Projects Rosie The Red 40

I actually don’t mind it. It’s probably second on my list of favorites behind fabrication. I think it is a satisfying job when done correctly! Only when I can start with a clean slate though, nothing is worse than cleaning up someone else’s birds nest.

 

Hey guys, back again. I didn’t make much progress this past week, but I made progress nonetheless. I can officially say I am done wiring, and everything works! I used the 6 volt reducer from millworks for the gauges and a 60 ohm reducer to make the battery gauge work. I still need to clean all the wiring up under the dash but that’s a minor detail and I’m not to minor details yet

Tonight I spent some time cleaning up the garage and I decided to grab a couple items out of the attic that I figured I could make some use out of with the 40. One being what I would call a “picnic” box and the other an old tool tray that housed my great grandpa Benny’s (who I am named after) woodworking tools. He hand painted both of these items back in what I would guess to be the 40’s, just like the car. I plan to keep a selection of hand tools from my grandpa’s (Benny’s son) old snap on box he gave me years ago in the tray and some oil and what not in the box. I think they are right at home in the trunk and I’m tickled to get some use out of them!

 

I'm not the tidiest wiring guy, but I really do enjoy the wiring process. I had advised Ben to use one of the boards from RacersRods.com, just because they are so well diagrammed per circuit and I like the way that they are laid out. They use terminal block type connections to the board, so you're not fighting wires you still have yet to get to while running each circuit, too, which is quite nice.

 

Being the guy who advised you on the tail lamps, I am glad that you went with those. While I don't like the look of the LED lenses, the United Pacific ones are slick in that they replace the glass lens and plug directly into the socket, retaining the stock stainless bezel. They look better than the units with the plastic bezel, in my opinion.

And I haven't seen any reports from NASA, but I am pretty sure the astronauts can see them from the space station when you hit the brake lights.

 

I used LED repop '46-'48 Chev taillights on my pickup and they had that phony, 'too red' plastic lens. I got some of the red paint/dye that they use for 'leaded glass' projects from a hobby store and applied a few coats to get the right shade of red. Been about 20 years and it's stayed on very well.

 

That's a pretty cool tip.

 

Not much to report this week, other than getting some shakedown miles in this weekend. Everything electrical is performing great, with no battery drain and the charging system is working properly. I ran up to the local parts store for a photo op, and I think it turned out pretty cool. They have been family owned since the 60’s and they are right on Route 66 here in Marshfield Missouri. I am really looking forward to getting this thing sitting “right” with the drop axle and other suspension parts, as well as putting some new shocks on it. The ride is sketchy at best with no shocks right now, but that won’t stop me

 

Nice!
Family owned, auto parts and machine shop. Haven't had that combo in our area for years.

 

Good 4 U. Enjoy.
Stretch

 

@gbrown working his photoshop magic again

 

Haha! Quinten fixed your stance and made it your shop!

 

Yeah, but Q keeps dropping the back too far. LOL

 

Finally decided to take a swing at rebuilding the Stromberg 97 that came on the car. It would start and run fine but never would idle and was leaking pretty bad. I ordered up a master rebuild kit as well as a float, new emulsion tubes and new idle pickup tubes from Stromberg. I wanted to make sure if I screwed something up I had the part to replace it. Disassembly went well, and then I let all of the individual pieces soak overnight in some chemdip. The YouTube videos from vintage speed on these rebuilds were extremely helpful. I some everything put back together except for the top and couldn’t get any fuel from my squirters. I luckily had a spare carb on the shelf so I robbed the power valve out of it and it got it working. The car now fires almost before I can hit the start button and has a nice low idle. It’s a breeze to drive now that I don’t have to manipulate the choke to keep it running while also trying to down shift, turn the blinkers on and stop at the same time lol. Next weekend I will be making a trip to pickup the motor that will probably be swapped into the car next winter if I don’t change my mind, then the weekend after that we will be giving Rosie and altitude adjustment. I can’t wait, stay tuned.

 

Good job. Getting the engine to run smooth is one of the milestones.

 

Well, today is a big day for Rosie. I’m hoping to have some updates by the end of the weekend, but I wanted to share this photo. She’s hanging out with Meekers 32 coupe, waiting to go under the knife for a new stance.

 

Sounds like a fun day.

 

Got a super secret spy photo...

 

Well, overall the day was good and we got almost everything done that we wanted to get done. We had a few things fight us but ended up figure most of it out. We went ahead and reversed the front spring and installed the drop axle. Unfortunately we found that the passenger spindles tapered hole for the drag link was upside down. The drag link needs to go in from the bottom of the spindle and the taper is from the top down. We didn’t really understand this was, but I will have to call the spindle provider on Monday to figure out a fix. Kind of frustrating but you can’t win them all. We did get to drop the car down and see it’s new stance, and I am very happy with it! Huge thanks to @bchrismer and Mike Meeker for all of their help. I think I’d still be pulling the wheels of if I were doing it on my own.

 

Great improvement in stance
Teamwork
Stretch

 

This happens every time I ask someone to hold the flashlight. Glad he was helping you this time.

 

Looks like an ear canal exam going on there!

 

If the tapered hole is not too deep (too large of a diameter at the small end), you can run a tapered reamer from the other side HALF WAY THROUGH and install the drag link. The taper does help to keep the rod end tight (wedge fit), but if you torque down the nut and cotter pin it, you'll be OK.

 

Thanks Stretch!

Haha for as many times as I’ve held the light wrong for him as a kid I’m sure I deserved it. That’s my dad, and he isn’t really into hot rods so I was thrilled to have him stop by and hangout even if it was just to light up the back of my head

 

I borrowed that band roller from @andyg, and every time I have offered to bring it back to him he's just told me he knows where it is and he'll holler at me when he needs it. BTW...if you haven't ever seen his old '40, it's a cool one that I think his brother now owns. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/media/albums/1940-ford-deluxe-tudor-sedan.25183/ He had bought it to de-arch the springs in his '40, both front and back, if I remember correctly.

It was great to see your dad come out and see some of the work being done and help grow his appreciation of hot rods. Also cool that he got to meet Jim Pike and Mike, too.

 

Yep, you can just taper the spindle arm halfway from the other side to flip the tie rod. I've done it a few times and have thousands of miles on them with no problems. The tapered reamer is a 7 degree and is available from Speedway as well as others.

 

@Lakeside65 and to be honest, rarely have I asked that a helper hold the flashlight "and point it right here where I am working". I asked them to hold it and they did. I really should be more specific with people.

 

I can usually expect to be blind for a minute after saying "let me see the light"!

 

@alchemy , @'28phonebooth beat me to it, but you can re-taper the hole, so it enters from the side you want. Done it a few times myself. In fact, I think that there was an aftermarket pitman arm that was sold this way, at one time.

 

Speedway lists one, but it's out of stock and they don't have a date when they will have more of them in.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I found the reamer on speedway but it appears it’s on back order and I’m not going to spend that kind of money for a fix. I won’t be around to finish the car for two weeks anyways so I can wait for the new spindle to show up.

The bigger issue was the fact that I just changed the oil in the flatty with some straight 30 weight and a little more seafoam and it managed to burn almost all of it in the 150 miles I drove it last week. I’m planning on running a compression test once I get it back home, and I’m hoping that it is still working on freeing up some stuck rings.