Hot Rods BChrismer's Survivor '40 Ford Convertible

Would blue dots stand out more at night?
Are you using the 6 volt wiring for the rest of the car or have you converted to 12 volt wiring?
What else is required to run the LED's with 12 volts?

 

You never know what you WILL learn when you open up a thread on the HAMB.... This is a good one . I am enjoying your frequent progress reports Brett.

 

Oil Pressure gauge works, but reads lower than what the capillary tube gauge read. Good enough for me, though. I just want to make sure there is pressure.

But this is a FIRST for me. I had never wired a '40 Voltmeter before. I had soldered a 60ohm resistor into a wire that feeds off of a 5amp fuse to my volt meter. Just for kicks, I started the car up and it worked without me having to attach a ground wire to the other terminal.

No pictures under the dash, as the wiring I did is messy, because I was just trying to get things running to get it to the exhaust shop. This winter will involve some remounting of the fuse panel and tidying up the underside of the dash. (if I get around to it)

 

Just to be open and not hide my idiocy, I have a confession to make. Sometimes I forget to do things that are really important.

Last night, I took the convertible over to fill the tank. It wasn't this morning, until I walked out into the garage that I got a strong whiff of gas fumes. I looked under the car to see a small pool of gas and a tank dripping. That's when I remembered that when I was swapping out the fuel pump, before going to the muffler shop, I had unhooked the fuel line to break the siphon that was drawing fuel through the fuel lines. NOT GOOD!

I rolled the car back, jacked up the back, took an oil drain pain under there, and fought with trying to line up a fixed fuel line to get it threaded back in and tightened up.

Currently, I have a fan in the window and the garage door cracked so I can blow the fumes out of the garage. Glad to find this BEFORE leaving for Bartlesville. LOL

 

Just got home from the Gathering at the Roc a little bit ago. Fantastic trip!

1. The convertible did fine, although due to the fact that I haven't fixed the rear shocks yet, and I still need to install my sway bar on the front, it is a lot like driving on jello. After about 15 miles in I44, I called Clay and told him we were exiting and taking old Route 66 across to Carthage because I didn't like dealing with truck turbulence.
2. The car runs great, and spent most of it's time in the 3000rpm range while on highways. (Clay and I were running between 65 & 75 from Springfield to Bartlesville and back)
3. Who knew 283's could be that thirsty??? My odometer may be off, but I was averaging around 11mpg based on the odometer reading and I don't think it is that far off.
4. After the rain storm on Friday, my tail lights quit working. I planned on rewiring all of the lighting after the event, but that just makes more necessary! Thankfully, I still had brake lights, so I can still drive it during the daylight hours.

Thanks to each of the folks, this weekend, who told me they had been following this thread. As I have stated before, it's mainly so I can remember stuff later, as my ADHD mind doesn't hold onto things and it's a good thing for me to document stuff. I'm happy to share my successes and my failures when I do stuff.

(I'll add pics as soon as I remember where I left my phone)


Met up with @cvstl at our normal meeting spot in Springfield

Snapped a pic of Clay in the rear view mirror.

Stopped at the gas station at Downstream Casino where we found the Kivetts. Jimmy had a passenger side wheel bearing bite the dust.

Hard to read in the light and all the crud in the odometer, but it reminded me of the debate between Van Halen and Van Hagar

Following Clay this morning after he heard a ticking noise from the passenger side of his car. We did find it was coming from the passenger side rear wheel bearings of his banjo rear end.

Decided the best place to work on it would be Mick Bryan's Stray Kat Headquarters. (Clay repacked both sides while were were there)

Proof that Famous Andy @OL 55 and I can be in the same place together and the world doesn't fall apart.

Photographic evidence of shenanigans that happened with some of my 'stache wax magnets this weekend.

 

Happy to hear you had a successful and enjoyable journey. I see you got to watch other people work on their cars this time

 

Sounds like a good adventure was had

 

Did you almost vapor lock?
Glad that you had a good outcome....sure did miss you guys....next year

 

I got tagged in an Instagram post by Alex McGinnis, from Saturday evening back at the host hotel. @cvstl gave me crap about backing into the parking spot, but it worked out great for this pic. ;-)

 

The rake looks great in all the photos/video I saw of the car. Rag tops typically end up ass down so it’s neat to see a hot rod one!

 

Several years in a row in fact!

 

Cool pic! Looks like you have a cross in the back. And, I can attest that Clay did in fact give you (and me) crap for power parking…

 

Another pic that night with Jimothy’s Merc too.

 

Dang near pissed my britches while I was sitting up there trying not to do the pee pee dance.

 

I haven't done much with the convertible other than take a few drives in it since getting back from the Gathering at the Roc.

Last Thursday, I had a doctors appointment to have a spot of melanoma removed from my back, so the Dr says to not do anything that will put strain on my back so I don't pop stitches. What a fun sucker!!!

On the bright side of things, to leave the Dr's office to head back to my house, it requires going through a tunnel under 7 traffic lanes of S National Ave, here in south Springfield. Similarly to when I used to drive the '40 stake truck to cardiac rehab, which is also in the same area, I did the obligatory run it up to 3000+rpms and back off the loud pedal in the tunnel. Let's just say, I am quite pleased with the choice to run 1 3/4" pipes with 12" glass packs!

While telling Clay that the car felt like I was driving on jello and I was considering raising the front a bit to keep the wishbone from smacking the under side of the steering column mount, he suggested putting on the Chassis Engineering sway bar that had been removed from my old '37 sedan.

I did take the time to dig through my crap in the garage and find the sway bar. Unfortunately, the sway bar was the only thing I could find for a while, until I finally remembered to look in another spot where I had stuck the mounting stuff and the sway bar links and bushings. Hopefully I can get the car back up to Meeker's to put on his lift to install the sway bar and finally install the upper rear shock towers that I got from @Weedburner 40. It's supposed to rain on Saturday, so that might get pushed out long enough for me to get stitches removed and do it the old fashioned way by lying on the concrete floor of my garage.

While doing something totally unrelated to the convertible, the thought popped into my head of where the problem was with my tail lamps. Based on the '40 Ford wiring diagram, the same wire that feeds the gauge lights is also what feeds the tail lamps. I peeked under the dash to find that the crimp on my wire connector failed and the wire feeding the tail lamps had come out. That's an easy fix, but I am going to still redo some of that mess so I can swap out my turn signals to one with hazard flashers.

And the last bit of "progress" was inspired by a flooding issue that happened when trying to leave the host hotel after the rain. The Rochester 4GC that I used did not have the choke hooked up, so cold starts were not good. After getting a new gas line fitting for the '58 model 4GC that I had converted to an electric choke, I decided why not just swap out the electric choke stuff into the carb that's already on the car. A few minutes worth of work, and some careful positioning to avoid pulling stitches, I was able to feed the wire to the fuse panel and get that working. I had driven the car, so the engine was still warm, so I figure I will try and get out to the garage to adjust it sometime today. Hopefully after adjusting the choke and doing some carb tuning and double checking the timing, it may improve the fuel consumption a little, and have good success with cold starts.

BTW...the part number on the electric choke conversion that I used is 8184a. It replaces the hot air choke thermostat with an electric one.

 

Fantastic

 

I like it when guys post part numbers involved.

 

I don't always remember to do it, but I know there's other guys out there probably doing the same kind of stuff I am, so why not pass the info along.

 

I did 1 3/4” pipes on my coupe and the cackle is fantastic!

 

Between the stitches in my back and the sinus infection that I have been fighting this week, there hasn't been much done, other than going down to the garage to adjust the choke on on a cold start. I had to adjust the choke a little leaner than I had it set for it to want to start and run correctly.

Our younger daughter needed to take her car for a state inspection, so she ran over to our house to drop off her pup, and I followed her over to the shop for her to drop her car off. The choke adjustment seemed to work fantastic.


When we got the call to come pick up her car, we loaded up in the convertible so I could take her and her pup to get her car. We were curious to see how Bernina (the pup) would react to riding around with the top down. Her attitude was "Wind in my hair and I just don't care!"

 

Call me weird, but due to growing up in the early 70s-80s, my preference has always been mag wheels on hot rods, especially '40 Fords. My stake truck is my exception, as I felt it needed steel wheels and it's original hubcaps.

My original intention, with the convertible, is to put a set of American Rebel Sprints on it, as a guy can't go too wrong with is car if wheels/tires/stance are nailed. What I didn't plan on is spending a LOT of money buying the 2nd flathead and blowing it up, requiring the back up plan of spending more money to put the 283 in the car.

Since I wanted to put some 15" wheels and radials on the car, I bought the Wimbledon White wheels and tires that my buddy had taken off his '40 sedan with the thought that one day, I'll save up and buy the American Rebels.

Then I got to thinking about the wheels I put on my '54 F100, when I brought it back from Dad's house several years ago. I was able to find a set of late '70's Ford F150 factory mags, and ran them without the center caps and some open ended chrome lug nuts. Those wheels don't show up often on Facebook Marketplace, and when they do, a guy can usually buy all of them for a few hundred bucks. With them being 15x6, and having the 5 1/2" bolt circle, they would fit under the fenders of the convertible just fine.

So...if any of you are holding a set of these, I would be interested to see if we can make a deal and find a relay to get them to Springfield, MO.



No, they aren't nearly as cool as a set of American Rebels, but they would definitely do the trick for my beater convertible.

 

Too bad none of my slot mags are 5 on 5-1/2. I have quite a collection now.

 

Up until we brought our '40 sedan to Springfield in '21 I had run aluminum slot mags on it for many years. Long before they became popular again. I liked them not having to be polished all the time. I ran 14's in the front and 15's in the rear. For the last 4 years or so it has had black 15's with '40 standard caps on it. I like both.
Sorry, but the white wheels not so much. I think you are going the right direction.

Dave

 

I get it. While the late '70's truck mags aren't nearly as cool as the wheels I would like, they would satisfy the 70's era "hot rod" look enough for me.

 

two things:

1. Iron Trap Garage has a few sets of those wheels up for sale (or at least they did have). You might jump on their website and check.

2. Van Hagar

 

You were also on the list of people we never saw with their car at the Roc. Our timing was way off this year. I'm glad the car did the thing after all that thrashing!

 

1. I saw those and another set on the e-bay. I'd hate to drop $600 plus shipping for some if I can just keep trolling on Marketplace and hope some show up for less within a 200 mile radius. Otherwise, I'll keep saving my pennies and dimes.
2. It depends for me. I like both eras, and still have never listened to the Van Halen III album with Gary Cherone on lead vocals.

That's a common thing, at the Gathering. Once Clay and I parked next to Super Famous Andy (@OL 55) we didn't show back up near our cars until about the time they started giving away the awards. Same thing happens at the host hotel. LOL

 

on car-part.com shows davis auto wrecking and sales independence mo 816 229 3432 or 816 229 3636 has 5 sets of those wheels at 175.00 a set

 

@bchrismer. ^^^^^^^
Mr. Chrismer to the courtesy phone, please. Paging Mr. Chrismer.

 

Thanks for the head's up! I'm pretty sure they are wanting $150/ea, or $600 for the set. I sent them an e-mail to confirm.