Restoration of our 62 4 speed Jetfire

[62cutlassconvert]

The best to you and your wife Eric. Great perseverance on the car, looking really nice.

[jensenracing77]

Started cleaning the wire harnesses today. They cleaned up really well and nearly all the terminals had no corrosion. The very few that did, I pulled them apart to clean better. The engine side I think I will re tape. I don’t have any of the correct tape so I have that ordered.

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[jensenracing77]

I did replace the backup light wires in the harness with an NOS set I had. I also ordered a new positive battery cable for it from Lectric Limited. I hope it matches the original correct. So far, I do not believe I have any parts that are made in China going on the car. Maybe the radiator hose will be, I have not decided if I will use the new Fusick hose or my original.

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[jensenracing77]

Doing another batch of bolts and parts for zinc plating. I found some bolts that are better then some of the ones I already had done. I am tired of bead blasting but I have to do it. I had the plater guy look at the inspection cover and he said it was clear zinc plated. I knew it had to be plated somehow for it to not have rusted. I will get it replated also. The oil fill cap was also clear zinc before painted. This way the bottom side that don’t get paint is coated. I am also getting doubles of some parts plated so I can pick and choose what ones are best after done.

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[jensenracing77]

I have been buying all the vintage magazines I can that have images of the Jetfire to figure out what colors are correct for hardware and bolts. Most images are black and white but still get a feel of what they are. Lately I have been trying to decide on the radiator color and found this picture. In this picture, the radiator looks closer to the fluid tank and air cleaner than the radiator hold down. I also polished a spot on the radiator and it sure looks gloss to me. I sprayed a little gloss from a dupli color rattle can and compared it tot he spot I polished and looks the same. I believe I am going with the gloss radiator.

I also see that most of the original bolts and flat washers are zinc and in the color pictures I got from the Heritage center, most of the lock washers are phosphate. The radiator hold down bolts are phosphate though. I have also found pictures where the float unit in the TRF tank is zinc and also some pictures where it is phosphate. Mine is phosphate on my car so that what I am going with.

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[jensenracing77]

The harness that stretches under the hood is simply not going to do for this car. I cleaned it but it just is not good enough. I decided to retape the entire thing. I got some harness tape for it and also so high heat harness tape for where it runs under the turbo. The original high heat tape is a gooey mess from oil penetrating it. I am pulling all of it off and starting over. I stripped some of the tape off and wrapped each joint with blue tape to keep them in the proper arrangement. I will pull the blue tape off as I tape it all back together with the proper non adhesive wire harness tape. Hope to finish this tomorrow.

Also taking some shifter parts to a machinist tomorrow. Going to make a new rod that slides back and forth and make custom pins to tighten it up some.

Took 15 lbs of more bolts and hardware to be zinc plated. Some of the last batch went bad in storage and found another place I am trying. They explained what had happened to my last batch from the other place and how they can prevent that from happening. We will have to see. They are twice the price so it had better good.

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[jensenracing77]

I was mistaken, They used the high heat tape for the wire harness where it runs behind the heater box to the engine. Along the valve cover under the turbo is regular wire harness tape. Not really sure why they decided to not use the high heat tape near the turbo. That part of the harness tape was hard as a rock.

I got all the main harness re-taped for under the hood. I am not re-taping anything inside the car.

I had to order some new terminals for the headlight sockets. I thought I had taken all of them apart before but found that I missed the driver side headlight and parking light socket. These terminals were really bad.

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[jensenracing77]

This is why every plug needs to come apart when restoring a car. two of them cleaned up nice but the others have to be replaced. I have the correct ones coming and the proper crimp tool for this style crimp.

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[graytoad]

Hey Eric, looks like you are doing a super job. I have never restored a car to ‘concours’ quality and our 63 will not be truly concours either but I will be closer than any car we have done in the past and I will do what I can to have it appear as correct as I can. I am wondering where you get the ‘proper’ type of harness tapes? You said somewhere it is ‘non adhesive’. How do you keep it from unraveling?

[jensenracing77]

Wire harness tape has no adhesive on it. It just stretches into place as you wrap it around the wiring. It clings to itself well when it is slightly stretched. The difficult part is tying it off when you get to the end. This video helps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCDNB7bCnn4

and this video is super cool to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MehjltOq-jc

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