Howdy! I'm Phil, an import to South-Eastern Louisiana from the UK just over a decade ago. I have a (very mild) custom '51 Pontiac Chieftain Deluxe- mild in terms of a 2.5" drop all round with air assist shocks in the back.. It's new to me and has seen some love in years gone by, sadly left to languish and rust in more recent times. Needs a bit of TLC, as it does go, stop, steer- but only to a degree. I'm hoping it (and I) have come to the right place! Nice to meet y'all. -Phil
Hello. This isn't anything compared to your truck! Very nice indeed. This was a Mississippi car, ended up in Lacombe, now down the bayou towards Grand Isle. Phil
A warm welcome indeed. I have a long road ahead with this car. My plans are to retain the look it has right now. I like subtle, that's just me! Complete rewire (6 to 12 volt conversion done.. not so well by previous owners), mainly required because the humidity here has destroyed the insulation, and the aluminum has work-hardened in a lot of places. Plus, plenty of people have had their hands in there before me. There's a little rust- front of the rear wheels, a little in the rockers and the bottom of the A posts. The rest of the body and frame are remarkably solid. Steering box and joints need adjusting, the valve lash can be measured in feet and the gearbox really needs to come out for overhaul (Hydra-Matic, second doesn't like to engage and third likes to put you in the trunk- who's heard those symptoms before?! Hah!) but it has promise. Phil
Hi Phil!! I used to live in south Louisiana (Luling) until Katrina found other plans for me. That looks like a fun project that will keep you busy! Keep us posted on your progress.
I can begin a build thread for the car. So far it's just been research and loose electrical connections with a little bit of turning the air blue adjusting valve lash... Phil
Good Lord, how the time has flown by. Well, glad to say that work on the car has progressed a little, perhaps a lot in the grand scheme of things. Where to start? Well, so far I've been trying to keep the cost of the overhaul down. Obviously with important things first(!) I was went on the hunt for a radio, and the parts to convert it natively to 12 Volts. A slightly shabby one was found, and a late 50's Buick set to poach the 12V specific parts from. That's still a work in progress, mostly waiting on buying some capacitors and a handful of new vacuum tubes. I pulled the dashboard apart and discovered that the previous owner(s) had completed their 12 Volt conversion by plugging the dash into 12 Volts. Two of the gauges are all-electrical (fuel and engine temperature), and those work using voice coils like you'd find in loudspeakers. One mounted at right angles to the other. Add a voltage to one and the needle is pulled towards it, vary the voltage across the other and the needle deflects away proportionally to register the reading. Both were singed black and the hazing I had noticed on the inside of the fascia glass was the remains of the lacquer coating on the fine wire of the coils. I did a bit of calculation, bought a spool of replacement wire that was a couple gauges thinner and set about rewinding the coils. A couple of caveats presented themselves: First, the temperature gauge sender unit the gauge was designed for is nigh-on impossible to get these days, with a very narrow resistance range per temperature (0-600 Ohm), but the physical GM fitment in the engine block remained the same for many years. I did a bit of research and came up with a late 50's Chevy C-10 pickup truck sender that is 0-1100Ohm and still widely available- I picked it up off the shelf at AutoZone for $7. I rewound and readjusted the gauge windings so they would read the new sender unit and also natively work on 12 Volts. The fuel sender proved a bit more difficult, and with a 0-30 Ohm winding I didn't want to be passing any more current through than necessary so re-wound the coils for 6V and installed a bucking converter with a current limiter built-in. The oil pressure gauge is a Bourdon style gauge and still operates correctly, the ammeter is not calibrated (rather it reads discharge/charge with no calibration but I'm thinking it is probably about -40 0 +40 Amps sort of range because the original generator was rated 40A). I then tore out all the old aluminum/rubber/cotton wiring which had perished quite badly, particularly under the hood where it is not protected well from the elements. I uprated a few circuits, most notably the headlights with heavier gauge wire than original and replaced the rest. Some nice black "Mercedes-Benz" style fabric looming tape later and it looks all pretty. Much less of a fire hazard. I took the steering box apart and cleaned it up- the lower bushing is really in need of replacement. That was all refilled with John Deere "Corn Head" grease, which is an odd semi-fluid mix that is designed to have a degree of "flop"- when the grease is pushed out of the way, unlike regular moly chassis grease, it flops back down into the gap left behind so that allows it to be picked up again by the moving parts and keep them well lubricated. It is also designed to not leak from worn seals. So far it's all stayed inside, well recommended. At this point the real fun began. The gearbox had a bad leak from the front end behind the fluid coupling and also from the tailshaft. I figured I could pull it out, re-seal it and be on my merry way. How wrong I was! I was new to this whole automatic transmission nonsense and witchcraft, but I got stuck in. Copy of the workshop manual in hand, I began to tear into the transmission. There were signs of someone having been inside it in the not too distant past- slatherings of impossibly sticky blue silicone sealant over everything. The oil pan drained with clean fluid, which was nice. I pulled the lower pan off and was greeted by about 2 tablespoons full of metal shavings, coupled with some melted metal globules. I discovered that the reverse gear mechanism had been removed (tailshaft section of the gearbox) because the reverse annular piston spring, a wavy-washer type affair had fractured into two pieces, one of which had become lodged in the reverse planetary gear. That's gotta have made an unpleasant noise (plus the car would have gone forwards in reverse...) So, I pulled the rest of the transmission to pieces. The bearings had all failed- there are bearings that support bearings, so the nested error in each adds up quickly. All out of line, parts that shouldn't were rotating against each other and had become so hot they had melted the y-metal off the bearing faces. I ordered a bunch of new and pre-loved pieces from Fatsco in NJ, refitted them after cleaning all the swarf out and reassembled the gearbox. I finished up by fixing the governot, which was getting stuck in the fully-open position, which was having the net effect on the gearbox at any speed of having the throttle pedal mashed into the carpet, causing it to hold gears when it shouldn't. It now changes gear as it should, as smoothly (for a Hydra-Matic) as expected. I cleaned up the engine compartment, removed the rust and painted the frame and firewall with stone chip and fresh paint. Reinstalled, I'm now to the point where the manifold has a slight warp, needing new gaskets, and the carburetor needs a thorough clean and the ignition components (wires, distributor cap, rotor arm) need to be replaced.. but it now is back to propelling itself in a moderately pleasant fashion. Next up, brakes. Sitting for 9 months as I rebuilt the gearbox didn't do the brakes any favors and they need to be cleaned and adjusted. I pulled it out the garage last weekend and set about with polish and it's looking much better.. more soon. I promise. --Phil
Hi Phil. Welcome. Please post your updates on the main board with a new thread. It’ll get more attention this way.
Shall do. This was more a redo of the hello. I need to pull up all my photos, too. See y'all over there. Phil
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