Welcome, Bryan! The car certainly looks solid and presentable, and seems to have a pretty complete history. The issues do sound typical of a kid on a budget many years ago. I look forward to hearing about your progress. In the meantime, you may be interested in this article I wrote a while back on t...

The thread is 7/16-18 BSF as I recall. I know repair kits are out there. Joe Curto and Butch Taras both offer repair services.

The key should find its own way in. If it doesn't, try a bit of grease. If it still doesn't, it will start to push away from the knockoff as the assembly threads in. At this point, simply rotate it by hand until it snaps into place. The medallion should have a radius slightly flatter than the knocko...

The factory calls for just under one quart, which is right about at the bottom of the side plug. I like to put in a full quart just because it makes me feel better. Filling to the top of the filler cap is way too much! I'm not an engineer but it seems to me there would not only be a lot more drag cr...

I think its ok so go in by hand, but you don't want any actual play. One other note is that those old original bearings with bronze cages are known to fail given enough miles. A modern steel replacement isn't a bad idea, or a tapered bearing conversion. Roger sells them.

Good luck!

You just need something to hold the flange from rotating. The first photo shows the factory tool. The second photo is what you can make in a pinch from a piece of angle iron from the local hardware store. You bolt it to a couple of the flange holes.

Oh, I was picturing underneath. If I had to guess, I would say that's the original paint. The tubs were painted before assembly so I believe that face would have had paint on it. Maybe others will have a more educated opinion.

Tough call. The wood was not painted, so if there is red overspray then that would certainly be an indication of a previous color. Whether or not it was the original color would be harder to confirm, since the car has been painted at least once. If the metal was all removed from the wood during a pa...

I've run into that with hub shims many times, from different suppliers. It seems like an easy thing to get right for whoever manufactures them. I have to measure every shim to make sure it's what it says it is.

I don't normally use sealer at all, and haven't noticed any leaks. But the rest of the car leaks so much I might not notice...

Looks like bronze bearing cages, as was original. They are known to do that when they get old. My last project TC came with the same issue, and unfortunately it had blown the diff apart. The gears and central housing were all wrecked.

Yes, once it's unbolted, you can drop the shaft out of the way

Welcome! Can you post a photo of the issue? I don't recall ever seeing pins at the cap, just four nuts to remove the housing, and the two aforementioned screws to remove the cap. Once the four nuts are removed, the assembly is extracted and then the two screws are removed from behind, which allows t...

Mine have held up extremely well so I'll be curious to see how yours hold up in harsher conditions.

I used regular gloss black POR15. It soaks into the wood grain and dries rock hard (but is still flexible), preserving the wood and making it impervious to water, oil, brake fluid or anything else you can throw at it, including a hammer. If the wood is not new and has oil or any other contaminants o...

I've had very good luck coating wood floorboards with POR15. It soaks into the grain and is pretty much permanent, chemical resistant and hard as a rock. It might work well for body timbers as well.

I remember someone on this forum looking into doing it, but I'm not sure if he ever found a sending unit that would work. The low fuel light comes on at around 2 gallons remaining as I recall.

No problem! Usually your gallery app has an option in the menu to resize an image. I'm happy to resize and send them back though.

Hi Mick, if you're on a mobile device, they all have a way to resize as well. If you have trouble finding it, you can email them to me and I'll resize them for you.