We hooked up the battery, fired up the engine, slide the car into gear and....
IT LIVEEESSSS!!!!!
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Baby's First Steps
Once the master cylinder was back in the car it was around 10 pm and completely dark, the car slide into gear and there was only one thing left to do: see if it would move under it's own power. I still hadn't diagnosed or fixed the throttle stick/high idle but I wasn't worried about it for a little ride around the backyard.
We hooked up the battery, fired up the engine, slide the car into gear and....
We hooked up the battery, fired up the engine, slide the car into gear and....
Clutch Master Rebuild
Finally got the inside piston out of the master cylinder today. I had let it soak in PB'Laster for around 12 hours while I was at work but when I got home all the fluid was still sitting in the seal, it obviously hadn't penetrated the rust seal. So I got the idea of trying to put air-pressure behind the seal from behind to try and blow the piston out, I figured it's not letting fluid in so the air-pressure should build and knock it loose.
That didn't really work, even with the top sealed with duck tape and a seal around where I was forcing the air in. I put a piece of wood between the cylinder and the ground and banged it on there, that didn't work so I resorted to shielding the metal with another piece of wood and hit it with my big-ass hammer, still no movement. I sprayed in more PB'Laster and then sprayed air in to see if it bubbled, that meant the air was leaking out. It bubbled up a little at first but slowly bubbled over. Then I got the idea that if I was seeing bubbles that meant something was replacing the air in back of the seal, namely the PB'Laster. So I'd pump the air for a second let the bubbles stop, then pumped again. I got enough PB behind the seal and let it sit for a little while, this time when I banged the valve end (open end where the clutch pedal pushes) against the wood the piston finally moved. A few more bangs and the piston came out.
That didn't really work, even with the top sealed with duck tape and a seal around where I was forcing the air in. I put a piece of wood between the cylinder and the ground and banged it on there, that didn't work so I resorted to shielding the metal with another piece of wood and hit it with my big-ass hammer, still no movement. I sprayed in more PB'Laster and then sprayed air in to see if it bubbled, that meant the air was leaking out. It bubbled up a little at first but slowly bubbled over. Then I got the idea that if I was seeing bubbles that meant something was replacing the air in back of the seal, namely the PB'Laster. So I'd pump the air for a second let the bubbles stop, then pumped again. I got enough PB behind the seal and let it sit for a little while, this time when I banged the valve end (open end where the clutch pedal pushes) against the wood the piston finally moved. A few more bangs and the piston came out.
In the first picture you can see what the piston looked like before I did anything to it other than pull it out. Once it was out though I took it apart as much as I could, into about 3 or 4 pieces big pieces and started to remove the rubber seals that were basically sponge after years of dry rot and brake cleaner soaking. Once all the rubber was off I removed the plastic pinch cap from the back end of the piston, if the rubber there was solid it would have had to come off first. After all the rubber and plastic was off I took the wire-brush Dremel head to all the metal and removed a ton of surface rust from the guiding rod and other components that had caused such a problem in removing the piston. Once I was content all the parts were as clean as they were going to get I rebuilt the whole piston, new rubber boots and the tiny metal waster that goes under the pinch cap.
Then I turned my attention to cylinder itself, the cap was destroyed from all the grabbing it with pliers so I ground down the rough spots and smoothed out the edge. I wire-brushed the whole surface, bottom, and threads cleaning off the brake fluid that had turned to glue and sealed it so tightly. Once the top was cleaned I covered the threads, bottom, and holes with painters tape and then clear coated the surfaces that would be exposed to air. The actual cylinder got a similar treatment with the wire-brush cleaning and polishing the surface and then clear-coating the exposed parts to prevent more corrosion.
Then we built out own extended sanding rod and attached it to the drill to clean out the inside of the cylinder. If you're going to attempt this be very careful because if you mess up the seal inside the whole thing is just scrap alloy. We wrapped 1000 grit sandpaper on a drill-bit wrapped in duck tape. The paper wasn't held on tight, we counted on the paper trying to unwrap to do all the real work.
To clean out all the dust we'd created with the sandpaper I improvised a barrel cleaner with a screwdriver, duck-tape and a paper towel.
Quick spray of brake cleaner inside to get anything else in there, then we liberally greased up the piston with red brake grease and slide it back into the cylinder. Once it was in I screwed on the lid (complete with new rubber seal) and the hydraulic line to do a bench test that it would pump fluid. At first we had issues getting it to put out fluid, but once we primed the output end it sprayed like a champ.
So the master cylinder was finished and ready to go back into the car. A severely skinned and cramped hand later the cylinder was back in, with the new boot, the push rod was reattached to the clutch pedal and to the master cylinder. We bleed the clutch and now it had feeling, the car slide right into gear.
Monday, June 24, 2013
New (Looking) Seats
While I was working on the clutch I had 20 minutes of down time per cycle while the heat gun was heating or the cylinder was cooling. I used this down time to start refurbishing/refinishing one of my seats.
I unbolted the seat from the car, slide it off the rails and removed it. I at first thought I was just going to take off the cushions, clean them, clean the vinyl, and clean the fiberglass and just glue it back together. However when I got the cushions off they were falling apart from dry-rot, the foam was almost entirely dust and flat, both the foam and fabric had mildew. Needless to say that would have to be entirely replaced.
While they were off I refinished the rails and supports that go underneath the seat that both support the weight of the passenger but also allow the seat to adjust. Like everything else of the car they had a pretty decent layer of surface rust but it was no match for the Dremel. The rails got sanded severely, WD-40, and a vicious rub down for any burs or imperfections in the slide action. The moment I was content with the smoothness of the rail piece it was clear coated. The rails were aluminum so if you want them to keep their luster from a polishing you have to clear coat them to keep the air from oxidizing the metal. The support member got sanded, wire-brushed and repainted solid black with a top clear coat. Once it was all dry I reassembled the whole bottom assembly, added dabs of grease to lubricate the action and set it aside to wait for the finished chair.
I sat down and for the 2 hours that I was temperature cycling the clutch cylinder I scrubbed the seat vinyl with a toothbrush and a generous amount of Soft Scrub. This worked really really well and after I was done I sprayed on and rubbed in some leather cleaner/conditioner and the seat looked brand new.
I had already pulled out the cushions so I disassembled them to see how they were put together so we could imitate it. One trip to Joann fabrics yielded enough new foam and upholstery fabric for both seats. I figured since I was replacing the fabric I should do it with a material and color that I liked better than the burgundy/brown color that was there before. I ended up picking a beige/tan color that contrasts well with the brown vinyl on the seats.
My mother sewed the ribbing into the fabric that was one the old cushions to give them a little bit of personality, I will not pretend to have done much for the cushion reupholstering because my mother was much better at it and I wanted the best final product. I cut the foam and backing board to fit the seat, spray adhesive to stick the foam pieces together, scotch guarded and glued on the fabric top. After that dried I sprayed, wrapped, and tightened the fabric around to the bottom of the cushion. Then we glued the backing board on the very top layer of the back of the cushion. Once that dried they were glued into the seat, we added back the three buttons in the top for a little extra flair and the seat was done. I'm very pleased with the finished product, especially since it cost in all about $50 to entirely redo the cushion, clean the vinyl, and clean the rails.
I unbolted the seat from the car, slide it off the rails and removed it. I at first thought I was just going to take off the cushions, clean them, clean the vinyl, and clean the fiberglass and just glue it back together. However when I got the cushions off they were falling apart from dry-rot, the foam was almost entirely dust and flat, both the foam and fabric had mildew. Needless to say that would have to be entirely replaced.
While they were off I refinished the rails and supports that go underneath the seat that both support the weight of the passenger but also allow the seat to adjust. Like everything else of the car they had a pretty decent layer of surface rust but it was no match for the Dremel. The rails got sanded severely, WD-40, and a vicious rub down for any burs or imperfections in the slide action. The moment I was content with the smoothness of the rail piece it was clear coated. The rails were aluminum so if you want them to keep their luster from a polishing you have to clear coat them to keep the air from oxidizing the metal. The support member got sanded, wire-brushed and repainted solid black with a top clear coat. Once it was all dry I reassembled the whole bottom assembly, added dabs of grease to lubricate the action and set it aside to wait for the finished chair.
I sat down and for the 2 hours that I was temperature cycling the clutch cylinder I scrubbed the seat vinyl with a toothbrush and a generous amount of Soft Scrub. This worked really really well and after I was done I sprayed on and rubbed in some leather cleaner/conditioner and the seat looked brand new.
I had already pulled out the cushions so I disassembled them to see how they were put together so we could imitate it. One trip to Joann fabrics yielded enough new foam and upholstery fabric for both seats. I figured since I was replacing the fabric I should do it with a material and color that I liked better than the burgundy/brown color that was there before. I ended up picking a beige/tan color that contrasts well with the brown vinyl on the seats.
My mother sewed the ribbing into the fabric that was one the old cushions to give them a little bit of personality, I will not pretend to have done much for the cushion reupholstering because my mother was much better at it and I wanted the best final product. I cut the foam and backing board to fit the seat, spray adhesive to stick the foam pieces together, scotch guarded and glued on the fabric top. After that dried I sprayed, wrapped, and tightened the fabric around to the bottom of the cushion. Then we glued the backing board on the very top layer of the back of the cushion. Once that dried they were glued into the seat, we added back the three buttons in the top for a little extra flair and the seat was done. I'm very pleased with the finished product, especially since it cost in all about $50 to entirely redo the cushion, clean the vinyl, and clean the rails.
Clutch Cap Removal
My goal for this weekend was to get the clutch master cylinder apart. After 24+ hours of soaking in the PB'laster the cap wasn't any looser so I tried to soak it in brake fluid, brake fluid is pretty corrosive so I was hoping that it would corrode or revitalize the crystallized brake fluid that was gluing the cap stuck. No luck there either. We threw the whole cylinder in a vice, nailed the vice down to prevent slipping and cranked on it with a pair of channel-lock pliers. Still no movement. So we tried an old mechanic trick to breaking loose rusty parts: temperature cycling.
The idea is that metals (like all matter) expand at higher temperatures, so you heat the metal so that the hole opens up more and you can break the piece loose. I cycled the cylinder by letting it air cool a little after it got blasted by the heat gun (at up to 1300 degrees Fahrenheit) then dunked it in warm water in an attempt to quickly contract the expanded metal to break the oxidization loose. After three or four rounds of 15 minutes of heating, then 5 of air cooling then dunking it in the water, I left the heat gun on the cylinder for 45 minutes, grabbed it with a pair of pliers and dunked the cylinder body only in the water , making sure to keep the cap out (I would not recommend this unless all else fails, the temperature shock can crack or shatter the metal you're working with).
After it cooled in the water for a few seconds I threw it on the vice, tightened down on the cap and turned. Finally I got some movement, a few more cranks and it was loose enough to remove with just my fingers (after cooling the cap of course).
I left the cap off and soaked/sprayed the whole cylinder with brake cleaner and set it aside to break down anything inside so when I go to rebuild it I won't damage it when pulling out the push-rod.
After it cooled in the water for a few seconds I threw it on the vice, tightened down on the cap and turned. Finally I got some movement, a few more cranks and it was loose enough to remove with just my fingers (after cooling the cap of course).
I left the cap off and soaked/sprayed the whole cylinder with brake cleaner and set it aside to break down anything inside so when I go to rebuild it I won't damage it when pulling out the push-rod.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Clutch Continued
Today I managed, after a considerable effort, to remove the clutch master cylinder from the car. The cylinder seems to be something of a weak spot for Sonetts because everyone seems to have issues.
So here's what the master cylinder and accessories looks like:
I found out why the cylinder isn't delivering any fluid to the slave and transmission....
There's your problem, unfortunately I wasn't able to get the cap off my cylinder so I soaked it in PB'Laster in attempt to break some of the corrosion. I scrapped out the crud clogging the hole so the PB could really get in there. Still no luck though regardless of how hard I tugged on the cap with pliers it will not come loose. Im leaving it soaking in the PB overnight and I'm gonna keep looking for tricks online for removing that cap.
If I cant find anything Im gonna have to send it off to get refurbished for 230 frikken bucks,not including shipping. I really don't want to do that.
So here's what the master cylinder and accessories looks like:
I found out why the cylinder isn't delivering any fluid to the slave and transmission....
There's your problem, unfortunately I wasn't able to get the cap off my cylinder so I soaked it in PB'Laster in attempt to break some of the corrosion. I scrapped out the crud clogging the hole so the PB could really get in there. Still no luck though regardless of how hard I tugged on the cap with pliers it will not come loose. Im leaving it soaking in the PB overnight and I'm gonna keep looking for tricks online for removing that cap.
If I cant find anything Im gonna have to send it off to get refurbished for 230 frikken bucks,not including shipping. I really don't want to do that.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Junkyard Clean-Up
Today I spent a few hours cleaning up the parts I got from Tim at the junkyard yesterday. The Dremel's wire brush was my best friend, that thing eats rust. A good portion of the stuff just needed a good wash but most needed heavy surface rust removal. I even got a sun visor from my trip to the junkyard and it got the same cleaning treatment as the earlier vinyl, the crossbar got sanded and repainted too.
Here are some side-by-side's and other before and afters. Lots of paint and clear coat, lots of WD-40, lots of Dremel.
Here are some side-by-side's and other before and afters. Lots of paint and clear coat, lots of WD-40, lots of Dremel.
SAAB Boneyard
After some research I came across Tim Nines, an ex dirt-track racer who drove... You guessed it: a SAAB Sonett. Apparently back in the day he was quite the force to be reckoned with, he claims to have been classed up at the track until he was racing all-american V8s, and winning...
Who knows if that's actually true but it's a good story. The important part is that after years of racing and modifying Sonetts he's a bit of a specialist and on the phone said he had 20-25 Sonetts in various conditions I could come pick for parts.
My lovely girlfriend drove me out to him and I was blown away, he said he had a lot of old SAAB's and he wasn't kidding. He had probably more than 25 sonnets scattered across his property. I spent hours and scavenged what parts I needed. When I had what I needed I paid what I think would considered "retail", in other words it wasn't cheap. But he's kind of got a monopoly on the market, I even got a replacement for my cracked windshield.
I haggled my price and promised Tim to bring Svettlana by when she was done.
Who knows if that's actually true but it's a good story. The important part is that after years of racing and modifying Sonetts he's a bit of a specialist and on the phone said he had 20-25 Sonetts in various conditions I could come pick for parts.
My lovely girlfriend drove me out to him and I was blown away, he said he had a lot of old SAAB's and he wasn't kidding. He had probably more than 25 sonnets scattered across his property. I spent hours and scavenged what parts I needed. When I had what I needed I paid what I think would considered "retail", in other words it wasn't cheap. But he's kind of got a monopoly on the market, I even got a replacement for my cracked windshield.
I haggled my price and promised Tim to bring Svettlana by when she was done.
dos louvers
Clutch Stuck, Well F**K
Right now the Sonnet cant be put in gear, the clutch is light as air, pumping the pedal has no effect on the fluid in the lines. There is fluid moving through the lines without blockage. "Well how do you know that?" easy, cause my dumbass friend sucked DOT3 through the clutch line into his mouth.
After a little research the general thought is that the clutch master cylinder has locked up due to a dry rotted rubber grommet letting dirt/dust/water in. So the next step is getting the master cylinder out and waiting for the rebuild kit I ordered.
That's of course easier said than done, the master is attached to the firewall, way back in the engine compartment and is beyond difficult to reach, much less get any leverage on. As usual, thanks for the convenience SAAB...
Tim at the junkyard just saws a trapezoidal hole to reach the master cylinder (its a rather common problem) but I'm trying to not cut the frame.
After a little research the general thought is that the clutch master cylinder has locked up due to a dry rotted rubber grommet letting dirt/dust/water in. So the next step is getting the master cylinder out and waiting for the rebuild kit I ordered.
That's of course easier said than done, the master is attached to the firewall, way back in the engine compartment and is beyond difficult to reach, much less get any leverage on. As usual, thanks for the convenience SAAB...
Tim at the junkyard just saws a trapezoidal hole to reach the master cylinder (its a rather common problem) but I'm trying to not cut the frame.
Starting My Engine
After all that work was done there was nothing else we could do, short of opening up the engine block, to prepare the car to start so we hooked on a battery and tried to start it.
The first few turns of the key nothing happened, sprays of starting fluid got us a few backfires then the engine coughed into life for a few seconds, soundly very sickly and died.
After a quick survey we discovered the spark-plug leads had been reconnected incorrectly, through nobodies fault because the layout of them makes zero sense to a sane person.
Which leads me to the best tip when working on a Sonnet: nothing makes sense. Ever. Just accept it.
Once that was fixed we tried again, this time the engine popped into life and began to backfire and spit burning hot globs of gasoline a solid 4 feet into the air out of the carburetor. Upon closer inspection we noted the carb was flooding.
We suspected a float issue, so the carb came off for rebuilding. I have a performance two-barrel Weber 32/36 DGV carburetor and ordered the appropriate rebuild kit. Took apart the lid and immediately discovered the problem, the float was glued to the bottom of the fuel bowl by a half-inch layer of crud.
Two cans of carb cleaner, a toothbrush, and the rebuild kit and I had a shiny clean rebuilt carburetor. I may have gotten a little carried away cleaning because I took off the throttle and choke linkage, but that actually ended up helping tremendously.
The carb had obviously been rebuilt previously and whoever had done it hadn't bothered to properly reattach the choke rod to the proper linkage, I reattached it along With the rest of the linkage and bolted the carb back on the car.
Now when we fired it up the engine absolutely roared into life, unfortunately a little too much roaring, for whatever reason the choke still isn't (this is now caught up to the present) fully engaging without somebody holding it. When its held down the car idles like it should. Still need to diagnose that issue.
The first few turns of the key nothing happened, sprays of starting fluid got us a few backfires then the engine coughed into life for a few seconds, soundly very sickly and died.
After a quick survey we discovered the spark-plug leads had been reconnected incorrectly, through nobodies fault because the layout of them makes zero sense to a sane person.
Which leads me to the best tip when working on a Sonnet: nothing makes sense. Ever. Just accept it.
Once that was fixed we tried again, this time the engine popped into life and began to backfire and spit burning hot globs of gasoline a solid 4 feet into the air out of the carburetor. Upon closer inspection we noted the carb was flooding.
We suspected a float issue, so the carb came off for rebuilding. I have a performance two-barrel Weber 32/36 DGV carburetor and ordered the appropriate rebuild kit. Took apart the lid and immediately discovered the problem, the float was glued to the bottom of the fuel bowl by a half-inch layer of crud.
Two cans of carb cleaner, a toothbrush, and the rebuild kit and I had a shiny clean rebuilt carburetor. I may have gotten a little carried away cleaning because I took off the throttle and choke linkage, but that actually ended up helping tremendously.
The carb had obviously been rebuilt previously and whoever had done it hadn't bothered to properly reattach the choke rod to the proper linkage, I reattached it along With the rest of the linkage and bolted the carb back on the car.
Now when we fired it up the engine absolutely roared into life, unfortunately a little too much roaring, for whatever reason the choke still isn't (this is now caught up to the present) fully engaging without somebody holding it. When its held down the car idles like it should. Still need to diagnose that issue.
Under the Hood
Well now that one end of the fuel system is done it makes sense to talk about the other end and the engine work I've done up to this point on the car.
First think I did was pop the valve covers off and examine them and the valves for rust. There was a little surface rust on both, you don't want to mess with the valves while they're still in the block. Certainly not when there's a chance of putting chunks of rust into the block, so I liberally applied some engine block cleaner being careful to wipe it off anything else it splashed onto.
PB'laster, a wire brush, and steel wool took care of the rust on the valve cover. After getting all the rust off I sprayed the surface with WD-40 rubbed it off then rubbed on a light coating of motor oil.
After 3-4 sprays of the engine block cleaner the valve covers went back on. I also cleaned (with a wire brush on the Dremel) and added the little chrome decorations to the stem bolts over the covers.
Picture of valve covers back on.
All the hoses in the engine compartment had steel mesh shielding on them with fancy water clamps from the previous restoration. While they were very pretty the hoses underneath the shielding had dry rotted and filled with crud and rust.
Once all the water lines were off we decided to flush the inside of the block, a good decision. The first blast of water cleared out enough dirt and rust to change the water to entirely brown bringing tons of crap with it. This is when we discovered one of the engine freeze tabs has rusted entirely through and was leaking.
So we removed the old tabs with a screwdriver and a hammer, replaced them adding some spray gasket to their seal and tapping them in tight with the hammer.
Picture of new tabs.
While the rubber hoses were off I had the rigid steel ones off as well. The ends of them were rusted through in places and sharp enough to cut the new rubber (and my fingers, tetanus shot FTW) so I cut off the rusted ends with the Dremel (just cut the new hoses a little longer), cleaned what I could of the rust from inside the pipes, flushed them, sanded off the old paint and then repainted them.
Picture of rigid pipes
I took out the old rusted water-pump, which was my first experience with SAAB's fascination with IMPOSSIBLE to reach bolts. The pump is threaded through the timing cover and bolted from the back plate through the timing cover holes into the water pump in a 5 bolt star. 4 of those bolts are pretty easy, but that 5th bolt took every bit of creative ratchet building.
The new pump, which is truly newly manufactured, was seated too long to fit in the slot. So we had to make a press with a socket and clamp but we compressed the impeller down to where it needed to be. Then with the same difficulty as taking it off, added gasket (both a cutout and from a tube) and bolted on the new water pump.
Picture of new pump on
While I was doing hoses I replaced all the flexible fuel line, added a new inline fuel filter and fuel pressure gauge.
Picture of fuel line
Next came an oil change, less to put oil in the system more to flush out the old crappy oil. The first half-second of oil drain was a pleasant surprise of golden clean oil immediately followed by brown to black sludge mixed with what can only be described as huge wads of snot/cum. I have no idea what the hell that substance was but I did my best to use the 10 quarts of oil I had, pipe cleaners, and a coat hanger to get as much of it out as possible, replaced the old oil filter and bolted back on the plug.
First think I did was pop the valve covers off and examine them and the valves for rust. There was a little surface rust on both, you don't want to mess with the valves while they're still in the block. Certainly not when there's a chance of putting chunks of rust into the block, so I liberally applied some engine block cleaner being careful to wipe it off anything else it splashed onto.
After 3-4 sprays of the engine block cleaner the valve covers went back on. I also cleaned (with a wire brush on the Dremel) and added the little chrome decorations to the stem bolts over the covers.
Picture of valve covers back on.
All the hoses in the engine compartment had steel mesh shielding on them with fancy water clamps from the previous restoration. While they were very pretty the hoses underneath the shielding had dry rotted and filled with crud and rust.
Once all the water lines were off we decided to flush the inside of the block, a good decision. The first blast of water cleared out enough dirt and rust to change the water to entirely brown bringing tons of crap with it. This is when we discovered one of the engine freeze tabs has rusted entirely through and was leaking.
So we removed the old tabs with a screwdriver and a hammer, replaced them adding some spray gasket to their seal and tapping them in tight with the hammer.
Picture of new tabs.
While the rubber hoses were off I had the rigid steel ones off as well. The ends of them were rusted through in places and sharp enough to cut the new rubber (and my fingers, tetanus shot FTW) so I cut off the rusted ends with the Dremel (just cut the new hoses a little longer), cleaned what I could of the rust from inside the pipes, flushed them, sanded off the old paint and then repainted them.
Picture of rigid pipes
I took out the old rusted water-pump, which was my first experience with SAAB's fascination with IMPOSSIBLE to reach bolts. The pump is threaded through the timing cover and bolted from the back plate through the timing cover holes into the water pump in a 5 bolt star. 4 of those bolts are pretty easy, but that 5th bolt took every bit of creative ratchet building.
The new pump, which is truly newly manufactured, was seated too long to fit in the slot. So we had to make a press with a socket and clamp but we compressed the impeller down to where it needed to be. Then with the same difficulty as taking it off, added gasket (both a cutout and from a tube) and bolted on the new water pump.
Picture of new pump on
While I was doing hoses I replaced all the flexible fuel line, added a new inline fuel filter and fuel pressure gauge.
Picture of fuel line
Next came an oil change, less to put oil in the system more to flush out the old crappy oil. The first half-second of oil drain was a pleasant surprise of golden clean oil immediately followed by brown to black sludge mixed with what can only be described as huge wads of snot/cum. I have no idea what the hell that substance was but I did my best to use the 10 quarts of oil I had, pipe cleaners, and a coat hanger to get as much of it out as possible, replaced the old oil filter and bolted back on the plug.
Vinyls
The interior panels and seats of the sonnet are upholstered with a brown vinyl. When I boight the car he had all the interior panels. They were just growing mildew and covered in dirt. A few hours of removing the vinyl from the backing, thoroughly cleaning the vinyl to kill the mildew and get off the dirt, then I cut new backing from some thin plywood I already had. Stapled the vinyl to the new backing and stored them away from the elements.
Monday, June 17, 2013
One Rusty Gas Hole
So onto the actual work I've done on the car.
One of the first things I did on the car was to pull out the gas tank to check it for rust. The gas tank in the Sonett is stored similarly to a fuel cell, its under the "swiss-cheese panel" behind the passenger compartment, held in by tensioning straps on the hatch side. I carefully removed those straps and then less carefully removed the gas tank, because holy hell was it jammed in there.
A cursory look into the tank revealed that it was coated inside with a solid layer of rust, not good. Any chunks of rust get in the fuel lines we've got a much bigger issue. So I tried several home remedies to remove the rust from the inside of the tank, an apple-cider vinegar bath, shaking rocks around inside the tank, I even tried my hand at electrolysis and they all worked to a degree. But they didn't work enough for me to be comfortable putting the tank back in the car so I caved and went professional. After some research I ordered a gas-tank restoration kit from KBS Coating for around $80.
The process for the KBS kit takes about 50+ hours depending on how thoroughly you need to treat the tank. The instructions are pretty clear and both the cleaning solution and rust cleaner/etcher both came out of the tank absolutely opaque with the rust they'd pulled off the tank so I'd say it works pretty well. Then of course came the sealant to coat the inside of the tank to cover any remaining rust and I messed this part up. Not severely, but if I did it again I would do it differently.
The kit gives you enough of each compound to supposedly treat up to a 25 gallon tank and the Sonett's tank is actually pretty large for such a small car, about 17 gallons. The cleaner (step 1) is diluted with water and you have plenty to soak each side of the tank, the rust remover/etcher (step 2) however they're pretty skimpy with,you only get 2 quarts and you cant dilute it, the seal (step 3) has the opposite problem though. It just needs a light coating on the walls of the tank, I ended up with too much in my tank and it didn't drain well which results in pooling and then bubbling.
Even with my error the tank was much much better than before the treatments and the seal covered the whole inside of the tank. I sanded off some of uneven paint on the tank which had caused the problem getting the tank out,and repainted it with my rust bonding black paint. We adjusted and installed the new fuel level sensor I'd ordered and then the tank was done.
Before the tank went back in the car I used my air-compressor to blow some WD-40 through the gas line until it came through clear of crud and unobstructed. Then we put the tank back into the car, replaced the fill and vent hoses that had dry-rotted then tightened down the tensioning straps.
Gas tank done.
One of the first things I did on the car was to pull out the gas tank to check it for rust. The gas tank in the Sonett is stored similarly to a fuel cell, its under the "swiss-cheese panel" behind the passenger compartment, held in by tensioning straps on the hatch side. I carefully removed those straps and then less carefully removed the gas tank, because holy hell was it jammed in there.
A cursory look into the tank revealed that it was coated inside with a solid layer of rust, not good. Any chunks of rust get in the fuel lines we've got a much bigger issue. So I tried several home remedies to remove the rust from the inside of the tank, an apple-cider vinegar bath, shaking rocks around inside the tank, I even tried my hand at electrolysis and they all worked to a degree. But they didn't work enough for me to be comfortable putting the tank back in the car so I caved and went professional. After some research I ordered a gas-tank restoration kit from KBS Coating for around $80.
The kit gives you enough of each compound to supposedly treat up to a 25 gallon tank and the Sonett's tank is actually pretty large for such a small car, about 17 gallons. The cleaner (step 1) is diluted with water and you have plenty to soak each side of the tank, the rust remover/etcher (step 2) however they're pretty skimpy with,you only get 2 quarts and you cant dilute it, the seal (step 3) has the opposite problem though. It just needs a light coating on the walls of the tank, I ended up with too much in my tank and it didn't drain well which results in pooling and then bubbling.
Even with my error the tank was much much better than before the treatments and the seal covered the whole inside of the tank. I sanded off some of uneven paint on the tank which had caused the problem getting the tank out,and repainted it with my rust bonding black paint. We adjusted and installed the new fuel level sensor I'd ordered and then the tank was done.
Before the tank went back in the car I used my air-compressor to blow some WD-40 through the gas line until it came through clear of crud and unobstructed. Then we put the tank back into the car, replaced the fill and vent hoses that had dry-rotted then tightened down the tensioning straps.
Gas tank done.
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