Projects ACCIDENTALLY BOUGHT A 40 FORD CONVT

Not much to report here. I got it washed up and it looks a little better. Got a call in to the auctioneer for some telephone numbers to try and find out more history on the car. Waiting for call back. I feel the interior has been redone once and paint and motor are original. Had the veins roto rooted out in my left leg on Monday and feeling ready to get back at it.

 

Put some time in on the 40 yesterday. The 6V battery charger up good. Has a 7/23 sticker on it which kind of peeks my curiosity. Car hasn't run since 2015. Cleaned and gaped plugs, fixed a couple wire ends. Plug wires are really brittle. Pulled upper and lower hoses off to flush out the radiator. Radiator had like rusty sand, dust crap in top tank when I pulled the cap off so I want to try and flush the system out before firing. Looked inside the hoses and they appeared pretty clean, also what I could see inside the heads. Had some clean antifreeze and water in it when I drained the radiator and pulled the lower hose. Freed up the choke and hand throttle linkage thanks to carb cleaner and Blaster. Now onto the fuel system.

 

Sounds good so far.

 

Nice car .... and a Great Job getting it picked up and home safely !!
Weather really was favorable this Winter.
Kudos to ya

 

id run it as is.. maybe lower it a little but it looks sweet as is

 

You're welcome...1693...Cat Powered... I assume?

 

Well I got it fired and it sounds pretty good. Bottom end sounds solid and has good pressure hot and cold. Carb was a little rough at first but that is coming around too the more I run it. I have been spraying carb cleaner and even a little Blaster down the carb as I run it and gets better every time I fire it. Biggest problem I'm having is that it seems like the gas is draining back when I shut it off. I have to prime it every time I go to run it. Its running off a 5 gal can for now. Found two extra fuel pumps in the trunk floor, one was old and seized and one looked brand new. I pulled original pump off and replaced with new one and no change. Car will not pull gas from stock tank. Going to work on fuel line and tank next. Tried posting a video of it running and can't get it to load. The wife loaded it to you tube fine but thread won't accept it. I'll try some more latter.

 

Sounds good to me!

 

Hey AndersF good to hear from you!

 

Progress has been slow, life does get in the way sometimes. I've run about five gallons of gas thru it now and it seems to run well. I have not done a compression test yet seems good. The supply and return lines for the remote Fram oil filter were so brittle they broke looking at them. Took the filter housing off cleaned it up and repainted it. Got some new lines put together and thats about it.

 

Stay the course Dan……

 

Man I'll tell you that you get use to having a hoist for the past ten years and it breaks and parts are three to four weeks out it really sucks! So I've been picking away at it thought it seems, a little helter skelter to me. Put new plug wirers on and found I should also have both inner caps and rotor. I don't know what the proper name for this distributor is but I named it a PITA. Two sets of points, two inner caps, two outer caps and one rotor and you basically have to pull the distributor to do this once the parts get here. So in the meantime I replaced and rerouted the vacuum lines to the supply tank for the two speed rear end. Decided on 6V fuel pump so I pulled stock pump and push rod. Grabbed a piece of aluminum and cut out a block off plate. Also mounted regulator and fuel pressure gauge. Started on the first round of cut and buff on paint. It's starting to clean up I guess, hopefully it will be a twenty footer.

 

What a cool car, sounds like some re-commisioning & it will be good to cruise for your summer, height adjustment, full caps new WW's you'll be the coolest kid on the block

 

Nice 40 vert.

 

Very Cool . Sounds great

 

Decided on 6V fuel pump so I pulled stock pump and push rod. Grabbed a piece of aluminum and cut out a block off plate.

Did you put something in the pump shaft hole? I did not the first time I removed a pump and shaft. I could not build oil pressure without the shaft in the hole. Some people cut the bottom end of the pump shaft off and leave the shaft in the hole. Others put a plug in the hole. Another choice is to keep the stock pump and use it. They often install an in line electric pump to help with cold starts and help eliminate vapor lock. I chose to use a plug.

 

Thank you for the information, I had no idea!.................. Back in the day I use to haul a lot of apples out of Wenatchee
Thanks again 39 guy!

 

Yikes! Had no idea so thanks for the heads up! I will have to rethink my approach. Again, thanks 39 guy. ...Use to haul a lot of apples out of Wenatchee back in the day.

 

Another thing to consider is the alcohol in the gas now will dissolve the adhesive in the pump diaphragms and the adhesive could find it's way into the carb and even end up on the intake valve stems.
It happened to me. the float bowls are probably leaking through to power valve and draining the float bowl. Modern rebuild kits will have alcohol tolerant parts in them.

 

You are welcome. I am no expert on flatheads but have learned a few things while building my engine. If i can save somebody some time, aggravation and money with free advice I will share. The black arrow points to the area that the pump rod goes through. The oil gallery provides oil to the bushing that the pump rod sits in just above the cam shaft. While the rod is in there it restricts the oil flow keeping the oil pressure in the system. If you remove the pump rod the oil flows freely through the hole reducing oil pressure. I think leaving the pump in place and using an electric pump is the best option in your case. I saw a thread on this subject on the HAMB this week.

 

Man, I missed this one..... cool accidental purchase.

If the flathead shoots craps, I'd vote for 327 & 4 spd shifted on the column. But I wouldn't pull a good running flathead and columbia.

 

...Use to haul a lot of apples out of Wenatchee back in the day.[/QUOTE]

They are still shipping huge amounts of apples out of here! The local orchards are disappearing though. It seems it is more profitable to sell your orchard to housing developers than grow apples. Then there are all of the regulations regarding spraying of trees etc. So most of the orchards are now owned by big corporations , are located away from population centers and wherever irrigation water can be found out in the basins between here and Yakima WA.

 

I have a 327 and Saginaw 4 speed siting here and was very tempted to just start cutting, but after getting the flatty running I decided that witch ever expires first... me or the flatty.

 

I took the distributor off and went thru that. New points, inner caps, outer caps and wires. Pretty interesting piece of engineering Henry has there with that distributor. Finished the first cut on everything but the front clip. I can't decide if the paint is that old and original or an Earl Schieb redo from years ago. When I get done with the buffing there will still be some crap in the paint but I think it's going to shine good. The wife came out to the shop and we tried to put the top down thinking it was mechanical. Slowly proceeding to retract the top it we got it about 3/4 of the way down and it just didn't feel right so we stopped. Everything looked ok but discovered some cylinders down inside the rear quarters on both sides. We decided to put the top back up and do some research. Lucy went to google and was directed to a old thread on the HAMB from 2006 about the tops on 40 converts. Turns out the top is vacuum op/assist. The canister on the firewall that I assumed was for the Columbia is for the top. I'll do some more digging and keep you posted.

 

I don't know what your "canister on the firewall" is for, but I know it's not for the top.
The '40 top is vacuum operated, source of vacuum is from rear of intake manifold to a "T" one port of the "T" goes to the vacuum wipers, the other port goes to the convertible top vacuum switch located at the bottom of dash.
From the switch vacuum is connected to vacuum pipes, found on floor drivers side under mat, from there to the vacuum canisters at the rear quarters on either side.

 

After looking at your posted pictures from page one, I believe that "canister on the firewall" was some ones creation/version of a vacuum reserve tank to assist in the operation of the wipers and/or top.

 

I am headed out to the shop shortly as the plot thickens. I will see what I can find.