1971 LeSabre Custom R&R

It's official - Easter Sunday has come, and is on its way out.....which means I can start on this car.

First and foremost, the engine compartment. I plan on doing exactly as I did with Hank's 60 in the previous thread with his car. After the engine work is done, I will go over the body of the car and fix any of the big blemishes still left over from the previous owners' "handy work." If I have time before Rochester, I will get some underbody work done. It's not really bad, but it sure would look nice cleaned up.

Now for the obligatory picture posting :grin: I'm gonna have fun with this one..

 

Started pulling parts tonight....I only had an hour to work, so I made the most of it.

The core support and battery tray are SOLID! Very nice for a lifetime Northeast car






So THAT's how the black is supposed to look! One of the previous owners had used a paintbrush to paint GLOSS BLACK all over the place on the core support. It looks like Rustoleum :grin:

 

These are the only shiny parts I have done so far..

As usual, my guest bedroom becomes my parts warehouse while this project gets going.





NOS front bumper and rechromed rear bumper...and the one I just took off the car is in the foreground..





Starting to get interesting!

 

Southern Bumper - I bought the rear bumper on ebay from them, as they were selling it as one that was abandoned at their shop. It was pretty nice already, and he had already stripped it for the rechroming process. He took off 25% for the rechrome since I had already bought the core for $25.

I can get you a phone number if you like..

 

And Kimson,

That bedroom is tucked away in the basement where all my other parts are sitting, so they blend in well. I try to stay away from that part when I give the "tours" of the house to any prospective .....friends.:grin:

 

1-877-761-5477

email southernbumper@hotmail.com

 

BTail,

I'm not working on the lower end of the motor, just cleaning it up. While the heads are off, I'll take them to the machine shop for a teardown, cleanup, and possibly a 3 angle valve job if my budget permits. (as if the 3 angle job actually does anything performance-wise!) I will also bring my exhaust manifolds and intake there to be hot tanked and cleaned up so I can paint them.

The car has a single exhaust, and it will probable stay that way unless I get a wild hair and spend more money. Time is not on my side with this, as it has to be ready to go for the BCA national in July.

 

Took the heads and passenger side exhaust manifold (singular) to the machine shop for work the other day. The drivers side manifold is cracked, and is being replaced with another from a board member here.

Valve job and cleanup on the heads with new seals, and milling of the exhaust manifold surfaces..

I only broke 3 bolts (all on the pass. side) when trying to remove the manifolds. I broke all three of them in succession. After the 3rd one, I thought I was in for a rough machine shop bill with 12 helicoils!'

It looks like I will be putting the car on hold for the rest of the week and through the weekend. I have to work the local home and garden show for our irrigation company...and it pretty much completely drains my will to live. Look for more progess next week sometime!

 

I got someone to work for me this morning at the home show so I could sleep in a little bit. I also got some work done on the car.


Basically, I'm looking at a "budget job" here with the engine compartment. I am not spending any morney for plating any parts (except the rear bumper, but I was almost forced into doing that) so I am making due with what I have.

Hood latch and master cylinder cover are done with a basecoat of exhaust stainless steel spray and coated lightly with a gold anodizing paint from Duplicolor. I then spray a VERY small amount of red paint on top of that (more or less a dusting) so it gets a little color in it. If you look above in a previous post, the gold parts on the bed are done the same way. They look really good in person.






Wiper motor was also finished this morning - not as nice as Jim Lore's X piece, but it will present nicely under the hood of my car. I was unable to save the decal on the base of the unit, so I just wiped it off..ou:





I have finally cleared the firewall of all the crap so I can clean and paint it. I'll probably paint the firewall, then do the same gold cad treatment on the brake booster as I did the other gold parts. I'll then paint the core support and wheel wells at once. My heads are ready at the machine shop, but they aren't open until Monday. As soon as I get them, I will bolt them on, along with the rest of the "red" engine parts, and paint them as a unit, much like the factory did. I will leave the fuel pump and distributor out for this job, though.

 

I've been wanting to do this to one of my cars for a long time, but have never had a chance to, since they've all been drivers. At least with this car, I have the convertible to drive while it is stuck in the garage. When I did the work on Hank's 60, I realized I could do some real quality work without having a big shop and all kinds of fancy tools.

I've been playing around with cars for a long time, and have figured out some neat tricks to getting the look and result that I want to acheive at minimal cost. Like with this gold cad paint stuff - I'm in no position to shell out money for shipping and plating, so I do what is next best....and it turns out as close as you can get without actually plating.


A little elbow grease and patience goes a long way with these cars. Take note with Yardley's thread on Ken Lisk's 66 Wildcat. With a little effort and some ambition, you can really make these cars pop! It doesn't take a frame-off restoration and $50k to make a car look presentable....unless perfection is what you're going for. I bet that by the time I am finished with the engine compartment in this car, it will look like a frame-off if you look under the hood. :grin: I'll almost be afraid to drive it when I'm finished!

 

Black paint finally laid on tonight. Firewall, wheelhouses, and core support are nicely covered. I did the booster and master cylinder last night. It appears on all the big cars that I've had, that the booster is not a real rich shiny gold cad like I see on all the restored A bodies.....it's more of a dull greyish green gold. I emulated that with the one you see in the picture.





I got the heads back today, along with one of the exh. manifolds. The other one arrived today, so I get to go BACK to the machine shop to get this one surfaced, and have the bolt holes helicoiled. Both sutds are broken off inside this one. What's another $100?

As soon as I can get the intake and valve covers cleaned up, I will bolt the core of the motor back together and paint it. That way, the bolts will be engine color as they are supposed to be. I like the look of a clean bare set of bolts on an engine, but I'm going to correctness on this...so why not take the step to do this?

I also twisted my transmission cooling lines right off the fittings tonight. Destroyed...totally.

I called Inline Tube and bought a set of universal lines so I could bend them myself....since they don't carry any for the 71 LeSabre.ou: ...and no one else does.