Hot Rods Teenage Hot Rodder's Cheap Tricks in the 60's

Thanks for your comments Brad. Keep stirring the pot with posts. Every post seems to bring some memory to
the top of our fading "geezer" brains. Love the '57 "Poncho" in your avitar!

 

Draw pulls always looked lame to me. We were more interested in go fast improvements then looks.

 

Hey BR,
Those tri-carb set ups always played tricks on their owners. (348 with automatic transmissions had Powerglides, not turbo hydros) The vacuum hoses kicked in the two outside carbs. If so much pressure is put on the pedal, the vacuum takes over and kicks in the outside two carbs. Your friend's aftermarket air cleaner must have been strange looking and very low. When we raced, we took off that huge three hole stock air cleaner. After the incident (below) with hose coming off, a clamp did the trick for the rest of the days of racing.

Jnaki
If running a progressive mechanical linkage, there is a stop when using the center carb and then the outside two carbs kick in when needed. The mechanical linkage was not as street user friendly for us and was used a few weeks. The stock vacuum hose kit that was from the factory was the easiest to use for every day driving and the Friday night races. (it allowed more center carb usage before the outside ones kicked in for better gas mileage and daily driving) The mechanical linkage went on another "strickly' drag race motor of one of our friends.



from another sleeper thread:

 

Not really a teen-agers trick, but with some creative fabricating and welding on the intake and exhaust manifolds, an old V-8 could become a 4 cylinder air compressor. I remember at least two in operation in shops in north-central Missouri in the early 1950's.

Jon.

 

Yeah I actually saw one of those long ago. It was made from a Ford flathead V8

 

No idea what "Draw pulls" might be/mean. Maybe a local "Crotch-ism" huh?

 

They are a liked or disliked period feature on Customs and Custom/Hotrod Hybrids as some in the case of this wild ride the Kosmic Outcast represent, complete with a drawer pull decorated grille...This is a showcar but in the case of showcars many can actually perform as well as they look...You asked and I deliver. I am okay with them. To me it is a shape, garnish and visual feature. As with the Hotrod/Custom there are many classes of description and what they represent.



http://route66pubco.com/2014/03/01/kosmic-outcast-indiannapolis-bound/

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Oh..."Drawer" pull handles!

 

This is interesting and was an engine designed by Taylor for industrial and military use.

 

In 1966 I Bought a 55 Buick Special 4 door hardtop off a car lot in Seattle with fender that had been In sliced right down the top going under a truck. Drove it back to my dads and looked it over and cruised around that night, On the way back though Renton the engine didn't sound right and I parked it beside the street and walked the three miles to dad's apartment. Next morning we went down to get it and Dad decide to drive it up the hill and back to his place. Half way up the hill the car lifted up about six inches and a big cloud of smoke came out from under it. We towed it home after pulling the intake and valley cover and seeing pieces of rod and broken cam shaft figured that it was dead. Dad and his GF went on vacation and I stayed at her house and walked to work that week. Middle of the week I met a guy in a music shop that had a 55 Buick Super Sedan that he said ran great and he wanted 65.00 for it. When dad got home we went and looked at and I bought it and drove it back to my dad's. Next morning we pulled the engine out of the Special and stuck it in the trunk of the Super and turned it around and pulled it's engine and stuck it in the Special. Car ended up being pretty damned fast and I won more than a few street races with it.
After I got it all together I decided I needed some better looking wheels so I went to B& B auto parts and bought a set of beauty rings and a can of silver paint. Painted the wheels and popped on the rings and then went back and bought a redline tire crayon and made my own redline tires.

 

In '58 Chevrolet also offered the "Turboglide" transmission. I assume that was what was originally being referred to.




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You're right Emery. I assumed the '58 Impala in my story had the Turbo because it up-shifted 2 times (as best
as I can remember). It seems like every "Powerglide" I had only shifted once. Memories are vague though.

 

Other interesting (?) pic's...

 

You're right Jon! "Bucrons" were the only way to go in the stock classes "back in the day".

 

Everytime I see a 58-9-60 Stock Chev Automatic I look in to see if it says "Gr" below the Dr which meant is was a turbo-glide car and I have found a few.

 

If you purchased a engine from a turbo glide equipped auto and was installing a straight shift trans. You would need a special bushing for the end of the crank. As the machine work was quite large for a stock pilot bushing to fit. Another no cast item . Use a 1 gallon thinner can. Cut out the end that has the cap and cut a circle the size of your carb inlet then you had a what some thought a cool looking ram air scoop on your carb. Some used coffee cans for veliosity stacks for carbs most were AFBs . Last for looks many would cut a beer can and wrap it around the ign coil. Mine was Bud. Of yeah all the cans were steel during this time era.

 

People actually did the beer can thing? I thought i remembered seeing it a few times at shows as a kid but now that i have a car with the old type of coil, and a few steel beer cans i got for free, i want to try it if it was done back in the day

 

Yeah, mine had a Coors can over the coil. Since Coors wasn't available in my area at the time, it was considered a cool thing to do.

 

blackrat40, don't know what automatic transmission your talking about that shifted three times. Turboglides don't ever shift by design. They are like a Dynaflow. I've never seen a Turboglide in any car that could get out of its own way. They were pure garbage and lots were dealer swapped out for Powerglides.

 

Back in 1959 when I still was using the 37 Ford rear if I hit second to hard it would shear the axle keys in the hub . If I didn't have a spare key I would hammer a square bladed screw driver into keyway slot and drive it home . Broke a rear spring and would shove a wood block between frame and rear housing so it could be driven home .

 

I should have said it shifted twice, which would be a 3 speed. Actually Turboglides do shift. They are designed somewhat different than the automatics we are more accustomed to. They have 3 separate turbines, in the torque converter, that are on separate shafts. The shifting is accomplished by changing the vane angle on the stater to select which turbine will be driven. They do not shift by clamping and unclamping bands on planetary gear sets like most automatics do. My 1960 Chiltons repair manual has directions on pages 604-605 for adjusting the shift points for
late shifting or early shifting on '58-'60 Chevrolet Turboglide transmissions. That memory that I stated was from
56 years ago but I do remember it shifting. Where were you 56 years ago?

 

I sheared my share of axle keys on my 1st '40 after I put the Olds in it! That's why I went with a Firebird diff this time. The transmission is the weak link now. I recently found a '50 Olds 3 speed. Now I need to figure out fitting it in.

 

Back to those steel beer cans. One time when reworking a 50 chevy six {no insert bearings they had cast in babbit materal} we were unable to find material to use for shims to have proper clearance. So we used beer cans. For those who do not know you put the shim between the rod cap and the rod. The nice thing about those old chevys was you could change connecting rods and not remove the piston. very mechanic friendly. ................................. Next use kite string to hold gaskets in place when installing things like oil pans.................

 

Another Beer can trick... On 57 /58 Fords the hood opened from the rear. As thought by some you could get more air to the carb if the hood was raised. If you went over 30 the hood would close. The solution was to place a beer can on each side of the hood. After a few cans fell off at the local drag strip this speed trick was outlawed..........

 

Shim stock would be placed between the cap/rod and the bearings; the shim stock would not be against the crankshaft journal.. I can't imagine how pistons could be changed without pulling the rod/piston together, even though the pin is retained by a bolt on the pin end of the rod. If cylinders could be removed, like pancake VW's and Corvair's, I could understand it. Enlighten us please; I must be missing something. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Going to my new girlfriend's home for our first date, I blew a hole in the muffler of my '56 Chevy, about a half mile from her folk's house. I shut off the engine as I pulled into the driveway, but it was too late - her mother had heard the car on the street and told us she wasn't going to let her daughter leave in a "death trap".

My wife said I have an idea and led me out to her dad's barn (no, not the hay loft !) She found a #10 can, some wire and a pair of tin snips. I cut the end off the can and got under the car. I wrapped the can around the muffler to cover the hole and held it on with the tie wire. I started the car up and it was quiet enough to pass her mom's 'inspection' and off we went on our first date.

That was in 1964 and we were married in 1966 and looking forward to celebrating our 52nd anniversary and birth of our first great grandson in a couple of months and we're both still into old cars. It's been a great ride, so far !!

 

Maybe if you pulled the piston to the bottom of the cylinder(not so far that the rings came out) you could loosen the
wrist pin clamp bolt, slide the pin out and get the rod out past the crank. Weird, never tried,or thought of that! Kids!!

 

Seems like the crank would have to be dropped to do that (???). I don't buy it. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Yeah, I'm having a hard time trying to wrap my mind around that one...

 

Thanks for the photo of the '56 hardtop......that made my tongue stiff.... I had a '55 with the same three speed JC Whitney floor shifter. It had a 312 out of a '56 with a 3/4 race Melling cam. I bought my first 'Master Mechanics 345 piece Tool Kit' from JC Whitney. 150 of those pieces were hacksaw blades and I think I still have a half dozen of them. Everything was Husky brand and still use the deep well sockets routinely. We didn't know what metric was.
If you remember the FoMoCo plastic bag that hung on the inner fender for the windshield washer fluid?
We'd fill it with transmission fluid and pipe it into the base of the carb. The car would smoke like a worn out junk yard motor creating the impression that it was almost toast. Get a race and demonstrate otherwise.....HEY, what happened to all the smoke!!!!!! deceptive little bastards!!!!!