@redzula saw your car on speedways Facebook page Sent from my XT1710-02 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
WHAT?? lol I'll have to check that out We made it all three days each had their issues but we made it there and back eventually. I'll make a detailed post about it later tonight. But we sure had a lot of fun.
Ok let's start with the last few weeks have been nuts. Getting laid off, moving, finishing the car, keeping out if the doghouse with my wife. Etc. Etc. Etc. So it was mid last week and I hadn't officially started and run the car. I had started it but still had stuff to finish up. Wednesday took the whole fam to see Gene Cross the everything old ford parts guy including odd size fan blade bolts (12-32 bolts are impossible to find new btw) That night got the fan finished up mounted. The fan bracket bolts felt like they we're about to strip out but I had a lock washers tight enough I thought it be fine. Car started and ran tried a little tuning wasn't getting anywhere as mentioned in my last posts. Car acted like the choke was on as soon as you tried driving it anywhere but idled fine while parked. Wracked my brain about it and came up with nothing nothing I tried seemed to change anything. Thursday pre Good guys comes and I decided I wanted to try going to the kickoff party since I hadn't driven it further that the gas station and the pre party was way closer than the fairgrounds so would be a perfect test drive. First real drive We leave, Jen is following in the minivan with the 1yr old. Older girls wanted to ride in the 'fo de seben. Make it about 3 blocks. Idle is creeping up so I stop to turn the speed screw a little. Decide then to turn the scoops around opening facing the driver and pull the little red filters for the scoops. Wala no more choked carbs. Apparently isn't enough airflow getting in so it was basically acting as a choke. Back on the road cruising fine... Start to hear some banging.stop and find the fan bracket bolts backed out and the fan tipped into the radiator FACK!! didn't seem to be leaking so I removed the lock washers on the bolt to get a little more bight and keep going. Finish the trip to the party. And the clutch isnt fully disengaging and once warmed up isn't wanting to shift well. Every stop I was grinding just getting into first (non sincronized) and was hard to shift but didn't grind in the other 2 which are syncro. Naturally I get into a bind looking for a spot to park and end up having to shift into reverse, grinds, back to first, grinds, etc. In front of tons of people who just think I'm an idiot. Whatever we found a spot, found our friends and forgot about it for a bit. I brought tools with me and tried using a buddy's jack he keeps for this sort of thing but it's leaked fluid and won't lift the car... So we found a nice curb pulled up onto it and set to adjusting the clutch (btw I'm nervous I didn't get it adjusted right before putting the engine and trans together and might have to go back in to find that later) after that the rest if the night went well. No other issues really Sorry no pics I'm really bad at these things and just starting hanging with friends and bullshitting I rarely get to even go walk around and look at the other cars.
Friday morning... Double check the rad doesn't seem to be leaking so we load up and head across town (Grimes = NW corner if Des Moines metro. - Fairgrounds = SE corner 17 miles on surface streets through traffic on a new basically untested build) Drive down goes fine get parked and it's hot. Nothing crazy and it was mostly weather 95* and 50% humidity it was sticky. Check the rad... shit its a little wet. Still can't see the leak but I know it's leaking now. Decide to leave it cause it wasn't pooling and it hadn't really lost any coolant to speak of when I popped the cap figured I could at least limp it home. End of the day we go to leave get my wife back to her van and she's following again as my safety car lol. Get about a third of the way home and I heard the fan noise again, this ain't good, it's leaking worse now not pouring out but there's pinholes and not just a couple. Also as I was pulling into the church lot where we parked it started missing and died wouldn't start. Start looking there's more coolant in the fins now and on the front if the motor, distributor, and coil. Kind of try wiping some off. Called Gene again about a new radiator no answer. So we go to the store to get pepper since my rads toast anyway. come back and the car starts right up. pepper trick looks like it's working. Back to limping and make it another 3rd and it starts missing again and shuts off as I'm pulling into a parking lot. I look and the coil and distributor are covered in coolant again but this time it looked like the fan was drawing the coolant in the fins out and blowing it in everything. So I dried the coil off and it started right up again. So this time we head to my folks place which is a lot closer than home and start game planning.we used some of that infomercial flex seal stuff to guard the coil lead from splatter of coolant off the radiator. Check the coolant level and made it back out to the shop. By this time it's taken us like 3 hours to get 17 miles and I'm defeated. Then Gene calls and saves the day he has a radiator for me. Decide to try and swap it out and get to my friends by 0345 to go wait in line at the gate. I'd never done it and my first time was going to be a story. We put the kids to bed and I leave for Genes place at 1015. 1130 get back to the shop and get to work. Got it all apart.took the coil lead and dizzy cap off to clean them real good. Since my real running/missfire issue was the coil shorting causing the misfire and I still hadn't lost very much coolant only abo 1/2" below the cap opening. Get everything back together rad in. Coolant refilled it's 0300. Ign switch on. Starter button pushed. Crank crank crank... No start wouldn't even try. I'm done. Thinking why did I just do this why don't I sell this turd, what was I thinking even trying. Just utterly defeated. Fuck it text my buddy not making it and go home to bed.
Saturday morning go back to the shop. New house is like 3 blocks away which is super nice. Tried to get it started and it starts right up didn't do anything to it. I'm thinking there was a little moisture in the cap after cleaning causing the no start. Wife follows just in case and we head back to good guys. This time absolutely no issues I locktight'd the fan bracket bolts to avoid a repeat... Another plus the upper shroud fits to the "new" radiator much better than the old did... It's another scorcher outside and the the needle only got above 1/2 way when I was stopped at a red light and then barely to 3/4. Going great... Another plus, we show up at noonish and immediately find a great spot in shade right on the main drag. Couple hours go by and PA announcer starts calling t storm warning in the next hour... No my dad's standard "I'm not leaving yet cause it ain't even that dark out". we end up staying few more hours and about 30 minutes too long... Meanwhile a wrapped a blanket over my carbs just in case and kept having fun yes that's the belt off my pants tying it to the rad hoses. We ride the skyride and you can see the storm cell on the north end of town. And on our way back down the temp dropped probably 15-20 degrees.... ummm... We might have fucked up. Time to go so we pack up head out and start trying to skirt the long way around the storm. Get about halfway home and it started raining. Having no hood and carbs just sitting there I pull into the first place I see with a covered canopy, Calvin community retirement home, to wait it out. wasn't 30 seconds later and it starts really coming down. Called my dad to bring a tow rope figured we'd flat tow it with the carbs covered and the engine off back to the shop... An hour later he hasn't showed up yet the rain has done the opposite of slowing down. I've never seen it rain this hard ever... We got anywhere from 7-10" around town in a span of an hour and a half or so. Dad called he had been through rivers in the streets with water to the hood of his f150. New plan, he's bringing a couple buckets to put on the carbs and we'll leave it until morning with permission. I tell my wife to leave and get the kids home to which she calls me 5 minutes later saying she is parked in some random driveway because there was flooding on both directions on the street she was on and didn't think she could safely go either way. What the hell is happening in Des Moines right now. Here is a FB link sorry you'll have to have that to watch but it's from the fairgrounds a 35 Ford 5 window stranded it a foot deep river. Don't worry he followed it up saying hours later it fired right up and drove home. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156541617725127&id=503995126 Finally my dad shows... Add my super cool metal bucket carb cover and head out to find my family. This is what we find 2 blocks from where she's parked That is a window probably 3' above the floor with water pouring out of it... Long story very slightly shorter we meet up with my wife and head for home.. the house she was at had a tree fall on it and fight or flight kicked in so she forged the river. By this time the rain is finally slowing waters receding. And we have to zig zag across town to follow high ground home. We get the kids to bed rain looks like it is done so I head back out grab a friend and our car trailer to go get the car partly because I'm stupid and partly because I felt bad leaving it where I did. We get back over there and decide it's so much better than it was I'm going to drive it back with the cover over the carbs and if it starts raining again or driving bad from the moisture I had a recovery vehicle there already. But we didn't need it car ran great. I found my new favorite tool for cars with no hood it even started raining when we were almost back but had absolutely no issues at all. There were stalled cars everywhere. Cars starting to float and get pushed around into ditches, other cars, and buildings. Some if my parents neighbors had water to the ceiling in their basements. There was 1 fatality. A local sports radio personality got stranded and when he tried to get out of his car got swept blocks away and sadly didn't make it. There was also a house that the flood water put out their furnace pilot light then eventually shorted the electrical panel and literally blew up the house. Luckily the families had already evacuated when that happened. It was insane.
Sunday Today we got back in the car wife rode with me this time. Back to the show. Speedway guys apparently got our picture right after we arrived and we're unloading. Thanks for the heads up on that btw. @topher5150 Found some friends hung out for a while let the kids run around. Then back home got Ice cream and finally ended the day back in the minivan driving around re-living the storm via the piles of debris and trashed belongings out but there curbs. We were very fortunate that neither the new house or our old house that's still 2 weeks from closing had any water or damage. Both sump pumps worked great and spared us what would have been a major headache. That's it.... It was an insane weekend. Definitely one for the story book. We made it out on top. But now it's crunch time to get a new job and clear out the rest of our stuff from the old house.... Now..... Bedtime Later.
Well dang! Gotta feed the kiddo but real quick that’s a local guys 35 that’s in the video floating around . About puked seeing that :S Glad you fought the car and kept coming back fists swinging
That 35 has been here every year since I can remember. It was sad seeing it in the flood water. But I was glad he made another post saying it was all fine and running again within hours. I'm glad I stuck with it too. Finally got the car where I really dig the look and lots of people were commenting the same. Made it worth it. But the rad swap night I went home pretty defeated on the whole thing glad my luck turned by the end if it. On another note I need to figure out those air filters. What filters do guys normally run with frog scoops? I like the look of them but no filters isn't going to work long term.
Guys I was just looking at pictures of other people's flatheads... Did I put my fan bracket on upside down?
Looks correct to me. The radius matches the manifold and flipping it over would put the fan pretty low?
Got a couple of carb screens from speedway and it doesn't have any rich popping symptoms with them in like the other filters did. Pics when I get a chance. There is a trans fluid leak that I'll have to mess with after the house and job stuff settle a bit.
Haven't updated in a bit. Car is running well. Have been keeping it at my family's storage unit since our garage is packed full of shit I've been too lazy to go through and put away from the move. So I haven't been driving it much. Made it to a couple local shows and cruise ins. Did drive it to work once and one if my co-workers has since made me offers to buy it for his dad. so we'll see if that ever amounts to anything I'm not holding my breath. I have had a couple more incidents with the fan bracket coming loose. One I caught before anything happened. The other one the fan dropped down but not into anything. The loose fan belt contacted the heater hose coming off the lower rad hose. And wore it through. I noticed a problem when the fan splattered the leak all over the windshield. This was my roadside fix to get me home. I clamped the hose with a vice grips and this rig didn't leak another drop until I got home and could change it. Tried to meet up with the rolling bones as they came through Iowa. That wicked Tudor they just built and this coupe we're the only ones who didn't get stuck in a storm. Still had fun though. Random shot from when my friend came over to show off his new old ride From tonight The stocker parked right in front of me. Thought it made a cool shot. Stock vs Hot Rod Hemi coupe First v8-60 I've seen in person. Me trying to be artsy
Love your car. Great story. Is that a Tiger or an Alpine your friend has ? Good to see one of either as they tended to rust away here in the UK.
It's an Alpine. Pretty fun little car to drive. It's his first attempt at a work as you go old car. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Looks like you're getting it all sorted out. Had to be a good feeling to cruise into the GG show in your brand new build. Car looks great, good job man.
It was a good feeling but very hard on the nerves waiting for something I unknowingly messed up to creep up other than the fan bracket issue there hasn't really been many issues. As mentioned before I've had to keep it at the family storage unit until I can get the garage setup. Well with it in the way dad pulled it out and left the iginition switch on and killed the battery and coil. Starter finally seems to have died got a new one and just need to put it on before spring. Other than that there's been a ton of very non hamb friendly work going on. I'm almost finished restoring a crappy shed for the back yard which should help with the garage situation. Dad and I always do things the weird (more difficult way) we pulled it from my sister's how SE to the shop that way I could work on it inside during the winter. Just need to finish the siding and wait for the snow to melt so we can place it at my house Mild upgrades non my very non hamb daily Audi S4 which also needed a bonded title like the '47 because the PO claimed he had it and never gave it to me. Turns out he had been driving the car for 3 years and never transfered it to his name. Verified it wasn't stolen and jumped all the red tape at the Iowa dot it's in my name now Boat engine swap in boat my folks keep at the lake. Motor siezed while I was driving it last July, got it home and it only had 7 pistons and 1 bub of a big end con rod at the crank. Looking at the chunks in the pan I think it had been running like that fir sometime and it made absoutly no noises in the 5 years we've owned it. Swapped from a perimeter bolt 350 to a center bolt. And had to get some cooler tins Lastly me wheels have been turning for my future truck build and found a pretty good deal on an olds 303 for it even though I'm nowhere near that far along I picked it up it's a 53 with #3 heads. Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I've really enjoyed reading through your thread. What generator bracket are you using for the passenger side mount? I currently have mine on the driver's side, but I want to do like you did and run an oil filter in the factory spot and move my generator to the passenger side. I also run a Fenton dual intake and finned aluminum heads and it looks like yours all lines up well. Keep up the good work!
It's an offenhauser. Got it new from speedway. You'll need longer studs for both the generator bracket and the oil filter mount with finned heads. Everything fits pretty well. The back of the generator is pretty close to the radiator pipe. Which could be fixed with a slightly shorter belt. Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Goodguys again... Apparently it's the only thing I do cause I'm boring. @TimM still working on a sitter for greaseramma cause but I'm trying. It's hot and humid as usually here. Car is running ok I guess I feel like it could be better but not sure where to start. It runs at 3/4 up the temp gauge no matter speed, load, engine speed etc. And it seems like it doesn't like being that hot. Any advise on where to start? I also noticed it's isn't a fan of idling when sitting on an incline. It's running out of fuel in this position. Using the gas pedal I can easily keep it going but it also means I need another foot so I can hold clutch, brake and gas at the same time. Again where to start? Not getting enough flow at idle to draw fuel from the bowl? Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Check fuel filters, check timing, check to see if the timing advance is working. That’s where I’d start.
Second thoughts, does it start acting “hot” before it shows in the gauge? Where are the temp sending units? What have you got for a fuel pump set up?
I drive it in spurts. Couple weeks at a time I'll drive ever other day it so. And top off at least once while I'm out. Been a long time since I've ran it way down but it's constantly getting mixed with fresh gas. Temp sending units are in the heads. Stock style. Fuel setup is mechanical with an electric primer on a momentary switch from when the carb would drain back before the rebuild haven't needed it much since the rebuild. I rebuilt both carbs and the fuel pump while I had the motor out. FF to today I decided to try replacing the t stats with 180* ones. Sucked the coolant out to find the stats had floated. Who has the best tip for keeping them down? Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Can you rig it to use the electric pump only easily? Just to see if it’s the mech pump fussing you or if it may be a carb issue? The stats floating, like they are lifting up off the heads and bobbling around so it’s basically like running with none and some garbage blocking some flow?
It's common on the 59a flatheads because they don't have a t stat housing. They lift off the head then get stuck sideways in the rubber hose and block flow. Looks terrible but I added an additional clamp to the lower hose right where the stat sits on each side which should work for now. Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Love the sedan, in the past I have had a 42 and later a 46, both fun rides. You have done a great job with this cool ride!
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