Hot Rods Bringing my 39 back to life

After all week, we were beat, cars were tired and we still had to get back home......We powered through and cannonballed home in 3 days. Then the car repairs could begin...........

 

Jason your 39 is fricken awesome...and it's dirty Hotrod look is absolutely admirable...you are very fortunate...

 

Great car, thread, and story! Hope to find myself on the flats one day

 

i was thinkin the same

 

On the way home the rear spring, a posies spring, had had enough. I had just way overloaded the car with shit. Look like the dam Clampets coming down the road. And the spring started going flat. Also before we left I still had the problem of the rear tires that were shot when we left now had cord hanging out of them. Luckily for me, when my bro Dels car got a flat at the sign when we arrived it was on tires that were 5 days old from Coker. The tire was delaminating on the inside and punching the tube making it go flat. So after he calmed down, and talked to Coker, they overnighted him two 6.0 16 firestones to replace the 5.60 16s he had on the way out. They were out of 5.60s. But we took the tubes out of the tires and since the wheels were powder coated just put valve stems in them and ran it. And no more problems. That left the 6.0s from Coker for me to through on the back of my car for the ride home. This made rpm’s go up a bit but hell we did 3200 all the way here, might as well do 4000 all the way home. The Goodyear guys took care of mounting the tires for me on the salt.

 

Here you can see the combo of spring flattening and going from a 7.50 to 6.0 on the rear in how low rider it became. Also keeping painters tape in a early ford with a tilt out windshield will really help seal it up good when you in a down pour. We hit a giant pot hole in St. Louis that was violent enough to break the aluminum gear in the windshield regulator, and rip all the hangars off the drivers side of the exhaust.

 

On Day three of the return home we got back to Bens shop. Said or goodbyes and gave our hugs and put the car back on the trailer to get home. I towed it to Bens specifically so if there was an issue, I could at least get it home on a trailer from there. Glad I did, this thing was scraping ever where and the shifting issues were coming back. But we got it home and back into the shop to get fixed before Trog.

 

After 2 weeks gone for Bonneville, had to go back to work, then took the family to the beach for the yearly beach trip. Now Old North State and TROG are coming up quick and I gotta get this thing fixed quick. So. Get it up in stands and the trans comes back out. Put in a new clutch disc with ceramic pucks, Throwout bearing, throwout hub and pressure plate from Wilcap. Fixed the hosed up threads for the trans mount all back together and shifts and drives like new again. For the spring. I took it out of the car and completely apart and added a few more inches of arch the the leaves then put it back together. Just to be extra safe, I put Air shocks for a 63 to 80 corvette on the ass end to hold it up just in case. In the pics below of the pressure plate that is not clutch material. That is metal from the hub sawing in half. The red pressure plate is the old one and the bare steel is the new one. This three speed is almost a direct swap for the mustang T5 so yeah that’s happening in the future. While it was up on the stands I put a Pete and Jakes front sway bar and the front bumper on it.

 

The last major thing to tackle was the exhaust. When I started on this car I bought fender dump headers, then I decided I wanted 55 manifolds, so I used those and help onto the headers. But what I always want was a set of the killer ribbed kickstand lake pipes.

 

Those being hens teeth, and with half the exhaust needing major repair, screw it, let’s start all over from the heads back. So off the manifolds came and on the headers went. Once in I was able to use some 2 inch stainless J bends from speedway to make my own version of the kickstands. Never welded stainless before so I bought a spool of stainless wire and had at it. I think they turned out great. I used the lake pipe hangar to cover the weld seam at the turn out. No mufflers this time. Headers and 2 inch straight pipes. I love how it sounds now. Once the kickstands were made I polished the stainless up on the buffer to above shine.

 

I ordered up a replacement set of tires and rear wheels in the way home from Bonneville so I mounted those up and put them on the rear. The old wheels were reversed so the offset was not ideal but looked bitchin. The new ones were not reversed and work perfect with a new set of L78 tires.

 

We were not able to make it to Old North State due to some family things that kept us home. But we did make it to TROG the next week and got to be one of the 100 cars selected to be on the beach. TROG is always one of my favorite events. This one was now exception. That’s my buddy Doug’s knuckle the 804 bike.

 

That’s pretty much up to date at this point. I’ll be swapping to a t5 in the spring maybe we shall see. My bro @hotrodderhaag is gonna be builiding me a new 32 chassis for my 32 Tudor next year and I’ll be jumping in on a new acquisition shortly, a 28 Pheaton on Duece rails with 259 stude power. So outside of basic maintenance and repairs and some interior finishing. We are about wrapped up on the 39. I won’t be painting it it has paint, and I like the primered back fender. So yeah it’s good. And the ceramic clutch does great burnouts.

 

Here is a few videos on how it sounds now with the new pipes. It runs so much better and is a little rowdy now!

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/b2_scojot-Q?feature=share

 

Kickstands for the win. I do happen to have a set of kickstands but I don’t think I want to let them go….. the ones you made look awesome!

Also: good call on the painters tape. I’m gonna throw a roll in the trunk now!

 

In my best OB Wan Kanobe…. Those are not the kick stands you want, you will let me have them….

 

What a ride, Jason - I loved my trip out to the Salt Flats with the Bones in ‘13. Had a great time with them - it’s an adventure that can’t be beat ….

 

Jason, You've shown us in great detail just what Hot Rodding is really all about. Thanks so much for posting all of your adventures for us to enjoy.....Don.

 

I’ll chime in a little for a change … Our trip was incredible . We spent so much time behind old flat glass, hauling ass across this great country ..beautiful scenery , good friend , hell I’ll call them family . 2500 miles to reach the great white salt bed to see how fast we can push our worked over flathead .. just like that old days … driving day after day , just to see how fast the old roadster will run .. tweaking , changing , adjusting .. every nut and bolt gone over after every run.. more tuning , tweaking . Run after fun after run…. The last day comes so fast .. we say our good byes to our world wide friends as we pack our bags, knock the salt off our boots and beat feet for home .. 3 solid days of asphalt under us. Rolling into our home town feeling the the “rocket boys “ from coalwood West Virginia.. we were the ones who made it “out” out into the real world. Memories formed in our minds that distract us all every day. Until august rolls around the fallowing year, all we can do is dream about the salt, and the adventures… the people and the places we’ve seen…

until next year boys .


Two photos to sum up our adventure :
My man on the salt for the first time … a bone chilling , goose bumps , hair standing up on the back of your neck feeling when you gaze out over the same are where hotrods have been competing for years , racing nothing but the clock …. It’s our history … if you get it… you get it.

 

Great trip report! Thanks for posting it.
you weren't kidding about that rear spring. It looks whipped.

 

here is one more my Bro Ben took last time he stopped by on the way home from PA.. Ill be starting a thread on the Phaeton as soon as I get it home.

 

Here is a few more pics i found from the Bonneville trip. I don't think I took any of them but they were cool.

 

thats me in my Favorite hat. Photo, by the one and only @hotrodderhaag

 

Those kick stand pipes turned out slick! I got lucky on a pair and frenched them into my PU running boards so I wouldn't drag over speed bumps. Your car looks great with those running board covers.

 

Been a rough few months but getting things back on track. I lost my Dad on Feb 7 this year. I'm glad he got to see the 39 back on the road, spend all the time he did with me in the shop, and see us make it to Bonneville. He had been sick for a long long time, and dealt with his illness far better than i would have. For now the 39 is done. It is now residing next to dads roadster in the main garage and out of the shop. And i have other cars to get started building on, as per orders from Dad. So for now, the 39 is good, and will just get driven, in rotation with dads roadster.

 

Before Dad left us, we had talked out the next build to just about the finest detail. pretty thankful for that. so my direction is already set for how to build this one. Like everything else we like, like its 1962.

I mad a deal with my club brother Dustin on his 29 Phaeton that he had in storage. So i sold my 31 sedan body that i had been saving since i was 20 years old to build and bought the Phaeton back in Dec. We were finally able to get down to NC to pick u the body this last weekend and get it figured out what we need to do to get the body back in shape and on to my 32 chassis with 259 Stude power. And picked up a sweet new steel fab Table from my bro @hotrodderhaag Anyway here it is. I will be starting a new thread to cover the phaeton build when i get a little further along, so in a month or so.