Some major milestones were reached this week:
Filled the master cylinder, bled the brake lines and adjusted the brakes. That was a several hour job! (Thanks to Mike and Phil for your suggestions!) We had only a few seeps or weeps and they were quickly fixed. One of the tricks we used was to loosen the bleeder valve and affix a clear plastic tube to it. This tube was then stuck down in a clear bottle with about 2" of brake fluid in it. (The fluid in the bottle kept any air from re-entering the line.) We then allowed gravity to force some of the air out, eventually applying pressure to the brake pedal. It was easy to watch the air bubbles in the plastic tube turn into a solid stream of fluid without causing any mess!
Cut the pieces to length for the windshield frame. We had earlier had a machine shop slice a 1/2" by 1" rectangular steel tubing down the 1" side. The original frame that held the glass was badly rusted. However, the flange that screws onto the pipe frame was salvageable. So, using the original frame as a pattern we welded the glass holding frame pieces together. (Discovered that the angle that the windshild slopes up to the center of the frame is 85 degrees. We then cut the flange pieces off of the existing whole frame and then welded the new glass holding frame to them. We put the frame back together for attaching to the outside pipe frame as it was originally done. I'll be taking the frame to the stripper for cleaning next week than back to have some epoxy filler applied to smooth out the rough spots before taking it to the painter.
Attached are some pictures of this process. (By the way, I have a complete set of uncut window holding frames that have not been cut to length. If there's anyone out there who needs a set for a F8 or C8, please let me know.)
Installed the remainder of the grease fittings and greased the truck.
Bolted the rebuilt transmission to the engine. This transmission was finished earlier this week. We'll be painting it on Day 104 for installation in the truck on Day 106.
Lately, the weather has cooled down nicely, days running right around 100 F; nights have been right around 75 F. Down right balmy!
That's it for now!
Regards,
Jim