Well, Judson, first I would point out that I can follow the history of the car since it was new - it was bought by my great grandfather and driven most of its miles by my great aunt, the original buyer's daughter. It was sympathetically driven during its 76,000 miles and has been running the whole time, although very little the last 35 years. I had done a compression check before I started, so I knew what I was up against.
I sent the head to a machine shop for a complete rebuild including new valves, seats, and guides. I pulled the pistons without ridge reaming first, but I did ream the ridge later. It is surely wise to remove the ridge first, you will probably be able to feel the ridge with a finger.
It really is important to keep the rod caps and shims in order for each rod, and when the time comes also for the bearing caps. I plastigaged all the clearances, rods and bearings. In my case I could get by with removing on average one shim from each bearing, sometimes one shim from each side.
You will probably need to replace the rear crankshaft seal, the rope seal. I got good at replacing the rope seal because it didn't work the first time and leaked pretty freely the second time too. Read up on this procedure really well. It is not so fun lying on your back.
I changed motor mounts. I rebuilt the vacuum shifter. I rebuilt the Carter carb.
My engine runs great now, but it always ran smooth even when it was missing. I believe I had some little success because the motor was always well treated, I had no damaged bearing surfaces, and I got a lot of help from these pages.
If you have the pistons out, it is simple to check the cylinders for tapering using one of the old rings. Search that topic for the exact process, the technique with the used ring is not in the service manual. That will tell you if the block needs reboring, and if it does it will need to come out.
Karl
