Rusty's not very quiet cuda progress

[b-body-bob]

Now I ground off the back of the rivets & got my plate off I have to ask, is there any sane reason why I should order 2 20cent rivets for $48 ?????????
I have left over a whole box of rivets that fit from work?

Take a second and think what people are looking for when they're arguing over accurate rivets and you'll have the answer.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Well this car ain't anywhere near that sooooooooo looks like I can use my 2cent rivets!

 

[Dr.Jass]

OK more questions, I thought it would be simple to order a dip stick, now I feel like a dip stick!
Year one shows 4
1) Trans Dapt chrome oil dipstick just says small block V8 12.95 part # TD9224
2) Milodon says small block with center sump oil pan 87.95 part # MD1445
3) Reproduction mopar small block 60.23 part # DST340
4) No Name says fits LA engines 31.95 Part #P4349628

So which one should I buy?

Do these all include a new tube, or are they dipstick only? The P4349628 was a Mopar Performance dipstick/tube assembly, which is now discontinued. Unless Year One has it in stock, you won't get one.

Just a quick search on eBay for that number yielded none, so it's probably gone for good (despite Summit showing an August 7th ship date). But, during that same search, I turned up RPC #R9224, which looks suspiciously similar to the Trans-Dapt unit in both construction and part number. This guy offers it for $18.92 shipped, plus whatever your local sales tax might add. In my case, it's a nickel over $20 to my door.

Thanks 68, I think I'll order a tube of the copper goop just to be safe.

I've always used aviation sealant (the thick brown non-hardening stuff with the brush in the cap) for core plugs. Every engine shop with which I'm familiar did the same, so I copied them. The copper silicone is high-heat stuff intended for use more on exhaust, etc. If you want a silicone-based sealant, I'd suggest Permatex Ultra Blue (not regular blue) rather than copper. The aviation stuff is easier to work with and makes less of a mess. It wipes away much more easily, as well.

Now I ground off the back of the rivets & got my plate off I have to ask, is there any sane reason why I should order 2 20cent rivets for $48 ?????????

Two reasons that come to mind for me: It screams "rebodied car" as loudly as it screams "cut corners".
Make no mistake: Come sale time, everyone will question it and yes, it will knock far, far more than $48 off the value of the car. It will also drive some potential buyers away completely. Obviously resale value means nothing to you, but the ability to sell it at all, or only at a significant loss might sting. Hell, the car might become "internet famous" for its clearly-relocated VIN number. "Obviously it's a rebody!" It becomes harder to sell than a rusty 318 car.
Standard rivets could also lead to an impromptu side-of-road inspection session should you ever get pulled over by a sharp-eyed cop. Unlikely? Yes. Possible? Entirely. After all, non-rosette rivets strongly indicate someone committed a Federal crime by removing/replacing or moving a VIN number. Yeah, it's the nature of the beast with an E-body, but do you want to spend time explaining all that? I wouldn't.
No, you can't duplicate the rosette head by modifying a standard rivet. I've seen it tried; it's hokey as fuck and shouts "criminal enterprise" and "sketchy as hell" louder than any other half-assed work on the car.

$50 for rivets is a far better investment than $800 AC vents, by the way.

There's usually someone selling 'em at every decent-sized swap meet since both Ford and GM used that style rivet. I bought mine at Jefferson for $20/pr several years ago. That same dude's still at every meet, now up to $27/pr last I saw. They're surplus Ford parts, blown out for pennies each (when bought in quantity) in the mid-1990s when Ford discontinued them. One guy I knew in GA had boxes of 'em, 1,000 rivets per. Last I heard, he hadn't sold any--he's waiting for everyone else to run out (he should live so long).

 

[restoman]

Over here, any sign of VIN tag tampering leads to a massive headache.
By Federal Law, as well as Provincial, to simply R & R a VIN tag legally means paperwork, a visit from the local PD while the tag is R & R'd, and more paperwork.
The Province has the right, at any time, to brand the title as they deem fit if tag tampering is proven without proper procedures. I do know of at least one case where an expensive Ford product resto was branded as salvage due to un-approved tag tampering. Some big money was flushed away over the price of some rivets.
Buy the proper rivets.

 

[b-body-bob]

Two reasons that come to mind for me: It screams "rebodied car" as loudly as it screams "cut corners".
Make no mistake: Come sale time, everyone will question it and yes, it will knock far, far more than $48 off the value of the car. It will also drive some potential buyers away completely. Obviously resale value means nothing to you, but the ability to sell it at all, or only at a significant loss might sting. Hell, the car might become "internet famous" for its clearly-relocated VIN number. "Obviously it's a rebody!" It becomes harder to sell than a rusty 318 car.
Standard rivets could also lead to an impromptu side-of-road inspection session should you ever get pulled over by a sharp-eyed cop. Unlikely? Yes. Possible? Entirely. After all, non-rosette rivets strongly indicate someone committed a Federal crime by removing/replacing or moving a VIN number. Yeah, it's the nature of the beast with an E-body, but do you want to spend time explaining all that? I wouldn't.
No, you can't duplicate the rosette head by modifying a standard rivet. I've seen it tried; it's hokey as fuck and shouts "criminal enterprise" and "sketchy as hell" louder than any other half-assed work on the car.

$50 for rivets is a far better investment than $800 AC vents, by the way.

That is what I meant by my too short explanation.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

OK, got a call back from Bob at ABC moparts, He will ship me a box I'm gonna blast the back it has a little surface rust.
On the rivets, I ordered 2 from friggen china, see how crappy they are, probably a waste of 6 bucks but I will compare them to the old, then probably pay Bob the extra 48 for the darn 2cent rivets !

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

OK, looks like end of july or aug. for the pad, maybe I can have Her buttoned up for winter!
I'd like to drop that in before I get the new windshield!

 

[Dr.Jass]

Does the value exceed the price? In the case of the rivets, absolutely. It doesn't matter what they cost to make or what the vendor paid for them. They're worth more than what's being asked when the car's done, period.

You will be very happy with Bob's work. I found him pleasant in both conversation and regarding the work on the dash pad. Top notch all around; I want to send him the pad for my '68, in fact.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Ok major rant time, after messing with the passenger quarter window for quite a while I get it in all the slots & groves & it stops about half way down, wasn't a down stop problem I couldn't see it hitting anything, But & it's a major but that made me take a closer look at the downstop, I should have realized it was wrong when I had to pull the guide to put it on (bolts in from the back) adjustment needs to be from inside the car!
Sooooooooooo I pull out everything get the other crank mech. & start scratching my head.
I think I had the wrong crank mech. in, but now to the down stop I lay them out, one I got off ebay said pass. side I swear I had mine marked right now I pulled all my markers off so I have to guess.
The way I had it with the stop on the wrong side the one on the right.

Laid em all out the one I had marked drivers side on the left, ebay in the middle & my pass side on the right clearly I have the opposite down stop,now the only difference is the angle cut on the guide & stop is there any chance there's enough adjustment to use the 2 on the left for both sides???

 

[b-body-bob]

messing with the passenger quarter window

Thanks for confirming my plan to pay the shop to put the glass back in my car is the right idea.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

It is a royal pain, even with Dons help we struggled to get a couple of screws in the pass door, but this is just nuts, I'm taking a break & then attempting one again, at least to confirm which side the crank mechs go!

 

[Dr.Jass]

Laid em all out the one I had marked drivers side on the left, ebay in the middle & my pass side on the right clearly I have the opposite down stop,now the only difference is the angle cut on the guide & stop is there any chance there's enough adjustment to use the 2 on the left for both sides???

My gut instinct says "probably not". If Chrysler had seen a way to save a buck using the same part on both sides of the car, they likely would've. We're talking about a company that ran the same iteration of sidemarker lamps for nearly 20 years and the same armrest bases from 1966-2003.

Thanks for confirming my plan to pay the shop to put the glass back in my car is the right idea.

Part of the deal with my car as well. All the side glass was in it when it left; he said it would all have to come out. I told him it all had to go back in as well, and he indicated that was his plan. I'll have to do the final tweaking, but that's the easy part.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Guess I'll have to figure out a down stop for the one side, if I've cooled down enough I will try to get at least one side in then at least I know which one is missing.
A shame my missing piece didn't reappear the day after the ebay one came!

 

[Dr.Jass]

Looking at the FSM, it appears the shorter angled section at the bottom of the regulator faces the front of the car (toward the door jamb). The drawings really aren't clear enough to tell you which side of the car they're illustrating. One really looks like the left side, the other the right. Without a car here to eyeball, I can't help you further than that because I've no idea the orientation of the fasteners in the quarter panel.

My WAG is that you have two lefts and a right, which aligns with your labeling of the originals. Looking at those diagrams and the down-stop bracket more closely, ain't no way you're going to successfully use the LH down-stop bracket on the RH side. It's literally a mirror image of a complex stamping. It would be easier to fabricate a new one than it would be to reverse the features of your extra--not that cobbling one from scratch would be the least bit easy.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

So the ebay one marked passenger side was actually a drivers side, DAMN!
At least now I can attempt the drivers side & then start messing with a home made downstop!

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Box for my pad should be on it's way today, now I have to do a quick blast of the back & get the surface rust off!

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

OK I'm the idiot! Looks like I was missing the drivers side all along.
fought me a bit but I got the pass side in & adjusted pretty close.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

then I moved in the shop & started on my rube goldberg down stop, had some 20 guage left from car patching Now I have to turn this into one of these! first attempt, got it all cut out & realized I needed another 1 1/4 to fold under the bottom! 2nd attemptgot it all bent up & was pretty close, just a tad too long at the bottomGot that trimmed down & drilled a bunch of holes now that I have half my tools strewn all over it was time to clean up a bitSo all that's left is to weld on the nuts & weld the lower corners, shoot some paint & put in the rubber stop, which amazingly came out of the old one with no damage!

 

[68R/T]

....And a career in metal bending pays off again.

 

[RUSTY Cuda]

Wow wild man's got that jeep back on the road already, just helped him bleed the brakes, capped off a bunch of rusty frame rails!
going out for a test drive!