The Snowball Saga - '68 Standard Revitalization Project by Blitz

4 minute(s) of a 767 minute read

I do have a few little things to update. First of all, I had put on repro hood springs when I did the hinges, and they've never really held the hood up all the way. I even discovered recently that if I held the hood up all the way with one hand, I could take the springs right off the hinges with the other. Not good! They've only been on there for a year or two and they've already stretched out. Meanwhile, all the 50 year old orignial hood springs are still perfectly fine and have all the tension in the world. So I nabbed a set of original springs, bead blasted them, then had to figure out a way to paint them and get inside the coils. This is what I came up with.

Here's a dramatic comparison for you. On the left are the reproduction springs, which started out the same dimensions as original before they stretched out. On the right are the refinished 50 year old OEM springs.

Now the hood stays ALL the way up with no trouble at all. P.S. - I know the hinges and springs are supposed to be "natural" bare metal, but I'm content with black.

Next, while I was in there I realized I still hadn't installed the hood bumpers. I had attempted it once before, but broke all 4 of them in the attemt. The rubber is somewhat hard and brittle, and it seems impossible to install them as they come. I tried greasing them, tried boiling them in water to soften them up, no dice. So finally I concluded that the only solution was to trim a bit off the "ears". This ended up working out fine and the bumpers still fit tight.

I'm not sure if I get the point of these things. My hood didn't rattle before. All these have accomplished is to push the hood up a little so it doesn't line up as well with the fenders. Cool?

Anyway, lastly, I finally installed restored wheel lip mouldings. For a minute I did consider the much less pricey, not-correct-but-works repops. But I've gotten picky and knew I wouldn't be happy with that, so I stuck with the restored originals. I ended up taking the wheels off, which made it much easier. I did have to drill a few holes that were missing in the body. All in all it went well and I was pleasantly surprised that none of the screw holes stripped out.

That's all for now! I'll probably bolt my original wheels back on while I'm at it. The aluminum wheels and BFG's look really cool and I like them, but they just don't quite fit the theme I'm going for. I think my eventual plan is to do styled steel wheels and skinny whitewalls for a more original, classy-yet-sporty look. Will have to decide between 14" with trim rings or 15" with chrome outer, but that can happen later.