Hot Rods DOES YOUR HOT ROD SQUEAK & SQUAWK?

My old sedan has been on the road for close to twenty years now and a few weeks ago I got the car up on a rack and greased everything and I used WD 40 on surfaces that doesn't have grease fittings but at slow speed going in and out of parking lots or driveways it's still squeaking & squawking.

How have you guys addressed and fixed this problem? HRP

 

Turn up the radio, works for me every time.

 

Actually, I enjoy it..

 

Danny,In my stage of life,Its my Body that does all of that....especially the Squawking,,(Complaining)

 

It's old and flexible in some places and less flexible in others. Just like you
I bet you squeak and squawk at times too Danny

 

Yes

 

That must be what I have been doing wrong,of course I never install radios in hot rods. HRP

 

Danny, you'd better check.....you might be riding a duck........

 

I thought A's were supposed to squeek and rattle a little. My dad always always called them 'rattle A's'. But we do our best to cure them.

 

On my 29 Roadster I had that problem and after making sure everything was lubed and greased and I still had a kind of groaning or creaking sound in driveways. Mine was a Glass body and I loosened the body mounts and greased in between the pads and frame and the pads and body with moly lube. It worked on mine. Someone told me it was the frame flexing just enough to make it groan. I always thought it was just because it was fiberglass , but in 4 years I never had a single stress crack. I sold the car about a year later so I don't know if the remedy is holding up.

 

Motor is to loud

 

Yes, they are suppose to squeak, squawk and rattle.
Both my roadster and pickup do that.
Something is terribly wrong if they don't!

 

Remove the mufflers and redirect the pipes so they dump out under the edge of the running board, or out the hood sides. It works like a reverse mute button, now the exhaust is all you hear. That how hot rods are supposed to be. lound and rowdy and no radios in any car that can be made more bad ass with the removal of fenders.

 

Danny
You somehow come up with fresh subject matter every day (some call it filler), but not me.
I'm kinda hoping your recovery from shoulder surgery drags out for a while but like me I know you're dying to get back in the game and start screwing something together.
Now I know this is not quite HAMB "traditional" but you don't even know what squeeking and squaking is until you've had a full tube frame chassis'd car and EVERY moving suspension part is mounted in either urethane bushings or rod ends.
Careful or you will remove too much tradition from that car by overlubing it.

 

Oil your leaf springs. After sitting for several months, my leaf springs will squeak until the rust gets worn off, otherwise I spray lube them and the squeeks go away.

 

Thanks Denny,come to think of it it might be that dammed shoulder making all that noise! HRP

 

Does the 32 cowl mount to the frame on wooden blocks like the Model A does? Two of my A's have an annoying squeak, all I have to do is grab the windshield pillar and rock it from side-to-side and I hear it. I think maybe the cowl is moving, but I'm not down to taking it off to see yet.
I like the taking off the mufflers idea.

 

Yes.

 

Nope

 

That's why I'm running open headers!

 

Yeah, as I've worked to quiet down the exhaust, and quell the rattles with weather stripping around the doors, I've started to notice the squeaking that I think is the body panels moving against the wood. I've tried to tighten the screws, but they are seized tight, can't turn them at all to tight or loosen them, so I"ll have to cut them off and replace them if I want to try to get rid of the squeak. It's not bad enough at this point to make me do that, so I tend to ignore it and enjoy the drive.

And no radio for me either (if I put a radio in it, I would have to crank it up so loud to hear it, it would cause hearing damage!)

 

I regularly tighten every nut on the woodwork that I can get at. The body to frame bolts will work loose a bit too.

 

I got to thinking bear claw latches may tighten up the body twist a bit.

 

Actually I've found that WD-40 is not a great lubricant.
From what I was told when they were developing it, it is a water displacer!
It supposedly is made of some sort of fish oil, or so I was told.
I have found that garage door lubricant is quite good for lubricating misc. joints and connectors.
KK

 

Arent you suppose to be living it up at the shades, What are you doin here?

 

Speaking of mufflers, the two worst rattles are the mufflers themselves. If i thump on them there is a tiny sounding rattle. They only have one season them, so they shouldn't be falling apart inside.
I had the car up on stands and went from one end to the other, thumping on everything and was able to eliminate most of the others. Oh, and that damn little round cover over the crank hole on the rad shell, a piece of double sided tape solved that one.

 

My coupe makes just as many noises as I do, just louder when the engine is running.

 

The only squeak now in my 2 road-worthy cars....is when my wife rides with me, and informs me I took a corner just a little to fast she hadn't seen coming....she then reminds me she isn't gonna sing ''dead mans' curve'' to the sound of my exhaust roar either! The ''rattling'' part is when I gotta climb over the doors to get out!....then "I squeak"!

 

More like not loud enough.

Every hot rod I've owned through the years has squeaked. That don't bother me, it's when the banging starts that bothers me.

 

Yes,and it is very comforting and familiar.Feels like home. Snowman