All Fixed Up

Got a bunch of things back from the repair shops today, including my cat from the cat hospital, who's doing well considering her diminished kidney function. Funny thing is that I spent more on her today than I have in several weeks on the hot rod. But whadda ya gonna do? She's family.

Otherwise, on the car side of my life, I started the day at my friend's place over in Okieville, scrounging through his pile (literally) of old Ford parts, looking for fan and pulley parts. Came away with two parts from '49-'53: truck double-sheave crank pulley, and a Merc intake (takes a 4-bolt carb) with its generator/fan stud in front.

Then off to the rebuilder to pick up my generator (rebuilt for 12 volt) and starter. Starter wasn't ready upon my arrival, but the new-style Bendix drive showed up while I was there, so he began to install it. To make a long story short (to quote my father), the new-style drive wouldn't work on the 12 volt starter innards/shaft, so by the time I returned from lunch, I walked out with my original 6 volt starter, with its original spring-style Bendix, but now pinned AND keyed to the shaft, to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic failure while running on 12 volt.

Rebuilt Generator (note "Rebuilt" stamped on case)

Starter (note "Rebuilt" on Bendix, and gratuitous fluorescent orange Pick-n-Pull number on case)

From there I went out to the spring shop, and picked up my Model A front spring, with its 11/16" eyes now reamed out to 3/4" so I can use '32 and up shackle studs and dump the (clearly) aftermarket Pete & Jake's shackle bolts for original Ford parts.

Finally, at home and avoiding the 99 degree temp, I looked up fan parts in my copy of the Green Bible, aka the "Ford Chassis Parts and Accessories Catalogue." Known as the Green Bible for its green cover (1950 edition; mine is a now-coverless 1949 edition, which was orange) and how it lists all 1928-48 (47-1/2 for trucks) Ford parts by component category, and name and part number, with extremely useful exploded diagrams (example below).
I was surprised to discover that the fan parts I have are '42-'48 passenger, and consequently '49-'53 truck, which is what threw me. I also learned today that the crank pulley I need to use is likely from '42-'48 truck. The passenger pulleys are too widely spaced to work for my application: they'll stick the fan in the radiator.

I almost hate to commit to this next part, but (in theory) not much is holding me back from at least spinning the motor tomorrow, if not starting it. I do need to pick up a coil and starter solenoid, and have on hand a working distributor and carburetor, but I think I can scare those up from my and my uncle's collections. Crossing fingers now for tomorrow!

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