New Coil

I went to Chevs of the 40's and purchased the new coil and installed it the other day.I was Finally able to get the spark I've been looking for! It's easily jumping 1/4" and its not intermittent like before. Margaret and I tried to start her, but nothing. I tried messing around with the choke thinking it might need to be adjusted but it didn't help. I'm thinking there might still be something wrong with the timing or my gaping. Next chance I get to work on her I'm going to continue adjusting her timing to see if it's still off a bit. Hopefully once I adjust it a bit she'll catch and all of my worries will be gone. If that doesn't work I'm at a loss... I've would have replaced everything within the ignition system. It that's the case then I'll pull the engine and let a professional look at it and try to fix her, so I can move onto other projects that need to be completed.

On a positive note though...I finally was able to cut the tacky turn signals off of the front fenders. After breaking one hacksaw, buying another, and lots of sweat...they both came off. She looks so much smoother already! Next to come off is her grill. Then I need to work on taking out the rest of her windows and continue to clean her up a bit so I can take her somewhere to get her power washed.

Compression

Rob came over yesterday afternoon to help me out. We tested the compression since Lydon, the original owners son, told us he thought the heads were going to need to be worked. Thankfully though, the compression was between 120 to 126 through all 6 cylinders. The normal is between 110 to 130psi. Since I'm within range I know that I'm not going to need to rebuild the engine to get her to start. But with the good comes the bad...we tried starting her again yesterday and nothing. Rob and I checked for spark again and it's there but not very strong... I asked Rob if he thought it might be the coil, since even checking the spark at the coil it isn't very strong. He said possibly, but he definitely thinks something is wrong within the ignition system. I guess my next step is to replace the coil, cross my fingers and hope she starts!

We pulled the valve cover off and looked at the timing again. While hand cranking the engine to check the valves for their timing we also looked at the flywheel to see if we could find the mark that would help to verify we were in the right spot. But with all of the rust on the wheel we couldn't make it out, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to clean the rust off so I can hopefully find the mark on the wheel to line it up with the pointer on the housing.

No More Trim

She's starting to look naked! I'm working on removing all of the trim and windows. So far so good, not too many hickups! As soon as I have the trim removed I'm going to work on removing the windows, and then maybe start on some body work. I've also been on the lookout for some cheap tires for my spare rims I picked up. I'm hoping to then start on the brakes so I can roll her out of the garage without having to worry about her rolling into the neighbors house across the street.

I figure once I can roll her out of the garage I can take her to the car wash to use the pressure wash to clean her up a bit. Once she's clean then I can look into getting her media/sand blasted to see how bad the rust really is.