Wow, this is nice positive progress Cully, and all this time, since we last caught up, I thought that you were maybe just flipping the tops off a few and spending the time looking longingly at nailheads under the bench, or out crabbing or something!! catch up later, regards\ John F
Hi Paul & John, thanks for the positive posts, will catch up with you when I'm back home John for a couple of cold ones and some bench racing. Cully
Great work Cully, I love the way the car sits. Good luck with it. Did you ever get the coupe squared away?
Hi. I'm enjoying your build and the work is top notch. I have one area where I am confused though, maybe you can explain. You appear to have retained the 32 style curved rear crossmember, (nice job on the flattening, by the way), and then state you used a 48 REAR spring. Well, as far as I know, a 48 rear spring will not bolt up to the curved rear crossmember without being ground, and I'm sure it would also be too wide. Is it a 48 FRONT spring, being used at the rear? I have heard of people using a front spring in the rear as it will bolt into the curved crossmember, but I don't know if a front 48 spring will match the rear spring mounts of a 37 style axle. Can you shed a little light? Mart.
Hi Mart, The 48 spring is a rear unit, I have ground the spring to make it fit, you don't have to take a lot off to get it to fit. Yes the 48 sping is 1 1/2" wider but still fits ok you still have to expand it a fair bit to get the shackels to fit. The 48 spring has larger eyes for the for the shackel bushing 1 1/8" off the top off my head, you could use 48 shackels which have large bush for the spring and standard 3/4" size for the spring hangers, I just machined up some hardend steel bushes to fit in the 48 sping eyes so they took standard 3/4" bushes. Cully
Great looking car and like Mort I am interested in hearing if you modified the 48 rear spring or used a front spring. BTW,that Crestliner steering wheel looks horrible in that roadster,so just to be a nice guy I'll be happy to take it off your hands! HRP
HRP, 48 rear spring ground to fit, what is a Mort ??? not using the Crestliner wheel going more traditional fitting a 40 Ford wheel. Cully
Cully, Thanks for sending this to me. Just went through the complete post and may I say the roadster is looking great. I like the stance you put on it. My only question is what in the hell ya doing with all those buick motors? Being a flathead fan as you are.... Signed up for the rest of this build....
Dennis you know I have a couple of other projects in the pipeline 425 Nailhead will be going in the 32 3 window one day maybe.
Cully, I like the idea of the buick in the 3 window. I have a few motor choices for mine also but unsure yet what it will be.
Ok time for some updates, did not get as much done this time off work as I would have liked, but still made some progress. As I am trying to build this roadster as traditional as I can, I will be running all original vintage speed equipment on the engine. Picked up this Barker V drive with dual Wico magneto's took a risk on it as the condition was advertised as seized with internal corrosion in need of full restoration. I think it must have been on a old speedway car as was covered in dry caked mud.
After I removed the magnetos from the V drive I was pleased to see that the V drive could be turned by hand, stripped the V drive down to find all the gears were in good condition just needed a good clean and new bearings, sorry did not take any pics of the V drive in bits. Pic showing internal condition of one of the magnetos, both magnetos were seized, did a search on the HAMB for Wico magnetos Steve Belanger of Mainely Magnetos name came up as a good person to deal with. Contacted Steve who was ever so helpful and was able to supply all the parts I needed to rebuild both magnetos. One rebuilt magneto one to go. Just having a play checking out the rebuilt V drive and magnetos on the engine, bench tested both magnetos both putting out a good strong spark.
Next was to turn my attention to a pair of Hotton & Sullivan heads that I picked up, one head had some corrosion around head gasket sealing area, both heads were sent to machine shop for weld repair and a light surface mill.
Hi Cully, love your work mate absolutely first class fabrication skills awesome ! Coming together nicely, I'm really impressed with your direction and taste.
Thanks Tommy, might see you on the east coast one day, once the roadster is finished I want to drive it over one year for the River City Reliability Run. Don't know which one as yet will depend when I have the car finished and my work schedule.
Time to have a look at this flathead see what I am dealing with, pulled the heads to check the bore condition and also to check my valve to head clearance on the Hotton & Sullivan heads. This is where I got a surprise thought I had a 59AB engine as that's what heads it had on, only to find it's a 3 1/16" bore 221 making it in the 39 to 42 year range.
The heads from the early 24 stud are the same as mid year 24 stud aren't they? So really any 24 stud could be either a 221 or 239 engine, until you get up into the 8BA engines and then you have a lot more obvious identifiers. I have a 24 stud here that had original Canadian ally heads, and a divers bell dizzy. After measuring the bore i found it to be a 38 - 42 range 221 as well as what you have. I think the raised intake deck that your engine looks to have puts it in the earlier years (38 - 39, maybe 40 i think from memory..). The Van Pelt website has a good list of things to look for in identifying down to within a few years bracket.
Sorry had it the wrong way around, the 41 - 42 engines had the raised intake deck. To quote Van Pelt "The original engines from mid 1941 to final 1942 production (when WWII ended auto production) had a raised intake manifold deck surface. Prior to these engines, the entire manifold deck surface was machined flat, right out to the edge of the cylinder deck. The postwar engines seem to have returned to the practice of machining the intake deck all flat again." Its strange, as my '37 21 stud engine has a raised intake deck, then my 24 stud has a flat deck.. making it a '38 - '40 engine.. and then from '41 they raised it again like your engine.
Wow that V Drive is cool did not know they existed... Thanks now I will be obsessed with finding one. On your 221 possible war time replacement block?
I had seen some old Barker V-drives with Wico mags on early V8 race cars, back around 1954. Lots of Wico 4-cyl magnetos at swap meets, but NEVER the V-drives. That is really a gem of an ignition! Goes right with the jewel of a '32 you have there.
Thanks guys that's just what I thought when I saw it, I am sucker for cool old vintage speed equipment.
Nick, yes you are correct more on the engine coming up, with the greater knowledge of some other HAMB members have worked out that I have a 42 block, I just thought it was a 59AB as that's what heads it had on.
Anyway I get my heads back from machine shop after weld repair and light face, put them on the block with no gaskets to check my valve to head clearance. Issues with one head valves just lifting one head about .030 thou when I turn engine over. Not to worry will mill out head combustion chamber around valve area .040 thou to give clearance.
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