History Old hot rod found!

Besides some extra parts, John got a lot of the old paperwork for this rod, including receipts for parts and machine work done. Just cost 44 bucks to bore the 8 cylinders in the flathead block! The machine shop shown on the receipts is still going strong in this area. Oh if we could only bring back 1973 rod-building costs!

 

You did the same thing I would have done......Put it in the living room...LOL

 

Here are a couple of shots of John's other hot rod - a nice 39 Ford two door that he has had for 15 or more years. He drives this car everywhere, and it has proven to be very reliable.

 

Here is a cool shot John took of his ride beside a 38 Ford coupe known as the Bloody Mary, and a 36 Ford coupe - yes, it is in black and white.

 

It wont start and you wonder why it never was started??

I think I would tear the engine down, checking everything until I found the problem. Forcing the engine to run with unknown problems is going to break something. 40 years is too long to sit without something seizing.
The valve springs that have been compressed for 40 years will never return to full height. Tear down, inspect

 

I think John has now solved the problem, but thanks for the advice. Here is another pic of John's 39 tudor alongside his buddy Murray's 38 Ford coupe.

 

John and Murray are true back yard hot rodders - here they are putting a motor in Murray's coupe - a 39 with 38 front sheet metal.

 

Here is Murray's former ride - a real nice and very close to original 40 Ford coupe. Bet he regrets letting that one go.

 

Nice find, but I have one question, if it's a ford chassis, ford motor, gearbox and diff and a chev body, what is it? Or do you just call it a hotrod?

 

John calls it a "Chev bucket".

 

Thats a great find ! happy driving

 

Yummm! Best find of the month!

 

yes, it was a good find, and John will have some updates on his progress with the car very soon.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyUse7DCHnE

Here it is, the video of this old flathead engine running for the first time in over 40 years. John has been working hard on this all winter and got the 46 Ford flattie purring. Only problem so far is a leaky radiator, so that will be fixed.

 

That's great!
Sounds really good.
Should be driving it soon now.

 

Here is that beautiful flathead motor that is shown running in the video posted yesterday. John has done a great job of getting this motor to run so well after it sat dormant for decades. Next step is to finish off the rest of the details on this old rod to get it out on the street.

 

Hmmm, a ford powered chev, bet all his chevy friends have to go for councelling twice a week.
This is a very cool rod.Great story , thanks

 

This dude HAS to have the most understandable wife on the planet ! When I wanted to close in the single-car garage, but still be able to drive into it, she threatened castration, evacuation, separation, all leading to an otherwise shitty existence.................................I gave in.

 

Another pic, this one from the rear. Now that the flathead motor is running, it will not be long before the Chev bucket can head out on the road. The pic showing the side of the rod was taken just before John fired the motor for the first time - amazing that this flathead had been assembled in the early 70's but never fired until now.

 

As we said at the beginning of the thread, when John got this old rod it came with a lot of parts that had not been installed, including friction shocks for the front. The pic shows John did a nice job of fabricating brackets to mount these shocks - they now look like they belong there! He also installed a new fuel pump and a 12 volt solenoid - to make it easier to jump start the motor that retains a 6 volt system. It has all worked out and John has this old flathead running smoothly.

 

That's a really neat little car! Patience pays off once again!

 

Yes, it does, and John has been steadily making progress. Don't know how many of you have seen it, but in case you have not, the video link of John firing the old flathead up for the first time in 40 years is in post #134 of this thread. Have a look!

 

what was the problem when this wouldn't start? nice to see it coming along!

 

Wow, lucky find for you, you did well.

 

So I asked John to send me a list of the things he had to do to get the engine running. All of this involved a lot of tinkering over a few months - if you look at the video of the start up of the engine, it looks like it was easy! Anything but, to get to that stage took a lot of effort on John's part.

He pre-oiled the engine to make sure there was oil pressure at cranking speed. Wired the distributor and coil and adjusted the timing. Removed the heads and oiled the cylinder walls and lifters. The number 6 cylinder had low compression so John squirted penetrating oil down it and cranked the engine over to free up the rings. He then installed new gaskets and torqued the heads down to specs. Added gas and water. Installed a 12 volt start relay so he could jump it with a 12 volt battery using a remote starting switch. This way only the starter got the 12 volts, and the car still runs on 6 volts. The reason for this was the engine would not turn over fast enough on 6 volts to fire. That problem should disappear as the engine gets broken in.

There is still a problem with a leaky radiator, and the transmission gets stuck in gear. Also a serious oil leak between the trans and torque tube - so there is still a lot of tinkering to do to get the car on the road. But I guess this is what you would expect when the old hot rod has been sitting around for over 40 years. As John says, "there is still lots to do!!".

 

I wonder where those LEGS go to???

 

Great to see this car ended up in good hands. It's pretty amazing it didn't end up with a SBC at some point in the '70s or '80s.

Is this a Stewart Warner sign in the background?

 

John determined that the sign does indeed say "Stewart Warner Sales Co. Ltd.", and underneath is another sign stating "Automotive Accessories". Even more interesting is that by making the picture larger, it is also possible to spot a "First Prize" sticker firmly planted on the windshield of the Chev bucket. Must refer to the category the rod was in during the parade, as various awards are handed out. Now if we could only find the trophy that the rod won that year back in the early 70's!

 

You can see in this photo posted earlier in the thread that the tow car has a sign saying "Pacers Car Club". The two guys in the hot rod are wearing what appear to be club jackets. I have heard of this club being around the Victoria, B.C. area in the 60's, and wonder if any of the local guys who were around then remember anything about the history of this club. Would sure be nice to see a club plaque or jacket. Anybody got one, or have any other photos of this club in action?