Projects The 48 hour coupe

That makes sense @roadwarrior84

Just confirmed with a spark tester though. #4 & #8 are not getting spark.

New tune up parts should be here tomorrow. So hopefully it's just a dead wire or something in the cap causing problems amd new parts will fix it. If not, I guess I'll just keep digging.

 

Hope it works.

 

Well got the new wires and then realized I am an idiot and didn't realize my distributor was a mallory dual point and not a stock one. So the wire ends were different at the cap. And my replacement cap wasn't going to work.

So I called my friend back in Iowa Gene Cross and had him send me a rebuilt stock unit.

That arrived today. Got it and everything else installed. One if the new wires I git from Noble was missing a terminal end but I was able to rig up one of the old ones from a known good cylinder until I can get that terminal.

Runs much better
Runs on 8 cylinders (novel concept lol)
And best of all no more popping.

Runs well enough for me to move onto other things like the clutch that won't fully disengage and the brakes. Then I can start driving it and work out some more bugs.



Pretty stoked.

 

Great to read of the progress!

 

Looks like you are making progress. I hope to see it in person someday.

 

Awesome progress for sure

 

Fantastic progress. That's gonna be one fun ride when you get the kinks worked out. Lovin' the Flathead making some music.

 

Playing around with the coupe today. I added a vacuum line fir the distributor as PO had it blocked off and open to atmosphere.

After that it didn't really want to start very well so I recheck led the timing and was eventually able to get it running like it was the other day.

Then I put my hand over the rear carb felt it sucking air... then checked the front and sister feel any suction. Got out my uni-sync and confirmed that. Text the hot rod friends group chat which got me a hamb thread link on syncing multiple carbs.

Tried starting it again and click click click.
Seemed locked up for some reason even putting a socket on the crank bolt got nowhere. Figured either something big broke inside (badnews) or the starter teeth git jammed on the flywheel (less badnews)

So I pulled the starter which promptly pulled apart thanks to the bolts holding flathead starters on also hold then together. But the engine turned over freely after the starter was off which obviously was great news.

OK put that back on and tried again

The hamb link had me resync the linkage first.
I disconnected the linkage so the carbs were working individually again. And set the idle speed to where the unisync read the same on each. Then locked the linkage back down to each other again. From there I turned the idle speed back down to where it should be. And mix screws actually seemed OK for now but I can mess with that later.
After all that it is running great. Idles well, revs well. So much better than when I first got it.

fun fact i also realized on my old '47 (also ran a 2x2 super dual intake) I never did this procedure lol. Still ran pretty well but I wonder how bad the sync was really.

Now back to whatbi was supposed to be doing next... clutch and brakes

 

Kick ass on all accounts!

 

Synced up some Weber 44’s on my bug a few months ago. Noticed a big difference in drivability and performance.

 

...I did this Inspiration just for fun......Big move Red...the shot of the pooch was funny...the blue wool scrunchy thing looked like a hair accessory...

Hope your all settling in okay...I'm not big on moving but sometimes its a necessary thing...Engine sounds great and glad the lockup was starter related...I have a couple carbs on mine, have a uni-syn but have yet to try it...I might kick myself for not using it sooner...
​

 

That's great Stogy. Can't wait to show #2. And I wouldn't be surprised if #1 & #3 want their own versions too lol.

This was the thread I followed but honestly it was pretty straight forward and probably wouldn't even need directions to follow.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/very-basic-multiple-carb-sync-tech.124624/

I noticed a difference right away just standing next to it in the garage. Still haven't really been able to drive it to know how it is on the road yet.

Not much so far but it has been fun to get things going in the right direction.

 

Went out to the garage today to tackle the clutch not disengaging. It would move a little at the clutch lever but not enough to actually release the clutch.

Started with attempting to bleed the system
It's a cobbled together thing using parts from who knows what. MC sits next to the brake MC. Stock but modified '39 pedals. Rod pushes the MC then the slave cyl pulls back on the clutch lever. How hard can it be...





Well apparently pretty hard. I succeeded it taking my barely working clutch and making it a non working clutch. It's kinda kicking my ass lol. So far I've just been trying to gravity bleed amd it's not working. Headed to the store to grab one of those Chinese vacuum bleeder things. Since mine is still in Iowa at dad's storage unit there. Going to try that to see if it gets anywhere positive. But I'm all ears for suggestions or just telling me what I already know that I don't know what I'm doing lol.

I don't want to spend any money actually replacing things because I'd like to convert it back to mechanical linkage at some point.

 

Well I was able to get it back to where it was but it still isn't right.

It's actually not quite as much movent as it was before. But it's at least moving again.

https://youtube.com/shorts/puvCxxg9CBQ?si=cfoF8-TfJKVlpp3i

Full pedal swing only nets about 1/4" movement at the slave.
It's irritating me and confusing me. I honestly don't even know how I got it back to where it was. Cause neither my gravity bleeding or the vacuum thing made me think I was getting the air out. It just kept coming out to the point I assume some air is leaking in past the threads on the bleeder and then coming out where I can see it in the clear hose of the bleeder.

Going to move onto other things for now.

Edit:
I didn't move on to other things... I took the linkage from. The pedal to the MC off and lengthened it because it seemed like the pedal moved about halfway through ots arc before the slave moved at all. So I lengthened it as much as I could and still get it bolted back together. As sort of a test. Got a bit more movement with that

But then I started it up to see if it would let me go in gear and still nothing. Either I still need more movement or maybe the clutch disc is sticking itself.

Any tricks to check the disc without pulling the trans? If I do need to pull the trans then I'm kind of dead in the water.

We are just renting our house right now while we wait for our TX house to close and then we will look to buy something here after that. Because of that I don't want to get too deep into pulling this thing apart and have to scramble when it comes time to move.

Think I'm going to call it a day cause I tell I'm getting frustrated and need to take a break.

 

I can't tell how that slave cylinder is mounted, but shouldn't the bleeder be pointed upwards to get the air out? Here's the instructions I found on the Wilwood one (I am assuming this would be common if this is not of this brand) and note the last paragraph under "slave cylinder mounting".
https://www.wilwood.com/PDF/DataSheets/ds751.pdf

 

That's correct it is upside down. That would put the bleeder straight into the pedal assembly though.

I may try that.

Ultimately I'd like to get it back to mechanical linkage so I dint want to spend any money fiddling with this. But I think I could probably swing a new brake line to flip it over lol. Then just have to worry about getting to the bleeder.

I do have it good enough to work once it's actually in gear but the trans is still spinning somehow with the clutch pushed in. There isn't any load on the gears so I assume double clutching or something similar would work to actually drive it around the block.

I'm currently working on getting the front brakes apart cleaned (somewhat) and readjusted to actually work. Im going to buy new showles all around in the near future so didnt go too crazy. Then I was going to try the around the block thing even if that means I just go slow and keep it in 1st gear.

Also getting my rears sorted. I have the backing plates but only 1 side worth of shoes. And only 1 side parking brake linkage.

 

So little break to finish getting all the moving boxes out of the house in time for the In-Laws to visit for Thanksgiving.

That over I need/ed to decide what to do first.

Wiring
Rebuild Brakes and add the rear guts that are not currently on the car
Keep messing with the clutch

Or spend my time browsing FB and ebay for something I could use to make the dash better.

Well I chose the latter lol

I found a really crusty formerly hot roded dash out of what I believe was a '33 Chevy. Per usual, it was worse in person than it seemed in pictures so now I have even less of an issue with cutting it up.



I want to retain the "air channeling" effect that the model a has with their upper dash so my plan was to overlay the 2 and see what needed to he trimmed to physically get the Chevy into place. Then I'll take my time cleaning up the cuts and opening spaces for the air to come through like it would have originally when the windshield is open. Most probably know but in case some done the upper dash of an A at least these ones (28-29) is really more of a scoop at to lower edge of the windshield opening to turn and direct the air straight down across the back side of the stock A gas tank. probably not a big difference maker since the windshield needs to be open for it to work and then if the windshield is open we'll you get the idea, regardless I like the look with it in and if it's in it might as well function too.

Anyway, I layed the A Dash over the Chevy and they were actually pretty close. So I started by chopping off the flange on the top of the Chevy so the A could actually nest over it and see where it went from there.



Then I trimmed a little more off the top edge so I could fully hide the stamped part at the top of the Chevy. I Thought it would look strange if you were able to see that poking out.



Then test fit again and marked my next cuts. you can see my my lines on the sides to bring it in so it actually fit between the A pillars

And then speaking of A pillars I found these 2 items in the bottom of the A Pillar channel.. Pretty opposite ends of the spectrum IMO lol a 1 hitter and a captain of the school safety patrol badge haha. Kept the badge... tossed the pipe.



After that it was time to play with ideas on gauge placement. I kinda dig the layout here. Others think it's too busy which I can see as well.

As always I'm open to suggestions but either I'm planning to play arts and crafts later to work on layout before going much further.

This Chevy dash needs a fair bit of repair anyway before I can really set anything in stone.

I did gather a hodge podge of small logo SW gauges nothing too fancy but they were in the right budget


Speedo had some paint inside of it so I split the bezel and can that the other night and cleaned it all up, repainted the inside of the cup and crimped it back together looks much better. I'd never done that before so I was nervous, but really it wasn't too bad. Razor to scrape the paint off. Windex the hell out of the glass making sure not to leave any fingerprints. Set the odometer back 1.9 miles to zero remake the sandwich and then used my railroad tie that has a nice sharp corner to crimp against and used one of my bigger tapered drifts to fold back the crimp. Heavier drift allowed me to use that as the weighted force as well. Instead of needing manage holding the gauge, drift and a hammer all at the same time and in the right spot. I assume the bigger gauges are slightly easier than small ones. But I have a small volt meter coming that could due with a similar treatment and honestly it was cheap enough if I break it I won't be too upset and just find another.







And finally clamped the dash in place for now while I work out how I want to cut and weld the 2 dashes together... or I suppose I could just leave it as a sandwich but I may as well do it right... right


Certainly I'm not the first person to try this, but I didn't go into it looking at what others have done like I usually do... I looked for something that might work bought it and am making it work. And I think it works pretty well with pretty minimal effort so far.

Center oval I'll fill with a panel that either gets engine turned or ill try to mimic what Chevy did with a horizontal striped panel like this. Which is what would have been on a '33 Chevy as a little nod to its roots.

 

Good stuff Adam!

You should fog the dash all one color primer so you can invision it a little better.

and nice job on the gauge resto! those black/white stewart warners are my favorites.

 

Looking good. Time to dunk that dash in citric acid!

 

Let's have a vote
Gauges are
Speedo (3 13/16")
Tach (3 13/16")
Oil pressure (2 1/4")
Water temp (2 1/4")
Volts (2 1/4")
Vacuum (2 1/4")

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7


I don't have them labeled but Speedo would be on the left Tach on right.
As for the small ones layout dictates how many I can run. Oil and water are obviously making the cut. After that the 3rd would be volts. And if I can fit 4th the vacuum.

Some layouts would leave options to add the light switch, ignition key, idiot lights, or turn indicator lights others I'd need to have other plans for those things

No fuel level gauge because I don't have a good way to add a sender to the tank in the trunk as of yet if that comes up later naturally it would slot in in with oil and water as definitely using.

This is just inside the oval. Lots of options if I were to move Speedo and/or Tach over to in front of the driver but that would lose symmetry of the dash.

 

I think I like #1 best. Don’t forget how big the bezels are when it comes to fitting and how it looks

 

I like #4 the best, that leaves room for the key and light switch

 

The circles were traced from the gauges placed on face down on the paper. These should be the actual width with the bezel. Possibly they are a tiny bit oversize

 

#1 or #7

 

#5. If it were mine, I would forego the vacuum gauge and have the remaining three gauges placed between the speedometer and the tach.

 

#4 for sure, key in the bottom left spot, light switch in the right, make it unbolt and disconnect from the rest of the dash and you could wire it on the bench instead of under the dash.

 

@BigJoeArt yeah could use a weather pack connector pretty easy.

4 sounds good with some shoebox switches in those spaces. I was assuming the switch’s somewhere else but that’s absolutely something to consider. I’ve drawn up my dash arrangements the A about a zillion times playing with that all

 

Yep, If putting in in the dash you want it below the gauges so the key chain doesn't rattle on the gauge glass.

4 accessory gauges is Kool, but might get busy?
Could the vac gauge be used in the engine bay? With another temp/oil press or something??

 

That was the thing I didn't like about #5 it has the space for keys and a switch but they'd hand right in front of the gauge.

Hadn't thought about the engine side for the vacuum gauge. I like that.