Dan Hiebert

Yes, sounds like a fuel starvation issue. Something may be preventing the carburetor's fuel bowl from filling up fast enough. A tell tale is poor performance or stalling when there is a demand for more fuel (hills, acceleration, speed), because the fuel bowl runs dry. I'm thinking some sort of sediment in the fuel system due to storing the car, could be dirt accumulated over the years, rust, or sugar crystals from ethanol gas (if your fuel system isn't air tight and the fuel evaporates out of the lines and carburetor over the storage period, the ethanol won't evaporate, it will crystalize - if no stabilizer is added). I know you know where to get non-ethanol gas in the U.S., but you didn't mention whether or not you use it in that "Non-ethanol Gas" thread the other day. Don't know if ethanol free gas is available in Canada, or the other way around. We're at the same latitude, so I don't think heat has been an issue. Or, simply that pin backing out of the fuel pump reduced it's efficiency.

You said you have never seen the car run, so you should assume it actually hasn't run, and that no one has even tried to start it, in 30 years. I know people who would just put gas in it, a good battery, and crank until it runs. That's a good way to ruin what could be an otherwise sound car. And that looks like a really decent car, how many miles on it? As noted already, if not modified, it'll be a 6 volt car. Positive ground. Minimum procedures I'd consider. Change the oil, to include removing and cleaning out the oil pan, it's bound to have at least 30 years of gunk in the bottom of it, that you can check for signs of excess wear (metal). With the oil pan off, you can also take the opportunity to look for any obvious issues in the bottom end. Drain and clean the fuel system, it'll probably have some really nasty stuff in it. By-passing the fuel system just to get it running won't hurt it, but that can be hazardous, be extremely careful. Remove the spark plugs and squirt some Marvel Mystery Oil (or other appropriate light lubricant) in the cylinders, just enough to lubricate what are most likely very dry cylinder walls. Turn the engine by hand, mostly to see if it will actually turn over. If hard to turn, or you can't turn it, you can put more lubricant in the cylinders and let it sit for a while, and you may want to consider removing the cylinder head to see what's going on in the cylinders. Once you know the engine will turn, then go about trying to use the starter on it. There are several threads in the Forum from folks who got a long sitting car running that will have more thorough procedures and info, and just as importantly, cautions. You've found a great site that will help immensely, and welcome to the Forum!

I don't know when they came out, but the Spitfire head was indeed a higher compression option. I read up on it about 25 years ago when I found MoPars with the L6 Spitfire heads while hunting parts for our D24 in NM and west TX. (Kindly note the "25 years ago" statement, meaning I remember it wasn't a standard equipment thing and why, but I don't remember the timeframes of the option.) I.e, our Terraplane has the optional "Power Dome" head, which gives it a whopping 6 HP more than the standard head, but by '37-38, it was hard to find a Terraplane with the standard head anyway.

There is indeed a certain amount of excitement involved with driving something faster than it was intended to be driven. Pursuing a felon in a cop-car built to do just that?...meh. Racing a riding mower at a "neck-snapping" 20 to 30 mph?...now that's an adrenaline rush!

Strange indeed. I have seen retreads on semis separate (never in one piece), and I've found full treads like that on the side of the highway, but have never actually seen it happen to a car tire. I have never bought a retread or used tire for any of my autos to risk experiencing it. One of those sage advice things handed down by my kin...and quite a few were penny pinchers.

Yeah, no-one seems to know for sure why. Ludlow is just a township, and doesn't have any store-front businesses of any kind. Houlton vacillates in and out of being uber eco-friendly and may not permit straight gas in town. I'm quite familiar with Jackman and many of the other outlying towns (especially in the border counties, I was Chief of the Border Patrol for Maine until I retired a couple years ago). A lot of those smaller towns are where the ATV and snowmobilers gas up before heading into the willy wags, two-stroke engines don't run so well on ethanol laced gasoline. Those outlying parts of Maine depend quite a bit on the off-roaders.

I think piecemealing an old car to make it run down the road, or get off the line, to modern car expectations is not the way to go. If you want '30s styling and modern performance, you should "restomod" the car and be safe. If you just want it to run a bit safer, smoother, and better, to me that is a different thing, as is period speed equipment. I like the majestic pace of older cars, but I don't mind making it handle or ride a bit better at the same time. Over the years, I've looked at buying several '30s cars, and the seller always told me the car could do 60 or 70 down the highway as a selling point. To me, that meant the car was driven past its capabilities (excessive wear on almost every component - on top of its age), the owner didn't fully appreciate it, and that would send me down the "don't buy it" path.

Yep, in use much longer than 10 years. We were living in El Paso, TX in the 90's when gasohol was introduced during the winter months (I think that was the time, because of the inversion layers we'd get in colder weather) to reduce air pollution. Although most of it came from Cd. Juarez, MX, the EPA required El Paso to do something to reduce it - enter gasohol. It reduced MPGs and ruined fuel systems. Although they figured it out pretty quick, no-one understood at the time what ethanol did to rubber that wasn't designed for it. We moved to SE New Mexico in '97, where they weren't using ethanol in fuel, not even until we left (2003). Just after we moved to MI in 2003 they started coming out with that E85 stuff, but autos still were not universally capable of using it, you had to buy a car that specified it could use it, and not every station stocked it. After we moved to NY in 2008 is when the ethanol craze came out and legislation was passed that mandated it - supposedly to reduce pollutants, but also as plymouthcranbrook noted, to support corn farmers. Interesting spin on pollution control though, I have a friend here that is an engineer who designed ethanol plants out west. He had to plan for 7,000 gallons of waste for every gallon of ethanol produced. At least one of the plants he built was never opened, it was a Govt. subsidized build.

There are tertiary issues associated with ethanol in fuel that have been touched on in this thread already. The main issue with ethanol in fuel is that ethanol destroys rubber fuel system components that are not engineered for it. Where I am, there is no non-ethanol fuel available, except for 104 octane aviation gas at the airport. I have not "upgraded" the fuel system in our D24, but other than a leaky fuel pump, I have not had any issues with how the car runs. But - I definitely use additives to counter the adverse affects of ethanol in fuel that center around the gas sitting for a while. So, that made a short story long - our cars were engineered to run on what was available at the time, so straight gas will not hurt it in the slightest, and it may indeed run a bit better. Ethanol is intended to reduce emissions, nothing more. Modern gas has more stuff in it, that simply won't help an old car run better - but it won't hurt it, either.

Pretty good chance that truck is not street legal. "Display of power" (doing a burn-out on a public road) is also a violation in Texas. But if I recall correctly, in TX a law enforcement officer has to actually witness motor vehicle violations to do anything about it. Your town may also have ordinances that are either enforced by a code enforcement officer or the police / Sheriff's dept. / Constable's office. There is no requirement that the person(s) being offended try to talk to the offender first, which I have noticed in the various places we've lived, never really works anyway. The animal cruelty issues may carry more weight than motor vehicle ones. But, nothing can be done unless the proper authorities know about it. In other words, there are avenues other than waiting for karma to kick in, which often exceeds one's patience. You are not a grumpy old man, your neighbor is an inconsiderate, rude jerk. You have more right to peace and quiet than your neighbor has to be a butt-head.

The back of our shop is gnawed up really bad from porcupines. Around here, folks will shingle the bottom few feet of wooden barn walls, or install metal flashing to help prevent that. There are only two critters with an open season in Maine - red squirrels and porcupines. In Texas they would be classified as varmints. Maine doesn't have a "varmint" classification for any wildlife, just those two with an open season.

The pedal free play is engineered so that the release bearing and levers have proper clearance when the clutch pedal is fully depressed / clutch disengaged. It is adjustable to allow for wear, and is supposed to be one inch. Assuming everything else is adjusted right, the clutch pedal should be just resting right at the fully up position. The clutch pedal free play should only be adjusted at the release fork rod adjusting nut. The over center spring has nothing to do with the clutch adjustment, it is there to kick in and assist with clutch release right when the free play is reached, so the spring should be pulling, not stretching. The over center spring it is not required to disengage the clutch, only to make it smoother/easier to do. There is a template in the downloads section for the adjustment tool to set the over center spring correctly. A tip - it can be made out of cardboard for a single use.

Every house we've bought (5, in 5 different States) had to have a 100 year flood plain survey done to get the mortgage. We lucked out when we bought in Port Huron, MI, they were exceptionally anal about getting it done because south east MI is so flat and has so many lakes and waterways (a selling point was that you're never more than a mile from navigable water in MI), and they're all subject to flooding from ice dams, and flooding during heavy rains, but we bought a place on high ground, only a block off the St. Clair river with really good drainage.

Coming along nicely! Looking forward to the finished product. What color you gonna have it painted?

I bet once you let the cat out of the bag, I'll realize I've seen the show, and I'll endeavor to view it again. The scene you describe rings a very faint bell, but that's about it...

Being the victors in 99.8% of our conflicts and wars, the U.S. tends to forget we had/have enemies, and allies for that matter. But I also think we benefit from tending not to hold grudges. The further back the war, the more the likelihood you'll encounter someone with relatives from the other side, (or an ally), that is now a relative, friend, neighbor, etc., and we don't think ill of it. U.S. schools barely touch on military history anymore, so the idea of a VE day celebration or even recognition is remote in the U.S. My kids didn't learn any of the turning points or milestones in military history (which goes hand in hand with world history) in school, so they had no clue how they affected modern times worldwide. They would wonder why some things are/were a certain way (i.e. European resistance to German reunification), so I'd make them research it.

When I was stationed in Ft. Hancock (town, not an Army post), TX in the early '90s, I went by a garage sale at an old Texaco station in McNary. The gas station/garage had been unused except as someone's farm/ranch storage for quite some time. Thought I'd scored a box of NOS sparkplugs. Turned out they'd done what your Dad used to do. I had actually scored a box of used AC sparkplugs, in pristine NOS individual boxes. One of them silver-lining-learnin' opportunities. Since then I always open the box. Still have them, though. They look nice in our curio cabinet on the car stuff shelf...

If you're up to the searching and reading, there are a few discussions in the Forum regarding antique car insurance. What it boils down to is that what you are looking for is readily available, but you will want to shop a bit. I've noticed that mainstream auto insurance tends to be more restrictive with antique car coverage than the companies that specialize in antique and collector cars. Conversely, every State we've lived in (except Maine) has been the stick-in-the-mud with restrictions on use of autos registered as antiques.

Interesting thread. I hadn't read through it until this morning, didn't think there was any "controversy" that I'd be interested in. I think Hemmings is just looking for topics to do articles on in their magazine. Stir thought and conversation...and controversy. I personally like just about all aspects of the old car hobby, with the emphasis on "hobby". Only genre I don't care for is rat-rods. There are some styles I wouldn't have, but what I appreciate is the pride, workmanship, care, and maintenance that hobbyists put into their cars. I also appreciate the workmanship, care, and maintenance that "professional old car owners" have in their cars, blunted a bit by the fact the vast majority of them didn't/don't do the work themselves. One of the first questions I'll ask an owner at a show is "who did the work?" Which guides the follow-on questions. To me, it's the mindset behind monkeying around with these things that separates custodianship and ownership. I'm good with either, as long as you don't try to convince me I'm wrong. When I first contracted this affliction, I wanted to do everything as original as possible, until I discovered I didn't want to drive one of the old cars or trucks to work for fear of driving through a swarm of bees, hitting a pothole, or something. I'm still kind of anal when it comes to working on one of the cars, but now it's to ensure whatever I "fixed" is done right, is clean, looks good, makes the car more drivable and reliable, and last longer. Now, I wouldn't turn down a concours car if one was given to me, but I probably wouldn't enjoy it very much. I'm a bit surprised AACA judges are that OCD, (or rather AACA), I was under the impression they had to know factory "flaws" and judge accordingly, rather than abide by strict guidelines that don't take those flaws into consideration.

Here ya go.

Probably bad grounds. I rebuilt some original horns for our D24 this winter, I got the same reaction, bench tested ok, but just heard the relay clicking after I installed them. That means there is power to the horns, and you know your horns work now. I had painted everything, and expected them not to be grounded well, they ground through their mounts to the car's body. I just installed a good ground wire from where the mount bolts to the horn, to a good ground on the body.

Yeah, those rear axle nuts can be a bear. I only got the ones off my bug this winter by heating the nut, didn't have the open space you do to use a good cheater bar. I like your prep, but your car is light enough that you could still pull it off the jack stands with that rig before they break loose, please be careful! Asks for 215 lbs. torque to put them back on.

I believe you can still request a build sheet from Chrysler, which can often provide even more interesting info than what you ask. A search of the Forum will uncover the details. Although, I vaguely recall that it was questioned if Chrysler still provided those after the merger with FIAT, with no real answer.

Yes, 1937 Chevrolet. Hood ornament is aftermarket. It was indeed a "thing" to "upgrade" the ornament to something to personalize the car, more whimsical, fancier, etc. I remember as a kid looking through grandpa's J.C. Whitney catalog that had a couple pages of hood ornaments, and that was the '60s. Some of the earlier aftermarket ones can fetch as much as original manufacturer ones.

Backfiring tends to be caused by the car running too rich, delayed timing, or cracked distributor cap. I.e., too much unburnt fuel in the exhaust (rich), or a cylinder(s) firing when exhaust valve is open igniting unburnt fuel in the exhaust, rather than in the cylinder (timing, cracked cap). You may have both (too rich / timing) going on for that big a bang. The burning of the leads in your distributor cap - where they are burnt, at the outer edge of the lead, vs. somewhere along that flat plane - looks significantly delayed. Adjusting the float will not help, you need to check the air/fuel mixture. So, timing and air/fuel mixture should be checked first. If you have not monkeyed with either since that rebuild 4 years ago, those could be the culprits.