Show updates

Just stopped by to post some pictures of the shows from the last couple weeks.  There's a big show coming up on the 17th, Father's Day.  The annual Father's Day show at historic Charlton Park near Hastings usually draws over 1000 cars.  Temps are forecast to reach 90 so all the guys in the Road Rodz club are meeting early so we can be in line before the gates open.  That way we can get the shady spots that are not to far from the potties!

Here's some pics from a small show in Kent City that some of us dropped in on before heading to Muskegon for the Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour show on June 3rd.

Next up are pics from the Power Tour.  I didn't spend much time taking pictures but we did walk around a bit and enjoyed all the other cars.

Sunday, June 10th was the Kool Chevrolet All Chevy show.  Auto dealers along Plainfield Ave in Grand Rapids, Mi all had a brand specific show for their cars.  Chevies with Chevy power gathered at Kool. 

3 Road Rodz - Claude's 56 wagon, my 41 and Rick's 57 Chevy pickup with 348 w/tri-power.

This LS-7 Corvette engine is hiding under the hood of the 4 door 51 Chevy in the next picture.  Sure wasn't expecting to see that under the hood!

Another Road Rodz member, Bob.  Had to keep his hood closed cuz his truck is powered by a 500 inch Cadillac.

Yet another Road Rodz member, James Dean.  Nasty sounding 30 Chevy coupe w/blown small block for power.

An old friend's Pro Street 69 Camaro.  Nice car Bruce!

28 Chevy was looking good.

That's all for now.  Got a mechanical change coming up on the 41.  Stay tuned. 

Wrapping up the May car shows

     Attended a small, local show on Sat. and there were more trophies than cars; about 30 cars.  Needless to say, everyone got a trophy.  Threatening weather will ruin a car show.  Several of the Road Rodz club members cruised the 50 miles to Turk Lake, north of Greenville to their 19th annual car show.  Again, the weather forecast was a bit iffy and the day was quite warm and humid but the car turnout was great.  158 cars showed up on a holiday weekend.  The Road Rodz had 9 cars in attendance and all of us garnered a top 75 trophy.  Here's the gang:

Norm, on the far left is holding 2 trophies as he had two cars in attendance.  As we were leaving to get ahead of dark skies, Ken was camera ready as we make our exit from the show parking lot.  Here's a nice shot he captured as the 41 heads down the road.

     The old girl gets a lotta looks at the shows with many comments on how cool it is to see an inline 6 still nestled under the hood.  The winter upgrades have proven to be worth the time, effort and money as the 41 is a real pleasure to drive.  Every change has worked flawlessly.  I have three more upgrades to complete this year (hopefully).  I plan to carpet the trunk area, replace the windshield and get the chipped paint on the front fenders and hood fixed. 
     This past Friday evening, the wife and I cruised to some friends' house and the four of us took the 41 for a ride before stopping at a nice Italian restaurant for dinner.  You can't do that with a hot rod coupe!  The sedan has room for 4 and everyone has plenty of room. 
     Big weekend coming up June 2 & 3.  The 2nd is a big local show and Sun, the 3rd is the Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour stop in Muskegon, Mi.  We did the Muskegon event last year and I'm looking forward to this year's show.  Great cars and lots of 'em!

Just cruisin' the month away!

It's been about 3 weeks since I've updated the blog and most of the time has been spent driving the 41.  The new front suspension and steering makes a world of difference over the stock parts that were barely tolerable last year.  Several people have commented favorably on the new stance with the front end 5" lower.  I just smile when I look at a side view because it sits exactly how I had hoped it would. 
     The oil leak isn't fixed but the leak is less than last year.  I've been under the car and wiped it clean a couple of times since getting on the road.  Last week I removed the dust cover from the bottom of the bell housing, cleaned it thoroughly and applied a special oil absorption pad that I cut to fit.  The pad is something Maksim's uses for EPA compliance in the event of an oil spill.  I used weatherstrip adhesive to hold the pad in place inside the dust cover.  The pad seems to have reduced the leakage quite a bit since it not only blocks the weep hole in the bottom of the dust cover, the pad also retains any oil draining down the sides of the dust cover. 
     I used the 41 for a couple of computer service calls last week as well as a trip to Lowell to LA Trim to measure and order some carpet for the trunk.  Much of that tank of gasoline was burned as highway miles.  When I refilled the gas tank, I calculated the miles per gallon and got 17.7 m/gal.  That's excellent for the this combination.  Plus, I was running 75 mph on the expressway in overdrive!  Gotta love it!  The 41 doesn't have a tach so I calculated the rpm based on mph/tire diameter/3.36:1 rear end gears.  Looks like it was running 2200 rpm's at 75 mph in OD.  Sweeeet!!
     So far this month, I've attended a couple of benefit car shows as well as a club cook out and a Tues nite gathering at Fricano's Pizza.  It was raining the day of the cook out and I got a chance to run the new electric wipers.  They worked perfectly!   Here's a few pics of for this month.
 

  That last picture was taken with my cell phone in bright sunlight so the quality is a bit off.  But it's a great shot of the stance.  Hope everyone reading this has a great summer.  I'll post some updates periodically but I plan to spend as much time as possible Cruisin' the Summer away!

A good weekend

Friday was a beautiful day and I was able to make the rounds to visit my buddy Dennis that sold me the '41, the folks at More Power, did some shopping at Sam's Club and paid a visit to a shop that does high end restorations and was recommended by my friend Paul.  Jerry calls his business Paradise Motors and I had him take a look at the '41 to see about having some paint work done on the front of the car.  The headlight rims had been removed previously with a sharp tool (probably a screwdriver) and the dark green paint is badly chipped around the bottom of the rim.  Also, the area under both fender ornaments and the edge of the fenders where the hood lays have chips in the paint.  All total, I put about 50 miles on the car on Friday. 
     Saturday was rainy and cold so the 41 stayed in the garage.  When I did move it, however, I had the unpleasant surprise to find an oil puddle on the floor!  It appears the repair I attempted on the rear main seal was unsuccessful.  Now I'm in a quandary as to what to do next; build another short block using the '54 block I have or pull the engine, completely disassemble it and have the back of the block machined for a one piece seal. 
     The wife and I took the '41 to a family lunch gathering today and I used the GPS to check the speed on the speedometer.  Looks like the calibration went well as the two speeds match exactly.  We had a ball driving the car today.  It was sunny and in the 60's and people were waving and smiling at us everywhere we went.  Kinda nice to enjoy the new radio and listen to some old tunes while driving a 71 year old car!  Tomorrow morning I'm driving to Maksim's so Tom can finalize the front end alignment and recheck the brake system for leaks.  One final brake bleeding should make her totally road worthy.  Hopefully, the oil leak isn't coating the bottom of the car and making a mess!  I'll find out tomorrow when she's on the rack.

Ready for the road!

Drove the 41 to Lentz USA to have a new exhaust system installed on Tuesday.  They kept the car over night and finished the job on Wed.   The exhaust looks good and is much higher under the car this year.  Pipes are only 1 3/4" due to the tight area next to the engine where the pipes run side by side.  I don't expect any major performance loss with the smaller pipes since I'm not into maxing out the horsepower.   Here's a pic I took while the car was still on the rack.

Notice how the passenger side pipe is routed under the transmission and over the frame to crossmember arm.  This allows the pipes to tuck as close as possible to the floor.  The driver's side had to be routed under the arm due to the location of the master cylinder.  While the car was on the hoist, I was able to inspect everything.  Found a couple of minor brake line leaks that I was able to tighten the fittings today and correct. 
     Took care of several minor things today; rotated the steering column a bit to properly position the levers and applied some silicone to the hose carrying the rear wires thru the floor.  The one major project was removing the door weather stripping and installing new.  The doors fit much tighter now.
I received a replacement passenger wiper assembly last week from Owens Salvage in Texas.  UPS managed to mangle the box and break the lever off the tower.  Bob at Owens is a stand up guy.  He sent another one right away and it arrived today.  Turns out the UPS damage was a bit of a blessing as the replacement unit is in much nice shape that the first one.  The chrome on the first one was badly pitted while the replacement is very near the quality of what is on the car now.
     UPS also cost me 2 1/2 weeks waiting for a box of parts from Chevsofthe40s.com.  The replacement arrived yesterday and the new knobs look great on the wiper and heater/defroster controls.  Here's a more complete interior pic.

Also received the headlight rim gaskets and got them installed too.  Also connected the wire for the glove box light.  Tomorrow I'll install the side mirrors and attempt to program the speedometer before paying a visit to More Power. 

Weekend Update

With the engine compartment completed, I thought it might be a good idea to take a couple pics before the hood went on.

     Dan came over yesterday, Saturday, and helped me get the hood reinstalled.  I had some aligning to do later since the entire front end had been removed/reinstalled and a new gasket had been installed at the rear of the hood.  The exhaust pipe I had re-bent didn't do much for clearance from the ground.  I got the pipe and muffler installed but the pipe still hits on the ground.  I plan to take it back to Lentz tomorrow and get it bent again so I can drive the car there for a new exhaust system install on Tues.  While the exhaust was in place, I fired up the motor and made sure all was working correctly.  I was very pleased with the results!  All the gauges worked perfectly - fuel level seems correct, 14+ volts on the volt meter, 30 lbs of oil pressure at idle and the engine warmed up to 160° and stayed right there.  Couldn't help but smile!  I checked the timing with my timing light and monitored the rear main seal for any signs of leaks.  So far, so good - NO LEAKS!   The 6 volt, foot activated starter works like a champ on 12 volts; just like all the old timers said it would.  The engine start had occurred earlier in the week so once the hood was installed, I bolted on the bell housing pan and front shield.  That was the last bag of bolts remaining from all the tagged parts!
     I ran without the vacuum advance last year and didn't have any issues but several articles I've read seem to indicate these old 235 6's like the vacuum advance working.  So I installed the vacuum tube for the vacuum advance connecting the distributor to the carburetor today too.  We'll see what effect it has.        
      Almost forgot, I made a wooden floor panel for the trunk today.  I used some left over pieces of Luan flooring material and made a two piece floor cover.  This will eventually be covered with carpet material at LA Trim.  The floor covers the spare tire well and will allow for a clean, organized area to carry the EZ Up canopy, lounge chairs and cooler for car shows and outings.  I don't plan to carry a spare tire since the front wheels are 5 lug and the rears are 6 lug.   
     I'm hoping the coming week goes according to plan.  The replacement dash knobs and new head light rims should be here from Chevsofthe40s.com, the passenger windshield wiper should arrive, the exhaust system will be installed, I'll connect the light wire for the glove box light and get the wiper installed.  Then I can begin the removal of the old weather stripping around the doors and get the new pieces installed.  Still a few things to do but I'm hoping to be on the road by this coming Thursday. 
    

Just pickin' away

     Got a few more items accomplished today.  Clutch and brake pedals are back in and adjusted.  Pumping the brake pedal revealed a leak in a t-fitting connection for the pressure switch.  It was in a tight location but I was able to tighten it and stop the leak.  The driver's side exhaust pipes are back on the car.  All the exhaust will be removed again next week when I take it in to Lentz to be reworked.  I stopped in there today and discussed the new configuration I have in mind with removable sections and they agreed to do the job.  I had missed one electrical item and decided to put that on today.  The glove box light/switch assembly needed a new wire installed so I did that and put it back inside the glove box.  Once the car is back on the ground, I'll route the wire to the power connection on the terminal block to complete the install. 
     Just found out tonight that Dave Marfia aka: Dave Dunnit was seriously injured  in a car accident this past Sunday.  He was scheduled to apply some pinstripes on the firewall panel this week.  Looks like I'll just install the panel without the pinstripes for now.  Get well soon Dave!
     Need to take the other exhaust pieces to Lentz tomorrow so they can apply a bend to one pipe and expand another.  This will allow me to have both mufflers on the car when I take it in next week.
     UPS was supposed to deliver a package yesterday from Chevsofthe40s.com but it never showed.  Didn't show today either.  The package contains the headlight rim gaskets and the new knobs for the wipers and heater fan.  Did a phone follow up with UPS and it looks like the package is lost.  Now I have to call the vendor tomorrow and start a claim.  What a pita!
     Received a reply today from Owens Salvage in Texas regarding a replacement wiper for the passenger side.  They have one that has a "few pits" in the chrome so I ordered it.  Hopefully, it's not in too bad of shape.