I heard back from the fellow (Brian) today. He's working on a Tudor AV8 build and he has a big stash of coupe parts, most of which he can't use. We went over the parts he has that I need, and when I asked him to ring me up, he said he needed help with wiring his flathead V8, and that if I'd help him get it to fire he'd let me have anything I needed from the coupe stash. I KNOW THIS PART! @RMONTY I'm glad I was paying attention!
Ha, ha, Trevor! You started this thread in August. I bet then, you never thought you would be sharing your knowledge with another enthusiast just 8 months later!
Between these, you ought to be able to get the basics done. Confirm 6V positive ground (stock) or 12V negative ground (modern). Both shown are 6V P ground. Do the guy proud and draw up the actual wiring as you go so he has a reference for later. Also, since you are trying to fire the engine, grab the stuff you found helpful and don't forget a fully charged battery, starting fluid and an extinguisher! Remember, help him be more confident and knowledgeable, not just drop by and knock it out. You guys can help each other go further than each can go separately.
As Jrs50 said, you went from "I have no idea what I'm doing. Other than the really rough classics we had in my high school auto shop, I have no background with this stuff, no mentor, no cool hot rod uncle to give me pointers, and no deep pockets to absorb the impact of my mistakes. I'm a broke ass college kid and I decided I want a real, no bullshit hot rod soooo..." to this, running!
I’m excited to be able to help - plus it will be really informative to get up and close and personal with another A that’s already got a V8 in it. I’m going to draw up a diagram this evening.
If it's just the engine harness, it should be simple on a single 8.5X11. Once it's drawn, make a few copies. Use one while working and highlight the circuits as they are done. Keeps things easy to keep track of that way. I don't have Tardel's book, it may have wiring info. Bring it along so you guys can talk out each part of the swap and compare. Take a lot of pictures of his ride for reference, and ask him what worked well and what he didn't like or would have done different. Here is an even simpler one
As an aside, I could get a vintage Mallory YA-11A dizzy for my engine for a decent price right now. From what I understand, these were supplied with industrial engines and feature a centrifugal spark advance. My plan was to use a stock B distributor (which also has automatic advance), but this unit may perform better. Anyone have experience?
How's the coupe coming along? Did you get the leak sorted out? I'm anxiously awaiting the first test drive video.
It’s been a very busy few weeks! I have piles of stuff I haven’t installed yet, but I’m hoping to find time this weekend. Today I went over and wired Brian’s ignition. He has a really clean V8 install in his Tudor, and it was a real treat to get that close and see how everything fits together. Unfortunately the motor ended up having some issues that will need to be sorted before it will run, but I think I did a pretty good wiring job for him! As promised, he gave me a ton of stuff from his stash. Unfortunately- this is becoming a theme - the seat I got from him doesn’t fit. It seems that it must have come from a Fordor, but it has coupe side panels, sooo... I’ll get more into the parts haul tomorrow, but I couldn’t resist throwing this on as soon as I got home.
Among many other things, I got these shocks. Two are short bendy arms and one has a long straight arm. I have always thought these houdaille shocks are super cool and would love to run them, so will be looking into rebuilding them eventually. Looks like they will cost about $300 apiece to have rebuilt so that can wait.
I’ve been busy building a shed to house my growing pile of parts, but yesterday my headlight stands showed up. I am planning to make my own but I wanted a quick and easy way to put the stock headlights on the car so I could get it inspected and street legal that much faster. My help for the shed hasn’t got here yet so I figured what the hell, let’s mount the headlights. But then I ran into a problem. I have previously noticed the front crossmember on this frame was bolted in as opposed to being riveted in like my other frame, but only now do I realize that these bolts are interfering with the obvious mounting location for the headlight stands. I guess I will have to make my own stands to mount to the side of the frame instead of the top, or maybe I’ll just weld the crossmember in and fill the bolt holes.
Make sure the coil is one with internal resistance, or use a ballast resistor on the tudor wiring job or the points will not last long
Can you make a small adapter out of 3/16th plate to bolt in between? That way you could use the head light stands you have already paid for. Mock up the adapter out of cardboard first. Then when you are happy bolt the pieces in place and tack them so you don't need a jig and use welding magnets to position the pieces. Then unbolt and final weld on the table. Remember to protect the radiator from weld splatter. If I remember right, in the state of Texas, the headlights can be between 24 inch and 48 inches tall from the ground.
Trevor, I've been thinking about your headlight dilemma. While doing some brainstorming, I thought back to how your neighbor @Bass set his up on his Deuce roadster. As a matter of fact, this is how I initially planned to do mine too. It's a traditional and downright clean setup. Plus it'll let you pick your headlight height.
How about using rivets inserted, either from the top or bottom, and then either peen the rivets OR shorten their length put a 45 deg chamfer on the end and make a "plug " weld that resembles a rivet head. It gets rid of bolts and looks original.
Trevor! I've been off the boards while waiting for the machinist to get started on my block. Got a call out of the blue from him yesterday and were moving again on my 8ba. I came back and this was the first thread I was interested in! Happy to see all the progress you've made these past few months! The car is looking great and it sounds like you're learning a lot! I'll have to swing by one of these days and check out your setup. Cheers!
My garage is open! Hit me up any time, I always have cold beer too! The car is pretty close to being drivable but to be honest I am a little overwhelmed. It is still on pause until I get my shed finished, which will let me re-organize and clean up my space so I can focus. There are a lot of little things that I am dreading having to deal with. I don’t have a good way to make brackets to mount the headlights where I want them - without a cutting torch I have to make any brackets I need with a grinder, which sucks. I am worried about the brakes still, they are concerningly crusty even after being cleaned up and greased. They don’t like to return and I’m worried they’ll get stuck on and strand me. The header wood is rotten so the windshield will not mount securely, so I will have to replace that along with a lot of other wood (which is really expensive and kind of intimidating). The guts fell out of the passenger door. I still don’t have any kind of half-assed seating solution. I haven’t even had time to attend to the fuel leak! I have three days off in a row coming up, so I’m hoping I’ll have time at home to get some stuff done!
@trevorsworth, I know I've said it before, but I wish I lived closer so we could check some things off that list. First and foremost being the fuel leak. Personally, I'd worry about the headlights later. Keep that project in the back of your mind as you chip away at some of the other stuff. I've only taken my car out at night a grand total of maybe twice. That being said, an angle grinder with a decent cutoff wheel can yield some decent results. Make a few sketches, play around with some pizza boxes and see what works. I too was having issues with my brakes returning. They're still not totally adjusted, but I did install this spring which helped a ton. I have no advice on the wood or windshield. I plan to make some inner structure out of 1x1 square steel tubing. Maybe you can do some of that since you have a welder? Most importantly, keep on making it happen. I know I'm not alone when I say how much I enjoy seeing your car come together. P.S. Have you considered running an old bus seat?
Thanks for the tip on the brake spring. I'll probably throw that in as a stopgap for now. I was looking for bus seats for a while, the kinds I rode in at school would look just fine really. I never did find one. I have a line on a Caravan seat... I will be going to pick it up on what would have been my only afternoon to work on the car for a while. Catch-22. I did want to share what came in the mail today. It won't be going on the car for a while but I'm really tickled with this shift knob. This is a medallion from the 1933 World's Fair celebrating the new V8 and Ford's 30 year anniversary. Will be cool as hell with the V8 conversion!
Haven't had time to do much on the car but today I tried to get out and tackle the fuel leak, I failed.
This fuel line won't stay in the fitting. What am I missing? This is as supplied by Mike's, supposed to be ready to go. It is so frustrating to be hung up on stupid shit like this in the few hours a week I get to mess with the car.
you should have some of the tube out past the brass Ferrel, like 1/8 to 3 /16 . the then, it needs to be tightened down enough that the brass is squeezed on the tube, and the tube is squeezed too so it cant come off
The tube can't pass all the way through the ferrule, it just hits a wall near the end and won't go any further. I had the bright idea to try and press the ferrule over the end of the line and damaged the mating surface, so I'm sure it won't seal anyway. I'm going to order another one from Bratton's, since their inside line was perfect and went right on I'm sure the outside line will be fine as well. Honestly my time is down to a point where if I could pay someone to at least get this car to where I could drive it so I could worry about just cosmetic stuff I would, but everyone's got such a backlog it wouldn't really get me on the road any faster.
You can buy the brass ferrel at any hardware store. The nut is special, "ford nut" is its proper name, really ! there may be a broken off line in your sediment bowl, or someone has cut the seat deeper, whatever, the ferrel can not be at the very end of the line or it will just slip out. You have a line wrench to tighten it properly? the ford nut was available at nappa years ago, not sure about now, and you can find them in steel so they do not strip so easy. I have sometimes found another stronger female hole, steel, (get your mind out of the gutter !) like the cast iron carb, or an old gas tank sender base, to screw the thing in tight enough to crimp the ferrel on the tube, then put it in your sediment bowl. off memory, arnt some of those bowls pot metal, and some iron? the pot metal would be where i would try to seat the ferrel on something else first. either way, some of the tube needs to extend past the ferrel or there is nothing to hold it on
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