Event Coverage It’s Just a Car……my Woodie Adventure

I’m doing this to do***ent the times I’ll be spending in the woodie that has sat in my garage for the last 18 years. Most folks know that it’s a Dearborn winner, AACA Grand National Champion, and was a featured car in the movie “Walk the Line” but it’s time for it to live its life again and not be a “rumored to be” car anymore. This thread will show what it takes to get one reliable and the car WILL be getting upgrades as we go!

I did some stuff to it last year (water pumps, belt, hoses, plugs, wires, points etc) so I could get it out and see how it acted which went well so to speak, it was filled up and after 30 miles the front brake shoe pin on the drivers side came undone and made a heck of a racket while pulling into my driveway. But it was a good day it made the trip and my wife and kid didn’t have to push it. Now that summer is approaching and watching all these threads about the events you guys are going to I’m gonna start driving the thing, after all it just a car right?!?

I had a list of little things that needed to be addressed from last year so I decided to get busy on them with the first being brake lights. After a quick inspection I needed to replace one of the bulbs and of course after doing that the things still didn’t work, but I have tail lights now! Check the one and only fuse under the dash that works the lights and it was good. Now under the car I noticed that the plug connectors on the brake light switch were corroded and all of the undercoating is flaking and turning white?!? Okay let’s address the first issue and let the road handle the later one. After fiddling with it for awhile I just said the hell with it and replaced the connectors and made sure to get all of the green corrosion off the switch terminals and roll with it. After all the days of a 1000 point show car are long gone…. So with that said and done they work and now I don’t have to worry about someone borrowing my brakes because I didn’t let them know I was stopping.

After priming the fuel system (pressurized the tank with the air compressor) it fired right up and a little adjusting of the carb later it was good to go! I noticed that the rotor was making a noise under the distributor cap so I swapped out a few of them before going back to the original because it never stopped. That might’ve been the issue this winter when I fired it up and it was acting stupid I don’t know but I’m might change the cap out just incase. That was yesterday so today I’m fixing to swap all the cars out and wash it so we can go to the park and possibly go out to eat.

Oh yeah there’ll be lots of pictures to follow

 

I like where this is going!

 

Kool, Will follow along, like them Woodies.

 

If it's been sitting for years, I would check all the wheel cylinders and master cylinder. Pull back the rubbers on the wheel cylinders and look for rust and leakage, same with the master cylinder. 18 years is a long time for brakes to sit without going bad.

 

Sorry, I don't know the car. the usual site didn't help either.
https://www.imcdb.org/m358273.html
Does it have juice brakes? EDIT: DOH, of course, that's a hyd MC in the pic!

I've had ones that would leave me stranded and ones that would fail but get me home. That one is a good car.

 

What year and make Woodie are we talking about?

 

It’s a ‘51 Ford

 

It was used for the scene where they are driving down to Texas. They used it for the interior scene and on the DVD it was the car pulling up at the hotel where Elvis and Jerry Lee were blowing up a tree. In the theater they used my buddies 50 for that one. But dad had a cow when we saw the premiere and Reese Withers**** was jumping all over the place in it

 

I agree with BJR, with the limited use for all these years, I would pull off all 4 tires and check the condition of each wheel cylinder. I would really be surprised if they didn't at least need a rebuild kit put in them. Brakes don't usually survive well when they are not used regularly.

I think I would also repack the wheel bearings if it has not been done in the last 2-3 years. Wheel bearing grease is another thing that often doesn't work well from not being used.

Neither of these things are a huge deal, until they don't work. Then they can ruin a trip to the ice cream store really fast.

That noise in the distributor bothers me just a bit as well, I think I would look into that pretty seriously. its easier to fix at home then it is out on the street.

That also brought up another thought, I don't know what Ford used for cam timing gears back in 51, but if its still all original, the timing chain and gears may need to be replaced. Most people only think only high mileage can effect the timing gears, but time can have a devastating effect on the gears as well.

 

I’m definitely going to go through the brakes after I get back to the house in a little while. But the thing I’m wondering is when was the last time this car went to the store to get groceries????

 

You've probably already thought about this. While searching for the distributor noise, look under the hood while the car is idling in the dark. Make sure the wires or cap aren't shorting out. Beautiful car.
ras

 

This year the Woodie Nationals are being held October 1-4 in Wildwood NJ in conjunction with the T.R.O.G. beach races. Woodies will be displayed on the boardwalk and it wood be cool if you could make it.

 

I’m supposed to be going on the Great American Race this year but it’s depending on if my navigator can come with me. If I go on it that will be the big show for me this year. I’m wanting to hit Wave Crest next year because dad always wanted to take the car there, but it’s been to several of the woodie club’s nationals in the past.

 

I thought of that and even grabbed the rascal while it was running to check for shorts. It idles smooth as silk but makes a little noise from the distributor. It has gotten a bit better since I’ve driven it some.

 

Well I can see why the 3rd row seating is hard to come by because it was kinda tight putting the stuff into the car the afternoon. I’d take it out but I don’t have a spot for it but all in all I had a blast driving it around and going to Costco. I did get lots of looks and comments about the car and it was a hit with the soccer moms!
Tomorrow morning I’m going to fill up and hopefully hauling the family to the park and then going out to eat in it. I do have a list of things I need to address before I take it out again so I will definitely be posting them

 

Oh and one of me burning up the road going home on the interstate……

 

Sweet!!

 

Very kool! I’m trying to join the woodie crowd, starting with an old rotten 29 town sedan. Mine will probably not be movie worthy though.

 

As I sit here drinking my coffee and going back over this thread making notes of things you all recommended to check and take care of of I was thinking about the history of this car since dad and I brought it home in the early 80’s. I know it has the original motor in it and when my dad and I built it the first time we used to drive it everywhere. The trailer didnt come until after it was in the movie and we went through it again.
Dad always drove it to the shows no matter how far away they were, even taking it to Canada when the V8 Club had its nationals in Detroit. I have a picture of Henry Ford 2 or 3 sitting in the car after it won best of show there. I’ll have to dig it out and post it so we can figure which Ford it was.

So the chances of it being a high mileage motor is not out of the question. As for as the 8BA flatties they are gear driven and had the fiber gears in them so the chance of it being worn and brittle is really strong so I might be looking at tearing the front of the motor off to swap the things out. Which brings me to the distributor noise……..it could be a worn gear either on the distributor or the cam that is making it rattle. Either way I think all I’m going to do with it today is go fill it up at Sam’s and put it back into the garage and start working on it to make sure it’s reliable.

This almost sounds like a disc brake conversion is in order…..

 

Hey it’s a fun club to be in because the chances of you being the only wood bodied car in the area is REALLY strong!!

Folks are always asking me about the price of insurance for the car and I tell them that the automotive part is great it’s just the Terminix policy that is a bear

 

That's eating me alive!

 

I'm sorry for creating a lot more work for you at the beginning of the cruising season.

Unless the disc brake conversion was in the plan, or your current driving expectations for this season makes the conversion something that makes it a high priority for this year, replacing or rebuilding wheel cylinders isn't that big of a deal or an expensive event for his year (not knowing the cost of wheel cylinders, or wheel cylinder kits, for your 51 Ford).
I normally would do a disc brake conversion during the off season so everything can be ready for the cruising season.

A rough determination of the condition of the fiber timing gears or a worn distributor gear can be found by simply taking off the distributor cap, and rotate the motor until the timing marks are visible, then watch for rotor movement, and slowly rotate the motor backwards until the rotor starts to move, and figure out how many degrees the crank rotates before the rotor moves.

Generally, more then 10 degrees of crankshaft rotation before the rotor changes directions is too much wear. You may have to do that test a couple of times, its pretty easy to move past the first rotor movement. That amount of wear will be both the wear in the timing gears and the distributor gear wear. You should be able to determine the distributor shaft gear wear by simply turning the rotor in opposite directions. I don't know how much movement is acceptable for the distributor gear wear, but I wouldn't want much more then a few degrees of movement, if it was mine.

 

lostn51 We did Wavecrest in 2010 and had a ball, I hope you do get there next year. We drove our '46 Ford Woodie from Long Island NY to Wavecrest, a little under 7000 miles both ways. We did a lot of Route 66 and took in everything we wanted to see, 30 days on the road! In 2010 there were 319 other woodies and we received the Longest Distance trophy made by Woodie restorer Ron Heiden.

 

very nice ride - while in High School I bought a '51 Woodie that was in very good condition for $25! medium green metallic paint, no damage to wood, etc. was missing head on one side and intake manifold. my first car, before driver's license, was a '53 Merc. so, knew a little about flatheads. but, had no idea where to get parts needed. except maybe one school Senior that had a couple of Model A's. a lower cl***man like me was intimidated by Seniors. so, after some time my Mom wanted her garage back and ended up selling for $25 - joys of youth.

 

Boy I wish I could find one for $25!! Dad paid somewhere around $400 for this one but it was a bit rough to say the least. Whenever a hunk of wood fell of the took cement and filled the spot in and used latex house primer to cover it up. It did run and drive and I remember riding home in the cold with no floorboards on my side and hair put my feet on the frame and cross member to keep from dragging the ground Needless to say whenever spring hit my job was to sand the primer off the car which I did after I got off the boss from school. It took me about a week to get it off the sheet metal because we tossed the wood from the get go.

 

Disc brakes aren’t that big of a deal if I have everything ready to bolt on. I think it took an afternoon to do my Tudor whenever I swapped over to disc and that includes putting the dual master cylinder on. As far as the parts to do the existing brakes I have everything 10x over and that’s not exaggerating just ask Jeff (guthriesmith) he saw just a scratch of what I have to put a shoebox together and he was overwhelmed by it all. I’m just thankful that you brought up this because it needs to be addressed so I don’t have problems later especially on the road!!

I will say this when I was driving it in Saturday afternoon rush hour we got to go shopping and spend money crowd it was a little dicey if somebody jumped in front of me and I had to hit the brakes hard. It was a **** shoot as to what side the car would pull to and there is a little slack in the steering column so it made for an adventure to say the least. So disc brakes are the likely choice if I plan on driving around any shopping areas or going down the interstate. These folks can’t drive to save their lives

 

The quality of the current crop of drivers has certainly dropped from years past.
I'm a Mopar guy, for most of them, the disc brake conversion was by far less expensive then rebuilding the drum brakes, but I sure got a surprise a few weeks ago when I priced out a disc brake conversion on a 53 Chrysler wagon, $1950!

 

Ouch!!!!

 

Go man go!

 

Here’s the one with Henry Ford the ???

Which one is this guy?