keithb7

Someone got me. Arriving at the show.

I drove just over 100 miles today. On the hi-way to a car small car show. It was neat to see so much interest in my 38 Plymouth. Tons on inquiries. I also met some new friends. Flathead Mopar owners. Of course we hit-it-off and shared contact info. One fellow offered me a complete rolling chassis from a 1940 Dodge sedan . From rad to exhaust pipe tip. All powertrain, rad. Brakes. Axles. Engine. Tranny. I may just take it. Some more good spare parts. Plus I can move some along to others in need. Another older fellow was grateful we met. Perhaps I can help him maintain his old Mopar. Sounds like he’s new to them. His car, he just bought 6 months ago. I saw a nice ‘35 Dodge coupe today. Was a great little show. Real nice folks and some great cars. I hit some inclement weather. My 1 vacuum wiper worked well.

A very pleasant evening cruise in my Plymouth tonight. Its getting close to the northern hemisphere summer solstice. Nice long warm evenings. At 10:15 pm I’d say it was finally dark. The engine is getting smoother and better performing. The rings must be seating nicely. Its so quiet you can almost hear the spark jumping the gap inside the distributor cap. What a fine machine. Odometer 51.7 miles.

In Canada, the best love you can give a flathead with a carb and a mechanical fuel pump…Marked marine gas. No ethanol. No road tax. Premium octane for the price of regular. Illegal of course but that’s a risk I’m willing to take tonight for the old girl. She sure runs great on it. She loves it!

A nice day off work today. An afternoon in the Shoppe de ‘38.

On my regular under-car inspection today I found a disaster in the making. My Battery cable from the negative post to the starter. A little wiggle and I saw sparks. My ‘38 Chrysler. Keep up on your cables folks. They make great fire starters.

I've been running 7 psi cap with my 1953 block. Internal head by-pass. Non-stock, rebuilt pressurized rad.

Coming up the hill home yesterday my stock coolant temp gage hit 212. I stopped and used a laser thermometer get a reading at the cylinder head precisely where the probe threads into the cylinder head. It read 180F. Bottom of rad tank measured 138F. My gauge certainly is the issue.

I have little doubt that the car sat for long periods over the past 84 years. Stretches where it waited for a new motivated owner. It was pretty run down when I got it. I’ve been picking away at it for over 3 years. I’ve put 2,000 miles on it so far. First year of ownership I was excited just to get it around the block, and make it back home. she’s come a long ways. We both have. I’ve learned a ton.

Today the big reset occurred. My 1938 Plymouth. I was holding back the miles waiting for my wingman to be available. My son. We were driving together to his university graduation ceremony this afternoon.

I enjoyed a nice evening at the local weekly car hang-out spot. Many folks appreciated seeing my stock 1938. There were comments about the legendary Mopar flathead and Chrysler’s engineering. Had a good conversation about the Airflow back in the day. It’s nice to be out and about chatting cars with others of like mind. I prefer the low-key hangout over a formal car show.

That block looks about ripe for its age. Nice glob of Blue RTV Silicone to stop a leak! Hard to believe any water could get past that clay, to leak past the plug.

Isn't Then & Now Automotive also in Mass? Thanks for clarifying PA, that it wasn't them. I have bought 2 fuel pump rebuild kits from Then & Now. Good products and service. Recommend. There most certainly is an off-shore builder manufacturing these fuel pumps. Selling them new. I fail to understand why they'd sell so many with the fulcrum pin falling out. A very easy fix at the factory. I had one of these infamous new fuel pumps. The pin fell out of mine too. Like it was built to do. Lol. I was stranded road-side briefly. I quickly installed a 6V pump that I had stored in the trunk. For exactly such an occasion. Later I tried swaging it. That didn't last very long either. Pin started walking out again. Later I loaded up both sides of the pump pin with JB Weld. That was 3 years ago. Not an issue since.

The security camera has good night vision and motions sensors. It has built-in LEDs that turn on when movement is detected. The light that is on and hanging in the photo is just a 4 ft florescent light. I just had it on when I was checking my camera placement. No, it's not on 24/7. I have started upgrading to 4 ft LED lights. 1 installed so far. Not seen in the pic.

My offical 1938 Baby Monitor is now up and running. It is streaming 24/7. No more going to bed and wondering if I closed the garage door. If someone decides they want to help themselves to whatever is in my garage, I believe I have a good chance of minimizing losses.

My story seen here:

I dealt with the rad in my 1938 Plymouth. It was a non-stock rad. Slightly smaller and moved forward to accommodate a 25" long engine. It needed to be smaller so it could be wedged further ahead into the nose cone. It seems to be a 60's or early 70's rad. All alloy tanks and metal parts. I dropped it off a a local rad shop. The shop removed the upper and lower tanks and re-used them on a new core. It is a modern core straight tube. 2 or 3 row, I can't quite recall. I run a 7 psi cap. It was about $320 to have it rebuilt. I heard of an easy way to test a rad for leaks. Seal-off all openings of rad. Full up the bath tub or take it to lake. Submerge it. Bubbles will come out of any leaking areas. Cheap and easy! Originally the car had a non-pressurized system with the 201 engine. Now it has a 237ci 25" engine with pressurized rad. No ill effects that I know of.

I'm not sure I see potato styling there. Maybe a rare type of black potato enjoyed in the mountains of Peru?

Inner groove cut for ball bearing style detent. I try to refrain from recycling parts but I guess I did. The other type, I no longer have for reference.

For more confusion: My 38 tranny looks the same as bottom pic. With balls and springs. I picked a 1937 Dodge tranny. It too has balls and springs. I was given a 53 Plymouth tranny. The synchros were the lever bar/ramp type #38 in your upper pic. 36,37, 39 parts were also identical in the 53 tranny. It seems they went back and forth with the two types maybe? The upper pic you show is definitely the column shift type tranny. It has the side window for the shift linkage. I suspect used up to 53/54-ish? I cannot prove, but suspect the complete synchro assembly from the 41 will slide right in and work with the 37-39 tranny. I suspect #56 in upper pic may have same outer dimensions as #61 in bottom pic. The inside different to accommodate the steel balls, or the tilting bar ramp type in the upper pic. I will go dig around see what I can find in my horde pile to compare. Anyone else tried swapping the parts out?

My laser thermometer has verified that my coolant temperature gauge is currently not accurate. It reads about 30F higher than actual. Saying that, I have completed a fair bit of cooling system work over the past year on one of my cars. I found: -My Block had about a 5” thick solid layer of scale and rust sitting on the entire floor of the block. Discovered when block would not drain at petcock. Cleaned it all out. -rad exterior partially gummed up with road grime. Limiting air flow. -old rad gummed up internally and leaking. Had it re-cored. Rebuilt rad completely. It was limiting water flow. -water pump age unknown. Looked like they brought it up from the titanic. Replaced it with new. -Discovered a lack of a thermostat. None present. Installed 170F. -water only in block. No coolant additives to slow down rust and scale build up. -Questionable rad cap. Replaced with new. -Old rad hoses from the 70’s. Tossed them. All new installed. Clamps too. -Leaking block expansion plugs. New. -Absence of splash pans engine shrouds. Reinstalled. My cooling system was in a terrible state. There was no way it could do any decent amount of cooling. Its now healthy. Just the temp gauge is out as mentioned. I’ll looking into it. I need to learn if they are tweak-able.

Re-Polarize the generator windings?

I'm glad to see you checking in Worden. I have noticed your absence here. Was hoping things were ok. I am happy to hear your family is doing well.

Well if the engine wasn’t quite broken-in, tonight we sure nudged it closer. We went out for dinner tonight. My mother-in-law in the back seat. My wife up front with me. I could feel the extra weight. The car’s suspension was smoother as the rear leaf springs earned their keep. Later we drove through main street down town. My son was walking out of a restaurant with his friends. He claimed that he actually didn’t even see my car. He just spotted the split rear window and the green as we were fading away. He knew it was my car. “Only one in Kamloops”, he said. He called us. “Hey guys, I’ve had a few, I sure could use a ride home!” We turned around to pick him up. Now we had a load! We were in the valley bottom. We meandered up, and up the hills to his place. I’m sure I’ve never worked my Plymouth harder. She did very well. She got a bit warmer, to be expected. But no trouble. It was a new driving experience. The car certainly drove differently. Steering and braking not as responsive. While driving I’m imagining a family of 6 or more getting around in 1940 in the very same car. Tonight I’m smug and satisfied. Definitely worth the time and effort to rebuild my engine to a 237. She purred into the garage tonight. Happy with the renewed spring in her step, and a purpose. 99,970 miles PS: I see now that my car’s 6V lights are more reliable than the new LED lights on the house.