Projects Olds Rocket 324 in a 32 Ford; "trying to finish it thread"..

Trip number two, to the Olds Farm with a hamber from up north, real name Walt. He scored a 37 Lasalle top shift trans with 50 Olds tail housing and shaft. He also finally found a driveshaft/yoke to fit the 50-only Olds stick trans he needed.

Just a couple pics today.

Found 2 more Olds convertibles in the lowest level of the big barn. One is a 61 Olds 98 without a motor. I think the motor must be the one that ended up in the restored 56 Olds convertible i showed before.

Check out the decals on the quarter windows..same on both sides.

I am going to try to buy this 61, as well as a souped up 371 stick motor that Walt pulled the valve cover and valley cover off, to look at. Lumpy looking solid cam, McGurk adj rockers, pop up pistons.

If I get the car, it would be switched to stick trans, either a 4 speed or a Selector Olds trans with the Ansen shifter that another friend found/bought today. I never saw him find the shifter, it was already in his trunk when we loaded my tools back in. The %^&'er won't let me buy it, even though I have the missing pieces we just tried at my place. He does not even have a use for it, he thought it was a Corvair shifter. I need to have a "friendly" little chat about that

We also found a weird swap on a Selector Olds trans. The one with the top cover missing: It has been heavily modified with welded pieces to hold the 37 Buick top shift style, rails and forks. But the 37 Buick top cover was missing. I later found one top cover on a shelf, but also found a real 37 Buick case, missing all the guts. I could make a good one out of both.

We still have not seen it all yet, better stuff is showing up now, with better searches.

We had a good time, and the other two guys made good purchases.

Me? I got some 1949 ebrake parts for Dave50, for his 32 coupe, off of that bare chassis, and then broke my camera. That's all I got today

 

And Frank let us not forget those NOS bearings and seals for the Olds tranny that I have been looking for for months!!!

 

I missed out i knew i shouldve closed up for a bit today ....next time

 

update. The radiator shell had the lower sides cut off when it was on a channeled car. I took donor pieces from the junkyard 32 truck shell and had to change the profile at the verticle beads to use them. And one was rotted at the bottom, so I had to patch my patch panel Sold the rest of the truck shell for 30 bucks

I spent 4 hours heat shrinking the driver door center, it still was not right, but i can't do a new skin at this point. Mudded it, and now trying to match the curve of the door to the quarter panel. Getting closer now.


While waiting for mud to set up, I painted the raw shiny aluminum grill a flat white yesterday. It looked crappy, so late last night I mixed some acry enamel gloss black with some metallic and hardener. That is what shows on the outdoor pics I just took. It will have to do for now, looks OK I guess.

Reworked the cowl up by the windshield. They cut way back to there when the took the cowl vent out, and the bead and right next to that, looked all wrong. Close now.

What's left:
-left cowl side
-both front fenders (1 weeks work I bet)
-door jambs
-the body area around the back of the roof needs work
-one bead at the right side of the trunk lid

oh, and some minor bodywork on the 40 dash.

I'm glad I put the taillights on the rear fenders. It looks old style, because it is.

Just drained the rusty water out, so I can fix one very tiny rad leak, then get antifreeze in it to stop the rusting.


If the car is light blue with white interior...What color for the dash?? White might be way too much? Black does not sound right...so...?

 

I just found a 4 yr old pic that shows why the door is not quite right








and... my son just told me how to paint the dash, and he nailed the old "Autorama" look. The upper part across the dash, and the driver side will be the body color, and the lower right to center lower piece will be bright white. Now I will have a spot where a little bit of white fine-line striping can look good.


EDIT: a hamber just put up a pic of his 50s built 40 coupe. This is the two tone, except mine won't have that white gauge cluster.



I'm sick of working, but I keep at it because I am dying to mix a color and paint it. Going with a teal metallic.

 

I pulled the dash out this afternoon, to do some bodywork and to mount the switches, etc.

The switches are unknown, the knobs are odd shaped, dark red/maroon, and each knob is illuminated. Picked these up from a long time swap vendor that always has cool old stuff. Also got my super small rear window from him.

The lighter came from another vendor and I had to pay more than what I should have, but it's a match on color.

The speedo cluster is 46/48 Plymouth, has a chrome backround, and not installed yet, is the clear plastic speedo needle that changes colors as you go faster

last pic shows another Olds heater just like what is under the dash now. It has a tiny seperate defroster motor/blower on top. I will route that hose over to the radio block off plate. I will hinge that plate to pop up, and face the winshield. I was going to punch two defroster louvers on the top of dash, but HammerdT talked me out of that

Going to make my own govebox so it can be bigger than a repro one.

 

Frank Its looking good I like the idea on the color of the dash, That boy of yours is slick Keep plugging but dont get completely burnt out.. you have done well with that car cant wait to see your driving it.

 

Yea Dave, he may be slick, but i am waiting here right now, wondering where my 66 K20 and car trailer is?? He left before noon for "a 2 hour haul". That's how Gilligan got on the island..


I told him don't haul at night, as there is some glitch in the brake controller/or wiring...and the trailer brakes come on if you use the taillights. Plus we had huge downpours and I could barely see when I was out today. Maybe it's all smashed, and they are bashing the dents out

 

Frank you are making good progress. Like the Olds heater with the defrost "option". I think the dash will look righteous painted that way. Hope Junior got home OK.

 

Ha, Walt, he got back at 10:45 PM...with a story about tarping my truck at his friends place, so it did not get wet during the T-storms...then of course, he waited hours to let the roads dry

Speaking of defrosters.. I HAVE to do these things now before the dash goes back in. So today, it took only 2 tries at mounting the radio block off plate "hinges", to get it to open correctly

So now I need to make 4 of those curved blade deflector things and weld them to the underside of the plate, so that the air goes to both sides.

Then I'll need to make some sort of rectangular funnel shape thing for the defrost hose to hook to, and aim the air at that lid.

I got the switches mounted; one multi speed resistor for the heater, one on-off for the defroster, and a fused one for the headlights. It was a fog light switch, so the amps will be fine. No parking light position, and I don't have front ones anyways. wish I had some small 12v bulbs today to see how the knobs look all lit up

I was also patching the lower dash edge because the dash came from a doodlebug and water soaked it for years. Almost done with that..

And I am also making my own glove box liner today, out of cardboard shaped to a jig, then soaked with F/glass resin. I am making a BIG one to maybe hold a CD player, and still have room for..."gloves"

 

Things are coming along great man. Keep plugging...your car is going to be a really cool and unique piece.

 

Frank looks great!
i had a customer make his own glove box for a '51 international using a piece of linoleum flooring. he cut a piece of wood to the shape of the door opening [but smaller] for the "back" of the box and then stapled the linoleum to it. water proof, long wearing and flexible to the door opening shape. only problem it was left over from when his parents redid their kitchen in the 70's so the outside had large orange flowers on it.

 

Yea Ted, flowers would be OK... like my seat cover It's just a blanket for now, to cover up the old burlap spring covers on the freebie 31 Cad V12 seat that are full of mouse nests.


I remembered this morning that I can't weld the dash in yet, because I forgot that I don't have ashtrays built yet. 40 Fords had two styles as one was hated by the buyers. Neither style will fit without hitting the 32 cowl bracing.

So, mine being all rotted out, I can only save the outer face piece. I made one new one, sitting on the door in pic #1. I need to make/weld in, a single center track for it to slide on. I spent many hours a couple years ago in sectioning the dash on both sides, just to save the look of functioning ashtrays, so I will not weld them shut.

Well, all these details just have to be done now, because the stuff needs welding, so I would ruin paint if I waited. So, I made the descision today: It won't go out on the road until the car is 100% done. I did not work this long and this hard to put a jury rigged unfinished car on the road.


I will mix some color late week, in case I can do up the interior painting. I need to see some color..!

 

Got a good day in today. I put the modified dash back in and welded it for keeps Ground the welds, and got most of the filler work done.

I had to mud the whole thing because of the deep pits.


Closeup of one ashtray shows some of the slide deal I made. The 2 side "rods" welded to the upper sides are 20d nails

Then I bent up a 20 gauge track for it to slide on, but keeps some tension so it won't rattle. Fits nice because it took a LONG time to set it up.


Then the back of dash pic shows the Y shaped defroster elbow I made from 20ga, and a short piece of VW steering column tube.

I had to go at an angle to stay away from the 32 ford orig dash/cowl bracing. Well, that really messes up the airflow to the passenger side. I ended up with a pizza slice shaped deflector spotwelded into the bottom of the Y deal. I pre-tested the flow on the car, with the Olds defroster blower, to finally get it in the right spot.

I don't know squat about airflow it seems, because I thought if I divided the air flow exactly in half, it should be equal when it hits the upper deflectors I made. Well, half doesn't work; I had to divert 2/3rds of the diameter of the pipe to get equal air to the pass side.


Other things I did; I welded a short rod arm to the defroster flap, rubbing on a piece of sheet metal with deep centerpunched dents to act like detents. That holds the defroster door open in several positions, and keeps it snug when closed so it can't rattle.



Then I put in some speakers and put in 3 of those quick type terminal blocks inside the glove box for R/L channels, and power/ground for the radio.



My son went out today and picked up new empty 1 gallon cans, and a graduated 5 gal bucket....so, I will be mixing color tommorrow...I can't wait to see what I end up with It will be 3 gallons of something

 

i paint the backside of dashes and cowls with a light color, it makes it easier to see when you get under there to work on it.
more great work, thanks for keeping us updated.

 

I built the windshield header, and upper parts of the W/S posts, almost 5 years ago, but never could figure a way to hold in the 1928 Dodge truck windsleid frame that I cut and rebent to fit there.

The 32 Ford cabriolet never had an opening windshield, but the Dodge truck did have a spiral wrap type hinge at the top. But the top half of the hinge was bent to fit vertically. I had to trim that off, and I was left with a 1/4" wide strip of 24 gauge tin.

Not enough width for sheetmetal screws, and no room for the heads of the screws.

Had a idea yesterday to weld 10-32 machine thread studs facing up, and put nuts on from inside the header. I kept thinking the hinge would not get pulled up tight to the header.

It came out perfect for some reason, and fits great, and swings great.

First pic shows where the studs are, and I have not tightened the nuts to eliminate the gap yet.

2nd pic shows where the nuts are, inside the header piece. This header will have a cover installed later. The bolts to hold the convertible top on, are in there also.

And back when I built the posts/header, I prebent a 1/4 steel line for either a vac wiper hose, or run a wire up through it for electric wipers.


Next post tonight is how I made windshield latching hardware...

 

Looking good Frank

 

As usual, working with old junk parts means it will likely also be missing something

I had one windshield swing arm from the junkyard 32 Ford truck, and one from the 28 Dodge truck. Not matching, and wrong pivot hole distance on one.

And they were too long anyway. So I cut them both up, reshaped the brass pieces with heat, and silver soldered them back together. They look pretty much the same now.

Pic #1 shows the rotted 32 Ford truck windshield frame and posts, and that yellow silver solder rod is pointing to the rusty bracket riveted to the Ford W/S frame. I cut those off, trimmed off the backsides, and screwed them to my W/S posts. The Dodge W/S frame still had brackets.

2nd pic shows I only had one Dodge "barrel nut" that holds the swing arm to the W/S frame. The Ford looked like permanent riveted pivots, but too rotted to tell. So I had to make a new barrel nut on the lathe and thread the ID. Lots of time.


Then figure out how high they should be mounted. Because the W/S posts are tapered, they only fit in one spot that let the frame get closed tightly when the arms are swung up. So, rather than cut/shorten/lengthen the mounting brackets, I just put them where they fit.


I can't believe they work so nice. I figured it would be another so-so PITA. Still need 2 thumb screw things to tighten the arms; I guess I;ll make them on the lathe





I guess I will do the dual wipers next; to get all the overhead stuff done before I paint the dash, in case I drop something.

one more post tonight on maybe another Olds engine swap?

 

Ok, I need some opinions on a new motor for our old Chevy truck. It never gets used for anything except heavy loads now. It is geared for highway with 321/323 gears on fairly tall 16"s.

SBC 350/TH400

It tows a fullsize car fine on the highway at 80, but on secondary roads, on big grinding hills, if it is overloaded, it can be in 2nd gear floored at 45mph and not gaining speed, ...if you hit the hill wrong without speeding up.

So, I have had 2 400 SBCs, (one was new GM crate shortblock), and both pull good, but overheat on full pulls. I don't want to hear that 400s don't. Try pulling a heavy slide-in camper on the ocean beach sand, and they will boil in 3 miles.

A BBC needs to mod the firewall, or drag the trans/transfer case forward, which is too much work.

I don't want a Cummins, my son does Too much weight for a K20 front housing IMO.

What's left is an big early Olds tri-power of course.

I am thinking that if the extended bell Olds engine design is adapted to the TH400, then the motor "should" be coming ahead more than the SBC, and I have lots of room near the radiator. (See pic of green engine with an adapter,maybe a Ross motor?) see how far ahead the valve covers are from the trans?

Here's some pics from today. You can't really tell, but the SBC is kind of setting back into a recess in the firewall, and I'd want the Olds to be ahead of there.

Under side pic shows just one small engine mount crossmember that can be moved/swapped out.

Any thoughts on this crazy idea? (the SBC is tired; the mains thump at a hot low idle speed and fouls 3 plugs with bad guides.)

 

No,No,No Frank....Thats not my Olds adaptor...that one uses a 5 inch spacer on the back of the crank and forces you to cut the floorboards out of the car....crazy

Mine has flywheel on the crank where it belongs with the convertor bolted to it...mine is not any longer than stock
And will fit in any space a stock 49-64 Olds trans fit without modifing the tunnel...and also uses stock sidemounts if needed.

This is mine,

Tony

 

the olds sounds like a good idea but are you sure the 350 does not pull well because it is tired?

 

Frank, I vote for the Olds. Did you expect anything else from me!

 

The 350 does fine with a full size car on the trailer, no matter what road or hill. The problem is that with that very unusual 321/323 8 lug gear ratio, and a massive load, the motor is just too underpowered in 3rd gear on a really long hill on secondary roads.(13 to 15,000 gross towing). I have never been without a K series since 1974, and this is the most user friendly one so far, and I love the gear for todays highway speeds that you need to run at. I just need more torque at lower rpms. Yesterdays haul was 9000 lbs total rig weight, and my son said it pulled the bad hills like it was empty.



Tony; Thanks for the pics of your setup. But I can't seem to get my bearings, as to where the back of the Olds heads will be, in relation to the front of an unmodified TH400 mating surface?

Is there any chance you have a measurement like: From the center of the modulator, to the very back of the Olds block where the trans mates? I just need some reference to know if the back of the Olds heads will hit the firewall in my truck. Thanks

 

I can only get a couple hours a day in now. Today I started to figure out the wipers.

I need to drill/weld above the dash, so I can't paint the dash yet.


First needed to decide vacuum or electric wipers. Pic 1 shows all I have; the electric is an early aftermarket from the 28 Dodge W/S. I took it apart and there is no wear, but it is just a noisey design and sounds crappy if I hold it against the windshield header metal.

So, I will go vacuum. I have the small old tired one that might be too small for dual wipers. The nickel plated one does not sound good when I move the shaft, so I will fix it later for my 32 Nash.

The biggest vacuum motor is NOS I bought for $5 because the shaft was broken off and missing. It was 1/4" shaft but is turned down to 1/8" dia right where it comes out of the motor, and that's where it broke. I made a new shaft and set it all up in the lathe to align it while welding that tiny spot. I will cut to proper length when I find out where.


Ok, then the blades and arms. I spotted a big box full of NOS wiper parts at a friends stash. He said take it home, pull out what you want, and bring the rest back.

I don't recall ever seeing dual wiper drives like this for early cars

They are very cool. The chromed set will go on the Nash. The black set is for the 32 Ford. But I could not figure out how to put the black cover pieces on. I went on US Patents for a pic, and they never used covers with that set. The springs and wire arms were exposed without covers. Maybe for a truck?


I got an idea on how to use the black covers, but I need to get two 1/4" locking collars at the hardware store in the AM. I will weld the tie-rod plate things to the collars, then lock the collars to the shafts, then put the black arms on. Those black arm covers were never meant to be used as duals, and I do have the parts to hold them on as singles.

I also need to fab a dummy shaft for the passenger side; just a 1/4" shaft inside a tube that will weld through the header.


oh, and I found a vac fitting to fit my carb, so I hooked up the wiper motor and it works like freaking new. I love the sound...it sounds...old timey The last pic shows that when I put the metal brake tubing in 5 years ago, it is the right diameter, and aims right at the U turned motor connector. Also, you can see a chrome hand lever on that motor, so you can do just a single wipe if needed. "Early" intermittant wiper

 

Looking good Frank. Neat set up. Never seen wipers with covers before. Great find.

 

garsh just spent 4 hours on this thread ... go go go

 

2 posts tonight, first one is I finished the wiper setup.

The hardware store did not have the right locking collars for 1/4" shaft, so I made my own.

I also could not find a tube that 1/4" shaft would fit into, for the dummy right side shaft, so I made it on the lathe.

The wiper tie rod will not fit inside the header to hide it, but it was meant to be outside anyways.

Wiper arms were adjustable, and I was lucky that they fit all the way to the shortest setting. It all works real nice.

Then, the first and third pics show some emblems on the upper firewall I don't know if they look too silly or not? They are spares from another Olds heater just like the one that will be in the car. One side says Oldsmobile, the other side says Deluxe.

 

I had a very cool dark green glass sunvisor I found at the Stafford swap, and bought it for the 32 Nash...but it won't fit that skinny profile W/S header. So it is now on the Ford.

I welded machine screws through a piece of 3/16" plate to mount the visor real solid on the W/S header. Got to use up more of those scrapyard acorn nuts

Then, I knew I had to make a cover panel to box in the back side of the header. I thought body color painted panel would look crappy... So, I had new white car upholstery material that I got from a shop closing up in W.Springfield Mass, a few years ago. (I also bought 2 sewing machines, one for spare parts, one supposed to be good, and threads and bobbins pre-wound....so I might try some sewing?)

The panel is in 2 pieces so that the visor mount could be welded on securely, and not have to need to remove the visor to take the covers off for whatever reason.

The panel is made from scrapyard 22 gauge and it's so flimsy, that I bent the long edges a bit, on the brake, to stiffen them. That also makes the panels look "padded".

Sure is nice to see something clean inside the car.

The visor is so adjustable in many directions. It can even slide over to the center on the horizontal rod, just like a typewriter thing moves. That's good, in case the sun is off to the other side of the W/S/ It folds up nice and tight, up to the roof, and does not get in the way of the wiper control, or wiper motor. I dig it

 

Now that is slick, Frank. Way to go!