Hot Rods The (mis) Adventures of a Compulsive Tinkerer

You can see our Morris woody in the above picture and you can just catch the corner of the rear fender - IN PAINT!! I mixed a color that the wife and I agreed on and shot the rear fenders. We like it so I’m finishing up the bodywork on the cab portion (ugh, I hate bodywork) and hope to have some color on the rest of the car soon.


I intend to run 14” wheels (gloss black) with thin whitewalls and baby moon hubcaps. So to be sure it would look like I hoped, I painted a white wall on the old tires with Rustoleum peel coat. It works great. Don’t know how long it will look good but it’s better than searching for and buying new tires and not liking the look.

The rear part of the roof is aluminum. I scuffed the existing primer and tried Eastwood Roll-on primer in black. I won’t use it again. Used as directed, it did not flow out and it’s going to need a bunch of sanding. Luckily, it will get a vinyl top in that area so it might not need to be paint perfect.

 

I had a feeling that I might have to sacrifice one or two projects, trying to be more realistic about my time/energy. So I looked at my ‘33 pickup to see what I should do to get it ready in case I decided to sell it. Welding in the floor and securing the rear cab wall was #1. #2 was to get a front axle in it so it’s a roller. A friend had a nice dropped Ford axle and split wishbones that I scooped up and prepped for installation.
I had forgotten how nice the F1 pedal ***embly worked out. I didn’t weld it in because the boxing needs to be reworked in that area.



I did a little cleanup on the bones and welded in the bungs.

 

I’ve been helping a friend build a chopped and channeled ‘29 Tudor. It’s been slow progress due to his budget and the fact that I live in NorCal and we’re building it in the garage at my home in LA. The wife and I are down in LA for a little vacation and home maintenance so I put in some time on his sedan.
I have been bugging him to bring the body over so I can get busy mounting it and he finally found some help and they dropped it off. So the task for this trip was to get the body sitting on the frame.


Looks a bit shaky but I’m a one man band and my tools and equipment at this house are limited. So I had to improvise. My lovely wife was right there to help and call 911 if things went south. I think she thinks I’m crazy but now she’s convinced. lol.
I trimmed out the firewall where someone had hacked it up, the upper butchery will go away when we install the new cowl/tank. He wants to run a stock tank.


Someone hacked the floor out of the poor old beast, that’s ok because he wants it channeled the width of the frame anyway. Just setting it on the frame with 2x6s feels inspirational to me. I’ll bring down my welder and stuff next time. Meanwhile, I’ll have him get some box tubing and stuff for next time.
The engine, a ‘41 Ford flathead, and T5 transmission are done and ready to install. I wanted to get the body mounted without working around that stuff.
Hard to beat the profile of Henry’s old sedans…..

 

Looking good Bob

 

I have been posting on my Studebaker truck thread about the ***embly of the new ‘62 389 Pontiac. It’s mostly together and while I was waiting for TriPower parts to arrive I did some shop clean up and rearranging so I could get to my 33 pu. The idea was to ***ess the project and decide if it goes or stays. I think it’s going to stay, at least for the foreseeable future.
From the firewall forward there are a lot of unnecessary holes so I put a fender on and marked the important ones. It shouldn’t be too bad to fill them, pretty routine. There’s these and three more on the top.

They did butcher the front crossmember and replaced the rivets with bolts. I’ll never understand that.

The p***enger side front frame horn is tweaked in about a half an inch.

 

It has a 59” wide 8” Ford rear end in it. It was hung on parallel leaf springs of unknown origin, not a bad setup except they just put them where they fell on the frame instead of correctly positioning the springs on the frame and moving the pads to match. They just cut notches in the running boards to clear the front mounts. Ugh.

I will be swapping in a 9”and I could fix the leaf springs, or use P&J ladder bars and coil overs, or….. go with my original wacky idea

‘49 Olds trailing arms, with either Corvair coil springs or coil overs and a Panhard bar. Straight outa the old magazines, very old school. So far everything else is pretty much old stuff on this truck.

 

Before ordering a rear end I need to establish the correct width. To do that, I need the wheels and tires that I want to use.
I found a good deal on a pair of 10.00-15 Radir slicks just like the ones on my roadster. I’ll pick them up on Monday. I also have another pair of Halibrands that I’ve been saving for the little pickup. Just like these….

I have matching front Halibrands, I just need to buy tires for them. If (when) I decide to put my steel wheels on it, I can have the wheel guy down in LA change the back space as required.

 

I picked up the Radir slicks today and got down my Halibrands. I’ll probably order a pair of tubes for them and then break out my Arm-strong tire machine. I don’t trust any of the local tire shops and most of them won’t touch them anyway.

I have matching fronts but I need tires. Turns out the guy I bought the slicks from has almost new 5.60-15 Firestones from Coker that he will be selling as soon as he gets his new drag fronts.
Also, I installed the radiator and took a bunch of critical measurements.

 

I pulled out the Buick engine and trans.
I have three excellent candidates for a power plant:
The 425 Buick w/switch pitch turbo.

A t******* 400 inch Pontiac with a TH400 or 4 spd.

And a 392 Chrysler with a TH400 or 4 spd. It was in my boat with a blower and a Powerglide.

The Pontiac and the Hemi would both get 2x4 intakes with early AFBs. The Buick has the factory 2x4 setup.
The Pontiac is the rowdier of the bunch with 10.5:1 compression and a big Crower cam. The Buick and the Hemi are more sedate. I lean towards an automatic trans because my wife still likes to drive my old relics to work occasionally and I’m not sure her knee would like stomping a clutch pedal.

 

Poor guy... such tough decisions! (I'm glad I don't have to make that choice... Geeze)

 

Yeah, rough life, huh. Well, they’re not all high dollar fresh rebuilds. I got the Buick from a friend about 18 years ago when the city made him clean up his property. He was a Buick nut and I bought everything he had for $500. But I had to get it all gone that day.
The Hemi came in a ski boat I bought in the mid ‘80s for $3k. I put a 6-71 on it along with the PG and used it for two seasons at the Colorado river. When I went to open my little shop I sold the boat but the guy didn’t want “that old engine”. Lol
The Pontiac I did build. It was a thrashed ‘67 GTO motor with a spun rod bearing. I rebuilt it to go into my ‘62 Tempest project, mostly trading labor for machine work. I gathered up the engine, trans and rear end but between my day job and my shop work at night I never got to the Tempest. I hung onto the dream until about two years ago and I finally sold it less drivetrain.
Some things I just knew I probably could never afford to buy later so I just hung onto them. They have all been cared for and kept bagged indoors awaiting a suitable home.

 

With three possible engine choices, I’ve been looking at using a crossmember type front motor mount. If I make the crossmember removable, I can make one for each engine and transmission combination. It looks like the Buick and the Hemi have their mounts up front in a similar location and could conceivably use the same crossmember. The Pontiac has its mount back more towards the middle.
Strangely, the Buick is the longest at 31” from the back of the distributor to the fan. The Hemi is the shortest at an estimated 28”. (Using the bbc pump) The Pontiac comes in at around 29 1/2-30”.
I’ve gathered up some nice dress up stuff for each engine over the years.

 

Great idea! I'm considering the same sort of thing for my current "Tub" project. I'm going with Hurst style front mounts (I found a set online for an Olds Rocket, and I think you know where I got the set for my early hemi) The cars setup for a late flathead now, and I have adapters for both engines to a T89, so I should be good to go. A little planning in the electrical and exhaust areas, and awaaaay we go.

 

It's hard to argue against a Switch-Pitch...
Marcus...

 

Very Cool Project

 

Thanks. Yeah I’m curious about the switch pitch, I’ve never had one.
The engine and trans was running in a ‘65 Buick Wildcat but I didn’t get a chance to drive it - no brakes. He took the car apart in his driveway to prepare for paint but got a major promotion at work and didn’t have time to work on it. The neighbors complained to the city. When he tried to move it, the brakes didn’t work.
I had tried to buy the 401 that he pulled out when he put the 425 in. He called me and said that I could have everything if I could get it gone immediately, he had pushed the city to where they were going to clean it up and send him the bill and he was headed to Florida for work.
I didn’t have a truck so I had the car towed by a buddy and I hauled everything else in my Volvo wagon. I couldn’t believe all of the stuff he gave me, not just Buick stuff but a shed full of carburetors, intake manifolds for Buick, Olds, Chevy, ignitions, Buick brake drums, Riviera aluminum valve covers.
When he got back from Florida I went to his office to get the registration for the car. He thanked me for bailing him out with the city but I felt like it wasn’t really fair so I gave him $500 cash. Turns out it was his first car. Cir***stances and timing forced him to sacrifice it. Kinda sad. Old car parts sometimes have a story all their own.

 

I ran a few switch pitches on the street, Darrel Young Transmissions in the SFV built them, one was set up for 1500 to 2500 stall, good for street racing if you had a big cam and also the track to increase MPH once your lanched on the loose side and then switched back to the tight side, had mine on a toggle switch.

 

Rice&beans -which trans was that switch pitch on? I want one

 

Dang Bob, if you’re not going to use the Hemi, I’m a nice enough guy to find a place to store it for you.
I mean I have no need for it, but just want to help you get more room in the shop.
That’s the kind of guy I am

 

You can have the Hemi but you gotta buy the ‘33 Ford holding fixture that it comes in. Lol

 

I got the 8” out of the truck today.
I found that I had one new inner tube in stock so I mounted up one slick and put it in the fender. They are a little big, but better too big than too small.

 

Small blk chevy

 

I had a different take on that question, although I may be wrong. The switch pitch Turbo 400’s came on these vehicles-

 

I had a 70 Capris with a sb 400 with the 400 TH400, sold the pair to my long time buddy who still has em

 

I believe Kenne-Bell used to build and/or convert TH400s of different stripes to Switch Pitch. I have an old magazine article about it somewhere.
The mention of the two prong plug made me go look, it’s there. I also got a spare converter and a complete rebuild kit in the pile of parts I got from my buddy Ron.

 

The guy I bought the Radir slicks from texted me this morning and said that the front tires are dismounted and available if I want them. So I hopped in the family truckster and drove an hour to Modesto to get em. When we talked before I mentioned the 5.60-15 Firestones I used on my red coupe he said these were the same. Well, they are actually 6.40-15s but I bought em anyway, $300 for the pair and they are hardly used.
I checked into the price before I ran off half-****ed and man was I surprised! I paid $175 apiece for the last pair I bought. Now they are $281 each. Ouch.

 

Are you going to use running boards and front fenders?

I like the look without the running boards and the rear fenders on it.

 

I was thinking of getting it running fenderless. I even made headlight stands to run with no front fenders. I have some old “bobbed” rear fenders that I might mock up to see how they look, without front fenders. Now you’ve got me thinking….
Ultimately I’d like it to have the full fenders and running boards.
The front fenders are pitiful but ultimately saveable. Someone drove over the driver’s side front fender - literally. The p***enger side fender has the lovely spare tire well to deal with.
Anyone know who makes fenders and maybe running boards for these trucks? I thought about United Pacific but their truck is a ‘32. I believe ’33 and ‘34 are different than ‘32.

 

If you run the SP, you'll like it. Can set it up so it "switches" at idle, iffen you've got a hot cam, or the tc wants to overpower the brakes at a stoplight. Kinda fun hittin' the "Excillerator", listening to the mill sing & feeling the switch happen. Habit-forming. If needed, you can set the switch to happen at @ any speed, factory, iirc, was near-wot. If you want/need more than the 1 factory switch-point, use a ****on on the shifter, or hook it into the brake pedal movement(or circuit). Be careful when it's wet/slippery out, & esp around corners. A brother had a '67GS400SP w/3.90s, that was a fun car. City streets could & did, become mini/momentarily auto-cross events, as w/the sp, hangin' the rearend out to dry was too easy. I learned to *really* love seat belts in that car, as properly tightened, my *** stayed in one place, & I didn't have to hangon to the steering wheel to stay in place. .
Marcus...

 

I went to pick up the front tires. We had a little misunderstanding, the tires are 6.40-15 not 5.60. I drove an hour to get there and they are half price so I went ahead and bought them.
I got them mounted on the Halibrands this morning. I have always run inner tubes with cast magnesium wheels but my buddy told me that he runs his tubeless so I put in fresh valve stems but for the life of me I couldn’t get the beads to seal. I tried the ratchet strap method, no go.
So I went upstairs to get a pair of inner tubes. I had a box with six small tubes, two of them new in their packages. Every single one had cracked along the fold lines. Some delaminated at the stem. I guess they don’t like the heat in my loft in the summertime. Wow. Lesson learned. Guess I’ll order some from Summit.
They are a little tall but they’ll do for now. I guess I could do some surgery on the front crossmember to drop the front an inch or so. Probably should anyway, just because….