Please tell me my car is not lost forever over a silly little driveshaft......

I replaced the clutch on my "new" 66 fintail 200D and while pulling the driveshaft I realized the slip joint was frozen. Got back to the driveshaft several weeks ago and it took days of heat, penetrating fluid and hydraulic pressure to get the slip joint apart. Of course it will not go back together. It appears previous owners failed to grease this and corrosion swelled the splines...

So I take it to two drive shaft shops (both old, venerable shops in the area) who basically said I am out of luck. No way to machine the splines and since there no replacement sections available to weld in, they can not cut out the spline sections and weld new ones in. One said he could manufacture a brand new custom shaft but you don;t even want to know the price of that one. O-:=

So I have been looking for used driveshafts and have found none. So I decide I am willing to buy a parts car and the 4 I have found had different shafts, bent shaft, a missing shaft, or had the same problem. This is using ebay and nation-wide craigslist search.


Anyone have a drive shaft or have a lead to to a shop that can refurbish the splines and/or reman the shaft? Thanks so much in advance!

 

Thanks. This crossed my mind before I started, but when I bought the car several years ago a receipt in the big stack of papers showed the flex disc was fairly new, and now only has about 10,000 miles on it. I found when doing the clutch that the flex coupling (spring loaded internals) were already trashed. Because of this I assumed what little play there is, is critical in preventing premature flex disc failure.

That and the fact there is a grease fitting and it is supposed to move and now doesn't...

I think I may just hand file the splines. I really think I only need to take a few ten-thousands off. Considering this vehicle will live a pampered life from here on out, I believe a little hand filing is safe and warranted. It is a seriously hardened metal, so even a few 10,000ths will definitely take me a while.

Wish me luck!