Folks Of Interest Clutch Popper Wednesdays

You and Chris would make such a good couple.... Better save some material for a barbie 33 Ford.

 

Love them spaghetti pipes....they looks rad. And the seat is killer!

 

Ha! Spaghetti Pipes. I like that haha

 

Your seat looks tits on a ritz dude. You should be mightly proud. I like the color too, it looks like an old leather color.

Luan is mahogany. I didn't read the page you linked to so I don't know what you already learned. It is ideal for door panels because it is moisture resistant and is relatively thin. You will like playing with it and geez, with door and kick panels your car will start lookin' uptown!

 

Okay, sorry for the late update, last night I was way to exhausted to play on the computer.
It was Johnny's night, and he decided to take a little break from the T Bagger Coupe to work on his 59 Edsel. Spring maintenance stuff.
So instead of meeting at the shop, we all went over to Johnny's house.



Here is Johnny's back yard where many sundays are wasted sitting back here drinking slurpees and doing as little as possible. Don't mind the grass, it will be back to thick and green in no time.


We had two things on the agenda. First was install a new mustang dual reservoir master cylinder. The second was fix a minor leak in the gas tank, and get the sending unit working again.







Dave and Johnny worked on the master, while I did the fuel tank.
The master cylinder, although, a direct bolt on, was still a lot of work. We had to make a trip to the parts store and get a bunch of adapters, and some more brake line.


And unfortunately this is when my camera battery died.

With all the adapters Dave and Johnny went to work, and by 11:00pm (4 hours) the new master was in and all hooked up. All that's left now is just to bleed the brakes, but Johnny said he could do that on his own, and let us go home haha.

The gas tank was pretty simple. I just dropped it down, used some "seal all" to patch up the leak in the tank (it was very small, and right on top. It only leaked when the tank was full). I've never used seal all before, but I think it will work.
As for the sending unit, it just needed the connections cleaned up a bit, and now the gauge works fine.
As soon as Johnny gets the plates renewed on the Edsel, it should be out and driving around.

And last but not least, supper. Johnny and his wife fired up the barbeque and cooked up some delicious home made cheese burgers, caesar salad, and french fries. It was so good!.

Anyways thats all, sorry about the lack of pictures. Hope you enjoy.

 

That seat is rad for your first job, keep up the good work!

 

i see your working outside. how late is sunset up there?

 

Hey, in your signature "Clutch Poppers C.C.", does the C.C. stand for Crazy Canadians? I think it should

 

In the dead of summer the sun is up until around 10:30pm, in the dead of winter the sun is usually down by 4:00pm.
This is why us Canadians are so crazy

 

What a busy night it was this Wednesday. It was Daves night and we had a bunch of little things to finish up. Dave is planning on driving his fleetline down to Calgary this Friday for the Diablos show, so we had to get all the little loose ends finished up. Yes his shakedown run is going to be a 180 miles down one of the busiest highways in Alberta. I think he's nuts!
We started out the night by chowing down on some good o'l pizza 73 while we figured out our plan for the night.
We had a coupled guests tonight, Charlie Eden, a friend of ours for quite some time now, Guy Barclay, a customer of mine, and Allen Charron. Al was one of the founding members of the Clutch Poppers, but due to some personal issues with his family, he has not been able to hang out for about 2 years now.

We started out by removing the masking taped windshield and getting ready to install the new one. It was nice having Al here for this, as he rocks at windshield installs!




The masking tape windshield seal did a great job of keeping the water out, however sitting in the weather for 3 weeks, the glue made quite a mess. Johnny and I got the fun job of cleaning all the old glue off.
While we were doing that, Dave and Al hooked up the cable for Daves trunk release and did some aligning on the trunk lid.


Okay back to the windshield now...


Dave smiling like a donut while he lubes up his rubber. I have to say the "lube" and "rubber" jokes were ridiculous tonight.



And as if the "lube" and "rubber" jokes weren't enough, there was also the actual windshield install itself that was quite hilarious. Johnny wanted to record Al and Dave as they worked. There was lots of grunting, and phrases such as "It's slipping in", "it's coming", "work it....work it" "I need more lube" and so on.


And another random shot of Dave being weird


Once Dave and Al got the windshield in, the hood could finally be opened so the rest of us could do stuff. Johnny and I tackled the battery situation.
Dave bought a new 6 volt battery today, but it was to big for the battery tray. Johnny and I removed the battery tray and made a new hold down for the bigger battery.






I also gave the front end some fresh grease.


Dave and Charlie made a carboard template of the rear valence and then gave it to Al to trim the old one so it fits with Daves bumper.






On the subject of bumpers, Dave did get his front bumper mounted, and went even crazier by flipping it upside down and moving it 2 inches closer to the valence. It looks pretty sharp!


He also got his white walls on the back.


And with all that going on tonight. Dave and Charlie still managed to install the front sway bar with new bushings!



Fred was not much help tonight. He just held the seat down. I don't think it was going anywhere, as it's bolted to the floor, but Fred insisted.


Anyways, that was our Wednesday night this week. Were leaving for Calgary Friday morning. Dave in his fleetline, me in the roadster, my dad in my 64 F-100 pulling my dragster, our friend Chad on his triumph bobber, and Al in my 94 F-350 with the car trailer in case we need a tow home! Hopefully we make it there and back!

 

I love the Fred updates. Good luck for the weekend. I'm driving to the drags this weekend too, just hope my brakes decide to play nice this time.

LT.

 

This has to be one of the best, most entertaining, ongoing threads here.

 

Have a good trip to Calgary guys! Thanks for the update.

 

I'll see you there Saturday! Deerfoot Casino @ 10am?

 

You don't need brakes for drag racing. Your suppose to go fast, not stop!

Thanks

Thanks! You gonna have your 37 there next year?

I hope we see you there haha.

 

As most of you know the Diablos Car Club from Calgary had their 7th Annual Greaseball Bash this weekend. A 3 day event featuring drag racing, hot rods, kustoms, bikes, bands, girls, beer, cruising, donuts (not the edible ones) and gambling! I don't know about you guys, but this is the kind of stuff us Clutch Poppers like to call "fun" so of course we had to make the 300km trip south and participate.
Dave had taken the entire week off to get his car ready for the trip down. It's first time out. No shakedown run, no trip around the block, just get in and go!

Unfortunately Johnny could not make it this weekend, as he had to work on Saturday, and had a couple gigs with his band over the weekend. Good thing he didn't go either, as he ended up in the hospital on Saturday! Don't worry he's okay now, and at home resting up for club night this Wednesday.

While Johnny couldn't make it, my Dad, and Al did make the trip with us. My Dad drove my 64 F-100 pulling the dragster, while Al drove my 94 F-350 and towed down a car for the Electric Garage auction happening the same weekend in Calgary.
Dave and I met at the shop around 9:30 Friday morning and left together to go meet my Dad and Al at the Nisku Truck Stop. Both Daves fleetline and my roadster were running like champs all the way across town and out to Nisku.

Here we are getting ready to hit the highway.


Just south of Leduc now cruising along at 60 mph


Just past Millet Dave suddenly pulled off onto the Exit ramp!


Turns out the temperature gauge jumped from 160 up to 240 and he lost all oil pressure! It sure was hot as the fuel in the filter, and even the sediment bowl was boiling! We screwed around with the fleetline for almost 2 hours. Pulled the thermostat out, re routed some water lines so they were not running through the intake and had no luck! It would not cool down, and would not run properly!


So we ended up ditching the Fleetline in a farm yard near by and Dave hopped in the roadster with me. The trip must go on!


The rest of the trip went great other than it was hot as hell out with the sun beating down on Dave and I. We drank over a gallon of water on the drive!




Gas stop in Red Deer. We also took a break and enjoyed the air conditioning and ice cold beverages the McDonalds had to offer.




Back out on the highway again.


Alberta has such beautiful scenery. If you look hard enough you can almost see Saskatchewan!

 

At around 6:15pm we finally reached our destination.






Al met up with us later in the night. He kept going when we stopped with the fleetline as he had to drop off the Jag he was towing down in another par of town.

We made 4 runs friday night with the dragster, the best being a 9.32 @ 141mph. Unfortunately I have no pics or videos of the dragster racing, as I was driving it, and it's quite a handful to drive. It's one of those cars that makes the guy in the other lane hit the brakes! Most of my 60ft times are set with the back wheels only and usually I come within inches of the wall and the center line! Oh, and I don't pedal it!
Someone out at the track had a video of one of my runs, but I'm not sure who it was, or if it will ever surface on youtube.

Anyways we left the track to head over to the Casino around 11:30. Dave and I hopped in the roadster fired it up and it went POP and started missing!
I knew exactly what happened. I had to put a heli-coil in one of my sparkplug holes a few months back, and sure enough, it let go and stripped the head again shooting the plug across the pits with the heli coil!
Luckily dave found the plug laying in the staging lanes so we grabbed it and limped the car back over to the casino.
There was a bunch of cars already there even though the show didn't start until Saturday. We parked in the car show parking lot, checked in to our hotel room where we cleaned ourselves up and then preceded to check out the action in the Casino.
Inside there was bands playing in the "Chrome Room" so we grabbed some beers, ordered some food and hung out until 2:30am!

The next morning we went for breakfast and there happened to be a princess auto next to the restaurant so we ran inside, bought some JB Weld and brake clean, and went back to try and fix my plug issue.

We mixed it up real good, cleaned the shit out of the hole, gooped some jb weld in and gently tightened the heli - coil and plug back in the head. It takes 12 hours to cure so we decided to let it be and go check out the rest of the show. This is when I remembered I had a camera again haha

I took a pile of pictures of Deans model A coupe. I love this car! By far my favorite in the show. Dean was saying his dad built the car in 1964 at the age of 17, and other than a vega box, alternator, and tires, it's completely untouched! A true survivor hot rod!








Another great car from BC. This one took home the "Best Hot Rod" award.






Milos came down from Red Deer with his wicked chevy sporting a brand new interior!

 

Our cars set up with our friend Bob from Edmonton and his 72 woody gilmore car with a blown flathead.




Dave and I took the liberty in ordering a set of these for the back of Johnny's T coupe. They should be here in a few weeks Johnny, get your visa card ready!


Some cool stuff




Brent, Chad, and Kelley from Northside Street Rods made the trek from Regina. These guys put on a great show in July down in Regina. "Hot Rod Hi-Jinx"

 

Some more randoms




Around 4 the not so great weather took a turn for the worst, but the show still went on!


Around 6 the sun came out and the wet parking lot turned into a donut competition! It was great entertainment. Some guys were quite impressive, others...well... they were entertaining?
I even took the dragster for a little rip across the parking lot.

Around 9pm everyone started to migrate inside and the rest of the night was spent eating more food, drinking more beer, and having a good tome while we all watched the Diablos DVD on the big screen. Another night that did not end until 1am!

The next morning there was suppose to be a cruise out to Bragg Creek, but we skipped the cruise to go have breakfast with some friends and then hit the road home.
I fired the roadster up hoping the JB weld fix would work, but it didn't.
We thought about going over to princess auto and getting a bigger heli - coil, but we decided with an empty trailer going back, lets just load it up and fix it at home. So I swallowed my pride, and put my car on a trailer

The weather was great on Sunday, a little sprinkle while we were having breakfast at Kanes Harley Diner, but other than that it was sun and blue sky!


Around 5pm Dave and I got the roadster unloaded back at the shop, and then hopped in the truck again to go get his fleetline.






Luckliy it was still in the farm yard and no one was home!


Dave hopped in, and it fired right up! I guess it was just really hot and needed a few days alone to cool off.


After Dave checked my trailer tires for leaks, we headed back to the shop.


8:30pm and back where we started.


All in all it was fantastic weekend! Thanks to the Diablos for putting on such a great show. We look forward to next year!

 

I am in love with Dave's Fleetline. What year are the wheels covers? Man that roadtrip looked cool, thanks for the pics!

 

Daves chevy is pretty badass. The hubcaps are from a 52 Caddy Ambulance.

 

Both of you guys have awesome cars! So did you know the farm dave left his car at or was it a random chance and got lucky?

 

We had no idea whose farm it was. We just got lucky I guess

 

At least you made it to the drags. As expected, my brakes let me down and i ground to a halt half way there.

Great write-up. Made my morning reading that.

LT.

 

Is there a difference between the regular '52 caps and the '52 ambulance caps?

 

Regular 52 caps only fit on caddy wheels, unless you weld a trim ring to them so they snap on like a regular hub cap. The ambulance ones just clip on like a normal hubcap... or at least thats what I was told.

 

Did you ditch your car in a field and catch a ride with someone else at least?

 

Great story as usual,Lee! looks like a good time was had.In front of your shop is a 51-52 F1 Truck,looks like my old truck .Black cherry Mercury with a flathead,any chance you know its history?Been looking for it for years,sold it in 1991 or so to a guy in Hinton.Thanks
Marc

 

I love this thread! The weekly updates and personal spin make for an enjoyable read. I have to admit I'm a bit jealous. My friends are dogs; despite the years I've helped and continue to do so with their cars and bikes, I'd be lucky if they'd lend a wrench let alone a hand in helping with any of my projects.

What's the story on the 64-65 'bird sitting on the lift? Is that one of your projects or a customer car?

Does Johnny an Fat Dave's band have a website? I'd like to check out their music.

 

No way they actually clip on, thats rad. Would the '53 Caddy caps on an ambulance be the same?