Stopped over to say hi to the Kings today and got a look at the delivery van (left) done and getting ready to be delivered as well as the '29 rod (right) that they are refinishing the wood on and a couple more. They are stacked up with work for at least a year or more as of today. Regards to all, Bob
Just picked up the exhaust parts from the weld shop (I am not qualified to weld anything - just burn holes in things) and am very pleased. It's nice when you find someone that appreciates old car projects - AND knows how to weld stainless and mild steel combinations.
Best laid plans of mice and men (or just old boys) chapter 20x. After all the exhaust planning we started to install the new system and found out that I had neglected to make a critical measurement WAY BACK AT THE BEGINNING. The new oval style mufflers (11 inch wide) were too wide to clear the frame due to the location of the header collector pipe flanges being farther off center than the original exhaust pipes were. Frantic search for solution led me to Cherry Bomb Turbo mufflers which come in three oval sizes. I went with the 7 3/4 inch wide (overly cautious) but probably could have used the 8 3/4 inch ones. During the final installation I was dreading the possibility that after all the work I would not have succeeded in quieting the car and wife would still be on my case about how loud. Finished up yesterday afternoon, took the car off the lift and fired it up and, and, and I was very surprised on how good of a job these 'mini' mufflers do. Sounded great and I think we can now ride in peace (inside the car). They doo have a nice 'snort' to them if I 'kick it' a bit, but don't have to do that when the wife is with me. Will probably take the car out for a nice ride in the coming week or so - if I can scrape up enough cash to buy some gas!!!!
As I closed up the exhaust 'chapter' of Covid maintenance and improvements I needed a hard wood spacer for cutting off the ss exhaust parts (in the band saw - hence a round plug that fit inside the pipe being cut). As I was requesting the help from Kings I noticed that even for the annual Woody meet they get really serious - note the golf cart to be used at the meet between a couple of the restoration projects. Guess it is only fitting for such an event!
It was sheer joy to get the car back on the road this weekend. Now I can go back to thinking about getting signed up for some shows. Washed a bunch of grinding dust and other junk off the car and then hit it with a good coat of show wax. Got a few shots of the car today while blowing out the cob webs.
Stopped by Kings yesterday and they are almost finished with another Sportsman. Tracy said that there are two more coming in when they can fit them to schedule. Got a shot of Tracy with Beltline piece and the hydraulics which I never knew they had in these cars. Knew about convertible top but did not know that the window operators were also hydraulic!
Stopped over to see what's new at Kings this morning. Amused to see how they 'do' puzzles. They received another 39 last Friday and here is how it was delivered. So it seems that their puzzle days are a lot different than mine. Somehow, they will take that pile of rotten wood off the back and end up making it (and the one next to it, also a 39) look like this Hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy any show time that you might get. bob
Hope all is well with all of you. I have outdone my expectations now, have made it to 7 car shows and no further issues showing up with fuel, brakes, exhaust, suspension, perhaps I have finally caught up with the Covid creepy stuff (from lack of activity). Stopped over to Kings today and saw something really amusing. They just got in a 49 Dodge Cornet wagon with the most massive tailgate I have ever seen. Here is a shot with the outer cover off ( that adds another 40 pounds). Unusual woodie with metal roof supported by wood pillars Doors came in huge jumble box and they will have to unscramble the details to put back together,,,, but that is what they do. Apparently two other shops that claim to be woodie restoration facilities have messed it up enough that the owner finally decided to bring it to a qualified restorer with a sterling track record.
Guess I never thought about shock absorbers being different design to what is common today. Tracy gave me another history lesson on cars from the 30's and 40's yesterday and here is what I learned.
I am giving up on rolling ball tilt switches. I tried to go with the environmentally friendly tilt switches but they just don't do the job. Trunk and hood lights are on reasonably steady if engine is not running. Soon as I start the engine they start blinking as the ball bounces on and off of the contact position. I have ordered Omega AU46 switches from two distributors and had to send them back. Even though the image shows a glass tube with bead of mercury the switches are now fitted with sliding ball instead and I can't get any of the suppliers to correct their web pictures or make suitable statements so hope none of you are getting sucked into this ruse. I finally found some mercury switches at Parts Express and a very cooperative customer support person that was willing to check and confirm for me before I ordered. My original 50 had an aftermarket hood light that had a mercury switch in it and never failed to work. Hopefully after I replace the switches in the current lights I can get comfortable with the lighting again. Don't have a lot of work listed to get done this winter but this job is at the top of the list. Regards to all, hope you are having a good fall/winter/spring/summer wherever you are.
For any of you that are faced with the tilt switch swap I noted a post back, here are some details of how I went at it. I found a seller of real mercury tilt switches and ordered some. The new switch is not in the same package as the AU46 (original or phony new ones with the sliding ball) so after looking at the parts for a short while I decided to use the original switch bracket to mount the new switch so I would not have to fabricate a custom bracket. To extract the bracket from the plastic housing I decided to carve a groove in the back side so I could break the band apart and 'pry' the plastic up enough to allow the bracket to back up through the frame. Once I had the bracket free I drilled the dimple out so that the new switch module could sit flat on the bracket surface. I used the double stick tape they supplied on the mercury switch module to mount it to the bracket. And, considering the hood light is over the engine and would be experiencing a lot of heat soak I thought it best to make sure the switch stays fixed to the bracket so I put a band of heat shrink around it and set it 'tight'. Checked fit and all is good so next trip to the shop I will connect and put all back together for testing. I have meter tested the switch assemblies to make sure they are all good and am not disturbing anything else in the lamp enclosure so feel comfortable with final testing after reassembly. Also,,, if I did mess something up it only takes about 5 minutes to open up and check out. Regards to all of you and your projects. Bob
The tilt switch swap worked out quite easy and the results quite gratifying. NO MORE BLINKING! Nest job is the recoloring of the carpet area bleached out by the leaking antifreeze at the manifold (unfortunately inside the cabin). Just a quick follow up on last June's post of the Kings projects. They have just finished the second (of three on this order) and I have as received and ready to send home pictures. As received. Ready to send home. Amazing and amusing the number of hours they put in hand rubbing, sanding, and blending all the panels. Hope you all have a great and peaceful Christmas and a healthy New Year. Bob Bertolasi
Another King's educational visit! Stopped over to King's on Tuesday and while taking a picture of the work bay, for a friend, I noticed the cowling of a car to the right. When I asked about it I learned something else that I never knew or would have even guessed. The following picture is of the only metal of the body of a 39 Chevy truck. Almost in the realm of the 'wouldn't think they could do that' stuff is the fact that the rest of the truck, except for the frame, was entirely wood - A TRUCK ! Here is a shot of the frame from that vehicle. Also saw a relic of a radio out of this truck - had not seen one of these since I was a kid (in the 40's)! That was probably the biggest draw on the battery for the entire vehicle. The dash controls (on/off and tuneing) were flexible cables that went into the right side of this unit. Hope you all are having a good month. bob
I am in awe of the craftsmanship of the guys next door (King brothers). Here are a couple shots of another set of rear quarter panels coming together for the third Sportsman.
As we move along in life and look back at things from our early years, the vision is not always clear. I thought some of you might be interested in some 'investigation' that I have been doing into AI photo recovery/enhancement. AI is tech speak for artificial intelligence and they have been applying it to all kinds of things. Now there are several on-line available AI utilities that will help you clean up those old photos of your car taken with not nearly as much concern as we wish now that we are looking back. Here is an example of the original 50 Ford that I customized from 1954 to 1956 while waiting for my drivers license. I have applied the AI 'fixes' to the image as well as using a freely available photo editor to auto adjust lighting prior to the AI run . Happy to answer any questions that you might have.
Interesting experience/circumstance yesterday coming back from the Belvidere Heritage Days car show. Hot as Hell (95+ and light winds) well, seemed like it but who am I to know, On the way back to Rockford (about 20 miles) there was a noticeable whistle developing and when I got to the outskirts of Rockford it was almost annoying. After I got the car in the garage and before I shut it off I walked around and checked underneath and the whistle seemed to be coming from the fuel pump. Shut the engine off, waited a few and cranked up and the whistle was there again. Shut off, and turned the ignition on but did not crank and there was no whistle. Got to thinking that I was low on fuel and wondering if the combination of high temps and low fuel level was causing a lot of trapped air bubbles to get sucked into the pump causing the whistling either in the filter chain or pump itself. This morning with all cooled down I checked and no whistle so no way to be sure but I filled the tank to about half way and will check during travel to the next car show. Just wondering if any of you that see this have ever dealt with the whistling of/around the fuel pump?
Just thought some of you might be interested in how the rear fenders of a 39 Chevy wagon get formed. That's six layers and counting! Hope you all have a great weekend. bob
Stopped by Kings this morning to see how they are going on the 39 Chev. wagon. Here are some progress shots. They need to trim off the ends but won't do that till the final fitup is confirmed. I asked about the latches at the front of the rear floorboard. Found out that their customer on this one is more concerned with safety and function than exact replication. He wanted to move the battery from the passenger side front floor (under) to the back seat space entry floor step. So there is a battery and 'tool' box now under the lift up panel. Best wishes to all of you for a great weekend. Bob
Stopped at Kings today to pick up some project stuff and saw an interesting way to ship rare wood (Maui Ironwood) for a proper woodie build. they shipped it in an old truck (woodie without the wood) that they are using for part of the payment. Now Kings will have to decide if they want to build another woodie for themselves or sell it as a project car.
SoS sent me new license plates for the old Ford so i was at the shop to switch out and get the car on the blocks so I can check out why the parking brake quit working. I stopped over to see how Kings are doing and 'wow' they are really getting crowded with cars from all over the US and Canada. Guess there are not a lot of these wood sided craftsmen left in the US. Seems there are not many auto/carpenter/historians left. Always fun to see that they are doing. I think the third one up on the left will look like this when they get done.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I really get frustrated (and worried) when I fix something and don't know why I fixed it! Went to work on the parking brake issue (has not worked since I replaced all the shoes, wheel cylinders and bled the system) and after checking the cable operation from dash handle to breakout area. I decided to test each side cable before digging into the wheel ends. The passenger side cable (lower) worked as expected (medium pull to take up slack and then heavier pull to expand the primary shoe) but the driver side cable would not go past taking up the slack. Pulled the wheel off and inspected the cable run. Did not see a problem so I figured I probably made a mistake when I was installing all the new parts and reassembling the brake mechanism. SOOOO,,,, took it all apart, piece at a time,,, checking and taking pictures of how it was installed before removing. NADA,,,, could not see any issues as I took apart so just before removing the shoes I decided to check the cable pull again and IT ALL WORKED FINE!!!! OK,,, so figured that as spring or lever arm of base brake system was interfering with the cable when assembled. I started replacing the springs and operating arms and kept checking the cable operation as I replaced each part. Finished putting all together and the cable was still operating normally. No Idea what the problem was, but it was gone after reassembly. Put the tires back on and next time out, I will test the parking brake with the car still on blocks and wheels free to turn.
PS. even called them and complained as to the clocking of the perf tubes inside not being the same from part to part.
Well, it has taken over two years to get here, but we finally got the pin stripes put on Flashback. I posted some 'concepts' way back when,,, and then life happened. Once we came out of the Covid mess I had a hard time finding an actual pinstripe artist. Didn't realize there were so few brush in hand painters left! We are fortunate that one does his work in a city about an hour from here. Once the communications channel was open we went through some ideas and came to an agreement - - - we had no idea what we were doing but did have an idea of what we did not want to end up with. We prepared a few more sketches to more of less define the coverage of the pin stripes we thought appropriate and Friday, took the car to Andy (Askeland) the artist, to get the work done. Based on our input he had prepared some paint mixes for us to choose from and comment on and after listening to him for about 10 minutes, our comment was, "please paint the stirpes as if this was your car". He did, and we are so happy that he did. Here are a few shots of the car when I brought it back this afternoon. We will give it at least a week before I wash the car and touch up the wax layer around the pin stripe areas. I don't remember all the rules, but think it is ok if I post Andy's business card also. if not, I assume the moderator will remove it from this post. Best regards to all.
Mother Nature has been treating the car shows in this area really nice and I hope she is behaving in your areas also. There have now been three shows in a row for me that it rained the day before and rained the day after (in some cases severe thunderstorms) but for the show day the sun came out and even the fields were dry enough that we did not get mired down in the grass/weeds. Here are the three in a row, Belvidere Heritage days, Belvidere Moose Club annual, and Loves Park Festival of the Heart. In all cases I took a photo just after getting all setup and waiting for the start of the event. bob
I hope you all are enjoying the summer show months and getting some time out with your cars. 6 months ago I put a new alternator in and Wednesday night as I was leaving the Historic Auto Attractions car show the battery was so low that I could not start the car, had to have a jump. Thursday I had the battery checked and it was fine so I did a load test on the alternator. Battery stayed above 13.5 volts with engine running and headlights on, but when I turned on the AC the charging voltage dropped well below the 13.5 volt level. I pulled the old alternator as a preventative measure because the bearings were starting to make noticeable rough rolling sounds. I ordered the replacement based on NEW, manufacturing standards listed, and availability. I noticed that even the Delco alternators now seem to come from China and had the same claims as other brands listed. The big mistake I made was that I did not check the distributor (ordered via Amazon) for a US website and when I contacted Amazon for follow up on the one year free replacement guarantee in the listing for the one that I bought, it seemed a hopeless maze of what to 'try' to contact the seller, how to submit the proper paperwork, etc. Amazon rep that I was working with even found it very confusing and offered to handle all via their return options. I have ordered a replacement and it should be here today,,,, this time, before ordering I made sure that the seller had a US website and acknowledged the Amazon purchase path for their products. This one also has a one year free replacement policy.
A while back I posted about going back to some of the old photos and cleaning them up. I have updated the image editor and am really impressed with the current performance. Here are two pictures one very old image of the original 50 Ford that I built the Flashback project around and one that I ran this morning, cleaning up that original picture. Original and the cleaned up version. I am seriously thinking about going back to a lot of the old images and cleaning them up, if for no other reason than it amazes me what these new editors will do. Best regards to all of you. bob PS-interesting how it got everything else right except the license plate!
Hope you are all getting ready for a Peaceful Christmas and a Healthy New Year. Just want to make a point about how AI, in some cases, can mess with our senses. Here is an image of a mild custom 1950 Ford that, for all purposes, could have been posted with some story behind it. However, the car is imaginary, created by me about 20 minutes ago. I am getting frustrated by all the neat looking cars that are showing up on social posts but really do not exist. On the other hand, if you are thinking about modifying your car, the AI utilities can be a real help since they allow you to get a better feel than what sketchs can provide. All the work on Flashback body modifications was proceeded by hours of sketching and re-sketching, but today you can simply write or tell the program what you would like to see and it will do it. Here is the full panel from my queue to Gemini for a 1950 Ford, mild custom with Pontiac side trim (didn't get all correct but did make a neat image). There are scads of AI utilities showing up and some of them are very creative. Here is the output of Co-Pilot queue for a radical customized version. I would be happy to help if any of you want or need help with getting started with the process of using AI for your projects. In one of the classes I teach for the local college I have been doing a series on AI in medicine and commercial design and even the retired doctors and nurces that attend ask a lot of questions about the commercial and social uses of AI. Best regards, Bob Bertolasi
The Jalopy Journal
