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68 RM23 Roadrunner, The rebuild of an old friend

Heater box ready to go back in, just waiting on the proper core. 4 weeks out :wtf:.

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Shucked down the steering column today. Do any of you guys know what the small square piece is / is for on the collapsible part of the outer tube? Never seen anything like it before.

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Runner 68 said:
Heater box ready to go back in, just waiting on the proper core. 4 weeks out :wtf:.

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Shucked down the steering column today. Do any of you guys know what the small square piece is / is for on the collapsible part of the outer tube? Never seen anything like it before.

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That little square piece is a nylon (I think) spacer to keep the shaft centered in the tube. There were 3 of them originally. Actually very rare to find them still on the car. They were not reproduced until a member here made a batch a couple years ago. I bought a set for all 3 of my cars. Are they really needed? Probably not. I'll grab some pics when I get out to the garage.
 
Found a couple pics on my computer. Looks like I used 4 on mine.

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All prepped to stab the driver side glass in the morning with the expert help of my youngest son.
It's sure to be a cuss filled - paint chip avoiding morning.

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Driver side glass in. Fit and adjusted pretty well for repo glass. Not as smooth as the passenger side OEM glass however.

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8 inches of snow today. Shoveling is good exercise but not as much fun as working on the car.
A ton of parts on order / back order. Some stuff comes as usual, other stuff always seems to be 2 months out.
Getting done what I can in the meantime.

Firm feel kit TIGed in and the K-Member all stiffened up. Will mock it up this weekend and a little more clean up then send it of for powder coat. Farting around with re-assembling the steering column (what a puzzle) and various dash parts.
Cleaned up the slider dash ash-tray. Back in the day I had hacked the old one out to install a power booster for the stereo. Pretty cool then, not so cool now. I found a replacement about 15 years ago as I knew I would need it. ~$10 if I recall correctly. Pretty tough to find these days.

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Column ready to go back in. Note the obscure clips Elk. I think they are really meant to help center the intermediate column during mass production. Other than that I have no clue.

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Runner 68 said:
Column ready to go back in. Note the obscure clips Elk. I think they are really meant to help center the intermediate column during mass production. Other than that I have no clue.

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Looking good. Yeah, only thing I can think of as the clips do is keep everything centered. I have had a couple of columns that were bent bad enough that the inner tube was hitting the crush area. Suppose they could help with vibrating noise as well. I read somewhere that a lot of these cars got them, not just 68 models, but they must have been brittle and broke early in life, so it is rare to see an original. I believe Mr. Cranium had or has a car with them in as well.
Since you are going all in with things like those clips, you need to get the yellow painted number on your heater box. I have a stamp that you are welcome to borrow if it matters to you.
Edit, my stamp is for a 69 box and I am not sure it would be the same for your 68.

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hunt2elk said:
Looking good. Yeah, only thing I can think of as the clips do is keep everything centered. I have had a couple of columns that were bent bad enough that the inner tube was hitting the crush area. Suppose they could help with vibrating noise as well. I read somewhere that a lot of these cars got them, not just 68 models, but they must have been brittle and broke early in life, so it is rare to see an original. I believe Mr. Cranium had or has a car with them in as well.
Since you are going all in with things like those clips, you need to get the yellow painted number on your heater box. I have a stamp that you are welcome to borrow if it matters to you.
Edit, my stamp is for a 69 box and I am not sure it would be the same for your 68.

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Thanks for the offer Elk. I considered that as I blasted the original markings off that were still very visible. This car is so virgin that I sometimes question myself if I made the correct decision in not putting it back to concourse. It would have been easy. I have fun studying the pure originality of it. 95% of the original fasteners have been cleaned up and re-used. I saw that small survivor of a part and thanks to you hooking me up, I thought what the hell, it's a cool detail, that nobody will ever see. However this car is a very old friend.

When I purchased it in 1978 at 16 years old, it had been mildly hot rodded, we had a ton of fun together and we're damned lucky we didn't kill each other. I met it as a hot rod, drove it for many years as a hot rod, now I'm trying to build the coolest hot rod I can with modern parts, in the vision I have in my head. As my aging engine designer tells me, I'm a slave to the "look", and he's right.

Be sure, except for the frame rail connectors and torque boxes (which a hardtop truly needs as does 700 foot pounds of torque), I have not modified anything on this car that can't be put back to concourse if someone someday chooses to do so. They'll have to pry it from my sons hands first though. I have never looked at this hobby as an investment but more therapy.

I guess you could say I'm kind of the missing link in the resto-mod / purist debate. I appreciate both sides. Trust me when I say the concourse route would have definitely been cheaper.

Thanks again.
 
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Haven't posted in a while for those who care. Picked up a ton of parts over the past weekend. Waiting on a ton of back ordered parts. (Damned supply chain horse sh@t). It's getting better though from my perspective.
Working on the dash and will post pics when complete.

The highlight of the month is that my LCAs showed up from Phoenix Specialty Coatings today.

Simply superior work Leanna. Can't wait to see my valve covers.

Thanks!

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Still grinding away here working on several phases at once. Mainly wiring while waiting on several parts. Rolling assembly should be in, in a couple weeks, rims still 5 weeks out, cam 4 weeks out, I could go on and on. I guess I chose the wrong period to try and build a car.
Some **** below. The last pic was a parting shot while shutting the shop down today just for the hell of it. The light was cool.

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