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New HAMBer and an intro to the Brown Cloud.

Discussion in 'New to the H.A.M.B.? Introduce yourself here!' started by Feedjam, Jun 3, 2014.

  1. Feedjam
    Joined: Jun 3, 2014
    Posts: 1

    Feedjam
    Member

    Hey, folks...

    Here goes; I've been a lifelong gearhead and tinkerer. I've had some classics('68 Fury, '72 Fury, '74 Datsun Z) and I've dabbled in the commonplace(Mazda Miata - don't laugh, it's fun and the handling is ridiculously good). I'm a KC-10 crew chief at Travis AFB in CA and aspiring civil aircraft mechanic hoping to someday retire into a cushy job playing with old planes. I'm jonesing after a '37 Studebaker or Nash Lafayette coupe restomod. Someday. Have to get the career squared away first.

    In the meantime, I've got a very close friend by the name of Joe that lets me borrow / upgrade / play with / break this beastie:

    [​IMG]

    It's a '37 Olds F37 Sport Coupe, jokingly called the Brown Cloud. It's spent most of its life in Oregon. It's astoundingly clean - the mechanicals and sheet metal look as if they belong to a car 1/3rd its age. It underwent a restoration in recent history, and then was purchased by an owner that wanted a hot rod. He handed it off to rod builder Bill Blizzard, who dropped in a crate 350 and 700R4, keeping the stock rear end(enter the highly-sought after Olds rear end). It's on lowering blocks in the rear and I believe the front has had the springs trimmed. It's down about two inches, which isn't all that obvious. I had to crawl under the car and see the blocks in the rear before I realized it was riding lower than stock.

    Joe and I brought the car down from Oregon last year, a 900 mile trip from Portland to Oakland. She ran great, only shedding a windshield wiper and running out of fuel once in the process. I fixed the wiper and we had a good laugh about not keeping an eye on the fuel gauge in our excitement.

    Joe bought the car for a second car; he wants a '30s classic that he can drive daily. Prior to that, he had a '36 DeSoto Airflow S2, bought sight unseen off of eBay. It was a disappointment, looking much better in photos than in person. The Olds replaced it.

    Since then, Rick at Promotive Performance in Walnut Creek dropped in a Vintage Air AC setup. I've added Unity driving lights, hooked the horn up to the stock horn button, and done small upgrades and fixes as needed. The goal is to get the car to a point that it runs and drives like a modern car, with comparable reliability and comfort.

    The next step is a front disc brake setup. I've been able to find limited information on conversions for the '37 Olds platform. Evidently Chevies are a simple swap, but B-O-P chassis require considerably more work. I could really use help getting pointed in the right direction on the conversion. The goal is to change over to discs without any major modification to the car; a simple parts swap for upgraded components. There are a number of companies selling conversions, but nothing direct for a '37 Olds.

    Cheers!
     
  2. Welcome. Nice intro. Sweet Olds.
     
  3. st.rod
    Joined: Jan 18, 2009
    Posts: 143

    st.rod
    Member

    Welcome to da HAMB
     

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