Aussi Speed Week & Road Trip in 32 Coupe

Cully I'am so glad you guys made it all the way home. The sad part is
this thread will probably end now. Broken cluster, taped up headlight,
no wiper. Good God man does nothing slow you down? I'm going to call
you Hot Rod Dundee from now on. ( Just kidding ) Thanks again for the
ride......

 

you are the man,it takes hart and love of the sportfor you and the misses to do whot you did .grate story thanks

 

383deuce look fwd to catching up, this road trip was sort of inspired by the Rolling Bones DVD Road to Bonneville just love watching it, hence to pun on page # 1 Forget road to Bonneville.

Cully

 

Man your a legend [ and the misses to put up with you] ! I cant believe you made it, thats pretty damn hardcore. As a West Aussie I know how hard that trip is.. There aint no parts out there! Nothin' out there!

 

Well,I just spent the last 30 minutes reading the entire thread,,what a great road trip and to have a wife that goes with you and knows that it ain't always easy is a blessing.

The scenery is beautiful,the narration is spot on and the Mrs. photos tell the story themselves.

Thank you for such a great thread. HRP

 

The link worked! I love it. I know that had to of been an awsome trip

 

Man you did good.
We thought we had a rough trip to tassie in our stock 33 a year or so back.
Thought the gearbox was noisy,was speedo cable.
speedo shit it self.
engine got a piston noise when cold.
Other wise OK.
7500 klms round trip.
Lawrie

 

Cully thanks for the ride. A star is born.The best post was #132 lookin gud. I hope your bride gets all she deserves for enduring that ride. My bride & I have done a few in the roadster but it has a 350 so no comparing there. We did get caught in a white out with no side curtains & a hailstorm on a couple of our trips along with some mohave desert heat.
I can relate to thethunderstorm too. awsum read.

 

Love these type of trips, always memorable. Thanks for sharing.

 

yep just sorry the story has to end hey ,,theres always next year ! thanks for the "trip " felt like I was camping next to you the whole ride great photos. we have nothing like that up here in New England ,,thankyou so much for sharing your trip with us . the "poem" at the end ,,, I,LL be thinkin of you an the misses on the way to the salt ,everytime I here it from now on ! thanks again MP

 

What a trip - talk about roughing it with having to take EVERYTHING with you and then having tranny problems, etc, etc - all I can say is you guys are a tough lot! Thank you !

 

Great trip, thanks for taking us along. I love road trip threads and this was a good one. Too bad so many of the pictures disappeared though.

 

Some how I missed this but thanks to a Ford Barn'er brought me to your thread. What a rush, what a great wife and what a hell of a trip. Thank you for sharing your adventure and the experience! Great ride brother! Wise I could have seen all of the pics but what I see was absolutely fantastic.

 

Awesome, bitchin... mere words fail... gotta be the best road trip story ever. beautiful country, bad ass ride! Thanks for sharing.

 

Just love this tread!!!! Thanks dave!!!!

 

great stuff dave always new you would make it, didnt think you would have the hassles you had hopefully catch up when your back from work .
mate again great stuff

 

cully your a god damn flathead legend! This trip is a true testement to the work horse that is the flathead motor and to your endurance as a hotrodder. SBC in a ford...Not a friggin chance!

 

Howdy Great story about your trip, anymore added to it yet ? Did you get your transmisson fixed ? Thanks for sharing............sandy

 

Hi Sandy, 32 still in bits as I am away at work at the moment, will be back home early April so will up date with gearbox repairs once done.

Cully

 

Awesome read, great adventure...............wonder how many "young guns" would survive that sort of trip and troubles!

All the best to you both............Bob.

 

Mate, this is one of the most inspiring threads I have probably ever read on the H.A.M.B.

Bullshit Hot Rods can't be DRIVEN! Gives me all the more motivation to build the rod I'm planning to build and drive it how I've always intended for it to be driven... You've just concreted the fact that it can be done. Amen.

You have big balls mate, kudos to you.

I will build my rod and meet you at Lake Gairdner... With the Rod... not on a trailer... Mark my words... How does that sound Cully?

Good on you mate, what a trip!

Alex.

 

Heyycharger your on build your rod and I will see you on the salt balls and all.

 

Hi guys back again, I have had quite a few requests for update on the repairs to the coupe, so here we go.
But first I will tell you about the failed gearbox and give you all a little warning. When I first rebuilt the gearbox which is a 39 unit I purchased a complete new set of Lincoln Zephyr gears for it, from a large US auto parts supplier, when the parts box arrived and I opened it up the alarm bells were going before I even I started to assemble.
As all the gears which were boxed separately were labelled with there country of manufacture not one 2 gears were made in the same country and only one, the reverse idler gear was made in the USA.
From the very start of assembling the gearbox there were problems, and I hate to say this even the one and only gear made in the US had issues, the bronze bush was not fully pressed into the gear therefore the gear would not fit in between the lugs, not a big issue just just pressed the bush all the way in and was ok.
Then the next issue the cluster gear which was made in Mexico was too long and would not fit in the box with the thrust washers, at this point I should of contacted the suppiers with my concerns and the issues and try and send them back, but no I wanted to get the car going so I machined about 0.040 thou of one thrust washer to allow the cluster to fit. The new syncro hub was stuck solid and had to be worked backwards and fwd with force for about 20 mins to free it up each time taking small metal shavings off. Plus there were other issues which I will not go into but every aspect of assembling the gearbox had issues.
Anyway the point is I assembled the box I was never happy with it, the syncros did not work well had to double clutch all the time and the box was a little noisy, proberly due to a miss match of gears from all the different countrys they were supplied from.
Before myself and the misses embarked on the road trip I had about 600 miles of around town driving on the gearbox, I suspect the box was just not up to the task of a long distance road trip.
Anyway the point I am making I will never buy another set of new gears, unless I know they are all made from the same manufacturer. The best option would be to find a good set of original used gears.

 

Anyway back to the repairs of the coupe, I had a 48 gearbox a home so I stripped it to put the gear set into the 39 box all the gears except the first/reverse slider gear were in good condition.
I purchased a new first/reverse slider gear, new syncro assembly and all new bearings thrust washers etc, from US suppier who specializes in early Ford gearbox's and was very happy with the parts he supplied no issues.

Here I have the gearbox with the 48 gear set all cleaned up ready for assembly.

 

Gearbox all assembled ready to be installed, no issues with assembly this time everything fitted as it should, arr the pleasure of using good original Henry Ford parts.

 

As you all know engine lost a couple of spark plug firing tips on the trip so I decided to pull both heads and check for any damage, R/H head had no damage plug tip must have gone straight out the exhaust, L/H head had a few pop marks were the plug tip bounced around a bit before exiting out the exhaust, nothing to worry about, just gave them a quick clean up and put them back on, used the same head gaskets.

 

Gearbox bolted back onto engine ready to re-install.

 

Engine and box going back in.

 

Awesome post, missed it till now.
Epic trip and great photos. Many thanks.....!

 

Good Stuff ! Grats on a smooth repair.