Event Coverage "The Fairlane Goes to Lloydfest"

sophie here - it was a pleasure to meet you too bill thank you to everyone we had a great time. now we just need to make it back in one piece.

 

I agree. Thanks @The_Cat_Of_Ages
Seems like you were the only one who took pics of the cars...everyone on the other LFIII thread just had pics of old folks. LOL

 

Yeah, I reread it and you are probably right. I sure hope so!
It will not hurt to clean and lube things in there, though.

 

i (sophie) snapped this beautiful pic immediately after the radiator sprayed coolant everywhere. car now smells like a chinese buffet ??

 

advanced too far might be pinging

 

@RodStRace , I was going to suggest the same thing, actually, was going to add that any component one takes off, should be optimized. I don't mean replaced, but cleaned, inspected,serviced, and brought up to par/optimum operating condition.

 

If you can picture a three hundred sixty degree circle, those are the same degrees of change in timing.
The typical dist cap and body is about 3-4 inches across. Rotating them to get 5 degrees of timing change is roughly a 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch around the edge. A little goes a long way!

 

i went way over that. im probably at 20-25 degrees

 

They will run at 10-20 ATDC to 20 or so BTDC. You will want 0-8 BTDC, probably.
None of this helps without a timing light, but for future reference. Stock spec is 6 BTDC.

 

3 on mine since its a manual. im setting mine to 12 with a light tomorrow

 

readjusted her, shes riding like a dream now. probably about 10-15 degrees

 

Go, go, go!

 

I had posted this on the Lloyd Fest post. This is a cut-n-paste.

This makes me feel good knowing where that Old Torch will for a while. Some back story on it. That fine unit was bought New by my Dad. He was a multi-talented fix everything guy. As I grew up, I seen what it could do and learned pretty well. As my Dad aged out that torch continued to earn it's keep in my hands. As time went on rebuild and ware parts disappeared. Last time I used it the acetylene turn valve leaked enough (had been for a while) to light up in my hand again. That's when I retired it and hung it on the wall. That was about 1975 and a new Victor Journeyman took its place. B-B and I was talking one day about making some trophy's and for whatever reason I handed it over. I guess it was meant to be and Odd as it may seem The_Cat_Of_All_Ages and I have a bit in common. I bought my first 1957 Ford in 1960. She was a sweetheart 500 Hardtop. I have always had at least One and often more 57's since. Here are photos of 2 of the 4 I currently own. The Black Hardtop has made more progress since this photo. The photo of my Convert is of it on the way for a new exhaust system. It too has made more progress. I can also tell you that Torch has left its mark on both of these as well as my right hand and up my arm. You should have seen it prior to B-B doing his detail job on it, had I known it could look so good it would be in My Trophy room gathering dust. I'm very please it was passed on and landed with a 57 Ford owner.
P.S. Do not hook it up to a pair of tanks unless you are waring some asbestos arm wraps.


The Wizzard

 

Hope you guys make it home safely. Maybe drive a Corvair next year.

 

Not to beat a dead horse, but considering the wear on other components, the timing chain has probably got some slack. This will cause the timing (and cam) to lag, so adding a few degrees will help keep it happy. I'm many states away, but I'm pulling for you and Sophie to make it home.

 

I'm just tickled to death that someone besides me is finally having a real Adventure on the HAMB!

GoManGo!

 

Young fella, this is one of the best threads on the HAMB that I’ve read in quite a while. Feels like we were all right there with you guys. Conjures up lots of old memories. I think this ol car hobby/lifestyle is in good hands.

 

I think it's rad that his girl is down for this kind of adventure, too. I'll go on record as saying that those types of women are few and far between. Can't take quality women like that for granted.

Here is a picture of me (left, with hair then) and some of my hooligan friends from my 21st birthday gathering.


Years later in 2009, I would acquire that shitbox 63 Fairlane pictured for $1500 when I needed a cheap car in law school. I took a girl from my admin law class out on a date in it. We froze because it was winter and the car had no heat, and the radio was two Dell computer speakers duct-taped together and hardwired to the back of the voltage gauge to power them and an iPod. As we drove on I-95 from Wilmington to Newark, she asked why the carpet was moving. I explained that there was a hole in the floor big enough to fit her torso through, the carpet was flapping like a flag in the wind, and that she was best keeping her feet on the trans crossmember.

We've been together since and married since 2017.

 

That's a great point. Timing a reasonably tired engine is best timed with a vacuum gauge. It allows for the collective worn-out parts and tells you exactly what the engine wants.
The rule of thumb is turn the distributor to maximum inches of manifold vacuum, then back it off one inch of vacuum...or maybe 2 inches on an extremely tired engine to avoid ping.

 

rad cap, also the screw went into "the abyss" aka the front fender area. i tried to retrieve it but its usually gone forever.

made it to my gfs house safely. its another 30 minutes to my house, taking tomorrow off to deal with the car and to recover lol.

i have it at about 5 bdtc. its not as powerful as 15 but im 90% certain it was pinging on the previous setting.

i have a spare '57 distributor thats a fresh rebuild i got from a swap meet. mint condition. probably going to swap the whole thing if this one doesnt turn out to be fine. the good news is at least the distributor isnt siezed anymore.

the exhaust leaks have gotten noticeably worse. they make me nervous because i cant tell whats exhaust leak and whats bad engine noise. car kept 50psi oil pressure the whole way home past the final advance adjustment at some random gas station.

i had not one, not two, but THREE cops follow me for a period of time on the way home. not one lit me up.

the ground wire for the coil on the distributor keeps lighting me up when i touch it... could have been that everything was covered in coolant? side note: how do i remove coolant easiest, the only thing that worked was recommended to me by a hillbilly at the gas ststion. coca cola cleaned my windshield without even streaking.

sophie wanted to call for a tow a few times lol. i just had to tell her to trust the process!

 

thank you all for your support on my journey home. it really does mean a lot to me and sophie.

im glad my mom gave me an entire cooler of water. i used all the waters i had left to replenish my coolant.

 

btw this car sat without its distributor cap for 20ish years give or take.

 

Woo Hoo! I was gettin' worried. 7 hours trip time, left at 11:30.
You have enough in your head for this evening. Will go through stuff once you've rested.

 

LOL. You got THAT right.
My high school girlfriend wasn't "one of those girls"

My college girlfriend WAS "one of those girls".


Been married to her for 43 years.

 

If by "ground wire" you mean the (-) terminal of the coil, it's NOT ground! The way a point ignition system works, the primary side is a tuned LC circuit that oscillates over a couple hundred volt range. So you should expect to get zapped if you touch that terminal when the engine is running.

If you look at it on an oscilloscope, connected between the coil (-) terminal and ground, you can see it's not just a simple on/off 12v DC signal. On this image, you can see the 12v "on-off" part of the trace, between the big oscillations. Think about the voltage scale, that peak is over 10 times as big as the 12v part, so that's a lot of voltage! like touching an AC wall outlet, but not as much current available.

 

@The_Cat_Of_Ages thanks for a great read, reminds me of some road trips in my first A model when I was early 20's. Glad you got home but most importantly glad you enjoyed your trip & for your enthusiasm to learn!

 

Glad you made it home safe and without "the hook" Clay. It was great meeting you and Sophie at LFIII. Seeing your '57 in person at the party, it looks like a greazy hulk that was dragged out of a shed the night before, with nothing "faux" about it.
In this modern world, adventure can be hard to come by, you just discovered one of the avenues still available to us.
Congratulations on the "McGiver award" you certainly earned it!
Good job Clayton!

 

Looks like a great trip! Thanks for taking us along.

 

Great job Clayton! It was great to meet you and Sophie, congratulations on the much deserved award and making it home! We hope to see you next year!