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

Love the whole car, Frank. Unbelievable job!!
Congratulations, and now enjoy it when ever you can.

 

he, he not quite there yet... I was so tired yesterday, I only went to get the insurance cards... that was the first day since July 5th that I did not even go into the shop. All I plan for today is cleaning up the two spare spring leaves so we can install them on Sunday.

I seem to have gone into "crash and rest mode".

I would like to go get something to stick under the fenders before it hits the road. The bias tires have deep tire grooves that pick up small stones easily, and my lot is gravel. I think I'm forced to use the Home Depot tar/foil stuff on a roll. It is 6 or so inches wide, and that's all I need if I center the strip in line with the centerline of the tires. Then paint the foil black I guess
.

 

Id say you have earned it. Must feel good after all this.

 

Now it's your turn to bust ass...where the heck is your 39 convertible?

Hey, I found some pics today while looking for something. Stay tuned for two different Fords, a 39 TRUE barn find conv that I passed on, and pics of the first beater 32 Ford I once owned.

I had no recollection that I took pics of the 32, but found two. You guys will crap when I give the price when I bought it, and then sold it for a few years later..

.

 

I DO have to get serious soon. I was in Vietnam for five weeks in the summer, and have been working on renos on the house we plan to move to since I got back, also been hauling shop equipment out there. Going to the Greater Vancouver Motorsports Pioneer annual induction ceremonies in about 20 minutes, so today is shot. Monroe swap Oct 8, making a turkey dinner on the 9th, and still need to get my finger brake moved in the next week or so.

 

Hey George, here is the only 39 convertible that was available around here 25 years ago. The guy who found it to flip, said 44,000 mile complete running car parked in the small barn, life got in the original owners way, and barn roof and rafters rotted away completely..........so it was really rusted out badly.

I have dash pics showing miles and the banjo wheel

I did not want to tackle it at that time. I don't recall price, but was not dirt cheap. I always liked 39 conv with it's shorter roof, compared to the 40...and the grille style...

 

Oh, and my only other 32 Ford project body:

No bull, I went to the big CSRA swap in 1979...saw this and it reminded me of what I wished I had back in high school. Nobody wanted it!...so I bought it for $200 from Belmont Speed.

EDIT: yes the doors are there in the body

I was already building my first major build on a 30 mopar roadster, so I soon knew I'd not get the 32 done as it was just a body with doors. Do you believe a couple years later, took it to a big rod swap and I could not get any takers for the $200 I'd accept? It did not sell, but a couple months later in mid winter a flipper calls up and said he'd take it for 200. Funny how things work out; I got to know him well, and then we always chatted at swaps together. When I could not find a matching heavy backspaced 56 Olds rear wheel for my present 32, I asked him at the next swap....he was the guy who hooked me up with the "Olds Farm"...and ended up with a lot of Olds stuff.

He also told me, that he quickly resold the 3w to a guy in south central Mass, who collected parts for 25 years, then retired and had the car pro-redone, and it's been on the road awhile.


Here is the first full fender rod I built back then from parts car pieces. I had most pieces except a rear body, then found one, so I made a resto rod ...geez...I don't like big stock lights anymore. I had just bought my used Miller 35S mig, and redid the missing wood with steel, outside. Still have my Miller, but sold the car in 1985 as I was too cold going to work in the AM..

This car was almost as bad as my current one was, but I did not have to build doors/roll-up windows, or a top, because I had the roadster top. took 2.5 years and had a full time job. Only farmed out the chrome, and about 1/2 of the sandblasting as my compressor was small.

ooops, forgot: It was 327, 4 speed, early Dart 8-3/4" posi. Stock beam axle, spindles modded for 4 piston early dart discs.

 

hey Frank you may not believe this but i remember a friend who said he "missed" out on that 32 body. he ended up buying a 33 5w chevy body at the terryville swop meet later that year.

 

I believe you. Funny that when I bought some cool trans adapters from Belmont (Billy) at the Fitchburg Airport drags a couple years ago, he did not recall owning it, or selling it. I mentioned that I had trouble selling it later for the 200....he says: "so, ...you complainin' NOW, or what? " he.he

Man, he has had so much cool stuff over the years, and still finds more.

.

 

2.5 days off, then son came to help with rear spring mid afternoon.

He spotted a crack on the center of one of the two mid-length leaves I was going to install:


So, we only put the longer of the two in. We used that old Ford spring lube which appears to be white lead with dark oil.

I previously had 3 very short spacer leaves on top of the pack, made from slightly thinner leaves. To make the centerbolt still reach with one more thicker leaf, we had to remove two of those thinner spacers. But that really did not add up to much as far as a "math loss of ride height"..maybe 3/16"

He then had a real hard time bouncing with all he had, to finally get it to hit the axle. So he drove it around the lot and yard, then he wanted me to try.

I went out on the road, then came back over the grass berm rather than the other driveway...pretty aggressively. It hit hard, due to ramp and speed.

Ride felt excellent as far as soft/hard, and shock rate , IMO

He did the road thing some more and never hit if "drive normal", not trying to make it hit.

Due to schedule, we will wait to get plates/drive it a lot on roads, then decide?

The car came back up, and I don't want it higher. Pic taken with a slight downgrade. But I think the rear looks good? and not to go higher?


Neighbors in their mid to late 70s were outside during the Dukes of Hazzard stunts, so they came over to see this car. They come to see all the antiques that my friends visit in, and ones I do for other people. He works still in upstate NY and thinks they have some packing for my lake header caps that have no gaskets. Cool

 

Got home from DMV with temps at 3;40 pm, got the car out and son showed up a 4.

Too tired to check fluids and I though this would be a very short shakedown ride. No tools, no spare, no nothing.

First time it's has 2 people for weight and he is 185 I guess. I took a left turn out the driveway crossing over oncoming lane, which rolled the body to the left, and heard that damn Rt axle whack the frame. then as I straightened out, there was a terrible growling, mixed up noise from Rt rear. Pulled over in rush hour traffic to collect our thoughts, then decided to keep going to a nearby side road to listen to it better,

I pulled over as it sounded like something came apart in Rt rear wheel. He was tugging the top of tire.,,no play. Then where I was by the tail of fender...it hit me... The friggen fender mounted taillight socket was hitting the agressive treads on the tire...whew... These fenders with the 41 chev lights came off a 50s built 3w, and never hit, because the old builds never re-centered the tire further back like today.

I was really down as wanted to do a test drive, but we decided to take another calm side road up ahead. All was fine if the body did not lean, but it still whacked the Rt rear. Son says "I'm lighter. lets switch seats". (the battery on right side is a very heavy "big truck" diesel one that makes having a passenger worse)

That helped the banging. We ended up way too far from home, farther than I planned on the first trial.

....

Too much motor, no traction:





^^ I am sitting in the passenger seat in these pics, and notice the lean, with that big battery.




^^^^We were way deep into the next town in those pics and had another, more serious issue starting...can you see it in the last pic?


Heading home, back in our town 4 miles to go yet...we had to detour to figure out the problem:

"My town, my car" pics for 33andathird (Ted) He likes these hometown car pics and has a thread going already.

^^^Train crossing sign/lights in the distance. Local rarely used park on the river.


^^^river bridge at the same spot, some guys were fishing...or drinking, or both



last one : (never thought to take a pic through windshield while driving


No, I did not make those burnouts. The kids in that town are raised a lot better than my college town. LOL

But when I was in 2nd gear a bit, I did sort of stuff it a bit and it breaks loose real easy.

Hey Olds guys...I may need some tips on my "issue". I will fill you in later when I rest up a bit

.

 

cool pictures Frank. i thought the burn out marks were your way of getting the tail light to stop rubbing by reducing the size of the tire.
is that a leak by the right front tire the start of the problem?

 

damn fine lookin car

 

Yes. I may need help figuring the cooling problem out. I'm just way too beat into the ground, after slamming all I had left, into meeting the deadline.

The kid rinsed it and put the car away later, as I'm too tired to start the inspection. It sat an hour and he said it made steam just getting it jockeyed into the work bay. Must be super low on coolant now

Here is what I know: This engine did boil over years back on cam break in. I shut it down, cooled off, then bumped the shit out of the initial timing, and the severe cam lope was gone, and it ran cool. The son drove it on one occasion, around our test track for a least an hour, with a SW mechanical gauge...never got higher than 180-ish, ever..

Today we were maybe six miles out, stopped once to see the rubbing, stopped once to switch drivers, both were idling stops. At 6 miles, some back road, some state roads with faster speeds, I saw drops on windshield. Got more as we went but the 70s Ford temp gauge was not pinned. Those never had temp numbers, just a normal "range between two lines.

We took all those pics still idling, then took off a few minutes later, and he said it's climbing.

pulling a moderate short hill, he upshifts to 3rd because it's HOT and starts skipping. I said drop to 2nd to get some fan. He wanted to pull over, so we headed to the park road. Started throwing more coolant out the cap, he killed the motor and coasted 1/4 mile to the park. It did not volcano after shutdown like I expected. Maybe because of coasting, motor off?

turned key on after sitting 3 minutes and gauge was buried(motor off)

Let it sit 10 minutes at park, then felt the rad core, it was only warm (that quickly), but I never felt way down low on core, so maybe coolant was super low by then, explaining why the rad was warm, not hot

Took off for home 3 or 4 miles away, ......50 feet from driveway. volcano eruption at full boil in block.

Fan felt like it was pulling good at idle at the park. Shortened Olds 4 blade, and I did contour the ends like stock tips.


No clue on timing it. Keep going till it complains?

Antifreeze mix was maybe was 60 water 40 antifreeze. No thermostat(was on to do list, had not gotten to it)

Runs wicked strong, lots of brute power in all rpm ranges

..

 

damn..
did you bleed all the air out?
I pull a bolt from both rear head water block off plates when filling the first time
to get rid of any trapped air..
is the block clean inside?..
tolerances not too tight?..
not too lean or early?
got all the right plugs in the deck?

 

Really nice shot

 

[QUOTE="Paul, did you bleed all the air out?
I pull a bolt from both rear head water block off plates when filling the first time to get rid of any trapped air..
Yes, I think it was bled fine. I have a T screw heater shutoff at the back of head on pass side. Had a tiny leak there last week, not enough that I even thought to heck the level since . No fuss getting the heater to flow great, when I installed it



is the block clean inside?..Yes

tolerances not too tight?..Never had the 30 over pistons out, they looked new from decades ago, when the donor car got hit. Crank is OK on specs


not too lean or early?Carbs are twin Roch AA backdrafts, with I assume stock 303 jets, running together, not progressive. Edmunds Intake. I will pull some plugs, but that may be deceptive with the overheat.

Initial timing was likely set at 8 BTDC before break in. Had a very heavy cam lope, then overheated 5-8 minutes in, then I reset by just yanking the dist until it smoothed up decent. Lope gone, heat was gone, then finished the break in.


got all the right plugs in the deck? I'm lost on the question, I'm beat


Just recalled that THIS radiator is NOT the one that was in during break in, and those long yard drives. It is another identical 32 four cylinder stock one that I got from the 32 in the junkyard. You can't see the inner tubes with a baffle in there. I don't recall if that 32 had radiator hoses, so maybe I will look for signs of mice nests/nuts?

Tomorrow's another day....

.

 

Thanks, more to come in the weeks ahead I suppose. I grew up in eastern CT and have always been mostly within 30 miles from birthplace. We get used to the views, and there are some good ones in all the local towns.

 

Frank, I would think that there needs to be some restriction in there to slow the flow down long enough to cool the hot water. I had a sbc do this in Fl years ago. We ended up using a block off plate with a hole drilled in it in place of a thermostat. Fiddled around with it a bit to get the right size hole. Much hotter temps down there though but it resolved the issue.
Your car is just beautiful! You should be very happy with it. Great pics. Keep them coming.

 

I will pull the hose or thermostat housing off to see, but I doubt I put one in. One will be installed then. That's the first plan, then go from there..

 

Can you post a pic of the coupe rear view here? Your Dad moved the same lights way inboard? Now I know why maybe?

.

 

as of late yesterday, I cancelled any plans for that show on the 8th. I need to focus on getting the car final registration.

I worked a bit today and there was no T-stat, so I found a new 180 and put it in. Drilled a air bleed hole in new stat. Then I fixed the skinned taillight wires and even though they were shorted to the socket, the lights still work now, no bad fuses.

Not feeling well enough to do spring work, but located what must be a 40 front main and second one that wraps around the eyes of the main leaf. These are shorter than what the car has in rear. I have no clue what my rear spring came from, I never had a rear later than 35 and that's not it.

So, I have a 19, 23, and 30" leaf that was once on my current rear spring, and I could re-arch the 40 fronts if I wanted a longer one.

So, I drove it outside late today to test the overheat. It looked OK at first, but I did a couple shutdowns to get the block water hotter, and was feeling the core when off, etc. It started looking bad, and did boil hard. (20 minutes into test)

Common sense is not applying here. I had a high quality mechanical temp probe in the top tank. Before it boiled hard, I could not get the top tank water over 165. I wrapped a dry rag around the long probe shaft because the ford radiator baffle won't allow it to go very deep, so I tried to keep the probe from cooling off on a cold day.

after it puked, with the mini geyser flowing past the probe, then the probe gauge shot way, way up but I did not get a reading as it doesn't matter then.

Rad core felt equal heat from backside, can't get to the front face. The air flow seemed OK, it is a 17" Olds cutdown.

Here's the thing, this boiled hard during cam break-in years ago. I then bumped the timing a lot and it then was Ok. But that was the old 32 radiator I think. I am starting to wonder if I ever lot drove the heck out of the car with the present 32 radiator....or if I ever drove it a lot with the cam swap. I will go through the thread to find out if possible

But if rad is plugged, why equal heat on core and why low temps inside top tank (above baffle).

I should have kept it revved up as soon as t-stat opened, to see if water was backing up in top tank, hinting to a plugged radiator. I suppose I should try that tomorrow, (I did that test but it was already super heated, and it did back up, but that could be that the block water was boiling/expanding rapidly

.bummed as usual..

I may drill a hole in that damn baffle to get a better probe reading.,

 

no problem with tire clearance.

 

Frank....

I tip my hat to you my man! I've been to your shop and saw the car first hand, although it wasn't finished but wearing it's blue paint.... What an amazing job you did, that car is the cats ass, the bees knees and best of all a true hand built hot rod. It's difficult sometimes to explain to people exactly how much work goes into building or resurrecting a vintage car, most folks have no idea what it takes or the dedication involved. You nailed it!

The car is so right.... Sa right.

Again, I tip my hat to you. Awesome job.

Pete-

 

But I can't use my car! It's got a problem..

 

We all have problems.... You'll work them out.

 

^^^^ what Pete just said...For all you guys that never met guys from Boston or NYC, etc.... that IS the attitude they throw right out at you.


anyways, I just scanned many pages of my thread, looking for info. It seems all the yard driving was done before I found the other 32 radiator, and looks like I did not drive it much at all, if any, with the 2nd radiator.

But I still don't recall : --that there were some posts about air bubbles showing in the old rad, and something about me air testing cylinders, etc. I sit here trying real hard to recall how long of the test rides around here were, and if it was definitely cured of heating then. I need to think in the AM when I think best.

I may put the SW mechanical temp gauge back in the front of intake, as I just put a plug there earlier when I used a smaller port for the Ford sender. Would that tell much...IDK. I'm not convinced it is a problem with the 2nd radiator quite yet. I don't want to start random quessing, major changes just yet.

 

Frank, have you done a compression test?

 

No idea if I ever did. It is not skipping. It did skip on test ride at one moment, but may have been plug wires wet with coolant

I'm puzzed by reading my old posts on bubbles in rad, and me doing air pressure tests in cylinders. I don't recall that. (2012) I recall a bit on the bubbles, but little else

 

You know what I'm thinking, right?