Hot Rods Bringing my 39 back to life

So I haven't started a thread before and figured I'd go ahead and do one on bringing my 39 back out of its slumber. I bought this 39 standard Tudor last spring and had it stored till I could get it in the garage. The story I got with it was that it had been somewhat hot rodded in 61 or 62 and driven sparingly until 78' or 79' and I was the 4th owner. The 3rd owner had only had it for few months and had wanted to make it into some type of prostreet abortion. Luckily the Camaro subframe he bought for the front looked like to much work for him and decided he wanted a Nova instead.

Luckily he had not done anything to the car other than rip the original door panels off and throw them away. Other than that it was basically untouched since the late 70's and had always been inside.

If the story is correct, then it got a 1960 283 swapped into it with a Hurst adapter to the original 3 speed and some home brewed side mounts. When the flathead was swapped out the guy that did it must have been a plumber because it has the craziest exhaust I have ever seen. They took the rams horn manifolds and welded the outlets closed then proceeded to weld theaded pipe right into the side of the manifolds and the rest of the exhaust screws together with threaded pipe!!! Once it makes it under the car it turns into threaded aluminum pipe with mufflers clamped to it and aluminum tail pipes that run all the way out under the rear bumper.

I pulled the valve covers on the 283 and was blown away at how clean it looked. So I proceeded to pull the intake same deal! It looked almost as clean as a new Gm crate motor. So because of how clean it looks inside I decided to see if I can get it running before I Yank it out and start with the real build. I'll update as I go but I hope to have it fired up buy next week.

 

The above pics of the motor are after some clean up running an oil pump primer to get oil up to everything. Here is a pic of the motor right after I pulled the valve cover and intake.

 

Since I need to get all the old nasty oil out I need to drain the pan. But I knew that the oil wouldn't exactly flow right out so I pulled out my hot plate to warm up the oil in the pan to help it drain.
Ten bucks at the dollar store and well worth it. This really helps get the nasty old oil out. So i set this under the oil pan on high to heat up the oil while i went on yanking out the old radiator, pulling plugs and cleaning up the wiring mess.

 

After getting the oil all out and clearing everything out of the way I cleaner up all the gasket areas and poured 5 quarts of oil down in the valley and hit it with the oil pump primer. To my astonishment...it had 80 psi on the oil pressure gauge! Primed the motor and turned it half way over. Then primer again and started turning but it stopped. After some checking I found a stuck exhaust valve so I back that rocker off and was able to turn it over. I got some Atf into all the cylinders and cranked it around some more. Moves nice and smooth now. Gotta get the valve unstuck this week and the see if I can get it to fire. Already have my intake of choice for it so I need to get this thing running! And I wanna see how this wacky exhaust sounds!

 

I think tri power is needed

 

I'm looking forward to see how this one turns out. Nice ride!!

 

Once I get this thing running I'll be poping the motor out to replace the front crossmember. I already have two nice ones to chose from. This one is butchered up pretty good.

 

Cool project - do not throw "custom" exhaust away - be a great conversation piece for years to come

 

That exhaust is so bizarre....

 

Going to be a cool ride good luck with your build.

 

I kind wish I could keep the crazy exhaust on it. But it is just to much of a rig for me. Not to mention I'd have to take tge front fender off to take the manifold out!

 

She will be a blast once it makes back on the street.

 

Nice car...
Nice save.
Ready for summer cruzin.......

 

The brackets that go from the front side of the front cross member to the frame horns are butchered up real bad on both sides from someone putting some kind of GM radiator in it. The cross members that I have, do not have the same brackets on them for mounting the radiator. Anybody know what years are the same for those brackets? I'm gonna have to swap them out or fab up some to get the radiator to mount properly.

 

Kool car and story. I think the exhaust is to cool to lose. If it doesn't leak and your not going with new paint, maybe want to try saving it. But I just like things that are a little different, than what everyone else is doing. This is one of those cars that the less changes the better. { my opinion } It's main cool factor is, that it's a survivor car since the early 60s. I'm glad you saved her from the butcher shop! The main thing is that you don't let me, or anyone else tell What to do . Its your Rod, to do your way. She looks like so much FUN as a daily driver, and a road trip Rod for the whole family. And keep us posted. thanks Ron...

 

Ron, I'm considering keeping the weirdo exhaust just because its so wacky. I will have to rework some of it if it stays. The way the pipes run on it, the pipes rub the rear tires as it goes back in from under the running boards and over the axle. It is crazy looking and clears the steering perfectly! I've already got all the parts to do the brakes and a new clutch and such to get it driving again. I am planning on leaving it the way it is on the outside for a bit, aside form some floor repairs it is very very rust free. Doesn't even need work on the tail pan, but it will eventually get a full build. for now I just want to get it driving around town and see how it does.

 

That exhaust must stay. It's a new trend setter.

 

So Jason, you are going to get her running and drive her around awhile? I hope.Bruce.

 

That is the plan. If I can get it running good enough to use this motor I will. otherwise I already have a 57 283 with a 30 30 cam available to me to swap into it. The only major surgery that I will do I replace the front crossmember as there is not much left of it on the pass side, curtosey of someones liberal use of a torch for clearance of the fuel pump and lower radiator hose. Ill check out the trans and the banjo and off I go for the summer in this one.

 

That is such a cool car! And that exhaust needs to be saved to the future!
So odd it's cool.

You might need two of these

 

I was looking at something like that in McMaster Carr. If I do keep it ill use something like that and then tie it into regular pipes bent up under the car then tie it back into the aluminum tail pipes.

 

Watching with great interest...............and yes that exhaust is well........wacky. I'm like you, Jason, I think the previous owner had some plumbing background. Truthfully though, that is the essence of hot-rodding, using what material you have at hand and what ever skills you might have to accomplish the task.

 

they did a pretty decent job of it with they wacky pipes. You can see that each pipe was cut and then run on a pipe threading machine to make it all screw together. Only the mufflers have clamps on them, and those will have to go, the mufflers are about 3 1/2 feet long and look like there probably rotted out. but the tailpipes actually look pretty cool, being almost 1/4 inch think aluminum.

 

I try to not reply to every post, that I would like too. But I got the best laugh from your picture of the pipe couplings. I needed that today. And yes you may need them. Thanks Ron... I was told that they are unions not couplings.lol

 

That exhaust brings back some old memories. 1968 working at a Standard station, old guy, probably in his 50's comes in with a 67 Dodge Coronet, 383, chrome reverse wheels and exhaust dumps. The dumps were water pipe welded to the stock exhaust with screw on end caps.

 

That was actually a pretty popular way of creating exhaust "dumps" back in the day!
KK

 

Great car.

 

Cool car. Glad to see more of these showing up. Motivates me to get to work on mine.

 

Sorry man, you know I'm a fan and all, but the only reason to keep the exhaust is to hang it on your "wall of shame". All this survivor talk is horse shit. I've said it before, just because it was done back in the day doesn't give it a pass to kool or worthy. Once around the block maybe then do it right. I'm sure you will, just sayin...

 

Oh I agree, its neat and quirky for now. I'll may leave it in place while it is still in beater status, if it can be made to work properly with minimal effort, but once it get totally blown apart for a full build it will not stay. Its neat and all, and I do dig it but not for a nice finished car. People will no doubt give me crap when I start sanding off all the original paint as well. Yeah its original paint but its beat ad chipped and scratched to death. It will suit just fine for a beater but not for my end goal with this car.