XVI. Catch up time, some mustard too. TAIL LIGHTS One of many remaining jobs I wanted to do was to finish removing the rest of the wiring harness from the car. Yes all 3 wires of it… Which pointed me towards the tail lights. Both of them are marked DUOLAMP, and have fully red, reflective lenses marked “FOLITE” in a circle embossed into the tail lamp lenses. I’m not too sure, but am working under the assumption that these were period aftermarket pieces. And most likely when a second one was purchased to add to the car, 2 were added and the original Model A unit was removed. Again just an assumption. The broken one has been staring at me, which is the driver’s side. The passenger side looks in good shape. I’ve been looking for a replacement unit that will match. I eventually found one which was pretty complete, but was bought solely to get the red FOLITE glass. Other than a small chip no one will see it is a perfect replacement. After removing the tail light from both drivers and passenger side it was discovered… That… The… Passenger side was actually broken too! In a very specific way that you’d never see it from the tail light bezel cover – so sneaky… It actually looks like I can glue it back together. But it also means my hunt for another replacement glass resumes…
FUEL PUMP One other part that has been dis-assembled is the fuel pump… I’ll need one as long as I’m running the Carter carb, since the carb. Sits higher than the fuel line. It was mounted right to the fire wall in the engine bay. After getting the crud off it is an AUTOPULSE fuel pump – a model 500 I believe. Looks like these were used on several full classics and vintage sports car applications. Which makes perfect sense to find one on this high powered Model A! It does pump after putting 6 volts to it which is good first step. I have found a few pages of related discussion here: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/autopulse-fuel-pumps.793438/ https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/pre-war-electric-fuel-pumps.1140623/ And it appears that parts can still be sourced here: https://www.classicandexotic.com/store/c-377-autopulse-model-500.aspx Does anyone have any additional input or opinions into this fuel pump? I’ll want to make sure I go through it, from a drive-ability / reliability standpoint.
BRAKES While the car was on the lift – and at the perfect height, it was time to pull of the rear drums and see what was lurking inside. Well I can see why the car rolled so easily! And wasn’t froze up when we pulled it out of the chicken coop. The rear end has completely leaked into the brake drum. Well the “completely” still needs to be verified as I haven’t pulled the drain plug out of the rear end yet. This is the passenger side, but the driver’s side was pretty similar. Which honestly was great since it was easier to deal with greasy parts than rusty parts in this area. All of the components still seemed to move. The drum itself was in nice shape, but the wall thickness measured under what the lower tolerance is. Luckily while I picked up a spare set that I’ll refurbish onto the car. After disassembly and cleaning, lots of cleaning the end results is big old pile of gunk, and a clean backing plate. Thanks Dad – it helps when the car is on the lift and he wants it off…. The brake rods were the next to tackle. Heat and some long punches eventually did all of the linked/pinned connections. I had also picked up some nice used brake rods on a hunch and good thing I did. Between what I removed and bought I’ve got a complete set. The crossover yoke was also removed so the bushings could be replaced.
RANDOM Some other random bits were removed while the car was in the air; battery ground strap, brake light switch, battery box and exhaust hangers. The fuel gauge was pulled to get rebuilt. That float was toast! More to come here once it’s rebuilt, and an inspection of the tank while the gauge is out. The transmission as also treated to the putty knife and screwdriver being used for their intended purposes; chunking off decades of dried on gunk. After scrubbing with some mineral spirits and de-greaser it cleaned up pretty well. I do plan on pulling the shifter/cover off to get a better look inside. At least now I don’t have to worry with a bunch of crap falling into it.
FLOORED The 2 rear sections of the floor I knew were issues and had bought replacement panels for months ago. Now that we’re getting into the cleaning of the frame and sub-frame. It is the time to remove the old ones in order to get better access and also to address the rust issues. The first one to go would be foot well section of the rumble seat. The main issue here was where it attached to the rear sub-frame. Which can be seen in the top of this picture. The metal around the rivets ripped out and the rear section was hanging below the sub frame. This was most likely due to where the moisture from the ruble seat collected, but maybe also some over-zealous passengers in the truck banging their feet on the floor. While I could have cut and patched this section, I figured it would be just as easier to replace the entire section. All of the remaining rivets were ground flush, drilled and then punched through. And before I knew it the panel was wrestled out.
I pulled the trunk lid in order to get better access to the rumble seat platform – and also because it will need a little rust repair as well. The major issues here is the area where the rear spring connects as well as the truck lid stops. Both were rusted and had several cracks. Not too surprising since this is where most of the mouse nests/piss was located, and the rear bottom rumble seat cushion is rusted beyond saving. A lot of screws actually hold this panel in, but they were pretty toast. I opted to grind the heads down and drill them all out. Including the truck stops, they are rusty but should be good enough to re-use.
Once the front and rear of the panel were drilled out that left me with the sides. There were 3 screws on each side at the base of the panel which were hard to get at. Visible but not accessible with a drill. I then decided to just cut the side of the panel off so I can get easier access. Style points here, not for straightness of the cuts… That left the “side” of the seat which I bent down in order to get at the screw heads. They were ground flush and drilled out. This exposed the entire rear sub-frame.
The sub frame, frame running gear is all covered in scaly rust and dirt. I do plan on washing it off before treating the rust. But wanted to knock off the loose stuff first. I opted for these nylon/plastic wire brushes. I wanted to just knock off the rust not get it down to bare metal like a wire brush would. It worked pretty well, it’s hard to see in the pictures but I really did help get all the loose stuff off. It helped to have the shop vac. running next to the brush to avoid getting it all airborne and layering the entire shop.
The rear splash apron where the truck lid stops attach is the next area of repair – finally some fabrication in this project! I feel like I’ve just been scrapping the grease off of the car so far… I thought about replacing this panel as well since it does technically “bolt” in. But I am going to try patching it first, it the metal proves to be too thin I may go for the plan B replacement. Also, at some point I have a feeling that would just open up some other can of worms and the mushroom factor would just keep getting out of control. (Like it hasn’t already… ha!) I marked out the section to replace, or at least the “goal” size of the patch. Which turned into another small one where the plan folds 90 degrees to bolt in. It turned out OK – no one but you guys are going to see it anyway. The metal was pretty thin and I did blow through a little bit, but it’s in and I can move on to the larger patch. And moving on to the next patch is where I’m actually at, this gets our story to current times. Looks like work will be slowing down a little and I should get back into a more regular shop schedule. So more updates to come (soon)!
Thanks! Not any barn finds on our own property, plenty of cars in various states though. Restored, needing restoration, drivers, and parts cars. Like all area's there's always something out there waiting to be "found". But urban sprawl slowly happens and I can certainly say that there are way fewer cars parked next to old buildings than their used to be when I was younger.
Thanks Jon @carbking you are a wealth of information! I will make a note to revisit the info you provided once I've got some more time under my belt with it in its current form.
@studebaker46 Tom, you are very much correct, it has technically been my assumption on the build date. But hopefully that will be clarified here as I am able to do more research. Your question on history before the gentleman I bought it from... well he's a guy that doesn't get rid of anything... and when I got the car, he gave me a registration tag from the guy he bought it from! I've got a name and address from 1956 and when I have a moment I will be going down to our local library and working with the reference desk to see if I can track down the family. Hopefully I can connect the dots, and someone is still around. In my opinion, someone who puts that much effort and work into a car - has to take a few pictures along the way! Trying to not get my hopes up... but we'll see, and I'll share my finding here.
Well when you say it like that, I'm glad it found me! And yes, I would hate to think of what would have happened to it the "traditionalist" approach wasn't taken.
Those lenses are very similar to those made by Lynxe -Eye, a popular replacement back in the day. Still turn up occasionally.
XVII. FABTASTIC I was able to get a bit of time in the shop over the last couple of weeks. And made some steady progress forward. One of the areas that I’ve been thinking about is rust prevention on the underside of the car. In the last update I shared that I got all the scaly – flaky rust off the sub-frame of the car from what I could get at from the interior of the car. The rest of the frame and running gear will need to also be dealt with when I can get it back on the lift. For most builds and projects this is where chassis paint or POR15 would come in. But both of those products typically leave a full coverage glossy finish, which as you can tell isn’t exactly going to get the end result for the rest of the car. I would like something a bit more subtle. I have been wanting to use a “rust converter” product on a different project as well so I thought I would give it a try here. After a bit of research I bought a VHT product to try. I used it on the brake crossover bar. The pictures here are a bit hard to see but it did blacken the rust areas some, but also left a bit of a sheen on the part. Overall it’s going in the right direction, I may to some more testing, we’ll see.
Both sides of the rear splash pan had rusted out around where the truck lid stop brackets were attached. On the very sides of the panel there was also a crack running up from where the panel made the transition to the 90 degree bend for the flange that attaches it to the side of the trunk. Both would require a pretty straight forward patch that would be but welded in. With that smaller patch in, I can make the main replacement panel. My goal was goal was to stay away from the factory holes for the drain and floor pan mounting. CAD template of course. I used our leverage extension device to help form the curves. One slight bend for the “bottom” by the drain. And the other top bend to match the floor pan mounting edge profile. Mocked up and tacked in. And fully welded and ground smooth. I had to use a brass spoon on the back side of the area on the right side of the patch where the metal was pretty thin and I started blowing out in a few spots. So the spoon helped to fill the area with weld. Not maybe the best way, but for this it worked just fine. I used our finger sander (for like the 2nd time ever) to help get in the contour of the curve and next to the side of the flange – it worked really well. A coat of primer seals everything in. I’ll touch up the back side once the car is in the air.
While I was in the area I also cleaned up the truck lid stop brackets. I know I could have gotten a new set, but these weren’t too bad and cleaned up fine after a trip to the blast cabinet. They both had a stress crack on the bend radius. But a little weld did the trick. Plus some time with the air sander. While I had the cut off wheel out I did neuter the eye hook that was in the back of the rear bumper support. It was used for something and even tweaked the support bracket a little bit. I can't see it having a purpose so off it goes. Besides that rattling around would drive me nuts! - get it... nuts... neutered... Well I laughed in my head... Next up I have started to paint some of the parts that need it. I’ll finish cleaning up the top of the rear end while I can access it with the floor pans out. Then it’s back on the lift for some dirty underside cleaning! Yay! But with each trip to the shop I do feel like I’m inching closer to the top of the project mountain where the “cleaning” will end and the rebuilding / reassembly can slowly start on the downhill decent! Until next time.
I am glad to see another "chicken coop" car being left as is. What a find. I am so glad you are keeping it's history instead of just paving over it. Thanks for sharing your incredible story.
@Doug Hines I am really curious how this project is coming along, so any new pictures of any new progress ? Thanks from Dennis.
Great thread. I give you credit taking so many photos. Once I get into my work I just forget about taking photo's.
I'm late to the party, you're doing a terrific job. Just wanted to add, the radiator filler neck is from a '36 Chevrolet. That filler neck was a common modification back in the day, and is a sought after piece today. Tom
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