Technical What did you do with your car today? * NEW*

Finished putting the wheels back on after polishing. Down off jackstands. Checked tyre pressures and topped off.

Checked fluids, all good.

Battery reinstalled after winter storage.

First startup of the year.

First failure of the year. The windshield wipers are running. Pulled the switch out, it seems to be fine. Guessing it’s whatever sort of switch on the motor (Newport) acts as the “park” position switch. Decided to leave it. With the switch out, there’s no power to the wipers, so they stopped. It’s a nice sunny day, don’t need wipers today anyway.

Went for a drive through Starved Rock state park.

Second failure of the year. The gas pedal isn’t quite returning to rest. Just a hair past idle, not stuck open or anything that bad, just enough to be noticed at a stop light, where keeping the car in place takes more brakes than normal.

Ended in Sheridan at a friend’s shop for cruise njght / shop open house night.



Some quick testing showed what the gas pedal problem is. The cover I made for the pedal mount is rubbing on the pedal arm, just enough that it won’t quite return. Borrowed a nut driver and removed cover. Will fix that tomorrow, probably.



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After much frustration, and disappointment from local guys doing lettering. I had a local sign company make up stencils for my car and I lettered it up myself yesterday. It came out pretty good, and it's hand painted, even if I only had to line up the two halves and paint inside the stencils. Then outlined it with black paint.

 

If stickers add 10 horse power, how many ponies do you get from painting them on?

 

Probably none, but I prefer painted lettering, even if it's done by cheating and using a stencil to make sure it matches side to side.

 

That turned out really nice.

 

Recovered enough from my cataract surgery to crawl on a creeper and mount my new plaque. O'Brien Truckers cast this from the original molds.

This club existed in the 1950's. I heard a couple of stories when I moved out here 40+ years ago. Fry, AZ was the town outside the main gate of Fort Huachuca.

NOTES:

1. In 1956, most of the this area was incorporated into the City of Sierra Vista, AZ, with stiff resistance from the residents of Fry town site. Scattered pockets on incorporated land exist to this day, with a large area near the main gate. Folks are very independent and are still resisting annexation by Sierra Vista.

2. I was told that US Army's presence in local affairs was resented by the locals.

3. The headlights and radiator spell out "FTA". The club members, if asked, replied "Fry Timing Association". This was a non existent organization - subtle rebellion from the young hot rodders - "F' The Army".

4. I live on a dirt road south of Sierra Vista, an unincorporated area of Cochise County, in the Fry Fire District. I'm quite happy NOT to be living under the zoning rules of Sierra Vista. At 76 years old, there is still a glowing ember of the rebellious spirit...

Russ

 

I took the first step towards putting a T5 behind the 215 Buick in my Morris woody. I found a factory bellhousing at the March Meet swap meet for a reasonable price. I gave it a quick cleaning and bolted it to my trans so I can take some measurements of the critical dimensions.
Now I’ve gotta find a fork, flywheel and clutch assembly.

 

Thanks!

 

Have been working on the cab wood. The new wood kit I purchased was not even close to making up at the finger joints and all of the holes for the mounting bolts were drilled on the incorrect angles. So after a lot of gently filing and sanding of the finger joints and some boring of the holes we have achieved success. I also was able to mock up the exhaust route and get my material list for what I need to purchase for exhaust.

 

Removed the chev four door body , from the chassis (sawsall and cutoff wheels ) good sub structure .

 

Went for a drive today, and got some gas.



This is a local spot where a lot of guys get vintage gas station pictures done. It's a motorcycle parts sales place now.

 

Sunday, I removed the wiper motor from under the dash, which was about as much fun as you’d expect. After confirming that it was running in “park”, I opened the case to find out how it works and to see what I could do with it.

The eccentric motion runs a contact button back and forth on a half moon shaped circuit board with a two traces on it. I found some arcing / carbon build up at one end of the arc, essentially connecting the traces together.

A bit of scraping away the carbon and reassembly, and the wiper motor works correctly again.

Then more contortionist fun was had getting the motor back in place and hooked up to the linkages and wiring. By then, the ribs on the smoker were done and it was time for dinner.

 

Always doing stuff but don't take pictures. Unloaded the little stock 273 from the truck that I - THANKFULLY - didn't leave with the engine builder that put together my stock hi-po 273 block - don't ask - expensive lesson learned.

 

I have a pair of 15 x 8 Fenton wheels that I am using on the rear. So I cleaned the bolt holes up and had some washers to fit the recess in the wheel. I have to use an open end lug nut so I cut some Cragar Super Trick lugs down to size and added a nice heavy washer so they are good to go. View attachment 5081257

 

Finished my T5 adapter plate and test fitted it. Worked great.

 

I recovered my visors and seat backs.

 

I'll be switching thermostats to 160 from 180 since the weather is going into the eighty's.

I like to run the 180 degree t-stat in the winter, even though I don't drive the car much during this time of the year.

Once the salt hits the road, my car stays in until the spring showers wash it all away..

 

Guess I'm going to Blain's for my exhaust

 

Fixed the standing way tall fake radiator neck on my buddy's "not actually a Walker" radiator. Fun sneaking the torch in to melt the solder around all the new paint and chrome. Cut it down about 3/16" and bedded it down in some JB. Looks better now. I did some work on both my '35 and '47; but nothing interesting.

 

Get together at an Elks lodge, my son and I were amongst the 75 who showed up.

 

I drove mine, just like yesterday and the day before and the day before and....to the store, to work, everywhere in between.

Tomorrow’s plan is to drive it again and the day after and the day after that and....

 

Changed out the Scorpion intake for a Tarantula.

 

Big deal, fixed a small gas seep in the hard line hose to carb assembly.No gas smell on Tuesday, gas smell on Wednesday....

 

How did you like Buena Park ?

 

Got the new windshield set back in place on the Corvette with the new base gasket. I also ran a good bead of 3M Auto Bedding and Glazing Compound. I had to throw in the towel on getting some of the mounting bolts cinched up, I was getting real mad. The bolts 4 closest to the doors are a real b..ch, no room at all on the back ones. Well tomorrow is another day.

 

Redesigned and redid my 38 ford hood sides. Welded, bodywork and getting ready for paint

 

Took off the mid 80s air cleaner,valve covers and distributor cap and wires off the 302 in the custom 500 and made it look like a 1970 302 again except it still has a electronic ignition.

 

Bigger

 

Went up to the shop and started to form the filler panels around the grille on my '47. After a little learning curve on the new welder it promptly ran out of wire. Evidently my friend burned up most of the tiny sample roll that came with the new red welder. Cleaned up and headed out then on the drive home I realized there was almost a whole 10 lb roll of .023 still inside the dead Miller. I'm guessing that is pretty much the same as the .025 wire that the Lincoln came with.

 

Picked up my balanced rotating assembly