The Snowball Saga - '68 Standard Revitalization Project by Blitz

4 minute(s) of a 767 minute read

12-20-2013

Shoot, you guys always have such good advice after the fact. Maybe I should start asking more questions BEFORE I start doing something critical! Oh well, hopefully nothing was damaged by the many attempts to start it. And I may still pull the valve covers again to do more fine tuning on the valves, especially if I can wrap my mind around the technique Dr Art mentioned. But at least we put the distributor in properly, and we did fill up the carb bowl with gas. The bad fuel pump kinda put a damper on having a simple first start.

1-24-2014

Thanks guys! It helps to just focus on one or two specific projects at a time, and over time you accomplish a lot. I'm still intimidated by how much is left to do, but then I look at what's been completed and it's a good reminder that this is all possible.

Speaking of bite-sized projects, my latest undertaking was to refurbish the shifter. It was pretty easy but satisfying. Some "before" shots:

And here it is all taken apart:

Then basically I just cleaned everything as best I could with wire or nylon brushes, degreaser, steel wool, rags etc., media blasted the "bucket" and the selector arm, painted them with "cast aluminum" VHT exhaust paint (masked around the non-removable plastic sleeve, as well as the rotating shaft that connects to the shift lever), replaced the plastic bushings, lubricated moving parts with white lithium grease, put it all back together, and...

(That's the original rubber plug, just had to clean it up. If yours is shot you can get a new one here.)

Then finally I installed it in the car with a new gasket under the bucket, and hooked it up to the shift rod. This took a little trial-and-error to find the right place in the slot. I ended up putting the trans and shifter in 2nd gear to line things up because it seemed like a good "middle area" without much play in the shift rod.

And that's pretty much all I have for an update right now! Next on this list is topping off the trans fluid, and more importantly, finish hooking up the brakes and put some fluid in there, bleed them, etc,. so that I can actually move the car from one place to another under its own power. Also need to get power steering lines and do the big block routing, then throw some fluid in there and put the belt on. Can't forget to grease the front suspension / steering components too. Also, the valves need some additional adjusting & fine tuning. Slightly further down the road, I need to assemble the entire A/C system, from under the hood to under the dash and everywhere in between. That will be a chore. Anyway, I'm starting to ramble... focus on one thing at a time, one thing at a time, one thing at a time......