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

Nice progress!

 

I have anxiety just looking at all the pieces of that transmission taken apart, but sounds like you have it solidly under control. It's a little eerie when it feels like you've found the very last of some maintenance part. Great to have it, but like once you install it, it's the end of an era.

 

I have no idea what I am doing but so far it is going well. I am fully indebted to the shop and parts manuals and a few YT videos I watched a long ways back that share most but not all of what is going on with these.

This is my parts pile: Full rebuild kit with gaskets, steel and friction plates, my NOS band and NOS rear drum and NOS selective thrust washer.



Made a bit of progress as I'm trying to actually get this thing done and in the car as fast as I can. I got the big case all cleaned and wire wheeled. Going to paint before assembly so I do not have to clean it again as the ATF will get all over it.


Pulled down both band servos. These were mostly full of thick old ATF and gunk. The piston rings were stuck and freed up just fine in the parts washer. The servo piston rings are not included in any rebuild kits as they are low wear items and mine seemed fine. These have a lot of parts, without a manual I'd be lost putting them back together. This is the big one. I remembered to take the pic after I started releasing the spring pressure, thus it is crooked.


As opened:

All cleaned up:


Getting the big spring back on and the three internal springs and two pistons pushed in all at once is very hard to do. There is J special tool to do it but I just stated with an extra long bolt in one side and muscled it down till the correct bolt fit the other, then pulled out the too long one for a correct one and tightened it all up. This one is nice because you can put air to one of the ports and test function; and it works as it should.


Small servo has a lot of parts but much less spring pressure, this is after clean up it was all gunky too with a stuck piston ring

Needed this to put back together:


All back together, no air test on this one outside of the case as it has in and out ports. It gets tested once installed.


Next was to disassemble the front oil pump. For '51 only the oil pump is a gear drive unit. It was obsolete within 1951 and replaced through '56 with a vane type unit that can be installed on a '51. The gear/shaft on the right has a woodruf key that powers the smaller inner gear and is not part of the pump itself.


My pump's bushing was very worn. The manual states "some wear" is acceptable as long as it is even wear but if it leads to gear wear it need to be replaced.


I did have a lot of bushing wear but not too much gear wear. There is a worn track from the side of the gears but none on the teeth. I was able to find several NOS bushings for $20 but I decided in for a penny in for a pound and picked up an eBay NOS vane type pump, feed tube and filter screen replacement kit. I figured if Olds thought the gear pump was a bad idea, so should I. Add $162 to my $600 I'm into this for. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!


Next is to rebuild the two drums, I already have the plates and seals so the only things in there that could be bad are springs and their internal pins, both of which are common and not terribly expensive if out of spec.

 

BEST quote ever!! Ive read with interest on your build, and really am impressed with your initiative..

 

Well I had hoped to be finished with the transmission by now but hit a few snags. I pulled apart the rear drum and did find a tiny bit of damage to the steel pins that go inside the return springs. They probably would have been OK but $25 eBay NOS to the rescue again.



So working in stages has a tendency to cause delays. Next I figured out/realized that this transmission has only one bearing, its on the output shaft. Thankfully that was in good condition as to get it out you have to destroy its snap ring (as stated in the manual).


Everything else is a bushing. And several of these are babbit faced! You can see the lead smear on my gloved finger Needless to say I had to go on a hunt for bushings.


Using the factory parts requisition catalog I figured out all the part numbers I needed. 5 in total.


With tax and shipping these 5 bearings averaged $50 each. All were NOS, no other choices. I got lucky that the ones I needed were out there but had to pay up, again. Another $250 in and I'm just short of $1000. These came from three suppliers. Oldsmobile Obsolete, David Edward's Autotrans.com, and Borth Vintage Auto Parts. Without the parts numbers and Google, I'd be totally screwed.


I got 4 of the 5 installed at my buddy Dave's hobby shop seeing as one of the few tools I do not own is a shop press. They just take up too much floor space. The last one to do is a pilot type bushing that goes in the end of the tail shaft for the main shaft to ride in (number 7 on the diagram above). Its in a blind hole and I plan to tap and extract with a bolt and be back at Dave's next Saturday to press the last one in. I can totally recommend the smoked turkey from Greenberg in Texas and as a bonus the box is super durable too for hauling heavy trans parts in.


Cases are primed and ready for paint.


Not as far along as I'd hoped to be by this point but I feel pretty good about what I have accomplished this year. Its going to be a busy January for me work wise with lots of travel and tons of projects coming in, a good problem to have as a sole proprietor. Hopefully I can get a few hours in now an then and get this thing painted and assembled by the end of January.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year to everyone. I'm itching to go for a no glass, no fenders, no exhaust, sitting on bucket ride around the block in 2024!

 

Nice progress. Where's that shop?

 

Dave lives in Marietta. Its a group of mostly Model A and C-10 guys who call themselves the "Rottenwood Garage". They meet up every Saturday early at a diner and head over to the shop to wrench on either a group project or their own cars. They are somewhat famous for this "Model J" group build that started off as a very nice coupe that they cut the rear quarters off. Dave promised the old guy he who he bought it from that he would not chop the top and hot rod it. I guess he abided. 2x4 tube chassis, repro bed, roll cage, SBC, Jeep 4x4 running gear, it went out to the Gathering at the Roc this year.

 

Over due for an update. Been plugging away at the trans. I got the main shaft to rear shaft pilot bushing out using a 3/4" tap to add threads then a bolt and an impact to force it up and out.




Got the cases painted:


Assembled the front and rear drums, put new rings on the oil delivery sleeve. When I went to test this assembly, which can only be done once torqued into the case, with compressed air I had issues. I pinched a lip seal once, luckily it was not torn and I was able to reuse it. But I kept having a leak at the sleeve to front drum join. I wound up refacing the inside of the front drum hub with a little 80 grit wrapped around my finger to give it some tooth for the new rings to set into and it is much improved. It took me at least a week to figure this out. I must have installed and deinstalled that heavy assembly a dozen times.

NOS rear drum and freshly rebushed rear drum hub



New steel and friction plates, reused springs with new NOS steel pins.


Compressing rear drum to get in locking ring.


Oil delivery sleeve and new rings. This goes between the two drums and is secured to the only mounting surface within the cases by a main cap looking thing.

Only J tool one cannot live without for this job. Special ring compressor for the oil delivery sleeve.

All held together with three snap rings.

Also cleaned up the "brain". Lots of little bits in the valve body but thankfully everything looked good. I didn't stop to take during pics and I disassembled, cleaned and reassembled in quick order to not forget how it went back together. Honestly, I will probably disassemble it again to make sure I did it correctly for peace of mind.


Assembled the rear reverse unit. There is a J tool to install the seal here but I just used Mylar to get it past the machined internal lip


Again a J tool is made to compress the reverse cone springs, but I improvised with a 2x4 and some long bolts. There is a big snap ring I am holding to lock it all down

output shaft ready to install

How it all goes together.

Ready to install (I thought).


But when I went to install it I kept getting interference that would lock up the shafts. It was a frustrating two weeks of spare time puttering to figure out that I had not pressed the output shaft pilot bushing in far enough and it was fouling on the unmachined parts of the main shaft pilot. It had to all come apart. I'm getting good at tearing this thing down. If I did a second one of these certainly it would go much faster.

This needs to go in another 3/16". Going back to Dave's this weekend to push it back in. Hopefully that is it and I can get it final assembled. Still need to blast and paint the pans, there a bit of surface rust in a few spots where the zinc has worn off.


Body wise I have been looking at the rotted section below the windshield and behind the dash and trying to figure out how I was going to make that part.


Well I got lucky again, FB 39-40 Buy Sell group. Was over in Alabama about a 5 hour round trip but worth it and meet a cool guy with a nice '40 coupe, 56 chevy coupe and 3 tri-five chevy two door wagons (I have a two door 56 pontiac wagon).


Came out of Montana and is real solid except hinge area has been robbed and sat on drivers side which is crusty. Its a bit bent too, but I can work with that. Firewall is great and so is top even in the in vent gasket pocket. Trying to decide of I should just go ahead and graft in the firewall in whole as mine has about a dozen extra holes but it seems a little like too much work vs filling them with the welder and some plugs cur from scrap.

And a bonus, I can get what I need to fix the damage on my lower right side off it too.


Still having fun but my body is not as nimble as it was when I got the car. Getting older has reared its head and I can no longer do 9 straight hours in the garage without being sore for three or four days after. An hour or two here and there and I can still stand upright the next day. I need to loose some weight, I am sure that would help tremendously.

 

You crack me up, Bro... "Trying to decide of I should just go ahead and graft in the firewall in whole as mine has about a dozen extra holes but it seems a little like too much work"... I've followed this thread from the beginning and to hear you say "too much work" did it for me!
The car as you started with it and the progress you've made is nothing short of impressive. And while managing those fine young lads!
I trust you'll make the best of it all... carry on!

 

Nice trans work! That's one of my favorite tasks - it's all on the workbench.

 

Not many of us (speaking for myself) can do a 9 hr day in the shop. Those days are long gone. Learn to pace yourself, helps a lot. Noce work on that hydro.

 

I can feel the frustration of that transmission, I think I would have given up. I give you much credit for following through.

The firewall was a great score, that'll go a long way to fixing what you've got there.

 

Making progress. I got the bushing in the output shaft pushed down a smidge and it was a good thing I had interference before. There was a small oiling hole I had not noticed before that was being covered up by the bushing. That would have been a big suck to have ruined that in short order being it was the last one.


Reverse unit assembled again.


Now I had to assemble the main shaft/reverse unit into the case. Between these the selective thrust washer goes. This determines end play. I had measured it before I took it apart and bought a different washer to take up slack. And wouldn't you know it with all the new parts the #5 thicker washer was too thick, and the old #2 washer was still too thin. So back apart, back to ebay and a new NOS #3 washer. Its a bit too tight at.003 end play but there is no other option as a #2 is .020 and the range is .004 to .011.



All together for the last time.



You need these tools to set the bands internally. You can do it from the outside once assembled but this is the preferred way. It takes two special J tools. One is simply a hunk of metal to measure a specific length and can be replaced by a long set of calipers. The other is more complex and really does not have a work around. They can be expensive but I have found the Boney and Snap-on versions to be very cheap compared to the Kent Moore J tools.

In use on front band adjustment


Next was to double check my work on the valve body, and I think I did it all right the first time as everything was where it should be and matched the manual to a T.


All together with a new filter screen that came in the fluid pump kit I got. Governor and valve body installed as well.


Pans and taurus installed. I am waiting on a single small part. The replacement oil pump required a different pressure regulator valve than the original one. I found one on eBay but it has been bouncing around the USPS for two weeks and is finally in my town and schedule for delivery. It looks like it will be best to install it upside down so it will sit here for a few more days.



I finally got some rollers and with help of my youngest who is not is not so little anymore the car was pushed outside, up the driveway, turned around and aimed the other way. Now I can get to the other side to do the passenger quarter repairs, get the front of the frame painted, firewall cleaned up and the engine installed hopefully all within the next two months. I prefer to do all my sanding outside and with the wheels now on it I can easily push it out and roll it back in and leave the mess outside. The car has not been outside for a long time. The nose will come down a ton with that heavy engine and trans but I like how it looks sitting there.

 

That stance is perfect!

 

I assume there were no extra parts sitting on the bench once you got the transmission all assembled again?

 

That is really funny because I had two bolts with tab washers left sitting on my table. I was totally freaking out looking through everything trying to figure where they went. I finally figured it out when I saw a pic in one the manuals that reminded me that the new main pump had a slip in feed from the filter screen where the original had a bolt on with a gasket. I had put the original pump and tube in the "save it till the car is a driver used parts bin" but forgot to toss in the bolts. That was two days of worrying right there.

I got my regulator parts in finally.



Old on left new on right. I had to do a mix and match to get what I needed. There is a single part number for the kit that fits the '51 replacement pump that I have, and two others that are close but not exactly right. No luck in finding the correct one, but I got one that had the correct valve end. I used the existing spring and the screw in threaded regulating valve. The regulating valve has a fluid passage and two metal sliders that adjust the position of the valve at the end of the long spring. The correct replacement added a second spring in a hollow slider to soften action, I do not have this on mine. The threaded regulating valve is this kit is solid with no oil pressure or sliding metal valves inside and designed for 49 models and some Pontiacs, so I reused my old one. In the end I simply swapped the ends. This is the only part that is not exactly what I need but the combination of parts should work, I believe.



Here is a video showing how I confirmed everything was working using air in the fluid passages. Fluid is thicker than air so there is some blow by, especially the parts using cast iron rings and not rubber seals, but each item worked as it should.

 

That Hydro rebuild is just short of magic! Went back and reread the whole thread.
Your persistence and attitude is an incentive to slackers like me.

 

Not too much to report this past month. I got the car in and out of the garage on its new wheels a few times. The font legs of the frame have been cleaned up. There was a layer of POR15 over scattered remnants of original black and good old fashioned rust. I cleaned them up using a wire wheel followed by one of the rice cake wheels and hit them with some rattle can primer.




Pulled out the best radiator I had. Its an old replacement copper/brass one. The steel mounting was rusty, the tanks looked drab and the fins were showing a bit of green corrosion. I spend a few days checking for leaks, flushing it repeatedly with various concoctions, shaking it over my head, grinding away the rust and giving it a nice thin coat of black. I used neoprene rubber expansion plugs to block off the two unneeded ports.



Next was back on getting off the steering wheel. If you remember back a few pages the wheel I have does not have the threaded holed to use a traditional puller. I came up with some redneck engineering and got the job done.





It worked, kinda. Unfortunately the wheel flexed a bit and the rubber in center cracked and fell apart. I rebuilt it with smooth-on epoxy using zip-ties for clamps.



The wheel is all back together and looks not too much worse for the effort. I had to fill and sand some of the cracks a bit post reassembly but it is good enough for primer. I have decided to farm some/most/all?? of the interior related painting stuff out. I have a good friend who is operating a small paint and body shop and he will be doing all the dash stuff, column, wheel, heater, garnishes and such for me. He needs the work, and it will take me forever to get this car done if I do not get some help. I am going to strip/prep whether blasting or DA sander or whatever and he will prime, block and paint as I get them to him. I intend still to do the exterior body prep but probably have him shoot the color, his place is cleaner than my driveway.

 

You are using your time “wisely” and doing it very well I might add! Lol! Any progress is good progress - you just checked a couple things off the “to do” list!

 

Now that's a tail dragger! Nice job on the tranny. I suck at transmissions

 

Seeing your radiator got me thinking - just where did I put mine?

 

Usual over due update. Been spending a lot of time in front of the blast cabinet getting interior metal parts ready for my friend Chris to spray. Total pile includes steering column, steering wheel, all garnish moldings, heater assembly, dash with glove box lid and ash trays. Its all going factory maroon, and not the deluxe two tone with the tan for the dash just one solid color. I have the stock interior kit I got NORS and I figured it would look best with stock colors.



My heater from what I can tell is 35 dodge and it lacked defrost. I picked up a old stock universal add-on defrost from eBay. It needed a few mods and test fittings to make sure once assembled there would be room for feet below and the hoses above. I welded it all the way around stack a tack style just to get more practice doing very thin metal.








Next started working to make a good right rear fender. I have five, two are literal scrap, one is glass, one is a standard with no tail-light hole and one is NOS but only fits a sedan delivery. I cut up a scrap one to get the inner reinforcement for the tail light and to make a template to transfer where to cut the hole.

Sacrificial scrap, its very thin, torn and dented, rusted at the running board and rear end; no saving it






It looks better than it is.




I got this far and started stripping the fender and found a ton of mud and bad wrinkling, brass, holes and grinder work beneath. It thought it was just roll over edge damage as I could see a small metal patch but it was seriously crunched. I am going to move forward with hanging the 'glass fender for now and contemplate using the NOS delivery fender for patch panels to fix this one (I have had it listed here and on FB for years and no takers) if I cannot get a better candidate.

Been working on the firewall/cowl and found another mess. I new it was pretty thin but the wire wheel just went right through all over. I had originally thought of brazing or epoxy but it too far gone and I had the extra cowl I bought for the dash rail (that I had already removed).





Just got in there and cut it out. I used the wiper tower holes for alignment. They were off about 1/8 from one cowl to the other so I just divided the difference. I left the front long for now.

Clamped in place and scribed from the bottom.


Pretty good fit after 4 hours of work blasting the replacement panel, cutting, grinding and fitting over and over to make sure it was straight. The front edge weld will be in the engine compartment where the hood meets up and not on the top surface. The holes in it are from taking out the dash rail. Probably if I knew this was going to happen I would have left it attached but in the end the windshield opening flange is 1/8 longer and it would not have fit as one piece. I got it tacked in place after this photo was taken and my LED light I use to see to weld ran out of juice and I called it quits. Good thing too I was getting tired and probably would have gotten sloppy.

 

Looks good. Stuff like that cowl vent is the kind of stuff builders would have just filled up with fiberglass or something years ago and called it "fixed". This is really the right way to do it.

Seems like over the years, the standards of what is considered a fixable car have gone down, but the standards of the repair work getting done to those cars has gone up.

 

I Agree !!!

 

My motto, I believe it is a a Henry Heinz quote, Any job worth doing is worth doing well. You are doing that on this project! Thanks for sharing your progress! I had no idea you could buy an add on defroster kit like the one you are using. Learned another thing on the HAMB today!

 

Time for a long over due post. Lots of stuff getting done on the '40. Still no real end in sight or time deadline, just making steady progress when time allows.

I mentioned before that I was going to have my friend Chris paint all my interior metal. That meant weeks of sanding, blasting, small dent knocking and general prep. I sent him home with the dash, all garnish moldings, heater, column mast and the steering wheel I repaired after breaking it getting it off.

Blasted bits as an example of what I gave him.


What I got back, very happy the color is as close a match as they could do using original paint on the end of the steering mast that was protected with heavy grease accumulations. Its single stage and looks great to me very authentic with just a bit of peal, perfect.


This really shows the color, its beautiful in person.

Putting some bling on. These little projects eat up time. Just cleaning the speedometer and getting it ready took a week of nights am hour here and there. Its a bit of "cart before the horse" but it keeps me motivated looking at how good these parts look and just imagining the whole finished car will be just as nice.


Been filling lots of holes in the firewall, if you recall it had a crap ton of chisel punches. Also finished up the sectioning in of the replacement cowl vent.
Before
After. I kept a few useful holes but filled in a lot that I would not be using. I am using a hot water heater and will need to mount that and make entry point for the hoses, eventually.
Cowl vent fully welded in.

And a replacement dash rail from the donor cowl I picked up in Alabama what seems like ages ago is all welded in. That was a lot of work to get the old one out, the replacement separated and installed in the correct spot and not damage the windshield opening.


Picked up some new to me rollers. Coker 205/75/15. Just what I was looking for and cheap. They are a few years old but in great shape. Came from a 51 Ford Street Rodder Magazine cover car that never left the garage or turned a wheel in anger called, get this, Golden Shower. I guess if a dog lifts his leg on them I cant be mad....



Last bit, pulled out one of my super nice Texas fenders and started knocking out dents. My hands are tired and I have a few more dents to go in this one but this beats welding up rust any day long.

Good solid fender with no rust, but a big gonk and a few small edge cracks.



Got most out the first day, this is about three hours work for me and I'm pooped. Doing my best Kyle Carter (youtuber Carter Auto Restyling, if you haven't watched he has a good series on fixing a set of '40 fenders) impression to avoid using filler if I can. Its a challenge I enjoy, it may win and need a skim of mud but I'm going to give it a decent shot.

 

That is some good progress! Thanks for posting!

 

Excellent! Hard to believe this is the same car on page 1!

 

You're doing a good job at imitating Kyle Carter.

 

Banging away at it. Finished up the one fender and pulled out the next. This one also had a big gonk but in the trailing area behind the wheel well along with a few assorted edge cracks and random small dents.


On both fenders the bumper iron holes are torn. This a common issue? I wound up folding them back and welding it up.

Working on my metal finishing technique still, but getting better and faster with more practice. I have a lot of dollies and hammers (probably too many but whats a collector to do?), a vixen file and now a bulls eye pick that has helped a lot.
Pulled out the inner fenders too. I have three left and one right. The best left is quite nice and just needed a little hammer and dolly to make it right. It has the extra horn knock-outs used indicating it was from a V8-60 car


While the right inner was involved in a front-ender and a bit taco'd, has a bunch of splits and a missing cracked out section from the trailing edge but is at least not rusty and I have one as rights are near impossible to find as they, like many '40 parts are no longer reproduced. I like the original Henry ones better as they have less stamping wrinkles than the repops did.





Under the flaking grey primer is one of the colors I thought about using early on, 1959 Buick Lido Lavender


With inner fenders and fenders mostly straight and all the cracks welded up I figured it was time for a mock up. In realty I need them up off the floor and it is easier to finalize the dent repairs with the fenders on the car and not flopping around on a sawhorse. There are just a few bolts and a tie down strap holding them in place as this is short term, hopefully.


It sits really high up front but I am confident that 900lbs of Oldsmobile engine and trans will bring it down a bit. I have still yet to get a good enough right rear. The 'glass ones I have I realized when installing it that somebody put the tail light holes really low and they look funny to me and moving it is not what I want to do, I will put the pair up for sale eventually. I am going to get back on the right rear project once the fronts are fully tuned up and just move forward with patching up my bent and torn standard fender using my NOS delivery one for patch panels. In fact I am leaning towards cutting the flange and a few required inches off the standard fender and grafting that onto nearly all of the delivery fender as it is perfectly new.


Last bit of fun, working on the grille. The insert is cracked and missing a section but luckily I picked up a NORS vintique grille in the box from the late 80's that has really nice chrome. The grill shell took a hit on the chin and the lower and upper right side and had the common splits at the upper louvers to mounting holes as well.


All better. I am going to pull it apart and blast next as it will fit in my cabinet.


I am trying to get things close enough that if my painter friend has a lull or needs some small filler work I can quickly strip them down and he can get them in epoxy and high build. Just about every piece that bolts onto the shell is within a day or two of dent knocking each of being ready to strip and prime. The shell still needs two to three weeks of work that will actually take me through winter into spring to complete. Small light at the end of the tunnel.