Hey guys! Yeah its funny the kids think this is normal to get a pile of parts like this, and turn it into something fun! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Yesterday was a good day. Over the weekend I had planned on pulling the engine, thinking maybe something was stuck in the bellhousing, keeping the engine from turning. Well some neighbor issues - kids+skating=cops, kinda stopped that. To burn some of my pent up energy last night, I decided to focus on something fun. After not even 10 minutes, I was able to turn over the engine with a prybar in the starter hole. 8 of those minutes was looking for the best size prybar. There was some light rust on the bottom area (for 40 years) of the flywheel, and I'm hoping it doesn't effect the clutch surface. For now I'm gonna just hope and not tear it apart. Since a major part of the evening was relieved, I decided to go through the crusty starter. Again pleasantly surprised the starter was almost new in the contact areas that mattered. A quick shine to the copper and good to go. Nothing like a low compression 4-banger head! Some light scuffing and thread chasing, and my carriage turned into a pumpkin. For another day... I did get a little time over the weekend to attach the bumper, and rub the whole car down with some diesel. It really gave it a luster scrubbing off the layer of dirt, although it did change the "patina". The pile of parts is getting smaller, and the boxes are getting lighter, as I also freed up and installed the door window regulators. Many of the parts were conveniently wrapped in newspaper from 1974! Anyway due to the neighbor issue you may see this in the classifieds. He has already called code enforcement on us twice in the past 4 months. Once for having an auto repair business and once for illegal storage, both times were cleared, but it is a little stressful when I've got so many projects. I'll try my best to keep it, but I need to not get too attached to it if the chit hits the fan! TP
Zibo. I found a zenith carb that needs going through and a dizzy. I might be interested in that little critter if it goes up for sale. Probably cant afford it though. I can also store it for you for a bit. It can keep some other A's company.
Cool! I'll have to dig out your card, it's somewhere in my pile. Maybe PM me your info? It would be fun to have banger races on your track! I did a quick search on here and fordbarn, and didn't know these were that pricey. I'll PM ya later on a real computer! TP
Oh shit they are worth a bunch. I also got a tilitson that was on a runner a little while ago. Maybe thatd be better for both of us. But yah some banger races would be really fun.
Neato man, hope you can arrange to keep it! I feel for ya, I have been dealing with codes on a weekly basis for the last month here too... NEVER had an issue until new neighbors moved in across the street last month. Now all of a sudden it's prick city around here, sheesh!
Hey Travis just found this build you got some cool stuff man hope you get to keep it all hell that's a 40 for each boy and your little girl can have this one , now go find one for yourself and really piss the the people across the street off, good luck, by the way still waiting for the rusty 40 to get finished
Hey everyone thanks for checking in, even though this is turning into a stocker jalopy kind of car for now. I figured for those of us that have started with just a body, then a frame then a year or two worth of collecting parts, it is just kind of an uncommon circumstance! This would be great with a really light chop, a downdraft intake... Yesterday got an hour or so in, and put together the chinese puzzle called the rear bumpers. Fortunately all the pieces were there. I even went so far as the spare tire mount. Yeah. Now it's really looking like a hoopty rig! Too bad they don't do a "race of gentleman" on the west coast! I remember watching your coupe build, and wondering how in the heck you got away with that! Good thing you've got a shop now! The green 40 project I did in the garage over a year+, maybe one day a week if I was lucky. Fortunately the neighbors weren't around for that one, and there weren't that many loud days, mostly mechanical. So it's a bummer as they live next door, and the stuff I'm doing is so quiet, no grinding at all just gearhead stuff. The funny thing is we live under the San Diego Airport! So jets are flying overhead all day 7-7! TP
I love the first pictures (when I'm thinking"lots of missing pieces"), then the transformation as the sheds and storage areas give up MORE PARTS! In the last shots, you got a NICE RIDE!Good to see the kids getting into it too. Forge on, and have fun; she's a beauty. Mike from Mass. (if the neighbors stay on your ass, cut a hole in the side of the house and put it in the living room!)
Okay so here's the latest ADD scoop from the Perich compound... Over the past couple weeks I had realized maybe we had too many projects. A plan was made to take the 30 coupe to the BIG3 swapmeet, and see if anyone would take the bait. In a rare spark of anti-procrastination, a couple ads were placed on various classifieds. Some good interest but it was worth it to invest a little more time into it and try to get more at the swap. During this time I'd try to get it running. The oil pan was pulled to clean out some water sludge, and the engine was apparently a brand new rebuild. A banger friend (Tim Zander) was surprised how healthy the bearings were, and noticed some old timey rebuild tricks. He was bummed when I told him the plan to sell it. The rest of the running gear was in such good unrestored and unmolested condition. Meanwhile an attempt was made to take care of the rust. After a couple days I realized maybe I'd have to create a plan B. Maybe just sell the body and keep the running gear. The exact opposite of any true hot rodder. On saturday I decided to put up a CL post, and within 2 hours the body was gone. It was funny as all the tinkering we'd done the past sundays was undone. For the first part of the day I thought maybe I'd made a mistake. Maybe I coulda got more at the swap. The plus side was not having to finish any rust repair, and the logistics of pulling the heavy body to the swap. I would have loved to chop it, but not sure if that would have benefitted the sale. Fortunately the guy had sold a 55-57 chevy, and had a hole burning in his pocket. I think the timing was just right. But now I was stuck with the relatively worthless to a hot rodder running gear. I burnt some of this nervous energy scrubbing and rattlecan rebuilding the dirty metal. TP
Some of you guys may remember that I'm a hoarder, and have been dragging this around for almost 10 years. It's been the backdrop during much of the buildup pictures of the rusty 40, and after ditching the shop it's been sitting outside in the backyard. When the neighbor reported us to the code enforcement, I was lucky that CE officer thought it was normal to have A bodies lying around the yard. Here's the backstory. This A RPU has always been banger powered with fenders, other than about a year when a friend Nick tore it apart and ran it fenderless, throwing a rod on the way home from the Father's Day Roadster show back in 2002 or 2003. At some point it was an white ivory color, and at some point legend has it that it participated in trailer pull races somewhere in the LA area. The frame had some cool hot rod tricks, but it was tired and twisted. During the startup of our own RPU (chief), the goal was to get it to the Paso show this was 2003 or 2004. At this time there was a track nose on it and the radiator was full of rust. I called Nick up and borrowed his radiator, and forever after it has had the 29 grille. A couple months later I grabbed the now basketcase RPU. Now for these 10 years I had imagined the body/bed going back to its fendered roots, and it took me all of last week to actually realize this was a possibility. That's cause I was trying to keep the coupe. By the way I think this is the 8th or 9th A coupe I've ditched for either bills or roadsters! My cousin-in-law Brandon showed up and helped plop the body on the frame. The next day I scrubbed it down and sprayed a light color coat to freshen it up a little. Definitely not had a babied life but in really good condition for a truck. The firewall is even ready for an OHV conversion! Now it's nice as instead of rushing some rust repair on that coupe for the swap this weekend, I can write this post, and now I'll get to bolting the body onto the frame. The oil pan was also installed, hopefully I can get it running and make it to the swap. Anyway that's it in a nutshell. I'm going to try and keep this, but also try not to get to distracted with it which is backfiring for now. I'll be able to fix up the other 2 40's more than I could have, and have some capital to use to look for new junk at the big3! More later... TP
What did Sir Isaac Newton say? "for every action there is a reaction" nice job getting what ya want outta what you have!
Travis, Wishing you all the best in your new roadster pickup ! You can do a hop up for the local hill climbs ! ! Dave
The Jalopy Journal
