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

was a '23 Touring
build thread listed in index

 

I cleaned up the chrome with Mothers chrome polish and #0000 steel wool . She’s no concourse beauty but she is cleaning up nicely for spending 61 years sitting in a dirt floor shed

 

Went bug killin the other day.
Axle wins the greezie award.

.

 

Last I posted I had starting issues which I put down to a kink in the pipe from the fuel pump to the carb or a fuel pump. I fabricated a new pipe and just for shits & giggles changed the accelerator jet pump. Filled up the bowl with some fuel, connected the pipe and lo and behold if it did not start the second time I hit the button. That gave me the chance to check the cooling system which happily was tight, car never got over 180 - I did not drive it but it ran long enough to get hot and with ambient temp of 90, so I'm happy. I was less happy about the excessive rich running so today I spent some "quality" time with the Ford 2100 carb. As suspected, the power valve and its gasket were shot. Other than that it was the mundane task of cleaning and re-assembling which I think I managed without any extra bits left on the table. I had an old US-made overhaul kit (!) but even that was no guarantee for correct gaskets (see pic). Am not sure whether I need to modify the base plate gasket or not but we'll see... All that's left is to convert the thermally operated choke to manual and then start, adjust, etc. etc.

Then I'll have a look at the distributor.

 

got the TT cowl and windshield mounted.... real long though process happened getting this far... but got a plan now so I think I'll go take a nap....

 

Took my '36 up to the top of Mt. BLUE SKY (EVANS) a mere 14,140' above sea level. The carbed inline ran like a dream. AND the brakes worked good on the way down too !! Mitch

 

Went out for a drive just to blow off some mental cobwebs to enjoy the day, and the music of the Y Block through the Porters.
Perfect prescription of open top fun.

 

Took it on its first outing “yesterday” in over 40 years & it lived happily ever after …… but not the end ❤️

 

Still working on fixing the damage some low life did to my '39 in a parking lot. Getting close to final sanding, and primer in the next day or two.

 

I was surprised how well the chrome cleaned up on the 47 Merc . So I cleaned up the bumpers and grill on the 57 Fairlane 500

 

I wet-sanded with 320 a bunch of flaws on my '29AA hood sections, door frame trim and odd parts, then cut a new floor opening now that I moved the Lokar shifter back a couple of inches, and finally today I started a bracket to attach the fuse panel to the steering column support, thus establishing where that will go. I've got to paint the rest of the cab and doors, then paint four fenders - all fronts. I bought some nice fiberglass fenders 20 years ago, maybe more, but then decided to do the best I could to repair the original Henry fenders. They're not perfect now, but I'm proud that I at least tried to make them better and they are solid metal now with reinforcing rod crimped tightly under the fender edges. Once I get stuff painted and assembled, I'll give the 351W and AOD a start up and run in. Yeah, that will be exciting.

 

Sorry, no pictures or video, but after months of fiddling around with a mild freshen-up on a Chevy
/Mercrusiser 153 Cu. In. 4 banger I finally got it finished and fired up on an engine stand. It's basically stock but had a mild performance re-grind done on the cam, had the block shaved about .020" to get the pistons closer to the deck to raise compression a tad, and ground all of the "marine" exhaust portion off of the intake manifold so I could use the remaining intake with a Rochester 2 barrel carb. Oh yeah, I also built a tri-Y header for it.

Getting it running well was a bit of a challenge. Ignition points were dirty and gapped way too wide (not by me), plug wires were bad so found another set to "make do", and had to take the carburetor apart to get it to idle....a bit rumbly, thanks to the cam. Total run time at elevated RPM was about 30 minutes or more to break in the re-ground cam and re-faced lifters. Using just a flex-plate for a flywheel it revs really quickly so it could be kinda neat in a light car.

Now the question is what to do with it since I sold the car I intended to put it in?

Lynn

 

I have reconfirmed my opinion of static car shows.
a neighbor stopped by the other day to tell me of a local show his group was putting on.
I like the guy so I went
at least 200 cars showed up,
a nice venue, large grassy area to park on, beautiful weather, lots of friendly folk milling about.
but an hour in and I was plotting my exit.
I suppose any excuse to take the car out is a good excuse.

 

Doing unmentionable things to wife's Nova. Updating the fuel system.

 

I drove off into the sunset

 

I have very little interest in the car show thing anymore.

Parking in a hot parking lot or where there’s no shade and watching people wander by is boring for the most part.

Driving my RPU is much more fun.

 

I only go to two car shows a year. First is put on by a local church on the 4th of July. No cost to enter or attend. Event is on grass. Entrants get a free quality T shirt and a free coupon for the In n Out truck at the event. The other is put on by the local Elks club. Costs 25 bucks but 100% of the proceeds goes to local veteran support. Not all the cars are HAMB approved but both shows are well received and a good time. JMO

 

Took a DA and some 80 grit to the old paint & primer along the original paint & primer on the driver's door for our '47 and started the process of getting them back on the car.

 

Went to a car show at cooks garage in Lubbock and took the 49. Had a blast with my son. Lowered it another inch in the front.

 

Did about 100 mile shakedown out in the Delta after doing brakes on the '50 Crosley. Been sitting for a bit. Ran well for most of the trip, but little boggy at the end.

 

Long way to go, but finished last chassis rough-in (drive shaft “pass-through”). Now body can come back off and I can final weld a bunch of stuff.

 

I finished plumbing the radiator - upper and lower hoses, transmission cooler lines - and did another round of painting hood panels, door garnishes, other small parts. Not proud of the painting results but I've been working on this '29 AA for more than 50 years now so the goal is to get it on the road soon - real soon! I'm healthy now but at 75 years old, now's the time. There is no "later." Next up, painting the cab and doors Rustoleum hunter green and the fenders black. Then wiring it over the winter with a Rebel Wiring 9+3, starting it up, running it in and getting it titled, licensed and insured.

 

best part is that ferry is free!(well,it IS our taxes,,,,but)

 

Installed a front bumper on my old SD. Was a wrecked one off a 34 I think. H ad to make brackets and straighen my old bent up mounts. Spring steel is hard to work with, I think it came out OK for my old Deliver matches the Pitina

 

38-39 Chev. JW

 

Some more progress took place last week and this. I got the manual choke conversion kit sorted with improved bits from Mustangs etc., then moved on to do the basic ignition/carb tuning and discovered my ignition vacuum advance mechanism was, well, dead. Also dismantled the PCV valve, cleaned it and replaced the hose from it to the carb base plate. Installed new Autolite 45 plugs and plug leads. Then started the car (without the vacuum advance mechanism, which is on the way from Cali now) and after some fiddling got it to constant vacuum reading on the gauge (see pic). The more I think about it the more I'm convinced the smoke is unburnt fuel from when the power valve was leaking + some condensation. So really what has to happen next is a long run which in light of the missing vacuum advance mechanism and the storms we had here in Austria could not happen this week...

 

Went to the garbage dump then did an oil change.

 

Annual Outriders picnic with a few I have lunch with on Wednesdays attending also…

 

Enjoyed watching son giving great grand daughter a ride since I gave my roadster to him years ago.

 

Cleaning on the dash in the 47 Mercury. The woodgrain is showing up on the bottom 2/3 not so much on the top 1/3 . The 50 plus years of dust and moisture wasn’t kind to the paint .