Projects My GN Cycle Car tribute build

Sad to report that the Jam Up was a bit of bust. Nothing really going on Friday as I learned on the way there after checking their FB page. Not sure why they couldn’t communicate that on their webpage. Only stuck around for 1.5 hrs on Saturday. Less of the stuff I’m interested and more of the regular “car show” vibe. Didn’t even see one Ford flathead V8 powered vehicle. Decided to head to Niagara on the Lake and the falls. Had a good time there. Lol!

Boat is sold, and now in the midst of ripping down an architectural feature on the house due to wood rot from carpenter ants. Got my hands full for sure.





Might have a buyer for the fan shroud on the rad off of the second flathead. Will likely scrap the rad itself for copper value.



Just came across this supposed vintage aircraft seat on FB. Price is right, so if it is what he says, might make the long drive to get it.

 

Had everything lined up to sell the shroud. Agreed on a mtg place/time. Was on my way and halfway there and then get a text from him saying there was a “family emergency”. Lol! We’ll see what happens. Had to go to town anyways, plus he said he was interested in both the 4-sp trucks transmissions I had.

 

Forgot to mention, haven’t heard back on the aviation seat.

 

Had to pass on the aviation seat. Seems bolted together with a plywood bottom.

 

Buyer for the shroud bailed on me after we agreed on price and time/place to meet. Was on my way into town to meet him when he texted a “family emergency” came up. Haven’t heard back from him even after he expressed interest in the heavy duty 4-sp truck trans. Not sure what is wrong with folks these days. So, scrapped the rad yesterday. The sucker was 35 lbs of copper fins and brass tubes and tanks. Got $75 for it vs $4 for the aluminum core out of my Tundra that was only. 3.5 lbs. Lol!



Should be wrapping up the demo on the rest of the wooden structure. It’s all gone, but need to address a leak over my porch. Had the garage roof done about 10-15 yrs ago, and at the same time we asked that the front porch be covered. Started leaking a few yrs ago, and yesterday and I found out why. They didn’t extend the alum cap under the shingle, but just had it butted up and caulked. So, yesterday I jammed a scrap piece under the shingle, and it seems to have worked, as no leak so far and it has been raining on/off since yesterday afternoon. Amazing how something so simple, can have such an impact. Now there are carpenter ants eating away at the wood structure above my front, door, so that will need to be addressed. Way off topic, so I’ll stop now.




I’ll try to squeeze some time for the speedster next week and weld up the collectors.

 

Sold the shroud yesterday for $100. Lol, Guy had a shop/garage and had been looking for one for a while for his 53 Ford Meteor. Said it would overheat in traffic. Also had a spare V8 Ford flathead and old Ford tractor in his shop. Never know who has what tucked away.

 

Still haven't haven't had time to work on the speedster. Got all the beams down, but then there were issues were portions of the roof that they extended over the porch, so had to address that huge mess. Might head down to Hershey, PA in Oct.

 

Took the Merc to Prescott back in June and look what was there.

 

Well. Well. That’s awesome! Haven’t seen much on YT lately with the GN JAP. One day, I’ll make it over to the UK for one of the Goodwood events.

 

Now that outside work will be winding down around the house, I plan on starting again on the speedster. First need to get the second flathead on an engine stand, but to do that I’ll first have to extend my lift trolley rails out past the end of the speedster. Hopefully, I can complete that this weekend. Also built a shelf last week to store some of my flathead/speedster related parts. Can barely live around in my workshop at the moment.

 

While at the fastener store to pick up some 1/2” x 6” lg bolts to mount the rails, I also bought a Makita cordless grinder, and cordless ratchet. Tried the grinder out to cut off a couple of “L” brkts from the beam. I’m impressed. Didn’t bog down at all cutting through the 1/4” thk plate. Probably lasted about 20 mins. Ratchet should be in next week. The ratchet uses the standard 18V Makita battery which is nice, as I think the Milwaukee uses a smaller “unique” battery.

 

Got the extension rails installed. Just need to join the two with a piece of wood to keep them the correct distance apart, plus as a stop. Should be good for 200 - 300 lbs. next is to clean up the shop and see if I can find the engine stand adapter and intake lifting plate. I misplaced my wireless Bose speaker which is driving me nuts.

 

Got the block back on the engine stand. No issues with the extended rails supporting the block. Been a bit of journey for it since it was literally pulled out if the bush.

 

Unfortunately, still no progress. Been wanting to start again, and say it to myself every week, but then something else always pops up. Got caught up in a major water softener project that started off as “I’ll just clean it”. Hadn’t had it hooked up for over a year and it just went downhill. Redid plumbing to move the mess further away from my electrical panel. Replaced rotten floor section. Relocated pressure tank in crawlspace. Disassembled and cleaned softener drive/operating mechanism. Luckily, it’s all working as it should.






Then was replacing all my electrical wall switches, plates, and receptacles.
Did come across this the other day on FB marketplace, but sale was already pending. Damn!

 

Some more pics…

 

To me, and I expect many others, that is the gold standard of cycle cars.

 

I would tend to agree, but of course I’m biased. lol!

The Franklin diff has been sold, but good to know stuff like this is out there as I had no idea of their company.

 

Well, back at it again finally. Was inspired by a couple of vids the last couple of days, including this one. Surprised no one else commented so far. Trying to figure out where I last left things. Looks like flywheel bolts are on the menu. lol!

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/dyno-a-supercharges-flathead-ford.

 

Now I remember why I hadn’t tightened up the flywheel bolts. One bolt had a head thickness less than the others (the one at the top in the pic). Think I had ordered them from 3rd Gen Automotive, and was supposed to call them and ask if if mattered. Probably mentioned somewhere in my thread. However, found the flywheel bolts from the second flathead I purchased. They were bagged and tagged. lol!
They look like they’re new, so will be using them instead.

 

Engine looks naked without the exhaust flex pipes and collectors. Haha!

 

Finally got around to scrapping the orig rad that came with this engine. Got almost CAN$90 for it. Not bad considering I only paid $100 for the engine with the rad. lol!
IIRC scrap price was CAN$2.40/lb. Also scrapped the steel support for it, and the copper piping from when I moved my soft water treatment equipment. I was shocked that I got around $35 for the small bits of copper. It was something over $4/lb for my soldered copper. Now have the rad shroud from this engine up for sale on FB marketplace. Should have gotten rid of this stuff from the get go.

 

Saw this yesterday on FB marketplace. Going to pick it up today hopefully.

 

Removed the bolts. Also now recalled one was longer than the others. Another reason I didn’t torque them down. Torqued them to 80 ft-lbs as per VanPelt chart. Could have used a lower toque I guess if they were wired which seems to make no sense to me. Decided not to wire lock them. Used blue thread locker instead.

 

Also, deal for planisher didn’t go through. Said I would buy. They said ok. Said I would pick it up tomorrow. Next message is pending pickup. Second time now in a row said I would buy something. Seller agrees, and sells it to someone else.

 

Going to see if starter works with my wiring mess. Haha!
Battery (6 V), sat for almost a year, and seems to almost fully charged.

 

Well, no big surprise. Wiring circuit for ignition seems to be buggered. Got no power at Bosch Ign switch, battery gauge, or push-button ign switch. Very strange. Bypassed all that with wire straight from (+) batt terminal to starter solenoid coil, and nothing. Solenoid might be bad. Tried solenoid for rad fan, and it works, but was fluttering/making a lot of noise. Switched starter wires to that solenoid, and ran solenoid coil wire direct to (+) batt terminal. Starter cranks engine, but super slow. Barely turning. Again, solenoid coil making lots of noise. Saw a tiny bit of smoke from starter. Slight burnt smell at starter, but think it’s just from sitting for so long. Load tested batt, and meter says “weak”, so will see if charging batt will help, but feel it might be buggered. Bought it a long time ago, and never really maintained it. Now have to dig into what’s going on with the ignition circuit wiring.

 

Need to reinstall the hog’s head and adapter and T5. Don’t like engine being supported at rear by some cheap box store rope. Rope is only rated for 164 lbs working load limit, but I have four stands looped through the Hell’s Gate exh manifold plates which are 3/8” thk.

 

Well, one step forward and at least two steps backwards. Found the one issue mentioned previously. I had (+) wire going to the “B” terminal on the voltage regulator, but no wire connecting it to anything else. So, there was no power to the “battery” gauge/meter, and to the Bosch ignition switch. Added a jumper wire between the “B” terminal on the voltage regulator and the “battery” gauge:/meter. There was already a wire to the “battery” gauge/meter and Bosch ignition switch.
When I flipped the “master/emergemcy” switch, the “battery” gauge/meter went from “OFF” to “DISCHARGE”. Then heard a popping/clicking noise periodically. Wasn’t sure what was going on. Figured out the circuit breaker was tripping. Wires into it were hot to the touch. Didn’t understand what was happening, so disconnected thd battery. Then noticed the “battery” gauge/meter was still in “DISCHARGE” position. Still confused. Connect battery back up, breaker is flipping on/off. Remove (+) wire going into breaker. Notice lots of sparks on stud. Figure there has got to be a short somewhere. Since “battery” gauge/meter was still in “DISCHARGE” position, it might be buggered/shorted. Remove it, and join the jumper wire that was between the “battery” gauge/meter to the wire that was going to the Bosch ignition switch. Problem solved. Breaker is no longer tripping, so figure the “battery” gauge/meter was shorted out. Don’t think it was designed to have all the power from the battery hooked up to one of its’ terminals.
Next issue now was that there was an issue with continuity between the two “ign” terminals on the Bosch ignition switch. Turns out that the brass screws I had used to replace the original screws were too long, and interfering with the switch mechanism. Found some shorter screws, and problem was solved. Now had power to my push-button ignition switch when the Bosch ignition switch was in the “IGN” position. Press the push-button switch, and now the solenoid “works”. Was making a racket, but starter wasn’t engaging. I’m now like, WTF is really going on. Run jumper wire directly from (+) post on battery to coil terminal on the solenoid coil. Solenoid coil still makes a racket, but starter now engages. Really confused now. I now take the wire going from the solenoid to the starter off the solenoid terminal and touch it to the (+) post on the battery. Starter engages. So, now thinking something is wrong with solenoid, or maybe I ordered a 12V vs a 6V. It’s been a few years since I purchased them. Still have the original boxes. Google part number. It’s a “Standard” solenoid P/N SS558. Yep, it’s a 6V solenoid. On the Summit website reading this info, and I read one of the reviews. Guy states that it’s intended for a 6V positive ground system. I switched my wiring to a 6V negative ground system. Now wondering if this is the issue causing the solenoids to make all that noise. Then find the instructions to the solenoid inside the box. They mention checking the solenoid to determine if the case is grounded or insulated. I test it, and it seems the solenoid is insulated. This is not good, as I assumed the case was grounded. It’s a 3-terminal version. So, now not sure how to proceed. I’ll post a new thread enquiring about this problem.

 

Forgot to mention, that I re-installed the hog’s head adapter and trans. Noticed that one of the threaded holes seems to be buggered at the bottom in the clutch inspection plate cover. There was no bolt there when I removed it. I found an extra bolt, but when I went to install it, it would bind up after only a few quarter turns. Got to find out what is going there.