Projects Im getting Married! Project 46 ford begins!

Congrats Sarah and Timm!

 

Congratulations!

 

OH NO!!! You actually went and got hitched? ALL down hill from here on out. Congratulations to you both anyway!!!

 

Congrats!! You've got a keeper there. Here's to many, many years of happiness for you two.

Have the in-laws started bugging you about kids yet?

 

Put a frd in it!!

 

Thanks for posting photos rocky it was great to see you and oldsboy. It's been far far to long since we've had time to hang and bs. I'll have hundreds of photos in a few weeks and until then I'm sure I'll steal some from Facebook or something. More in depth post later. Everything we awesome and the brisket was tasty!

 

Dang, nobody said anything about brisket!!
Seriously tho, Congrats to the newlyweds. Don't forget to hydrate

Rocky, what the hell is up with "the package" shot. You should not have shared that!

 

alright, so with a few minutes to kill here's an update.

I had planed to make the trip down to omaha along a 2 lane highway threw an indian reservation and more or less open views friday morning with a few friends and there old cars to make our way to my wedding venue.

With the weather looking horrible with 40+ mph, sub 40 deg temps and more rain coming down then we had seen all summer i called them to see if we were still on and heard what i had feared. nope.

great.

well Sarah was heading down early and we decided to throw caution to the wind and just go now.



every time that im about to take the car on a drive longer then like 3 miles i get pretty wound up and decided to prep the car a bit to calm my nerves. ive no heater or wipers so i found a bottle of rainx. i was going to hit both the inside and outside but figured with it so cold and no heat my windows wouldnt be at risk for fogging over. i was wrong haha



threw a little wax on the front of the car to help it cleanup easier after what ever we may have to drive threw.



lots of tools and fluids



and pulled into the down pour to let him warm up for the trip. we loaded the Subaru up and then the rest went into the 46. I threw on an insulated hoodie and a wool hat Sarah had previously knit me.



stopped for gas as i have zero functioning gauges right now and i thought a little about how cold i was about to be.

Thankfully with a few holes in the firewall left open and zero insulation the engine and the wool hat kept me warm enough to get sweaty while i laughed seeing my breath steam out in front of me before landing on the windsheild and then wiped off.

the drive for the most part went fine, we ended up going about 50 mph as the wind kept knocking me around, i could see it pushing at the sides of my hood and every time a semi blasted past me i could fell those old back tires slide the water to the edge of the lanes.

I had a grip tight enough to turn the insides of my fingers a few shades lighter, but save for a wet right foot from a leaking cowl vent we made it just fine.



his and hers



Friday we woke up to more of the same overcast weather to set up the venue and as Sarah and her girls made there way to a spa for "bachelorete" day i rallied up my friends, family and future inlaws and had my bachelor 'party' a drive away in Lincoln at the speedway museum.

Didn't have the best guide ever but it was still amazing, and i was super happy to share something i love so much with my friends and new family and see them enjoy it.



its been a hand full of years since ive gone threw the museum of speed and so I was literally shaking at the site of the new miller exhibits.



my brother and I with the baddest rear engined T roadster i've ever seen. a four pot flatty with the quick change poking out the rear of the body.

I didnt take any photos because we've all seen it online, and lets be honest. it holds no candle to the real thing.

The BIG day.

The venue for the wedding and reception is a massive old late 20's dutch barn, and as so its about 20 miles from town. An accident on the highway led me in the 46 with 5 or 6 cars behind me on about 7 miles of gravel to the property and everything was going just fine.

I had noticed last week a funny vibration around 60 mph, and i had been going pretty slow in the rain but i could feel it sneak in every once in a while as well then. Before the gravel on the way to the barn i felt it again, its not in the steering its just similar to when you roll a drivers front window down and the passenger rear down at the same time. just a weird thundering shake of everything.

My dad was riding with me and he just reached over and grabbed the passenger door frame and pulled it tight and it stopped! i figured it must have been the wore out and lack of weather stripping making it bounce enough at a certain speed to make it shake everything? these cars are all about listening to the harmonics it seems and with it stopped i thought i had it nacked.

the wedding, the brisket and the weather were better then i could have possibly asked for. we had an "un plugged" ceremony asking every one to leave there phones and cameras in there pockets for the service as we both hate looking at photos only to see no faces just the backs of smart phones. it seems like alot of people just left them in there pocket for the whole night or were just having to good of time to bother with it so in a few weeks ill have hundreds of photos from my photographer, clay lomneth, and ill post the ones i feel are on topic for you guys

we fired up the 46 afterwards and Sarah and I headed into the dark to town and the hotel for the night.

We had a friend follow us as i know the cars not had enough miles on it for me to feel 100% about everything and we made it safe



power parking

the next morning loading the cars down till they nearly rubbed with gifts, center pieces and other wedding paraphernalia a friend mentioned that he noticed my right rear tire was wobbling enough to notice. The day before another person said the same after following me and after checking the lug nuts chalked it up to a dirt road making the tire look funny like will happen sometimes.

Well with a second person noticing I put it on my list to lift the car up when we got home and check the wheels for true-ness.... not thinking about the ancient tires there were on the back....

well with a dead phone and dead camera we started the 100+ mile trek home. and about 7 miles in i feel the vibration, but now its at an even lower speed, and i can feel almost a shimmy like driving over expansion joints. I sped up thinking maybe it was a frequency thing and i could get around it. It got worse, i slowed and it didnt get better.

BANG!

It was loud, and i thought my deck lid had popped open and slammed something. terrified i was spewing gifts all over a busy highway i made it to the shoulder VERY fast.

Sarah and my parents were both behind me and my dad came up saying that he was surprised that tire didnt hit anyone! I looked at the car seeing all 4 tires and the questioning look on my face must have given it away as he pointed to the right rear and said look closer.

ZERO tread! I've had the tread come off a tire before but never like this. it came clean off and i was now the proud owner of a shiny metal tire! all the way to the belt :O

My parents kept on heading home and Sarah stayed to help me fix what I thought would be something simple and fast.

With a tube in the tire we limped it back to Omaha as there was a walmart next to the exit. They quickly informed me that not only do they not mess with anything that old but will not even touch something with a tube in it.

I even said id just bring them the tire off the car and have them swap it, or i could figure it out my self in the parking lot and get it on enough to get home and they wouldnt even let me have a tire to do that.

great.

rolled at slow speed 10 blocks to the house my new inlaws were staying at with that pit in your stomach of "hey i married your daughter and now my ancient car is broke in your driveway" and they all sprung to action.

i made calls, sarah made calls, friends of family made calls and my father inlaw took to the streets.

turns out finding a tire shop open on a sunday it a chore, let alone one willing to mess with tubes! I knew that i wanted the tubes to stay on because that's what kept my ass off the ground and got my back to omaha, but also because these rims dont have a 'bead' or edge for the bead to seal to as they were ment for bias plies. i knew theyed just leak.

as every one was doing there best to help me out my new brother in law and i got the car up and on jack stands as i came prepared and got the tires off.

Sarah walked up and laughed that us making it back to the house/garage was her words coming back to bite her. In her vowes she made mention of always being happy to come help on the car in the garage. She didn't say anything about the side of the road so she figured it was the car being a smart ass and limping back to the garage.


anyhow, her dad called and had some how found a service station inside of a BP gas station that not only would work on tubed set ups, but had a nearly new set of used tires in the size i needed!

Threw the tires in a rental car and hauled ass down there, got them changed and balanced and we were back on the road in about a 2 1/2 hour turn around time from when it let go.

We hit the black top and the 46 fell into a nice grove about 65 mph and it was all gravy.
With the sun down a little more the temps fell into a perfect spot for driving with my window down, and as we cut across the un molested forest on the crest of the hills the sun set was amazing.

I had a dead camera still, but we had 3 shots left on a disposable camera and stopped for some photos on a pretty overlook. I think that will be more then enough to remember the trip cruising down the road following sarah and listening to the car rumble.

The car rides much better now and i can finaly start shaking it down some more and sporting more issues out. I lost an exhaust tip about half way home as i thought about pulling over to take it off, it always slides lose and wants to be what drags and as i bounced onto a bridge it came lose again and launched into the ditch. Cars tell you what they want and I took it as a sign and kept going. no chrome tips for this one haha.

I also had my blinkers and possibly my tails lights stop working around the same time. Earlier in the week i had to extend all the wires a couple feet to reach enough to fit under the dash and then on my way home last night had my floor jack riding in the back and i think it just rolled over it and broke some connection getting jostled around?

Either way for a 250 ish mile trip not to much to clean up afterwards and I couldn't be happier.

Babies don't sleep this well.

pix when i get them and car updates as the happen

 

Thanks mike and all you guys

Hope to see many of you at jays this spring

 

"on my way home last night had my floor jack riding in the back and i think it just rolled over it and broke some connection getting jostled around? "

Jack!!??!! You have a jack!!??!! Seriously, isn't it nice to have some trunk room?
Good luck to you and Sarah.

 

Haha,yes. It is. As we were getting ready to head home we realized that we would be short one full size van making the trip back home so we started filling the other cars with what would have gone in the van. As we finally got it all loaded I laughed looking at the 46 saying "thank god I didn't build a model A or we'd never get all this stuff home!"

 

Good thing you guys were able to get the tire issue fixed and home! I know how you feel.. Took some motorcycle tires to put on some wheels and Tire Discount wouldn't touch them because the tires were from 2005. Corporate businesses suck.

But it's all good. I found me a mom-and-pop shop that put them on for me.

 

Yeah, I knew it'd be a hassle but had no idea it'd be THAT much of a hassle

 

Brain storming about how to tuck the exhaust up higher out of the way for when the front end eventually comes down I thought about seeing if i could sneak a cross over pipe under the oil pan to the passenger side and run it similar to stock all the way back with a single pipe.

But having bought two brand new smithys for the car i think i may try and fit BOTH smithys on one side.

They are something like 36 inches long but i think if i sit them just right i can tuck them in between the legs of the X member and only have to sneak the two 2" diamerter pies threw the holes in the legs?

Kinda going back and forth between running them exiting just in front of the rear tire on the side like it is now or running them all the way back to the bumper with the tips sticking out in a nice shotgun fashion.

any thoughts?

* clarification: i mean to run true dual exhaust down one side not to run the smithys inline on one pipe

 

Only you, Gary would see that as a "package shot"....pervert!!!
Seriously, it was nice to meet you and your lady at B'ville this year. 46 is coming along nicely.

 

Yeah, I gotta thought, Tim. After driving several old pickups with exhaust ending in front of the rear wheel [couldn't afford the "over the axle" pipes at that time] I HATED the sound....only 4 cylinders of exhaust noise sounds like shit to me. I'd spend the extra time and/or money to run them all the way to the bumper. It'll sound sooooooooooo much nicer.
I have spoken.
.
.
.

 

Yeah, good point. I had thought bringing them all the way back would down the in car noise level and maybe having the two pipes run down one side I'd get a slightly different tone from each pipe.

I've heard of people running different length mufflers per side and even a straight pipe on one side to get a little harmony out of the exhaust.

With the set up in my head the passenger side would have the muffler start roughly 28-34 inches of pipe from the manifold and the driver side would have another 20+ inches of head pipe before the muffler.

It probably won't be enough to notice but it could be a neat side effect.

I gotta come bug your body guy about what it'd take to get my fender hammered straight sometime in the next while. I'll keep you in the loop

Also, pretty funny that you reposted the buckle shot haha

 

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Mine come all the way back cowboy style, with a pair of old school glasspacks.
With the flathead, it sounds almost stock!
I'm going to have the muffler shop turn them at an angle between where they are now, straight back, and around the ends of the bumper, maybe 45 deg. and then down towards the ground.
Since I plan to run nerfs in the back, I want the exhaust at an angle.

 

by nerfs do you mean the bumper gaurds? my first choice would be out the back like that but i cant get my drivers exhaust tucked all the way up with the dual master, prop valve, and residual valves under foot were the stock m/c was thus my thoughts of going down the open side.

 

Not bumper guards, real nerfs, like the 60's hot rods had on them. Both bumpers are already off, all I have to do is buy the nerf bars off the net.
Didn't some of the 60's cars run both exhaust down the same side? You could have both your lead pipes and mufflers run down the passenger side, and then Y the ends out to each side of the car... It would still sound the same....wouldn't it?

 

Guess we'll see what it sounds like! If your not keeping the bumpers send me a pm. I'm going back and forth between finding better ones that I could hopefully afford or bending the ones I've got into a little better shape.

Any pix of the nerfs you plan to run?

 

If I was smart enough to transfer images, Ryan had a great thread on "the nerf bar".
I'm just not computer literate enough to work the buttons....
My bumpers aren't good enough to put on a car without chrome, and I'm keeping everything with the car in case someone who comes behind me decides they want to seriously restore the car. Hence no cutting on the frame or the body.

 

Good call. What's the post # that the image your referring to appears in? I can go find it.

 

Here's the nerf bar thread...
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=630469



Malcolm

 

Thanks Nick, is there a particular image you were referring to that had a 42-8 in it mike?

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=527971&d=1225992742

looking at this photo i see he has the dog bones on the sway bar going down with the sway bar attach below the axle side of the mount. im almost positive i have mine going up.

which way to you guys run yours? maybe this is why my sway bar his the shock bodies? ill have to investigate further when i get home.

 

I'm pretty sure the '46 axle set-up I got had the dog bone that way as well.. It would make more sense to me to run them that way.

 

sonofabitch. I ran my sway bar up top which is why it smacks the shock body. I ended up heating and bending it to clear.
That pic would have come in handy last week

 

cool car.good luck with it

 

Yeah I was just about to do a lot of work when I saw that. Phew, close call.