The Snowball Saga - '68 Standard Revitalization Project by Blitz

4 minute(s) of a 403 minute read

Mine isn't bad enough to think about relocating the pedal. My foot does rub against the speaker grille a little though. Maybe your grilles stick out further than mine.

So, random progress... I dismantled my heater box and the metal components were rusty, as you would expect. Blasted them and coated with a rattle can of generic black paint that was lying around. Not worried about making them pretty, just giving them something to prevent rust in the future. I will scuff the flapper surfaces before gluing on new seals. On the rods, I ended up removing the paint from the middle sections so they can slide back in more easily. Will probably put a little grease on them to help them slide back in and also protect them slightly from corrosion.

Also, a word of warning. The small flapper next to the heater core will not come out easily. What happened to me was this: I had removed the other flappers without much trouble (taking off the little round fasteners, spraying with WD-40, and pulling the rods straight out). When I got to the little one, I thought it would be the same story. Well, I ended up pulling the whole thing straight through the fiberglass, making a flapper-sized slice in the heater box. Doh! So, for this one, I would suggest leaving it in place and cleaning it up as best you can. Even when it was out of the box, it was almost impossible to get the rod out. Here are the mangled remains of my original one:

What I learned was - there is a flat sandwiched spot on the rod that indexes it and keeps it from going anywhere inside the crimped part of the flapper. In order to pull it out, I had to bend up part of the top tab on the flapper (in the above pic you can see I bent the whole thing up, but on the next one I only needed to bend a little section of it, close to where the flat spot is.) Long story short - leave this one in the box.

Next thing was to take apart my steering wheel pad, which took about 2 seconds.

This was to be my first test of the SEM Phantom White paint, which is supposed to be a perfect match for Parchment. So I scrubbed the center pad with random cleaners and water, dried it off, and sprayed a couple thin coats of paint on it. I elevated it on a piece of wood in hopes of getting better coverage around the edges. 

I was worried that the texture was worn out, but after painting it actually looks pretty good.

Then after it was dry, I had to put it up against the Polar White paint to see if the colors matched well or clashed. I'm happy to report that they look great together. No worries about the lower dash paint anymore.

So, I have a question about the main steering wheel pad. The ends (by the column) tend to flare out from age. Has anyone figured out a way to sandwich it back together so the ends don't stick out awkwardly? I was brainstorming a ridiculous plan of removing the old foam, getting the vinyl re-seated properly & glued to the metal frame, then using some kinda spray foam to fill it back up. Sounds kinda crazy and risky though.