Driving golden era cars in the modern era

[59KUSTOM]

That's not a horrible deal for $5000.00. I'd be trying to negotiate.

 

[Effingham]

I almost wish I lived in Nevada...

 

[BoPeep]

I promise I won't turn this into a build thread, but this is how I spent my Sunday afternoon. Amazed at the amount of underbody and old gooey weather stripping mixed with ancient rust that needs to be scrapped off in this, the clean up phase. I ripped out the head liner, door panels and all remnants of interior. My husband said it's mine now that I've been covered in it's dirt, but I'm not sure; I haven't bled on it yet.

 

[John in Covina]

I almost wish I lived in Nevada...

It is one of the benefits of living in a State where they don't salt the road in winter - cars, old cars and really old cars that have not dissolved in to a pile of iron oxide. I had a friend that owned a car that would give off a cloud of rust when ever they drove over a bump.

 

[David Conwill]

I promise I won't turn this into a build thread...

But you will start one somewhere, right?

-Dave

 

[BoPeep]

But you will start one somewhere, right?

You're sweet. Best place to catch updates is on my blog. Here's the latest bodywork done by my husband http://willowhomestead.blogspot.com/2011/04/shoebox-update-rear-fenders.html

 

[David Conwill]

Best place to catch updates is on my blog.

Thanks! It looks like you're moving right along.

-Dave

 

[Edward]

John makes some excellent points. A lot can change on a vehicle in two or three (or more!) decades - either out of necessity, or in the nature of attempted improvement. I make it a point to figure out the original application for all the parts on my cars, so when I need to deal with chain-store counterboys, I don’t have to give them more information than necessary.

For example, I recently needed a carburetor kit for the carburetor that’s going on my Falcon, but I looked up the numbers and discovered that the carburetor I’m using originally came on a 1969 Ford F-100 with a 240ci six-cylinder engine. I went into the store, asked for my kit by its application, and walked away with the part I needed, no trouble at all.

It is funny, though, that sometimes me getting the part will result in an exchange like this:

Counterguy: My grandpa had a ‘69 F-100, it was a good truck.
Me: That’s cool, but I just have the carburetor.
Counterguy: Huh?
Me: It’s going on my Falcon.
Counterguy: Oh...

Of course, if you drive something truly old (like 6V era), you probably won’t get much in the way of parts locally anyway.

-Dave

It's always worth being aware of what else used the same parts. I remember my Dad buying bots for..... I think it might have been one of the MGs, the '56 A, maybe, which were common to something much less 'exotic' of the time. By buying them for the more "mundane" auto, it was surprising just how much less they cost than buying them as spares for the sexy sportscar!

 

[David Conwill]

It's always worth being aware of what else used the same parts. I remember my Dad buying bots for..... I think it might have been one of the MGs, the '56 A, maybe, which were common to something much less 'exotic' of the time. By buying them for the more "mundane" auto, it was surprising just how much less they cost than buying them as spares for the sexy sportscar!

I’m not sure what a “bot” is exactly, but I agree that prestige can inflate a price. What’s even better for parts availability is that if a now-desireable model (early Mustang) used bits common to a less-desireable model (early Falcon), the owner of the less desireable model can count on still being able to get those pieces long after owners of a comparable orphaned model (Studebaker Lark; Rambler American) will be stuck adapting pieces or hunting down dwindling original stocks.

-Dave

 

[Derek WC]

What do you guys think of the 1961 Chrysler Imperial? My grandfather has one in his back yard rotting away - I can't wait to restore it! If anybody has some tips on how to, I'd like to know as I've never done something like this before.

 

[John in Covina]

What do you guys think of the 1961 Chrysler Imperial? My grandfather has one in his back yard rotting away - I can't wait to restore it! If anybody has some tips on how to, I'd like to know as I've never done something like this before.

Go to a place that carries magazines and get a copy of Hemmings Motor News they have advertisers for vendors of all sorts of parts to rebuild cars. www.hemmings.com

 

[59KUSTOM]

Reason # 4729 to get the hell out of Massachusetts!

Sadly, it looks like Michigan uses more than Wisconsin:

Glad I don't live in Massachusetts!

-Dave

 

[Michaelson]

That's the good/bad thing about living in Tennessee. We use ALL our salt for two snowstorms....then throw sand. (grins)

Worst parts situation I ever had was with the old 1971 Volvo 164 I drove for years. Anytime I'd try to get ANYTHING for that car, the parts wouldn't fit. Finally found out through a Volvo collector's forum in Europe that the 1971 Volvo changed carbueration and distribution systems literally in mid year....so mine was actually a 1971 1/2! Unfortunately, mine was made in the EARLY part of the model year, and all parts that are currently available through parts dealers are from the LATE part of the model run.

I finally had to give it up when I could not longer find parts for the distributer....or the ones I found cost more than the car did in scrap value.

I then moved into my '50 Plymouth and started a new love/hate relationship. (grins)

Regards !Michaelson

 

[Bourne ID]

Been a long time since I've visited the lounge! Busy at work and on the car. Here's a few pics of the progress.
Picking, poking,scraping, degreasing and pressure washing the frame and suspension.

Here you can see we've moved the upper shock mount to a new bracket on the frame.

An application of POR15

We've also cut one coil out of the front spring, and in the upper right you can see the new wiring loom hanging.

Here's a shot of the Chevy 350, cleaned up, painted and with a few new chrome parts.

 

[John in Covina]

In regards to cleaning and prepping. I recall reading that the people that do sand blasting to clean parts had come up with a wide variety of mediums to use that could be tailored to the material and the type of cleaning needed. The one I was most surprised to hear about was using baking soda as a blasting material.

 

[David Conwill]

The baking soda doesn't surprise me. My wife swears by it as a mild abraisive around the house.

-Dave

 

[Michaelson]

I'm sure you've already studied the heck out of the front suspension, but be aware that these particular cars had different coils for the passenger and driver side of the car on the front, and it was due to the high crown of the highways and the way they were built in the 1950's US and Canada. The are not the same.

You may find by cutting that coil it MAY sit a hair low on one side now. Hopefully not, but that was actually an engineering factor figured into the construction of the early 1950 MOPAR products so they road level on those banked roads of the time.

Reference: Hemmings Motor News, July 2010, page 25-26. Quote: "Up front, the cars used coil springs with different rates on the right and left sides because Plymouth engineers reasoned, highways in the eastern United States, as well as Canada, were more steeply crowned than those in the West."

I'll be very interested in seeing the final result.

Regards! Michaelson

 

[Bourne ID]

We discovered that the difference between the springs had allready been corrected or replaced sometime in the last 5 decades .

 

[Michaelson]

Excellent! Regards! Michaelson

 

[Gregg Axley]

[video]http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000420910115&sk=photos#!/video/video.php?v=115091278514902[/video]
I can't find a good pic of my car, so I pulled a short 4 sec video from my FB page of the car sitting. I've changed the rims since then, because the rims were rusting. Well you know, if a car sits....
This is a 1929 Essex Streetrod, original frame, body, fenders, and lights (except tail lights). Found in a barn in 1990 where it had been since the 50's! Due to the lack of Essex parts on the market, I had to streetrod it....I started on it in 1991 and put it on the street in 1998. From then until a few years ago, I just drove it when I could but didn't have the cash to put into it. Hey as you all know, old cars just take time and money, there is plenty of that to go around!