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

Took it for its first ‘legal’ drive in over 50 years !
I have been test driving it for a while, but it has now passed the certification process, has a warrant of fitness and is registered once again for New Zealand's roads !
(Last time it was on the road was mid to late 1960’s).

mid 1960’s ? ….……



and a few months ago……
still a lot to finish up such as upholstery.

 

Got some good progress done on the Belly Tank this weekend... cool. JW

 

Update - not much. the South Florida summer blast furnace temperatures in my shop are pretty much outside my comfort zone.

From the BillyBob Shop log

April 22nd 2024 Long past time to get back to the 322 Buick short block assembly. Gathered my tools for oil gallery cleaning and gallery plugs installation. These included a headlamp since I can't see spit, Hoppe's #9 sovlent, Green Locktight, hammer and drifts, snap ring pliers, assorted engine brushes and allen wrench. Also shown is a nailhead specific set of oil gallery plugs and instructions from Centerville Auto Repair and a generic set of freeze plugs. Enuf stuff to get started.



Back of the engine has a snap ring behind the last cam bearing, then a large plug. Below that is the main oil gallery plug which has been threaded at some point in this nailhead's life. To the left is one of the lifter gallery plugs and, to the right, is the other lifter gallery plug, a couple of inches in from a larger access plug.



The front of the engine is more straightforward, just three plugs for the lifter gallerys and the main oil gallery. More care must be taken installing the front plugs as the oil supply lines are very close to the front of the gallerys and driving the plugs too deep will block them.



I was concerned on how to clean the holes between the lifter bores and the lifter gallerys until I put a brush in one of the galleries and shined a penlight in a lifter bore. The gallery pierces the bore and there are no holes to clean. I probably knew this at one time and forgot it.

Beer of the day was Yazoo Brewing Company's Hefeweizen Wheat Beer. Background music was Al Kooper Rare & Well Done.



April 25th 2024 After detailing Elvira, went back to the Buick block. Cleaned the lifter bores with Hoppe's #9 and bottle brush. Saturated Scot's Towels quarters with Marvel Mystery Oil and stuffed them into the lifter bores after cleaning the lifter oil gallerys.



Installed the Centerville Auto Repair lifter gallery plugs with green Locktight, using a bronze hammer and drift. By that time, it was mid-afternoon and I could feel dehydration coming on so, I packed it in and retreated to the Flamingo Room. Beer of the day was The River-Horse Brewing Company's Summer Blonde Ale. Background music was Not Fade Away {remembering buddy holly}.



June 12th 2024 Got back to the oil gallery plugs finally. Some time back, v8Buick.com forum member 322bnh noticed a hole on the bottom of my block that should have a plug but didn't in my pics. Fixed that today with one of the Centerville plugs with green locktight.



Cleaned the main oil gallery, along with the runners to the cam and main bearings with Hoppe's #9 and engine brushes. Installed the main gallery plug with bronze hammer and drift, being carefull not to block the passage behind.



Installed the main oil gallery rear threaded plug from the Centerville kit with an allen wrench. Went to work on the existing snap ring behind the last cam bearing but broke my snap ring pliers which were too lightweight for the task. I ordered a heavy duty snap ring plier set but that turned out to be too big for the job, so I just gave up and cleaned the existing snap ring in place. Next, the Centerville plug for behind the snap ring was installed with green locktight.

The lifter gallery access hole to the right of the camshaft plug didn't have a Centerville kit plug so, I used a 1-1/8" plug from the generic freeze plug kit which was a smigeon too big. Shaved it down some with the bench grinder and installed it with green locktight. Done! We are getting monsoon rains this week so air temps in the shop were tolerable. Beer of the day was River Horse Brewing Company's Tripel Horse Belgian Style Ale. Background music was Duane Allman Anthology Vol II.



June 15th 2024 Returned my attention to the nailhead crankshaft that I had half finished polishing three years ago. We've had three days of monsoon rains which has cooled the BillyBob Shop considerably and opened up a couple of sinkholes in the parking lot. That's the landlord's problem. I started on the pitted oil seal area of the crank with the shoestring method using 400 grit sandpaper strips and WD40 as a lubricant. After three hours, I had a pretty smooth surface except for the pits.

Sat in the deep ponder mode chair for a couple of hours thinking over possible solutions to the pitting problem. Realizing I was overthinking things again after considering motorized crankshaft stands, tubing polishing belt sanders and oil seal sleeves, I decided to take up the issue with the Senile and Surly Car Club members at the coffee cruise-in on Sunday. During coffee, Lou Tassi mentioned he had come across a high temperature, machinable epoxy in his travels and I figured that to be the path of least resistance, worth a try.



July 1st 2024 Researched and ordered Teenanseen Metal Repair Glue, 2 Pack Professional Grade Metal to Metal Glue Heavy Duty and it arrived a week ago. A tubing sander arrived Friday and a crankshaft stand has been ordered from Goodson so, I'm holding off on the epoxy for now.

Opened the Vevor Pipe Tube Polisher Sander. The fabric backed sanding belts are too wide for the crankshaft oil seal surface so I selected a 30 grit belt and scored it with a utility knife. It did a number on the blade and I realized the utility knife wasn't up to the task. I bent the belt at the scoring line to put a crease in it and, after a few minutes of thought, went looking for my aviation snips to finish the job. Alterwards, the sander was assembled and secured in the bench vise to await the arrival of the crankshaft stand.



July 9th 2024 The crankshaft stand was due to arrive Wednesday morning (in time for the four day weekend) but Murphy intervened. Goodson got the shipping address correct on my e-mail confirmation but wrong on the invoice. UPS tried to deliver to the vacant office downstairs, then went away. Anybody who has tried to deal with UPS online knows how futile that can be. You have to join "UPS My Choice" to change things from a receiver's viewpoint. I had done this in the distant past but tho' they have my user name on record, none of my e-mail addresses will work so, I can't get a new password for the one I set the account up with but UPS now sez is wrong. I emailed Goodson and I think they are correcting things from their end.

The four days of the Independence Day weekend were a blast furnace at the BillyBoB Shop with no rain to cool things off. Too hot to get much work done and I spent most of my time in the Flamingo Room where the heat was overpowering the A/C most of the time, leaving me cranky, in a clammy sweat for the duration. Ended up with heat rash on my forearms.



The UPS brownshirt arrived with the Goodson crankshaft stand on Monday and when I got to the BillyBob Shop, I finished setting up my DIY shadetree crankshaft sanding rig. The plan is to run the belt sander at its lowest speed while rotating the crank by hand. With this in mind, the crankshaft stand was set up perpendicular to the belt sander and a wrench was attached to the crank snout. I did a ten second test and it looks as if it might work. Had to retreat from the heat of the shop at that point. Beer of the day was West Sixth Brewing's Pennyrile Pale Ale.



July 15th 2024 Developed the procedure for sanding the oil seal journal on the Nailhead crankshaft. Start rotating the crankshaft by hand, turn on the belt sander at the lowest speed, continue rotating the crankshaft for a sixty count, turn off the belt sander, stop rotating the crankshaft. Check alignment and progress. Rest in the deep ponder mode chair for a couple of minutes, then repeat the cycle. Four hours of this over the course of two days and the pitting on the oil seal journal was gone. A rope seal is like coal tar roofing. It will make up for sloppy tolarances but it is not a miracle material. I now believe the nailhead's rope seal will have half a chance.

Now, all it needs is finer grades of sandpaper with the shoestring method until it meets the fingernail test. Beer of the day was West Sixth Brewing's Pay it forward Cocoa Porter. Background music was Billy Joel's Piano Man.

 

Put some side trim on our '47 and learned that '42 hood trim was longer than '47-'48 so ended up with a extra hole to fill later.

Started to make some wood bases for seat foam after figuring out the old springs were well beyond their expiration date.

 

sand blasted off the ugly silver paint off my early D spoke for my 66 Nova Wagon.. going to get a light dusting of gold... since the wagon is as white as a new Sear's Fridge ! lol

 

Nice! These are the TTO's I did for my T Coupe

 

dang, those look sweet!

 

Put the car cover and some blankets on my roadster now that we're under a hurricane warning here on Florida's east coast. Yes it's coming in on the west coast but it will still be a hurricane when it exists the east coast.

 

Hope you come through that okay mate with no problems

 

Beautiful!....

 

Engine setback 6 1/2 inches..bolted in ..first time ever everything clears...plenty of fan to radiator clearance ..

 

they look great... its been discontinued by Eastwood at the moment ( reformulation per customer service) Using their Carb Renew paint.. just a light dusting on the spokes.. My friend was nice enough to give the two cans he had left to paint the centers this weekend... he did the rims on his Father's 56 Chevy.. and the color looks great.. so its fine line tape and more masking off and paint them.. will post pictures of them when done..

 

so painted the centers of the D spokes on Saturday.. really happy with the way they turned out. The Carb Renew from Eastwood looks great .... hopefully Eastwood, gets it back in the product line up soon... I need to replace my friend's cans.

 

I’m a guy who “if a car has it…It needs to work” kind guy. My 56 Ford clock quit after many years so I sent it off for repair. Not wanting to see a hole I bought $10 quartz clock form Amazon that fits the chrome ring left in the dash. I hate removing the AC panel to put the original back in but that’s the way it goes.

 

Drive from Tulsa to Amarillo.

 

Jim Jim Jim Jim…!!!!!

 

They look great. The light gray on mine was looking like s**t so I found som dupli-color titanium wheel paint which is OK but the carb gold is way better. I need to look for a light gray I’d be happy with that will bring them back to original.

 

Not bad, but I prefer mine Medium Rare. How was it seasoned and was it grilled with smoke? Asking for a friend.

Edit: And this is on topic because nobody should work on or drive their hot rods on an empty stomach. Or tank for that matter.

 

I'm smoothing out the fiberglass where I made the one piece front clip out of 4 separate pieces.
I didn't do it it several years ago and I know why, sanding really tears my back up.

 

Nice looking "Texas Pickles" next to the steak.

 

Well after life got in the way including a trip to a war zone, a bereavement in the family and then some kind of food poisoning I finally got back working on the car. This was the first road test after the carb overhaul, ignition vacuum advance mechanism replacement, fitting new plugs/leads and the re-core of the radiator. Good 50 miles drive including putting my foot down. No water leaks, never got more than 180°f, in fact I'm probably running a bit too cool so I may put the old 194°f thermostat back on. Car still smokes when one puts the foot down (not while idling and with good vacuum levels, so it's not the idle jets) but reacts a lot better when you stomp on it (and got better once I realized my static ignition was too advanced - reading the workshop manual helps). So tomorrow I'll take the carb off and have a gander at the power valve... Should not be the cause (it's new) but. Also check why the throttle is sticking a bit.

But it gave me an excuse to take a couple of pics Thing taped to the cowl is the vacuum gauge.

 

Ok, so yesterday I took the carb off again and dismantled the power valve cover - no fuel pouring out which was good but the viton ring I used as a gasket looked misshapen so I replaced it with white poly one. Started the car and did an approximate wet fuel float level adjustment (the "garage" does not have a level floor) - it was WAY too high which explains some of the rich running. Found out why the throttle was sticking - it was contact between the return springs and the linkage so I relocated the springs. Got to the garage this morning and went for a drive and the car was still stuttering on part throttle. Played with the ignition timing but no change. Dodged many tractors and trucks (Lower Austria is Austria's... Iowa I suppose and it's beet harvest time here) but made it back to the garage in one piece. Did some further research and ended up ditching the factory set up on the ignition and the accelerator pump (10° static timing and minimal gap between the actuating rod and the accelerator pump plunger). Result: no hesitation when you stomp on the pedal or stuttering, and no more sticking throttle!

Now before anyone goes "duh", I used to work on cars for living but I was a body guy, not a mechanic

All in all, I am very happy and hopefully will book an inspection appointment next.

Again a pic from the d̶r̶i̶f̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ t̶r̶a̶c̶k̶ beet collection yard.

 

Did some winter prep on the Buick today, changed the oil and filter.
And I also cleaned the outlet tubing from filter canister to the head, it were pretty clogged up in the head, also change out the valvecover gasket, old one were i three pieces and leaking.

 

Little fiberglass work, once the fumes kick in the job isn't so bad LOL

 

My kid and I talked about going for a paddle to check out the foliage on Carmans River, today was the day. I haven’t made any effort to get myself a kayak so this morning I loaded up the canoe and set sail. Life is good.

Rancho is doing great on its first season back on the road but she’s going to be receiving a lot of attention this winter.

 

Finished the seat bases for our '47 and stretched some webbing over them. I was going to use some repop Model seat locating pegs; but when I found they were $20 something each, I made a couple out of aluminum using my drill press "turning center" along with angle grinder "tooling".

 

I swapped in a later distributor to add mechanical advance and do away with the 223’s Loadomatic unit. Now I’m learning how to curve the timing.

So I printed up some timing tape for winners! It’s been a slow process.

 

Went a small Sunday gathering…found these

 

Nice day for the wife and I to vote…..so we did.. parked where we couldn’t get hit..

 

I prepped these fender pieces, the headlights and stands for paint, last pieces to do on the front clip, hopefully paint on Tuesday when it's supposed to be warm again.