Funny what you said about the snow killing the canopy. I have seen it too. I watched two buddies go in on 101/2 conduit and tarps to cover their cars. A 67 Camaro and a 86 Cutlass fresh from paint. By the end of winter the tarps were laying on top of both cars with two feet of snow on that.

 

You don't need a return line, and I didn't know a '78 ever had one. (new to me) You might not even have a place to connect that return line, and it may be someone used a newer pump and simply plugged the extra line.
I don't use a return line on my mechanical, or my other car with electric pump. Only reason for the return line is to bleed off excess pressure that backs up at the regulator/carb.

 

Thanks Vall, I can maybe try to remove it back at the tank? I need to be back there anyway to finish removing the tailpipes and muffler that are left hangin' there so I'll try to take a look. You're right too, my new pump doesn't even have a place for a return line, I checked last night.

Sudstoy - I am in full agreement with you on the "relief" breaks. Those will come sometime in Jan/Feb when it's "negative something" outside and it's too much of a PITA to go out and work. Right now I'm racing against mother nature to get the outside stuff done. We've gone from 70's all week to chance for snow on Saturday here! That really sucks. Also, I appreciate your suggestion to use IMG for pics but I can't get that to work? Any suggestions? Thanks again.

Damon - I've seen some friends do the exact same thing, always with the same end result. I just figure there's a reason why the trend here is metal roofs. My garage is a metal structure and I might just add some kind of lean-to onto the side of it with some posts, 2x8's and a couple more pieces of metal roof and siding.

Next Question = Suspension. I've pretty much decided to change out some stuff while the front end is apart. Everything looks surprisingly good by way of bushings (except the sway bar links that I broke both bolts on ystrday) but for the money ($140) I can get everything but springs,shocks and new control arms. This car will be used for cruising around in (at a very fast pace) but not for any type of road racing etc. My logic is that the Camaro came with the F41 "upgrade" so that should be good enough for me. My question is polyurethane bushings instead of replacement parts? The price is right for the factory replacement stuff but is there a genuine reason why I should go with the poly stuff? I've never done any suspension work and I'm kinda excited to get that stuff apart. It looks really easy (minus the springs) and I can be working on that now to save me some sanding! Sorry for being so long winded, can't help it!

 

I went with poly on mine, and used all the stock arms, etc. Some people have complained of squeaks in poly bushings, but I've also heard others never have squeaks. The key seems to be liberal use of the proper grease for poly bushings. I bought an 8 oz. can of extra grease, as the small packet that came with the bushings is nowhere near enough. The common spot for squeaks is the end washers on the upper arms, so I made sure they had a ton of grease. But I also liberally greased everything that moves, so I've had no squeaking.

 

I think I'm going to get the center link/tie rod/ball joint kit and then save up for a bushing kit(+ grease.) The body mount bushings are shot and the kit will take care of those, do the rest of the front end and give what I need for the back of the car too. I can reuse the control arms and that should take care of it. Time to pull everything apart and get cleaning! I wonder if the molasses solution will work on rusty parts when the weather gets colder?

 

I put pst bushings in mine 14 or so years ago. In the short amount I drove it I never had squeaks. I did cost them with grease.

 

If you plan to soak the parts, and not just brush the molasses solution on, then it should work. Only problem will be if it gets to freezing temps. Might be spring before you get the parts out!

 

That'd be pretty an interesting sight, a gigantic garbage can sized chunk of ice with control arms, hood hinges etc encased in the middle! I'm gonna try it this week, anything I can do to save some grinder work I'm going for. We're gonna be pretty chilly at night but I should be safe for a while I think. Just didn't know if the colder temps would cause any of the "process" to not work. I bet it'll take longer but if I can get that stuff done in the next couple of weeks I should be good. Plus, I'll have some solution already made for spring! Onward...

 

As for the pictures, get a photobucket account, its free. Then download the pictures to photobucket.

Once you have done that you can copy a link from there. This is an example of one of my photos but i have added the spaces to make it work on here without showing the picture.

[ IMG ]http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee469/Sudstoy/DSC01643.jpg[ / IMG ]

 

Thanks for the info about photobucket. I'll do that sometime soon and post from there. Haven't gotten much done so far this week, kids have a tendency to hamper progress, which is fine with me. I'll get busy in the next couple days and get some more pics of of the firewall cleanup.

Question - I'm wondering about the replacement of the brake lines. Some are brand new but I was curious if I could use some kind of braided lines instead of the metal/stainless steel? Wasn't sure if that could be done or not. Not looking forward to bending new lines and really don't want to buy a bunch of costly tools (bender/flaring etc.) to do a job one time and never use them again.