That's a good idea to throw the hood on quick and take a look. Couple things. I wouldn't mind a sbc but I really do like the flathead. With my trans being the real suspect part not sure I'd want to put more power to it and if I replace it with something else I'm in the same boat of needing to get rid of the torque tube and rear end.
Well I went ahead with the scallops. I really like it, it is still weird when I glance at it because I haven't gotten used to its new look but I like it. I need to toss the hood on to see how it looks after the paint buy I did throw it on when I had the final tape on and looked at it outside, And it didn't detract from the look too much IMO. Now it's just about time to start my winter projects. Wiring, engine and trans freshing.
What size wheels and tires are you running? Im thinking of www for the future. Sent from my LG-LS993 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Don't remember the size but I thinkni might have posted it earlier in the thread. These are just radials with Atlas fake WW. I want to get real ones eventually but there are other needs first.
Found it... Hope this helps Also had fun going back through my whole thread... Jesus I ramble A LOT. But I got to see things I had forgotten I had done to the car.
This thread gives me hope. I'm slowly getting my 39 going, but time to cruise with my kids is fleeting and I sometimes feel like giving up on the hobby. Then two seconds go by and I find myself talking about Y blocks or something. Sedans rule. Sent from my LGLS992 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
2014: My lifelong friend Marc GAVE me his cherry '47 Fordor, as he was finishing his 10-points '38 Coupe. He knew of my love for all things '41-'48, and my history with them. Funny thing... 1958: My high school friend had a nice '46 Tudor, but found a '39 Std. Coupe...I installed another flathead in the '39 for him, and his Dad suggested he gift me the '46! I wanted it low, so I cut the front crossmember, raising its 'floor' 4". Front member was the lowest part, so I 'raised' it. Then the 4inch '34 Mor-Drop axle, and the reversed eyed '36 spring; Split '36 wishbones, and it was down there...Axle perches were 'narrower', (closer together) so the narrow spring was necessary. Car was the original Azure blue, polished and waxed by hand...8.20 X 15s rear, (on '46 Ford centers, reversed Buick 'tapered' rims) 6.40 X 15 front, reversed '46 wheels. I parked it in front of Mel's Palm Bowl, went riding in my bud's '34 Victoria...Downtown, everybody I knew said, "Wow! Did you see the raked '46 in front of Mel's? That's what you oughta do to yours!" LOL 1960: Friend Billy had a '31 roadster, so bought a 'Parts Car' for engine & trans...a '46 Ford club coupe ('Long-Door') The coupe sat on the concrete drive at his Mom's house...she wanted it gone. Billy had to have some cash, so I'd have to buy it. $12. Cash. Brakes worked, original keys, pink slip...we tied a rope to my friend's '57 Ranchero and he pulled me home. Friend Richard in Long Beach owned a Supercharger Service, gifted me a 331" Chrysler Hemi, one that had run in Reath Automotive's rail... Richard had a plethora of hemis...and 6-71 blowers. 3 walls of them, neatly stacked. My '46 coupe got a 6-71 blown Chrysler, '37 LaSalle box, adapted to the torque tube rear by a tailshaft turning down and 6-spline, tapped 3/8" SAE, and 6 holes drilled and tapped in the rear of LaSalle case. Tranny was 1.3" longer than the '46, but some room at the radiator end by changing core support, and the '46 radiator cooled it fine. "New design" flex fan, 6-71 was driven by Moon pulleys and triple Vee belts. Car sat tall, (the 'new style' then) 1:1 drive and it felt like I was driving a rail! ...I was still young... 1962: Traded the Coupe for a '36 Ford flatback tudor, after thieves stole my engine/tranny, and my new American Torq-Thrust wheels. 1962: Bought a cherry '48 Merc convert, $50. Needed a back window, so went to Randazzo's Top Service in San Jose. Randazzo sewed in a zipper apound the missing window area, made a canvas 'gypsy' to fit, with a 4" X 16" Hollywood framed back glass, looked 'Carson-ish'. Merc was red, so I had my bud Mileaway detail it with a 'wheel job', paint looked deep and shiny. Merc got dropped, dual exhausts, looked slick. Whitewalls on reversed wheels, ('49 Mercs, 6") Just the outer rims were chromed, centers painted black...Only a 1" stripe was visible with the '50 Merc 'ash can' caps. Idiot ex-wife was talking to her ditzy girlfriend while 'cruising', rear-ended a truck with a hydraulic lift. Merc was totaled, pushed the engine and driveline back, breaking the rear spring! Whole frame got 'reverse-slingshot'! Lately: Try and imagine my surprise when Marc gave me this '47 Fordor! Plus a complete Posie's rear kit, including springs! ...And an 'In-Da-Dirt' front kit, spring, 4" Super Bell, and disc brake conversion! Well...I've done a few 'kits' for customers, but have always done all my own. (genuine Ford parts, and 'real' Henry dropped axles...) This'll be easy. Was going to rake it, but remembered a kid's Dad's almost new '48, in 1950. Black Club Coupe ('long door') dropped more in back, skirts, dual Appletons, pipes, and whitewalls. My bud Tracy sold me a pair of skirts, early Custom ones, nice full skirts, not the 'box skirts'...Car is black, nice shape. Left rear fender is smashed, Tracy also had one of those. Cool, "for a Fordor"... Cool anyway. Love your Tudors, guys. Kudos, Red. Our two girls are grown...the grandchildren will ride in our 'Mild Custom'.
Bit the bullet.... flathead came out easily. Pretty sludgy but the cylinders look really good. No scoring to speak of. There is a good sized ridge though so it will probably need bored, we'll see what the machine shop says. No crazy plans just a mild rebuild and clean up. Don't mind the dirt in the cylinder pic. Since I'm doing a full rebuild I didn't bother cleaning the outside like I should have before opening her up. I did check the vin on the trans and if matches the frame which was a cool thing to find. I also haven't gotten to deep yet but it doesn't look like it's been rebuilt before. Makes me think the engine may be original to the car too. Can't tell for sure though because they never stamped the engine block that I know of.
Cool man! Maybe they can just hone the the ridge out? Looking forward to see it come apart and back together!
Thanks for all the pics. I want to trade my avatar for a 46 -8 long door coupe or a 2 door. Keep up the work. Great read.
Hadn't thought much about a hone. That would be a good option if possible. I'll see what the machine shop thinks.
The rings hung up on the ridge a little but I was still able to get them all out without too much trouble. I've been splitting my time between the 47 and a way off topic yj jeep foir my dad. So it took me a while to tear the flathead down to a bare block but I did that last night. The intake valves all came out easily exhaust wasn't so easy everyone of them was stuck. Because I'm planning to switch to 8ba style straight valves I went ahead and cut the exhaust valves and got the springs out. After that I was able to drive the guides down into the valley and out that way. So before I get into the bottom end. I should mention there was really no reason to tear the engine out. It was running fine, just seemed a little tired. It leaked oil... but they all do right. And it looked krusty in the engine bay... But really nothing was broken it was working why tear it apart. I just was getting a suspicion that I was on borrowed time. Well I'm glad I tore it apart. As you all know flathead use shared rod bearings. Pistons 1-5 Looked pretty good. 2-6 bearing was broken but hadn't come apart completly and had gouges like it was starting to disintegrate 3-7 bearing had gouges chips but hadn't completly failed or broken 4-8 were the same Went back and looked through the bottom of the pan and found all the chips. I'm going to have the machine shop really check out the crank when it's cleaned up but from what I could see it didn't look like there was any damage to the crank or rod journals. Hard to believe they weren't damaged but I've got my fingers crossed. I'm dropping it all off at the machine shop tomorrow. Of course I didn't take any pictures because my hands were completely black with grime and oil. I'll take some tomorrow.
Scallops look good. Just enough to make those fat fenders look fat(ter). Good luck on flatty rebuild.
Alright been a while. I've been have trouble with the mobile app not working and even my phone browser wouldn't load the hamb website for a while. anyone else having this issue? anyway got the block back a couple weeks ago, but its been super crazy at work too our fiscal year is ending and we are in crunch mode to get all the stores for this year opened before May 1. so that means trips to Central/Eastern Missouri pretty much every week. Mama doesn't like me being gone all week then spending all night out at the shop too much but I try to get out there every couple days or so. so far I've got the block painted ready for reassembly. My cam showed up today so next time I go out there i can really start putting her back together. even with the damaged rod bearings my grant polished to within .001 of spec. still since you cant fine 1 under bearings very easily i ended up having to have the crank ground to .010 Build: 59a Stock Ford Crank Schneider 260 .355 cam offy alum heads stock style pistons .030 8ba straight valve kit Adjustable lifters still need to get an intake (2x2 cant decide if i want wide set duals and an offset gen or close set duals and centered gen. any thoughts on both look and function between the two? or am i over thinking it?) dual 94's (need some guidance for setup of jet sizing and power valve sizing for a tame street driver with multi carbs) ill have to get pictures later since they're on my phone and still having issues with that.
Well apparently all I had to do was whine about it and update my phone. But it's working again.... So here's a couple pictures. Mock up. Paint, heads, and stock single intake. Got a wild hair and took the riser and pump apart and over to the bench wire wheeled them and a quick buff on the polishing pad. Turned out pretty good for the stock pieces and 20 minutes I think.
So no pictures tonight but I got my cam and started assembly tonight. Ran into a snag with the main bearings. (i.e. didn't get too far) plastigage showed .001 clearance from bearing to journal. Which is spec according to my book. Problem was everything spun nicely until I tightened the caps. Book claims it should spin at least a revolution with the caps torqued but I'm fighting to get it to move at all. Took the caps off and back on a few times never got any better. Looking at the bearings in the caps they look flat but you can feel the bearing sticking up just barely. Could that be the issue. Can I file that a little? I assume it's very easy to go too far and I don't want to cause issues later if u make them even slightly too small and cause a spun bearing over time. Just basically looking for advice from someone whose done it more than once in the last 5 years
Tried taking it apart and back together about 10 more times (definition of insanity right) and never really got any better... So back to the machine shop and they'll get it right this time hopefully. Getting close to spring and I'm getting antsy too get reassembled. Took the side cover of the trans last night. Probably need to replace the shaft bearings and the brass cones but otherwise it looks great inside... Little cleanup and should be good to go. Which is good news. I can work on that whole the engine is gone. Lastly as usual having trouble making decisions... Super dual or regular dual intake. It's just a street motor so I'd never see the performance difference just can't decide what look I like better. Any fitment issues to stay away from. Outside of offset Gen. Any pics of your 2x2 carb flathead for inspiration?
I had trouble with build on a Dodge 340 once, and the block was out a bit at the rear main area. Caused the crank to stick while rotating it. Could you have a slightly bent crank, or saddles off bore, to cause the crank to hang up?
It's possible of course... whould that spin ok then hang up in certain spots you think? Mine is just tight all the way around which I hope means it's just the clearance is too tight. Crossing my fingers cause I don't really want to find a new crank at this point but I guess if that's what I need.
When it happened to mine, we started to check the pieces that came out, and saw that the rear main bearing had been "fitted" to the block. Short of align honing the block, it was suggested I carefully polish out the last saddle to fit the bearing properly. Took a while, but it worked. Don't know how it would work on the flathead. Just inspect and keep checking.
My avatar shows a pair of '97's on an 8BA. I like the ability of running the generator straight up. In it's latest reiteration, the fan is on the generator (in a '32) and, that's what works for me.
Looks good. That's the problem I like the look of both styles.... Just terrible at making decisions haha. The one side water pump would have less belt contact is all I can think of. That what you're trying to avoid with is straight up or am I missing something
In a fat fender car I don’t mind the gen bolted to the head though it does make me curious how you’d be mounting the fan. Earlier car I like the gen in the middle, just looks better to me.
My fans currently electric but new intakes for our year usually come with the Gen and fan bracket. New cast alum. Would stick it like crazy next to my crusty heads though. There is a couple pretty cool looking used Fenton's on fleabay right now that have the crusty look my heads have. But no gen bracket or fan bracket. I need to just nut up and buy something. Then whatever it is will seem like right choice.
Kicking the generator off to the side on a 59AB is usually done to enable your ability to run three deuces. The generator would also have to move if you run the "super dual" manifold. Three deuces is a PIA, in my humble opinion. As you mentioned, you won't need it for your engine build. Many three deuce manifolds you see running the street have the two end deuces blocked off. It's a "look" thing. Two deuces work really well on a mild flat motor; easy to tune and straight linkage. I have run the three deuce setup and the offset generator caused no problems driving the water pumps. It will work. One last thing, please do not put that motor together unless you can spin the crank easily by hand with all three mains torqued down. You'll be hating life down the road if you do. Experience or, been there, done that.
Still no word from the machine shop in the crank and bearings. In the meantime let's work on some other stuff. I did a thing and it showed up last night. Found a pretty decent used Fenton on eBay. Had to mock it up with the carbs And the fuel pump riser and pump Also completely turn down the trans, cleaned the case, tried to light the shop on fire after a brain fart that acetone is flammable at 1am. Well it's flammable all the time actually. Spray bomb painted the case. Now just need to wait for a couple bearings to get here and reassemble. I should have just got them when I got the rest of the stuff for the trans. Oh well. Also "Rebuilt" the fuel pump which is about as easy as it gets. Slowly but surely.
The Jalopy Journal
