I think that's my next move. The part that really sucks is that it doesn't do it consistently, so I just kinda have to drive around and 'hope' it doesn't do it again.
I have a stock style, aftermarket mech fuel pump on the sbc in my A. It puts out 16psi and caused me a year of similar headaches..... Regulated to 3psi, all the problems went away.
I got a couple pictures from a guy I met on Saturday, showing my power parking skills in the grass under a tree. I drove the roadster to work on tuesday, and once I got home, I worked on getting the turn signals fixed, as you can see in the photo above, they had come loose on the trip to lincoln. I didn't drive the roadster to work wednesday, since there was a chance of rain. It didn't rain all day. So as soon as I got home I rolled it out to go to the post office. Once home I did a little once over and cleaned the spark plugs. I had a little snack and headed out to get some parts from a guy about 30 miles away. Of course I took the fun car. I made it down without a hitch, and stopped right before I got back onto hwy 71. It was a beautiful night, so I took it easy coming home. I got up this morning and was determined to drive the roadster. All was well until about 2:30, when I had to use my silver tarp (ala texas trip) to cover the car up, and keep my seats dry. of course that only works till it's time to go home. I got wet, and boy the rooster tails when I was slowing down for the stoplight sucked. but it does surprise me how little gets wet going 60 down the highway. It did make me think about a top for the rainy days...
I drove my old truck to work today too. Was raining when I left home. Then had a meeting where I could see it from the meeting room as the storm rolled in with both windows down and cowl vent and side vent open. I swear there was water dripping from the headliner. I got back to the shop in time time for everyone to call me soggy bottom boy.
its a placeholder (mechanical) tach just to fill the hole while my vintage (electronic) 6k tach gets refurbished. when I get it the correct one back it will be hooked up and working. I also stuck the drive oil gauge in place of the vacuum gauge. it went with the tach to get fixed. I woke up this morning to a nice surprise, my good buddy Tom Secora posted this shot of the T at Lincoln. and so I hopped in my roadster and went to work. Cant wait for the weekend.
I'll probably come up for a bit. I never understood postponing for rain. it never works. dad and a couple others got burned by them a couple years ago when they postponed and it didnt rain, a bunch of people showed up and then were turned away. Just ticked most of the people off.
boy what a weekend. So I wound up not making it to the above mentioned show, even though I had planned on possibly stopping by on my way home. you'll see why here in a minute. I woke up a little late, and set out for Omaha around 7. my goal was Cal Automotive Creations, in Bennington, NE. The T ran great, and once I hit interstate, I just put it where it felt good. I decided to avoid the mess that is council bluffs, and sneak across the river at Plattsmouth NE. That meant I got to cross the old river bridge. Once I got through Omaha, it wasn't far till I was there. my buddy Eric showed up right after me in his Edsel, and after he showed me around the shop (he works there) we walked back out to this Packard on the other side of me, making my car look like a toy. We wound up sitting with the Tom Secora's (JR and SR) and checking out their little model A roadster. Once the sun encroached on us, we knew it was time to leave. I took Eric for a quick spin around the block and then came back and picked up Tom SR, who wanted to ride with me to lunch. We followed Tom JR in the roadster through the traffic of Omaha, two gnarly little hot rods, disturbing the peace. Sr took the roadster and headed home and I gave JR a ride the few miles back to his shop. we hung out for awhile (It was so good I forgot to take any pictures) and after safety wiring the base of my grille back together, I departed off to Rob Lee's house. I had never been to Rob's house before, but was still surprised when Google maps was sending me down an alleyway. not knowing any better, I took off down the back alley, and drug pretty hard on a high spot in the center of the narrow alley. But after a quick trip around the block, Rob waved me into his actual driveway. I got the 10 cent tour and the full rundown of his latest roadster project, and His son, Alex's project 40 merc. After awhile Jaden (pictured above leaning on the windshield) got ready to leave, but came right back into the shop. He said "you've got a big oil leak under your car" so I walked outside to find a puddle, the length of my car. Culprit? see the little round spot above the plug hole? Apparently, the drain plug had hit, got tweaked and ripped that little hole in the pan. while I was getting the tour, It drained the oil out of the motor. As usual though, I have immaculate luck with breaking down in the best places. Case in point, the Lee's. unfazed, they offered the whole shop to help fix it and get me on the road. Rob even hopped in to weld a bead or two on the pan. after A few rounds of cleaning, grinding, welding, and testing, we came up with this beauty.. And it almost didn't leak. but it was getting late, so we resorted to some goop. (two part epoxy JB weld) Convinced by 30 minutes of waiting for another leak that never came, we cleaned up and got ready to leave. Rob was headed out to meet up with some people at a local party, and I turned my tires south. I made my way south on hwy 75 and shot over on 34, stopping at a gas station to see if it was still holding. All was good and dry, and so I slid out onto I29 and hunkered down. I stopped again at rockport, as I got off Interstate, all was still dry. So I continued the last 45 minutes home. And before I knew it, I was home! Before I went upstairs, I stuck a towel under the pan, just to see if it leaked. And..... it did. but only a few drops. Still, I decided to see if I could do a better job welding it up, because to get the pan off I have to pull the motor. (Who designed this chassis anyway?) so after draining the oil, and spending a bunch of time cleaning, welding, and grinding, I finally got it to hold. Still doesn't look pretty, but it holds oil so who cares. I'll throw some paint on it, and probably make a skid plate so it doesn't happen again. In the meantime, I've got more miles to tack on. When you add the 2200 from before I my speedometer working, I clicked over 3000 total miles yesterday.
its a blast. makes going to work more fun. Here's a excerpt from this morning's drive. last night I played a little with something I've wanted to do since I started this thing, partially due to the influence of Russ' "Takeout T" Panel stripes! I still have a lot of final bodywork to do before I put a final coat of paint, and a set of stripes on it, but I can dream up some layouts right? they will be bright white, and I think once the car has a couple more finishing touches, it will play out quite nicely. and yes, when I do that, I'll repaint the headers as well.
What’s it been getting on the highway for millage now that the majority of your driving has been at speed on the big road?
its been getting 20-22 mpg on the highway. I haven't done the math since I have had an odometer. I could probably get more exacting, but 20
Sure makes it a lot More fun when you can afford to drive it lol. Looking forward to seeing your skid plate solution
Another photo from my buddy tom secora. she's all gassed up and ready to head out in the AM. I'll try to do some road updates.
holy cow what a weekend. 650 more miles on the roadster, 2500 total miles traveled by me. Oh did I mention we did it in three days? On Thursday Adam (@redzula) messaged me, saying he was traveling to Pennsylvania to pick up a hot rod he bought, and needed another driver to make the trip. so of course, being A leader in supporting bad ideas, I said yes! the plan was hatched to meet in st louis and then continue on to PA. so I cleaned the windows, topped off the oil, and set off at 8 on friday morning for St louis. what would a stroker mcgurk do? he would drive in the countryside.. and then stop and eat an ice cream bar. (and some breaded jalapeño mac and cheese poppers) Soon I had mostly without incident made it to st louis. with the T packed away at a friends house in st louis area, I was just waiting for Adam to show up. soon he arrived and we were off. while hacking together a rough plan of how the drive was gonna go, I realized our path would go directly by the Custom Car Revival show in indy. So naturally we had to stop. ( https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ight-with-a-bad-camera.1294647/#post-14892866 ) for more on that stop. after that stop we took turns driving through the night, reaching Pennsylvania and driving all the way across it. at one of the stops on the PA turnpike, there was a load of neat old photos of the construction of the turnpike, loaded with lots of old cars, I really liked this slightly raked 40 ford. By Saturday morning at about 8am we rolled into our destination (near Walnutport PA) and before too long, Adam owned a model A coupe. his first early ford hot rod. It's a little rough around the edges, but it has good bones. Adam had messaged ahead and lined up to go see @IronTrap garage, since we were in the area, and Matt was more than friendly, showing us around his little slice of heaven. I drew a particular liking to his newest Track T. he showed us a bunch of cool artifacts, including some pictures of local hot rods from back in the day. As much as we could have wasted all of his time, and stayed all day, we knew we had to be on our way home. while leaving Irontrap we noticed his town was full of bears, we got a good chuckle out of, A-bear-ham lincoln. here is our little convoy, on the way back from PA. at one of our MANY fuel stops. We drove all night, stopping periodically for short naps, and made it into st louis around 5am sunday morning. We took a couple hour nap in front of my buddies house, and then adam parted ways and I went in and took a shower. after a refreshing shower, and watching the weather roll in, I realized if I left now, I was gonna get wet. My buddy was gonna be gone most of the day, and so I decided to take a quick nap. Well, that quick nap lasted 3 hours, and I woke up at 2pm. now I was probably gonna miss the rain, but I needed to get moving. so I did what any smart person would do, and picked up parts from a buddy on the far south side of st louis. they are vouges, near mint, bias plies. they will go on the T once I mount them to another set of chrome reverses. Once again, I set out for home, dodging rain clouds. stopped for gas, and a drink outside Hannibal, and checked the oil. it was lower than I liked, and I topped it off with almost 2 quarts of oil. from there I went westward, on hwy 36, toward home. after awhile the rain clouds cleared out, just in time for the sun to go down and for it to get cold. all was going well till I hit Hamilton, and my last stop for gas (81 miles from home) I got to the top of the exit ramp and stuck the clutch in, and the car died and wouldn't restart. After coasting into the gas station and filling up with fuel I checked the fuse under the dash and found.... toasty! once I replaced it and got it fired back up, I hit the road right away. (I forgot to check the oil as I had planned *foreshadowing*) I made it a little further, to cameron this time, and it died again at a stoplight. I did the whole song and dance again, take the tires out, kill the power switch under the passenger seat, get the extra fuse from the holder under the driver seat, reach under the dash and remove power fuse, replace with new fuse, put tires back in, try to start, wonder why it doesn't, take tires back out, turn power on under the passenger seat, replace tires, fire up, drive away. while I was there I had to take photos cause the lighting was good. I ran it pretty hard from cameron to st joe, cause it was getting cold and I was ready to be home. Then I turned off I29, onto 71 hwy. I looked down and saw my oil pressure at 0 as soon as I saw it, I shut the motor off fearing the worst. Once I stopped saying curse words at myself, I checked the oil and found there was none on the stick. Turns out if you have no oil on the stick, you have no oil pressure. I called @Austin kays and he came and brought me 3 quarts of oil, and thankfully (after replacing the fuse again) it fired up and had good oil pressure again. He followed me home the last 27 miles. After stopping just outside of town at a stoplight (and replacing another fuse) I made it home. that was 12:30 last night. I'm guessing my fuse thing has something to do with my brake light switch, since it only happened when I was slowing down and hit my brakes. I'm also gonna change the oil and hope I don't see too much glitter in the oil. hopefully get it buttoned up for this sunday's show at stanberry. so yeah, 64 hours, 2500+ miles, and maybe 12 hours of sleep. hot rodding at its finest. It's all about the friends.
The Jalopy Journal
