Projects The 48 hour coupe

I cannot confirm that just yet lol

Where you think you're headed with the move?

 

This was way more of a PITA than it should have been.

Dead battery
Drive it halfway up before it died and I had to use the jeep and a strap to pull it the rest of the way which turned out to be a chore mostly due to me trying to use the square trailer frame as a "pulley" to pull with the Jeep from behind lol. It's always something.



And found this little guy last night

 

That sounds about right lol


Nice hitch hiker

 

Well, nothing is set in stone yet, but it's looking like the Oklahoma City area. We have committed to this school year in our current jobs so it'll be next summer. A lot can happen in 9 months, so we'll see.

I'll be praying for y'all, especially a smooth transition and fast friends made for the girls.

 

We made it.

It was a process. My wife needed to be here by yesterday to start her new job... then realized Tuesday last week she needed to be here by Thursday to get her work computer because she wouldn't have time Monday and they were closed on Friday. So they left first thing Wednesday morning. And #2, 1 of 3 dogs and I stayed back to finish packing the house. Which really meant I needed to do most of it because 9 year olds lose I Teresa in packing/moving very quickly lol.

Planned to leave first thing Friday. Then that changed to first thing Saturday and eventually we pulled out at 7:30 Saturday evening.

Drove to Shreveport and stayed the night.
Drove all day Sunday and made it to Covington, GA and stayed another night. Thats just east of Atlanta (I really didn't want to deal with Atlanta traffic on a Monday morning with a 26' box truck and car trailer) worked out alright because one of my best friends from HS lives in Covington so we were able to meet up monday mor ing befire we really got going. Didn't realize that was where he lived until after we got our hotel or we would have crashed with him.
We made it to the house about 4:30 last night git heckled by the new neighbors as I tried to back the trailered coupe into the drive before giving up and using my jeep with a much better turning radius.

Anyway. Now we're here and I get to unload mostly alone again while yhe wife works and the kids get right back to bickering and fighting with each other over the smallest/dumbest stuff.

Cheers from the East Coast now.

Oh and we hit rain and the first wave was over I realized I never taped up the holes in the hood for the carbs. So first thing once we get unloaded is to pull the plugs and make sure the engine is clear.

Then carb rebuild
brake work
Clutch work
And start patching and putting things back together more solidly

 

Man after a summer of long hard drives cruising the model A will feel like a luxury car

 

Can't wait...

It's killing me walking past it and not really being able to mess with it.

 

So as you do when moving the got boxes in with boxes and air that needs to go to storage cause this temp home is only temporary. Until we sell our TX house and either get kicked out for being a hoodlum or our lease runs out at which time we will look to buy something here.

Anyway I started digging it out today cause I like being able to see it when the garage is open (+ street cred with my law mower jockey retiree neighbors)

Ordered rebuild kits for the carbs.
Ordered choke parts for both carbs as I've always been told 94s like the choke plate in place even if you aren't using them.
Got intake bolts to replace the ones that are missing (more on that later)

Got a proper throttle pedal so I can relocate the one that's in a goofy spot on the floor
Got an 8ba fan assembly and dual belt crank pulley
Rebuilt starter (installed)
Rebuilt Generator (not installed)

Need to clean up a bit more before I can really dig in. But I'm full go with bench building.

Current goal is to have it roadworthy by the Run to the Sun car show here in Myrtle Beach in early spring. Not sure if I'll get everything sorted out to make that happen but it's a spot on the calendar to shoot for. Not too close not too far.


So I got some bolts to replace the missing bolts holding the intake on. Turns out I didn't actually look at the holes. There's no holes in the block to put bolts in. This 8ba intake is drilled for a 59a with extra holes that aren't there on an 8ba block. That normal for these intakes? The rest of the intake says it's for an 8ba. It has the front oil fill and road draft tube that 59as don't have since they road draft through the block and oil pan.

But it also has the 59a style oil fill%fuel pump stand on the back too. That's easily bolted on though so not that weird there.

I also got an 8ba dual belt crank pulley so I can run a mechanical fan but I'm realizing i'm going to need to raise the engine to use it since the one on there now is too close to the front crossmember as-is unless someone has any better ideas.

That's pretty much it just getting thoughts in writing for future reference lol.

Oh and TX house is on the market officially if you know anyone looking to move to Fort Worth.

 

Awesome

 

I rebuilt both carbs. 1 carb I found the throttle plates were flipped and upside down. Probably not a big difference maker but I switched them back.

That same carb had 1 jet that was put in crooked and boogers the threads. Not bad enough that I was able to work the new jet in and out slowly and straightened them out and got the jet fully seated without fucking things up so that was a win. I tried going to my parts stash but didn't have a better main body than what I had

Both carbs had mismatched gaskets for the clusters and among some other gaskets that definitely needed replaced.

That was last night and I had a tank set at work first thing this morning so haven't had a chance to try running it yet to see if anything changed with the popping as soon as you crack open the throttle

Went with 5.5 PV in 1 carb and a power valve plug in the other. Same as I did on the 59a in my old '47

.048 jets

Both pv and jets are the same as I ran back in Iowa so I'm assuming I may have to play with jets a little since I'm at Sea level now.

Also not above any advice for jets or PV selection. So shoot away.

 

Keep up the good work, bit by but they happen

 

Kick ass looking forward to hearing how it goes. I’m curious if you checked the bottom of the carb for flatness while it was off? Seems like a pop could be a vacuum leak?

 

Congrats Red...you have a Hotrod complete with lots of Hokey Ass built in...and it worked......doesn't mean you can't make it better...careful it might hug you...

It came from that land of square roll bars...your's looks round though...

Where the graphics messed up for privacy...I know your iteration is 15/16 years old but did it have an older past?

That was a pretty cool roadster keeping it company too...

Anyways look forward to your new adventure with it...

 

Plan today was to prime the carbs and atart it so i could see if my popping issues still exiats.

Get home from work
Try to start the coupe.
Nothing... it's charged but the key isn't doing anything.
Get out my meter and check the switch it's not working.
Run to the store to get a new one.
Swap that out. And nothing. Went back and re-ohmed my old switch and now it's working fine? (operator error 100%) but the switch in the car still isn't doing anything.

Frustrated so I hot wired straight to the starter side of the solenoid to crank it and fill the bowls. And after a couple seconds of that now my switch is working again. I assume I need to get a solenoid. I have one somewhere but it's lost in the moving boxes atm.

Cranked. Fired right up. But it's still really sluggish off idle. I.e. doesn't like throttle input at all. And after running for a minute it was starting to pop again. (I'm. Trying to do science and only touch 1 thing at a time and recheck lol)
So I shut it off and moved onto the next thing which was new exhaust manifold gaskets and at the same time replacing the socket Allen head bolts and orange rtv holding them to the block.

That itself was a chore. The bolts I got were for cast manifolds and too long for my headers. So I cut those down and did the drivers side. Getting the bolts restarted was a chore between the steering column. But eventually I got them all in. On that side at least.

Checked again still pops.

Going to check for vacuum leaks after I finish the passenger side

Sorry no pics.

 

Yeah the roll bar is round tube.

The lettering is different in a lot of the picture I got from Mike ig page and his for sale ad. Being in the road for as long as it had I'm sure it's seen a number of iterations.

I think Mike built it from a pile of parts though so not sure of its history before he got it together.

 

Is it popping through the exhaust or the carb? Have you checked the fuel pressure out of the pump?

 

Popping out exhaust. Just kinda getting started with it so no haven't checked fuel pressure.

 

Man I want to say shit in the fuel filter but have you checked the timing?

 

great story! Congratulations on your hotrod!

 

Thanks @manyolcars

One thing at a time Tim. Thought about timing but haven't really looked at anything ignition wise yet.

 

Have you changed the spark plugs/ plug wires yet?

even just pulling the plugs should give you an idea of the health of the motor.

 

I looked at the plugs a while back.

Im oretty shit at ready plugs but nothing stood out. No plugs dripping in oil and no melted electrodes. They were all a little sooty but nothing too crazy.

Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, etc all seem to have been on there a while so that's where I'm going to start next.

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/EgGq68Xc7CQ?si=dCIotxk0xMKtG96p
Video was last night. You can clearly head it missing when you try to give it any throttle. You have to sort of work it up to get the rpms up and then it pops out the exhaust at random intervals. Its kind of hard to hear the pops in the video but in person they are much more snappy and louder.

Pulled the distributor this morning. I have new stuff coming as I said but still wanted to mess around with what I have while I want for new parts.

The cap is 2 piece. There's definitely some crustyness inside. Amd what looks like arc tracing between 4-8 and the beginning of another trace off of #5





I wiped some dirt and oil off the unit. Grabbed some 400 and touched up the points, touched up the contacts in the cap as best I could. Made sure firing order was correct base timed to get it running. And it seemed a little better but still popping. I pulled wires at each plug while it was running. 4 & 8 didn't seem to make any difference while the rest you could head it drop rpm a little.

My currently thinking is that 4 & 8 aren't firing and the unburnt fuel mix is getting pushed right out into the exhaust where uts getting ignited by the hit exhaust from the other cylinders. That would seem to explain why the popping out the exhaust isn't timed consistently and also why it happens more after running a little bit and things start warming up.

I feel like I'm starting to narrow in on it and am hopeful my new parts will help.

 

I think you’re on the right track! Should be annoying the neighbors in no time

 

Already there lol. Overheard one of the old timers (retirees who prefer mowing multiple times a day over cool shit like hot rods) proclaim to his wife after I was running popping like crazy that it "needed the carburetor adjusted" lol.

This was right after I finished rebuilding the carbs and putting it back together.

So I should probably cancel my parts order and go back to troubleshooting the carbs right?

 

Well to be fair what’s the first thing you did when it sounded like that….

probably just wants an invite to come bench race

 

I’m really no expert, but that cylinder 4 and 8 deal doesn’t really look good.

 

Is 4&8 getting spark? Weak spark? Put one of those light up thingys in line with the plug wire. What do those 2 plugs look like?

Since 4&8 are across from each other, makes me wonder if those cam lobes are going away, hope not.

 

I have one those things just need to remember where it is.

If my theory is right then the cam would need to be operating to get the fuel mix out into the exhaust right?

I suppose maybe going out but not gone yet would still work.

I'll look into that.

After the new ignition stuff my next step is going to be pulling heads I think.

Fuel, spark, compression.

 

I could be wrong but, if the 4&8 are arcing across each other, wouldn’t they both be firing when 4, and then 8 fire? So both actually firing twice on one revolution.