Projects Mild custom '51 Pontiac Chieftain

Coming close to there weeks of nothing really happening. I've picked up a few stalled projects because of being stuck inside.


Picked this up for the car though. It's a direct replacement for the carb on it, Carter WCD.


Scrub scrub scrub.



Needed a little adjustment but it's a lot less worn than the one that was on it.

Beyond that, I tidied the garage.

Phil

 

Week in, week out report: Car gathers dust.
Workshop gains ceiling fan
Workshop gains new window unit
Finished rebuilding Budweiser Clydesdales carousel sign for a friend
'33 Zenith radio stopped doing radio things and needs investigation and finishing up, it's been on the bench far too long
Got my typewriter working (mostly) properly again
First barbeque of the year
Only minor cabin fever

During all this nonsense it has been agreed I'm not spending any big chunks of cash on the car but so long as things remain, heater valve will get a rebuild, wiper motor too, new brakes all round and that should then see the car well enough to put on the highway.

Phil

 

Had to wait to get to the end so that I could tell you how much I'm enjoying this. Been following your thread and I marvel at your attention to detail. Watching you fix the little things like the switches and the big things like the transmission has been awesome. I'm learning a lot too! I've got a O/T '51 car that I'm going to start working on soon. I got caught up in a home renovation project so my garage is filled with household stuff but hopefully by next month I can get started. I bought my old car because nothing was electronic, it's all analog with a manual transmission. Keep up the great work Phil, you make the quarantine a little more bearable.

 

Everything more or less ground to a halt on it here; as mentioned above I have been using the time to try and clear my electronics bench.

However, I did box up my wiper motor to be sent out for repair and I am waiting on a call back about the heater valve.

Small progress is better than no progress!

 

If you haven't sent the valve away yet, Squirrel did a great thread on rebuilding the Ranco valve a while back. Should work for yours.

 

I did, sent it away to Jim Tucker in California. I took a look and honestly, I do not relish the concept of rebuilding it myself, hence sending it away.
You know that if I did, I would...


Phil

Edit: Plus, it helps the economy

 

I knew there was reason for my decision; received a call today from Mr Ficken about my wiper motor.

It was toast. The case was bent (looks like it had been dropped hard at some point) and was leaking badly.

Replacement case, new seals and it's working right and will be on its way back soon.

Phil

 

Wiper motor arrived back. Added new rubber bushings to the mounting points. They work as well as can be expected for vacuum wipers; lack of smooth operation there is down to the operator(!).

Phil

 

They work better than the added on electric wipers on the ‘35 Chevy. I think that is the only one of my old cars that actually has wipers...except for the little hand crank wiper on the t-bucket.

 

Now they do! Before they would sort-of work. Credit goes to Ficken Wiper Service, NY.

Phil

 

Rebuild in "The Antiquated" (link below for if you're interested), radio test fitted. Successful!

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1951-pontiac-radio-restoration.1193864/

Phil

 

Perfect … I love it when both arms & blades park the way they should.

 

Nice how does the "covert" connection to your modern phone collection sound?

 

Impressive Phil, how does it sound?

 

The sound is really very good. AM is as you'd expect, static and the occasional good reception station; Bluetooth is as good as the loudspeaker can be. The power output stage is an excellent design, capable of producing Hi-Fi sound.
The limitation is normally the AM reception. I will make a little video later today.

Phil

 

There's a brief editing blip on the middle- no smoke and mirrors, I just cut 6 seconds of awkward silence out of the video as my old phone took its good old time to pair with the Bluetooth.

Phil

 

Cool it works good.

 

Very impressive. Does the clock work too? Would .love to see you fix one of those.

Sent from my SM-T350 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I'm in awe of you man! Amazing, simply amazing.

 

Sure does, if you turn the volume up right at the beginning of the video you can hear it ticking away.

 

I too, have a thing about how the clock MUST work in any car I have that has one.

Nice work. I got my AM radio (DeLuxe 8-tube model) in my '51 Ford all tuned up and ready to go three weeks before the only local station up here went from "oldies" to crop reports. Too bad; it sounded great. Old tube radios were great; I had a '50 Buick with a Sonomatic that would put any modern radio to shame!

 

Just went eye the 1950 Sonomatic schematic- the front end of the receiver is identical to this, the differences lay in the detector and output stages- they use both diode plates in the detector for two stages but that can introduce crosstalk, and Buick's design always went with a transformer-based phase inverter. Either way with the 6V6 push-pull and a decent superhet front end you've got a recipe for a good radio set. what amuses me is this set uses plunger cores to alter the resonant frequency of the coil with a fixed capacitor rather than the other way round with a fixed coil and overlapping metal plate ganged variable air capacitor.

 

I'm almost sorry I mentioned it!

 

You've read enough of what I write now to know better than to tempt fate!

 

Well shit you remind me of our instructors back in USMC radio school way back in time. One was like you, I remember him showing us a magnetic eye system for firing ignition systems he made back in 1969 just like some Drag racers use now. I always wonder if it was him that was in any of the companies making them now.

 

Possibly. A good friend of mine, sadly passed a couple years back was a great influence upon me. He was ex-RAF electronics division, his primary work being designing radar systems. Spent a good while working on a few odds and ends that he had given me (old amplifiers and such that he'd designed and built) which gave me insight into the design and a desire to learn about them. Tony, you'll be missed but the interest in what made you smile lives on.

Phil

 

Garage is boarded up. Starting to get breezy here. Hopefully that holds.

Phil

 

Good luck Phil. Will be watching this as it unfolds.

 

Just a little breezy with some squalls right now. Florida is getting the worst hit right now, I'm expecting it to get bad here around midnight through tomorrow evening.

Phil

 

Good luck! Crossing my fingers for you.