Here is the next saga in the Bluebird anthology. You may wonder if I am I discouraged by all the problems that I have encountered in building the restomod 1962 Pontiac. There have been excess costs due to mistakes, frustration due to embarrassing malfunctions, and the realization that I could have easily purchased a really nice modern car for the money I have spent building this car. Believe it or not, I am not discouraged, and I do not regret the expense. If I had bought a new car, what would have been the experience? I would have met a car salesman, driven off in a car that performed perfectly, put it in my garage and done what? Regarding this restomod, I have met many people that I never would have otherwise known. I have learned a huge amount about car design and construction, and how to identify and cure malfunctions. In addition, rather than sitting on my butt in front of a TV, I have been working in the garage getting my hands dirty, while keeping my old body active and my mind functioning.
The Bluebird will become a safe, dependable, reliable vehicle. It is only a matter of time and talent. Much of the talent will come from others who volunteer to help or professionals that I hire. The time will be a race between me and the grim reaper as that is just a fact of aging. Just so you know – I plan on winning that race! After the restomod is completed, I will probably encounter what I have experienced with the many other cars I have restored. My interest in it will fade with time. There will be little challenge, and I will probably not drive it a whole lot. I have had my fill of car shows and am not sure of my physical ability to do long driving trips. I may just end up selling it as I will probably have a new project that could use some financing.
In the pantheon of old car enthusiasts, I have observed three common components in their makeup; they are collecting, driving, and building of unique special vehicles. The individual interests vary in intensity in each area. If you are reading this newsletter, you have those three ingredients as part of your personality. My recipe is probably one cup of collecting, half a cup of driving, and two cups of building. Mix those three items with time and money, and season with desire and ambition to arrive at the final personality.
So what is the current disaster with the Bluebird that occupies my attention and thwarts my ability to be on the road? It is the spindles. What is a spindle? It is not the desk object that you stab your hand on when saving a note for future reference.
The Bluebird’s spindles are the axels that hold the hub that houses the bearings that allow the wheel to rotate. They are vital to the safety of the vehicle as their failure means total loss of the wheel and steering. Let me share a condensed version of this sad tale.
When I started the build, I wanted four wheel power disk brakes to replace the standard drum brakes. I had 16-inch special wheels already made, which were too small to take the bigger disks, and four piston calipers offered by Master Power (MP) Brakes; therefore, I got the smaller “Legend disks” and single piston calipers, which careful measurement indicated would fit. (They almost did). As the Get Smart agent said: “Missed it by that much.” So the 16-inch wheels with mounted and balanced new Michelin tires got consigned to Grandma, the 1954 Chrysler four door, and she is delighted to wear them!
With the purchase of new 17-inch wheels and mating Michelin tires, the MP brakes became an easy fit. The emergency MP brake mechanism installed just fine; unfortunately, it does not keep the car from rolling. The front brakes are Ok, but they do not have the stopping power I hoped to achieve, which is disappointing. However, I can now do an upgrade to the big disks and four piston calipers plus install Willwood rear brakes with integral expanding emergency brake shoes, which will have holding power. You can now add brakes to my list of repeats.
The Willwood rear brakes with four piston calipers and expanding shoe emergency brakes installed with nominal effort – a piece of cake! The front MP upgrade four piston calipers and bigger disks should be really easy to install as it is just a matter of taking off the old hubs and disks and popping on the new ones. BUT – the old MP single piston Legend front hubs needed a press fit adapter for the spindle to accommodate the greater inner diameter of the hub wheel bearing. I had to heat the adapter, sand the axle a little (fatal thing to do), and fit on the adapter. Now it became necessary to slide the pressed on adapter off the axle since it is not required by the new hub, which has smaller bearings. As the attached photo shows, it did not come off easily.
Now it is time to buy new spindles. An hours long search found what looked to be a perfect new pair for $200. Upon their arrival, I found that they “missed it by that much.” The only recourse was to go on a nationwide junk yard search that resulted in an Arizona junk yard collecting $350 in advance for a very rusty pair that looked to be worse than what I took off. They wanted to make another try, but the credit card charge had been cancelled, so no dice. A second search yielded a response from a Texas junk yard that had a “premium set” for $520! My choice was to pay the robber baron price or continue to look at my restomod on jack stands.
The premium pair arrived attached to backing plates and were covered in Texas dirt and surface rust, which must be the Texas definition of “premium.” A couple of hours with air hammers and wire wheel brushing, and they were ready for paint. I had partial cans of both black and silver Por 15 paint that my friend Johnathon got uncovered with effort. He mixed the two partial cans together not realizing that were different colors. The replacement spindles are now an exclusive shade of gray that is sure to please the discriminating observer.
With luck, we may have them installed this coming weekend.
HOLD THE PRESSES! Just got back from John Cimbura’s shop, where with expert machining he saved the old spindle by machining the axle scars and fabricating a stainless steel precision tube sleeve that had to be press fit and accurate to .005 inches OD. The old spindles are better than new!
FOR SALE:
One complete set of Master Power Legend brakes totally complete with minimal wear. Guaranteed to fit . . . something.
Two good 62 Pontiac spindles painted with custom gray Por-15