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

very simple
had a new seal put in my speedo cable to gearbox

 

From the BillyBob Shop log.

August 2nd 2021 Took longer than I thought it would to clean the eight nailhead piston assemblies but I've always been over optimistic regarding deadlines. The piston assemblies are now clean and will be set aside. Updated the procedure for the nailhead piston assembly cleanup along the way for future reference.

1) Remove the rings; 2) Disassemble piston assembly; 3) Submerge all parts in Oileater parts washer for an hour; 4) Submerge piston in Chem-Dip for thirty minutes; 5) Remove remaining carbon on piston top with brass wire wheel in electric die grinder; 6) Go over rest of piston with the Scotchbrite buffs in the Dremel tool; 7) Clean ring grooves; 8 ) Submerge all parts in an ultrasonic cleaner session, 99 minutes 80 degrees C; 9) Submerge rod, cap, wrist pin and bolts in Evapo-Rust for up to twenty-four hours; 10) Shine up the piston again with another, shorter, wire wheel and Scotchbrite buff session; 11) Give all parts a light coating of Marvel Mystery Oil and reassemble loosely.

Beer of the day was Madtree Brewing Company's Happy Amber amber ale. Background music was Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band's Live on.

 

Where did you pick this up? Looks really nice. Would like to see it installed.

 

Thanks, I found it at Affordablestreetrods.com
I wanted something nice to mount the tach to the column, rather than the normal hose clamp setup. I saw one at the last socal open house and had been looking for one when I found them at affordable street rods. It’s going to be a while before it’s mounted, so I attached the photo of the car that i got the idea from.

 

Drove it to the liquor store!

 

From the BillyBob Shop log

August 3rd 2021 Crankshaft, main bearings and caps are next on the to-do list. Cleaning is first, then measuring what we have. I'm in deep ponder mode and taking some YouTube continuing education courses. Beer of the day is Nebraska Brewing Company's Nebraska PILS Pilsner Lager and background music was Cream of Clapton.

 

Took the roadster out for a ride last evening. While giving it a flogging, it started to backfire at high rev. Was ticking on the ride back. Pulled the cover this am. Another bent pushrod.
Poor ol engine seen duty in a 54 chevy, 66 impala, 4x4 mud truck, and now the roadster. Screwed it together about 30 years ago. Oh well. Gonna patch it back up and hopefully get the new motor together before too long.

 

I cut my 47 running boards to fit my 48 fenders and re welded the flanges. I think they look nice. I'm just making everything fit so I can break it down to prime.

 

From the BillyBob Shop log

August 4th 2021 Started with the main bearing caps, using an abbreviated procedure that I used to clean the rods. All these caps are stamped with a number and arrow so I can batch clean them without worrying about mixing them up. Segments of the rear seal were still in the sides of the rear main cap so, I have to dig that out first.

My friend, David Kerry, a professional performance engine builder and fabricator, had several concerns after viewing the pic of the crank and mains.

"That crank needs micro polishing, the oil holes need chamfering please tell me you are not using those old bearings ? The wear pattern indicates the block needs line honing."

I'm gonna try to address those concerns but probably not to everybody's satisfaction, 'cept mine. Easiest first. When I got back to the shop, I located and blew the dust off my Starrett straightedge along with my thinnest feeler gauge (0.0015"). Tried to slip the feeler gauge under the straightedge in four places (both sides, front and back) of each main bearing journal, It didn't go under anywhere. I'm happy with that result.

Chamfering the oil holes was under my radar. I hadn't thought about chamfering the oil holes so, I'm researching that now but polishing my crank was always part to the program. The jury's still out on the bearings, both mains and rods.

Beer of the day was Madtree Brewing Company's Lift Crisp Golden Ale. Background music was Duane Allman An Anthology.

 

I gave it away. I lost interest in it a couple of years ago and it was just sitting and collecting dust. My son and I had a lot of fun racing it into the the 1990's. I then put it back on the street and raced it occasionally. He and his wife went on their first date and traveled around the midwest racing it as well. The car means a lot to them so it thats where it belongs.

 

Off With The Olde Wheels And On With The Olde Wheels....

 

Mounted the doors today

 

New wheels, tires, caps.

 

Got it off the trailer finally

 

Watched my 6’6” buddy stick weld on the 46’ getting ready to replace the upper shock mounts with taller ones. After years of the spring settling the shocks were bottoming out after about an inch and I managed to rip both of them off the frame the last few years flying fast and low on pot holed city streets

 

Assembled the engine, clutch, bell housing, and trans. Slid it in place ! Great day!!

 

drove it for the first time... Put 5 miles on it... Everything checked out okay

 

hope he had jack stands under car or whoops there goes ya legs
recently we had over here someone at 2.30 am get a flat in a Merc SUV
pulled into car park to fix,next morning they found the front wheel off
and him laying under car squashed/dead

 

Jack, stands, more stands, tires and wheels under the car. Shook the shit out of it and waited another hour before any one got near it. I don’t even like being under a car on stands

 

That little truck looks great!
I love the swoop st the bottom of the cab.
Very cool!

 

Congrats!

 

I had a Oly beer tapper handle on my T Roadster for a shifter handle/knob, but it was too tall and the corner of it poked me in the thigh. Being a chronic tightwad I couldn't imagine just "buying" one, oh, no. Looked around the shop for anything that might be interesting or work. After about 2 or 3 hours of fiddling around I ended up with the "knob" pictured below. My guess is you'll maybe need to be 55+ years old to know what it was for, or to have ever used some of them.

Lynn

 

Yep, I have 3 or 4 in the bottom drawer of my tool box. I know I'll never use them but I can't seem to get rid of them.

 

I got Lance to help me put in motor and trans mounts. I tried doing it all myself out in the backyard on dirt last summer, with the cab on, but ended up getting them cockeyed by about an inch. So I pulled the cab off, swallowed my pride and asked for assistance. That's why we're Busch AND Busch, lol. Lance got them stuck on quickfast and now things are straight and tight Tomorrow I'll clean off the slag and throw on some primer. Stoked to get a major step done!

 

I know I know!

Hint 1/2" square drive

Looks good!

 

Yup. I was able to get the 1/2" square flats kinda threaded to 5/8"-11 and JB Welded in a short piece of 5/8" all-thread that was drilled and tapped to 3/8"-16 to screw onto the shift lever. Lots of messing around to keep from buying a $8 shift knob.

I'm thinking it's just as one-off as some of the custom, carved shift knobs though.

Lynn

 

I donated one to hopefully a good home.

 

Cleaned up the shop and cut down this used up cutting Matte for a new work bench cover buddy brought by some gas caps for me to try out on the model A project. Not sure what they are. The center cap shown is stock model A used the new cutting matte to find they are roughly 3.25 inches across from the tips of the bumps no idea what they are I’m thinking 1920’s and not Ford? Don’t seem to be vented and I think they are standard pipe thread

 

To be truly representative it should probably have some blood on it. Winding those things in was always a knuckle buster.