A little Fordillac project progress

Well, I found the culprit. Stock fuel pump toast. Gee, you'd think setting around for 10 years not being run, and being the original, 1968 pump, they'd last longer, wouldn't you?

Anyway, I had a Purolator electric pump setting on the shelf with a pressure adjuster valve from something, new, and figured I'd use it, so I mounted it to the floor under the body, plumbed it, wired it up, and hit the key. Made a block off plate for the front cover where the pump went too.

It rattled, heard it pick up fluid, quieted down, then kept running. Then, I smelled gas. The new 5/16 brake line I'd bent for the line from the original pump to the carb was leaking in a bend. Evidently, it split. Had that happen once with new brake lines in my T'Bird, and crashed it, fresh candy paint, into the tongue of my boat trailer ahead of it in the shop. All the brake fluid had dripped out of a pinhole over a couple days. So, stuff happens, luckily, I didn't just hit the switch and have it erupt in flames.

Off now to get some new line, and I think I'll have it licked.

 

Success!! Two days, four trips to the auto parts store, a trip to Tractor Supply and Home Depot, and it's finally all sorted out!

Replaced the leaky fuel line, leaned over the car and hit the key...nothing. Fuel pump ran, but the starter wouldn't engage. What the? I jumped the selonoid, it cranked right over and fired instantly, and stayed running long enough for me to reach over the engine and hold the throttle open a little so it wouldn't stall. I bumped the dizzy ahead a little to smooth it out, and let it run for about 5 minutes and then...

GEYSER! I thought I'd filled the engine and radiator completely, but as the thermostat was shut, as soon as it opened up, there wasn't enough coolant and it instantly boiled and pushed a bunch out the overflow. I shut the car off, and was treated to a hissing cloud of steam coming from the temp gauge fitting, which, evidently, I'd neglected to tighten up.

Got that without burning myself too badly, got another gallon of coolant and fired it up again. This time it started with the key, nice. I let it run for another 5 minutes at a high idle, then noticed it was pushing coolant out the overflow AGAIN, and coolant was dripping off the crank pulley.

That turned out to be the water pump wasn't quite seated, so I tightened all of those fasteners down, and checked the fan. It wasn't running with the ignition on, and I knew it was at least 185. Brand new fan and relay.

So, I hot wired the fan to the ign, turned the key, and...nothing but the fuel pump and fan. Jumped the selonoid, again it lit right up, and this time I let it run a good 15 minutes at a very high idle. No drips, no clouds of steam, no trans fluid dripping, no gas dripping, this had to be good! I did notice the oil pressure gauge doesn't work, not suprising as it's a 37 Ford gauge, and I have no idea what the sending unit is, apparantly they don't speak the same language, it doesn't rattle, so that's good. I'll get a mechanical gauge and call it good.

So now, feeling pretty happy, I shut it off and started to try to figure out the fan issue, and found a loose ground. Hooked the fan back up to the wiring harness, turned on the ignition and ran it happily. Tried to started again, and...nothing.

Now I'm getting a little irritated, although my mood was tempered by my 10 year old neighbor boy, standing in the shop handing me tools, who said, "I LOVE that smell." Great kid, he's the same one who last summer looked at the Caddy engine freshly painted in the ch***is and said, "WOW, that looks like the motor out of a tank or somthing."

So, I start checking things with a test light, no juice to the selonoid. Checked the switch itself, hot. Checked the starter ****on I used as a nuetral safety switch, nothing. Jumped it, while turning the key, "VAROOM, rumpity rumpity rumpity rump..." Switch not closing, agian odd because it was something I'd saved for the last 10 or fifteen years from a boat I parted out...who'd think THAT wouldn't be any good? So, I byp***ed that untill I make another trip to TSC and get a replacement universal started ****on.

The car now starts instantly, cackles like a top fueler and has a great lopey, rumpity bumpity idle. It ran for at least 25 minutes total without overheating, (although the old Ford gauge isn't anywhere near correct, it reads 160 stone cold) and aside from the oil pressure gauge not working, everything else does. It sounds awsome. All the little problems were indeed little, and easy, if somewhat time consuming to solve.

So, it's a running car that starts, steers, and has brakes. I'm one Happy Hot Rodder. I'll stop tooting my own horn now, maybe I'll go out in the garage with a bottle of wine, breathe some exhuast and burning engine enamel fumes and enjoy the evening!

Brian

 

I've worked the last two days, so haven't made any progress on the car, but I have to work sometime. It's down to the small stuff now, so no great leaps forward, but it's great to have it running and driveable, able to pull it outside to work on it.

I have (I think) all the body work done, spent Wed. going over everything, getting as perfect as I can. Lots of small pits in the bustle lid, found a wow in the drivers door, dropped a rear fender and dinged it rolleyes, and had some fun mocking it all up outside so I could stand back and take a good look at it outdoors with all the sheetmetal on. Having the hood and fenders on balances out the somewhat tail heavy look it has hoodless. It looks quite different with the hood and side panels on it, I'm anxious to see it in color. The light grey primer makes the body look big, the Olive green color will totally change the character of the car.

Also made the fuel filler tube from 1 1/2" copper and polished it up, too bad it's hidden in the trunk. I like the looks of polished copper, br***, and aluminum, the car has a little of each, so I think it suits me. I've debated doing a machine finished dash panel, but I don't think that'll fit the layout I have.

I fired it up and just listened to it idling happily away, shot a little video which I love watching and listening to. It sounds for all the world like an old radial engine, with the open exhuast and lumpy idle, great fun!

 

I seem to be incabable of posting the link for this vid. ****. You tube, and search Fordillac. I'll figure it out eventually...

 

Mad car! Love it.

Here you go...

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<object width="425" height="344">


</object><object width="425" height="344">
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1FaPUaZnGV0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></object>

 

HA! Thanks, I gotta figure out how to get these links to work...

 

Congrats on reaping what the hard work has sown.

Ya know, I am firmly convinced that the only way to startup old stuff is without functional gauges. It sounds really amateur but there's a lot of peace in knowing that you can't know.

The boat switch story hits too close to home. Ouch.

 

love it ! sounds good too!

 

Finally, finished priming all the body pieces! Long drawn out affair, kept finding little flaws to fix, lot's of wetsanding, 10 ****** fingertips, one horrible error (used the wrong catalyst in what was supposed to be) the last batch of primer, several trips to the paint store, one more gallong of primer that ended up costing $25,000 (well, there was a LITTLE more than just primer in that purchase...) and way longer than I'd expected, it's all primed and ready to block and prep for color.

I made some neat little stands to hold the fenders and other little parts, shown here. I tried hanging stuff from the clothesline (coated aluminum) I strung, but it's awkward for them, this works better and I can used them over for other stuff.

I also painted the steering wheel rim a dark brown in between coats of primer. It's nice to have at least one part of the car "finished"!

 

I love your car, and your laid back at***ude towards the small bumps in the road to completion. Great read, I will be watching for updates.

 

Thanks! I'd like to have the car a local weekend long car show we're going to with the wagon and trailer, which is only two weekends away. I've gotta hustle!

 

It's FINALLY painted! I got the body, doors, grill, headlight buckets and hood side (that I'd messed up yesterday) painted and cleared. I'm VERY happy with how it looks, the color is perfect. I decided not to pinstripe the body, and I painted the grill bars the body color as well. The decision was that less is more, the car doesn't need stiping to "pop". There's enough shiney stuff to go on for accents, and the wide whites are enough.

Tommorow I can start ***embling things, I'm anxious to see it up on wheels, painted and looking like a car!

 

Excellent. Can´t wait to see the pics.

 

I just love that colour. Do you mind me asking what it's called?

 

Big steps yesterday! Drove it to "Muffler Man" in Kalamazoo (and BIG thanks to them for an absolutely fantastic job!) on the pipes. It's too low to get the lift arms under the rockers, so they used their alignment rack, very accomidating. It sounds GREAT!!!! We used used 12" gl***packs, and 2 1/2" tubing, stainless tips with a rolled edge. I wanted baloney slice tips, but they didn't have those. Turns out there wasn't room to run the pipes up and over the rear axle, so we ran 'em under, but it looks good and no clearance issue there. It was fun watching the guy bend the tubing, he didn't use a tape, just eyeballed, and marked the tubing with a thumbprint from his work gloves, every bend was perfect the first time and the pipes are perfectly symmetrical and even at the back of the car. I'd have made half the bends the wrong direction and had one pipe lower than the other and a different length...

Still have a hot start issue, the car has to set about 10 minutes or it won't re start. I'm going to blame it on the perhaps too small battery cable (battery is in the trunk) and the fact that I cheaped out and used two cables and bolted them together. Sooo, I'll get some double ought cable from Tractor Supply and make one the correct length, make a heat shield for the starter and maybe wrap the head pipes with header tape to keep heat off the starter. Can't hurt, and may help. If that doesn't do the trick, the Ford selonoid is the next step.

The car seems to be OK cooling wise now, it runs right at 200, did go up to about 215 in traffic but came right back down once moving again. I'm going to get a 16" fan to replace the (admittedly cheap) 14" one, which will cover more of the Mustang radiators core, and I'm going to add a heater core somewhere with it's own fan as an auxilliary radiator. All in all, I'm now very confident I've got a handle on the cooling issue.

I also re-did the right rear fender bracket, as it hit the body and dented the fender mount bead. Oh well, I have some other touch up work to do before I color sand and wheel it, so it's OK. I'd intended to drive to a local cruise night last night, but it rained all the way home (they finished the exhaust just in time for the rain!) and the rest of the afternoon was cool and drizzle, so it'll wait 'till next week to show it off. Hopefully I'll have the seat cushions done and the top fabric on by then, so it'll be more finished anyway.

 

Are you gonna post it running on YouTube with the new exhaust? I'd love to hear it. Maybe even a little scrach job.

 

Very cool, I'd have to say this is one of my favorite HAMB builds...The concept in your head sounds gross...but then when you see it put together it's f'n magic...Very cool car can't wait to see it all finished.

 

Video to come...

 

While I wait for the vid to load on Youtube, I'll put up a couple of photos...

 

Great build up. Looks awesome.

 

OK, so I totally don't know how to link the Youtube to this message, so here's the URL, which I know won't work, but somebody always manages to do so o).

www.youtube.com/watch?V+qL-AIHZoGoE

Or, go to you tube and search "Fordillac", or "Lets go Fried", the name of the file...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL_A1HZoGoE

Try this! Sounds great!

 

Thanks!