http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:xxMoPaRxx&section=today deviantART RSS for by:xxMoPaRxx en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:05:24 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/28670589/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/28670589/ Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:44:22 PST
Wow it’s been almost two months since I’ve done any work on the Dart. That’s pretty sad. Anyhow, we started work on the brakes today. We removed the lid of the master cylinder with a screwdriver as a sort of lever and then I drained the brake fluid out with a turkey baster and put it into an old parakeet food container. Truly, those are the tools of a professional. The fluid was full of rust flakes so it’s no wonder the brakes weren’t working properly. So after that my dad took off the old hoses that connect the brake lines and the wheel cylinder. It was completely plugged up. Then it was time to take off the springs, brake shoes, self-adjuster, and the adjuster cable. Dad had this neat tool to take off the springs that and I eventually got the hang of using it. Very cool. The wheel cylinder was reluctant to leave the backing plate because of the awkward positioning of one of the bolts. But I got it off. The wheel cylinder actually looked pretty new – maybe whoever had it before replaced it when they were having brake trouble instead of replacing the blocked hose. So anyway, the backing plate was dirty and I can’t stand leaving parts covered in grime when I have the opportunity to clean them so I got some Solve10 and scrubbed it all off. I also cleaned all the springs and other parts we took off. And that’s about where we ended for the day.

Sunday – November 29, 2009

Since the backing plate was thoroughly dry, I whipped out a can of Rustoleum Primer and painted it. Then I disconnected the brake lines from the master cylinder and unbolted the master cylinder. Dad blew some compressed air through the front lines and they didn’t seem to be too clogged.

Heres a video of ma car :]
[link]

]]> ~xxMoPaRxx http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/27600869/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/27600869/ Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:18:45 PDT
]]> ~xxMoPaRxx http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/27576383/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/27576383/ Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:07:00 PDT
1. Drain brake fluid out of the master cylinder.
2. Open rear bleeder screws on the two rear wheel cylinders, drain fluid.
3. Open front bleeder screws on the two front wheel cylinders, drain fluid.
4. Remove and replace flexible lines between the rear brake fluid supply pipe and the two rear wheels.
5. Remove and replace the two flexible brake lines on the front wheel cylinders.
6. At the firewall, remove and replace the existing master cylinder with the new master cylinder.
7. Disassemble spring assemblies, brake shoes, and wheel cylinder from the front right wheel. and reassemble in opposite order.
8. Repeat process for front left wheel, and both rear wheels.
9. On all four wheels, back the adjuster off to allow clearance to fit brake drum
10. Install rear brake drums and install two wheel lugs to hold drum in place.
11. Rear drums will be sandblasted externally, primed, and painted.
12. Front brakes drums should have bearing and seal removed.
13. Front brakes should be externally sandblasted, primed, and painted.
14. Insure bearing surface area is clean, repack and install bearings, press in new seals; front left and right.
15. Replace front drums on car. Install front wheel bearings, set preload of bearings, and install the retaining washer and cotter pin. Check for proper rotation and no binding. Replace dust cap.
16. Fill the master cylinder with brake fluid as specified.
17. Crack the rear bleeders; left then right until fluid flows freely with no bubbles. Close bleeders.
18. Repeat for front bleeders.
19. Adjust the brakes using appropriate brake spoon, while spinning the drum by hand until a slight drag is felt. Repeat for all four wheels. This is the initial adjustment.
20. With an assistant applying moderate pressure to brake pedal; pedal movement should be approximately half an inch. Crack the left bleeder slightly until fluid flows freely with no bubbles. Secure bleeder.
21. Repeat for three remaining wheels.
22. Check for slight drag, adjust brakes as needed.
23. Apply pressure to the brake pedal. Pedal should be firm with no drift to the floor.
24. Replace all four wheel/tire assemblies.
25. Test drive for straight tracking while stopping.

]]> ~xxMoPaRxx http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/27266251/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/27266251/ Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:18:54 PDT
]]> ~xxMoPaRxx http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/27212285/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/27212285/ Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:04:45 PDT
I checked back in on the rust reformer after about a week and decided it needed another coat. I think my first layer was too thick so that the Ospho didn’t have a chance to go through the chemical reaction. I took a toothbrush-sized wire brush to the floor and started scraping away. I decided a mask and glasses were probably a smart decision because phosphoric acid particles probably aren’t good for you. I wish I could have found a bigger brush but that was all that was available, so I scraped. And scraped some more. A good while later, I was finished and a loose layer of dust covered the floor. I sucked it up with the Shop-Vac and proceeded to paint a very thin layer of the rust converter on the floor. Almost immediately the floor started turning black, the rust was reforming to an inert form. I had some Ospho left over so I attacked the minimal surface rust that was in the trunk.

Sunday – September 6, 2009

A thin layer of the rust converter worked much better than the thicker one. There was nothing to scrape off this time, so all I had to do was mix up the Rustoleum Primer for clean to lightly rusted metal, and paint it on the floor. I only did the areas where the rust had been converted, because areas where there was still paint were sticky because the chemical reaction had not occurred there. I’m going to have to wash that off somehow before I paint it. Overall, I’m very happy with the primer, but I think I’m going to put another layer on when it is completely dried because it’s a bit thin in some places.

Sunday – September 13, 2009

Well today I started off by cleaning the thin layer of Ospho off of the painted areas using a rag and some water. After it dried off I painted with primer and gave the entire floor another coat. Then my dad unbolted the rear seat belts so I wouldn’t destroy them with the primer. They will either need to be cleaned or replaced because they look pretty tired. I had more primer left over so I decided to do the trunk too. We also unbolted the trunk lid and put it safely out of the way. We’re definitely making some progress here.

]]> ~xxMoPaRxx http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/26924053/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/26924053/ Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:00:26 PDT
The foam kit for the heater from DetroitMuscleTechnologies.com finally arrived. I was really impressed with the quality of the kit. It included all of the pieces I needed and good instructions. I would definitely recommend it to anyone refurbishing a Mopar heating system. I glued the foams with spray glue onto their corresponding places, masking off areas to prevent overspray. While this was drying, I started scraping off the old rubber gasket that seals between the top of the dash and the heater with a razor blade. I realized that I was cutting towards myself, decided that I’d prefer to keep my intestines intact, and reversed the direction of my scraping. I washed off the area, dried it, and applied the new rubber. I sanded down and painted the ring that holds the heater motor in place on the firewall. The kit also included some caulk to put around the edge of the heater box to further seal it, so I put it on. While I was doing this, my Dad finished installing the other wiper pivot. Naturally I wanted to do this myself, but I realized that it would be more efficient to have him put it in. After all, we need to be done by the end of April. He also sprayed some clear red spray paint on firewall where the original paint had been a little thin. It looked as though something had been brutally murdered up near the front of the car. I wasn’t particularly pleased, but when we’re done you won’t be able to see it anyways. Since all the foam and paint was sufficiently dry, it was time to reassemble the heater. We figured this would be easier to do outside of the car, rather than attempting to put it back piece by piece. First we put the heater core back in, but realized that we had forgotten to put a seal on and had to unscrew everything and take it apart. We had to put it together and take it apart a couple times because we kept either forgetting pieces or putting them in wrong. Finally we got the heater core where it was supposed to be and could move on. I reinstalled the piece of insulation on the firewall, putting in the original plugs, even though a few were a bit mangled. I put the bad ones out of sight though, so it didn’t matter much. After that, it was time to attach the cables back to their corresponding places on the heater box. I wanted to do it myself, but Dad did it himself because it was “difficult.” One of the cables had become detached from the controls on the dash and we had to take the knobs off the heater controls to see how to fix it. Eventually that problem was solved, but another one arose in its place. After the cables were reattached, we discovered that the new foam was making the controls too stiff. We ended up using silicone spray in the heater so it would slide better which helped a little. Then, we lifted the heater box back into place on the firewall and started bolting it back on. Unfortunately we were one screw short. We tried to pirate one off of an old Plymouth Suburban we have in the back yard but they were all too rusty to remove. My dad put on the front of the heater box on with c-clamps and we closed up shop for the day.

Saturday - August 29, 2009

The caulk had shrunk a little overnight, but it was still incredibly difficult to get the clips back on. My Dad was having a terrible time with it so there was no way I could have possibly put them back. Eventually though, we got it on. I then set about reinstalling the left heater vent. If I thought it was hard to take out, it was even more of a nightmare to put it back. There wasn’t much space to work in and the vent took up most of it, so I ended up with my face under the brake pedal. I used a socket wrench extension to put the bolts back on, and after I got the first one on it was a bit more bearable. After that I had to go get ready for work, so nothing else was accomplished.

Sunday – August 30, 2009

Nothing exceptionally thrilling to report here. Vacuumed out the inside of the car again and did two test patches of different rust reformers. Rustoleum Rust Reformer made the surface rustier, but Skyco Ospho worked nicely. So I filled up a metal pan, got myself a paint brush, and coated the interior. And then I went away for a while. As is it dries, it turns black and then white. I sopped up the excess that had pooled in the indents in the floor so it wouldn’t harden up there or something odd like that. The Ospho is mildly irritating to the skin, so I’d recommend gloves. Other than that, my only complaint is that it smells bad. So overall, it’s a good product and I’d give it a thumbs up.

]]> ~xxMoPaRxx http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/26556447/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/26556447/ Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:09:20 PDT
Didn’t really do anything spectacular with the Dart today. In fact, I didn’t even dismantle or fix anything; I just washed forty years of accumulated dirt and dust off the heater components. I went to work with a bucket of soapy water and a dishtowel, so now everything looks a lot nicer and is ready to paint if we choose to go that route. Dad wanted to paint everything flat black, but I’d rather not do that because it would cover up the original paint marks and such. I’d much rather use a clear matte spray. Anyway, we’ve started looking around for a gasket and foam kit to rebuild the heater, and they are in fact available. Dad found one on eBay for $35 which is a little pricey, so we’re going to keep our eyes open for something a little cheaper. Time for me to start actually looking at the advertisements in Mopar Collector’s Guide, instead of just reading the articles.

Wednesday 12, 2009

Well last time we worked on the car, I didn’t update the log. Dad worked on the wiper pivots under the driver’s side of the dash because it was the most difficult side and I guess he didn’t want me to mess anything up. After a long while and a great deal of trouble, he did manage to get the wiper pivot out of car. The gaskets were all dried up and cracking so he removed them and cleaned off the piece. The wiper seal kit we bought included a grease fitting that could be installed, and as my dad is a huge fan of greasing parts he opted to drill a hole in the pivot and tap in the fitting. Then it was time to put on the new seals and gaskets. Unfortunately he put them on in the wrong order and had to wrestle them off before setting them straight. After this was accomplished, the gaskets had to be left alone for an hour or so, so the gasket could reform to its original shape. In the meantime, I took more pieces off the heater box, sanded them down, and painted them with a clear satin spray. I also painted the front part of the heater box, but did not paint the second piece because it needed some cracks to be repaired first. So I think I’ve gotten all caught up, so now I can move on to what I did today. My dad left me the right wiper pivot to take out, but I confused it with the wiper motor and almost started unbolting that instead. Fortunately, I double-checked with my dad before I began and he stopped me before I created a disaster. So now that I knew what I was doing, I took off both of the two self-locking bolts and pulled the wiper pivot out. It was kinda dirty so I cleaned it off with a bit of gasoline and a wire brush. After that, I helped drill the hole and install the grease fitting. The gaskets came next, and I put them on in the right order and left them to sit for a while. It was time for a new project, so Dad repaired the crack in the heater box with a washer and some JB Weld. He detached the fan from the heater motor and I cleaned the fan off with some gasoline. I learned that you do not want to sit anywhere near a can of gasoline while you work and you shouldn’t use anything that will make a spark. It may sound stupid, but while I was working I sorta forgot that gasoline was highly flammable, even though I’ve seen my dad ignite huge campfires with less than a pint of gasoline. I sprayed the fan with more clear paint and started sanding down the outside of the heater motor. When I was done, I sprayed the bare metal of the plate that the motor sat on with clear paint, let it dry, and masked it off. I sprayed the heater motor with some gloss black Rustoleum and then started clean up for the day. Next up on the list is cleaning up the floor of the Dart and testing out the rust converter Dad bought…

]]> ~xxMoPaRxx http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/26431116/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/26431116/ Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:43:50 PDT
]]> ~xxMoPaRxx http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/26259269/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/26259269/ Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:31:45 PDT
I'll try and remember to take a picture...

]]> ~xxMoPaRxx http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/26209978/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/26209978/ Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:18:53 PDT
Thursday – July 23, 2009

Today I ground the rust off the Dart’s floor pans and vacuumed up the rust, leaves, and dust. Definitely inhaled my fair share of rust and lead paint for the day, even though I used a mask. First, I disconnected the FM radio converter that someone had installed under the dash because whoever had put it in didn’t do a good job. They had left attached a bare wire to the fuse box which could have started a fire. I bagged the converter and the various screws that I had taken out. Bagging and tagging the pieces I take out is a standard procedure for this project, because I would most certainly forget what pieces went where, and probably lose things along the way. Then I attacked the glovebox, which was quite easy to remove. I only had to take out 5 screws and the door came off. The actual cardboard part of the glovebox had been previously removed and probably thrown out because it was severely torn. I them removed the clips that held the two halves of the heater box together and it came off easily. It was full of pine needles, feathers, and leaves which I dumped outside on the ground by the barn. The heatercore was now visible and it looked good, no evidence of leakage, but there were a few more clips and hoses that had to be removed before it would come off. I took off both hoses that connect to the heatercore and the engine, and the removed rubber piece that seals the area between the firewall and the hoses. There were a few cables that had to be removed, and Dad helped me with that, marking where each came from in relation to the heater box. I tried pulling the heatercore out, but I found a screw in between the two pipes coming off of the heatercore. This was a very difficult screw to remove because there was not much room to move around (I’m dreading the day when I have to put it back in); I was up to my armpits into the dashboard. When I finally got that troublesome screw out, the heatercore came out easily. That’s pretty much where I stopped for the day, because it was getting late and it would be stupid to rush and mess things up. So I cleaned up the tools I had used, and vacuumed out dirt that had come loose while I was working.

Sunday – July 26, 2009

Took out the rest of the heater today, starting with the heater motor. I unbolted the ring around the motor from inside the engine compartment, only four bolts to remove and nothing was rusty so it came off easily. This made it possible to pull the motor through the firewall, so the heater box could be pulled out the rest of the way. Once the ground wire was taken off, the heater box and motor was completely separated from the car. After this was accomplished, my Dad and I set up a work bench in the garage so we could store, fix, and paint the parts that we take out. Then it was back to work. Behind the heater, there was a piece of cardboard with insulation behind it, held in by some plugs that were made to be pushed in, and stay in. They did not want to come out, but Dad had some needle-nosed pliers with a right angle in them (I’m sure there’s a name for those but I don’t know it) which was rather helpful. I managed to get them out after wrestling with them under the dashboard for a while, but they were a bit mangled because they weren’t meant to come out like that I suppose. When I was taking out the last plug, the padding under the dash started falling down, because the insulation was the only thing holding it up. Dad whipped out some spray glue that he had found on the side of the road, and reattached the padding. He didn’t want me playing with any toxic chemicals today, I guess. He’s already crazy though so it wouldn’t make a difference. Just kidding… But anyway, after that we checked out the firewall and it looked good. A little surface rust, but it was completely solid. I then moved over to the left side of the car and took off the heater vent on that side, which was in a very inconvenient location. In order to take out the screws, you needed your face right under the brake pedal. After it was out, there was more room to get at the windshield wipers, because we are going to replace the seals on them. Actually, that was our whole purpose for taking out the heating system, because we thought the seals were leaking which would account for the rust on the floor. The seals don’t look bad, but we’re going to replace them anyway while we have everything out. The water probably got in because everything was so packed with pine needles, but most of those are gone now. So anyway, back to what we actually did. Dad decided the next step was to remove the hood. We placed a piece of thick foam over the windshield so it wouldn’t get cracked. Then Dad ex... ]]> ~xxMoPaRxx http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/25971176/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/25971176/ Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:14:32 PDT . and in other car related news, some idiot dented my truck!!!!! ahhh!!!!!! :[ I cant wait to get my AP results backk , this suspense is killing me. And i have a bajillion car pics to post, well i'll narrow it down a bit but there are quite a few. and speaking of pictures, i entered this thing where i can potentially get scholarship moneys if enough people vote for my stufffs. soo if you wanna help me out it'd be supercool i think you can vote something random like every 8 hours or somethin but im not askin for that haha [link]


piece owwwt folks

]]> ~xxMoPaRxx http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/25893464/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/25893464/ Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:09:38 PDT
]]> ~xxMoPaRxx http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/24708021/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/24708021/ Mon, 11 May 2009 17:31:53 PDT
Mom: "Oh I ran into so and so's Mom yesterday. She was looking for a clutch."
Me: "I bet dad could help out with that, did she check NAPA?"
Mom: "No... a clutch is a purse."
Me:"Oh..."

Of course my first thought is car related. Sometimes I just fail at being a normal girl and it's awesome

]]> ~xxMoPaRxx http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/24325399/ http://xxMoPaRxx.deviantart.com/journal/24325399/ Sun, 19 Apr 2009 12:28:50 PDT )

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