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Projects New Daily Driver - Squarebird

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by guthriesmith, Oct 9, 2020.

  1. 48fordnut
    Joined: Nov 4, 2005
    Posts: 4,215

    48fordnut
    Member Emeritus

  2. Pinstriper40
    Joined: Sep 24, 2007
    Posts: 3,602

    Pinstriper40
    Member

    When I had mine I found that front bumpers, windshield, power steering parts, and interior foam/new seat covers were very expensive. Instead of doing the necessary maintenance to keep my bird rolling (including new seat foam, interior, weatherstripping, front end rebuild, and eventually motor/trans rebuild) I traded it for a '58 Impala project that needed the same stuff but was already torn apart and parts are cheaper.
    11406305_873006786089736_6704590336467869527_o.jpg
     
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  3. Man, I love the color on that one!
     
  4. Pinstriper40
    Joined: Sep 24, 2007
    Posts: 3,602

    Pinstriper40
    Member

    I sure did too! Indian turquoise! It had functional lake pipes too, with Porter steel packs, and it sounded good capped or uncapped!
     
  5. Using this thing as a daily has made for some what seem like ironic situations at least to me. :rolleyes: I needed to get a late model pu out from under my lean to last night so I could do some work on it and get it back to my wife's best friend. I have been storing it for several months now and the battery was dead. So, since the yard had dried up enough after the snow this last weekend, I decided to get it moved...

    IMG_1258[1].JPG
     
  6. Had to move some junk out of the shop to put a late model that my oldest son has been driving on the lift to get it ready for a roadtrip (which will include picking up some decent seats in St. Louis to replace the goofy looking ones in the Corvair), and got a pic. Just more driving of the bird daily while we are trying to get the Corvair reliable enough to be a daily for my youngest son. I’m kinda digging having mostly old drivers again. It’s been too long driving boring throw-away cars.

    Not sure why I didn’t do this years ago. Although, with the way the world seems to be going nuts lately, the timing seems good too. ;)

    8BF2658D-FFEE-4E6E-8591-4D9DB1A1487D.jpeg
     
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2021
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  7. jnaki
    Joined: Jan 1, 2015
    Posts: 9,291

    jnaki

    upload_2021-1-15_4-30-44.png From a Bob Goggle film
    Hello,

    This may not be the final look of your T-Bird, but it is from a 1957-60 old film of a So Cal car show. We saw plenty of the 1958-60 T-Birds cruising all over So Cal. They were mostly for older adults as a family car for the dad. Or an evening out car for the parents when they went out for a nice dinner date. But, the ones we saw had bright paint, some had pinstriping only and others had spiffy chrome wheels.

    It seemed like the first thing to go on a stock T Bird were the hubcaps. Most got the chrome wheels and small center caps. The custom guys got wire wheels and the racy guys got the new aluminum/mag wheels.

    Jnaki

    Your T-Bird is very nice looking. It is different. In late 1961, a high school friend’s mom bought a 1962 red sporty/headrest T-Bird for her own car. But, of course, the teenagers had to go cruising around in the spiffy Thunderbird. Since the mom did not check the odometer for miles, we were able to go from Bixby Knolls to Hollywood several times, and as far south to Laguna Beach on those warm summer nights.
     
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  8. Couple small updates...

    I have had a noise coming from the rear of the car the last week or so and finally decided to try to figure out what it was. It sounded like a set of rearend gears that aren't set up quite right and making a howling noise every once in a while. I put it on the lift and checked out everything at least visually and checked the backlash on the gears at least for anything out of the ordinary spinning the driveshaft back and forth. Anyway, I didn't find anything that appeared like it wasn't right until I touched the rotors and found one pretty hot. The left rear caliper appears to be hanging up. So, I need to pull it apart and figure that out. Likely just the slides need greased or something.

    However, I also decided to call a guy I met in the town where I work yesterday to see if I could talk him out of a set of wheel covers for the car in preparation for doing something a little more toward an early 60's mild kustom look overall. I had recently gone to this guys shop with a co-worker that was bidding some paint work on his shop. I had met him before at a car show since he had a real kool 59 Olds 2-door hardtop mild kustom. I learned that the 59 was the car he got married in about 60 years ago and he has kept it all this time. It is a beautiful car and I wish I would have taken some pics. Anyway, he also had a few other cars including a 60 Impala convertible with a 348 that he just finished building, a 59 Impala 4-door hardtop with a 348, a 55 Pontiac convertible, and a 65 Galaxy. He also had one of the biggest collection of kool wheel covers I have seen in a while hanging up in his shop.

    So, I asked him yesterday if he might sell me a set and he agreed to. He asked what I was looking for and I mentioned I liked some of the mid-50’s Olds covers but he said he didn’t want to get rid of any of those. I stopped by and we started looking through the ones that he didn't mind getting rid of. The deeper we dug, the more I decided I might be interested in especially as he started pricing them to me. I ended up with 4 full sets and 3 extras of the 55 Olds caps. He gave me a heck of a deal on everything and wouldn't even take the extra that I offered him. However, the best part of going there yesterday was sitting down in his shop after we loaded up all the wheel covers and talking cars for an hour or so. I have come to cherish spending time with folks older than me when it comes to listening to the stories of building, racing, etc. that revolved around this hobby of ours. He is a true hot rodder and kustom guy and I was blessed to spend some time with him. Now, I just need to clean up some of these caps and try to figure out which ones I might like on the bird. The remainders can be some cool wall hangers in the shop for now.

    44D0D910-9F9C-435E-A3CC-FCE59AE34620.jpeg IMG_1314[1].JPG
     
  9. Some more details on my choices. Long term, I will get some taller narrow whitewall tires. But, I had to at least mock them up. Leaning toward the 55 Olds caps so far and happen to have 7 of those to pick the best as well as have some extras in case I lose any.

    DAA652A5-AB52-451F-A1FF-636570C8B78B.jpeg 11F6A25A-D75E-451B-A9A5-6C48D7410F55.jpeg C778957D-4F8D-443F-BD98-C64FEB3BE29D.jpeg 9101232F-2ECB-426F-897B-B28D8A4E16C3.jpeg
     
  10. Decided to take the caliper off last night to see if I could just clean up the slides and solve my dragging problem. Once I got it apart, found out it has obviously been sticking for a while since it completely wore out the brake pad on one side that I just put on in early November. So...not starting to work on it until about 9:30 last night meant I wasn't going to get it fixed until today. I drove the 56 to work the last two days as a backup and thought I was going to burn it to the ground yesterday. Took my oldest son to a doctors appointment in Oklahoma City and on the way home, he decided to turn on the blower motor since he was cold. Not sure if the blower motor locked up or what, but it started smoking out from under the dash and we quickly pulled off the highway into a church parking lot once I realized what was going on. Unhooked the battery and got the fire extinguisher out of the trunk just in case. Anyway, now that needs fixed too, so I decided to venture out a little and see if the Corvair would make it all the way to work this morning... And, it did, so that is helping me have some confidence in it. Looks like I will try to get the Thunderbird fixed and back together tonight. The joys of driving these old cars (worn out ones at that) daily, but it is all part of the fun.

    DF9DFAAD-795C-4933-A65B-258DF9696B14.jpeg
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2021
  11. belair
    Joined: Jul 10, 2006
    Posts: 9,013

    belair
    Member

    I like the Olds wheel cover.
     
  12. Which one? ;) Actually, three of the four choices are Olds. The only one that isn't is the ones with the red and the Mercury head in the middle.
     
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  13. 48fordnut
    Joined: Nov 4, 2005
    Posts: 4,215

    48fordnut
    Member Emeritus

    I like the 56 olds caps.
     
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  14. belair
    Joined: Jul 10, 2006
    Posts: 9,013

    belair
    Member

    the first one. I have friend who had a hot rod 50 Olds back in 1955. He said one night he and some buddies watched a family take delivery of their new Oldsmobile at the deatership and followed them home. He said the car wasn't in the new owner's driveway 5 minutes before the hub caps were on his car.
     
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  15. Wow...that would have been a bummer for the new Olds owner... Guessing that sort of thing happened often considering how easy it is to pop wheel covers off.

    On that note...I polished up a couple of the rougher caps last night and popped them on the chrome smoothie wheels on the car. I wanted to see what I thought of them, so planned to drive it a few days to see if I liked them. I picked the rough ones just in case I had any issue with them staying on which I understand can be a problem at times and I figured might be even more issue on the chrome wheels. I know I have had friends lose some of these caps at times. Anyway, I backed the car out of the shop after putting the brakes back together so I could pull the 56 back in front so I wouldn't have to move it out of the way in the morning, and the caps fell off before I was done backing out... :eek:

    Am I just dreaming to think I could get away with running the covers on these chrome wheels? Or, do I need to just plan on some painted wheels in my near future? I never had any issue trying to keep caps on my 56 on the painted wheels and suspect the caps hold better on a rougher surface which happens on painted wheels.
     
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  16. RAK
    Joined: Jul 15, 2011
    Posts: 131

    RAK
    Member

    I had the same problem with one of my cars and it turned out to be the wheels that were designed for bias ply tires and I had radials on them. The radials caused the wheels to flex so much they would push the wheel covers off. I solved the problem by buying new wheels that were designed for radial tires.

    Rich
     
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  17. These would be my choice... 9101232F-2ECB-426F-897B-B28D8A4E16C3.jpeg

    I had a set on my '51 Olds... 40.JPG
     
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  18. I have heard this issue before and would expect that. Actually, that should have probably been an issue on my 56 since it was still running the original wheels with radials and the wheel covers. However, they stayed on great. The wheels on this bird are fairly new and for radial tires. I’m thinking the surface is just too hard and slick with the chrome for the clips to get a bite. Or, these Olds caps have crappy clips...
     
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  19. I had the same issue with mine. I figured that it was the clips since the radials had been on for several years without a problem. When my right rear came off it took the skirt with it... 56.JPG
     
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  20. That’s right. I remember that now.
     
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  21. My belief, for a custom, is that the wheel cover should be of the same age or newer than the car.
     
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  22. Agreed. :D But, most of the good looking covers were earlier than this car and they were all 14's which I am not keen on. :( That's what I get for driving a late-model I guess. :D
     
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  23. Just used the search function to find lots of info on wheel covers flying off and ways to fix it. Pretty sure I am screwed on trying to keep them on these chrome wheels unless I want to never run them without covers again (which is fine since they are starting to rust pretty good anyway). I'll figure something out...heck, they pay me to be a problem solver and design mechanical stuff at work... ;)
     
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  24. After my little mishap, I bent the clips out further and that seemed to help but not sure for how long, it was on it's way to southern Cal a week later.
     
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  25. belair
    Joined: Jul 10, 2006
    Posts: 9,013

    belair
    Member

    a big wad of velcro under the cap:p
     
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  26. Thor1
    Joined: Jun 6, 2005
    Posts: 1,664

    Thor1
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    Duct tape...the handyman's secret weapon.:rolleyes:
     
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  27. 48fordnut
    Joined: Nov 4, 2005
    Posts: 4,215

    48fordnut
    Member Emeritus

    I bent the tangs on my trim rings after a couple came off, then put masking tape around the circumference, and it has worked.

    jim
     
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  28. Came across my next "opportunity" this past Saturday. I needed to run to a meeting in a town about 75 miles away about a kids summer camp that I am involved with so thought I would offer to take another guy from church as well. He is a car guy too, but currently not driving anything old so was happy to let me drive. Anyway, it was raining all morning, so I was sure to put a new coat of Rain-X on the windshield for the trip. So, we get to the town with no problem and were actually about an hour early. I typically try to be early to stuff especially as I continue to work bugs out of this thing. We talked about going to see one of my best friends that lives in the town, but I kinda hated to pop in on him like that. That is about the time my buddy decided to roll the window down on the passenger side. It goes down like always...just won't go back up. My mind starts going as to how we are going to deal with the window down...in the rain. I figured I would just find some covered area to work on the car where we could get out of the rain to get it back up. About that time, my phone rings and it is my friend that lives there asking if I am in town since he just passed a Thunderbird that looks alot like mine. When he asks what we are doing, I tell him trying to figure out how to get the window up currently. That is when we decided to go to his dad's house to make sure we had everything we needed to get the window back up. He had just finished rebuilding the 312 in his 56 Mercury and offered to drive it out of the garage so we could use the garage after putting his hood back on. We got the door apart and tried to troubleshoot the problem, but ended up finally just pulling the motor and using a screwdriver to get the window back up since we were late for the meeting by this time. It wasn't as easy as a connector that came loose this time.

    Ended up running across him again in town later when he was test driving the car after buttoning it all up and the rain had stopped. Got some of those cool driving pics while we were together in traffic.

    IMG_1378[1].JPG IMG_1382[1].JPG IMG_1397[1].JPG IMG_1386[1].JPG

    Still need to figure out what is wrong with the window, but haven't had time yet... Kids just didn't have an armrest yesterday to lean on yesterday on the way to school.
     
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  29. 48fordnut
    Joined: Nov 4, 2005
    Posts: 4,215

    48fordnut
    Member Emeritus

    Nice Merc. Don't see the post cars.

    jim
     
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