Bought my Fourth car yesterday! 1947 Oldsmobile series 76 fastback

[mr_rye89]

And she'll do 70, that's pretty good!

I still have my '59 Ford up on jack stands at the moment, the new Mustang 3 speed 3.03/toploader is finally fitted to the 223. I just need to build a plate to adapt the tranny mount to the cross member, replace the muffler, have a longer drive shaft built/fitted, de rust the engine, maybe replace the radiator...........

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by WISCOJIM

Lots of progress!

Snow tire in the trunk?

.

Today on my classic tire we have a Remington super safe traction 4 ply tubeless. The darn thing still holds air. Not sure how much but it might be enough to limp to a tire shop on...or explode the second it has the cars weight on it. It's only marginally less sketchy than the thin wall/tread factory compact inflatable spare for my Lincoln (which resides in the basement so a real spare can reside in the trunk).
I need to look up how old the remington is...Odds are good it's older than at least one of my parents...

So under the door jamb step next to the floor pan rust was more rust. Read about the repair in my next post.

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I need to look up how old the remington is...Odds are good it's older than at least one of my parents...

I thought I saw a date code, but September only has 30 days...




.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by mr_rye89

And she'll do 70, that's pretty good!

I still have my '59 Ford up on jack stands at the moment, the new Mustang 3 speed 3.03/toploader is finally fitted to the 223. I just need to build a plate to adapt the tranny mount to the cross member, replace the muffler, have a longer drive shaft built/fitted, de rust the engine, maybe replace the radiator...........

She may do more than 70...it was night on a vacant stretch of rural road marked 45 in a car that doesn't have a current plate or the transfered title or seatbelts...I didn't have the err, um ...Stupidity (I think that's the word I'm looking for) to push it to it's limit. The carb is still unrebuilt and not dialed in. The 110 speedo is probably optimistic for even the 8 cylinder that has 10 more horses, but it probably has 85 in it if everything is working to spec... Gotta test it on a faster road. Highway 16 on a empty hour would probably work. The trans only heated up to 160f on the last AutoZone trip (when With the clothes fuel filter it was doing 215f before) so things are getting better. I changed the trans fluid again after the 70 run and the whale oil had been diluted to the point it looked like motor oil instead of crude oil...I need to take it on another test drive with the cleaner fluid.

Good luck on your 59 project.

Originally Posted by bgadow

When I dropped the fuel tank on my 51 Ford it looked terrible inside; I'd planned on coating it so I ordered a POR-15 fuel tank sealer kit. First step they include is an enzymatic cleaner. After that was done the tank looked so nice I never bothered to coat it; that was nearly 10 years ago. There must have been 1/4" or more of hard, black sludge in the bottom (lead?) and that cleaner really knocked it out. I haven't had trouble with clogged filters since then, though I do see a bit of silt in the glass bowl on the fuel filter.

One of the many great points of a car like this: you can DRIVE it! You don't have to be afraid of stone chips or door dings. I drive my Ford year round (avoiding rain), usually 3k/year. If I want to go down a dirt road...I go down the dirt road. Henry II built it to drive, right?

I agree on the advantages of driver quality collector cars. When I was looking I had a goal in mind of a 8k or less driver quality car...nice restored cars of the same model are around 17k and while I could afford that I don't want one too nice or to spend that money on that.

I'll keep that tank treatment under advisement incase the filter keeps plugging.

Yesterday I cleaned the tank out with a gallon of CLR, 8lbs of marbles and about 30 min of sloshing (there was about a quart to a gallon of fuel in there too) I got most of the rust, grit and sludge off the bottom there's still a some flea bites of surface rust, but I think I got most of it. I probably should have focused on the sides for longer since they are still a bit crusty, but things are overall much better. The cleaner mix at the end was milk coffee brown and non-transparent. I followed up by putting in a gallon of the old gas pumped through a filter and sloshed that around to try and flush out the cleaner and residual debris. I think it got most of it. Many moons ago a relative used to own a parrot...CLR, gas, and the junk in the tank mixed together smell exactly like that parrot...ma who used to take care of it while her sister was on vacation agrees the mix smells just like a parrot.
The filter I put on last week is pictured below with the crud it was pulling out of the uncleaned tank. I changed that filter after the cleaning; but before installing the new one I ran the engine for about a minute off starting fluid and let the fuel pump shoot any sediment in it/from the tank on the ground. The new filter is getting some black sediment in it's grooves but only a fraction of the orange the old one was. The old new one pictured was still flowing okay despite the crud so I think now that there's less crud everything should be okay.

So I'm finally calling the floor done. A few weeks ago when I was painting the floor with Eastwood rust encapsulator I ground the front drivers rust hole till I knew where solid metal started...I realized to fix it I needed to unscrew the aluminum inner door seal trim, and to to that I had to unscrew the door jamb step. The step was easy... penetrating oil got most of the screws and the remaining 2-3 the metal they were screwed into was dust. The aluminum I only got 2 screws out, the rest I had to grind. Under the step was more rust so I had to make 2 patch panels. One for the door jamb and hump under the trim and a second for the floor. Not having a sheet metal brake or any good sheet metal working tools I had to use 28 guage metal to get the contours right with the hammers, angle iron, clamps and torch (getting the deep bead for under the trim right required a heat and bend strategy). It may not be as strong as the original but it's at most 3" of the new metal between thicker guage original structure (and that bead which is pretty strong)... So it looks okay, keeps the mice out, and is strong enough to keep my feet in... The floor section is booger welded in with my gasless harbor freight BOTB welder...it's a bit much for the sheet metal I'm working with so I switched to soldering for the door jamb panel and it's seam with the other patch. After it was all in I gave it a coat of seam sealer inside and out and a coat of rust encapsulator. I think it's good enough for now.

I have the radio on the bench again now. Vibrator audibly runs, heaters light, speaker seems to be fine, but absolutely no audio... Next up is verifying B+ and signal tracing. Edit: main B+ pi network resistor went open. Replacement fixed it.

Still got to change reverse light power source, and swap the brake switch.

Once it gets below the upper 50s outside like it has working on cars becomes very unpleasant...
If it drives good and there's no more significant issues after this I plan to rent an indoor storage space for it drive it a few times and park it before the road salt gets put out...next year I'll pick up where I left off.

[Electronic M]

So yesterday I got the radio back in it, changed the back up light wiring, and took it for some gas and it's first highway drive. This also marks the first time I've run the radio while driving it...I decided to play swing music from my phone through the audio input on the radio most of the trip with some live radio here and there.


Even with a long downhill ramp it still didn't want to hit 65 by merging time (not surprising with the accelerator pump not working well). However with time it got up to speed. In a mile I found it's top speed in it's current state on level ground...Floored, it will hold an indicated 90MPH and it happily cruised at 80 (pic below) along side the rest of traffic. It cruised nicely on the highway. Ride quality and handling were atleast as smooth and relaxed at 70-90 as at 50. After 4 miles of ~80MPH I got off and returned home at 45mph on rural roads...she did fine till I had to wait for a train at the foot of a steep uphill about 2-3 miles later (while I was waiting for the train I took the trans temp and it scored a 160f temp reading). Then it wasn't shifting up well on the hill...It pretty much held 30 regardless of throttle (which I gave it plenty of occasionally backing off) only reaching the speed limit of 50 as it leveled off at the summit. A couple miles later back home it was at 209f...It seems it doesn't like hills unless it's at speed before reaching them. Perhaps it needs another quart of ATF to handle hills.

Today I plan to change the brake switch again and hope the second napa sourced switch lasts more than 3 weeks without intermittently sticking on. I'll also look into installing the fiber board side kick panels under the dash....they have been laying in the back seat since I got the car and I held off on trying to do the install till I had the front floor done. I may also change the transmission fluid again...It only lets out ~ half its fluid when drained so I am slowly diluting away the last gallon or so (probably more like quart or 3 by now) of whale oil...

[init4fun]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Today I plan to change the brake switch again and hope the second napa sourced switch lasts more than 3 weeks without intermittently sticking on....

Back in the early 1990s I ran into that very problem with my 53 Buick , a new brake light switch wouldn't live long before the contacts had become welded together . The bulbs and sockets were fine , and I suspected the new switches weren't built to the same level of quality as the original was . After switch #3 failed I wired in a 6V relay for switch #4 to control and in the few years I owned the car afterwards there was no further problem of the brake lights being stuck on .

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by init4fun

Back in the early 1990s I ran into that very problem with my 53 Buick , a new brake light switch wouldn't live long before the contacts had become welded together . The bulbs and sockets were fine , and I suspected the new switches weren't built to the same level of quality as the original was . After switch #3 failed I wired in a 6V relay for switch #4 to control and in the few years I owned the car afterwards there was no further problem of the brake lights being stuck on .

That's a good suggestion. My contacts stick but usually come loose either pumping the pedal or tapping the switch housing with a wrench so I wonder if it's really welding or some mechanical deficiency... I've got 6V relays so it would be fairly trivial to make one into a buffer...the up side is I probably would be able to hear it engage and disengage and notice the problem faster if it isn't mechanical...

[Electronic M]

So I installed the relay and the old switch behaved it's self for about a day before coming on by itself and sticking. So I installed the new stoplight switch and went for a test drive and after a few blocks the stoplight relay started chattering at triple the rate of the turn signal flasher. A quick stomp of the brake pedal stopped the chatter but it comes back periodically...It will still also stick down.

There's ~1/8" of play in the pedal when released and jiggling it within that will click it on and off... I'm not sure if the switch is too sensitive or if the master cylinder has some problem.
The 2 switches were both napa cheapies. I'm thinking about trying an autozone part to see if a different source fixes it.

[init4fun]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

So I installed the relay and the old switch behaved it's self for about a day before coming on by itself and sticking. So I installed the new stoplight switch and went for a test drive and after a few blocks the stoplight relay started chattering at triple the rate of the turn signal flasher. A quick stomp of the brake pedal stopped the chatter but it comes back periodically...It will still also stick down.

There's ~1/8" of play in the pedal when released and jiggling it within that will click it on and off... I'm not sure if the switch is too sensitive or if the master cylinder has some problem.
The 2 switches were both napa cheapies. I'm thinking about trying an autozone part to see if a different source fixes it.

Wow that sucks . I'm curious , does your car have the brake light switch mechanically linked to the pedal or is it a pressure activated switch plumbed into the brake lines or master cylinder ? The one I had the problem with was the pressure switch kind and with slight applications of the brakes the switch wasn't fully closed and the brake light would flicker , when I put the relay in I put in with a brand new switch that hadn't been permitted to arc across it's contacts and the relay action was smooth with no chattering .

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by init4fun

Wow that sucks . I'm curious , does your car have the brake light switch mechanically linked to the pedal or is it a pressure activated switch plumbed into the brake lines or master cylinder ? The one I had the problem with was the pressure switch kind and with slight applications of the brakes the switch wasn't fully closed and the brake light would flicker , when I put the relay in I put in with a brand new switch that hadn't been permitted to arc across it's contacts and the relay action was smooth with no chattering .

The switch is a hydraulic pressure switch plumbed in. This is the exact part I'm dealing with. https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/MPES...oplight+switch
Both the old switch that was installed before the relay and the new one installed after the relay was installed are acting up.

One potential kludge I may try (if I can't make the stock confuguration work) is a 1970s trailer brake controller l have...it plumbs into the lines like the stock part (I have to look into pipe fitting compatibility though) and has an adjustable switch pressure threshold.

[init4fun]

I'm left wondering if you got two bad switches . I know the odds are pretty high , but if a process failure ruined one it's an outside possibility that there could be a few bad ones in the same batch . I like your idea of sourcing one from a different autoparts place , Hopefully a different brand/manufacturer might work as it should .

[bgadow]

When I was fixing up a '49 Packard I had to replace that switch & I remember folks on forums commenting about the poor quality. One option might be trying to find a NOS part. I would guess there are only 1 or maybe 2 companies making them these days; I know oftentimes NAPA carries 2 lines with Echlin probably being the better.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by bgadow

When I was fixing up a '49 Packard I had to replace that switch & I remember folks on forums commenting about the poor quality. One option might be trying to find a NOS part. I would guess there are only 1 or maybe 2 companies making them these days; I know oftentimes NAPA carries 2 lines with Echlin probably being the better.

The third switch from autozone didn't fix the issue either. I discovered a grease fitting on the brake pedal mechanism under the car and filled that up with no significant effect. There is a return spring I may try beefing up and I got a suggestion about filling the replacement with fluid before installation using a cyringe (which I was told about an hour after plumbing in my kludge) but I just want to finish fixing the brake light and get this into storage for the winter. It's getting much too cold for recreational car work. The original switch was a big hex nut with terminals and a pipe thread end, but the new ones are round...I found a vintage NOS hexnut style on everyone's favorite auction site that I'll probably buy and try in spring.

So last night I kludged in a 1979 vintage trailer brake controller and that seems to allow me to reduce sensitivity to a level that should prevent false triggers. I still need to give it a test drive but it works and looks promising. The one trade off is it's LED is always on, but that's far better than the brake lights coming on and sticking when parked. I'd guess that it would use less power than the clock does. It's brake line threads into the place the factory switch did and I screwed it's bracket into an existing screw (on the steering column bracket) under dash right of the steering wheel...So it's installation is completely reversible and no evidence of its presence will remain. I think it's hidden well enough especially the LED that its presence won't distract and I can still get at it and adjust while driving...I can also use it to manually turn on brake lights independent of the pedal if I want.

[Electronic M]

Sooo, a few hours ago while waiting for my birthday dinner to be ready a neighbor knocked on the door to inform us that the lights of our car were on...Guess which one?

That trailer brake controller wasn't the fix, and I think I may now have a sound theory about the problem.... correct me if my logic is flawed. The way I understand it drum brake cars have a residual pressure valve that keeps some pressure in the lines even when the brakes aren't applied. There was a youtube video where a guy explained that his 70 disc brake Caddilac that he was dragging out of a field needed new brake hoses because when the rubber gets decades old it looks fine outside but swells inside to the point where fluid won't readily flow (unless pressure pries the line open)....What that does on his car is allow fluid to enter the wheel cylinder but not to return so the brakes lock and drag...
The hoses on mine are of unknown vintage. They look good and clean but are a bit hard and for all I know could be older than me.
So my theory is that the residual pressure valve doesn't adjust to pressure change when the pedal is not being pressed, and that the inside of some of the hoses are swollen such that they hold more pressure in the wheel cylinders than the residual line pressure valve but don't hold it indefinitely...If the switch is on the wheel cylinder side of the residual valve and the hoses and wheel cylinders are storing pressure and releasing it back to the brake light switch then that would be the source of the false triggers.

There's no way I'm replacing the hoses and bleeding the brakes in 30-40 degree weather for a stinking light...but I think I'm going to order new hoses for spring.

[bgadow]

Darn, and I thought that brake controller was a pretty slick work-around! Still well worth remembering. I was aware of the brake hose issue but until your explanation I didn't quire understand what the issue was. I was a service writer at a small shop for a few years and our mechanic refused to replace a caliper that had locked up unless he could also replace the hose. I don't recall seeing this happen with drums but I can well imagine a case study like this being in the old "Model Garage" series in Popular Science.