March 27/28

Well the fender is off finally. And with it off, I discovered a couple of things. One, there is some rot in the bottom corner of the body that was under the fender (see photo). This will probably be a difficult fix, with it being a rounded corner and all. We'll see how it goes. There was also a tag under the fender, which I think was a paint chip tag so they would know what color to paint the car. I hope so, because I would like to have someone match the color paint for me. There was also a mudwasp nest under the fender too. No wasps though. I also had a couple of incidents. I gave myself a fat lip on Saturday. I was lying under the car, using two wrenches to try and loosen a nut and bolt. While applying some force, the wrench slipped and my hand slipped off. The wrench fell straight down, round end first thankfully, and hit me right in the upper lip. The other incident again involved trying to loosen a nut with two wrenches. This time when I applied force, the bolt snapped and the head went flying off somewhere in the garage. I have no idea where. Anyway, the fender is off. Now what???

March 26

Started removing all the bolts securing the left fender. One of them was behind the kick panel. I found that by using my manual. I also found that my manual is misprinted. The fender removal section begins on page 15-13. The page following is 15-16, so I am missing a couple of pages that just happen to be the part of the car I'm working on now. I don't think it will be a problem unless there is something special I'm supposed to do before removing the fender. I should have the fender off tomorrow. I had to let a bolt/nut soak in blaster.

March 23

Okay, I picked up the seats yesterday and I think they came out great! Mark's Upholstery in Foxboro did them and they were reasonably priced. The only bad thing is that the carpet I ordered doesn't quite go. I always thought it was kind of on the green side and now I think it is fact. You can judge by the pictures. The front seat was originally configured like that with the driver's side seat back being all vinyl. I know it looks kind of funky but, that's the way it was so I kept it that way. Also, I added some pictures to the March 21st post.

March 22

I'm going to pick up the recovered Edsel seats this evening. Hopefully they came out okay. I'll post pictures of them tonight or tomorrow. I'm going to have to store them in the basement for now, I don't know when I'll be ready to reinstall them. Could be awhile. Just for fun, here is a photo of my 1966 Plymouth Satellite. I hope to drive it this summer a little more than I did last summer.

March 21

Okay, its finally off and so is the left bumper. Next is the right bumper and, guess what? the same frigging nut on that side is stuck too. Pictures to follow.

March 20

I bought a chisel today and using my 5 pound mallet, gave that nut a beating. Its still attached. Looks like crap but its still holding on. I'm kind of amazed.

March 18 contd

NOTHING WORKS! The nut splitter couldn't fit, I've broken all my dremel cutters, no wrench, no socket will fit.

March 18

Picked up a nut-splitter (ouch) today. Hope to try it out tonight. I'll post some more pictures tonight too. They need to come up with another name for that. Nut-buster? no that sounds painful too. Nutcracker? no then I 'd have to work on the car in tights.

March 16

No real progress to report. I'm still fighting with that rusted/stuck/impossible nut. I took my Dremel to it using the cutting wheel but, because it is in a hard to get to place, I just hacked it up. Tried using my drill with a titanium bit but, my drill is too big to reach it very well. I just drilled the start of a hole but no more. Soooo, I'm not quite sure what to try next. Sledge hammer? 357 Magnum? The sad part is that this is only the first of many, many bolts and/or nuts that are going to give me a problem.

Just did some searching on the web and I think I'll be purchasing a nut splitter. Sounds painful but, its got to be done!

March 14

Okay, I've changed the settings so anyone can post a comment to my blog. When you write a comment, click on preview and go from there.

March 13

Frustrating day today. My plan was to remove the front bumpers. Started on the left one. First thing to do is remove the parking light. It didn't want to come out. So I decided to leave it in. I disconnected all the wires so it would just go with the bumper. Next, tried to remove the nuts securing the bumper to the frame. First one came off fine, but it was all downhill from there. The next nut was already a little rounded and nothing I have on hand will get a grip on it. Tried the nut above that one. It was hard to reach and I couldn't get good leverage to budge it. Went to the next one and first thing I did was round it a little bit too. Decided to take a break. I might just let the WD soak in for the next 24 and give it another shot tomorrow. So, not much progress made today. On top of that my every day ride is acting up. And we might have a rabid skunk in the vicinty. We came home from grocery shopping and in the street was a skunk walking around. This was at about 1:30 pm. We didn't think they were supposed to be out in the day time. Anyway, that's it for now. Nice time at Mike's yesterday!

March 12

Nothing new to report, I didn't do any work on the Edsel. We had the cable guy coming to do a switch of our phone service and it took over two hours. After dinner and walking the dog, I took a look at the termite problem. Oh that's right, I forgot to mention that we discovered that termites were attacking my garage. I sprayed some junk and we'll be making a call to the exterminator.
Oh yeah, a friend told me that to post a comment to my blog, you have to sign up and go through a whole rigamarole so, rather than ask you to do that, just send your message to allizdog@cox.net and I'll post it here myself.
Don't know if I'll get any work done today (the 13th) either. I have a meeting to go to to discuss the positive attributes of beer.

March 11

Removed the left side grille and headlight door. Due to space limitations in my garage, I have to put the parts I remove in my basement. I'm thinking of reassembling the whole car down there. Not too many people have an Edsel. I would think that even fewer have one in their basement. I'll have to run it by my wife first though.

March 10

Removed headlight retaining ring, discovered I didn't really need to. Removed screws securing the headlight door (don't know why the manual calls it that but, that's what it says) to the left side grille. Attempted to remove the grille but, you guessed it, some more WD-40 was needed. I wonder how many cans I'll go through before this is done?

March 9

Removed the center grille outer ring and the right side light bezel. Driver's side is left and passenger's side is right. I done learned something today. WD-40'd the nuts securing the left and right side grilles.

March 7 and 8

Drained the gas tank. I was going to remove it but decided that having a tank full of fumes kicking around the garage was probably not a good idea. So it stays in for now. I decided to work on the front of the car instead. I removed the driver's side (I can never remember if its the left or right) headlight bezel. I tried to remove the outer ring to the center grille but, the nuts were a little rusted so I had to soak them with WD-40. Maybe tomorrow.