Jake Dykstra's 1962 409/409 Impala!

[RPOLS3]

Good news today. Stopped by the upholstery shop and the seat covers and headliner are in - the carpet has been in for a while. I will drop off the front seat next week for them to start on. Probably mid-October for everything else. Been communicating with the anodizer and I should have something set up with him next week as well.

[RPOLS3]

Got the trim pieces delivered to Bill Petrow yesterday for anodizing - will be about a month to get back. Also gave him a spare set of hubcaps to clean up. Making progress.....

[RPOLS3]

Went down to Mom's yesterday and met Dave for lunch. I pulled out the rear seat and dropped it off today at the upholstery shop so they could have the seats 100% done when I brought the car in for the balance of the interior work.

Now we wait for a while for everyone's schedule to open up and get things done.

[olredalert]

----Can't wait to see the finished product, Jake!!!....Bill S

[RPOLS3]

I had some spare time on Saturday afternoon to tinker with mocking up the front drum brake assemblies. Part of my motivation is trying to consolidate my parts pile off the garage floor as I'll soon have to make room for my truck inside as the weather turns colder in the coming weeks.

I found out the backing plates are for self adjusting brakes with no hole for the adjuster on the bottom. I just found and ordered the correct (non-reproduction) backing plates with the shoe adjusting hole. Will need to get those blasted and painted when they arrive.

When I pulled the back seat out last week the seat frames were half-a$$ painted by someone previously with a fair amount of surface rust still present. So I stopped by the upholstery guy's place in my travels this morning and told him to call me when he has the old covers off and I will pick them up and get it blasted and painted to match the front seat. Might as well do things right........

Keep learning and moving forward I guess.

[Too Many Projects]

Do the drums have the hole in them for the adjuster ?

Most self adjusting brakes I've worked on still have a hole in the plate, or drum for manual adjusting too.

[RPOLS3]

Originally Posted by Too Many Projects

Do the drums have the hole in them for the adjuster ?

Most self adjusting brakes I've worked on still have a hole in the plate, or drum for manual adjusting too.

No adjusting holes on the drums Mitch - just the backing plates. Not sure I've ever seen that before.

[napa68]

Originally Posted by RPOLS3

Might as well do things right........

Doing your Dad proud!

[RPOLS3]

The correct backing plates showed up last week and the rear seat is uncovered so I will drop both off at the blasters today to get cleaned up. Dropped off the drums this morning on my way in to get cut.

[RPOLS3]

While not a lot of physical progress was made - today was a big day. I brought the 409 to my house to be able to dedicate more time on the balance of the work as we are getting close to having the exterior trim done and the interior work will happen the last week of October fingers crossed. I left the Regal down at Mom's on the lift and will take the Chevelle down soon to have more room at my place to work on the 409 this winter.

I installed the NOS Stewart Warner temp gauge before I left as I wanted to monitor engine temps since this would be the longest trip in it (50 miles) since we installed the new engine. I was able to complete the install without drilling any holes and using existing fasteners to mount the gauge under the glove box door.

Outside temps were high 70's and at 60 MPH it ran at 200 degrees. In town it would quickly get to 210-215-220 when waiting at a stoplight but then come right back down to 200 when we got going along.

Dad was with me from the start on this one as I needed a special 5/8" wrench to tighten the new temp sender fitting and by golly he had just what I needed in a custom bent 5/8" open end wrench in his stash.

No real issues on the ride. Was able to get a proper Dykstra Motorsports sticker installed when I got home - for some reason this car never got one. since I now have the car with me I will be able to take my time and fine tune some things that have been bugging me in addition to the De-SS'ing project this winter.