Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013, Guerneville, CA.
Worked on the 1967 Chevy Van today.
Of course, I’d planned to go to Jenner to kayak today, but when I looked at the weather report, it said the winds where blowing at nineteen miles an hour,…………….so, I decided it would be a good day to work on the van and the sun was out, so I could get a little painting done on it too.
Started with the paint.
The van was in the car port, so first I moved it out into the sun so it would warm up and the paint would dry. It wasn’t a big paint job, I just had to paint a little part of the back door where I added a metal piece to improve the seal back there. Taped it off a little with masking tape, shook up the cans of spray paint and let it fly. Watch out when I have a spray can of paint in my hand, I tend to over do it a bit. Put a coat of paint on and let it sit and bit and put some more on, which I repeat until I had enough paint on there. Did this throughout the morning while I was accomplishing some other things too.
The cigarette lighter doesn’t work.
The other day, I tried to use the cigarette lighter as I needed some kind of little light up front sometimes to see what I’m doing, while driving while it’s dark. No juice there.
Seems I faintly remember noting the cig lighter didn’t work once or twice a long time ago, but since I didn’t really need it, I let it go, but now…………..I need it.
So, I got out my electrical meter and proceeded to dive into the mess of spaghetti under the dash, which some call wires. It’s not easy working under most any dashes. I followed what I thought was the wire though the mess with a couple false leads and eventually found the problem to lead to a wire I had slightly remembered that I had disconnected from the fuse block when I first got the fan about twenty years ago. Seems it was dangling then, getting hit by my big foot and was barely attached, so got disconnected.
Now, I just had to figure out where it connected to the fuse block, so it would be powered all the time, so I could use it to power a light when the key was off. That turned out to be the easier part of the job. Now, where are my spade connectors so I can make a connection? Of course, those are the ones I’m out of, but looking around real hard turned one up. Being a fixit type guy, I have piles of all kinds of things laying around with stuff hidden in them, which can sometimes be good, if you can find what you want? Got my little light out and plugged it in and turned it on and there was light. Good Job, Bob. :O)
The radiator overflow tank gets made.
Yesterday, I went to the store to get the parts I needed to construct a new one of these, but when I got home, I realized I had goofed and not gotten the right tee for the job.
So, off to the store again, a couple hours later, I cut some ABS pipe and and did some gluing. Made the return pipe out of some steel brake line I had and also made an overfill vent line out of the same stuff.
I used plumbers epoxy, which comes in a stick you kneed together in your hands and apply like putty, to fix the steel pipes into the plastic tank I made. This stuff dries in less then ten minutes so just about as soon as I finished it, I was able to install it. Looks good.
Below, you can see the radiator overflow tank I constructed out of three inch ABS pipe fittings. One tee, with two end caps and a inch and a half fill spout. The steel pipe on the left goes to the bottom of the tank as it has to return fluid to the radiator and the one on the right is just for overfill and vent.
Now, just get that tank mounted in the van.
I used big three inch diameter adjustable straps to hold it on to the van body, one on each end. I also made sure I used ABS glue this time, so I hope there are no more leaks in the future.
Time to take the masking tape off my paint project, put the van back in the car port and call it a day.
I’ve almost got it all done.
I’ve only got a couple more things to do to the van before I’m off on my trip to Arizona in a couple weeks.
Mainly, when my auto carpet comes in, I need to carpet the inside of the side door to prevent condensation on the inside of the outside metal and then I can finish tidying up the propane heater I installed in that door.
We are almost good to go.
Unless something else comes up, the van should be good to go. Me too. :O)
Had a nice day.
