The little things

Today was a relief. There have been just a few minor issues to sort out in order to get this thing ready for an inspection when registered. First, there was the major issue of getting into the engine bay. Turns out all my work for a few days crawling around on the ground had been in vain, for within 5 minutes of jacking the front end up for a better angle of attack, we had popped the latch and the hood opened.

I decided it was time to replace the old cable and handle as the old one was obviously beat.

I was just relieved to have the damn thing open. This has been a big stessor in my life for the last few days, and I want to be sure it doesn't happen again. As you can see, there was no saving this old housing. The cable itself was fine, but had too much slack in it, from extending over the years. I'm not sure why all the things that you never think about on this car are popping up, but I'm sure there will be many more like it down the road. Hopefully I will gain experience and knowledge, but I'm afraid at the moment I'm still an amateur in decoding its nuances. There is an overwhelming amount of work to be done still, but I am pledging to get it to a nicer state.





 

I ended up buying a hood latch cable kit from NAPA and a brake line from a local bike shop. The NAPA kit didn't come with a sheath, but I thought I might need the ball end from the bike cable, as that is what the latch mechanism takes. 

We had to take the latch off of the car to work on it. When it came off, it was covered in a nice layer of grease and sludge. I didn't take the time to grab my new iPhone out of my pocket with greasy fingers to show how dirty it was, but it was no wonder it was sticking. After a bath and scrub, I managed to get most of it down to metal. Had I steel wool, I may have done better in this effort. A couple sections had been bent, and the spring connecting the two opposite sliding ends of the mechanism had popped off during one of my previous efforts to pop the hood manually. A little bit of work with the pliers, a nice lubrication, and this is what I ended up with:

 

And reinstalling the refurbished system into the car. You can see in the picture on the right that we (Brock and I) abandoned the bicycle brake type fitting, and instead drilled a small hole and attached the screw down fitting that came with the NAPA kit. This was done a) because the cable I bought from the bike store had the ball end, but not the attachment on the other end of the cable for the pull handle. That is a fitting that has a handle attached. The bike cable would have worked like a dream, but without a handle, it was worthless to this system. This way, the cable is also adjustable, should it gain slack. Hopefully, this system is something I will not have to deal with again, but if I do, I want to be able to fix it without a big headache. 

Now that I have engine access again it was time to throw the air cleaner back on, and also get a tie town strap for the battery. There were the rods, but not the strap connecting the two. I also picked up a rearview mirror and installed it, but forgot to take a picture. 

 

The car is getting closer and closer to being at least temporarily road going. There are still a couple minor issues to sort out, but I have yet to even have a proper drive in this thing. This car deserves all the work it can get, but for the time being, we're going to have to rough it together, until I can start the teardown and rebuild. There is body work, engine work, interior work, and more to be done. I want to have a proper driver that can stand its own amongst more expensive cars when it comes to looks and form. This will inevitably become a money pit in my life, but at least I can say it will be worth it. If not for the financial gain/loss, at least for the fact that I can see this in my driveway:

Title should arrive within next two days, then my relationship with this car can really begin. If the nice weather we've been having keeps up, I might have to treat myself to a drive.