Projects First flathead project...

What did you use for your seatbelts? How did you install them?

 

I bought them from Julianos.com. First ordered four color samples and then chose 'tan'. Purchased retractable shoulder belts with lift-latch buckles as well as a middle passenger lap belt.

Just lap belts would have been really easy. They simply bolt through the floor anywhere with nuts welded onto backing plates (supplied with the kit.) Mounting the shoulder belt to the B-pillar was more complicated of course but the principle's the same. Julianos sells a square steel bar that slips up into the hollow B-pillar with a threaded hole for the mounting bolt. Removing the interior trim to access the B-pillar and then trimming to fit the bolt hole and retracter took some time. I decided to mount it as high as reasonable and actually drilled out nuts for the assist straps that were welded into the B-pillars by Ford but never used on this model. There was some interference with the rear window frame but I solved that solved that by stacking some washers between the pivot and the bolt. There was still sufficient thread engagement, more than if it had been held on by a nut. Julianos has some reasonable good instructions on their website.

Julianos recommends drilling holes into the bar and using small screws to retain it in the B-pillar until the mounting point bolt is in. After breaking three drill bits I gave up on that and had my wife use her slender fingers to hold it in place while I installed the shoulder belt.

Probably took a day altogether to this. Most of that time was spend staring, poking, fiddling and test-fitting. The second shoulder belt went in in about a quarter of the time of the first. Happy to do this without any welding on the B-pillars since everything is trimmed out and painted.

Overall pleased with the quality of the parts, the support from Julianos, difficulty of installation and the results. They work fine driving down the road. Glad to get this done. Wouldn't have any hesitation about doing it again the same way.

 

Completed a minor project. Was running a 6V electric fuel pump in series with an inoperable mechanical fuel pump. The mechanical fuel pump is a cheap import with pressed in check valves that are not easily replaceable. Decided not to rebuild it but instead bought a better vintage core with replaceable check valves. Rebuilt the vintage core and installed it. Works great. Now able to drive without an electric fuel pump. It's a non-glass-bowl pump. One problem is the brass filter screen. As far as I can tell, no one makes a replacement. Tried to simply layer the old screen frame and new screen but now the seal between the bowl and cap leaks, undoubtedly because I tried layering. I'll just take out the old screen frame and see if that fixes the leak.

Also got rid of all the body squeaks in one shot. It's a business Coupe with a wooden package shelf. None of the screws that secure the wood to the body was installed. Installed the screws and all of the squeaks disappeared. Much more pleasant to drive. It was REALLY annoying.

Also spending a lot of time pulling together a set of parts for 6V LED turn signals, tail lights and brake lights. Have everything now but the actual wire. Thought it would be nice to have a lot of multi-purpose wire around for multiple projects so bought 6 rolls, 100 feet each, of different colored wire on Amazon but failed to carefully read the description. It's 'automotive' but is copper plated aluminum rather than copper. Total crap; that explains the price. Not going to use cheap aluminum wire. Nice to keep it period correct so I'll probably go the other extreme now and order several pieces of cloth covered copper wire. Just need to measure how long each piece should be. I'll 'guesstimate' of course but at $0.60 per foot don't want buy too much. Short on time right now so it's a PITA to change into grease monkey clothes and crawl around on the garage floor for an hour or so with a tape measure. I'll get to it though.

Also REALLY annoying, just when I thought I was really moving forward, on my trip home from my last outing, my generator stopped charging. When I bought the car the voltage regulator wasn't working. Replaced it and everything worked fine for a month. Now after less than 100 miles with the new regulator, it won't charge anymore. Can't say what's wrong without digging into it. Don't have time right now though.

 

Getting to know the car and making progress. Setbacks happen in every project.
While I always encourage diagnosing, in this case I'd get another regulator and 'toss a part' at the issue.
It could be an easy fix or you have a spare for the car. Win-win.

 

Been real busy for the past 3 months on a work project but turned back to cars today. After 3 trips to the DMV I have the car registered with my insanely expensive (the plates, not the registration) 1941 California license plates. Long story short, I alsohave a working voltage regulator. Went on a 40 mile trip this afternoon and came back with a fully charged battery.

When I bought the car, it claimed to have a rebuilt engine but there's no documentation. I'll never know. Anyway, it seems to be strong enough to get the job done. Did the hill climb up Torrey Pines you can see on the first page of this thread. Did 55 mph the whole way at about 3/4 throttle. It had more left. No overheating either. (But it was a cool day, high 65.)

 

Getting better about not crunching gears when shifting. Understand speed matching and double clutching but sometimes I still do it and just don't know why. Other times I'll go through half a dozen start/stop cycles smooth as butter. Unless I get better at this, I really want a 5 speed.

Been chipping away at driveability issues. The worst is the stumble on acceleration. Found out my wipers don't work so suspected a vacuum leak. Disconnected the wiper vacuum and capped the port. Noticeable improvement. Backed out the vacuum drag on the distributor a half turn. Another noticeable improvement. Stumble is still there though. Thinking about advancing the base timing a degree or two.

Was following a group from my car club, mostly Fords with SBCs and found myself on Interstate 5 for 3 miles. First time I'd gone 65 mph in the car. Didn't like it too much. Drive train handled it OK even though it was revving high. Even though everything seems to work as designed, the straight axle front suspension and 16x4 tires didn't inspire a whole lot of confidence at that speed. Every bump felt like the beginning of a roll-over.

Still original looking except for the clunky chrome fuel pressure regulator. Sticks out like a sore thumb on an otherwise original car. I'll try backing the regulator all the way out to see what the mechanical fuel pump's top pressure is. If it's too high I'll work on stepping up the fuel pump base or looking for a shorter pushrod.

 

Thats a great lookin car, congrats. You really should not have to be double clutching, your trans is synchro'd in 2 & 3, and must be a bit worn out. Try shifting at lower RPM's. Even 1st gear will go right in after you memorize what speed to do it. If you had a good stock tranny, then I would look at a columbia overdrive for the highway

 

Original plan was a T5 conversion. It's more involved than I anticipated when I bought the car what with the torque tube and frame clearance. Got really tired of crunchy gears with the 3-on-the-tree.

That said, I decided to rebuild the transmission.

Poking around I wondered if the clutch might not be disengaging fully. Checked the pedal travel specification and sure enough, it wasn't. Adjusted the pedal travel to spec and no more crunchy gears! Awesome! I now have a synchronized transmission and no more double-clutching required. Shifts like a hot knife through butter. The T5 conversion is permanently canceled. Following the advice to take things slow, I'm getting closer and closer to keeping it as stock and un-modified as possible.

Columbia overdrive is on the wish list now.

 

Not to be ugly or start a fuss but....... "tilt-out windshield" don't cool for squat when you're caught in a rain storm and bumper-to-bumper traffic on the freeway in Hot-lanta!
My ride is NOT air conditioned and I have melted or...just let the durn interior GET wet... and downed the window.. !
Sometimes going 'old skool' has a cost I guess.
6sally6

 

It's YOUR CAR....not mine but...............
I would add another tail light like the stock one.
It would solve a multitude of issues.
Better visibility.....working turn signals.... brake lights....no issues with night driving...and gives a wayyyy more balanced look to the rear.
Is there enough room inside the light housing to install an additional bulb? Did that to my 66 "M-word" and greatly increased the visibility at night.
Also discovered you can NEVER have too many ground wires on a Ford. Larger cables have already been mentioned but do you have a ground wire from the engine block to the frame AND the body? Flat braided wire works best for this. Is the starter grounded to the frame?
Relays to the lights will give the lights MORE voltage and make them brighter. Older cars really benefits from this. Ya get FULL 6 volts to the lights using relays. One for high beams and one for low beams.
Love your ride......
6sally6

 

Working my way through electrical. Bought a digital multimeter and a NOS voltage regulator. With the multimeter easy to see the charging voltage. My old analog multimeter had a 25v sweep and just wasn't precise enough to tell what was going on. Just before that I rebrushed the generator. Probably didn't have to. My second voltage regulator was probably OK too.

Very frustrated with hard starting when hot. Sometimes won't even turn over. Restarting after stopping for gas is very iffy. Undid and wire-brushed all the connections and added star washers. Ready to do a 12v conversion. Did some posts on Ford Barn and finally noticed someone specifically mention a firewall to engine ground. Looked and looked for the connection and couldn't find it. Checked the EFV8 green book and looked at some pictures on the web. Found the stud on the firewall tucked under the wiring loom and low and behold, nothing was connected to it. That's the second small but important part I've discovered had been left off by whoever restored it maybe 10 years ago.

Bought a braided strap and connected it. Magic. Car now turns over when hot just like when cold. Can't believe it took me so long to figure that out. 12v conversion is permanently canceled.

 

Raymond Loewy also designed the Styled Farmall tractors in 1939.

 

Raymond Loewy also designed the Styled Farmall tractors in 1939!

 

Cool! I never get enough of art deco and streamline moderne design.

Went to a new cruise-in this morning at Rancho Santa Fe, California, an affluent neighborhood. Lots of Porsches, Ferraris, C8 Corvettes, Lamborghinis and other super cars. A generous handful of Shelby Mustangs too.

Drove 25 miles each way to have my '41 Ford there. There were only two other fat-fendered cars besides mine: a late '30s Hudson street rod and a late 30's Mercedes.

I was late and couldn't "power-park." Was off to the side. It was great fun though. My '41 Ford was probably the least valuable car there.

Was wearing my SoCal Speed Shop jacket and got a comment that I had the coolest jacket.

 

your old 41 probably has a lot better stories than any of those parking lot princesses.

 

That could be. Since everyone I met was polite, I'll be the same. There were some very nice cars there.

I've shared this on FordBarn as SoCalCoupe but I have another major drivability story. I rebuilt the Holley 94 myself to try to cure the hesitation and stumbling. Better but not great. There are some great people out there who can do it right but I couldn't resist and went out instead and bought a brand new genuine Stromberg 97. It was like putting a new engine in the car!

A couple of months later I saw an Eddie Meyer hi-rise on eBay with two Stromberg 81's. Couldn't resist that either. Here it is:

Took a while to get it tuned but it's doing pretty good right now.

The main point is that I bought the car with a lot of modifications in mind. 12V and T5 being the biggest ones, maybe even fuel injection. I took the advice here and took it slow. It was a real pig to drive when I got it home. Unlike then, I now have synchronized gears, no nasty stumbling and hesitation, and on-demand starting even when hot. I'm keeping the 6v system and 3-on-the-tree. Now that I have it, it would be simply sacrilegious to replace an authentic 30's-40's Eddie Meyer setup with fuel injection. It's tradition and having taken my time I've made it work like it's supposed to.

The direction now is make it a 1940's pre-war or post-war period correct hot rod. Problem is, nearly all the cars of that type before the 50's were roadsters. EXCEPT: moonshine runners. The look was a totally stock car not worth a second glance, but under the hood and in the chassis, something capable of out-running the law while carrying 100 gallons (800 pounds) of homemade (un-taxed) whiskey without tail dragging. That's 400 1 qt Mason jars. Have to think about that. There's room.

I'm a North Carolina native, home of Junior Johnson, Richard Petty and Ricky Bobby.

 

keep fixing the things that you don't like by confirming proper stock operation before tossing new stuff at it.
That bad feeling at 65 MPH might be loose parts and/or alignment, or tires. Take it to a competent shop that can handle straight axles and bias ply tires (not the chain shop advertising in the local paper) and have everything eyeballed by a pro. Note that I5 and I8 have concrete sections that are grooved for rain runoff that will cause some funky pulling. Try it out at speed on a section of asphalt too.
This one is tacky flat plastic, but you get the idea...
even better if it's made of copper tubing

 

Thanks for all the encouragement to keep it stock. That's keeping it real. This is a 6V car as long as I own it. Now that it works right, I'll preserve the old technology. The dual carbs are just for personal satisfaction; they don't address a problem, they're just kool. The goal is a period-correct hot rod like it would have been in the 40's or early 50's. Except the engine is internally a bone stock 221 cid flathead as far as I know. Might be bored .030 over, don't know. It will stay stay that way. Runs great, no motivation to change anything. For more power, all I have to do is buy a GM crate motor (and a new chassis to handle the torque.)

Turned my attention to an overheating problem. The needle kept going to the right and occasionally pegged on 'H'. Odd, but there was no overflow and no steam. Decided to buy an infrared heat gun and saw that I was running at 185 deg. So, appeared to be an indicator problem rather than an overheating problem. Ended up buying a NOS Lincoln King Sealdy temperature sensor. That fixed it. Temperature gauge and infrared heat gun now match. There is no overheating.

Next three projects: 1. fuel gauge, working on the K-S sender unit, might already have it fixed, 2. Have a pair of Eddie Meyer heads I couldn't resist, will have to install some new head studs for this one, 3. Bought a bee-hive oil filter, it looks so kool!

 

Safety issue. Looked at the date codes on my tires and see they're 22 years old. Planning on taking this car 60-70 mph on the freeway; not gonna do it with 22 year old tires. Understand from multiple unrelated sources that the risks go way up even on high quality tires past 10 years, even earlier for lower quality tires. My reproduction bias-plies are probably not the highest quality. Ordered a set of new Diamondback piecrust cheater radials that should arrive Monday. They're blackwalls. The whitewalls look great on the right car but I'm keeping the original Ford Special strippo look on this car, which it is.

 

It's a great car. I really like that you are methodically addressing the issues you encounter and correcting them, getting to know the car and what to expect from something vintage. Good stuff.

 

Finally got the new radials mounted and, after a few glitches, operational. Even though they're tubeless tires, I bought tubes with them figuring I wouldn't want to take a chance on them working with 82-year-old wheels. Long story short, had a lot of trouble with tubes, including a tire shop that was pretty unfamiliar with tubes. Ended up mounting one of the fire tires tubeless. Much to my surprise it works fine. Not going to go to the trouble of removing the tubes from the other tires, but, if I get another flat, I'll first attempt to have the tire mounted tubeless.

 

Put about 1500 miles on the car since I bought it 18 months ago. Surprisingly, the engine compartment and chassis were getting a little dirty. Bought a gallon of Simple Green and package of microfiber towels and started getting things cleaned up. Found that one of the U-bolts on the front spring was loose. It's 9/16"-18 thread so seemed like a safe torque spec without knowing the grade as 75 ft-lb. Torqued them up using an x-pattern. Amazing! The front end previously had an annoying jitter when going over bumps that I'd written off as just a characteristic of a solid front axle. Wrong! It was the loose U-bolt. The ride is now much more predictable and pleasant. Not like a new a car but definitely better.

Other projects on my long punch list:
1. rebuild the generator again, electrically it works fine but it's the nosiest thing under the hood, sounds like a bad bearing
2. add a bee-hive oil filter with the return line to a banjo fitting on the distributor
3. add a longer throttle shaft and fitting on one of my Stromberg 81 carbs to reattach the dash throttle knob
4. get control parts for my Columbia rear end
5. prepare to replace head studs that are too short for my Eddie Meyer cylinder heads
6. etc., etc., etc......

 

Great little car!

 

Thanks Dreddybear!

Thought I had the heat soaked cranking problem resolved but it reared it's ugly head again. I was really concerned about stalling in traffic and not being able to get it to crank.

Had a no-name 6V battery that was dealer-installed. Finally found the battery company on-line. It had uniformly horrible reviews. Took the battery into O'Reilly's for testing. It was all used up.

That was my excuse to buy the 6V Optima I've been wanting. Even had a fake battery box made just for in my parts stash.

Wow! It was like a 12V conversion! The starter spins MUCH, MUCH faster now, even when heat soaked. The car starts instantly hot or cold. All I have to do is THINK about touching the starter button and it's running.

 

I like how the little things you find and fix make the car a little better. She's thanking you for bringing new life and love to her

 

Started getting a hiccup under hard acceleration. So momentary it seemed more like ignition than fuel. At idle thought I could hear sparking from inside the distributor. Pulled off the helmet distributor and checked the point gap (it's the only practical way to do it.) On these old cars, the real specification is a dwell that you check manually with a special tool. There's also a quick rule of thumb to set the points at 0.012" -0.014". One set of points was WAY less than that, maybe 0.005 or less. Reset them to roughly 0.012". WAY BETTER! Sparking noise is going. Spark had probably been jumping the gap. Acceleration hiccup is gone. Not only that the engine has noticeably more power and and is noticeably smoother and quieter at all speeds. I think I'm to the point that I'd trust this car to go anywhere like my daily driver.

Didn't necessarily have to, but I couldn't resist buying the helmet distributor tool. Got real lucky and found one with the original stand, tool kit, instructions and even the box!

I'll take the distributor off again and set it to the real spec with my new toy.

 

Finally played around with the timing fixture this weekend. Also had a copy of Flathead Facts by the late John W. Lawson by my side. Using the tool to set the dwell, it was really close so left it the way it was. One set of points had poor contact so took some sandpaper to them. Cleaned right up. Timing was at about 3 deg BTDC.

Lawson says when running Strombergs on a high-rise manifold taking 4 deg of timing out really wakes up the car. Did that and sure enough it does plus is runs smoother and quieter. Hopefully it will improve gas mileage too. It was 12 mpg either city or highway.

Idle speed has been hunting. Can't find any vacuum leaks. Maybe idle mixture set too lean? Fattened up the idle about quarter turn on each screw. Had to back off the idle speed screws quit a bit to slow it down. That seemed to do the trick. Idle speed hunting seems to be gone.

 

Sounds good. Idle mixture is feel or use a vacuum gauge. Lean (in) tends to shake, Rich (out) tends to roll. Right on the money will be smoothest and highest vacuum number. Sounds like it was lean, so you may not see a MPG jump, but it should run a bit cooler and happier. I like it to be a touch lean, for a bit better MPG, easier starting when warm, and cleaner plugs.

Also, I want to mention that the last few posts really sound like you are getting 'the feel' for how it should run and when there is a problem. That is something that can't be taught over text, and you seem to have picked it up pretty quickly. It seems like the car has a great caretaker who is attuned to it's needs. Happy for both of you!

 

The head replacement project with Eddie Meyer finned aluminum heads has been deep frozen. Started to replace them at the beginning of August and now, two months later, am back to square one.

The Eddie Meyer heads required longer studs. Got the old heads off, bought an induction heating tool to be a rust buster but after getting 10 studs out, one broken and one stuck, I gave up. Was really, really discouraged. Thought I was going to have to take the engine out and send it to a machine shop. Finally got the broken stud out with some reverse drill bits. End of story. Went into full reverse from there.

After that, since the cooling system was drained I flushed it really good with Evaporust Thermocure. Great stuff! Probably got several pounds of rust and sludge out of the car. Maybe if I'd used it before trying to remove the studs I'd have had more success. We'll never know. Just not going to risk any more broken studs with the engine in the car.

Replaced all the removed studs with bolts. Used thread sealer to reinstall the original heads. Everything's fine.

Chalk one failed project up to experience. Could have been a lot worse.