Projects '63 Falcon, and '39 Chev gassers

Last of the warm weather from what I see in the forecast, so I did some painting today. Wanted to paint the divider and cover box in the car. Hoping paint will allow the carpet to stick even better. And of course paint in the trunk is just to make everything black.

 

What a beautiful day! Went and got another 5 gal. of gas for the '39. Fired it up and took it around the neighborhood for it's maiden voyage. All went very smooth, and I was able to adjust the TVR cable on the 700r4 trans. Still needs a little more tweaking as it shifts a little early.
The car drove great, and the ride and steering was very nice too. Of course I never got much over about 25 mph around the side streets. But I'm happy with it so far.





Gotta see the surgeon tomorrow, and hope he's got good news too!

 

When you don't have the right garnish molding you just have to make it. Disecting, and reworking another Chevy garnish molding worked out pretty well. A little metal removed, and some bending to fit it back together. A little bubble gum to stick it together.







And it fits. And the slider knob clears too!

 

Got all the felt sweeps made and installed on both garnish moldings and adjacent body openings for windows. If the quarantines ever end I can maybe get some friends to give a hand getting the windshield and back window installed.
Bending the straight felt sweeps to fit the 1/4 window moldings was a challenge, but they came out pretty well.

 

Looking great! Hope to see it sometime running around town.

 

Thanks! I've been sidelined by the whole corona virus quarantine, and my bad gallbladder. Many attacks, but the governor dictated my needed surgery was "elective", so I sat here in misery for months until multiple trips to ER proved they no longer could control my pain, and the rising blood pressure caused by pain. They finally allowed me surgery last week Thu. and I'm feeling so much better now!
Hope to get back on bodywork once my restrictions are lifted. I was very close to done, and shooting high build primer when the latest attack happened. Probably another week or so and I'll be back in the shop.

 

Finally got the doctor's release this week, and got back on bodywork for the '39. Today was a mild 70 degrees, and perfect weather to paint in. So got set up and shot a coat of high build primer on the coupe this morning. Of course in my usu

al fashion I got it heavy, and some runs here and there on horizontal areas. But it's they to be sanded anyway, so I'll sand those runs too.
Bought the weatherstrip kits for the vent windows and got the assemblies out, and rebuilt. Need to do my door glass, and sliding 1/4 window glass also. Going to drive it out to a friend's shop in a week or so and he'll give me a hand installing the windshield and rear window.
In the meantime I'll start blocking the primer and get ready to either paint is satin black, or if I find a reasonable priced painter, have it painted it's final color.

 

Side glass installed, and just waiting for the rains to stop so I can drive it to a friend's shop so he can help me get the windshield and back window installed. This quarantine is a stumbling block, but so is the rain!

 

Got all my interior panels marked out on 1/4" paneling, and cut out. Waiting on my headliner to arrive, and once I ge that installed I'll cover these panels in black diamond pattern vinyl, and install them. In the meantime I'll pull the seats out and begin doing the black carpet installation.

 

Headliner arrived from OKHeadliners in Oklahoma City, and is a very nicely built headliner, with plenty of material. They even tossed in about 4 sq. ft. of extra material which came in handy elsewhere! I used it to cover my kick panels and saved me buying smooth black naugahyde!
Got the headliner in yesterday and the only real issue I had was getting the bows into the loops on the headliner. The '39 has 5 bows, and only the first two are round wire. The other back three are stamped triangle shaped steel and screw in place at each end. They were a real battle to push the 90 degree shaped ends through the loops and only move an=bout 1" each push, and it took a couple hours to get them all in.
After that hanging and stretching the headliner went well.









The diamond pattern vinyl the doors and side panels will all get covered with.

 

Door and side 1/4 panels are covered and installed today. Also got the radio wired up so I can have music besides the music the engine makes.

 

Cleanup day. Pulled the coupe into the driveway and mixed up a bucket of suds. Sprayed it off with the air hose everywhere first, and then washed it down and scrubbed with bristle brush. Lots of overspray on the newly painted frame rails, so scuffed them and shot another coat of gloss black engine enamel.
After that I remembered I forgot to install the lap belts I got, so removed the bolts on the seats and installed the belts. Cleaned up inside and out, and touched up black paint wherever. The engine survived the build without much dirt, so a quick dusting, and hose down got it looking good again.
Decided I'm just going to leave it in primer for the summer unless I find somebody who can paint it reasonably and then I'll have it done.

 

It's really come a long way.

 

Thanks!
I got the last of my old school diamond tuck interior done today. Brown truck delivered the speakers, which was holding me up and finishing the area behind the bucket seats. Crummy cell phone image.



Now I'm twiddling my thumbs for a couple weeks while I wait for the date for glass to be finished.

 

With the aid of a suction cup glass tool I was able to install the back glass in just a few minutes. Lots of soapy water in a spray bottle, and used 14 awg. electrical wire as a pull rope to help it over the lip. Worked fantastic.

 

Yesterday was my first chance to drive more than just around the block! It started out rainy, so I tinkered with the '39 a bit. Then ran over to Old Car Parts here in town and found an original pair of sun visors with nice chrome on the mounting brackets. I'll have my wife sew up new covers later to match my black interior.
About 3:00 p.m. the sun came out and it quickly heated up to near 80 degrees. One of my car club buddies called and asked if I wanted to meet at a pizza place 10 miles away, so I figured it was a good excuse to get a real test drive on the '39. Picked up tools, and headed out. Hadn't gone far when I decided to stop and do a kickdown cable adjustment on the 700 trans. It was shifting too late, so I released some pressure to lower shift points. Other than the adjustment, the drive was trouble free, and it ran right at 180 degrees in traffic, or idling. Great oil pressure at 50 psi idling, and around 65 psi driving. The trans has a very firm shift, and if I got into the throttle much it chirped the tires on the 1-2 shft. A little more throttle and it did likewise on the 2-3 shift also! This was a swap meet trans purchase, so I was hoping it was "as advertised" and didn't buy a junk trans.

 

I really liked the big old '52 Pontiac steering wheel, and did a lot of work to repair it so I could use it. But after a couple hundred miles of driving, it became clear it's just way too big for me. I decided to go with a typical 3 spoke wheel, but I was tired of the same old chrome 3 spokes. So I ordered a satin powder coated 3 spoke wheel, and just used a chrome horn cap to set it off. The wheel I found has almost no dish to it, so it sits very close to where the old steering wheel sat. Feels good, and still doesn't steer too bad with 3" less diameter.



I also made up plates for the cowl today, and installed the new wiper motor under the driver's side cowl. I will only use one wiper, as I doubt I'll be doing a bunch of rain driving. But I do want a wiper if I get caught in the rain. And I swapped out the Chrysler trunk handle today for a generic locking trunk handle so I can lock things up while I'm away from the car.

 

Gradually refining, and making changes to improve things on the '39. I knew right off it would need fewer leafs in the front springs, as I always have to remove some to improve ride quality of every axle I've ever installed. So after a couple rides I knew this set needed a lot of help because it was very stiff!
I put it off as long as I could make excuses to myself, and then ran out of excuses yesterday. So dropped the U bolts, and let the axle down to access the spring packs. I had 5 leafs, and decided to just remove the three shortest of the 5, and see how it felt. But 5 leafs equals 3/4" thickness, plus the car should settle also. So I also knew if I wanted to maintain the current stance, I'd need to adjust it somehow.
I looked through my metal racks, and found a 8 ft. stick of 2"x 2" box tubing. Cut two 5" long pieces off it, and proceeded to make spacer blocks out of it. I started by drilling a 1/4" hole dead center in each piece, and then opened each up to what I needed. On one side I needed a 3/8" hole to install a 3/8" stainless allen head bolt. On the other side I needed a 9/16" hole to fit the leaf spring center pin. Once I had the holes drilled, and the Allen bolts installed, I welded plates over each end to strengthen the spacer blocks, and also make them look cleaner.
I had plenty of U bolt length, but with the removal of 3/4" of spring, and addition of 2" spacer, I just made it! The ends of the U bolts extend through the nylock nuts just barely! Lucky!



Set the car back on the ground, and did a "after" measurement for ride height. It gained 1/2" over the "before" measurement, so the 2" block proved to be a good choice. Took it for a test drive, and it's much better ride than the "buckboard" ride it had before. Still very firm, even with only two main leafs, but not harsh like before.

 

Took quite a long time, but finally got my replacement windshield half for my '39 Chev coupe. I guess the virus has caused a huge number of people to work on their cars, so the glass guys are swamped.
I asked for the glass to be undersized 1/8" per side, since the last one was so tight it barely went in, which caused a stress crack later. Unfortunately all they did was make the width 1/8" shorter, but didn't adjust top to bottom width. So once I overlaid the new glass on the old, I decided I needed to modify something, or figure out how to shrink the glass.
Since sanding or grinding the glass without some sort of water cooled sander would likely have fatal results, I decided to modify the weatherstrip seal. I carefully pulled the lip back a couple inches at a time, and using my belt sander with a new 80 grit belt, I worked my way around the perimeter until I;d "shaved" the outside down a bit over 1/16" all over to reduce the total 1/8".
After that I did the same soapy water spray on the weatherstrip, and with my pull line I pushed and worked the lip over the metal. Unlike the last time, the glass went in tightly, but I didn't need to pull it in the last bit with the garnish molding.
I used my glass suction cups attached to the two halves to bump the halves left and right to ensure I got a decent gap between the glass, and away from the center strip retaining screws.

It took a couple hours, but a lot of that was setup, and cleanup afterwards. Way better than the 4.5 hrs. it took the last go around!

 

After getting some pretty high prices to have my bucket seats reupholstered to match the door and rear panels I did, I had a real gut check! Even with me providing the materials, and taking the seats to the shop, it was still a tough price to swallow.
So being pretty frugal, (tightwad) I decided maybe I wasn't too old at nearly 70 yrs,. to learn something new. I began searching for a used commercial machine, and they were mostly up around $850-$1500 range. Eventually I found a guy on local Craigslist who refurbishes commercial machines, and he told me he'd have one done soon. I went over this last weekend and looked at a 1950's Japanese copy of the Singer Commercial machines, and after a demo I bought it for $250. Seller gave me the cabinet, and side table with it, so it was cheap enough. I had considered just using a machine and then selling it, but at the price I'll keep it around.


It has the foot pedal, but also the knee switch so you can keep hands and feet free. I set it up, and began removing the passenger seat from the '39. The buckets are from a late model Pontiac, and it took hours to remove the trim, and separate the backrest from the base. After getting the material off the seats I turned them inside out and marked at strategic points with letters and numbers on both sides of seams so I'd know where things belonged later. Then I ripped the seams apart, and removed the inserts from the base and back. I don't plan on a total reupholstery job; just new inserts to match the door and rear panels I built.
This is the upholstery removed.



And the pile of parts leftover from stripping the frames!





Set up the machine in our dining room, and using the old fabric as patterns, I cut out two sets of new inserts. I made everything an inch larger on each edge and figured to trim off excess when done. Aligned the index marks and transferred them from originals to the new insert material. Then lined the material up and began sewing everything back together again. There's a dozen long wires that get hog ringed into the foam, so had to also sew on loops from the old patterns. I tried to sew them along with the other material, but it was too much to keep lined up. So I sewed it all together, and then came back and added the loops lastly.
Here's the end result of my first attempt at auto upholstery. Good enough for my hotrod I think.

 

Looks good.

 

Sweet job! Did you sew the diamond also?

Sent from my LG-TP450 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

No, I found the diamond pattern material online and ordered it pre-sewn. It's pretty cheap at $17 a running 54" wide yard, so not worth chancing me sewing crooked stitches.

 

Got the 2nd seat upholstery sewed up, and managed to stay on my lines this time, so no redo on this one. Then got it back on the frame after some wrestling. Of course whenever I think I got the toughest half done, I always find out it wasn't, and the 2nd one was tougher. It require me to remove the foam from the frames, and install the upholstery to the foam partially. Then reinstall the foam, and covering, and finish locking it down to the frames then. A lot more work, but it did go on after some coaxing. Had to reach up inside the upholstery to hook some plastic stays the factory uses to pull the fabric into the seat. Good time to have these long arms that allow my knuckles to drag the ground!
Got the seat bolted back in after the morning rains stopped, and just need to do the weatherstrip around the doors now.

 

They look GREAT.

 

Thanks! I was surprised myself that that they came out well. I really figured I could easily screw the job up, but it went well after messing up the passenger seat, and having to rip out the seam and re-sew it tighter to get rid of excess material.

 

Been chasing lifter adjustment on the 350 SBC engine in my '39 ever since I fired it up 500+ miles ago. Adjusted them up fine when new, and then shortly after the engine sounded like the valves were a little too tight. So readjusted the lifters, and soon after began to have a couple clicking. Pulled the valve covers again, and readjusted, but soon after got lifters clicking again!
Seemed to be an intermittent issue, and mostly at idle, as off idle they quieted down. The engine is a late model roller cam SBC, and I put a Howard's 525" lift hydraulic roller cam in it. So I called Howard's this morning to talk to a tech about my issue, and ask what weight oil they recommended? The tech said hydraulic roller cams needed light weight oil, and nothing over 30 wt, and preferably 5-10 wt. on the low end. I have always used 20-50 wt. in flat tappet performance engines, so that's what was in it!
Went and got some 5-30 wt. oil, and changed oil and filter. Started the engine up, and no clicking! Amazing that oil can make such a difference in a roller cam engine. The tech told me the clearances inside hydraulic roller lifters are so tight that heavier oils can easily restrict them and cause the lash to change as the engine changes temperatures.
Guess I'm not too old to learn something new about cars or engines.

 

Got out early before the heat built up in the shop, and swapped out all the valve springs for the new .550" lift springs. It was a pain to do on the car, but still better than pulling heads! I welded up a fitting from an old spark plug to adapt to a QD air fitting for my compressor hose. Charged each cylinder, and that held the valves closed as I removed and swapped springs.
I must have had the spring compressor let go a dozen times or more! The little hooks on my KD spring compressor just slip off the round coils too easy. I put a small Visegrip C clamp on the tool's hooks as I compressed springs, which helped, but didn't eliminate it totally. Still have all my fingers, and not cuts, so a success.
I ordered a set of roller tip forged steel rockers also, as I figured I'd upgrade at the same time. These are made to clear std. height valve covers, so I can keep my old Weiand valve covers still.
Got the rockers installed and adjusted, but by noon had to call it a day and close up to avoid the heat. Maybe get it finished up tomorrow, as it's supposed to be cooler then.

 

Those valve adjustments drove me nuts! First setting them at zero lash cold, and as soon as it got warmed up they were too tight! But I knew they were because they were barely oiling too! . Then restarted and let it get hot. After that I shut it off and checked lash again, and it was obvious the heated engine closed up the gaps, and nothing was right.

Next I adjusted them running, but that ended up with them too loose. Maybe my old ears and poor hearing? But when I shut it off many were way too loose. So while it was hot and turned off, I set them back to zero, and restarted it. Sounded awesome, so I gave them 1/8th turn preload, and put the valve covers back on.

It's done, and I'm glad it's fixed! No more weird noise. I'm contemplating soaking the old lifters, and seeing if I can figure out a way to hold a roller lifter and pump it, while sitting in solvent. Maybe see if anything washes out of any of them? Something for this winter when I'm bored, and need a project.

 

Took a nice long drive today! A little bit of everything from freeways, to country roads, to stop and go driving. Filled at the beginning, and put 300 miles on the car, and it took jut under 15 gallons of gas to do it. When I showed up at the same gas station in the afternoon the guy looked at me funny, and said, "You used up that tank of gas already?"
All went well, and in the low 90's temps she never got over 180 degrees. Really happy with the aluminum .32 Ford Hi Boy radiator I fitted to it. And the auxiliary fan I have set up as a pusher is set to come on if it gets to 185 degrees, but it never started up all day.
Going on a 900 mile trip in early October, so hope to keep racking up miles to get my confidence back with it again!