Projects Mild custom '51 Pontiac Chieftain

Yep, front and rear- rear speaker was a factory option.

 

I think I'm going to redo the alignment on the radio. It's working well enough but it's too windy and chilly this morning (45 feels like 40, with a face full of wind-blown transmission fluid, no thanks) so I'm going to sit at my workbench and give the radio a tune-up.

I'm "chasing zeroes", in this case. The radio already works well but I'm sure I can get it just that little bit better.

Phil

 

Oldschool IF, 260kHz.. dialed in and circuit peaked.

All the rest of it tweaked and set up.

Phil

 

"Do you hear what I hear" ........ I'm thinking you are alot like Mart from England.....you can do and know too much stuff.......

 

Nah. Can you tune an engine up, get it running nicely?

This is the same, just electronics. All just tweak, adjust, peak and get the best out of the circuit.

 

Radio works, plays nicely again. Radiator blocked itself up which is handy.

A 24 Hours of Lemons car parked up by me at Wally World.

Everybody was stopping and talking to me today, which was nice.

Got home and red/white/blue'd my mailbox.

There we go.

 

Looks like a Griswald Christmas at your house. Too much effort for me!

 

Small, fiddly clockwork tonight.

Small screwdrivers were involved in the cleaning and adjustment of the clock.

Seems to be okay now.

Checked the uniformity of the beat, and the current pulses from the coil- nicely even CW to CCW.

Starts itself now, which is nice. Hopefully it'll keep time better now.

Phil

 

Fer cryin' out loud, @PhilA you coulda given us a warning that picture was coming!! I think I'm gonna have to sleep with a light on tonight!

 

Ha! Hamb's resident "Bill Nye" at it again.

 

Clockwork Phil. If your clock has taken a lik'n, he'll get her a tick'n ......

 

I'm not very good at clockwork, my fingers are too big and fumbly.

In general I can only fix clockwork that's not already broken.

 

The essence of hot rodding, fixing things that aren’t broken!

 

All back together and it would appear to be keeping time. It will need adjustment no doubt but at least now it's in the middle of the fast-slow range and seems to be about right.

 

"It's 5 o'clock somewhere"

 

This morning the clock was five minutes fast, which is unusual.

Dialed the adjustment back a half turn. I'll see what it's showing tonight.

Phil

 

A few minutes fast. Half a turn taken off.

Phil

 

I feel your passion. Any vehicle I own that has a clock must be functional. This obsession has sometimes caused some problems.

 

This is more if anything is fitted, I would like it to work.
Thus, the clock is there; it should work. The gauges are there, they should also work.

Space taken up with non-functional hardware irks me.
A gap? Not so bad. But, then, I get the urge to fill it with whatever should be there. Then it has to work.

Vicious cycle.

 

As a side note, those 6 volt clocks work fine on 12 volts without a reducer. Since they only use power for a split second to wind the spring they almost work better on 12 volts. I have been running a 6 volt clock from my 49 Buick on 12 volt for 8 years now with no issues.

 

They do, but this is to prevent it from smoking the coil up if it gets jammed, which it has done in the past.
It has a thermal cutout too, which is another useful feature.

 

Not much to report, other than just been driving the car about.
Been doing inside things, mostly.

 

Shifting any better?

 

In some ways yes.

Other ways it's doing the same thing.

I just haven't had suitable weather or long enough in one go free time to pull it apart.
Perhaps this week if the weather turns cooler.

 

Very sharp cars no wonder you guys fix up the older cars ,such great style!

 

Now the weather is in the upper 60's it's behaving itself well. Close to actually being a joy to drive.

 

That's gotta feel good!

 

It rained hard. Had to go to the store, liked the way the light hit the car.

 

Also, just as the atomic clock rolled over 6:25 this morning, so did the clock in the car. I haven't set that for three days now, and it's keeping time.
Really happy about that. It sounds better, too.

Walked outside to this today. Proper heater weather. 47 degrees, humid and windy. Nice and toasty waiting for the school bus to arrive. Saw my boy off to school, now it's time for coffee. My feet are nice and warm now.

Phil

 

The chief is getting into the holiday spirit.

Christmas classics on the wireless; even if it's not snowing it's the thought that counts.

Note to self: stop procrastinating and fix the cabin heater fan