Projects Just picked up a family project

Yeah that was my plan. I'm a sheet metal worker so I should have the tools to make it look good.

 

Okay, it's been a busy week at work and the weather has been cold and rainy. My tires came in Wednesday with a bit of a surprise.


6 tires when I ordered 4. 2 of them were for a fella in new Orleans and the wrong size so Coker is sending me return labels. My brother is putting the new tires on tommorow and the 4 old tires will become a strawberry patch for the wife.

Pulled the hacked up reverse flowing electric fan and flushed the rad and block out. Did my best to solder the radiator which I've never done and it turned out good. Info have experience soldering copper as I work on a lot of boilers at work. Ran some blue devil rust flush because the head looked to be pretty rusty inside. During the hour long idle with the flush in it the temps were much lower than they were in the past. Not sure if that's due to the 100% water, the lack of plastic electric fan obstruction, or the fact it can hold pressure now but I'm crossing my fingers and hoping I don't have cooling issues. Goal is to button up my mile long punch list from. All the work I've done this far and put some miles in it this weekend.

 

You are doing good. Keep up the good work.

Thanks,

jim

 

Finished a good half of my punch list tonight. Focused on the essentials to put some miles on tomorrow. Things like securing the fuel line, protecting and checking brake lines and wires from rubbing, fitting the hub caps. Holy cow the rear hub caps that are different were the biggest fight I've had in a while. They are ever so slightly different front the others and for some reason you can just chase them around and around the rim. I was able to adjust the prongs so they were very tight and prevent them from popping and then finesse them on with a towel and dead blow.

But the best part was getting it on the ground with 4 new shoes!

 

The 56 Olds caps are just right, In my opinion.

 

Very kool! The choice of tires and wheel covers makes it perfect in my opinion. Looks like your dog is inspecting your work.

 

No, he is just eating a bug lol.
Thank you, I think it looks great myself!

 

Those 6 volt horns will work fine in 12 bolts, you don't just lay on them a long time. I'm using mine on my 47 Lincoln.

 

Thanks for the tip. I read that they will sound funny.

 

I run the factory horns on my 53 with a 12V conversion. They do sound a little off (flat), but work fine.

 

I never heard mine on 6v, but they are loud on 12v !

 

Since I've gotten a huge portion of important stuff sorted I've slowed down a bit. Trying to leave something to enjoy and spend some time with the family on Easter weekend. My plan is to spend the next few weeks leading up to vintage torque fest installing the modifications such as the olds tails lights, c pillar trim, possibly the lowering stuff.
I did however manage to make a really silly mistake.

The thermostats are a trick too keep in and if it falls out...well this is what happens. It was half because I was in a hurry and half because I wasn't thinking it through. So it was 100% because I was in a hurry I suppose. But I had a liglghtbuob go off and I ran and went through her grandpa's parts box and found a new housing and 2 new gaskets. Its things like that that make this car worth having even more. It was like him saying..."oh I've got one of those and why don't you use these new gaskets too". I'll certainly be adding a new one back to the parts collection. I ended up using a peice of wording wire to hook the thermostat and hold it in place while I lowered it down. Filled up with coolant and leak free.
I also took the time to drop the fuel tank and install the rubber for tank straps and the wiring for the fuel gauge. I some how missed the fact that there is a trap door under the trunk to get to the sending unit from above. That is nice to know for future use. I ran the new wires and hook them up and the fuel gauge still wasn't working. I tested the sending unit and was reading 30 ohms at about 3/4 full, I tested the connector to the gauge to ground and I was getting 10ohms. I was confident that it was a bad connection. I installed new terminals and just like that we have a working fuel gauge!
Since we have all the crossed t's and dotted i's I asked the wife if she wanted to hop in and go get some dinner. Man the Overdrive is a dream and I can't imagine not having it. Car will do 70 smooth. I don't what the Rs are but it didn't seem like it was working too hard. We also found a nice little spot to snap a picture. I made it black and white because the white walls are still blue.

 

I just want to add that although the car looks incredible at first look there is definitely some things that need attention body wise. There are areas with huge chunks of bondo that are cracking. Some sports it looks like they used metal scraps behind the fender to make a backing for Bondo. Many of the spots I can't get a fairly strong magnet to stick. There are some spots under the rocker that are starting to bubble up and the supports behind the rockers are rotting away. All in all this makes me happy because I know I have a reason to do some metal work.

 

Small update and video from the brake upgrade.
My blinkers stopped working again so I need to dig into that and I'm pretty sure my oil pressure sensor is t working because it only reads 80 psi or nothing. 2 things to add to the list. Also found that simply putting new tires on had the biggest impact on driving quality I've ever experienced. Idk if it was because they were old or if it's because the tires were too wide for the rims but the car really doesn't feel.much different than a typical car now.

 

Coming along nicely. I had to redo all of those floor supports and the inner rockers on my '52 as well, and I managed to do it without burning any of the paint off of the outside but it took a while and was a pain. Still though, if you're careful it's a job you can accomplish and get out of the way without committing to a paint job right away.

 

Honestly that's not a bad idea. My problems is I worked in a body shop that did classic cars so every car was just frame off complete redo. Sometimes I have a hard time thinking small.

 

I know what you mean, but sometimes, that rabbit hole goes deep. Sometimes it's nice to piecemeal the big tasks so you don't cripple the car for too long.

Also, my philosophy for cars with not-that-great paint and bodywork is to drive them until they NEED paint. Really wear it out, see how long you can go. What have you got to lose?

 

Yeah that's kind of what I meant when I said it made me happy that is has some issues. I'm going to enjoy driving the heck out of it and drive it right out of the bondo haha.

 

Been a slow week on the car. The kid got the flu and I've been busy at work. It's warming up and spring PMs are taking off.
I did decide to pull a tail lens off and see what I can see with the olds light. I got lucky and found that 2 of the holes were busted through on the original so it was begging to fall off


I'm not a huge fan of how the olds tail doesn't fill out the trim. I've been thinking that through.


I was thinking of going of center and making some sort of trim to go under the tail but I'm not really sold on that either.

 

I saw a guy once hog out the center of the original Ford lens until all that was left was the outer ring, then put the Olds lens in the center. Not exactly sure how he did it but the result looked really good, it filled the bezel up perfectly and didn't look out of place. I wish I had a picture of it.

 

I read that somewhere and looked at them trying to figure that out. The thing the concerns me about that is it seems like it might cover the scew access. I might try it and see what happens though. I also have some brass plate laying around that would make a nice trim peice.

 

It's possible that the outer ring was made to slide on second, like the Olds lens went on and then the Ford ring was a slip fit over the top, I'm not exactly sure how it worked. Maybe they were glued together? I just remember seeing it and it was very nicely executed, looked really good.

 

I made a pair of lenses for my 53 using the same Olds lenses . I ground down the edge of the Olds lens till it fit snuggly into the stock Ford Lens and the drilled through the original Olds mounting holes and through the ford lens and into the taillamp housing and used a longer trim screws to got through both lens and int the housing

 

Hmm I'll have to try that. At first look it seemed like you wouldnt have enough material left if you tried to fit it into the Ford lense. I like that idea though.

 

I figured I'd toss the tail light debacle into the better done than perfect category and knock them out on this fine Friday night. I can always alter them in the future. And to assist in making alterations in the future I used a template so they are both the same.








I will say I did attempt to trim down the broken Ford lens and not only would it not fit how I liked it also cracked in the process. No big deal..like I said. Better done than perfect for now.

 

I'd say you nailed it!

 

We took her for the first cruise yesterday and stopped to snap a picture. You can see the wife and kid bombed the photo with their feet


We did about 75 miles and it was 80 out with no overheating. We however were overheating because the heat blows off the heater core still. I think that's got something to do with the ripped boots under the hood or maybe the dampers. The damper into the core closes so I'm not really sure. Something I need to investigate. Luckily it's going to be cool next weekend so my trip to VTF should be comfy with the heat stuck on lol.

Stopped a buddies and he was tossing out this Schlitz cooler. Figure it would look cool in the trunk and I threw a disposable insert in for now but I plan to fix it up.


We also stopped in a back road and showed wifey how to drive 3 on the tree. She can drive manuals and motorcycles so it was more just learning the pattern and feeling the clutch out. Plus getting used to no power steering and brakes. She did good.


After getting back to town we stopped for pizza and while eating I guy was out checking out car. We could see him through the window. He came inside and went table to table asking who owned a 53 Ford. Once he made his way to us he told us a story about his first car being a 53 Ford being his first car and how he backed out and got hit by a tractor and totaled it. Very cool to hear the story and feel good that we brought some memories back to the old timer. That's my favorite part about owning stuff like this.
Also while we were out we seen several others out cruising, I 40s Ford and early 40s Chevy and maybe a 57 Bel-Air. The kid was excited that we were in a wave club with other car lol.

 

I ended up doing the Olds lenses the same way, I like it just fine, although I still wish I would have gotten a picture of how those other lenses fit into the cut down Ford ones. Nice to see it on the road. My first car was a '53 Ford just like your dinner-crasher, although I still have mine.

 

I love to hear the stories. All the old cars and bikes I've had are always the best conversation starters. Most people are just closed in their shell and ignore other people but being evale to just have a chat with a random person is good for the mind and soul.

 

It's yours, you do what you want but I think with the color on the car, some gold, orange and white old school flames would look good.