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1963 Fairlane FrontEnd rebuild
I need to rebuild the frontend on my Fairlane, one of the greasefittings around the driverside upper balljoint is 3/4ths gone, at this point I am hoping I haven't permantly ruined anything that is hard to replace.
What parts do I need to buy? What company has the better Value parts? I am not looking for the most expensive, just those that will keep my car in good shape for years to come.
What all should I replace while I am replacing the upper ball joints? I am presuming I should replace both uppers and Lowers at the same time...Any other parts I should be aware of?
Will I need any special tools for the repair? I am probably going to put the frontend on myself, and then have Dscount Tire take care of adjusting the alignment when I buy new tires...
Which brings me to rims, I need 1-3 new 13" five hole rims...anybody have some good ones lying around from when they went to customs?
Are there any tutorials/guides/walkthroughs that I can look at, either online or in magazines that will be of aide in this rebuild? I have the 1963 supplement manual, and the 1962 manual is in the mail.
Heres a little history of the car:
I bought the car through Ebay in Dallas Texas, took the train form Tucson AZ to Texas, then drove the car back to Tucson including an extra 1000 miles of visiting my family during my vacation leave. The car needed nothing more then a new battery and new cables, though it is now known that only the cables were bad. It made it to Arizona on the tires that were on it, I had to replace on in Springerville AZ as it was going low, but it made it to the shop no problem...two layers of radials were shoing on the tire...thinnest rubber I have ever felt. I then had to replace a second tire once I got to by dad's near prescottValley, and when I asked the tire shop to fix the tire, they took it off and asked me exactly what it was I wanted them to do with it....the tire had lost an inch width of tread 3/4 around the tire. it unfortunately has had the odometer removed, so I only know I have driven it roughly 2500 miles since purchasing it.
It is a four door,m Straight Six 200 CID, doesn't burn oil, Very good mileage for a 41 year old 3500 lb boat (20mpg or so). Someone was obviously very busy rebuilding it before they donated it to the service that Iauctioned it off, as the floorboards have all been replaced, nevermind the new ones were put in with pop rivets. the seats have new seatcovers, the headliner has been redone, the engine perhaps rebuilt...unfortunately someone painted it Chevy orange, THE NERVE!!!
The engine does have a problem in that the rear two bolts on the manifold are missing, and the brackets on the block for the rear is also broken...If I keep the block, I will have to find a welder to build a new bracket, which doesn't sound cheap...The manifold itself has hairline fractures, mostly due to the missing bolts not supporting the back end of the exhaust manifold. I will also have to replace the manifold gaskets.
So far, I am rather pleased with my car...it made it this far!
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