IML: The Baron de '63, Guilty or Innocent

["Eric" <gearhead@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey Brandt,
I know that feeling. Its as if your car has been confiscated by the repair 
police. A couple of the reply messages came through in code so excuse any 
duplication of info as I couldn't read Paul's reply.
The voltage regulator is an easy swap out, not something you'd want to pay 
$65/hr for someone to do. Its up on the left front fender just rearwards of 
the battery. That'll save you a few bucks.
The power steering hoses are easy enough to replace on your own. One is high 
pressure and should be changed on principle alone, I think the quality of 
the other hose could be of less than heavy duty nature than the high 
pressure side, I might defer to the pro's on the list about that.
Brakes have been tackled by the novice with success. There is a good 
explaination of a dual braking circuit upgrade in the website which might be 
a timely thing to consider. If you keep it as a single circuit system, all 
rubber parts should be replaced, including the 3 flex hoses in the system, 2 
in front and one at the rear, and all the rubber parts in the master 
cylinder and wheel cylinders, unless they are known to be newly redone. 
Rebuild kits for the master and wheel cylinders used to be a common thing to 
get, it may be that parts houses are just selling the whole units nowadays. 
A brake cylinder honing stone tool mounted in a drill cleans up the existing 
cylinders if you can get the rebuild kits still. Getting a brake shoe spring 
tool at your local parts house makes the shoe replacement much easier, and 
the tool is relatively cheap. There are only a handful of parts involved in 
the front brakes. Keeping the spring positions and orientations are 
important, a digital camera is handy for that kind of tracking. The 
adjustment is simple after its all back together. The drums can be taken to 
Midas or the like and measured to see if they can be reused and checked for 
roundness, and then 'turned' if needed. A hand pump power bleeder is a handy 
tool, or the work partner w/the extra foot works just as well for a few 
dollars less. At least the system has been flushed out, thats one less 
mess-of-a-job to have to deal with.
If your shop says the rear drums are 'stuck', you'd do well to make bail to 
get it out of jail and find a shop that understands the pressed-on nature of 
them. Its been a recent thread on here of how to pull those, and a suitable 
puller is needed, or the driving/weaving slowly w/the rear axle nut slightly 
loosened is always an interesting proposition to get the drum out of it's 
interference fit.
The valve cover leaks would be simple enough to tackle on your own, just be 
sure to check for the flatness of the cover once it is off, using a flat 
surface to hammer them back to flat. After a good cleaning w/a wire brush on 
my drill to get the old gasket material off, and the old paint, I spray the 
covers with some primer then a couple of coats in the original 'old Chrysler 
blue' (aqua), available at my local parts house. I like to apply sealant to 
the covers first, then put the gasket on and let it set-up over night. This 
ensures that the gasket stays in place when I install it onto the head, 
sometimes they'll want to squish out of their proper seating when torqued 
down if the cover isn't flat and/or if the sealant isn't set-up dry to 
firmly hold the cork gasket in place, which then loses their seal. My 63's 
motor had a couple of valve cover studs w/rusted on nuts. I picked up 
original style studs w/nuts at my local parts house for a couple of bucks.
I'll agree with those that say $700 is worth the work involved. It saves 
time and gets the car back on the road and if something goes wrong, there is 
someone to hold to account. Because I'm a tightwad, though, I've learned 
that patience, persistance, and a stubborn bullheadedness (I seem to have an 
unlimited supply of the latter) often gets the job done for much less $$$ 
and provides an education and a good work out for free. The factory service 
manual is online and with that, most repairs are spelled out, just takes the 
time, space, and gumption. To compare the price, $200 in brake parts ( I 
could be off substantially), steering hoses for about $50, voltage regulator 
for about $30, $20 for the valve cover gaskets, and you're at your $300 
figure. In all, its a lot easier said than done, but not insurmountable.

Eric
'63 Crown Four-Door
'72 Newport Custom sedan
***********************************************************
Subject: IML: help!
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 09:04:21 -0800
From: "Brandt Daniels" <bdaniels@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hey Guys I got my 1963 Le Baron in the shop right now and theyre trying =
to fix everything on it. I tried to bleed the brakes on it. but ive =
never done it before even after reading up on it. I felt that brakes =
were a safety thing so i took it to the professionals. They flushed the =
brake system with new fluid. they said my front drums are done for and =
need new ones with the shoes. they havent even gotten the rear drums off =
they say theyre stuck. and they say i need a new voltage regulator and =
that has drained my battery so i might need a new one of those. they =
also say i have a heater hose on my p/s pump and need a suction hose of =
some sort. and also an oil leak because the valve covers werent on tight =
enough. they also patched a hole caused by a rusty nail in the right =
rear tire. help me save money! they told me about 700 for everthing i =
told em 300 MAX! any thoughts on this? how can i get my car out of the =
shop the cheapest? i feel like im trying to bail it from jail. 



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