Thunderstorms and Neon Signs

It's a rare occasion for me to add things like this, (although I've done it before) but I heard this song tonight on the satellite and it just fit my mood. Just close your eyes and imagine yourself behind the wheel driving down a two-lane road late at night with this crackling through the radio, and listen to that Telecaster sing...



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Shackled, Too!

Well, after some stubborn grinding, filing, hammering, wrenching, die-ing (like that's a word), and driving (with a hammer), I installed the shackles in the rear spring. Last Saturday I installed the shackles in the front spring, but I neglected to mention it in that post.



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The Road Not Traveled

Not to get all symbolic and sentimental on you, but I thought I'd post a few photos from the beginning of the car run I COULD have gone on last weekend, but DIDN'T. My car friends were taking their annual jaunt up into the mountains for what must have been a beautiful weekend - especially in an open car! But I had a friend coming into town Friday night (and we had a blast, BTW) and spent Saturday and Sunday working on the hot rod and pickup respectively (see below).

So, here for your viewing pleasure are a few of those who ran. Lest you grow dewy-eyed for me at the missed opportunity (yeah, right!), you'll be happy to know I'm carpe-ing a little diem (ugh, and this from a former Latin student?) next weekend by going to the coast for a conference, and tacking on a couple days for sightseeing! Really looking forward to it, as I've not gone on a trip for several months, and figure I'd seize the opportunity and have a little fun. Haven't been out that way for many years, so it'll be a new experience for me.



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Shackled!

By work, civic and social obligations (noblesse oblige, of course, dear), but also with the car! While work and personal life (yes, I do have a life outside of the garage - somewhat) have been crazy busy lately, I did get in the garage last Saturday. (I spent all Sunday washing and detailing my pickup; to get it ready for today's rain, apparently). While I did not get much done in visuals, it was a lot of satisfying work. Also picked up from another friend a pair of '27 T windshield posts, one chopped and laid back, the other stock (but bent). The ones you've seen on there up to this point are Chevy posts that have been carefully massaged to fit the T's cowl. You can see the chopped post in the new 3/4-view photo above, BTW. I like it!

I worked on the shackle studs (shackles are part of the suspension; they hold the springs to the axles) to drill the ends for castellated nuts like the Ford originals. I didn't have enough originals, so I had to order some repops; they're nice copies (metal and rubber construction like original) but they use modern nuts on the ends. So I spent the better part of the afternoon, after visiting with a friend who stopped by (the guy I bought the RPU from), standing at the drill press lining up an original and the new shackle studs, to drill the holes correctly.

I got them right better than half the time. Which means the other half the bit drifted, causing a hole that did not go straight through: it wandered. That's OK, I just drilled a better hole perpendicular to the first. You can see a little bit of my work below.-30-

Still Hangin' in There

Yeah, I'm still alive; just buried with work and life in general. BUT, I did get a great visit from a friend last weekend who began leading up my driver's side door. I'm too wiped to post the photo results right now, but rest assured, it was quite a lot of work!

I think we'll be getting together again soon to complete the job, so I'll keep you posted!

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Drag Racing!

No measurable car work this weekend (except cleaning up the random RPU parts strewn about the backyard, now safely stowed beneath my covered deck, away from possible inclement weather) because I spent the better part of yesterday helping at the local annual drag race!

I got to work in the timing booth, so I was right on top of all the burn out and staging action, and it was a blast, but I stunk like burned rubber when I got home and showered. Don't get me wrong - I loved every minute of it, but I got a little nauseated after a while from all the fuel, exhaust, and burn out smoke/fumes. While I wish I could say I did some really cool timing work there, frankly I just helped wherever I was needed: mostly with tools and setting up/assembling/fixing things, and that was fine by me; I was just happy to work there, get a great observation seat, and the free lunch didn't hurt, either!

My "official" shift was 6a-12p, but I helped out a bit beyond that; hung out until I was too blind from the constant blowing dust, then headed out by 4:30p or so. The day was mostly filled with 60s cars, with some late models. Only a couple of what I would call "hot rods," and just ONE flathead-powered car, but what a car!
The motor was (if I did the math correctly) 322 inches(!?) (3-3/8" bore x 4-1/2" stroke) running first-generation Hilborn injection and a Harmon & Collins crab-style magneto. Most interesting, was that the motor's water jacket is filled with aluminum (42 pounds' worth, I think he said)! He consistently ran around 11.88 @ 112 mph or so. Powerglide and 8" rear end made up the rest of the drivetrain, BTW.

The day kicked off with the national anthem, a color guard, and this:
While hard to make out here, it was a triple flyover by a WWII P-51 airplane. My apologies for the poor photo, but it was the best I could do with my iPhone as an Allison V-12 powered fighter came roaring at me seemingly dozens of feet off the deck! She flew over twice, then came back one last time in a wingover roll - very cool!

My friend whose birthday we celebrated after Billetproof came out to the drags, and we wandered around and got lunch before I had to get back to work. Later, we went out to dinner, followed by tire-kicking and conversation at my place - it made for a very pleasant close to a long yet fun day.

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K.R. Wilson Engine Stand

Well, maybe not exactly. Not certain who the manufacturer of my flathead engine stand is, but it's very similar to the K.R. Wilson stands, which are apparently as rare as hens' teeth. My uncle had one, and acquired another one, so guess who got one!

Yeah, several years ago when I was in the "squirreling parts away since I can't work on the hot rod" stage of my life, I bought this from him, and now it's finally getting some duty. It was rusty when I got it, but all I did was give it a good wash and wire brushing, then painted it with Krylon International Harvester implement enamel paint. Pretty close to KRW red, as far as I'm concerned. The stand came with a bunch of random accessories that apparently fit post-flathead (54-59?) Fords; the Y-Block era, I guess; don't know much about them, but I've seen these accessories on display at a nearby car museum. I'll shoot and post photos of them at some later date.

For the piece attached to the flathead, I had to make it with the plate that bolts to the exhaust ports, which I got from Vern Tardel. He was really kind and patient with this dumb kid who dropped by his place to talk parts and take measurements. He's a real genuine, gracious guy, and I appreciate his kindness. Anyway, I got the part and my welding friend cut up some heavy wall pipe and welded up the adaptor you see in the stand here.

Lemme tell you, bolting up 500+ pounds of running, despite being bargain-priced, flathead to a stand with just four bolts, and taking the slack off that chain hoist gave me the willies, but she didn't move a budge. Just sat there waiting to be worked on. Well, ya gotta wait a few days, baby, but I'll be back.

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The Day to Myself

Today was a very satisfying day, something I've been anxiously awaiting for some time now. First, a quick "overview" of the car from this morning:
Since none of my friends whom I expected to be in town were able to make it, I had the day to myself to work on the car, and I got a lot done!

1. Ran the motor to temperature and drained the oil, foolishly making a horrible, near-Valdez oil spill. (Thankfully no photographic evidence)
2. Disassembled the backyard "engine stand," and pulled the motor out with the cherry picker (None here, either)
3. Dumped it in the back of my pickup
4. Ran it around to the garage, pulled the bare trans case, and cleared a path in the garage for the cherry picker
5. Then, on the advice of two friends, I heated the exhaust manifold bolts to make them easier to remove. I would have had to remove them eventually, of course, but right now I needed to remove at least the driver's side so I can bolt the motor into my K.R. Wilson (style) flathead engine stand (which you can see in the last picture in this post). These stands use a fixture that mounts to the exhaust ports.

The heating process involved using the torch to heat each of the bolt heads cherry red, going around the motor until each bolt has been heated at least three times.
Bonking the bolts with a hammer between heatings probably helps, so I did that too. After doing this, nearly all of the bolts came out by hand after first loosening with a wrench. Only a few needed another heating cycle to get them out. I was easily able to remove both manifolds this way.

Next I'll run a tap into the threads to clean out the accumulated rust, then bolt the motor into the stand. All of this is in preparation to remove the pan to fix it, change the pressure plate and clutch (and now, flywheel, too, as my parts friend has a complete 9" setup for me), and change the timing cover to the two-bolt style to allow me to bolt on the crab distributor.

And, to close out this post, a couple fun shots of the garage as twilight settled over my neighborhood. Yeah, I'm THAT guy in my neighborhood.
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Nothin' New Here; a Brief Divertissement

Nothing new to report on the car. Work...so...busy...plus...life. Probably hear more from me by Friday or this weekend. My inital plans to meet up with a friend from out of town fell through - he's workin' like crazy, too. So, since he can't travel this weekend, and I'd love to be on a road trip myself, a little video diversion. This road trip time lapse video rocks; the music's OK, too. Enjoy.

***Updated with a less scary-looking embedded link***