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

I love those pics!

 

Man! Lots of land in a rural area, an olds powered Deuce, an olds powered '40, and a milling machine! You sir, are living the DREAM.

 

I thought someone would like the last distant pic. I always look at hambers pics for scenic stuff. If I can get the car fit for the road, I will put up some real scenic pics; the first longer trip will be to RI, at the Beavertail Lighthouse, overlooking the mighty North Atlantic Ocean. It's a stunning place the day after a storm, with bright sun and incredible waves.

George, I don't have much land and I am on a busy state road...but.. that valley showing in the last pic has a decent sized river and a major Railroad line. It's pretty cool to hear 3 engines pulling the slight grade and listening to the diesel horn as they get near the crossing 1/2 mile up. Some engineers are pretty talented as to how they do the horn, almost like music...but some just do the mandatory stuff. Sounds so cool on a quiet summer night.

Ok, I just finished the front spring mods, it all fits so perfect now, and fenders back on to be able to build the top front shock mounts...bottoms are done. Then more drive tests to see how it feels. Warm day for a ride

 

I had a good day today, all went better than normal. I changed my mind as to what size of front leaf I would put in. Instead of a long one that would stiffen the normal crusing ride, I went with one about 1/3rd down from the top. That will give more backbone as the spring goes into max compession. It worked. Got some more arch without much stiffness. Also pulled the 2 shorty leaves at the very top and installed the caster shim.

Changing caster as much as I did, actually changes the WB slightly, so I needed to shorten the split bone rear adjusters by 2 threads. It all fits and looks great.

Then modded these shocks; the mounting studs came from Chev truck front shocks. These studs go on the axle, welded like the old days. But the shocks had bushings on the wrong ends. I just soaped them up and used the new stud to push the old bushings out. Doing two jobs at once . Then just push the bushing into the top eye.

Made shock brackets from 3/16" flat stock and welded to frame. Done.

Then such a nice warm day for testing. I drove around a bit and was feeling more confident now that the suspension is all glued in good, so I did a few "dirt road burnouts" . I still can't find another 56 Olds rim for the driver rear, so it's a bald 16". The car consistantly spun both rears just like a posi..he.he. What a flashback...ass end going sideways, engine tacked up and the straight cut first gear singing away...it was fun, I tell ya.

My kid wandered out after hearing that, so I had him drive it all over so I could watch the F & R suspension working. It's still too stiff in the rear, so I will fool with that in the AM. It really pays off to watch the car like this, when setting suspension.

I went in for a coffee while he was still driving. His G/F came home with her car, and my kid quickly pulls up alongside her driver side and starts revving the engine... Ha, ha... that's my boy.

 

Hard work today and a lot of time, trying to tune the rear spring. This is a 40 Ford "front" spring in the 32 crossmember with 35 bones.

I learned a lot by watching the suspension move while my son was driving it yesterday, as well as what went right on the 32 front spring mods I did get right.

I looked at the spring pack while up on stands and chalk marked which ones I would take out, then just studied that a bit. I ended up taking one medium length and 2 more that were halfway between that one and the top shorty leaves.

I knew this would lower the car a lot, so I faced the fact of having to re-arch the entire pack, one at a time, with the press.

If you look at the loose leaves; each leaf is slightly curved tighter than the one under it..they are all different. So I recurved the main to match the one above it, then did the same, all the way up.

Spotted a cracked one, but I had another donor 40 spring to get the right one.

Pressed about 1.5" between each push. The main was a tough one to get enough curve, the rest went better as I got better at it.

But, when I decided to test assemble the pack on the floor, it was SO curved up, that I knew I could not build the pack up in the car. The spring was almost a true half circle . At that point, I thought I should de-arch a bit, but I figured I need to start somewhere. Problem was that i could not get the spreader closed up enough to fit this goofy spring. I stood it up on it's tips on sheet metal plates so it could slide on the cement as I sat on it, to get the spreader hooked.

By the time I adjusted it out, it seemed very dangerous, like a huge mousetrap. But I did get it in. I lost 3/8" ride height but it felt real good in the shop, bouncing it. It was near dark and I was dying to test drive...but the 1 gallon tank was almost dry. I did drive it forward out of the shop quick so the rear would drop off of the cement into a dip. It felt good, so I gunned it in reverse to hit the cement real fast. None of the parts in the trunk jumped off the floor, so i think I got it It feels real promising.

Even used Ford spring grease for springs...sheesh

and my Dads old OTC spreader from when he ran a shop through the 1950s..

 

More driving and.. I give myself a big red F on the rear setup. The more I drove, the more the axle was hitting on the Rt or L frame kicks. It still felt way too stiff on the springs.

I had my son drive it so I could see what was going on, and even on a fairly smooth surface, the car twitches up/down about 1/2" like the spings are too stiff. I put the car away for the day after I saw that I lost 1.5" rear ride height!

Pretty discouraged, but I went back to the shop at night and disconnected the rear shocks, and was shocked to how it changed. A 5 year old child could bounce the rear of the car up and down 4".

So I went through the hamb archives for 28-34 rear shock threads. The consensus is using 63-67 Corvette rear shocks, but those cars have way more weight at the rear than mine.


Todays attempt will be ultra soft front shocks from pre-66 VW bug. My son has a 59 bug buried in the shop and I think it had new shocks.

My son says I need one super long leaf added to the spring, and I do have one that wraps halfway around the main leaf spring eyes, I guess I will put that one in after rearching it, and add a 1/2" spacer in the spring mount.

The shackle angle is way off now, so if I can't get the arch back, I'll need to re-roll the eyes. Not having much fun at this point.

 

Back on track today. I stole my son's front shocks. They are KYB gas filled. I put them on with a simple swap of upper bushings and noticed the gas pressure raised the car back up 1/2 of what I had lost.

I drove it around and it feels so much better, and i think a gas tank and rear mounted battery will make it all good. But still too low and still hits the frame on hard bumps, and the shackle angle is too light.

Here is what I will finish tonight: I have decided to cut the rear bone mounts partially off, then push the bones to the outside by overlapping the cut off piece on the outsides of the remaining mount plates.

This will: Move the shackles to get a good angle, and by creative cuts, I can get 7/8" rise on the body directly over the rear axle tubes. I am also moving the rear 3/8" forward as it needs it. These plates went in when the car going to be fenderless, and the centerline is a bit off with fenders on.

Sounds mickey to do it this way, but if I had cut the entire plate off, then I would lose the pinion angle, lose the side to side measurements, and add tons of time to do set up. I already did one side, and it looks fine, just looks like a gusseted plate mount. Screw it.

Going back now to cut this side and get it on all fours tonight to see the new ride height and new shackle angles.

 

I finally got it right. I am thrilled to say the least. After the rear suspension mods and shock swap, it was a lot better but not thrilling. Still felt choppy while driving.

I took the advice of my son and a friend; both said it needs MORE spring in the front, because the arch was too light. The car sat too low to me in the front anyways, so here's what i did:

Pulled the front spring apart on the car. Then made a "new" super long leaf that almost touches the eyes, misses by 1/4". i cut up a 32/34 main leaf that had a bent eye.

Then I re-arched that leaf, and 4 more above it.

I dropped it off the stands and it looked great, so I drove it all over and holy cow, that mod finally makes it feel like a dam car finally. It should be sweet on the road. AND the weather finally broke bigtime, it's been like summer the last few days

I love the ride height; it's 100% what I invisioned when I decided to go full fender.

Got a late model job coming this weekend, so the coupster will get sidelined. Also, no more updates anyways, because bodywork is next, starting in the AM.

 

that sits perfect, glad it rides as good as it looks.
march 13 and was sweating with the shop doors open, amazing how 72 degrees feels too hot in the winter. good thing, wood bins almost empty!

 

Well, it ended up being one month before I went back to that junkyard, "for something for my car". ....a 32 Ford! How often does a 32 end up in a yard?

....32 truck, but I'll take parts where I can get them. Fred did not want to sell just a part or two, so I talked him into all the upper parts from rad, back to what's left of the cab, incl cowl, dash, firewall, column with lock and a key! etc.

Fred went to get the payloader with the torch setup while I unhooked the hood rods & hood, hoses, cut wires and pulled up the wood toe boards. His wife showed up with a cooking pot of water and said "Frank, here you go, now you get to do one of my jobs; putting out the fires" . Ten minutes later and it was done, and loaded in my tiny station wagon.

So, my build keeps changing; now it will have a hood top. No louvers because my kid says "the rest of the car has a smooth look" and he thinks louvers will clash with smooth.

How about the old filled in cowl vent? Should I put one back in for hot summers? I almost want to leave it filled? My windshield does open, but maybe I need a cowl vent?

Note the water leaking out of my old radiator...It's been leaking more as I drove it so much lately. I got a real nice one from that truck, and after cleaning it, it looks really promising. Also mounted the cowl antenna right where the old holes were brazed up, and put on the old mirror.

 

Nice score on finding a '32 truck for parts!

I don't know Frank, I think I have to agree with your son. The fenders give the car a real smooth look, and that unlouvered hood, along with the filled cowl, really add to that overall smooth look. So here's another vote for the filled cowl. Though, I'm not the one that will be driving it on those hot days....

Sweet little station wagon by the way!

 

Cool, dig that hood top on there!!!

 

Yes, I decided against trying to put a cowl vent back in, I want to get it on the road sooner, than later No louvers either.

Stuck working on a Expedition rot repair job..because I am broke I wanted to drive the hotrod around yesterday because it now rides so good, and it was in the 70's for temps...but it's blocked in by that barge

 

i would push to put the cowl vent in,i use mine ,more, than not. i just sanded and painted a louvered deck lid for a '32 , it was a pain, it took longer to do the deck lid than the rest of the car.
i would have pictured you with, well, a much cooler daily driver than that wagon, but, hey it's probably good on fuel.

 

Ted; I might do the vent after all

..oh, and that wagon is the newest car/truck I have owned in 20 years; I like driving old stuff but I don't like being stared at all the time

But, ! I am thinking about putting this one on the road as a daily next year. I just got it out of storage late yesterday to go for a yard drive. I had to attend a family reunion at the Cape last summer and the only 2 hotrods I saw on the road were a mint black 40 Deluxe coupe streetrod resto-rod and a not so shiney shiney black 40 deluxe "hot rod" coupe missing the center grille.... I liked the hot rod better

This car rides and steers so nice and shifts beautiful, but it's real rusty and the 303 needs an overhaul.

 

Using a few minutes here and there while waiting for primer to dry on side job.

I needed to fix the top of my radiator shell where it used to be poorly filled. To save time, I figured to use some of the rusty 32 truck shell for a custom "partly peaked" look, with a stock cap. That's Pic 1 and 2. Pic 2 shows a little rust gone from trying oxaylic acid and battery charger...I can't find washing soda, like has been said to try. The underside is now 100% rust free, but not the top. 6-7 hrs test.


But after I ruined the truck shell, I decided to try to fix it, as well as learn how they did the fill 'n peak with a metal rod. Only a half hour so far, but I think I got it. I'll cut/fill the Ford oval hole later. I did not want to cut too much out at once to lose the shape.

 

Started off today cutting out the cowl vent parts from the 32 truck cowl. The parts looked iffy, so I drilled all the spot welds to sandblast everything including seams.

After blasting, they looked about what I expected, but screw it, I can weld tinfoil with my old Miller 35 mig.

So, then I cut out the previous cowl patch in the coupster. Yikes, that's deep bondo 3/16 lt rear corner to 1/4 at rt rear corner.

Then I wanted to do fun stuff insead of heating old bondo and scraping


I dug out all the laquer toners, poly's, mixing clear, etc, to see what I could try to make. Going laquer on this car for sure. I have even more variety of toners for Acry Enamel and also Urethanes, but I want laquer.

I got lucky and found a factory mixed quart of T-bird, Lincoln blue poly laquer close to what i want. That's it on the radiator shell. (Hey, that's the truck rad filler opening grafted in/peaked, not done blocking, but close. How does it look?)


Then I wanted to try toners to maybe get a hint of red into it. I used Voilet toner which is super dark, and added fine poly to try to keep it from getting too dark. Geez, it went light lilac, which is the driver fender front tip.

Then on the right fender tip, I tried adding another blue toner, trying to get it back to more blue...nope it did not. All the blue toners look violet to me?

Next I found a toner called green blue, and that got it back pretty close on the driver fender test patch behind the front tip test.

Then added very coarse poly to that, and a tick more green/blue to keep it from going too light from the bigger poly. That's on the pass fender rearmost test strip.


This is fun stuff, but I don't know how to do a big batch, to paint the whole car, and have almost the same leftover for repainting if needed in the future.

 

grill shell looks great, and i don't see a bad blue in the bunch.

 

Does it looklike metalic in person too?

 

nelson is the man dude.. and yes if you are honest with nelson pease these days hes cool..... dont sware ...... and be honest.. nelson is 5 min away from my tatt shop.. great guy.. im glad you posted this....

 

if you find speed parts yer lucky.... mostly stock.. but i have found jemms there..... u name it pre 63 the more pre the better man.... nelso donates the award parts for the milltown awards as well.....

 

tell um milltown lance sent ya....

 

by the way .. f n j lookin good man...
i have 3 hemis for 1600 bucks .... if you know anybody... all 3 1600 2 331s 1 241....

 

Man, I miss her already. I saw a titled 40 frame for sale on craigslist a while back. Might still be on there. I havent forgot that I owe you a pair of garnish mouldings and some other stuff from the car. Now that the weather's decent I'll try to meet up with you. (Shameless attempt to also check out your 32!)

 

I had no idea that N.B.Pease donated to your rod/custom show. That's pretty classy.

Yes, stop by if you want, or I can pick up the stuff. The 40 is NOT starting very well now...there is almost no compression during cranking. I can barely feel vacuum when I hold my hand over the center carb, when starting it.




...anyways, I am almost done with the cowl vent install. I almost decided to make a complete new cowl top, because it was so bad under the mud...but I got lucky; I did not have quite enough 18 ga left..so I fixed the old one real good

Also trying the hood derusting by electrolysis... 48 hours so far... it's way too thin for blasting. I'll do some pics.

 

Cowl vent install getting close enough for more paint color testing. Hey, if I keep color testing, the car will be in paint in no time flat..

Man, this car is out of shape. You can't see it in the pic, but when they cut the huge panel out years ago, the patch went to within 1/2" of the reveal moulding bead in front of the windshield,..and now that bead does not run a true consistant curve.

I am not sure how to fix it yet, but with all the fine poly metallic in this batch of test paint, it really shows up badly in person.


Other pic is 1/2 of the hood top in electrolysis, trying to get rust off. I did have both halves in at the same time for 2.5 days, but one was shielding the other. Wish I could blast, because this is a pain to keep cleaning the anodes. The top long anode is only 3 hours old in the pic, and looks like it's been in the ocean for 10 years

 

looking really great. alot of really neat touches on the car. Really enjoying the thread.

 

I started a "32 ford custom grille thread" a couple of days ago, looking for ideas.

I wanted something that did not look stock for some reason....and I need "some sort of grille" so I can send in car pics to get antique insurance...and then get plates.

I did searches and looked at old rod books like "Cool Cars/Square Rollbars", but most custom ones were really a bit too distracting; like chromed bar stock with the owners initials, or strange designs..


$3 yesterday at the local scrap place, and I brought home a 10' length of new 1/4" alum rod and a 4" piece of 3/8" rod.

Making the outline was not too hard but takes time.

My old Miller TIG is missing the foot pedal, so I've never used it

I used those Aluminum brazing rods. I have good luck on some smaller parts, but on a joint where 3 rods came together at the top, it is not strong enough. I will add more of it to get a radius in the corners. It will look better (like the Pines Winterfront center bar joints), and should be stronger.


The aluminum expanded mesh is made with very thin material, so it does not look quite as bad as I figured. I bought that at the same place years ago for maybe $1 or $2 a sheet. I need to figure out how to attach it. It has twist ties, right now, off of loaves of bread.



...Also tried fitting a new Vintique brand repro front lower apron. The swap meet vendor that I bought my front fenders from, gave this to me at no charge. It looked like he had made a cut in the middle, up top, to try stretching it. Now I know why; it's too narrow to fit to stock 32 frame and fenders. This is why I refuse to buy repro stuff. More stuff to fix.

I am beat. I don't know if I should kick back a bit.

 

i don't know if they were made but could that splash pan have been for a model a with a spreader bar, and 32 shell? i like the look of that mesh, at least zoomed in, it has a denim like texture. i also like the bar down the middle. Ted

 

The guy I got the parts from, had finished his show quality 32 Ford stock cabriolet. All he had at the swap were 32 ford parts. It does not seem to fit too good right under my shell, My shell is beat up, as it came from a channeled car, though.


That mesh;... I should have done a pic from the other side. It shines more from the drivers side, due to the way the metal folded when slit/expanded.

I thought of cutting the sheet down the middle to flip it, but there is also a diagonal pattern going on, and the diagonals meet at the exact center for some reason. The sheet was also pre-bent right in the middle where the diagonals meet? Strange.

Then I thought about cutting it down the center, flip it upsde down and backwards to get the patterns right, but my brain cells could not figure out if it would/could be right. So, I gave up.