28 August 2017 - Road Test 2

Looks like there are no longer any leaks with the heater core and hoses.  Coolant reservior is at the half way mark.  Engine is at normal temps, no overheating.  Will continue to monitor the rest of this week.

27 August 2017 - The Details

I made another road test today and so far no leaks.  Coolant has been topped off in the reservior.  I cleaned the windows inside and outside of the car, removed other items and such from the interior of the car.

As of now it looks like The Merc is ready for the road.

26 August 2017 - Heater box / cowl vent - At this time...

Today I finally put all the pieces back in place, tighted/checked/filled and what ever else was needed to be able to finally start up The Merc.

I added about a quart of coolant after warming up the engine to operating temps.  I checked all coolant hoses in the cockpit and engine bay and so far no leaks.

I am going to let the engine cool for a bit then, do a startup, check coolant level then test drive.  If all goes well I will be back to regularly driving The Merc.

Well after driving the car on the road, the lower heater core hose connection started to leak(interior side at heater box).

I adjusted the hose connection and will take it for a road test tomorrow.

20-21-22-23-24-26 August 2017 - Todo

Todo List:

• install heater box assembly
• install heater box wiring
• install heater box control cables
• install front carpeting
• install front bumper assembly
• connect heater hoses to proper location
• put coolant into system and burp cooling system
• install bench seat
• install passenger side dash vent and install hose to heater plenum
• install driver side dash hose to heater plenum
• finish installation of both front fenders(adjust body seams for best fit)
• connect front valance panel running lights
• continue with adding coolant

While connecting the heater hoses to the engine locations, I discovered that the 5/8" unions were rusty on the outside.  I will have to pick up replacement unions at an auto parts store on the 21st of August.


21 Aug

• The 5/8" union that I bought this time around is made of brass.  I only needed one and its now installed.  both heater hoses are now connected.

22 Aug

• added coolant to the cooling system and I am in the process of burping/adding fluid.

23 Aug

• added more coolant to the radiator, just letting it gravity feed.
• installed the front bumper assembly and the front valance panel.

24 Aug

• Front Bench seat is installed and adjusted
• kick panels and scuff plates are installed.
• wiper/washer pedal is installed.
• high/low beam foot switch is installed(need to get a plastic piece for the switch)

26 Aug

• Adjusted the front fenders and aligned to the hood and doors.  Still need to tighten down the front valance panel bolts.
• Installed the passenger side vent and hose.  Connected both front vent hoses to the heater plenum.
• charged the battery for about 2 hours, battery gauge started at 4 amps then after 2 hours dropped off to 1.5 amps.  Removed charger, letting battery cool.

20 August 2017 - interior / heat-defrost cables / firewall engine side - heater blower motor

I decided to re-route the heat/defrost/fresh air cables.  The defrost cable was at the wrong angle so I removed the three cable assembly and re-routed them.

While I was checking out the interior side of the mounting location of the heater box assembly, I noticed that I did not clean up that area.  I have since, sanded and painted the area and also the engine side.  That will take at least until tomorrow to dry to a point to allow installation of the heater box assembly.

19 August 2017 - ToDo List

Todo List:

• install heater box assembly
• install heater box wiring
• install heater box control cables
• install front carpeting
• install bench seat
• install front bumper assembly
• finish installation of both front fenders(adjust body seams for best fit)
• connect heater hoses to proper location
• put coolant into system and burp cooling system
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19 August 2017 - Cowl Vents

I did a couple of leak tests on the cowl vents.  A gallon of water was poured into the main grille for each cowl vent side.  There were no signs of water leaks at the cowl vents on the inside of the car.

I am going to see if the water that is remaining, will leak somewhere/somehow inside.  I have paper towels in and around the cowl vents and on the floorboards.

18 August 2017 - Cowl Vents - inside

I did a couple more things today working on the cowl vents from the inside of the car.

On the driver's side I painted a couple of coats of rust encapsulator all around the cowl vent.  It looks like I have that completely coated now.

I did a trial fitting of the cowl vent insert.  Although I have put seam sealer all round the inner cowl vent stack, the plastic insert still fits.  I marked the insert to make it easier to orient and install.  The plan is to put as much seam sealer around the plastic insert, then install it and then use fender washers and nuts to secure the insert so that its firmly installed.

I may end up having to get another tube of Dynatron 550 seam sealer just for this part.

I did not check the passenger side cowl vent.

17 August 2017 - Cowl Vent - Driver side

Today I put a little more seam sealer on the inside of the cowl vent.  I am trying to put several thin, even layers.  Once that is done, I am looking at installing an insert for the cowl vent.

15 August 017 - Cowl Vent - Driver side

From the inside of the driver side floor pan, I put seam sealer around the cowl vent.  I put a thin layer all the way around the opening.  Tomorrow I will check how well that sealed the area and if need be, I will put more seam sealer.  The plan is to layer the seam sealer and seal that cowl vent stack as much as possible.

I also painted the passenger side fender to frame brace and hardware.  It will take a few days to cure.

15 August 2017 - Brake Shoe Info

For some reason, while working on the brakes I did not document the front drum shoe sizes or the rear drum shoe sizes.

Front Drum shoe size:

10" x 2-1/4"



Rear Drum shoe size:

Brake shoe information

WAGNER BRAKES

WWW.WAGNERBRAKE.COM

TQ SERIES / THERMO QUIET


PAB154R
10 x 2 1/4
FRONT

PAB151R
10 X 1 3/4
REAR

PAB169R
10 X 2 1/2
FRONT

Z151R
10 X 1 3/4
REAR

Z169R
10 X 2 1/2
REAR

Z154R
10 X 2 1/4
FRONT

13 August 2017 - Heater box

Continued with working on the heater box.  I misplaced the heater hose clamps.  Now that I have them I have installed the heater hoses.  I also used the black weatherstripping RTV sealer to seal gaps of the heater plenum.  I have all of the hardware now to install the heater box.  First I need to re-install the carpeting and make sure that is good, padding and such.

Right now its 98 degrees in the garage.  So I turned on the portable A/C unit and once that gets the temps down I will continue with work on The Merc.

I forgot about a support bracket that connects the passenger side front fender to the front bumper frame mount.

I cleaned it up a bit and put it in the Evapo-Rust bucket to soak for the night.  Hopefully in the morning it will be rust free to prep for painting.

12 August - Heater box

I picked up a tube of black weather stripping sealant.  I thought I would use that to seal the heater box halves together and any other areas of the heater box and heater plenum.

10 August 2017 - heater box assembly

Worked on assembling the heater box today.  I previously installed all of the rubber seals and metal hardware.  Today I carefully put the heater box together but found that the seals prevented easy assembly.  Since this time around I have end seals installed on the heater core, it was a lot harder to get the halved together.  I ended up having to trim those two seals in various places in order for the assembly to fit.  After that I installed the blower motor.  I ended up scuffing/scratching the paint on the blower motor so I did a little paint touch up.

So now the heater box is together and what is left is the heater hoses and heater plenum.  Then I can install that assembly into the car.

Where the two halves of the heater box assembly join, I will be putting black weather stripping RTV.  That should help with sealing the box.

9 August 2017 - heater box

I received the heater core today.  It looks exactly like the one that I removed from the heater box.

I did a minimal pressure check on the heater core.  I filled a sink deep enough to submerge the heater core but not the inlet/outlet points.  I then put ~10 psi air pressure on the heater core while it was submerged.  I looked for air bubbles and after about 10 minutes, didn't see any and decided(hoped) the heater core was good.

I did a little more assembling of the heater box components.  I installed the two door mechanisms and installed the remaining seals.

I thought I would let those seals dry and then put the heater box back together tomorrow.

8 August 2017 - heater box

I installed most of the seals to the metal hardware of the heater box.  Once I receive the heater core I can install the remaining seals.

7 August 2017 - front valance panel bolts

The bolts were some kind of rusty.  I soaked the bolts in Evapo-Rust and then primed,painted the bolts.  They are ready for use.

6 August 2017 - General stuff

Installed both front fenders.  They are mounted loosely, to allow installation of the front valence panel.  Later  will install the front bumper and front valence panel and then align the fenders to the hood.

I installed the heater box resistor block.  I used high temp RTV.  I forgot to order the 3M stuff.  Later I will install the seals on the heater box metal hardware and get that to a point where I just need the heater core to put that together.

5 August 2017 - Heater box / front valance panel

Today I continued with painting the heater box metal hardware with Eastwood's rust encapsulator.  Now all of the hardware has two coats.  Once the paint cures I will start installing the seal kit on the various metal hardware pieces.

I also cleaned up the front valance panel on the underside/inside.  There are small rust areas on this panel.  So I put a couple of coats of the rust encapsulator on the panel.

Tomorrow I will take a look at installing the front fenders.

I read somewhere that once you remove the front fender splash guards that the fenders have to go on first then the splashguards can be installed.  I of course installed the splash guards first.  So I will see if that works, if not, they come off and then the fenders go on then the splash guards go in...

I have the fender bolts ready for fender installation

Here is the diverter flap for the heater box

Here is the heater box, I already removed the old resistor block.  This is the replacement resistor block with the installation hardware.

Better pic of the resistor block and installation hardware

2 August 2017 - ToDo for 3 August

• touch up paint on heater motor case

• touch up paint on heater motor fan

• touch up paint on heater motor mounting plate

1 August 2017 - ToDo

• Carefully paint heater motor fan with rust converter

• touch up paint on blower motor case

• touch up paint on mounting plate for      blower motor

1 August 2017 - Heater Core - Heater box

Well the heater core I ordered through a local auto parts store arrived today.  The part advertised online was a copper/brass heater core.  The part that arrived was an aluminum heater core.  It was the same part that another auto parts vendor sells and so it too cannot be used.  The aluminum unit is close to the size of the copper/brass unit but it just does not accept the rubber seals and it does not fit into the heater box.

So I ended up ordering the heater core from WCCC.  On their website they indicate that they sell the copper/brass unit.  Hopefully it will be here in 3 days and then I can put the heater box together this weekend.