Hot Rods Bringing my 39 back to life

we will start sorting out where to start and making a list of needed parts this weekend, as long as this sinus infection I have keeps retreating.

 

Looking forward to seeing the A come together! Sorry for your loss

 

Sorry to hear about your dad. I lost my hotrodder dad a while back too. It's never easy but over time the sting does go away some. As a young man I went the college route and never really built anything until after he died. Here's to carrying on the legacy!

The tub is going to be cool! Can't wait to see updates.

 

Sorry to hear about your Dad, Jason. That's a tough pill to swallow. Looking forward to your Model A tub build. Should be fun! Stude mill is cool, what are your plans for the rest of the drivetrain?

 

Condolences to you and your family. Tough to lose anybody let alone your Dad. Your carrying the torch now and I know you will make him proud.

 

Sorry you lost your dad but glad he is not suffering anymore and is still riding with you !

 

The drivetrain will be a 259 stude V8 with edmunds 2x2 intake backed up by an early avanti or lark T10 4 speed back to a slightly narrowed 60 t bird 9 inch converted to early bronco axle shafts on R Jays ladder bars and a 40 rear spring. 32 gas tank will remain out back and 32 shell up on the radiator.

 

So very sorry, Jason.

 

I'm really diggin' the '47-'48 sedan!

 

that’s my friend Holly’s sedan. @hotrodderhaag ‘s chick. I’d put her skills up against anyone on here. Girl can turn some wrenches, and she knows hot rods. She is building a killer A coupe now. Should be on the road in a month or so.

 

If you didnt see my other thread on the Phaeton, i have since sold that car off to fund building my Dads 32. I did keep the 259 stude motor and 4 speed to go into the 32, but the rest of the Phaeton and 32 frame it was on is gone.

Whisch is good right now, I need the space as i had another throw out bearing take a crap on me in the 39. So the trans is out of that right now, i was lucky enough to find some NOS timken Throwout bearings on E bay and got it in the mail yesterday. Ill be putting it all back together to get ready for Old North State and Trog at the end of the month. and pehaps this winter ill get around to swapping in the T5, that has proven to be more involved than i thought it would when trying to keep and unsplit wishbone.

 

Got it all ripped apart last weekend. Should have it back together this weekend. Plus I’ll be able to make a fan shroud for the radiator.

 

Here is what I’ll be using as the base for my fan shroud.

 

Trans back in. Now to work on the shroud.

 

Here is my low buck way to get a fan shroud. I got started with the fan shroud. I started with a 26 x 18 2 1/2 inch deep cake pan. The radiator core is 22 1/4 inch tall by 16 1/2 inch wide and is 2 1/2 inches from the water pump. I started by cutting off the bottom 6 inches of the cake pan off and splitting the whole thing down the middle to be able to shorten and narrow up the top of the pan to meet the dimensions of the core.

 

With the pan narrowed up to the proper demensions I overlapped the pan and used pop rivets to hold it together at that size. I then found the center of where fan would be the in the shroud and drilled a hole in the shroud there. Using a piece of cardboard I put two holes in it 8.5 inches apart. In one hole I put a small drift punch through the card board into the hole in the center of the shroud and in the other I used a sharpie to draw the circle for the fan hole.

 

With the hole marked I then used a air powered body saw to cut the hole out. The hole was not quite big enough to clear the fan on the sides due to the size of the fan an slope of the sides. So I got out my shot bag and plastic hammers and worked the sides out to complete the circle for the fan opening.

 

Once I had the shape and size right. I got the torch out and brazed the riveted flange edges. I’ll braze some tabs to the sides to mount it to the radiator tomorrow.

 

I whipped up some tabs for the side to mount it to the radiator then glued a cheap 40 sedan trunk gasket I had laying around to the perimeter of the shroud and bolted it to the radiator. Once bolted on I then installed the radiator and the fan back in the car and it looks like it will work just fine.

 

now that the cooling system has been upgraded, i just need to throw the driveshaft, the seat and the floors back in it, and fill the trans with oil and the radiator with coolant and change the oil again and we are ready for Old North State and Trog at the end of this month. I'm about done swaping the tail housing on a mustang T5 to swap into it, but the wishbone is gonna fight me on it so its gonna have to wait till this winter to tackle.

 

I was going to throw the whole thing back together and be ready to go, but since i already had it apart, i decided to go ahead and replace / repair the windshield regulator that broke on the way home from Bonneville last year. We were on our way home and coming through St Louis when we came up on a pot hole the size of a 60 caddy, cars on both sides and no where to go i clenched my butthole and drove through it. The windshield was cranked out at the time and it was such a hard hit that the regulator died and the windshield slammed shut. In order to get the regulator out you have to pull the dash at least back to get to it and well I really didn't want to do that for awhile.... but hell its already apart lets do it.

I started by pulling the steering wheel just to have better access then unbolted the column drop removed the garnish molding and unbolted the dash from the cowl. I was able to pull it back enough to get the old regulator out and see what had died on it.

 

After getting the regulator out, The Aluminum Gear the the knob on top of the dash engages to push the windshield out had broken in 3 pieces. Luckily I had picked up another regulator from @titus last year and it had a usable gear. so I took mine apart and the replacement one apart and was able to average the 2 out with a good functional regulator. Once I got that back in and adjusted, I was looking at the head light switch bracket under the dash. The bracket was used for both the head light switch and the choke cable, which never really worked just a junk cable, and had never liked how close it was to the door. So i decided to move it and replace the choke cable and make that actually function. I replaced the choke cable with a cool one i picked up last year from Edelbrock that had Edelbrock engraved in the knob. I moved the mount bracket over close to the column drop.



Notice the bubbling paint from me using the wrong primer prior to painting the dash a few years ago. At some point I'll have to pull the dash completely out, strip and repaint it. and not use rattle can primer on it. None of the other stuff i painted got the primer, just the dash. and everything else looks great. But the dash is bubbling and peeling in a few places.

 

with the wheel off I decided to swap it out for a white rimmed Moon/Superior style wheel I had since i have been wanting t change wheels for a while. I have a 40 wheel that will probably end up on here but i need to fill a few cracks and paint it before I do. All in all, I'm digging the white wheel pretty heavy and it fits into the 1962 to 1964 time frame I wanted the build to fit. You can also see in the two pics of the wheel where i moved the headlight switch bracket over from the door jamb, to get it away from the door and to get a better angle and routing for the choke cable.

 

I did also get the driveshaft and floors in with the help of my son Jake and his hot rodder buddy Roscoe. So now maybe I can get off my ass and get the carpet and seat back in it for a test on the cooling system and see how well the shroud works.

 

I'm diggin' the White wheel.

 

thanks Don!! It may end up being the permanent wheel. We shall see. I also swapped a white knob onto the shifter so it all matches.

 

Might want to sure there is no grease on your hands before you drive or shift.

 

Such a cool car..... I'm a fan of period built sedans.

 

lookin good brother!!!!

 

Lookin good. I'm pretty jealous of your chrome garnish moldings! I didn't even know those windshields could crank out that far...