really good thing about the car, is the gas and brake lines. he said they are perfect.

the side we did (passenger side) noticeably smokes less.

i took the drivers side windshield wiper off, and then tried the wipers, and the passenger side one works perfect. shouldn't be long until wipers will be all done. then just head lights and a little more stuff to get it to smoke a little less, and it should be road worthy (hope to god). overall good day

sorry for the long post, just a good progress day.