Two Shows in Two Weeks

Made it to two shows over the past two weekends: Billetproof and the Hot Rod Revolution. Best one: the Revolution, hands down.

That's evidenced by the photos I shot. I probably shot nearly as many shots of the first car I came upon at the Revolution as I did all of Sunday at Billetproof. Now, admittedly, Sunday was a slow day for this event's first two-day weekend, and frankly, the Revolution is my kind of car show: 1948 and earlier hot rods and customs. Nearly all in attendance were great and worthy of photos. Naturally, I just shot ones that were either 1) really cool (to me), or 2) had ideas for my hot rod projects. This was true for Billetproof, too.

Below are some highlights of the two shows (I've saved you from viewing detailed shots of shock mounts, etc.):

Billetproof 2009

Frankly, the one vehicle that, to me, merited noting was this GMC pickup into which the owner stuffed an air-start Detroit Diesel 4-53 two-stroke diesel motor. Very cool, and I think reflected what was the original intent of Billetproof: feature the best of homebuilt rods and customs and recognize homebrew craftsmanship, such as this truck demonstrates. Enjoy.




And, while I wasn't lucky enough to capture that great, "startling" sound of an air starter (guaranteed to scare the daylights out of shoppers in the grocery store parking lot, the owner acknowledged), here it is running in all its two-stroke glory:



Hot Rod Revolution 2009

Another laid-back and fun show from the team of Tardel and Cochran, in spite of the scorching temps! Great cars, great people. Imagine my surprise to be recognized by Keith upon my entrance (in my pickup, not a hot rod, alas), and after two years, no less. Class Act. That's the attitude that is reflected in this car show, which is the one I want to take Twice Lucky to next September.

Here's the first car I saw at the show: Ken Fuhrman's roadster. Yeah, the one with the chromed '32 frame and plexi hood - you've seen those photos. In fact, he's got them there in front of the car. Nice man, cool stories.


A sampling of the other great cars there:

















-30-

Bowling for Progress: Parts, Frame, Music

A quickie to catch up (at least it's within the same month). Since my last post, my friend completed more work, including the super secret coil project I referred to earlier, I got some more work done on the frame, and I checked out a car show with music.

Parts

My friend doing the odd jobs on the hot rod completed the coil project I gave him: adapting an old 6 volt finned coil to accommodate a 12 volt internally resisted coil. To do so, he carefully undid the top ring, removed the Bakelite coil top (seen to the left in the photo below), used mineral spirits to break down the (probably PCP-laced) tar inside and remove the coil internals. He then removed a ceramic spacer at the bottom and discovered the 12 volt coil fit perfectly! A shot of wannabe Bakelite brown Rustoleum and presto chango: a cool and modern roadside serviceable 12 volt yet vintage looking finned coil!


Here's a quick shot of one of my exhaust header tubes he made by cutting in half my '35 (or is it '36?) driveshaft to form two tapered cones. These'll be set up to exhaust just before the door on the cowl, and may end up with 1) no restrictors, 2) VW stinger baffles, or 3) square pipe plug caps, and redirected to a set of steel pack mufflers under the car.


Frame

I finally finished bolting in my Tardel K-member. I got smart toward the end: since I was drilling a smaller pilot hole first, I set one drill (a high speed Dewalt) with the pilot, and left the 21/64" bit in my 1/2" low RPM but high torque Milwaukee. Doing this made for fast work. I did 6 bolts in a couple hours; same as I'd done before, but in a couple sessions. Here's a pic of the finished work, and another of the reason I knocked off before drilling for the motor mounts.



Here's a couple detail shots, illustrating how I tried to mimic how the traditional '32 frames retained 2 rivets in the front of the K-member mount (I guess the rest of the original holes were for running board mounts).



I almost forgot that I mocked up part of the rear end: the axle tube, wishbone (on the bottom), Model A spring hanger (on the top), and the lower shock mount (an add-on piece from the era; I found I'll be able to use the extra long backing plate bolts that came with these to mount all this hardware up while still using original or era parts).



Music

Got up to the Poorboys' Midnight Mass the other night. Saw a bunch of nice cars, although few hot rods - mostly customs. While there were a few jalopies (coupes and roadsters, most traditional) and only 3 Model Ts (2 in 'glas, 1 metal, see below), I surmise the reasons most cars were 50s and 60s was manifold: easier to find, fix up, and work on; more comfortable for every day driving, unlike the limited use from a roadster (even in California); but, primarily this: most of these guys have probably been in the hobby seriously the last 10 years, and now it's marriage and kids time, making a closed 50s or 60s car much more user-friendly for the family - and that's cool. I like those cars and now the family's at the show: wife diggin' the cars and fashions, and the kids' being brought up right - around American Iron.

This car's wearing Twice Lucky's tail lights

You may have seen this T in Hop Up magazine

Performing at the Mass was one of my favorites, whom I've been looking forward to seeing since I saw earlier this year that he'd be playing there: Wayne "The Train" Hancock. Here's his pic setting up, and then playing for my girlfriend and me, and about 100 of our closest hot rod friends. For kicks, since my iPhone can't shoot video (yet!), I linked a video of him in action, for your enjoyment.



This was the most representative Wayne Hancock video I could find, as it has pedal steel, like he had at Midnight Mass
wayne hancock-viper


-30-

Just for Kicks: My 100th Post

This is just for kicks, to commemorate my 100th post. I took the photo above and just wanted to share it. Something about the lure of a Police Interceptor is enough to tempt any red-blooded hot rodder. Enjoy! (And yes, I know you know all the words to this movie, and you know who you are!)

Mmmm...cop motor...



-30-

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

After a prolonged absence from this blog and, more importantly, the GARAGE, I'm back here for a quick post before hitting the garage. Even here in three-season California, today merits firing up the ol' kerosene heater to take the chill off. I hope to report back at the end of the day, or perhaps tomorrow, on my progress. Speaking of progress, other areas of my life (one in particular) are moving along swimmingly; an opportunity for thanksgiving, in light of the upcoming holiday.

In the meantime, enjoy the following video, which does it for me on so many levels: the music, the lyricism and, of course, the hot rods. (Until I can figure out how to link it from the image below, click here to go to the video's url)

-30-

Video Escapism

Some days you need to see things like this. Today is one of them.


-30-

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...



-30-

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***

Gratuitous Video

I'm posting this mostly so I have a place to go to hear that flathead - it beats running out to the backyard and firing it up in the dark!



Oh, and I suppose I should indicate here I spent a good part of the day running the flathead until it started flooding into near carb-fire territory. My uncle thinks I got the float stuck sucking up junk from the little fuel tank I'm using to gravity feed it. I figured I'd overcome the needle valve with too much fuel pressure and was flooding it: literally fuel dripping/pouring into the intake. I spun the motor several times with the ignition off just to spray the fuel out of the cylinders for fear of a backfire out the carb.

Anyway, you can see that I picked up a generator belt so I could run it with the water pumps doing their cooling duty. Since I didn't have a fan running on it, I continually ran water through the radiator: in the top via the garden hose, and out the bottom via the drain. She did pretty well, but smoked a bit from the right bank; it was blue smoke (oil). I shot Marvel Mystery Oil down the carb, which seemed to clean it up a little. My friend (who couldn't come by today) suggested the rings were frozen to the piston and therefore not rotating(?) to seal out the oil. He suggested Marvel or diesel down the cylinders to free them up. My uncle suggested an old Okie (literally) trick: a teaspoon or less of baking soda down the plug hole with a little oil to help take the glazing off the cylinder walls. Supposedly this trick was told to him by an old-timer long since passed away who was his old car mentor. I may just give it a whirl, although I'm considering Bon Ami, because it "hasn't scratched yet" in the many uses I've had for it.

After playing with the motor, I spent some time on finishing up the transmission: clutch release fork, shaft, and bushings; throwout bearing, and u-joint. Still need to gasket/seal it, and redo the shifter ball cap/spring thing.

Thankfully, I only have one night's obligation this week, and a 3-day weekend coming up, so I hope to get a lot accomplished this week. We'll see...

-30-

New! Longer Video: Second Flathead Start!

So, if this embed video thing works correctly, below you'll see what actually preceded the video I posted on Friday: the Second start for the flathead.



What actually happened on Friday was that I added the condenser to the distributor, and just bumped the motor over while grounding one of the plug wires to the head, to see if I was getting a stronger spark - and she coughed!

I was surprised, but topped off the gas tank, choked the carb, and kicked her over again, and she fired! So, the first start was not recorded because I was too dumbfounded to believe she'd start. Once I returned to my senses, and returned with a fire extinguisher (just in case!) I filmed the second start. BUT, that video was too long to email to my photo hosting site, so I shot the third start in MMS-friendly format, and posted it soon thereafter.

Now you have "the rest of the story."

-30-

She's a Runner!

Woo Hoo! I've got a runnin' flathead, and she's even got good oil pressure (whew!)

Gotta go play with it some more, but here's video (sorry, cellphone footage is all ya get right now; might not even have sound, but ya get the point!)

-30-

Twice Lucky Construction (noir) in lieu of Blogger's Slideshow widget