Projects 1940 Ford Coupe Resurrection, Tuesday Night Special, 303 Olds Taildragger

Nice haul; and everybody was happy with the deal, to boot!

 

That Big 10 gets around .....

 

Great project! '40 Ford coupes are one of the most elegant designs to ever come out of Detroit. I'd love to build one some day.

 

Thanks Brian. I have been "preparing" to get back to work on it. Cleaned the garage and added some new tools. I had grown frustrated with my cheapie 110v Craftsman flux welder and felt it was holding me back. I ran out of wire and vowed to not buy a new spool but get a better machine. I sat on my rear and bitched about the welder while half heatedly shopping for one and realizing that what I wanted and what I wanted to spend were two very different machines. I almost converted the flux machine to gas as this was the cheapest situation I could think of but it is low amps and has an always hot tip that is not ideal. I eventually set-up a "fake" FB account under a pseudonym to shop Marketplace for a used welder and got an amazing deal. An Australian guy was moving back home and selling all his stuff cheap, picked up a nearly new Miller 252 and oxyacetylene torch set with a bunch of smalls including a vibratory polisher and all the gas bottles for a ridiculously cheap $1080. The welder is way more machine than I ever thought I could afford, it will do 1/2" on single pass.


In a separate Marketplace buy I got an older air compressor as my oil-less Craftsman 25 gallon that I have had over 30 years finally refused to work, it was fully worn out and the parts are NLA. It was $100 plus around $30 in fittings and bits that needed replacing, and a $20 ebay regulator. Its bigger than my old one, twin cylinder belt drive, oil filled by Kellog American out of Pittsburgh. Guessing its from the 1980's. There is no plate on the tank so I'm not sure how big it is. Its bigger than my 25 but not as big as a 60, so I'm guessing 40 gallons



I got the new drivers door hung but am having issues as the lower A pillar is twisted and locked in that place by the bracing that was in it when I got it. If I force the door to latch I can see the pillar twist and the bracing flex. There is a crack in the A pillar that closes up as I push so it is a matter of cutting the bracing, shutting the door and welding up the crack, I think.

If you look at the roof it says "I will be running by 2025" in chalk. I got it in 2015 and gave myself 10years to get it moving under its own power. Time has flown by, kids are getting taller, friends are dying. Its time to get off my rump, Ive got 3 years.

 

Made some good investments on FB Marketplace. Should last you a long while.
Keep plugging along as you get time. I tell my friends, "it is a hobby; it will get done, because it's fun!"

 

This quote hits hard today. Glad to see you're back on it, and the new tools look great, should make things much easier.

 

You've come a long way, and in the right direction, with what you had to work with. Sometimes a break helps immensely with getting a project like this roaring down the tracks again. Plus, now you have better tools to work with which will make better progress happen faster. Get out there and make it happen, lad!

 

Good score on those tools! Now get back to work! We are short on coupe builds on the HAMB at the moment and need to see some action !

 

Making some progress/a big mess this week. Puled the 1951 Oldsmobile 303 out and started tearing it down. It still looks to me like a good motor. I did a leak down test for what it was worth being a cold motor and a crappy HF tool and came up with each cylinder within 10% from high to low. At least its consistent even if the numbers probably mean nothing leak wise. Plugs were sooty and dry, inside exhaust manifolds dry, no water ever in intake it looks like new in there once carb was removed. Engine was full of clear oil but the pan was 2" deep with grey lead sludge. Hydro was full of ATF and it was amber and not burnt. Lots of flaky parafin wax flakes filling the valve train and inside walls of the block. Pulled oil pump and it has nice mesh on the gears. Its coming apart really easily so far. Only issues I've has so far are some intake bolts were not in very deep and the ends have corrosion, the distributor is very tight/stuck but I have it slowly working out by twisting. I have not been successful in getting the crank pulley off so I can get to the timing chain. There is no place my three jaw puller will catch on. The factory manual said to remove bolt and hit with plastic mallet but there is really no room to swing a hammer. Anybody got a hint on how to get it off? After the pulley issue is resolved I'm going to remove the valve stands/rockers and get it up on a stand so I can clean it really well and check bearing clearances. Going to leave the heads on for now as I previously looked in the cylinders with a scope and they looked great.

 

Man that looks like a serious cast iron transmission!

 

I've just removed the crank pulley on my 303 (tipped engine out of car and broke it), and a core engine I bought to get another pulley.
In both cases I used a muffler clamp behind it, so I could pry behind it (followed @Paul lead). Once I heated them up and prying they slipped right off.
Keep posting looking forward to your progress.

 

Good to see progress, and always nice when an engine doesn't need everything under the sun to be usable again.

 

Love your vision with the olds motor and the tail dragger style. Have you considered a 3 spd column shift with electric overdrive. Old school cool with all the advantages of an overdrive.

 

Thanks for the idea, and success!

Lots of flaky rust in the water jackets, it will need blowing out, vacuuming and flushing to keep from clogging a radiator. Timing chain has a lot of slack but the gears look good at first look see. I got it up on the stand and am keeping the hoist attached for now for peace of mind. This stand has had a 292 chevy 6 on it for the past 10 years so I should not be worried but better safe than sorry. Got the distributor out, shaft feels good and tight, no play at all. Pulled the intake and valley pan and OMG this thing has never seen a drop of detergent oil, ever! The crust is amazing, waxy and not sticky at all, feels smooth like hand lotion. I do not see any scoring on the cam but the outside bottom of the lifters that hang below the bores are pretty rusty.









On the body I have been doing some work as well, got the floors and rockers in. No tunnel yet, waiting for ride height so I do not have to do it twice. Some welds were good and some horrible while doing the floors. Started on lower quarter patches and was having no luck at all, just crappy porous welds and blowing through. I figured it was a machine I was not used to and probably contamination with rust and oil on new metal, so I struggled through. Turns out the gun liner was just a bit too short and pulled out of the end cap at the rollers allowing the gas to partially escape into the machine and not all travel down to the gun. After I figured that out I tried to switch to .023 from the .035 that was in it when I bought it figuring that would be better for sheet metal as the internet leads one to believe. This caused a two month delay as I had supply issues, Miller sells liners and rollers but no longer the end cap to seal the smaller diameter liner but that is now DIY fixed using the .035 cap and some electrical tape around the .023 liner to take up the gap. Its a compression fitting and is gas tight. It is working awesome so now I can go back and fix the mess I made on the drivers side patch ( I should have started on the passenger side) and some ugly spots on the floors.

 

I've recently installed an Olds 303 in my '40 Convertible, here's the link..may be some information you can use.
Also @F&J had a nice build thread on installing the Olds 303 in his '40 Coupe.
Projects - 1940 Ford Convertible now with 303 Olds(updated 11-12-2022) | Page 2 | The H.A.M.B. (jalopyjournal.com)

 

Yes it is a heavy beast of a transmission. I am still up in the air on this part. I really hate the Hydramatic in our 56 Pontiac, even though its rebuilt and properly adjusted its is my least favorite part of driving the car. No get in and go, it has got to be up to temp or it shifts really hard and if on the automatic choke it will not down shift to first as the linkage from the carb to the trans has to be in the fully down position. I have ot slip into neutral at each stop to get it to drop down to first until its all warmed up. Coming up on a slow speed yield sign I never know if it will pull away smoothly in the right gear or lug along so that I have to then come to a full stop for it to down shift. I believe this is why they used to teach folks to stop for five seconds at a stop sign. Doing this today gets me honks and dirty looks. I just cannot see putting it in my car, but I may try to in the end.

I do not have a stock driveline just a 8" that has a 3:08 gear set. I put on all new drum brakes, seals and it is painted and ready to go. I have a t5 in my 47 chevy and it makes drivability awesome but shifting is slow and truck-like and that stick is there in the middle of the floor in the way. I waffle back and forth between a t5 and a modern overdrive automatic. Both will take a $1500+- adapter kit plus the cost of the transmission + sales taxes and shipping costs so its a big $3000 choice I have been avoiding. Full rebuild kit for the Hydra is only $495 and obviously no adapter is required. Not trying to be cheap but I always feel guilty spending bigger money.

 

Yes if you expect it to behave like a Turbohydramatic 400 you will be disappointed!

 

have you read thru @PhilA thread on rebuilding and fine tuning his hydramatic. He knows them from every point of view. Might pick up some ideas on how to improve the shifting of your Pontiac.

 

The "not in first" seems to be the most common complaint with the Hydra-Matic.
Can you tell which gear it's in when it gets hung up coming to a stop?

Mine gets hung up when it gets warm, the valve body is worn past tolerances.

Getting hung up when cold sounds more like dirt and varnish buildup inside the valve block and/or possibly the governor.

Phil

 

If you are going tail dragger style why don’t you put a Saginaw full syncro 3 speed in there and hook it to the 40 column shift
I’m going to try that on my 39 as I love column shift especially on a mild custom

 

Once it is warm I have no issues, it just takes 5 miles of driving to get there, sitting idling for 10 minutes before heading out really does not help. I recently switched from current spec modern car ATF that had been it 5 or 6 years since the rebuild to Type A ATF and it improved a ton (used to have issues all the time not just when cold) but still not as good as I'd like. I'm thinking it is only droping into second in slow speed corners so I can in some instances back off the throttle and ease it up to speed. When it was really bad I swear it was in third. I am frankly fearful from years of it behaving badly with the old ATF of any situation where I have to pull away in front of oncoming traffic or merge into flowing traffic, so I sit and sit waiting for a huge window between cars with a line piling up behind me of angry jelly bean cars. The real rub is there is a busy Y intersection with a crossing traffic yield sign right beyond my driveway that I am never warmed up enough for. Two years from now it is planned to be a traffic circle......so I guess I just need to be a bit more patient.

I know almost nothing of this transmission, thanks for the suggestion. I will spend some time tonight looking into it. I have a very nice column and was thinking of I did go with the Hydra or a modern auto I could modify it to shift it. Never really considered there might be a modern column shift option. I'm more low and slow than hot rod these days; too many cars, stop signs and red lights to get up any real speed anywhere in the metro area

 

Looking into this too, thank you.

 

There are a few reasons it would hang in an upper gear:-
Governor piston gummed up and getting stuck at the top of travel until things loosen up a touch with warmth. Can be taken out from side pan to be inspected/cleaned.
3-4 shift "swapover" piston getting stuck.

Mine won't shift down to 1 until about 2-3 mph, that is normal and by design. In regular running it really only stays in 2, 3 and 4, most of that 3 and 4. Again, by design (3/4 is the stronger clutch/band).

When it is cold, does it crunch into Reverse if you aren't at a dead stop?

 

If you got an Olds to Flathead flat plate adaptor and a Flathead to Chevy adaptor you could use the ford clutch cross shaft and your stock pedals

 

There is also the 49-51 merc 3 spd with electric overdrive that will bolt directly to the flathead.

 

A couple things here. The Saginaw transmissions have 4 different gear ratios, and a 3 or 4 speed option. If you are running a 3.08 gear ratio out back, you might want to find either the 2 or 3 line input shaft version so you can take off from a stop sign on a hill without burning up your clutch.

Saginaw 3-speed 1st 2nd 3rd n/a n/a
Saginaw 3-speed – 1 Line 2.54 1.50 1.00 n/a n/a
Saginaw 3-speed – 2 Lines 3.11 1.84 1.00 n/a n/a
Saginaw 3-speed – 3 Lines 3.50 1.89 1.00 n/a n/a
Saginaw 3-speed – No Lines (grooves) 2.85 1.68 1.00 n/a n/a
Saginaw 4-speed 1st 2nd 3rd 4th n/a
Saginaw 4-speed – 1 Line 2.54 1.80 1.44 1.00 n/a
Saginaw 4-speed – 2 Lines 3.11 2.20 1.47 1.00 n/a
Saginaw 4-speed – 3 Lines 3.50 2.47 1.65 1.00 n/a
Saginaw 4-speed – No lines 2.84 2.01 1.35 1.00 n/a
(Saginaw gear ratios stolen from https://m.roadkillcustoms.com/transmission-gear-ratio-chart/)

I used a 3 line 3 speed in my coupe for the first try, thinking I could use a Chevy to Early Ford and Early Ford to Chevy stack of adapters. What I realized later is that my input shaft didn't go into the pilot bushing and the clutch plate and throw out bearing didn't line up well, so I tore up a couple of throw out bearings. I wound up swapping it with a Chevy bellhousing, used a hydraulic setup, and made it work nicely.

My current setup is a column shifted Saginaw 4 speed. 1-4 are on the column and the push/pull Throttle knob is used to engage reverse. It's a cool setup, but it was kinda fun really winding it up between shifts with the 3 speed, since the ratio is so wide. The first drive with the 4 speed, I dang near shot myself through the window shifting from 1st to 2nd when I let out the clutch. LOL

 

Took me a few days to go test this out and no it does not. From what you are saying it is now working as it should, most of the time. If I lived out in the country and not in the city it would probably not be such a big deal to me. There are over 5 million people in greater Atlanta, and growing each day as one of the top ten fastest in the country. The way things are going I wont "finish" the '40 till retirement and that dream includes a move outside the city limits, possibly very far outside.

Thanks @bchrismer for the skinny on the 3-4 speeds. My t5 in my 216 powered chevy has a 4.something first which works real good with the 3.08 rear in it. Looking at those the three stripe 3.50 does seem optimal as the 303 has a lot more power than the 216 with about the same vehicle weight to pull. I will keep an eye out for one and see what comes along my way. I have seen these transmissions at the local swap but never gave them a second look.

 

No, it's not working the way it should; not crunching into reverse is a good sign (means your primary pump at least is in good condition).
Suggests that the 1-2 shift valve is getting stuck against the spring when it's cold.

Taking the valve block off and cleaning it out may very well help. They don't well tolerate being gummed up.

 

Ok, thank you. That gives me a small something to do that hopefully can help with the drivability issue. I do have the factory manual for the trans so getting it apart and back together should not be too difficult.

 

I'm going to be doing a clean up and refit of a new valve block coming to me from @bchctybob so I'll post pictures and explanation if it would help.

The manual assumes you've already been to the factory training class, and omits a modest bit of detail, especially a clear description of all the parts. You have to piece the operation together from several chapters.