Hot Rods Bringing my 39 back to life

Not that I need any more projects, but when they pop up sometimes you just gotta grab them and put them in line with the others. Picked this up yesterday. It’s just rough enough that I won’t feel bad cutting it up. Currently thinking about making it into a convertible sedan or a chopped custom. We shall see. I’ll start a new thread when this one begins.

 

Build yourself a tub out of it. Good save. Frank

 

Great job bringing that old paint back to life, the car looks amazing! I'm really liking that front bumper too!

 

Not much progress lately, gonna hold off till after Old North State and TROG to do the trans and rear swap. I’m having too much fun with itto take it all apart right now. So in the sake of progress i will be starting on doing the interior. Planning on white vinyl with diamond tuck inserts in the seats and door panels with black piping and black carpet with white trim. I just got the diamond tuck in the mail. 10 yards of it!
Now I am on the hunt for an affordable sewing machine that can do this kind of work. Anyone in the VA Md or NC area have a walking foot sewing machine they would sell? Let me know.

 

New machine here....kinda pricey
https://baltimore.craigslist.org/art/d/baltimore-sailrite-lsz-1-plus-walking/7156837165.html

and another.....
https://roanoke.craigslist.org/art/d/hardy-sewing-emb-machine-viking-500e/7142919862.html

both are walking foot machines.

An Adler commercial used:
https://cleveland.craigslist.org/bfs/d/vermilion-adler-walking-foot-industrial/7155538938.html
an older Singer with a walking foot here:
https://dayton.craigslist.org/hsh/d/waynesville-singer-walking-foot/7132392976.html

 

https://tricities.craigslist.org/for/d/greeneville-industrial-rex-walking-foot/7154075052.html

 

Where did you source the diamond tuck vinyl?

 

From amazon believe it or not. It’s what I used to cover the running boards and really has worked great. It’s stitched in Los Angeles I believe.

Vinyl Grain Texture Quilted Foam Fabric 2" x 3" Diamond with 3/8" Foam Backing Upholstery / 52" Wide/Sold by The Yard/FABRIC EMPIRE (White) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CR42NS1/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_YAJcFbFSD386Z

 

Trans Am....you going to race it ?

 

Ha!!! No that was a typo. I’d roll this thing over in a road race. Canyon carver it is not!!!

 

while I haven't started on the Upholstery just yet, I have been driving it a ton. Ran it up to my Buddy Robs house one night in Stafford about an hour on the freeway from me. Ran great all the way there, but when I got off the freeway, the oil pressure dropped to about 5 to 8 PSI at idle. Running at about 75 down the freeway it had 55 PSI the whole time. As soon as I revved it a little bit pressure went right back up to 25 PSI at about 2000 RPM, so I limped it to Robs and let it cool off for a while. once cool, I fired it up and right back at 25 PSI at idle. Figured well, might as well head home, Once off the freeway after heading home, same thing right down to 5 PSI so I got it to the shop and parked it. Next day I pulled the pan to check it out. Rod and main bearings looked brand new as I figured they would. Pulled the oil pump off and took it apart for inspection. Should have taken pictures but my hands were covered in oil so I didn't, but it looked like the bypass plunger was just a hare smaller than it should be, and I could cock it in the bore on the oil pump. I figure the bypass was hanging open after running at speed down the freeway and bleeding the pressure off at idle when you stopped. It was a Melling M55 oil pump that I have used for lots of different motors and was surprised to find other people ono the internet have similar experiences with a crap Melling oil pump. Guess they make them in china now too. So that one went into the trash and I ordered up a new Milodon oil pump.

 

Once the new Milodon pump came in I needed to put the new pick up in it, but I didn't have a tool to do it with properly. I have always done the hack way and used a 5/8 wrench beat it in with that, which sucks. So I made my own install tool. I went to Ace Hardware and found some 5/8 inch steel rod collars in the hardware bins and pick up a couple. Then I took and old small Chevy fuel pump push rod and ground a flat spot on it and welded the 2 together. This way I can tighten up the collar on the pick up and just hammer on the push rod to drive it in. I certainly did not come up with this idea, I saw and melling tool just like this for sale for 90 bucks and thought that was ridiculous so I made this one for 6 bucks. Gave it a little tack weld and it was ready to go in.

 

Also in order to pull the pan on this thing I had to pull the distributor to clear the firewall and take the front motor mounts off to I could pull the engine up with the hoist to let the pan slip past the front crossmember. Got the new pump in and everything back together. In the process I cranked the timing up to 16* initial 34 total all in around 2600 and man does it run better! sounds much crisper. Just picked up an AFB number 4331 carb from a 340 Buick and it has much smaller primary and secondary butter flies in it, so I'm going to rebuild that and swap it on, the 600 Edelbrock is way to big and even jetted down and playing with the metering rods its still to rich, The old AFB should help a bunch with the rich issue. Here it is all back together in the farm field on my test drive route, always good spot to stop check stuff and take a picture.

 

How is the oil pressure now?

 

Bought that same diamond pattern 2"x 3" off Amazon also, and did my doors, side panels, and trunk divider in my '39 Chev coupe. I still have 2 yards left I want to use to do the inserts on my bucket seats.



It's good stuff, and sells for $17 a running yard in 54" widths.

 

I used a Milodon standard volume High pressure pump in it when I replaced it. Now when hot it has 25 to 30 PSI at idle and 55 to 60 PSI running down the freeway. When cold it is up around 75 PSI, I use a fram HP4 oil filter that is good to 500 PSI and a billet oil filter adapter , with no bypass, the bypass is built into the filter itself, so I don't need to worry about a cold start, goosing the throttle to fast and blowing the filter off, when it spikes at 90 or 100 PSI

 

Last week my son and I were in the 39 heading south to Charlotte for the Old North State invitational Lite. Just a cruise with all my hot rod buddies in NC. Unfortunately just south of Richmond the car started running a little funny. Pulled off the freeway and into a Napa parking lot in the rain And I could hear a pretty loud ticking. Piped the drivers side valve Cover and my fear was realized. We had lost a cam lobe. Just one... none of the others were loose and I had just gone through and adjusted the valves a few days earlier. So looks like I’ll be pulling it down for inspection. Figured I was in the clear. Had over 2000 trouble free miles on it. Oh well.

 

We turned back and got the 39 home and just took the daily instead. If it wasn’t pouring down rain we would have gone down in the roadster. Here are some of the guys that made it pulling out from one of the stops on the cruise.

 

Sorry to hear.....

 

Its all good, it actually makes doing the rear axle and trans swap I had planned for it easier in a way, now i'm not so against yanking the motor out to do the trans swap!

 

Sorry to hear about your problems, Jason. Who knows, now might be a great opportunity to install a nailhead!?!

 

Jason, there's a thread going now about cam lobe and lifter failure that's titled something like BBC new cam failure. Lots of good info in this one and some of the new ideas for modifications to the lifter bore in the block or the OD of the lifter in order to increase oil flow to the cam lobe/lifter interface.
Since you're going to have to pull the engine and tear it down, and then clean out the debris, you might want to take a look.

 

thanks Dave, yeah I have already looked into the EDM lifters and the Howards Cams Direct lube lifters for Hydraulic lifters. haven't decided if im going to stay solid or not yet. but I don't want to have to spend the bucks to go roller. ill look that thread up, see what I can learn.

 

Here is the thread he was talking about

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ilure-long-story.1206512/page-3#post-13760256

 

So it looks like I dodged a bullet. Pulled the valve cover off to start inspecting stuff and found that the number five intake valve pushrod was destroyed and 3/8 of an inch shorter than it should be. I’m thinking the ball must have come off the pushrod or it wasn’t heat treated and just hammered the shit out of the end of it. It chewed up the pocket for the pushrod in the rocker too. The pics show how it looked after and how it used to look.

So.... I figured well I’ll throw another pushrod in it and Swap a rocker on it and see what it does. Runs like a champ! I’ll be ordering new pushrods and rockers for it soon and swapping all of them out just to be safe.

also had some more hot rod buddies come by and hang out with Dad and I and help out.

 

Here’s a shot from my Buddy Rob’s (AKA Mopar Rob) bad ass blown Hemi powered Dodge coupe on the test drive.

 

Gonna order new rockers and pushrods for this week. Think I’m gonna pick up a set of Harland Sharp rockers and Howard’s hardened pushrods. When o do the swap I’ll be putting these cool old Cal Custom rocker covers on. Since I never could get the script ones to seal worth a dam.