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Technical Does my 52 Ranch Wagon need tire tubes?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Sirtimtim, Oct 11, 2018.

  1. Awww, hell.........get it running and stopping. Check all fluids, grease it. Pack a tool bag with extra water and gas...Take back roads home. Live a little! Make it an adventure! I've done it countless times and never killed anybody.[yet].
    Don't forget your cell phone and credit card. Take photos and post the trip here on the HAMB.
     
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  2. Photos are evidence! Don't post anything on social media until you are safely home and have no cop rolling up behind you...
     
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  3. I agree with Rocky, drive it home, some of my best adventures have been doing stuff most people wouldn’t.


    Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
     
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  4. Realistically brakes will be more than bench-bleed a master and slap it on and go. Is it still 6-volts? Not much 12-volt will be a help if that's all you have. Fuel, you can feed it off a fuel can for 100 + miles with a refill standing by. Is the engine free or stuck? If they still rent tow bars, that is a good option. I owned a tow bar for years and everyone borrowed it at some point. Think someone still has it.... I moved many in-op cars with a tow bar and a regular car with a hitch.
     
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  5. How long do you plan on working on the car before you try to drive it home?

    Tires are a must, brakes are a must, what about the engine and transmission.

    I have a ranch wagon and there is no way to put 235 tires on the rear,

    Why not get hire a ramp truck to pick it up and deliver it to your house and save you the trouble of breaking down on the side of the road and calling one later.

    I would think it could be done for a couple hundred bucks. HRP
     
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  6. Cliff Ramsdell
    Joined: Dec 27, 2004
    Posts: 1,343

    Cliff Ramsdell
    Member

    Ray,
    You know what, I love this quote. I’m gonna use it here at work, it’s great.

    Thanks,
    Cliff Ramsdell
     
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  7. Cliff Ramsdell
    Joined: Dec 27, 2004
    Posts: 1,343

    Cliff Ramsdell
    Member

    Oh, and back to the subject. It’s a mixed bag of safety and not tearing up the car with safety first and foremost.

    We, as a collective, are considerably smarter than our former selves. As a youth I did some dumb ass stuff and with the exception of one motorcycle accident that could have turned to complete crap, I have been lucky.

    18 y.o. Cliff would have doctored it up and drove it home because there was no spare cash for a wrecker, trailer or such. 59 y.o. Cliff, well he has a bit more money than younger Cliff did and a lot more common sense.

    With that being said, I like an adventure but I wouldn’t want to tear up a good project to save a couple hundred bucks. Get a buddy with a truck, a uhaul trailer and bring everything and everyone home safe, fix it and enjoy it.

    Cliff Ramsdell
     
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  8. Dwardo
    Joined: Aug 1, 2017
    Posts: 71

    Dwardo

    I'm agnostic on whether you should drive it home or not (OK, maybe I would), but I can say that unless they are riveted, my experience is that they will work fine without tubes. Not specifically Ford experience, but when I got the 1954 Hudson Super Wasp, I soaked the wheels in paint stripper and pressure washed them until they were bare. The insides looked really good in my case. I painted them and put tubeless radials on. Never leaked, even when sitting in the garage for a really long time.
     
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  9. scrap metal 48
    Joined: Sep 6, 2009
    Posts: 6,079

    scrap metal 48
    Member

    It's funny.. Everybody is talking safety yet ignoring the safety beads on the rims.. Kind of like seat belts.. They are there for your safety, but you don't really need them...
     
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  10. Hnstray
    Joined: Aug 23, 2009
    Posts: 12,355

    Hnstray
    ALLIANCE MEMBER
    from Quincy, IL

    In my observation and experience, riveted wheels do not commonly leak air around the rivets. Probably somewhere, at sometime, that did occur, but tubeless tires were OEM on riveted wheels for years. Now, spoke wheels, like those chrome jobs used on Olds, Buick, Cadillac, T-Birds and several Mopars, they did leak because they were laced spokes with nipples through the wheel hoops and made no claims to being airtight. They did usually require rubber 'rim liners' to protect the tubes from being punctured by the spoke ends/nipples. Like our bicycles/motorcycles did for the same reason.

    Ray
     
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  11. Rusty O'Toole
    Joined: Sep 17, 2006
    Posts: 9,657

    Rusty O'Toole
    Member

    Just buy a cheap set of Ford wheels with decent tires off Craigslist or from a junk yard. I would look for a Ford Ranger pickup, rear wheel drive cars are getting scarce.

    To answer your original question, you can put the tubeless tires on the 1952 rims without tubes. If you want 1952 wheels with safety beads you can get them off a Dodge or Plymouth, and they will bolt on your car. Chrysler invented the safety rim and offered the patent to anyone who wanted to use it free of charge. No one took them up on it because it would have cost an extra few pennies per wheel. Chrysler didn't cheap out when it came to safety.

    Later.... another advantage to junkyard wheels and tires is you have something to roll the car around on, in the shop, and it doesn't matter if they get all shopworn, covered with overspray, grease, etc. When the car is done you can sandblast and paint the original wheels, put on new tires with or without tubes and discard the junkers.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2018
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  12. Sirtimtim
    Joined: Sep 1, 2011
    Posts: 15

    Sirtimtim
    Member
    from Sacramento

    I've been looking for some rollers on Craigslist also but I'm worried about buying wheels and they won't clear the rear wheel well or the suspension in front.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
     
  13. Boneyard51
    Joined: Dec 10, 2017
    Posts: 6,440

    Boneyard51
    Member

    Take your wheels off and take them to Walmart and have the a set of cheap tires put on. Check the air pressure when you pick them up. Work on your car the next day, check your air pressure again, any tire that’s down, take back and get it remounted. $200 or so, no problems, can drive your car while you are working on it for the next five years..... and it will be five years (lol). Then about the time you finish, buy a set of good tires and cruise.


    Bones
     
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  14. texasred
    Joined: Dec 3, 2008
    Posts: 1,202

    texasred
    Member
    from Houston

    It will take at least 2 trips there to get it in driving shape, can the parts you will need be found where the car is now? tow it in one trip it's home safe or you could piss on the electric fence the choice is yours..o_O
     
  15. I see a bolt in tubeless tire stem. No disrespect meant, but if what I see is what it looks like and YOU did not see it, I rescind my advice.

    Ben
     
  16. southcross2631
    Joined: Jan 20, 2013
    Posts: 4,413

    southcross2631
    Member

    Getting it down a steep driveway is no problem. Take your tow vehicle and chain your Ranch wagon to the back of it and ease it down the driveway. That's the way we got my old Morris Minor down a driveway so steep that you could barely walk up it. Didn't have any brakes on the Morris.
    Once at the bottom load it on the trailer and cruise on home.
    I bought a 53 Ranch Wagon that had set for 10 years. Packed the wheel bearings ,checked the brakes,
    put point plugs and condenser. Changed the battery and the oil . Drove it from Tn to Fl and it only used 11 quarts of oil.
     
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  17. F-ONE
    Joined: Mar 27, 2008
    Posts: 3,271

    F-ONE
    Member
    from Alabama

    It's foolish to try and drive that car home.

    Tires are the least of your worry. If you are lucky , your looking at about $1500 to$ 2000 to get that car in drivable condition.
    Gas Tank...Fuel lines.....Drums...Shoes...Master Cylinder...Wheel Cylinders....Tune up....wheel bearings.....axle seals.....rubber brake hose....metal brake lines......parking brake linkage.....wiring....battery.....lights....bulbs.....all the fluids....water pumps.....cooling system check.....what about problems?......Carburetor kit.....Carburetor......Shift linkage.....Plugs ..points.... wiring...switches....What about the clutch.......If it's an auto?????what about trans fluid....and going through all that?....

    In Ca I suspect it's against the law to drive a car without the inspection.....In Alabama it would have to be tagged and insured....

    For a 2 hour trip. It has to be in top condition.....Period!

    How the heck are you going to do all that laying in someone's yard 2 hrs away?
    Think of the homeowner. Do you think they want that wagon torn into a million pieces for 6 months as you prepare for this?
    What if you or your son looses interest? Then those people have to clean up the mess.
    It's inconsiderate to put someone in that position even if it is a family member....even your mother or especially your mother and father or uncle or grandmother .........

    From your postings, you don't have the skill or equipment to get it yourself.

    This stuff can kill you, if mistakes are made and accidents happen. I'm just talking about moving it....much less driving it. Loose it on the drive way....it runs over someone.....causes a wreck in the road....runs over a kid playing in their own yard.....goes into the side of someone's home and creams them on their couch.

    The risks are too great.

    Call a tow company.

    If you cant afford to get it home properly....How can you afford to fix it?
     
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  18. Sirtimtim
    Joined: Sep 1, 2011
    Posts: 15

    Sirtimtim
    Member
    from Sacramento

    So I went to my grandma's house about a week ago. The 2 hr drive there took 4 hours. My truck started sputtering about 2 hrs into the trip, I can't believe it made it home. I think it's a vaccuum leak.

    Once I got there I set up all my tools and honestly just stared at the car. Thought of all the work ahead and how I wanted it to end up. A very long and expensive and time consuming process. I still want to try though. Knowing I only had a day to gather things I wanted to take home. I took the four wheels and tires. The carb and another carb I found in my grandfathers toolbox. The carb on the car now is a holley and the one I found says ford. I believe both 94s but I am not sure.

    Next time I get down there I hope to have the wheels cleaned up and painted with some decent tires on them. I'd like to get the brakes working so we can roll it on to the street (The driveway is really crazy). I found one tube in all four wheels but the only tire that held air had no tube.

    Should I paint the inside of the rim?

    So with Buck Owens on the speaker I started sanding the face of one wheel. I'm hoping I can work on them after work every day for the next couple days and get them ready for tires.


    20181023_180024.jpeg 20181023_180001.jpeg 20181031_121101.jpeg 20181031_140048.jpeg

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  19. clem
    Joined: Dec 20, 2006
    Posts: 4,188

    clem
    Member

    Best advice right here, although it appears that you are not taking it.
    Yes you should paint the inside of the rims also.
    I always run a tube in old rims, - just my way, - as most old rims over here don’t seem to hold air, although there are alternatives now such as tyre sealer.
    That is a Holley 94 type carb, should have a number on it. Could be a larger carb, like 1&1/16, but most likely a 94, - Ford made his own version I believe.
     
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  20. jimmy959
    Joined: Oct 16, 2011
    Posts: 139

    jimmy959
    Member

    What F-One said…..

    You’re in California.

    If you put that car on public roads without current tags, some time during that 2-hour journey, you're gonna catch the eye of the CHP, and you’re gonna get pulled over and impounded. To get it out of impound, you’re gonna need to get it inspected. To inspect, repair and pay the ticket and impound fees will run well into four figures. (This is over and above the hazards of driving a vehicle in that condition, not only to you, but to others on the road with you.)

    And you have AAA.

    Tow it.
     
    Last edited: Nov 2, 2018
  21. leon bee
    Joined: Mar 15, 2017
    Posts: 798

    leon bee
    Member

    I can't remember if anyone mentioned this, but if you do drive that thing, do it when all the stores are open.
     
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  22. X-cpe
    Joined: Mar 9, 2018
    Posts: 1,958

    X-cpe

    To me that's the biggest downer. In the end the amount of time spent on the road is wasted time. If you can only go for day trips to work on it, you'll be on the road for almost as much time as you work on it. Plus, you HAVE to spend time visiting with grandma. At home, if Murphy shows up, you can stop, clean-up for the day and order what you need. Then you can knock out something around the house to make mama happy, instead of being worn out and frustrated from not getting anything done and the long drive for nothing.

    That said, I realize there may be legitimate reasons why you need to work on it where it is.
     
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  23. Sirtimtim
    Joined: Sep 1, 2011
    Posts: 15

    Sirtimtim
    Member
    from Sacramento

    It usually doesn't take that long. Just so happens the one day I decide to go had a bunch of accidents on the highway.

    I understand my goals are hard to grasp. Patience hopefully helps me through this. I really trying to change how I approach projects. I'm really taking my time. This was never intended to be a one trip deal. I appreciate everyone's input.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
     
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