The "66 El Camino that I finally own" Thread
Discussion
99t said:
Cheers all, good to know my ramblings are being appreciated 
At some point I need to stop fannying around with the interior and shoot the paint onto the other door shut, the roof, dash and pillars.
Although the painting I have done (one door shut and some interior pieces) has come out well enough, I am a long, long way from an experienced paint sprayer and I can't help thinking that I have had a surplus of luck over judgement so far!
So although a little poo comes out when I think about painting the roof, I need to just man up and get on with it!!
If you get it wrong, it's only time and money. At some point I need to stop fannying around with the interior and shoot the paint onto the other door shut, the roof, dash and pillars.
Although the painting I have done (one door shut and some interior pieces) has come out well enough, I am a long, long way from an experienced paint sprayer and I can't help thinking that I have had a surplus of luck over judgement so far!
So although a little poo comes out when I think about painting the roof, I need to just man up and get on with it!!
(That's helping right? Practice on the other truck with some other paint?)
I have one or two more bits to spray before I tackle the roof, so if they come out ok I'll have a bit more confidence to "go for it"!
Cleanliness and preparation are the most important things when it comes to painting, I've certainly put in the hours on the prep side, however obtaining cleanliness in my dusty garage full of shelves and car parts is going to be a challenge.
I will most likely do the majority of the remaining paint in a 3m gazabo on the drive. I can put plastic sheeting on the floor and the gazebo itself is pretty new and clean.
To do so, I really need the Elk to be a runner again, the engine hasn't run for nearly three years, mainly due to the lack of dashboard and removal of the hacked around wiring. Now that is all sorted (or so I thought...) it was time to try and get the old girl to fire up.
Sunday evening:
The battery had taken a charge surprisingly well, so I temporarily refitted the steering column and connected up the gear shift. Checked around the engine bay, double checked the levels and made sure nothing was obviously fouling belts or sitting on exhaust manifolds. All good. Filled the carb's float chamber with petrol.
Turned the key and she cranked. Oil pressure light went out almost immediately, but no start. Cranked again. And cranked some more. Not so much as a cough. Strong petrol smell though.
Fuel filter had filled with fuel which is good, not so good was the drip of petrol from the fuel pump. Not enough to give up but something to add to the to-do list.
Pulled the King Lead from the distributor and checked for a spark when cranking, none.
Checked voltage at coil - 7v with the key in "run". That's ok, the resistance wire should drop the voltage when running to preserve the points.
What about when cranking? Should be a full 12v, measured it at 4v - that's not right!!
At this point the battery was starting to weaken (although nowhere near 4v!) and it was getting late so I put it back on charge, called it a night and went to ponder the issue...
Cleanliness and preparation are the most important things when it comes to painting, I've certainly put in the hours on the prep side, however obtaining cleanliness in my dusty garage full of shelves and car parts is going to be a challenge.
I will most likely do the majority of the remaining paint in a 3m gazabo on the drive. I can put plastic sheeting on the floor and the gazebo itself is pretty new and clean.
To do so, I really need the Elk to be a runner again, the engine hasn't run for nearly three years, mainly due to the lack of dashboard and removal of the hacked around wiring. Now that is all sorted (or so I thought...) it was time to try and get the old girl to fire up.
Sunday evening:
The battery had taken a charge surprisingly well, so I temporarily refitted the steering column and connected up the gear shift. Checked around the engine bay, double checked the levels and made sure nothing was obviously fouling belts or sitting on exhaust manifolds. All good. Filled the carb's float chamber with petrol.
Turned the key and she cranked. Oil pressure light went out almost immediately, but no start. Cranked again. And cranked some more. Not so much as a cough. Strong petrol smell though.
Fuel filter had filled with fuel which is good, not so good was the drip of petrol from the fuel pump. Not enough to give up but something to add to the to-do list.
Pulled the King Lead from the distributor and checked for a spark when cranking, none.
Checked voltage at coil - 7v with the key in "run". That's ok, the resistance wire should drop the voltage when running to preserve the points.
What about when cranking? Should be a full 12v, measured it at 4v - that's not right!!
At this point the battery was starting to weaken (although nowhere near 4v!) and it was getting late so I put it back on charge, called it a night and went to ponder the issue...
^That's disappointing. Have you really had it three years already? I'm sure I recall you driving it when you got it??
By way of encouragement, in the past month I have successfully started two long-dormant vehicles, a car and a bike. The bike hadn't run in something like 10 years but fired up quite easily. The car was asleep for about three years, it was a pig to start initially but once i got it running and flushed some fresh petrol through, it's largely OK, although needing a little tweak here and there. On the road though, driven today.
You'll get there! At least you've no electronics to concern you.
By way of encouragement, in the past month I have successfully started two long-dormant vehicles, a car and a bike. The bike hadn't run in something like 10 years but fired up quite easily. The car was asleep for about three years, it was a pig to start initially but once i got it running and flushed some fresh petrol through, it's largely OK, although needing a little tweak here and there. On the road though, driven today.
You'll get there! At least you've no electronics to concern you.
Little bit less than three years but yes it was running and driving well before I pulled it apart. 
Engine last ran around November 2015.
Identifying the issue turned out not to be too difficult.
Monday evening:
The coil should have two feeds going to the + terminal.
The first one, dotted in the above diagram, supplies reduced voltage when the engine is running and is a resistance wire with a white, braided covering. This was present and easily identifiable.
The other, supplying the full 12v at startup, should be a brown wire coming from the starter solenoid. This was entirely absent!
So an easy fix, but confusing as to how it happened. I am 99% sure I didn't remove any wires from the coil and 100% sure I didn't remove any from the starter solenoid. But it started without issue previously and if the resistance wire was the only one present it would have always been trying to start on a very low voltage...?
Anyway, wire added, battery charged, sparks when cranking verified, surely it would start this time?
Nope! Much cranking, still not a dickie bird. Much double checking of wires, sparks etc. Very strong smell of petrol again, which I had been assuming was the slow drip from the fuel pump. At this point I considered the choke.
The Edelbrock 1406 has an electric auto-choke which I had disconnected electrically, planning to replace it with a manual conversion - call me a control freak if you will!
Disconnected it had defaulted to permanent full choke (the electric element operates a bimetallic spring that winds the choke off over a few minutes when the ignition is on) which I had considered would be ok for the purposes of checking if it would actually run...
However, I vaguely remembered that the Elk never needed any throttle to start, hot or cold, and although it had never flooded, I felt it had come close once or twice.
The carb smelt very strongly of petrol. Pulled the dipstick and sniffed the oil - it too absolutely reeked. Decided it was probably flooded. Pulled the plugs and they were soaking.
Put the battery back on charge. Left the plugs out to dry naturally (and let excess fuel in the cylinders evaporate).
Manually adjusted the choke to "very off" and left it all to sit overnight...
Engine last ran around November 2015.Identifying the issue turned out not to be too difficult.
Monday evening:
The coil should have two feeds going to the + terminal.
The first one, dotted in the above diagram, supplies reduced voltage when the engine is running and is a resistance wire with a white, braided covering. This was present and easily identifiable.
The other, supplying the full 12v at startup, should be a brown wire coming from the starter solenoid. This was entirely absent!
So an easy fix, but confusing as to how it happened. I am 99% sure I didn't remove any wires from the coil and 100% sure I didn't remove any from the starter solenoid. But it started without issue previously and if the resistance wire was the only one present it would have always been trying to start on a very low voltage...?
Anyway, wire added, battery charged, sparks when cranking verified, surely it would start this time?
Nope! Much cranking, still not a dickie bird. Much double checking of wires, sparks etc. Very strong smell of petrol again, which I had been assuming was the slow drip from the fuel pump. At this point I considered the choke.
The Edelbrock 1406 has an electric auto-choke which I had disconnected electrically, planning to replace it with a manual conversion - call me a control freak if you will!
Disconnected it had defaulted to permanent full choke (the electric element operates a bimetallic spring that winds the choke off over a few minutes when the ignition is on) which I had considered would be ok for the purposes of checking if it would actually run...
However, I vaguely remembered that the Elk never needed any throttle to start, hot or cold, and although it had never flooded, I felt it had come close once or twice.
The carb smelt very strongly of petrol. Pulled the dipstick and sniffed the oil - it too absolutely reeked. Decided it was probably flooded. Pulled the plugs and they were soaking.
Put the battery back on charge. Left the plugs out to dry naturally (and let excess fuel in the cylinders evaporate).
Manually adjusted the choke to "very off" and left it all to sit overnight...
leglessAlex said:
You tease! 
What happened Tuesday evening?!
What happened Tuesday evening?!
Tuesday evening:
Didn't feel confident going into the garage for a third time after two sucessive evenings of failure and literally not even one cough from the engine when cranking.
Fitted the plugs and reconnected the battery. Kept my feet well away from the throttle and turned the key. It coughed a couple of times but didn't catch.
Cranked again, no coughing this time, starting to smell of fuel again.
Only one thing for it - foot to the floor and hold it there. Cranked for quite a long time and then a cough, another cough, two, three four cylinders joining in!
Gave the battery / starter / wiring a rest for a few seconds and tried the same again, foot still on floor. Five , six and then at least seven cylinders firing. Revs started to rise so eased back on the throttle a touch - and it died!
Gave it a minute, same again, this time let it rev a bit more, big cloud of smoke engulfed the garage. Kept it running on the throttle for twenty seconds or so and then took my foot off the gas, and it idled! Remarkably well considering the petrol is nearly three years old.
Left it idling whilst I a) replaced the smoke in my lungs with fresh air b) checked around the engine for leaks or other issues
Engine sounded sweet, no leaks, smoke soon cleared and it idled and revved remarkably cleanly. Didn't run it for too long as I'm aware the oil is in dire need of changing, just a couple of minutes to circulate the fluids and then switched off.
IT LIVES!!
Pulled the drain plug and left the oil draining overnight.
99t said:
A little audio clip of it starting up now the manual choke conversion is fitted. Not that it needs any choke at all this weather.
Sounds a little odd when I blip the throttle because it overloaded the recording level on my phone, but you can sort of get the idea!
Startup
Sounds absolutely ace Sounds a little odd when I blip the throttle because it overloaded the recording level on my phone, but you can sort of get the idea!
Startup
leglessAlex said:
Sounds absolutely ace
Bit more painting at the weekend, set up the gazebo on the drive as a makeshift spray booth. Not ideal as the ground is like concrete and no way of pegging it down. But on the grass it fills up with insects far too quickly so the drive was the lesser of two evils on what was a very still morning.
Main dash panel on two trestles, plus four gutter pieces hanging from a cross beam. All had received an awful lot of prep time.
Paint went on without drama, in fact inside the air-fed mask it was probably the only time this weekend that I felt comfortable and cool!
Left it all to cure and pottered around doing other jobs. An hour or so later I needed to pop out for ten minutes. Looked at the gazebo, sides not really moving. Looked at the trees, barely a leaf moving.
Decided to move the main dash panel back into the garage anyway, despite the risk to the not fully hardened paint. At least I could lift it from underneath without needing to go anywhere near the fresh paint. Couldn't move the hanging pieces without touching them so left them hanging happily.
Came back ten minutes later, during which time, so far as I am aware, there was no tornado. However I came back to this
So happy that I had moved the dash but naturally I feared the worst for my trim pieces which were still somewhere inside the mangled remains.
Found them on the floor but laying on the material of one of the sides.
Amazingly, I could only find one chip out of one of them, on an edge that won't show! They had a slightly gritty feel where they had laid on the material, but that came off with a rub from my finger which also confirmed that the paint was pretty much rock hard.
Praise be to the high temperatures!!
Only a mini-update this one.
Painted the replacement lower screen channel at the end of July, along with the remaining A-pillar cover as I'd failed to mix sufficient paint last time.
Unfortunately after that, progress stalled somewhat, partly due to holidays and other non-car things getting in the way, but largely due to a family of wasps who set up residence somewhere in or around the garage.
Despite having a good scout around, I didn't manage to identify the location of the nest or the ingress point (and I wasn't prepared to completely empty the garage to do so!!)
At any given time there were always five to ten good sized wasps buzzing around the lights, crapping on everything and generally making paintwork an impossibility. The only option was to close the door and walk away until they died off naturally, which they have now done.
Will see if I can get the garage warm enough for further paint this year but I fear that may be a losing battle...
Painted the replacement lower screen channel at the end of July, along with the remaining A-pillar cover as I'd failed to mix sufficient paint last time.
Unfortunately after that, progress stalled somewhat, partly due to holidays and other non-car things getting in the way, but largely due to a family of wasps who set up residence somewhere in or around the garage.
Despite having a good scout around, I didn't manage to identify the location of the nest or the ingress point (and I wasn't prepared to completely empty the garage to do so!!)
At any given time there were always five to ten good sized wasps buzzing around the lights, crapping on everything and generally making paintwork an impossibility. The only option was to close the door and walk away until they died off naturally, which they have now done.
Will see if I can get the garage warm enough for further paint this year but I fear that may be a losing battle...
Long overdue update
So far this year I have painted the driver's side upper door shut and the section of the a-pillars that is visible in the cabin, all of which came out pretty well. To be honest, the masking off has taken far longer than the painting, with hindsight it would have been far quicker to strip out the rest of the interior and not worry too much about overspray! Lesson learned for next time...
The garage at home where I am painting is far from a dedicated paint booth, so it is always a battle with contaminants and now it is summer, insects. This time, painting the upper dash panel, I lost on both fronts!!
I thought initially I would have to strip it and go again, so there was nothing to lose by wet sanding it once it was reasonably hard the next day. Fortunately only a couple of the fish eyes were really deep so the majority sanded out - the couple remaining will need just a tiny blob of paint and a quick cut back.
As for the fly, well amazingly 99% of that sanded out too. There are a couple of legs still visible but since they are vertical to the paint, the marks are, quite literally, the thickness of a fly's leg!!
I think once the screen is back in, it will look perfectly ok...
That is the last of the interior paintwork done for now, roof panel next, so I am going to have to try to rig up some sort of temporary fly-screen before I paint that!
So far this year I have painted the driver's side upper door shut and the section of the a-pillars that is visible in the cabin, all of which came out pretty well. To be honest, the masking off has taken far longer than the painting, with hindsight it would have been far quicker to strip out the rest of the interior and not worry too much about overspray! Lesson learned for next time...
The garage at home where I am painting is far from a dedicated paint booth, so it is always a battle with contaminants and now it is summer, insects. This time, painting the upper dash panel, I lost on both fronts!!
I thought initially I would have to strip it and go again, so there was nothing to lose by wet sanding it once it was reasonably hard the next day. Fortunately only a couple of the fish eyes were really deep so the majority sanded out - the couple remaining will need just a tiny blob of paint and a quick cut back.
As for the fly, well amazingly 99% of that sanded out too. There are a couple of legs still visible but since they are vertical to the paint, the marks are, quite literally, the thickness of a fly's leg!!
I think once the screen is back in, it will look perfectly ok...
That is the last of the interior paintwork done for now, roof panel next, so I am going to have to try to rig up some sort of temporary fly-screen before I paint that!
Thanks chaps, no I've not painted much before and never in 2k.
Have to say, I am impressed with how forgiving the paint is - I really didn't think the dash top was salvageable when the paint first went on.
A little more remedial work (touching in the worst fish eyes and then de-nibbing / polishing) and it is looking quite acceptable now.
Really close up there are still flaws, but from no more that a couple of feet away it looks as good as I had ever hoped to get the paint at home. If (and it's a big IF) I can get the roof panel to come out as well, I'll be pretty happy.
Have to say, I am impressed with how forgiving the paint is - I really didn't think the dash top was salvageable when the paint first went on.
A little more remedial work (touching in the worst fish eyes and then de-nibbing / polishing) and it is looking quite acceptable now.
Really close up there are still flaws, but from no more that a couple of feet away it looks as good as I had ever hoped to get the paint at home. If (and it's a big IF) I can get the roof panel to come out as well, I'll be pretty happy.
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