Technical What did you do with your car today? * NEW*

A warm, dry February day in central Missouri. I went for a drive in my 57’ Ford on rural 2-lanes. I even drove a short stretch of Route 66.

 

Tacked in the first patch panel for the floor of my 62 Biscayne.

 

It was 62 & sunny, so I took Stubby for a little longer ride, (about 7 miles round trip) into our little town for fuel & back. Everything went well....No death wobble & it rolled along at 45- 50mph fairly easily. Came back home & couldn't help myself I opened up the cutouts & did a big holeshot out front of the house from my Parents driveway to my driveway ....Can't wipe the smile off my face Who would have thought I could do that on the 8th of Feb, a nice break from the cold.

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ar-transport-hauling-open-or-enclosed.614419/

 

I cut out an inch from my brake and clutch pedals and then welded them back together. Then I fabricated the toeboard to fit around the pedals. They still need rubber or some other material to fill the dead space between the pedals and floor.

 

Found a little extra time this afternoon and stripped the paint and stuff off the hood for our '47.

 

Changed the front tires on my T RPU for some that looked more in proportion, would love to run cross plies but not on NZ roads. JW

 

Had a men’s breakfast at church then went to a friend’s son’s celebration of life. My buddies son was only 14 and had heart problems his whole life. Looked like a car show outside the funeral since my buddy wanted everyone to drive their hot rods. Their son would have liked that since that is how he grew up. I wish I would have taken a pic but I wasn’t really thinking of the cars considering the reason we were gathered there.

 

Well it's been a long time coming. Three years ago I embarked on a journey to find a copy of Hop Up Volume 11 No 1 2015.

Naturally my car had a life well before me, as almost all of our cars do. It appeared in Hop Up a couple of years after being imported from the US to AUS. About 5 years before I bought it. Attempts to contact that owner failed. I knew there was an article on the car after it was modified, but in Australia copies (now over 5 years one) were all but forgotten. Attempts with magazine companies here and in the US yielded nothing. Cannot mail to Australia. Maybe they thought it was Austria ?? Forums also were a dead end. Second hand magazines at swap meets... zilch !!!

Thank goodness for Hot Rod & Custom links on Instagram. A friendly Canadian said "No problems" I will order the back issues here and send them to you. The hot Rod & Custom brotherhood is alive and well. Three months in the mail from Canada to Australia....

So ... What did I do today ??? ..... Photograph the car and Hop Up Volume 11 No 1, with the car ... as it is now.

Looks a little like this.... Happy !!

 

bought this pile of shit 6 weeks ago for 800 and nothing to lose converting it to a coupe, lol

 

One of the winter projects was to replace my 97's with chrome ones. I started the process today.
On the car...

and onto the bench.

Next step is box them up and send them Uncle Max along with the chrome bodies.

If it doesn't move, chrome it.
If it does move, hell, chrome it anyway!

 

Ooooh, pretty!

 

To every thing (turn, turn, turn) there is a season. A time to add chrome and a time to cast chrome away (when it fails to turn, turn, turn the way you like).

Flaming river box off my roadster...

Borgeson on.

Knocking off the winter projects one by one.

 

Got frustrated.

 

Still frustrated.

 

Made some brackets for my park/turn lights, made from '39 Ford tail light buckets and '41 Chev lenses. Ordered up some more bulb sockets as the first pair of Chineseum sockets didn't hold up at all. Kinda neat how they made the tension spring a larger ID than the OD of the contact it was supposed to push on.

 

Getting rid of the big ugly for a cleaner look.

 

Measuring how much to notch the off topic front crossmember for mechanical fuel pump clearance...gonna set back the 350 back 5 inches for radiator clearance and better weight distribution,,,,,,

 

Went for drive with 5 friends. We all got the old cars out. Ate a good lunch talked awhile. 160 miles round trip. Came home and another friend showed up in his old truck.

 

Worked some fender welt in on the back edge of the fenders, tightened the mount bolts, and put in the fender braces/gravel shields or whatever they're called. Got the thing back on the ground. Sure was a work out for this old guy, getting up and down a gazillion times. Back home I went over the hood with 80 grit on the DA and put down a coat of epoxy. Concocted a storage stand to hang it on do the lack of room.

 

OD number 2. Muncie 319
OD parts are great.
Trans has a busted first and bad cluster.


got all those in my parts department

 

Guy got his moneys worth out of this shaft and thrust washer

 

Built a mount for the tachometer using a cut down Model A connecting rod.

Swapped dizzy out for a tach drive model. Made plug wires and re-timed.
The drive cable should be here this week

 

Very cool that you got the magazine. Very nice car too!

 

Found some better front fenders and the missing rear I needed and spent the day beating the hell out of them to fit, gonna run a 36 hood instead of the 35 and will be using a 37 LaSalle grill so for some motivation I mocked that up to get a feel. Now that distraction is over it will be back on to finishing forming the tubing for the back skeleton

 

Takes a real man to cut one up...

 

I resumed (after an eight-month hiatus) assembling my 351W and my AOD (thanks for the assist, Saltflats) in preparation to a start-up/run-in I hope to accomplish before my 50th anniversary of purchasing the '29AA back in June 1974. I rebuilt the engine two years ago and rebuilt the AOD last spring. Then there were emergency expenses to save a dog. Surgery was successful but it took money (and time) from my plan. Now, after the dog is fine, the debt paid, some money put back from working part time for the past six months and a little tax refund, I'm back at it.
Today was putting the torque converter back in the AOD, filling the engine with break-in oil (got the zinc in proper proportion), using the drill to run the oil pump and prime the system, installed the valve covers, no leaks, aligned the distributor and stabbed that in. More little prep steps tomorrow, maybe more on Monday.
Some shopping to do now: Battery and cables from the relocated shelf and hold-down on the passenger side just behind the cab; some colored 14 gauge wire to put together the ignition/charging system for the run-in; a radiator; more 5/16" transmission line hose and fuel line hose (separate types); a pressure gauge for setting up the TV cable for the AOD; lots of other stuff but you get the idea. I'm ambitious, but after nearly 50 years I'm apparently not urgent. You never know. Before 50 years goes by I may just get this sumbitch to pop off.