Yes, I intend to be at the show next weekend with the Chevy, but for the sake of answering your request here in the thread, this is what I got at the moment: My intention is to make the whole front of the record player flip down rather than the using the flip up door....that gets in the way of the air getting up to your face. Making the whole front flip down I can make a plate for the vents to mount in up at the top half and have a bit of a glove box/shelf at the bottom since the glove box is gone now with the ac unit there of course. Also, I used the slider switch deals Vintage Air makes for 64 Impalas to convert the factory heater control to run the ac. There was an article in Custom Rodder (I think) years back using those to convert the 49/50 Chevy heater switch to help hide all this stuff. Works great. I know the 51/52 Dash is different, so I don't know what that heater switch looks like, but I throw it out there if it's something you wanna mess with. I'll be using the same VA pieces to do the Merc heater controls.
Great stuff Dave. I hope to see you at the show. I'm coming in on Friday night. I have a really nice 51-52 set of slider controls that I am going to be converting to work with the VA slider switches. I have a great resource in the guys that sold me the unit, Sachse Rod Shop over in Sachse TX. Mike over there has been great and he has gone over the install with me time and time again to make sure I get it right. He is going to assist me in making up the line set for the install as well. I am anxious to get the mounts in place so I can wrap up painting under the dash. I need to start getting the little unfinished parts of the project knocked out 1 by 1.
It's exciting when the little pieces start lining up and suddenly a big chunk can get done and bang!....look ma, that looks like progress!
I got some work done this evening. I got the Vintage Air unit mocked up and brackets made. It's a slick unit for sure! I also mocked up the Newport Engineering electic wiper motor to be sure there was no interference. I'll take it all back out now and paint under the dash with epoxy primer and then white paint. Starting to gain a little momentum here......
Its been awhile since I have posted here so I thought I would make an update. Today was a good day for my car, and for me. I recently had a quadruple bypass back on Feb 17th and have been trying to get back to doing the things I enjoy. Sundays is usually Car day when @trevorsworth drives over from Weatherford and lately we have been working on his Model T project, before I had to take a break for the heart surgery. Well today we rolled the Sedan Delivery out into the driveway and decided it was time to get some things done to it. I had started building the brake system on this car years ago, but never put brake fluid in or bled the brakes or adjusted the new emergency brake cable system I had installed. I had bought a dual master cylinder from O'reilly's that had a lifetime warranty and built a bracket for it from a thread I found here on the HAMB. The master cylinder had at some point gotten a lot of moisture in it and was quite rusty inside, so I had a friend pull it out for me a week or so ago as I am not quote ready to crawl under the car, and I went and exchanged it for a new one. Trevor and I had to modify it a bit as they didn't have an exact replacement, so we got that done, and installed it. We started priming the system and there were a few fittings that leaked due to not being seated properly, or not tightened at all when I bent and flared all the lines up back several years ago, but within a couple of hours we had good brake pedal and had bled all the lines and still had great pedal. We need to modify the pushrod and adjust the emergency brake cables and rear shoes to complete the work but for all intents and purposes I now have a working brake system. While I have been recovering I started fooling around with the 235 six banger engine that has been sitting for years with a dual carb setup from Tom Langdon and the engine had never been fired up, so I checked everything over really well, and hit the key on the stand that I had built for break-in of the engine, and that bad boy fired right up! It appears to be ready to be dropped in the car, so I have a few things to do first, like heal up for a few more weeks, and that is going to happen. I will try to post up a video of the engine after bit. It was a great day for me, and thanks to Trevor for helping me with it. It wont be long before I drive this car, even if it is around the pasture here!
Damn brother, glad you're up and at it! Not so glad that you had to go through all of that though. Looking forward to your progress, since mine is nonexistent lol
It's a good thing they found what they did when they did, as I didn't have a major cardiac event like a stroke or heart attack. Got the plumbing all taken care of so I'm ready to rock and roll for a lot more years with good health as long as I do the right things!
There's a strange synchronicity in getting both your plumbing and your car's plumbing sorted out at about the same time. I can't wait to get that six slapped in there!! It sounds crazy good.
Glad to see your back was wondering what had happened to you and Trevirsworth had not seen any post in a while take time to heal. Frank
Made some more progress today. Trevor had the day off so he made his way over to the house. We set the engine/transmission into the car, and bolted it to the motor and transmission mounts, and hooked up the clutch to make sure there wasn't any interference with the new Heim joint we put in the master cylinder for the brakes. All is well, got a measurement for the drive shaft and will get one made up in the next few days. Closer and closer to driving this old heap. I decided a while back I want to drive it before I make it pretty. It may not ever be pretty with all the rookie body work, but I'll drive the wheels off it!
Just remember, they all look good at 60 MPH. No one really knows what they are looking at but it's Kool.
You've been a great help and kept me inspired on this long project sir, and I cannot tell you what that means to me. But this IS finally happening!
Hey Dick! Good to see ya! When I get this heap on the road I'll give it a shakedown run over to Arlington and buy you a cold beverage of your choice!
Man! Sorry to hear about the ticker, but glad you caught it and got it all taken care of before there was an issue! Truck is looking great! So excited for ya! You’re gonna like those carbs…I’ve been real happy with them on mine. Looking forward to catching up with you in a few weeks at the SK
Thanks man! Looking forward to it as well Dave. I have tickets to the Tedeschi-Trucks Band concert the night before in Dallas but will get up early and drive in on Saturday morning and probably spend Saturday night before driving back, kinds depends on what my stamina is in early May. It's a 4 hour drive one way. But either way I'll see you on Saturday.
This is great brother. It gives me fire as well. I am super stoked that you are going to be at SK this year. I will see you and Dave there.
The Jalopy Journal
