| 11/5/01- Haven't had much time to work on the car..when it was delivered, it was driven off the truck into my backyard (wasn't home at the time). But when I went to start it the next day, no cranking (figures!)..I had this problem before with my '61 Impala, I had power in the dash and to the dome light, but no cranking..It was the neutral safety switch..probably the original one. So what I did was just make a jumper for the purple wires. These wires are directly connected to the starter. Problem solved right? Wrong! Car would crank, but not start..crap! 12/19/01- Busy trying to find work and in between the last month, trying to figure out what is wrong with the car and finally did...The gentleman I bought the car from, had set up a homemade fuel cell in the engine compartment cause the car wouldn't start..He thought it was the fuel line from the tank..Why would the car start all the way from Virginia till it got to my house? Right now I'm pissed cause I can't even drive the car, so I start thinking..No gas in the carb? that means it's either a clogged fuel line to the carb, or the fuel pump..well, I thought that fuel pumps last a long time, but I think this is the original fuel pump so it's probably shot..So what happened is that little by little the fuel pump was going out..It didnt have enough suction to get the gas from the tank (plus it was empty) and it had just plain stopped working when it got to my house. Solution-picked up a new pump for $14.99 from Autozone. Oh yeah, I forgot, I had tried about 3 times to take the original pump off and try to get it working but no luck..The first time I tried to put it back on I was pissed for about 2 hours cause it wouldn't go back on..I believe it is called the cam rod that needs to push the pump arm that I couldn't get set right, but after a little tinkering I had it in..the next couple of times it was easy to get in and out... 1/1/02 - Picked up a shop vac last week to clean out all the dirt and crud inside the car. It looks as if the car sat in a dirt pile, but I believe it was just in front of the previous owners house..anyway there was about two inches high of dirt in the doors, boy the shop vac did great. Oh yeah, the rims and tires on the car are all different so I picked up 15X7 rims at a garage sale for $25..they are in OK shape and I just sprayed em with some white gloss Rustoleum paint..They came out OK and will definately look better than what's on it now. Now to just throw a set of whitewalls on them! 2/22/02 - I ended up buying some Olds Cutlass wheels (only three but I'm on the hunt) I'm going to paint them and put on trim rings and center caps..Oh yeah, offset on the wheels are 5 X 4 3/4..I didn't feel like going stock and I think they would look good on the car, plus I don't want to be like everybody else putting on rally's ! Oh yeah, I just got the 2bbl Rochester rebuilt and the car seems to be running better..I think it's time for a tuneup, or how about exhaust! 2/23/02 - I was on the hunt for the rim for a day! Went out to old Pic a Part and couldn't find anything out by the cars..But as soon as I was leaving I found it..It was on a rack of misc. tires..In decent shape..Shoot, for fifteen bucks, and with good tire and almost the same color as the others..sounds great to me! 3/8/02 - OK, the Copper Metallic wasn't the color I wanted..so I resprayed them with a Smoke Gray and I'd have to say they came out pretty nice..Not bad for getting the rims from the junkyard..I also got two new rear tires 215-75-14's..check out the new pic on the main page..The Bel Air also has a lot of surface rust which I started to take off with some steel wool (this is miracle stuff) and it's looking much better and less rusty! Since I put the rims on I need to have the car looking somewhat decent because I can't stand the rust look on the white..I might even spray can prime it black until I get my compressor and DA sander!! 4/02 - I ended up getting an 80 gallon 2stage compressor, got it on clearance from Home Depot..I haven't even had a chance to fire it up yet because when you have a home, you always have something else to fix or yard work or something going on.. 7/02 - Came across a guy here who had a 62 Bel Air 4door he was parting, car was an old field car but I will be able to use some of the rear quarters and the frame (for a project later on), the car is pretty much stripped with no front end but I got it for the price of just the frame alone..I will get pictures soon..I love shooting pics of any kind of old Chevy... 2003- Obviously because of the financials I haven't done much to the old gal becaue of upgrades and improvements on the home. Gotta make the wife happy . That's why I'm writing '03 with no month. Anyway, I rewired the alternator, had to replace the fuel pump becaue of bad gas, rebuilt the already rebuilt 2bbl, but this time on my own. The rebuilder who I payed too much was an a-hole. Not too hard to rebuild with the kit from Borg Warner. It was like $16 bucks at Pep Boys. I also rewired the starter wires and put in a reman starter from Autozone. I was going for a hi-torque starter, but am doing my resto on a budget. I am having a problem with the choke valve on my carb which you can see here. Next, I need to do a compression text to see if the engine is even good enough to build up. Hopefully it is cause I don't feel like springing for a new one. Wish me luck. |
| Journal restoration of my 1961 Chevrolet Bel Air 2 Door Sport Coupe |
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