64 Sedan from Finland

[Migu]

Hello and greetings from Finland!

I have been reading this board for a year now and now I decided to make a project topic from my 1964 sedan. I bought the car about a year ago and have been restoring it ever since. I had been looking at these awesome cars for years, but they had been too expensive or already restored and museum registered. Cars in original condition that are over 30 years old can be museum registered (very cheap tax and insurances) here, but you can only drive them for 30 days a year and they must remain in original condition. I wanted a car that is in project condition, so I wouldn't feel bad with doing some modifications to it.

It's my first american car and there are lots of things I have had to learn from scratch, including welding, usind lead and paint prep work. Also these cars are pretty different to work on than 90's japanese
"sports" cars I have used to The car had been sitting outside for 8 years, so there is a lot of rust and dirt everywhere.

The first time I went to look at the car. I didn't know anything from these things, so I took alot of pictures from every fault I could find.








Didn't seem TOO bad, but the car wasn't as good as the seller said in the phone. I quess they never are... I left an offer and went back home. After a couple of days we got a deal with good price. The next problem was to get the car home. Most of the cars here are Honda Civic sized, so there aren't big trailers easily and cheaply available. It was starting to snow and I didn't feel like trying to drive the car home 250km without brakes either... My work friend had old Mercedes that he uses to transport offroad cars around an it could carry 2600kg, so that was the best choice.




I took a couple of friends with me and headed to get the car. We got the car loaded and started our journey home. After 50km the brakes disappeared from the Mercedes. It was dark, snowing and 200km of twisty road back home with that piece of shit car without brakes and over two tons of Lincoln behind our necks. That trip took some time and lots of nerves

[Migu]

After we got the car to my garage, it was time to rip it apart and find out what has to be repaired of replaced. The car HAD been museum registered before it was left sitting, so there is nothing missing. First thing I wanted to do was to repair all the rusted bodywork. Bonnet, trunk lid and almost all of the undersides of the fenders were in pretty bad shape.

Before- pics:








After- pics. These are my first welds here, so they are't very tidy...



Drivers floorpan was the only place inside the car that had some corrosion, so I decided to replace that


I welded patches and learned how to lead the seams to get them tight. After that I painted the trunk and interior with black hammerite

Interior stripped:


Interior waiting for some Dynamat and new carpet:


Trunk before:


Trunk after (welder was out of gas at the moment, so there is no patch at this time on the co-drivers side):


Lower parts of the doors also needed some work, so I took them to my friend's workshop. This was before I bought my own welding machine. Here is a picture with the doors on (and in) my daily driver/icetrack/driftcar. Must be the only 7-door 200SX (240SX in the USA) in the world


I also had good height adjustable working table there

[Jamu]

welcome eli tervetuloa

Jarmo

[Migu]

After I was done with rust repairs it was time to clean up the interior and find out how the front seats mechanism works. Leather has been pretty badly sunburned, but they are going to be replaced in the future. I washed the seats with Marseilles "Le Chat"- soap. It is absolutely the best soap for leather interiors. It cleans very well, and doesn't harm it in any way.

There was some mould in the seats. Sorry about the bad pictures.

Backseat before:


After:


Sun visors:


This was the worst doorcard(?). All the others were almost spotless:


After:



The mechanism in the front seat was stuck, but the motor worked. I took every little bit in the mechanism apart and cleaned everything and put new greases in. After reassembling it, it started to work perfectly. I felt like a winner after that Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of that project.

But like I said, the seats have been pretty badly burned by the sun, so leather needs replacing.

[linc64]

Welcome to the Forum Migu!
Looks like a fun project. I'm loving all the pics. Keep them coming.
You might want to try dyeing the seats. Other than the discoloration, they seem to be in pretty good shape.
Have you heard of Leatherique?

[Migu]

Yes, I have been told by an expert, that those seats can easily be dyed. The paint actually stays better in dryed and sunburned leather than in leather thats in perfect condition. I'm going to do full custom interior after I get everything else sorted out, so I think I'm just going to dye them for now. There is company called Leathermaster in Finland where you can send a piece of leather with the color you want and they will mix just the right tone of paint for you.

[Migu]

After cleaning the interior it was time to get back to bodywork. I removed all the paint and bondo from the body, to see if there is some rust underneath it. I only found little spots from the stonechipped places. I used this kind of spot-sandblasting- tool to clean those.

Very handy little thing. You can sandblast indoors without any dust at all. I left the roof alone, because there seems to be nothing wrong with it.




How do you like my new garage floor? A friend of mine had some spare laminate he had to get rid of, so there it is now Nice and comfy and easy to keep clean. Too bad the garage is like a bunker otherwise. But then again, you usually get some things done, when there isn't any distraction around you.

Before removing glass from the doors I tested window motors. All of them seemed to work, but driver's side motor was pretty lazy and slow. I think I'll just replace it with some other motor. Also the motor of the drivers side vent window is missing. Are they available as reproduction parts?



There was some cleaning to do with the rails...


The brakes didn't work when I bought the car, so I opened them and did little maintenance work.

Rear brakes had been opened recently, and there was nothing wrong with them.


The cylinders in front brakes were stuck, but I got them moving with some cleaning and greasing.


Lower spring in the passengers side front brake was broken, so I replaced it with one from Volvo Amazon. Fits perfectly and is easily available here



The bushings in the front end are all shot, so I need to replace them all. Can you recommend any rebuild kits that are offered in ebay?




Now the worst parts. The trunk lid and bonnet were badly rusted with many holes in them. I cut off the inner structures of them and built "cradles" from some bars around them, so they wouldn't lose their shape during the acid-dipping and other handling. I had a feeling, that there wouldn't be much of them left after the dip, and unfortunately I wasn't wrong...

Trunk lid before dipping:



After:


Doesn't look too good...

Bonnet before:


And after:



Bonnet was just too badly rusted, but luckily I found one from 62 Continental that is in almost perfect condition. Cost only 200€. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the trunk lid. You can't find them anywhere, so I guess I'll just have to try to fill those holes with lead and build new inner structures from scratch. Welding patch plates would be pretty risky move, because of the warping issues. But I'll see what I can do Maybe, I'll give it to some professional welder, bit I would rather do everything with this project by myself. After all, I'm not in a hurry and the main point of the project is to learn new things



I did some work to find out the history of the car and got lucky. I found a little receipt under the back seat with date and name on it:


Found a guy with the same name and birth date that fits to the date in receipt from Facebook and asked him if he remembers anything about the car. Found out that the car has been in the same family from 1965 to 1989 when it was sold to someone who sold it to Finland. After some more research I found one journalist from finnish old car magazine who had imported the car to Finland and did a six page test drive story to the magazine. Got the magazine and some more pretty interesting information The guy was pretty upset of the condition of the car and even more upset when I told him I'm going to add air suspension and change the color...

The car has been in museum register since 1994 and has been de-registered in 2002. Odometer now says 93k miles and the journalist said there had been 63k miles when the car was imported. With the 30 days a year rule and the gas prices in Finland, that reading might be right.

At the moment I'm doing paint prep work. Passengers side is almost ready and I think I can start with the drivers side next week. I'll add some pictures of the current situation tomorrow.

[Highlander64]

You're doing quite the job on that car! Mine could only hope to receive such thorough attention in the next few years.

[black63lincoln]

Thanks for posting the progress.. You may be able to find another trunk lid rather than repairing that one.

Looks like you know what you are doing. Nice Work!

[Migu]

Co-drivers side is starting to look pretty good. Maybe a couple of hours to it, and then I can start with the drivers side. Should be ready much quicker, because now I know a little bit what I am doing

Does anyone have good tips how to make the "seam'" of the metal and filler invisible? In some places you can still see it through the sanding? paint, but you can't feel it with hand. Just finer grade of sanding paper or something else? Thanks!

[Migu]

Haven't been updating in a long time, but I still have managed to do something... The bodywork is mostly finished. Just some finishing touches before the paint. Only the trunk lid still needs some attention... In other words, new skin and structure A job for some professional fabricator in this case. I'll show the remains of the lid to one local guy next week, and hopefully he will fix it. Good ones seem to be impossible to find anywhere.

A good friend of mine will paint the car in his shop, but he is busy for the next two months. While waiting, I decided to replace the water pump and timing chain assembly, and see what needs to be done to the engine in the future. Everything went well until I had to remove the woodruff key. The bloody thing seems to be stuck. I didn't want to heat it and burn any seals or gaskets inside power steering pump. Maybe I'll use freezing spray and a little more power next time. It should be removed just by hitting it with a chisel and a hammer, right?


Some rust inside the water lines.


Seems like the last owner has done some "modifications" to the water pump pulley and water pump. Some material has been taken off from the inside of the pulley and it doesn't sit right against the shaft of the pump. It wobbles all over the place and it will need lots of spacers to get the belts in line. Does anyone have any ideas where can I find a new pulley? Does any other engine use the same pulley?



While I'm working at the front of the engine, what else should I replace? Feel free to fill up my list.
- Timing chain
- Timing chain sprockets
- Water pump
- All the gaskets
- Crankshaft seal
- Thermostats
- Belts
- ?????

I would like to order all the parts from the same place, so I don't have to pay multiple shipping charges, taxes and customs. What would you recommend? http://www.rockauto.com seems to have most of the parts I need in stock. Are they any good?

[Migu]

I thinks it's time for an update.

What has been done in few years

All the sound deadening has been done. 4mm thick bitumen from firewall all the way to the trunk. This stuff is easier to use when it's warm







The front seat adjusting motors were seized, so I took everything apart and cleaned and rebuilt them. Everything works now.
http://s816.photobucket.com/user/Migu53 ... 8.mp4.html

There were some rusty spots all around the rear bumper and some other chromed parts. I tried the old skool trick and used Coca-Cola and aluminium tin foil. Pretty good results.

The beginning



High-end tools


The results:



After tin foil an coke, I just washed and waxed the parts. They are good for now.

Then there was the problem with the trunk lid. The old one was too far gone and new ones are not available. I did a "cage" for the old trunk lid, so it wouldn't lose it's shape when twisting and turning it around without the frame inside. I bought two sheets of 1mm thick sheetmetal and started to learn how to use english wheel with my friend.







The first one was wortless and went to garbage. But the second one started to take good shape. We laid it over the existing rusty trunk lid and shaped the new "skin" as long as it started to fit perfectly.



After we were satisfied with the shape, I just cut 10cm cut with angle grinder, pushed the new skin on its place and did a 1cm weld to the middle of the cut. I did this all around the new skin and got it like this

[Migu]

Some problems with posting... This can be removed

[Migu]

Then I made a new frame for the trunk lid.


And there it is.


Now I had all the body parts ready and it was time for a paint.

[Migu]

After the weekend I got a text message from my painter saying "Great bodywork!"

Yep, pretty good.

Even the DIY trunk lid is very good.






And back to the garage in a middle of a snowstorm...