kishy's 1985 Country Squire

[DerekTheGreat]

Yeah that's what that house had going on. New house is mid 50's construction but not sure if the kitchen is mostly original or the whole house for that matter. But from the old experience I vowed against crawl spaces. That and being close to neighbors. While doing the rear brakes on the new truck I got to witness a battle royale between wife & husband across the street. That was fun. Reminded me I need a radio for the garage and am happy our house sits in the middle of a double lot.

[kishy]

60 degree day = progress!

Dash is back on. While it was down, I took apart all the ducting and cleaned it...it was really gross. Also took the radio out, which needs to be inspected to find out why it doesn't work. I'm still not convinced this car was never substantially underwater. It would explain what seems to be an even layer of lake sediment all over everything, even surfaces that don't normally collect dust like inside the dash.

Scraped the urethane off the new/used windshield, getting it ready. Became aware that I may have used non-sealing primer for the surface, in many places bare metal, where the urethane must go. Played it safe and coated it with a sealing primer. Do not want any more rust than necessary and the gap around the windshield is a bad spot for moisture accumulation. After a couple hours of letting that dry while doing other stuff, I test fitted the glass to line up the plastic feet that go below it for alignment.

While trying to think of "might-as-wells" to do while the glass is still out, I checked the functionality of the autolamps. They're stuck on. The photo eye thing seems to be stuck, and since it's solid state, that isn't really correctable. Became quite distracted looking for my spare, because I have one, but did not successfully find it. Returned to the car deciding to put the glass in anyway and worry about autolamp sensor screws later (1/4" wrench and a bit works), but noticed a spot that needed more primer, so did that. This reset the countdown to glass install yet again, so that got pushed out of the schedule tonight.

Became aware that "medium" and "low" speeds on the HVAC blower are the same speed. Suspected resistor, swapped with spare, same result. Suspected switch, swapped with spare, same result. I dunno. This needs to work before it can pass safety but we're a ways out from that still.

Remembered mousies in the overflow box...decided I didn't care enough to deal with them tonight.

Note to self: reconnect the heater core before running engine to move car out of garage.

[DerekTheGreat]

Open up that radio, it'll tell you if it's been underwater. I mean it could've been replaced but I'm betting your car never took a dive. Didn't that car come from a dusty area? I've seen grit like that up in dashes, usually on trucks but people use wagons like trucks and if a dude or dudette prefers to drive with the windows down or leave the windows open, there ya have it.

[kishy]

Open up that radio, it'll tell you if it's been underwater. I mean it could've been replaced but I'm betting your car never took a dive. Didn't that car come from a dusty area? I've seen grit like that up in dashes, usually on trucks but people use wagons like trucks and if a dude or dudette prefers to drive with the windows down or leave the windows open, there ya have it.

Well, there's also the algae on various exterior surfaces. Haven't found any on the interior though.

Dirt roads, yes. So it's possible. I will be opening the radio; I'm hoping it can be salvaged because it's a kind of cool 90s Blaupunkt unit (Lexington, like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/262974545965) and has aux-in. All it does is light up, no screen display or anything else.

Also, revised note to self: do not reconnect the heater core. Bypass it and thoroughly flush rest of system before connecting new core. That's thinking with my brain...

[sly]

the autolamp sensor seems to need outside light. My lights in my garage (and I have some bright ones) don't seem to be enough to shut off the autolamps.

[DerekTheGreat]

Wasn't it sitting under a tree or really close to one? That'll do it. You should see cars in Seattle, moss & such grows on stuff that sits very quickly. I'd still live out there though, I didn't see one krispy wheel lip in my time spent out there.

X2 on the autolamp thing. I can get them to shut off with my cell phone light but it has to be aimed perfectly and on at maximum brightness. I've played with the adjustment dial thingy too. That was a mistake. If I had to do it again I'd leave the dashpad off until I got it perfect. But adjusting it so that the lights came on at dusk in the rain meant they'd also come on when pulling in a gas station in broad, bright sunlight.

[gadget73]

The autolamp sensor in the Conti was dead too, lights would never come on though. I replaced it with an NOS one I found cheap, works fine but IMO it needs a slight tweak to the sensitivity. I'd like them to come on a little bit sooner. Its basically full dark before they operate, dark enough that you kinda want some light.

[kishy]

Well...windshield is in.
I'm pretty sure I didn't use a "correct" amount of urethane, but I'm also pretty confident it's not going anywhere. I did use a V-shaped bead, just a bit too small. Top and sides I'm satisfied with, it's the bottom where I used the same size bead as the rest but it seems like it may have benefited from more, as evidenced by the fact the glass is very very close to the mating surface. Oh well.

I'm pretty sure it's going to look recessed relative to the trim, but this is not exactly a show car, so again...oh well.

Weather is forecast to be colder over the next few days, so the 70 degrees today was a welcome thing. Once I leak test the windshield and verify it's good, it can trade places with the Lincoln so that can get its exhaust.

The priority wagon project thereafter (months out, looks like) will be brakes, so I can actually move it around without counting on the sticky drum to bring it to a stop or being unnecessarily mean to the transmission. I do want it road-ready this summer, but we'll see.

Oh yeah, and that air caulk gun was money well spent. I'll definitely be using that for other projects around the house. Such a simple tool but a really handy one.

[DerekTheGreat]

The autolamp sensor in the Conti was dead too, lights would never come on though. I replaced it with an NOS one I found cheap, works fine but IMO it needs a slight tweak to the sensitivity. I'd like them to come on a little bit sooner. Its basically full dark before they operate, dark enough that you kinda want some light.

Is it the same one as found on boxes? Those are adjustable, but from what I remember they're very sensitive. Something like 1/8 of a turn will make a drastic difference when they come on or off. I only futzed with mine for an evening before putting it back the way it was. Made them too sensitive, on a bright sunny day they'd come on when I pulled into gas stations..

[gadget73]

It is, same sensor they used on everything. The one I installed was supposed to be for a T-bird so maybe the factory setting was a tad different. I was figuring I'd make a mark on it and tweak it a teeny bit to see if anything changed. It doesn't bother me enough to pull the dash just to tweak it but the next time I have it off for something, I plan to make a trial adjustment.

[DerekTheGreat]

Yeah, leave the dash pad off is possible. If you're like me it'll take days before you get it right & to your liking. One thing I haven't figured out is if the auto off delay also plays into the auto on part of it. If it does, that's certainly something to keep in mind when adjusting it..

[kishy]

The thing is actually marked on the side that a certain amount of that adjustment, I think 1/8 turn, extends the timer by 15 minutes (!!!)

Never got around to leak-testing the windshield, which is pretty sad on my part since it's been a virtual monsoon outside since Friday night and it would have been quite easy to do. Soon™.

[kishy]

Annnnnnd the windshield leaks.
The bottom edge that I thought for sure would be an issue, is not. The top is fine all along, as is the passenger A-pillar. The driver A-pillar has a pinhole leak...it only seeps through, even with high water pressure directed right at it...right at the point where the pinch weld changes height (where the wagon roof is grafted onto the A-pillars with aforementioned terrible body work).

Since the urethane layer is quite thin, I'm very confident I would damage the windshield getting it back out again. I'm thinking my best option is to apply more urethane to try to plug up wherever the water is entering (it isn't visibly obvious). If it fails, the glass has to come out anyway...but I'd rather avoid that. Thoughts?

I have since become aware that these cars used butyl tape from the factory, hence the difference in depth in the channel. I didn't know how to recognize one vs the other before, but I'm now pretty confident what I cut through on the junkyard car was the butyl stuff.

Also: I discovered that water is pooling in the blower motor cavity due to entering around/under the intake grate. I'm not sure how that's supposed to drain but am hoping I can rectify it without basically re-doing the heater core job. The drain from the inside was cleared out when I had it apart, so the issue is in the outside half of the system.

[GM_Guy]

Butyl usually is harder, the outer skinned layer is usually very tough to hardened, if you dig out a piece and roll it in your fingers, it'll leave behind black tarry like stains. As it ages, it can lose sticktion and you can get a window out with minimal effort. Urethane is by far superior and will hold long after butyl has harnded and lost its bond. Also less leaks. than butyl.

[kishy]

Butyl usually is harder, the outer skinned layer is usually very tough to hardened, if you dig out a piece and roll it in your fingers, it'll leave behind black tarry like stains. As it ages, it can lose sticktion and you can get a window out with minimal effort. Urethane is by far superior and will hold long after butyl has harnded and lost its bond. Also less leaks. than butyl.

Yep, the stuff on the replacement windshield was like that. Plus it had a string embedded in it around the whole thing which I think is characteristic of that product also. It left wonderful stains in the Lincoln which I used to transport it, and my hands were very black and sticky. It was not hard to cut through, though.