1 day the Lone Star Roundup - Finally, The Maiden Voyage

It has been exactly 28 days since my introduction and first post regarding the build of my '31 coupe. The goal has been not to finish the car, but simply complete the ch***is, drop the body on it, and have it driveable for the 100 mile trip north to Austin from San Antonio. 28 days ago I had a frame sitting on jacks in full primer with no 2 parts of the car touching themselves.

Well, last night, 4 weeks later, she backed out of the garage under her own power and sputtered around the block for the first time. There was a last minute shimming of the hydraulic throwout bearing prior to this little lap, and plenty of timing tweaks after the lap since I was shooting 3 foot flames out of that poor little 2 barrel. Come to find out, no one (me) tightened the distributor hold down and it was walking all over the place.

So, the car was not visually changed since the last post, but I am including 3 pics anyway. The first is most important since now the car is in the garage IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!!! For most here who have built one, few, or many of their own cars and taken them on their virgin trip around the block you know the intense enthusiasm and pride of actually driving something you built from scratch. Restoring, rebuilding, or modifying a car that was once on the road is cool, but the feeling of bringing everything together yourself from parts aquired coast to coast for the first time in your own garage is amazing.

Ok, enough of that. here are the pics with a little story about the distributor that I'll explain with the pic.

With some divine intervention, I think I might just make it to Austin. What a fast and fun 4 weeks this has been.

-Blane-

 

Ok, so we took the car up to the school to make sure it goes left, right, backwards, forwards, stops, etc. I decided that I would finish my time at the school by waking some neighbors, so I backed to one end of the parking lot, brought up the RPMs and dumped the clutch. I left about 18 inches of those Firestones on the asphalt before it died. So, after looking at carb flooding, grounding issues, coil, and being pissed that my brother dropped the timing light and broke it (at least thats what we tought at the time), etc., we finally found the problem. Seems when I jumped on it that the engine torqued to the point that the distributor cap got into the firewall. When that poor rotor came around it caught one of the contacts and broke the conection on the rotor between the center contact and the rotating edge which throws spark to each wire. After going through bobby pins found on the ground, pen holder clips, and anything else shiny we could see, my cousin finally produced a wire we could trim the insulation from and stuff in the rotor to fill the gap. They don't teach inginuity like that in engineering school. We brought her home just fine on that little wire, and it gave me an excuse to install my old dual point Mallory, with the cool cap, and the '57 Vette wires I've been holding on to. Here is the cap pic. Hope you can get the idea. It was hillarious.

 

And here is the new setup. Remember, I have a dual quad setup sitting on the bench, but just wont have time tonight to install it. We'll be taking the trip to the capital city on the 2 barrel. With this new distributor, I have no clearance problems and should not have the same issue again.

 

Ruler.

 

Blane I have been following your story from the start and my hat is off to ya man! Great job!

 

That is so sick.. please sell me that car.. it's perfect..

 

Looks like ya' made it. Now just get to Austin tommorow and have a blast.

 

*****in' ride man! - and story, to say the least! This **** sends goose bumps up my spine! Great job you rock!

 

Very cool - can't wait to shake your hand and see the car up close.

 

The beast is looking good.....I hope you make it without any problems...cheers F.E.

 

Thats is amazing real cool. Blane or anyone was the engine rebuilt during this 28 days or did you already have that waiting?? Not that it makes a difference just wondering what you went thru.. Ruler indeed!!!

 

I bought this 283 at the Arlington swap meet Nov. 2002. An old guy that rebuilds 283s finished the rebuild 2 months before the swap. It maybe only havs 2 hours on it. Was rebuilt to stock with only enough out of the cylinders to clean them up. It has the original old mechanical starter, which I thought was cool. I do need to get a rebuilt generator, since this one is not charging; although, I can get to Austin on just the battery.

 

thats rad, gotta love 283's..

 

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Very cool - can't wait to shake your hand and see the car up close.

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I agree! looking forward to meeting you!

 

Man, that's just unreal. Most of us have had piles of rust sitting while we tap away on they keyboards, this guy is "gettin er dunnn".

Awesome Blane....can't wait to see it at the RU!

 

You can have my wife for Saturday night (no ruff stuff)...
you are the ruler!
I am impressed.
can I call you dad?
I can't wait to touch it and take some pics of it Saturday....
HC

 

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After going through bobby pins found on the ground, pen holder clips, and anything else shiny we could see, my cousin finally produced a wire we could trim the insulation from and stuff in the rotor to fill the gap. They don't teach inginuity like that in engineering school.


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Congrats Blaine! Now tuck this one away and save it for the next "Tech Week!" It's a prize winner.........

 

Blaine, First off the car looks great!!!!! There was no way I was going to make it to the Round Up, but your photos and timeline truely inspired me to get my stuff together and get my car ready for Paso. Hope it runs great for you on your maiden voyage!!!!!

Big Dirty

 

Dude, If you buy yourself a beer this weekend, it's because you haven't shown enough people your car, and told them the story. I've got at least a couple for you myself.

 

The carb began to give a lot of problems after that first run, so Crease and I worked on that 2 barrel until 3 am Thursday night, with no luck. I had to leave her in the garage and ride up with Crease in his '33.

After about 2 hours in Austin walking around hanging my head, word got out that my car was at home with no 2 barrel to get her up north. That lasted about 15 minutes before I was in some dude's '31 on the way to his house to buy what truned out to be a $30 life saver. Called the wife, and she drove up 1 hour to get me, bring me back to San Antonio to give it one more shot before Saturday morning. 30 minutes later, I was screaming up and down Hwy 281 enough to feel confident for a 9:00 am departure for Austin tomorrow morning.

Keep your fingers crossed...I'm going to make it come hell or high water.

 

Viva la HAMB. Glad you were able to get a hookup.

 

Kill job Blane.Totally weld done!
Your gonna be so wired once you drive to the RU your not gonna wanna shut it off!
Gonna be a blast tomorrow.......Shiny

 

28 day's? Guy's like you impress the **** out of me. How long were you collecting parts for your car? Congrats on a job well done. later plmczy

 

I saw the car today and all I have to say is you sir are a bad ***!! Congrats-it looks great!!

 

Yeah, I made it a point to go track him down and shake his hand.

Awesome job Blane!

 

TOTTALY RAD

 

Let us know how it went when ya get home. BTW, you gotta hell of an understanding wifey....

 

You RULE...you're a hero. Didn't get to meet you, but I'm in love with your A.

 

Blaine, you could see the smiles on fellow HAMB'er faces as you drove thru the Roundup gates. Great Job!

 

Got home just fine. What a trip!

Hankcash, your wife is very cute, but she didn't seem to understand the pre-arranged deal. Besides, after a night of partying with you, she needed some recovery time - and some coffee. It was good to meet both of you.