DukeRimmer

I was tempted by "automotive/marine" weatherstrip from home depot, but went with camper shell seal, thank you Marty! I made the missing water valve bracket area from sign maker's plastic sheet, and stuck it on with fiberglass cloth and resin.

When you jack from the other side, make the base on the other side is as wide as possible. 4x4 plank would work well. Without the proper tool, it could be a dangerous set up. You'll have a joint between the jack and the ram rod, and another between the jack base and the 4x4 load spreader. The assembly will want to break away here violently when under pressure. Stand well out of the way, or buy the right tool.

even when there is no rust at all. They can be invisible until you begin to separate the panels. After drilling out those you can see, there will be a pattern that will show about where the hidden ones are. They will pop into veiw as they are approached by the removal process. It's best to cut away as much of the panel as you can before drilling welds and rolling up the remaining strip of spot welded metal. If it's too rusty to roll, just grind away.

flapper valves? Any trick techniques for repairing missing case bracket where water valve mounts?

4mm bolt and nut with hole for cable to pass through.

Use gloss (sheds water and oil) not flat (absorbs same). Careful not to damage good (expensive) trim parts while preping.

(nt)

(nt)

Very hard to DIY. You could center each dent on a heavy plank, and knock them out with cross pien hammers. It wouldn't hurt to try. Proper straightening is done by a replating shop. It should look like new when done, but the new chrome is much less rust resistant. Replating shops base their pricing on the cost of new part, not on difficulty of repair, so if its a rare part, the price could be shocking. I haven't bought one since the eightys. Keep a close eye on it during the warranty period, and take it back as soon as you see rust if you can. Good Luck!

The three pins are all straight. If the '02 gods are smiling they easily push out either way. They can stick from corrosion or wear. If corrosion you need to apply more pressure. Wear takes the form of grooves in the pins, so you'll need to jiggle the shaft holes into alignment while applying pressure. You could give yourself more working room by removing the distributor cap and rear mount to lower back of trans.. Heat applied to shift lever pin will turn the pastic grommets to smoke and dripping fire. Heat to the front link pin will probably damage the selector shaft seal, but I guess you're changing that anyway. I'd rather, however, invent a tool to apply more pressure than use heat. Perhaps a small flat bar with tapped 4mm hole, and 4mm bolt for a ram, attached to the link rod with hose clamps??? If you get one of the front pins loose, pull the entire shift assembly and rebuild on bench.

My car is made entirely of used parts. I fix it with used parts. If you wanted to break a 10mm bolt, how would you do it? The wrench would probably break first. If you locked down the engine, and torqued the drive shaft until something broke, it would be the guibo, not the bolts, no matter the age of the bolts. I enjoy wrenching, but enjoy driving more, so I would put it together and worry about something else, but I guess I'm alone.

Sorry about the new purchace:-( I vote for new body. My '76 was cleaner that that.

No overwhelming benefit to the later harnesses, and it's a very big job. More important is the inspection of overall condition as previously discussed. We all know about rust probs., but I'm amazed that so few ever mention rear body weakness in pre '74 cars. Always check for buckling above rear axles. Early cars are all too weak here, and once bent, they're much weaker, even after the repair. I've seen perfectly acceptable rear collision repairs buckle at the rear 1/4s above the wheel openings when hit hard in the front panel.

If you find or rebuild a speedo, I have everything else, including late black pod. I like to trade, and need turn switch.

I've had a couple of beaters with high mileage engines, good seals, and good exhaust that stunk of burning oil when descending hills. Hope seals fix your car. I needed rings and valve guides.

If the drunk's company is paying there is no deductable. Plan on buy back being 20% of settlement.

So you're saying the adjusters evaluation of the car has no effect on the settlement payment, and the cop has no choice but to cite everyone he stops? Sorry, I've seen plenty of discretion applied in both cases. I've also seen settlement checks written and handed to the claimant right there in my body shop office. Don't know what you mean by "insured decides payment". Insured means the owner of the car that has been found at fault (the drunk). The insured just pays monthly premiums and knows nothing about claims unless the claim is on his own car. The insured's company makes payment based on the adjusters evaluation of the car. I'm just trying to say that the evaluation may be higher if she likes you and you try to make her job easier. And I never advised anyone to lie.

(nt)

This is written from the point of view of a body shop owner. I worked with adjusters every day and found most of them to be just ordinary folks trying to do their jobs, which to them is looking at a number of cars, making certain decisions, and turning in the paper work. Their job is not to represent corporate American greed. Most meetings end in agreeing on a cost of repair. Occasionally we agreed that the car was not repairable. The adjuster then must establish a value, pay the owner or order him to be paid, and arrange for disposal of the car. She wants to do these things as quickly as possible because there are many more wrecks to see today. I have found that the way to the highest pay check is to be friendly with your adjuster, and make her job as easy and non-time consuming as possible. If you want ordinary book value, you can be firm, or confrontational. Her report might say you were belligerent. If you want high book value, be friendly. Her report will say it was a nice car. If you want more than book value, provide evidence that can be added to the report. Make it clear early in the meeting that you want to save her the time of calling towing and auction companies, you want to keep the car. Unfortunately, there are adjusters who think they do represent American corporate greed, but they are few and most of them work for a single company. Your adjuster is the one who decides how much you get paid, the cop in your mirror decides if you’ll be fined. I advise friendliness and cooperation with both. Firmness may cost you.

Lying about title status when asked is misrepresetation. Not bringing it up is not. I've never worked in an insurance office, just body shops. My experiece with adjusters is that it's best to use a freindly approch until the they make it confrotational. Salvage title status seldom comes up in the appraisal process, so why introduce it? I didn't say anyone should lie.

Keep the salvage title secret. Show how much you love the car and that you will not part with it. I have worked with dozens of claims adjusters, and nearly all those who were unreasonable demons worked for AAA. If your adjuster is not from that company, understand that she must justify the payout amount, if it is near or above blue book value, so provide any written or photographic proof of high value that you can. She's just trying to get through the day without getting it in the neck from you or the big managers back at the office, so work with her until after she shows herself to be demonic. Her job is a little easier if she does not need to arrange disposal of the car, so your wanting to keep it is a plus from her point of veiw. Expect to pay 20% of aggreed value at time of loss. Be realistic in your evaluation of pre loss value and remember she's in the middle, and must pass your arguments on to others.

So the headliner is in place so it slides back fully but will not reach the closed position? The roof must be fully closed for the head liner to move fully forward, then open the roof slightly to align the front liner clips to the roof holes. Or am I still not understanding the problem?

Not a good place to tap. Make a press with channel lock plier and short nail

Sorry Matt, you need to install the headliner first.

Replace the body.