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!

Lucille moved to new digs this weekend. She's still here at the house, but for the time that the '49er is getting painted and needing the garage, I set up temporary space for Lucille behind the garage where she is protected and covered. She seems happy there and has her Battery Tender hooked up as well.
 

DIODE

Installed the diode in the alternator's exciter/warning lamp circuit today. I did not have a problem with the engine running after the ignition was turned off, but I did notice the battery running down over a week's time, so as cheap as the diode was, I figured I might as well.

Drive!

The new Battery Tender chargers I got sure do make it so I don't have to worry about the charge running down anymore. Very nice. Gave Lucille a nice hand wash yesterday and took her for a spin today. The turn signals cancelled themselves nicely and the horn ring didn't rattle one bit! Stopped at the Shell station for petrol and cruised over to see Mr. Cooper. No springs, but I had a nice visit.

I took the horn ring off the steering wheel today to figure out how to keep it from vibrating when driving over bumps and I found the reson for the funky way the turn signals cancel... or not. The cam that bumps the springs to release the signal was 180° backwards. I had to pull the steering wheel to reverse the cam, but that was easy. With the cam fixed, I put little strips of rubber from the stash of stuff I'm using for the '49er's door panels under the part of the wheel that the hold part rides over, and over that I used some of the self-adhesive fabric Cooper sold me for the window weatherstrips.