yourpc48

Thank you for the reply. Did you have the stock size (or close to it) tires on that rig?

Thank you guys. Greg. Thank you for posting the charts. I think I may have seen something like those in another post (Might even be the same ones). I guess I didnt make myself clear enough so let me clear it up a little here. My wondering was not for final RPM but experience with the gearing from the trans. I think that the 3.27 would be great for highway but from what I have seen in the threads on the forum the 3.27 might be pretty tall for our first gear. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated too.

I do not have a tach on my car but I know that the engine has to turn a pretty high RPM to get up to 55 (actual 55 is 70 on the spedo) with the setup I have right now. My goal is to be able to go about 60-65ish with no overdrive and not be overworking the engine. But still be able to drive around town. I do computer service work and do a lot of driving in town and from our town to other towns close to us. The 3 towns close to us are all within about 20 to 30 miles from us. When I get to these Explorers to pull the rear ends I have 2 choices. 3.73 or 3.27. I believe that the 3.27 is just a little too high a ratio. The 3.73 is a little lower than what I wanted but acceptable for the Lhead. I suppose that with the 3.73 I can put taller tires on and get a little more top speed out of the car. Anyone out there running anything below a 3.50 gear ratio with the old flatty in thier car? Happy with the results? Before I pickup a rear end I would like to hear results of other swaps. I have 4.11 gears now and 225 70 15s on the car now. I think I could get the result I am looking for with 3.73 and 235 70 15s. Hmmmmm Thanks....

Welcome to posting. I like the Plymouth and the Ford. I havent started my Explorer rear swap yet. I am supposed to get the rear for the project in a few days (keeping fingers crossed). I have completed the front disk swap with the Explorer Calipers and rotors. The bakes are working well and I plan on going to a parade and show this weekend in a the next little town over from me. Hey sorry your hut leaks? I would kill for a space like that to work. Lets just say I have to mow the floor in my shop once in a while. Have some fun with that old sedan.

I am getting an Explorer rear for my car in the next week or so. My father inlaw got 2 Explorers for scrap this week and I will be getting a rear end out of one of them as well as some other parts Im sure. One is a 97 Explorer sport and the other is a 2000 Explorer 4 door. I will be looking for the one with the highest gear ratio not to excede 3.50. If it goes any higher I dont think the old beast could handle it. Ive been telling him 3.50 to 3.73 so well see. I cant be too picky since FREE is a very good price! Both of these years have disk brake rear ends so my car will then have 4 wheel disk and I will definitly be changing the master cylinder as well. I think I have a (Get creative) plan for the master. I will probably be using all Explorer parts for my swaps so that someone could get all the parts off of one rig and not have to go searching for anything.

Still working on a printable image for the template. I did however get a call from my father inlaw tonight about 2- 97 Ford Explorers he was trying to make arrangements for. He sold someone a Jeep Cherokee and may be taking the Explorers in trade at scrap price so I can take the rear end and other parts out of them for my Coupe. Woo Hooo. Keep your fingers crossed. There may be another thread about the rear end install coming soon.

At first I was thinking water in the gas. 60 lbs of compression is low. Also firing order came to mind (I did that by accident and took me a month to figure it out). Sticky valve also. If you want to build up a little compression put a little tranny fluid in the cylinders and turn the motor over by hand. Let it sit for a day or so and then put an old towel over the entire head (big towel) and turn the engine over with no plugs in it. Crank it till you build up oil pressure and then put your plugs back in and fire it up. It will smoke for a while so do it outside and where it will not cause a problem with your neighbors. It may smoke a LOT. Dont worry till you have let it idle for a while. You can do the same with Marvels or Seafoam but the trans fluid is less expensive for a quart. That will normally clean up the buildup on anything and lube up the rings. It should also lube up your valves a bit. Those are the things I would check and steps I would take next. Good Luck with that.

Image prints way way too big right now. If you try to print it and your printer has the option try "scale to fit" for the 8.5x11. If not I will be working on that problem later and will post when fixed. I have to go to work right now.

Here is a link to a page on my website where I posted the scans. If you click on the image and then print it. You "Should" get an 8.5X11 image of the bracket. There is a ruler in the image to put a ruler up against and check for scale. I will test it later when I get a chance. http://car.icompute.info/disk_bake_bracket.htm Oh yeah. Paypal donations gladly accepted. LOL

There is a chemical that leaches from the silicone and can blister your paint and you get the little rust bubles. Almost every car I have seen with the rtv stuff around the windshield frame has rust around or under the silicone. Maybe someone else can tell you the why or how this happens. Just sayin be careful.

Is there an interest in the templates for these brackets? I have been running them for a few weeks now and dont seem to be having any problems with them. Let me know. I have a scan of the template and an outlined version on graph paper. Both have a ruler in the scan for scale.

Welcome to the forum. Very nice looking car.

Who do I have to off to get a shop like that and who else to get some concrete and a lift?

I love it when people do the I had one just like it buuuuutttt..... You know that the car they had or the car their fathers, uncles, cousin had was exactly like it. I will say that I get as many positive comments on my satin black 47 as I did my fully done up 36 Ford PU.

Positive thinking coming your way Bob. Im sure someone that lives close by would be willing to help with that gas tank thing. I would do it but I am in Oregon. Wrong coast.

At least he didnt have to buy it a fur coat. Gives a whole new meaning to sheep skin seat covers. I wonder if her name was Baaaarbra? Those gogles are pretty wide for a person. I think they were custom made for the sheep. Oh! One last dig... the original seat warmer! Sorry couldnt resist.

My grille mentioned in an earlier post still has some minor imperfections as well as a couple of new ones but like stated above, its so dang bright when its fully polished to mirror finish that you cant stand to look at it long enough to see them. You could go blind its so bright in the sun.

Nice engine compartment. I like the black and yellow. Your the one that I had seen with the HEI in your pic. Is this a aftermarket setup or something that you did? One of the distributors I looked at that already has a tang on the end was the inline Chevy.

Just a note here. I have polished stainless and last summer did my grill before installing it. I had well over 12 hours into all the parts that make up the stainless from headlight to headlight. I did not do the side fender trim. So yes if you do a nice job it can take a lot of time to do right. I dont have the better equipment that the big shops have. That would speed things up a bit but it is still a time consuming process. If you can find a piece that is nice and ready to go I would get it. The problem you might find is that once you get a different part on there you can find a difference in lustre due to the fact that the part did not go through all the wear and weather the other parts on your car have. Often you will find that you end up getting the other stainless polished after the fact unless your parts are super nice already. Just a thought.

Thanks for those replies. Good idea to adapt the gm HEI to the stock dizzy. I want to eliminate the points as the trigger. The slant 6 dizzy conversion using the original flathead dizzy shaft is do-able and could be taken a step further with the HEI conversion. Has anyone taken a GM or other Electronic dizzy and made it work in the flatty? Just wondering. I have seen a couple of inline 6 distributors that might be made to work and then use off the shelf parts to work with when the cap, rotor, etc are needing replaced. Hmmm.

This is on one of your 30s vintage rides isnt it? I looked at the way the pedal in my 47 worked and didnt see a way to make something work in front of the pedal. I thought I had seen your 86 dodge swap posted in another thread. Is that correct?

How many different electronic ignition distributor types have we adapted to our flatheads? I have looked through the threads and found several ways of adapting our originals but I seem to remember seeing an image with an HEI like a Chevy cap. So that got me thinking. Start a thread to see the different ways to use or adapt electronic ignitions for our flatheads. The most recent I saw was a slant 6 adaptation. Pics and / or a basic description would be great. Thanks... Dale

Thanks for the suggestion. I do have a proportioning valve but as of yet have not needed it. I have tried hard stops in dry and wet and this setup seems to be ok. The rears lock up first like they did before I did the change over. I do plan on puting in a different master for safety reasons but the original master was weak before I ever changed the drums to disk. Its just another in a long list of things that need to get changed as I can afford it. The pedal seems to be staying up further now. I will be adding the proportioning valve for sure after I get the new master set up in the car. I agree with the fact that many have had to add residual valves to the system and I considered purchasing some but the original master has a residual valve built into it. I dont know what pressure but it has one. If I were to add those I would probably not have the pedal bleed down at all because I think its a faulty residual at the end of the master that is letting the pedal bleed down a little. Doesnt matter. For now its working well and I am going to bypass that master in the near future and add the proportioning valve. Glad you found interest in the brake project. Just so you know. I drive my car every day except when its being worked on. I use my car as a daily driver rain or shine. Being in Oregon on the coast that means mostly rain during a big part of the year.

I havent changed my master or adapted it yet. I may use the explorer master. I have an idea on how to make it a remote fill. The tank that sits on the top is held in by rubber seals. I think you could use the master and adapt to fittings that would then let you run tubing up to a canister on the firewall or inner fenderwell. Since the master is designed for the brake system I have it should work fine. Thats another project I will have to do a little later. I want to try to keep everything off the shelf available for replacement parts. I need to do steering and distributor too. Just need to make the extra money to do it.

Love this idea! Because of tools (I dont have a torch to cut the steel) I will still use the welded nuts to a plate but I like the idea of welding the plate once in place. Thanks for sharing.