Folks Of Interest Clutch Popper Wednesdays

Oh Andrew, who are you kidding, you just like that picture cause your car is in the background haha

I dunno why it's not 5 stars either Some haters gave it a couple 1 stars a while back. I guess friends helping friends build hot rods is frowned upon?

 

Hahaha! Busted! No really it's just a room full of coolness.
The composition of the photo is right on the money aswell.

 

Well I don't know what's going on with the New West, but damn it sucks! Even the waitress's are pissed off! The special was Macaroni and Cheese! Last week was hot dogs, this week was mac and cheese? WTF??? Some college kid take over the kitchen? And the cook was slow as hell! We were there for almost an hour! Don't they realize we have cars to build! So I ordered bacon and eggs, and Dave ordered a mexican omlette. And even that sucked! You used to get half a plate of fried potatoes, tonight I got a pile about the size of an egg. 3 bites and they were gone!
I work hard all day, and I work hard on Wednesday nights. I want a good meal to give me the energy to work all night. Something big and greasy. If I wanted to eat mac and cheese or hot dogs I would have stayed in school.
This is bullshit!

Anyways....
Johnny could not make it tonight as the company he works for (Long & McQuade) has recently bought out another music store here in town and Johnny will be running the new store. His very own music store, good for him. But because of that he had to ditch us to go out for some big corporate steak dinner with all the big wigs from Long & McQuade.
So Dave and I worked on the fleetline.

We started out the night by blowing up a flat tire, and filling it up with gas, as it ran out last time Dave drove the car.


Once it was in the shop, Dave went ahead and adjusted all the valves, and went over the engine re-torquing everything now that it had some run time.
While he was doing that, I started putting the bumper valences on and getting the bumpers ready to bolt on.






Once the valences were on Dave started cleaning up the front of the bumpers, while I painted the brackets, and the inside of the bumpers black.





Dave then gave them a coat of clear so they look half decent until he can afford to get them rechromed.


While Dave was clearing I started putting the brackets on the car. I started at the rear, and while I was putting them on, I noticed they kind of fit funny, so I left them loose, hoping maybe once the bumper was bolted to the brackets again they would straighten out.
I went to the front brackets, and thats where we ran in to another problem.
Dave bought new 1/2" bolts for the bumper brackets, however when I went to put them on, I found out the holes are 7/16". Luckily I had 4 7/16" X 2 1/2" bolts for the rear, but had none left for the front. So I decided to leave the front ones until Dave could get some new bolts later on.
So Dave and I decided to bolt the rear bumper on in the meantime.
No Go! Would not fit, or even come close! Luckliy Greezeball has his Fleetline here at the shop, so I crawled under his with a tape measure and found out Daves brackets are an inch shorter, which explains why they fit funny. So just out of curiosity we held the bumper up to the car, and it's not even the right shape. This is what happens when you buy a car some else started to take apart

So we decided to try the front bumper, and yes it fits!


By this time we were getting tired, and it was almost midnight (thanks to the New West for delaying us!) so we cleaned up and called it a night.

Anyways,
This video goes out to you Johnny! You corporate asshole!
Maybe your company can take over the New West and bring back the good dinner specials!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5fwvYICZvY

 

Wow I missed the update last week so I got a double dose this morning. Nice work guys.

Kind of funny that Johnny works for L&M I worked for their competition Mothers Music for 12 years back in the day. Edmonton is a small world.

 

Do you have to live in Alberta to join the HAMB meet? I would consider driving down from Saskatchebullshit. When exactly is it?

Also congratulation John on the new promotion.

 

It's looking great!

 

Thats really funny, cause Mothers Music is the store L&M bought out. Johnny now runs the 109st store

No date has been set yet for this year. And no you don't have to be from Alberta. Your welcome to come!

Thanks

 

Did you work at the downtown store ? That's where I am now. Been a crazy week so far, and more to come.

 

Yup. I started at the Whyte Ave location in the old Rainbow Ballroom and helped move the store downtown. I managed the drum shop. Not to totally derail this thread but do you know why Warren Price sold Mothers?

 

I HATE HOT RODS!!!!

I've been trying to get my roadster to fire up all week with no luck. First attempt was on Sunday. Spinning over something did not sound right. I pulled number one plug to double check the timing and while I was putting the plug back in the threads stripped. So that ended everyhting on Sunday.
I let it sit until Wednesday afternoon. Pulled the head off to put a heli coil in, and noticed something bad! The valves were hitting the heads! I never even thought about it, but I put a big cam in, and had the heads milled. So that explains the funny noise from Sunday. They wern't hitting hard, just kind of kissing the heads, so I doubled up the head gaskets and it's all good now, clearance wise at least. Put it all back together Wednesday afternoon, tried to fire it up again, and wouldn't you know it it actually started. It ran for about 30- 45 seconds and then died. I attemted to get it going again, but then Dave showed up, and it was his night so I left it sit until today.
Today I attempted to fire it again and nothing. Started checking for spark, and nothing. Pulled the mallory dual point apart and it was sparking like crazy inside, but not in a good way! The spark was jumping all over.
So I just pulled the mallory out and put a stock dizzy back in. Of course this means I had to remake all the plug wires.
Once that was finished I tried to start it again, and it was gonna go, it was spinning fast, starting to pop out the headers, making all the sounds it should just before it takes it off and....CLUNK! Stopped dead. Would not turn over. Would not spin over by hand with the fan, would not spin over by pushing it in gear. Started looking it over, and found a mess in the bellhousing. The starter jammed up and tore a chunk out of the bellhousing!.
Just then Dave showed up.
Together him and I ripped the whole motor out in literally 20 minutes.


We swapped a new bellhousing on, fixed the starter and in about an hour and half it's now all back together.

But before I try again, I have to wait until tomorrow to get some new oil. The oil in it is starting to smell pretty gassy.
I hope tomorrow goes better.... those chevy crate motors are starting to look better and better everyday!

 

You poor sunofagun. I feel your pain brother. Been there, cursed that.

BTW, I have been following your dinners at the New West vicariously. If the meals continue to be crap perhaps ask one of the waitresses who the owner is. Possibly, if you speak to that person and explain the three of you come in at least once a week and maybe more, he/she will pay attention to your comments. If I had that type of eatery I certainly would not let it slide without a struggle.

Where's Fred lately?

 

Always seems to be something doesn't it. Good luck with the start tomorrow.

 

The owner knows us, as we are there a lot. If the special is crap again this Wednesday I'll mention something.
And Freds been around, just not helping anymore. Today he was sun tanning on the warm asphalt in front of the shop all afternoon.

Thanks, I'm not mad at my roadster anymore. Once it was back together I went home, had a shower, (and bathed Fred also! He was filthy from his "sun tanning") and then layed on the couch with the latest Rodders Journal. After reading about the Fred Carrillo Modified roadster, I'm just as excited as ever to change the oil and try again tomorrow. I love hot rods....

 

Glad to see a little engine trouble didn't totally ruin your faith in Rod.

 

See Lee - I'm not the only one

You're gonna get your Traditional HAMBer plaque taken away with language like that!

I see this thread is back up to 5 stars like it deserves!

 

have you had luck running two head gaskets? i've seen a couple engines that leaked.

 

I had that feeling several times while I was trying to get my 235 six sorted out. But now I'm SO glad that I stuck it out. You will be too! Good luck from England.
Keep on keeping on.
LT.

 

I heart this thred! Thank you for posting up!

 

Well, Warren is getting pretty old, and he has some health issues. Plus the old shop just isn't doing so well anymore. Time for change. Come by for a visit!

 

I drove my roadster today
I ended up taking all the strombergs off, building block off plates for the two outside carbs and putting a crappy old holley 94 on. It runs kinda shitty, but hey, it runs, and during the cam break in, it never got over 130 degrees!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Zw9GpVLqU

 

Congrats man!!

 

Right on! That was wicked! I think Fred wanted to go!

 

Best of luck with the engine. It would be cool to see a vid of the car driving once it is sorted.

 

Awesome thread! Keep it up!

 

I regret to inform you all, this Wednesday night the Clutch Poppers have canceled their regular scheduled programing.

Instead, the Clutch Poppers are going out for some ROCK AND ROLL!!

Tonight was Johnny's night, and tonight also happened to be the night Johnny's band, O'l Smashy, was having their 7" record release party. Now I know I said in the beginning this club is not about hanging out in the bar listening to shitty bands and pretending to be a car club, but Johnny' insisted we come down, so we went.

Dave met me at the shop, and him and I did some minor tweaking on the roadster, went for supper, and then head on down to the Black Dog on Edmonton's famous "Whyte Ave".
For supper we went to Bucas Pasta, where I had tortellini with spicy mushroom sauce, and Dave have something else. I can't remember haha.

Yes the roadster, although far from finished, is now on the road!


Here is a little video of the drive down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLZvP4ieBXI







And our destination... The Black Dog.
The Black Dog is a cool little bar on Whyte Ave. It is a rock and roll bar. If you show up with a mohawk and tattoos, you will probably fit in. If you show up with dirty jeans, grease under your finger nails, and a hot rod T shirt on, you will probably fit in. If you show up with a man purse, flip flop sandles, and an ipod loaded with Techno music, you probably won't have a good time.




Hey, theres Johnny putting his drum kit together.


Instead of helping Johnny with his drums, Dave and I went up to the roof to enjoy our beers, the nice weather and the view. You can see a lot of nice things looking down at the people on the sidewalk. Especially when the weather is nice and the girls don't have their jackets on



A shot of the roadster from the roof.


Back downstairs now, here is Dave talking with former Clutch Popper, Fat Dave. Fat Dave used to be a member of the Clutch Poppers with his 51 Ford F-1. However being a Dad, working full time, and being in several bands, life just got in the way and he just couldnt find the time to hang out with us anymore. We all miss Fat Dave, and hope one day, he can come back.
He has since sold his 51 Ford, but now drives a 62 Fairlane.


And now the moment you've all been waiting for. O'l Smashy is finally on stage.






I didn't get a bunch of pictures of them playing, but I did manage to record a song.

Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvdylP85f4U

 

The roadster looks really cool on the street where it belongs. Congratulations!

In the 3rd shot from the bottom you can see why he's called Fat Dave! Love the way he is just resting his gut on the top of his Tele.

LT.

 

Thanks, it feels great to finally drive it after a year and half of working on it.

And easy on Fat Dave haha, he is on the Hamb, and may read this.

 

Hey, I didn't mean anything by it - just foolin'. I can't take the piss out of anyone - I'm not fat, but I've got a face like a bag of spanners!

 

Cool stuff guys. Man I haven't been to the Black Dog in years. I think the last time I was there was during the Oilers run to the cup final in 2006.

Car looks great Lee!!! Must have been a blast to cruise down Whyte in it.

 

That'll teach the New West, you guys went elsewhere for dinner. Good on you. Especially good on you for getting the roadster on the road. I like the looks of the Black Dog.