Took Lucille out for a spin on the freeway around 6:30 pm when traffic was down somewhat. Drove out to Griffith park, Forest Lawn exit and then drove thorugh the park to the onramp going west at Betty Davis park. The car drives very nicely on the freeway now, compared to before the front end rebuild, but the harmonic rumbling noise is still there, produced by the engine/trans I'm quite sure. I don't know what can be done about that but it's really loud! At least the steering is tight and confident now. :D I'm very pleased with the results. The engine doesn't run real smooth and there is what I think is an exhaust leak, causing a one-cylinder pop in the exhaust sound. Doesn't sound good to me. I will probably need to hit AZ Vintage up for a right manifold. Might as well get both while I'm at it, I guess.

Front End Finished!

I called Tyerman's yesterday and they said the car would be finished today. Sure enough, I got a call before noon. Couldn't leave work till later, but by 4PM I made it there and picked her up. $1035.00 for the labor and it looks/feels like they did a nice job. She really rides nice on all that new stuff. I grabbed the old parts just to have them. On the ride home I was reminded that the TV rod to control shifts was still a bit too light, causing slightly delayed shifting in a couple of gears, so once home I tweaked that a bit. I don't want to take her out for much of a spin tonight because it's Friday and folks are getting off work. I'll wait til tomorrow and take her over to the car wash for a nice bath.
Next up, clicking sound from the rear wheels that varies with car speed!

I stopped by Tyerman's this afternoon... just couldn't resist seeing if they had made much progress. Interestingly, the front wheels were still on the car, but the springs were out. Odd. Anyway, the guy said he found everything in the trunk OK, and he saw that the upper end of the spring had the isolator, but he was going to use the second set on the bottom as well. So that's good. I'm feeling better about it.

Front End Rebuild Begins

This morning, bright and early, I drove Lucille over the to Tyerman's on Magnolia in Burbank to begin the front end rebuild. The only issue I might find is that they seemed to think the spring isolators were not used that year. But I told them they were, and I have two pairs in the trunk for them to use. I sure as hell hope they use them! But meanwhile, they wanted to warn me heavily that, as an old car, their estimate on how much time they would need could quickly swell, at $75 and hour, so I should be prepared if it goes way over estimate. I had misgivings over having them do the work and I always reassured myself that they were going to do it for "only $800" labor, but now I can't really fall back on that if they are so adamant that the estimate will likely be too low. Nervous. Probably should have just tackled it myself. Too late!