1966 Plymouth Fury 3

[PhilA]

It was raining and nasty last night so I decided I needed to do something on the car. Continuing a recent theme, I pulled the clock out to see if it wanted to work at all.

Scratched and dirty, as it came out of the dash.

Popped apart of looked a fair bit better. The hands are a little sun-baked but overall it's in reasonable cosmetic shape.

Taken apart, you can see it's a regular clockwork clock. The escapement wheel was bent and one of the pallets was in the wrong place so it wouldn't tick over. I straightened all that out and it began to run. It's operated by a solenoid that winds the mainspring every minute or so. I put power to it after cleaning the points but nothing. 

Undoing the top to remove the solenoid showed the thing was a bit crispy.

So I hammered the thing apart to liberate the coil, which was open circuit. The clock had jammed, the coil overheated and that ruined it all.

Unwound the coil and measured the wire. That's 28AWG, 212 turns therein. I've got a spool on order, that should get the clock working again.

Phil

[Crackers]

3 hours ago, PhilA said:

It's operated by a solenoid that winds the mainspring every minute or so

I've always wondered why the dash clock in the P6 makes a loud clack every few minutes - I bet that's the reason. I'd never have thought of that, but it's a beautifully simple mechanical system.

[PhilA]

20 minutes ago, Crackers said:

I've always wondered why the dash clock in the P6 makes a loud clack every few minutes - I bet that's the reason. I'd never have thought of that, but it's a beautifully simple mechanical system.

Yup, same type of clock as in this, but it shouldn't clack, as such, more a muted click. I think there's a rubber buffer to prevent it from being too noisy that's likely disintegrated.

Phil

[Crackers]

2 minutes ago, PhilA said:

I think there's a rubber buffer to prevent it from being too noisy that's likely disintegrated

Given the state of the rubber parts elsewhere on the car, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.

Do I care? Nope. I quite like the noise actually, because I'm a bit weird.

[PhilA]

Just now, Crackers said:

Given the state of the rubber parts elsewhere on the car, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest.

Do I care? Nope. I quite like the noise actually, because I'm a bit weird.

It's a good thing, you know the clock hasn't jammed if it clicks.

I'm thinking about putting a circuit breaker on this one in case it does, would save it from draining the car's battery.

[PhilA]

Rubber insulation bungy had seen better days so I took a tap washer and trimmed it down to match.

Better. Fits pretty snug- is vibration damping and also the ground strap sits on it to push against the back of the case.

Terminal pokes through neatly. That'll be alright. Better than it was.

 

Phil

[Low Horatio gearbox]

On 5/21/2021 at 4:05 PM, Crackers said:

I've always wondered why the dash clock in the P6 makes a loud clack every few minutes - I bet that's the reason. I'd never have thought of that, but it's a beautifully simple mechanical system.

Mine had overheated  like Phil's..  alas it had also melted  some internal plastics so was beyond repair. Phil's idea of a circuit breaker is well worth it.

Still baffles me why they throw so much wob at  every panel.

[PhilA]

My stripping discs should arrive in Monday so I'll carry on then. I need to DA the scuttle down smooth.

I think I'm going to get a spotweld gun to put slide hammer pins, to pull dents.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Stripping discs arrived in today, so I decided to have a go with one.

What do we have? Surface rusty steel, filler, high build primer, regular primer and paint. 

On average, between 1/16" and 1/8" thick over the whole panel.

So, the "before" profile. The swage is strange, everything is ripples and further down the swage line has two dents, about a quarter inch deep each.

All that gone and it's evident the panel isn't actually that bad. There's a few wrinkles and a couple medium creases in the upper quarter, and a parking dink in the back.

Bash bash bash bash bash.

More blue so the surface becomes more visible. A bunch of smaller ripples, but the swage is straight now. I need to strip off all the anti-drum coating off the inside of the quarter and start dressing it flat.

Best thing is someone saw fit to sign this work...

 

Phil

[PhilA]

The new magnet wire arrived, so I tried winding it on to the bobbin. That was a bit lumpy from being overheated so I put it in my drill and tried turning it down gently with a file. In the process, I broke the already very fragile end off so had to make a new one, this case from a polypropylene milk bottle top.

I then wound it again. Not totally tidy but well enough. 212 turns back on in place.

I then hammered the core back into the frame and staked it down. I cleaned the varnish off the ends of the wires and soldered them to the terminals.

Put that back in and powered it up. CLUNK.

Tested, it works!

It's now sat on the bench, checking to see if it keeps time. I need to get or make a new setting knob.

 

Phil

[Low Horatio gearbox]

Top fixerating skills there, and also how much wob!  He must have had a bulk deal or stolen it (form I guess) as at this rate the car will be a out 100lb lighter  when it's all removed!

[PhilA]

15 hours ago, Low Horatio gearbox said:

Top fixerating skills there, and also how much wob!  He must have had a bulk deal or stolen it (form I guess) as at this rate the car will be a out 100lb lighter  when it's all removed!

If I could, I would have collected up all the dust and weighed it, but just by eye that was easily a half pound of the stuff I took out of the rear quarter alone.

[Isaac Hunt]

Awesome fix on the clock.  If anyone asks 'has it ever been clocked'. Yes M9, did it myself

[PhilA]

 

Ran short of time tonight but managed to put in a little time. The rear right corner had a parking ding and was almost flat.

Got it 90% of the way back, just needs a little more work right up in the corner to make good, then a little filler to just clean up the surface.

Phil

[Minimad5]

Top work that man

[PhilA]

Here's why I hold the previous bodyshop in low regard.

When the top of the weld looks like frothed chocolate milk...

And the bottom looks like a yard brush...

 

You're Doing It Wrong.

Phil

[somewhatfoolish]

1 hour ago, PhilA said:

Here's why I hold the previous bodyshop in low regard.

And the bottom looks like a yard brush...

 

You're Doing It Wrong.

Phil

I needed to quote this so I could laugh at it again. 🤣

[somewhatfoolish]

It's a work of art; if you could extract it without wrecking the wing it's better than a Banksy. 

[eddyramrod]

You want to see what Huggy looks like!  (No, you really really don't!)

[somewhatfoolish]

It's not just shit, it's prizewinningly, M&S patronising advert voiceover shit.

[PhilA]

2 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

It's a work of art; if you could extract it without wrecking the wing it's better than a Banksy. 

I might be able to. I'll have to see how far up the wing it goes; I need to get a repair panel for that, which does go up above the wheel arch a bit of a distance.

Looking at it, I think this car was parked nose-in under a cover that wasn't quite long enough for it. The front is really very good just the back end rotted out to hell.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

38 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

It's not just shit, it's prizewinningly, M&S patronising advert voiceover shit.

"Creative", I have decided.

 

Even though you know each and every one of those tails was a f+++ or a s+++ or a m+++++ f+++++.

The air must've been blue that day.

 

Phil

[captain_70s]

This effort on the Dolly is properly amateur by comparison.

[somewhatfoolish]

Your 'free' wire brush has done a lot of miles compared to PhilA's. How is project doloshite anyway?

[PhilA]

Angry grinder! I used the free disc that came with free angle grinder that came with the car.

I wanted to pull the repair panel out of the trunk floor because it was welded in badly and didn't fit.

I got about halfway round before running out of cutting disc. Still, that's enough to lift up and see...

Secondary subfloor? What the?

[Ghosty]

 

[PhilA]

What's better is that the subfloor appears to be made from the bonnet of something else.

I'll be able to tell once I get the repair panel out.

As with most factory pressings in areas of the car that are expected to see regular consumer use, there are many strengthening sections and rounded edges. All of these have been eliminated by the previous repairs so that's great. 

I'm going to have fun shaping metal up to a guess of what it should be. 

I have an inkling that the corners are supposed drop down and make two "pockets" in the rearmost corners to make a triangulated box section to support the lower part of the rear wings- these have both rusted away and been removed by Doctor Bondo.

I don't know if this predates Doctor Bondo or not. It might be Artful Bodger Extraordinare (unnamed).

We'll see 

 

Phil

[AnthonyG]

Wow, that’s some epic levels of bodgery going on there!

Well done for rescuing this poor old thing - I love C body Mopars of this era. 

[PhilA]

Repair panel removed. Yup, tack-welded in there is part of the hood of the spares car. I have found 3 things from it so far; the drip rail on the left of the trunk, the hood on the floor here and the passenger door.

That's the welding there, which just broke off...

And pop, out comes that crap. Much better!

Hoovered a good few pounds of dirt out of the frame rails. It's all the same color, this was a Mississippi car all its life, that's Mississippi yellow clay.

Not unsurprisingly the repair panel actually fits in the space a whole lot better now.

This is where we are left tonight. Cleaned out, needing the patch on the left taking out and the rest cleaning up before the rusty sections of the old trunk floor are removed. Helpfully there's enough left over so I can see what shape it should have been.

Phil

[Low Horatio gearbox]

So as well as extra bondo weight, it would have been carrying double panels in places and also a "mobile art installation"  so  200lb of weight reduction  easily.

Funnily a car I looked at last weekend had a similar amount of dirt and grit in the boot (despite a £5k "recommisionisn) and leaves and twigs in the A post base. Possibly whoever did it trained at the same school of bondo and bodgery