Sniper

Many years ago my wife had a Redbone Coon hound she just loved. I worked weekends out of town. Left for work on Friday and by the time I got back on Monday I had no dog and a $1500 vet bill. I forget the details, I think his kidneys shutdown, but whatever. The wife was the dog person in the house. I like dogs, don't get me wrong, but I do not like being a dog owner. I, personally, would not have spent that kind of money but when your wife is on the phone crying you tell her "money is no object". She's one of those people that think dogs are people in furry coats. Me? I think they are dogs. Short time with us, usually wonderful to be around, but they pass, all too soon sometimes. I do not get emotionally attached to them like she did. I feel for those of you that lost your best friends.

LazyK beat me to the punch. I mentioned a cabinet blaster earlier, well the shop also had a large, walking, your suit up to blast cabinet. You could fit a Beetle in one. We experimented with various media to blast fiberglass. Some sort of plastic looking pellets. It worked, but was tedious to do. The method we normally used to strip paint off of fiberglass was paint stripper. It worked, but was fairly nasty stuff. Soda blasting is supposed to be gentler, but I hae zero experience with that. No idea how quick/slow it may be, how long thee media is useable, etc. HOWEVER, and this is very important, if you have an oil pan with baffles anything else will be a big no no. Soda blasting residue can be easily washed away. Sand/garnet/slag etc will leave a residue that is hard to clean and will destroy your engine if you do not get it all out.

I haven't used a sand blaster since my time in the military. we had your standard cabinet style with dust collector and such. It worked fine, but it was messy adn I'll be darned if I remember who made it. Used a CO2 blaster when I worked in semiconductor R&D, no blasting residue. But you need to have dry ice blocks handy.

One other thing to seriously think about, your stock wiring is probably toast or close to it if original. While you can get the correct 6v rated harnesses new in many cases they aren't cheap. If you put in a generic "hot rod" harness like the PO of my 51 did (real hack job too) it's not rated to handle the current a 6v system runs thru it. I ripped it out, put in a new hot rod harness and converted to 12, didn't count the cost of the harness in the conversion as it was required regardless.

My primary issue with a 6v car is head lights. I drive my stuff, regularly. In rain, snow, shine or whatever. With regards to incandescent head lights, well I may as well hang my Zippo out the window for all the good those lights do. I believe Keith did a write up on 6v LED headlights awhile back, not too impressive. I know a guy that is really into automotive lighting and he's pretty much death on retrofit LED headlight bulbs and has the data to back it up. I am running a set of GE Nighthawk LED headlight assemblies in my 51. They light up like modern lights, as they should since they are designed as a unit and not as a bulb retrofit. Anyway, to each their own.

Yes 5 qts but how much of that is in the filter? I was watching Engine Masters the other day and they did a dyno test on oil amount in the engine. They found that, invariably, as long as oil pressure was sufficient, lower oil level in the pan made HP. In some cases they found that pressure went up as the level was dropped. The thinking was that less oil was whipped up and aerated causing better pressure and less HP consumed. Now this was on an engine dyno so no vehicle dynamics were involved. However, they found that even deep sump aftermarket pans benefited from being filled to less than capacity, such as a "7qt " pan filled with 5 quarts. Not sure I'd want to experiment too much with this though. Especially if you have and oil leaker, lol.

powerflite is a two speed automatic

Why is it whenever anyone asks how to convert to 12v the anti-12v crowd jumps in with why not to? If they asked the pros and cons, yeah that would be appropriate. If you want any sort of electrical accessory you are either stuck with archaic, poor performing 6v stuff, Am radio (or beaucoup $ conversion), poor headlight choice (6v incandescent or crappy LEDs). It is what it is.

My answer was a little lacking in detail, I was on thee road using my phone. Here's the valve guide picture from Tony https://www.facebook.com/thefreewheelingtonysmith/posts/pfbid02DEDHDF8oDH4At7zqLpbdj4yX9ybU4LEwpbEYi61TjEXyShNvaDHy84M1feqYGg7Tl How long a guide do you need? https://www.speed-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19767 Assuming a 218/230 length * 1.15 * stem diameter = 4.845 * 1.15 * 0.3405 = 1.89" Stock guide length is 2.813" So almost an inch can come out of the guide length, all of it from the port window.

Two things, the static level will drop as the pump cycles oil thru the system and as you drive the car the oil will slosh around changing the eleel. Then there is windage, as the crank spins it will trap a portion of the oil in it's orbit. So, your actual level will be less. The oring is insurance.

You trim down the portion that sticks in the port. The freewheeling Tony Smith has some info on his Facebook site

Last eclipse we had, couple of months ago, I showed a friend (23) that trick, she had no idea.

Yeah, the stock exhaust is a cork. So are the stock valve guides. Anything else done without addressing them is less than optimal.

https://www.vintageautotools.com/tools-carburetor-gm-all-divisions.html scroll down, or search T109-70 on the page. $10.

Ford as used a can that looks a lot like something you'd find juice in. Might be cheap to buy some juice and use that can to make a reservoir.

That tends to back up what Ken was saying. I think you'll be ok, but a close comparison of the old vs new before installation would cinch it. Use a square to measure the two, distance from mounting face and height from the same bolt hole?

I don't have a Desoto parts catalog, but here's my thinking. The fuel pump is driven off a lobe on the cam. So if they use the same cam there should not be an issue?

Yep, you don't realize the amount of light pollution there is until you get somewhere there is none.

I imagine Alaska might have some places like that. But closest I ever got to that was cruising along the Aleutians and down the Alaska coast to Seattle. There are some fairly remote spots in west Texas, but even then you can't really see the full glory of the night sky like you can when you are so remote that there is no other civilization with in hundreds of miles.

Not too many places in the states that remote.

Go hundreds of miles out to sea. You realize why they call it the Milky Way.

AHHHHHHHHH lol

Those Silverados use M14-1.50 thread studs, that's larger than 1/2-20. And the 90 mentioned was a minimum spec, there are also maximum specs. As for using an impact, great, till you are the sad sack on the side of the road trying to change a flat.

Bolts need a specific amount of torque to properly fasten, that amount hasn't changed and the rim is designed to handle it. For a grade 8, 1/2-20 bolt that number is 90 ft/lbs. Always has been, always will be.

Same here, I recently helped my son flush his brakes and when we were done I torqued all the lug bolts then handed him the wrench and told him to do the same. He asked me why since I had just done them and I told him, sometimes you miss one and you don't want your rims coming off.