Cpt.Fred

i checked my timing again, this time with a strobe light and a good friend of mine who really knows about physics. the timing was aproximately on tdc, he laughed at me and turned the distributor till we reached 10 degrees advance. he told me with our 95 octane fuel this would be the minimum what the engine would be capable of. now this is a just a different car i'm having! the motor is really much more agressive, acceleration has improved a 100% (feels like it anyway;)) no sparkping so far. i'm really curious about the consumption, too. the last tank was bone dry after 146 miles... arrgh. how much does it contain, by the way, about 50 litres? what timing do you have on your flatties and how much octane does the fuel have over there in the US?

that's what i was thinking! love the cars, though...

anyway, looks great!

if only that audi wouldn't constantly block the screen... making of:

thanks, 40plyrod:) the front isn't lowered yet, maybe just sagged a bit over the years. i have a second set of front coils to cut up a little, but i'm not sure yet wether i want to do it or not. i like the steamboat look it has now, and if i go any lower i can forget using the 16" wheels, they scrape in the corners, i'm pretty sure. anyway, first task is to check the driveshaft now. i still don't really get why it's shaking. tomorrow i'll have time and get out and under there.

nice bomb! the enlightened hood emblems are just too cool!

hey andy, beware of drunk-posting:D all that sanding the last 70years has made my car's face super smooth, you wouldn't believe it! hehehe by the way, don't you have problems on the 41 with those fat tires and wheels in the back? it looks like it could scrape real ugly when you load the trunk with something heavy.

ok, that's a very good advice, i'll carefully check that and keep you updated. i'll contact that leafspring blacksmith this week and ask for some prices. thanks a lot, tim! now i'll check my books if there are any numbers on the original spring measurements...

hmm, never heard of it before... but a friend of mine fabricated his polyurethane bushings himself, you can buy all necessary ingredients at a relatively low price. i already have a complete set of shackles and bushings here, but i wont put them into the sagged springs. as soon as i have enough money i will have them rebuilt. it cannot be the only problem here, since this shaking and rumbling didn't occur before i put the blocks in. the car set in motion quite smooth even with the sagged springs and worn out bushings... i'll check angles and then see what i can do.

yet another item to add to my ebay list...

TRUE!

ah, now i can read you, thanks. i had polyurethane (???) bushings fabricated for my opel rekord that was seriously lowered, had stiffer coils and 2 chamber adjustable gas shocks. it sat on the road like a brick, but got really catty in limit range, especially hard turns/wet road. thats not where i want the plymouth to be, it's a cruiser and my little boat;) so, do you think the rumble comes from the wrecked bushings and shackles? another nice shot, when the sun came for a short visit near berlin tiergarten:

so there aren't any nice bolt-in-tachometers for these cars on the market? since i want one for safety, too, maybe i'll try converting a 12v unit, that should be possible somehow. must have the correct look though, because there can't be any modern stuff (visible) in the car...

that's not better at all...

i bought the kit at nightprowler customs, some kind gentleman on this forum gave me this tip: http://www.thenightprowlers.com/ the owner, mr. gary glasgow if i recall correctly, is very helpful and polite. he sent me a set of 2 1 1/2" blocks you can stack together, they fit really well. i ordered 2 kits, one for me and one for a friend's 47 de soto, but unfortunately he sent us two different sets of u-bolts, so only one kit fits. but we did not notice when the package arrived and that was a long time ago, so now we just order a third pair:rolleyes: one should check even the new parts, i've read that on here just yesterday... tim: what do you mean? my english... i'm sorry. is that a material used for bushings? would that stop the shaking and rumbling? i didn't have it before the lowering.

i'm trying hard, and some day i'll handle it:) but the car is really patient with me and it's fun to drive anyway, even when the car shakes because of my poor beginner skills in pre-war car operation. always fun to learn stuff!

alright, first drive with my new little taildragger:) it's ok to drive it this way, just a little scraping when leaving the garage, but the exaust fits quite well and although i had to friend on the backseat and lots of tools everything is fine. one problem though that's really annoying: when starting in first gear or trying to scoot on in second in real slow motion, the drive shaft is giving me the creeps... almost like a grabbing clutch, real ugly vibrations and noise. sometimes it works, sometimes it's just horrible. have to change that... maybe the angles of the shaft coming out of the tranny and going into the axle don't align any more like they should? i really like the look, though... i'll put new shackles and bushings on the rear springs and as soon as i got money left i'll have them completely rebuilt. seems like they have sagged more than i thought. bob: the only sandbag in my car is located right behind the wheel:D and to repeat myself: i'm going to buy some skirts. hehe.

thanks, dave! i haven't read the complete tech section yet, it's sad that it can't be printed to pdf anymore... it sure is full of great tips and tricks! i'll do this to my brakes as well, since i'm still not to satisfied with them. back to topic:)

i've been browsing the tech section and as always, i've learned a lot! but one question remains: can anyone tell me the original position of the rear shackles on my P-10? mine look like this now (before the lowering): the problem is that on the driver's side the shackle hits the rear side of the frame, but only there. a friend of mine told me maybe the shackle would be mounted upside down, but i don't think it's possible to do that here. it is possible on fords, i've seen it there, but here the shackle is bolted directly to the frame, right? i've seen that don coatney had the same problem in an older thread here from 2007, but i couldn't really figure out how they're supposed to be installed. can anyone shed some light on this dark area in my technical knowlege? the best would be a photo of a correctly installed shackle under load, i mean without the jackstands. my shackles lean backward and the turning point on the frame is above the spring. thanks!

i'm running stock 6.00x16" since i like these old wheel's look so much. can't go as low as the others do, but that's not my intention anyway. still you're right, i'll have more jacking problems now than before...

sorry, i did not completely understand:confused: my english is sometimes too bad for all this technical stuff. so what you do is you cut slits into the anchor bolts, which control the "heel" adjustment of the shoes, and then you can do a "touchy-feely" adjustment with both "toe" and "heel" eccentric tappets while your drums are on? am i right and the only difference between your P15 brakes and my P10 brakes is that yours is double simplex with 2 wheel cyls and mine is a duplex with only 1? so i could do that to my anchor bolts, too? that would be great. sorry for highjacking here...

good. so i didn't miss a thing:rolleyes:

yesterday evening, after a nice visit to a nearby cruise in and a sunny ride home, i decided to do some more work on the car. so i took the lowering kit i had already bought some months ago and put it in the car. i was very curious how it would look like, although i had tried everything before in photoshop, but i am really satisfied with the outcome! it changes the character of the car completely, i think. i called it quits afterwards since it was already midnight by then, but this afternoon i'll drive it out of the garage, take some pics, tighten everything up once more and then i'll take a ride to see what it's like. post some pics later!

thanks! i wouldn't have guessed that...

this is great, i was wondering about the exact same thing out on the autobahn yesterday. the '40 has 201cui/ 3speed dry clutch and, if i measured correctly, a 4.22:1 rear end. wheels are 16" with 6.00x16" silvertowns. i'm going 65 without a problem, cruise speed is 55-60 miles. there's more to come above the 65mph mark, but i want to install a tachometer first and change to SAE 50 oil, since the oil pressure is dropping when the engine tempgets past 180F. then i'll know where i am and can try to go faster. i was really impressed how well these cars handle, the ifs and telescope shocks work great, so does the 3speed, and with the 6.00 bias plys the steering powers are really low and the car is very agile in city traffic. back to topic:) i couldn't open the link, it says "video not available in your country", so i guess it's some kind of music video?