Picked up a 4 speed jetfire

[jensenracing77]

The paper on the window has an address and I googled it. Then compared it to the video that Ryan Brutt filmed of this car from where it had sit since 1974. Then compared it to the original picture. Also compared all that to the original 07-02-1962 title that I have. All the addresses match up and the street view for google matches the sidewalks from 1962. This car was at this house from July 1962 till July 2015. Driven 44,027 miles and parked in 1974 till 2015. If you look at the sidewalks in the 1962 picture above and compare that to the sidewalk at the end of the video like, it is the same style from the street.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5Zl-hdM40k&t=304s

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[jensenracing77]

I was able to get the original trunk mat out without destroying it. I took it out and cleaned it the best I could. It is stained up pretty bad but it is in good condition over all. Also detailed inside the trunk the best I could. This car is cleaning up so much nicer than I thought it would when I got it. I was also able to determine that the spare tire is the original also.

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[jensenracing77]

Made some progress on the interior. I had to spray the faded carpet and they turned out nice enough for me. I can not get the exact color for the carpet but it is close. I taped off the door seal area for a reference to the original color. The color is close but the original had a little more shine to it. It is MUCH better than it was. I have not touched the door panels yet and that is what the carpet looked like. I used SEM 15253 Titanium Metallic.

I included a picture of the difference between the rear panels that I cleaned with Goop hand cleaner and the front door panels I have not touched yet. The pictures show it ok but in person the difference is even bigger. The “Goop” hand cleaner cleans the tobacco tar off of vinyl great! It is messy so the parts need to be removed from the car but it is worth it.

I hope to have the front seats back in tomorrow and maybe pull the door panels and start on them.

I still can’t believe I was going to walk away from this car and not buy it. If it were not for my wife I would have walked away. She has a better eye than I do.

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[jensenracing77]

The lighting is off and I am not good at pictures but the lower door panels match the carpet now. I took them off and cleaned them up and sprayed the carpet section. I also polished the door handles and window cranks.

I am looking for a nice passenger side silver arm rest pad. Something that is real nice. The one on this car has a stain on it that will not come out. I have tried everything and it simply will not clean. I had to respray it with SEM silver but it don’t match well enough. I want to replace it if I can find a better one.

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[JimNoel]

Hi Eric,
If you need new armrest bases, they are cheap! Chevy people have reproduced and sell at many sites. Here is one for $35/pr http://www.lategreatchevy.com/full-size-chevy-armrest-bases-chrome-hardtop-or-convertible-impala-1962-1964.html#close
As for the top pads, I just recover them with the correct silver vinyl. It takes some spray glue and fitting, but they come out great. I have some silver vinyl if you want to try.
Jim

[jensenracing77]

Glad to see you are able to post here again Jim. I may take you up on the silver vinyl, I will see if I can find a good original first, I am not the greatest at this kind of work. My local places don’t have the correct color that I can find but I did think about it. Thanks for the link to the bases. I had the originals on the automatic car rechromed but it was $60 to have them done.

[jensenracing77]

I have the interior back together. I am pleased with how it turned out but I am not done with it. I still have to clean the headliner somehow and some more trim.

Ryan Brutt will be here Friday so I had to finish getting it together so he could see how it cleaned up. Ryan is the guy that found the car and put it in Hot Rod magazine. Not sure if he will do anything with my cars but I am going to take him around to a couple barn find cars in my area.

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[jensenracing77]

Had a great time today. Ryan stopped in and we hung out in the garage for a while then I took him to look at a 59 Corvette that was stuffed away many years ago. I rode in the car in the early 90s and not seen it since. On the way there Ryan spotted a 77 442 that I did not know was out across a field. I will look into that car soon. We then went to look at a 58,000 mile 71 Corvette 454 4 speed car. Had a great time and had me excited to work on this Jetfire when we got home and Ryan left.

For the Jetfire. I had cracked the porcelain on one of the spark plugs last Spring and they were all stuck. Almost every time I had the engine to operating temperature for the past year I would spray the spark plugs with Kroil penetrating oil. I tried to get them out again tonight and was able to get all 8 of them out. Was stuck real good but the heat cycles and the oil helped a lot.

Next for this car will be to get the turbo operational. The turbo will spool but I can not bring it to boost because of some valves that are goofed up. I want to get this turbo working but the pipe for the exhaust bypass is rusted out. Not sure if I will fix this turbo and replace the controller diaphragms or put the other turbo on it that Jim built for our automatic car. Either way, I have enough parts to rebuild the carb and all the other parts to the system.

[oaklyss]

Great job Eric. The interior looks fantastic. If the clock doesn’t work, they are very easy to fix. The only thing I would do different is I would have pulled the motor and rebuilt it. I would not take a chance. Keep up with documenting everything, it’s really helpful.

[jensenracing77]

lol, The clock is something that I almost always pull from my cars as soon as I get them to get working. I have not work on this one yet and my wife brought that up back in November. I already fixed the one in the automatic car long ago but for some reason have not touched this one.

I do plan to pull the engine and transmission out at some point but not yet. It would be easier to just pull the entire car apart and do it all at the same time but we are focused on paying off the house and only allowing the minimum money to go into this car at this time. Only money I can spend on it this year will likely be some kind of exhaust and possibly some tires. I may just run the old 13s from our automatic car this year. Other than that, it will be working on things that don’t cost much of anything and using what I have already collected. I am likely going to try to sell some of my extra stuff to help fund what I need.

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