The momentous occasion of getting Mikhaila out to the garage occurred yesterday. She actually seemed like she enjoyed it and wanted to do all the tasks without help – only giving in when something was too tight to loosen or remove. I started by having her tear down the two carburetors and then we moved on to a greasier task. She jacked the front end up, placed the jackstands, removed the front wheels with an air wrench, and pulled off the front wheel hubs before I let her quit for the day.
While she was working on her portions of the project, I was attending to prepping the engine for awakening from a LONG sleep. I pulled the spark plugs and shot some 30wgt into each cylinder. Then I cleaned the new-looking ends of the plugs and pulled apart the distributor all the while letting the oil do its thing. I lubed and checked out the centrifugal advance weights and then put in a new points plate with a good-looking set of points and condenser. Finally, I removed the hold-down hardware for the distributor in preparation for spinning the oil pump after I put in new oil and a filter. At that point, I figured I’d given the oil enough time, so I gingerly put a wrench on the harmonic balancer bolt and gave the end a tug. Lo and behold, the crank turned! After sitting for at least 30 years, this engine was a testament to indoor storage.
Once the crankcase is filled with new oil, a spare battery is hooked up with new battery cables, and the carbs are rebuilt and installed, I’ll rig up a gravity feed fuel system (funnel in the end of a fuel hose) to supply them with gas. Then we’ll fire it up.
Though all this work, I am quite pleased about the rust-free nature of this car. I've yet to find any rust-through. When we strip out the interior we may discover some, but that'll be a surprise given what I've seen so far.
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