Steering Box is Fixed! [John]

We decided to hire a mechanic to remove and replace the steering box, which gushed fluid as long as the reservoir was not empty. He quoted a decent price, but found the job much harder than he anticipated. He sent the box to a rebuilder and we now have it back. No apparent leaks and the car has power steering. (The steering wheel needs centering though. Somehow that got messed up.) We settled the price amicably at somewhat higher than he had quoted.

All told, the car was at the shop for nearly a month. Mrs. B bore up well for the whole period, disappointed and lonely as she was for the smells of exhaust, leaking gas, mold and mildew, and consoled herself by parking her own car in the temporarily vacant garage stall.

Once the car was back, we scheduled a work day: Phil, me, Larry, and Guy for part of the time. Installed a throttle return spring, hooked it to a jury-rigged but neat bracket under a manifold bolt, replaced the sloppy, spring-free, hood hinges with some 1952 Chrysler hinges (with springs) I had found on eBay, and spent a few hours trying to invent a way to align the hood. Eventually we got tired of this and moved on to other details, like replacing a missing bumper bolt and then bolting a junk-yard licence plate frame to the rear bumper. I neatened up the ignition wiring, and we called it a day.

A hitch: The springs are not strong enough to support the hood -- you still need a prop rod. I'm sure this is not the intent; something is wrong. Do springs tire and weaken with age? Is there some restorative? And then, another hitch: the S from the hood DESOTO legend went missing. It had fallen off the first time I closed the hood, but I kept it safe in the glove box. On work day we took it out and looked for speed nuts or something in our garage junk to hold it on, and in the process we noted that none of the other letters had any attachment except gravity and a tiny bit of friction. At the end of the day, and today too, the S was gone. Most likely I picked it up and carried it around, then set it down somewhere in the house. Mrs. B assures me it will turn up. I'm less confident. But I can say it is not in the trash bin or the recycle bin and it is not in the garage. Oh, well. We need the full set of letters for the tailgate, just have to get an extra S.

Later, I found the hood alignment section of the factory service manual. It describes a simple, 20-step process to align the hood. For example, loosen the two rear bolts on the hinge plate and drive the forward end down with a hammer and a blunt drift. And, if the clearance to the fender is too tight, loosen all fender attaching bolts and move the fender.... This is for some later day.

The car doesn't run very well, although we do know how to work the gear selector now. But we are getting unanimous advice to fix the brakes first and then make it run better. Other recent advice confirms some earlier opinions to not replace the engine. No need to convert to 12v either. Especially not in a warm climate.

So far, it's fun, kind of.