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

Dave; I am using the stock 55 generator. The Edmunds has the 2 power steering mounting towers on the drivers front. I cut the taller one down to make it level, then cut/spliced the stock steel bracket to bolt it on. All set, thanks for the offer.

Got the carbs and linkage on tonight, fabbed the dist vac steel line, then found out I don't have a good dist rotor. So I will look at the 53 motor in the 40, to see if it is the same as the 49/50 dist I am using.

It should be running, or at least blowing fire out of the lakes by noon I will make a rotor if I have to, i'm that close to run.

 

Ok Frank thats great! I just ran into that dilema and was like HMMM Sounds good if you need a rotor let me know! I have 1 from mine to bail you out

 

Well, the 53 303 rotor won't fit, and I found out that the dist cap was wrong. So I found a tall rotor with the top contact broken off/missing, and the aligning tang would not reach the Olds dist.

I soldered a donor center contact on it, then drilled a hole through the side for a machine screw to fit the notch in the dist shaft. Then ground the dist cap to fit better.

Did all the normal point cleaning, pre-oiling cylinders, spun it over without plugs and heard the oil pressure slow it down a bit.

I put the plugs back in, hot wired the coil, and was just filling the one gallon gas can when my son showed up. I told him how to stuff rags on the carbs in case it caught on fire

He gave the linkage a few squirts, and I jumped the solenoid...and it started right up and sat there idling like silk.... holy ------g shit.. I was stunned, because I thought we would have to fight the heck out of those carbs to get things dialed it to be able to idle at all...

I pulled the wire off, so I could jump up and down like a kid at Christmas.

A few minutes later we tried a restart and never touched the linkage. It rolled a half turn, fired up and went to a perfect idle again. I only set timing by watching the points open..I'm not kidding.

So right as it started, my hot rod bud walked in, so I started racing it up, shaking stuff off the cowl as it rocked and reeled

After shutdown, I soon saw that I had put a valve cover on upside down..

I'm so stoked ... I love these Olds Rockets

 

It's alive!!! Congratulations!

 

Thats awesome Frank glad it made your day!

 

I went shopping for radiator hoses...well, the lower one was close enough to work. I will get the other one exchanged in the morning.

i am using a stock 32 4 cyl radiator which has the inlet and outlet in the right places for an early Olds. The rad looks mint, but i never tested it with water. I also hope the block/heads will pass the water test.

FAN? what are you guys using for a mech fan? I was thinking about trimming a stock one, unless there is a better way?

Started it a few more times, and I also bought 2 packs of coarse steel wool to quiet down the lake headers...it works great. Very quiet at idle, and feeling the exhaust flow, it seems fine.

 

Any ideas on a smaller that stock fan blade for the Olds? Cutting a stock one down?..Then if cut, I assume i'd have to put the bent curves on the tips to have it run quiet?

I am hooking up the hoses,pump and radiator today, and I need to come up with a fan by Sunday to be able to run it longer to see how the motor does. Thanks

 

Nice project, making great progress..thanks for sharing.

 

cool! Frank you must be one lucky guy.
'having fun watching this one come together

 

Dave called today right as I got back with the new upper rad hose. I was telling him I was about to trim a stock fan and then re-bend the tips, or just section them/reweld, so I did not have to bend the tips. He did not like that idea

So, I just cut the spare fan that had a smashed end tip. I did not try to bend new flares yet...and later I found out Dave has the perfect Jeep donor fan. Cool.

I soldered a tailpipe adapter into the top rad inlet,,,I think it looks OK. Hose fits sort of OK, not perfect,but.. Lower hose fits OK too.

Ran it for at least 45 minutes non-stop late today. I had a few water leaks, but tightened things and it's fine. Radiator face seems equal heat all over, not plugged, no leaks in rad.

I've been hearing light puh,puh noises out of the exhaust, and with the steel wool packs, I could hear sparks jumping. The dist cap that came with the chromed distributor is actually chromed! not painted... The sparks were jumping down each plug wire tower, down the chromed sides of the cap. The Dist, cap, chromed spark plug covers and timing cover came from a never finished show motor in Cal...from the 50s I guess. Even the stock 4 barrel intake was plated! Nobody bid on that So they must have found a shop to plate the dist cap. Tried to get a pic of the sparking, but does not show. looked like Frankenstien movie..

Plenty of oil pressure getting to the timing chain. I don't have the fuel pump on yet, just a rag stuck in there. Getting a bit messy.

Motor is running in all the pics...no smoke out the breather or draft tube hole. No water in oil yet. Not running hot. No problems so far.

Almost forgot: After 45 min run time; the fenders and cowl side near the lake headers were not hot...barely warm. But that's at low idle speeds. A hamber did reply earlier that his paint does ok driving with wind cooling, but his gets soft paint idling in stopped traffic. So, does this mean I might be ok....I hope so. I want finished paint, not primer.

I did discolor the steel wool, and partly blew it back out when I was sitting in the car, goosing it Time to put a clutch in it and make a driveshaft, mount the slave and get a brake working..

I'll detail the motor better when it's out, and get some more old style hose clamps, etc, ..and a new cap and rotor.

 

Sunday was a slow day. The water test is looking good with just a minor leak at the thermostat gasket overnight.

We have a wicked cold snap here, so I can't tie up the work bay with the engine crane to pull the motor out, in case I get emergency work.

So, I mocked up a roof color for when I get a vinyl roof skin made up. WHITE is what I will use. Black would be better for a street rod look.

Pic also shows my new repro smoothie 40/48 Ford stainless steel center hubcaps with the old full stainless trim rings. Tried to show the rear tire tucked under for Dave50, as this is the same early Olds 60" width rear end.




Next post will be some inspiration pics for HammeredT... he thinks his real 32 cabriolet was a tad bit rough...

 

Congrats on the heartbeat Frank. Glad to hear she's running strong. Won't be too much longer till you're eating up the miles.

 

Eating?...

I am having a lunch for once... I just finished making a jig to hold the stock headlight bar. I will use this today to try to drop the bar. It has all 4 holes, and the angles, and whatnot, to use as a checking jig, as I try the drop.

Theory... yea right

This could go real wrong. Not kidding.

 

'eating up the miles'... tell me they have that saying south of the border!

 

Today I did the headlight bar drop. I will do multiple posts to keep the pics in order.

I spent 3 minutes during lunch, to look at a very old rod pic on google to see where to start the inner and outer bends. I do know that if you go too tight out near the flanges, you will never be able to get the special bent-head bolts through the bar,fender, and fender brace. This is critical. Also, I tried to guess the total old style drop because I think if you go too low, you will lose your width?

First thing was to make a jig on a big heavy plate that I weld stuff to, for bending square tubing, etc. The jig will have 4 plates with a hole, for each of the 4 headlight bar bolts.

The jig lets you know where it all should line up, after you bend the bar: Width, bolt alignment, angle of the mounting flanges, and if you mark the location of the light "cones", you can know how much final drop was.

first 2 pics show the jig being made/welded with the stock bar.

3rd pic shows that I bent BOTH outer bends first...that was a quick decision, and I am glad I did that, so that I could have some way to try to keep both sides the same.

4th pics shows heating the inner bends. This is where you just need to guess on how much bend you think you need, to get it to fit the jig.

I was real worried before I started this project, as at some point of drop, if you go too much, you would need to stretch the bar back to the correct width. That would be a bitch to do.

Last 2 pics show how close I got it on the first try. The width is perfect, but both flanges are at the wrong angles....

Will finish in the next post in a minute..

 

First two pics show how good the unbolted fit got, by just a quick heat/bend on each inner bend. It will be easy to get it close in one or 2 tries.

But, as the next two pics show, that if you bolt one side up to perfectly line up the holes, the flange is twisted slightly, which makes the other end stick up. Just keep one side bolted and heat up the inner bend on that side, while pushing down on the other end. Easy. Then unbolt that side and bolt up the other side for the same heat/bend.

Then, after both sides are close enough to get all 4 bolts started and fairly tight, you need to "normalize" the bends to take all the stress out. Once you do that correctly by heating BOTH sides at the same time, the bar should not move when you take all four bolts out, after cooling.


By the way, the marks on the jig shows that the drop was exactly 3", right on the line. I did not plan for any predetermined amount, it just went to that. I was surprised both sides were equal drop to within 1/32"...if you make stuff, you know what I mean by surprised.


...and some pics of what it looks like with BLC 682J lights. Not sure if these look too big? or should I go with smaller ones like King Bees???

 

Frank, I KNOW my cabrio is rough. It will come around though.

I think the healights look great. I think any smaller would be too small. It has a nice early look- not slick or street roddy. Just classic.

 

Ok "T", here are some pics for you.....



"Stella, get your ass to the liquor store and git me another F'n 12 pack, I need to git these doors to close right.."


...and yes, that is a Pinto front end... Sad to say all the damage and channel was done in modern times

 

2 more rear tire pics for Dave50


56 Olds 15" rear wheel

Front wheels are 40 ford centers with VW 53-65 bug hoops, 15"

 

Frank your doing a awesome job its looking gooooooood....Thanks for the pics they are helping alot. Is that what you started with??

 

hate to admit it, but... yes.

That's why it's been such a long build..or rebuild.

 

Are you serious holy shit thats a awesome job man very nice job idk what to say i am speechless lots of work i can see

 

Dave, I am getting it ready to pull the motor out tomorrow. One thing I did was to pull a valve cover to see how the oiling looked after running it for 45 minutes a few days ago. This motor "oils" the valves good; there is a puddle of oil hanging on each valve retainer. I don't know why some early Olds don't? Your Olds was iffy?

I will finish putting a driveshaft together in the AM. I'm cutting one that came from Teds' early Olds collection of parts he last ran in the 37 Chev coupe, back in 1962. This one has an old tag that reads "37, Olds-to-Olds" . He ran several types of trans, and a 50 Olds was one of them.


It's ending up at 36" from U joint centers.


the car is jacked up and I am set to get busy. I did start it once more today to keep me stoked. F me, this thing starts right up and drops to 700rpm like summer...despite the arcing on the chromed dist cap

 

awesome!

 

Its all coming together good frank I am stoked too My car had good oiling it seemed at first but latley i am hearing alot of noise coming from the rockers on the right side but havent had time to look at it. The motor skips to so i need to look at a few things. I am so happy for you i can imagine you doing a little jig in the garage now that you know the motor is good etc. Cant wait to see it. So are you pulling it apart to paint ??

 

I really don't want to run primer. My last roadster was primed, and everything was replated...but I got it on the road first, and never wanted to tear it apart. If I can keep up a good pace with no setbacks, I hope to do paint "before registration".

I have all the acryiic laquer mixing toners and poly, so I will mix it myself. A hamber has codes stored on microfische, so if I can send him a pic of the color, maybe he can get me close to a formula.

50/60s rods around here were all about color, and metallics...so it won't be black. The body panels have incorrect crowns IMO, and will never be good enough for darks anyways. The door gaps should be fair to good.



Pic 2 here is that primer roadster...built from leftovers from parts cars..327 4 spd posi ps pdb. I sold it in 85

I also had another one, red, same model, that was built in the 50s, that I bought over 40 years ago. $800. 283 3spd. It was a death trap...I was bummed out and could not fix it. That's why I built the primer one a decade later, with more tools and better skills.

Pic 1..i just found a pic of an old photograph of the 50's rod, that was taken in 1971 by a friends girlfriend. I ended up working with her younger sister years later, and she found the pic for me. It was supposedly built in Mass, later 50's, was turquois with padded running boards, Ford rad shell and 32 headlight bar bumped forward, 52 Buick taillights canted in the rear fenders. I wrecked it once when I slammed 2nd gear and broke the ubolts on one side of the rear, and had some other close ones like losing the pitman arm.

I used the top and the roll/pleated seat from the red car, when I built the black one. Nothing else. The red one went back to stock, and I sold it in the late 90s. Had it almost 30 years.

 

A question for Dave50 or anyone who may know: I need to get my flywheel cut because it's just deep rust pitted, not burnt spots. So.. have you guys ever heard of the Ammco disc/drum brake lathe with the "flywheel cutting adapter", and does it work OK? I have it, but never even tried setting up the cutter bar. The guy I got the Ammco from, said that's what it was for...he thought...

Also, I did get the motor out today, sad to see it all apart, and the shop now has no room to work.

My right arm is real bad, so I will do small jobs like trying to make a clutch slave bracket for the 60-62 Chev truck slave. I have no idea if it will have enough throw for the working-length of the Olds fork? Maybe test it with air pressure? Any thoughts? Will 125 psi move it?

 

I have seen and heard alot of people have problems using those machines, I have a flywheel grinder if you want me to do it i would be glad to. Progress is progress Frank your doing well you ever need a hand let me know. I think you need to take a ride up or me go down I have some goodies here for ya It must be meant to be LOL

 

Yes Dave, A hamber/automotive machinist, PM'd me yesterday saying not to do it that way...so I won't. There's a place in Stafford where I had one done while I waited...and watched

Today I did the clutch slave mount....TWICE

There are already 2 tapped holes on the lower half bell to start with and I added a 3rd tapped hole higher up. Then a plate with 2 round spacers welded on to act like towers. Those are needed because the backside of the slave looks like the outside; no flat surface to mount to.

Then a small horizontal gusset at the top in case it was to flex.

Pics show the air pressure holding the clutch depressed and the disc is free spinning. Broken keeper that was riveted to the TOB arm, but i have another arm with a good clip.

The air won't push the slave piston out, but it will "hold" it anywhere you need, if you help it with a bar. Anywhere you set the arm, it will stay right there, without keeping the bar on it. That was handy during setup.

Ok, so it will be a matched 60-62 slave to the original 60-62 chevy truck master and pedal cluster...but when I use the bar to release the disc, and then go further and feel the pressure plate get to it's limit, I still have 3/8" travel left in the slave

So, I assume I might have to put a limiter on the clutch pedal so I don't mess up the pressure plate by going to far?

Boy, I almost want to unroll a coil of 1/4" brake line and test this setup with the master on the firewall.


In the AM, I will pull the bell off to make a drilled hole for the 37 Buick shift rail to go through. Not sure if I need to seal that hole so it won't leak oil into the bell? I forget what the LaS/Cad did on that hole?..at least I think those had a hole in the bell for the shift rail? Anybody know?