Technical What did you do with your car today? * NEW*

Yesterday was a holiday here in Austria so I decided to do as much as I can on the car (the speed shop did not have the brake shoes in stock - those are on order and should be delivered to my address this week (one of the guys working there is a neigbor)), which meant cleaning all the wheel bearings/re-packing with grease/installing new oil seals + assembling the LH wheel cylinder. Good thing I did because the previous owner obviously did not know about the mysteries of packing wheel bearings with grease. I don't think any damage was caused by the car running like this although one of the bearings (proudly stating "made in China") is, well, a bit mweh. But I'll live with it for the time being, this is already costing me more than I want. I also found strange protrusions on the LHD drum which I carefully filled down - again I don't think it would cause any issues once the shoes are bedded in but if it does then I may have to turn the drums. Oh by the way, we Europeans have no issues with finding 10mm sockets or spanners, the problem is with the 3/8" - see pic of mangled brake line union (by previous owner). Luckily I managed to loosen/re-tighten with a special spanner I have for such situations...

Hope to have the brakes fully assembled on Saturday and then we'll see...

 

Drove it to the cardiologist and then later was teaching my son how to drive it, he did good driving the mechanical beast.
He's been around it his whole life but never drove it.

 

Still fumbling around with body work on the roadster. Hate doing it but still forcing myself to go out to the shop and get busy. Hope to have it ready for primer by the end of the month and topcoat by the end of September; after that it'll probably be too cold in the shop to paint.

 

ordered Borgeson pitman arm for the manual 525 steering box going in the 50 Desoto ....................OEM 525 Pitman Arm, Flat, 7" Centers
OEM 525 Pitman Arm, Flat, 7" Centers
Part #: 806021
$89.88 1 $89.88
Subtotal: $89.88
Shipping cost: $17.71

 

Wow, that must be a nice arm! The jeep guys sell the same arm for around 35 for the 79-86 CJ. That is what we have been using on our 525 manual boxes fwiw.

 

I painted my grill insert orange to match my wheels and stripes

 

Cleaning up my 392 hemi engine and parts in order to sell, Hemi engine was to be used in my topolino altered but as engine will see limited use it was decided to move it on and build an engine that can be used in 34 coupe and Topolino. Current engine is solid filled and unable to hold water. My plan is to build a blown SBC or BBC that is street suitable and can be used in Topolino for strip duties. A few pics
. Glen

 

I was able to finally get the '32 frame on my makeshift rotisserie. Seems to work pretty well, now to finish weld a few things and start the paint prep. It goes slow with the heat these days. You can see the lawn chair in front of my triple fan setup, lol.

 

Got stuff put back on F100 after paint. Sent in some pics to Hagerty and increased insurance coverage.

 

Took some more vintage 3M aircraft insulation and covered the under seat and rear floor areas of our '47. Next will be to empty the rear seat catch-all and finish that area.



One of my friends just became the caretaker an old local stock car; have to go see it when he makes room to bring it home. I used Jim's (the original owners) shop to paint literally hundreds of trucks, sweepers, and other stuff over the forty years I was working.



Planning on building a new chassis for an old hot rod Model A coupe along with my buddy Mike; anyway he called and said he picked up some boxed deuce rails set up for an A; had him send me a picture; strange looking things. Turned out to be made and contoured for a '27. Back they went.

 

I finally just about finished the rear crossmember cover. I also got my louver press set up recently, and punched my first louvers!

 

I leaned on it while my wife and I were trying to figure out what storage box on the garage shelves contained what we were looking for. Does that count??

 

Did what I do every morning. I've gotten to be a late sleeper since I retired so it's usually about 9.30 by the time I get going. I go to the shop, turn the Fan and air, back the deuce pickup out and start my morning cruise. Same route every day. Up to the truck stop to do a drive by to check out the lottery numbers then down thru town and by both mortuaries to check the boards to make sure I'm not on them, out by the hospital then down the main drag by the post to drop of mail and out to the highway and home. 10.30 and it to work in the shop. Sadly same routine every day.

 

In the process of making the car about 200 pounds lighter...
I'm getting the Bondo out of the right rear quarter panel.

 

I washed it.

 

Let’s see that louver press!

John

 

Did a long freeway trip recently, and the next day I washed my '39 Chev up, and noticed the license plate bracket was cracked! I pulled the license plate light, and bracket, and made up a flat bar to weld behind the plate at the cracked area, and plug/perimeter welded it on. Reinstalled the plate, and thought it was fine.
But this weekend I parked beside a guy with an original 39 Chev coupe, and noticed the factory bracket had a rod that bolted to the trunk to support the top of the plate bracket!
So I grabbed some 1" flat bar, and drilled holes at 7" to bolt to my plate frame. Then welded a 1/4" coupler nut to the middle of the back of that bar. My trunk lid is fiberglass, and the stock lid has an indent that aligns the plate to the indented area. So since I needed the alignment, I took some 3/8" aluminum rod, and chucked it in my lathe and turned it down on both ends to 1/4" and threaded it. Slid a washer and seal on the trunk end, and Loctite on the plate end, and mounted the flat bracket to my plate. Then used a large fender washer inside the trunk lid, and a nylock 1/4" nut to secure it. Overkill, but that license plate isn't going anywhere now!

 

Too hot to work on the car today. But gauges I ordered got delivered.

 

Lubed the front end, fixed the horn, fixed a switch, checked the fluids, pulled the mufflers and went for a short drive.

 

Checked the fluids, charged the battery, and started the 56 up for the first time in a couple months. Been busy working on other junk but the local car show is tomorrow and I couldn’t get another car’s brakes fixed this evening. So...getting the 56 out to drive to the show to motivate me to do some work on it so I can take it on our reliability run in a couple weeks.

 

Loaded up the 64 Nova and hauled it to our new house in Prescott.

Washed it today, rubbed on it in all the appropriate places…
She wants to go topless at the show tomorrow to show off her stuff!

Got everything cleaned up, dumped 5 gallons of 110 in the tank, and now we’re ready to go first thing in the morning!

 

See you at the Skull Valley Car Show tomorrow. I will have the white '64 Sport Fury.

 

Tire was outside a touch at rear so I radiused rear fenders. I cut a line with 4" wheel 1" outside tire, bent 1/2" up with pliers (welded a glob on one arm 1/2" in so got a consistent depth, then finished with a hammer and dolly. I was worried about length changing as lip rolled up but no problem. No pics as I split inner fender at top to put in 1-1/4" band so it is vertical instead of narrowing towards top and need to finish before remounting tire.

 

Tiajuana auto body.

 

Does your "special spanner" look like the one on the right or the one on the left ? I have several different kinds
of these. All come with adhesive bandages and book of detailed instructions on the proper use of swear words for any occasion .

 

Between wife's multiple surgeries, trips to doctors, house and yard work, I haven't been in my garage in the last two months. Today, I had the chance to change out the water pumps on the flatty in my RPU. PROGRESS

 

Started the day with a flu shot ….. then attended the “Pageant of the Thunderbird” …. Baby Birds are the attraction but all Thunderbirds are welcome. They allow 55-57 Fords also..

 

Parked about 5 spaces down from Jimmy at Skull Valley Car Show

 

It was a hot one today! Coming home it was kinda dicey…

Really haven’t driven this very far, I’m no Squirrel when it comes to Blown Novas!

 

Drove the 56 to our local car show this morning, parked outside, and talked to tons of friends. They had a turnout of about 300 cars with 20 or so that interested me. Didn’t take one single pic at the show..