Ivan_B

Is my eyesight getting poor or, for that kind of money, they could not even make the body panels gaps the same on both sides? ?

That's an interesting way to have fun with your money, and brag about it on the internet ?

This is nice. I also played with a cheap amazon scope, a while ago. Very interesting to take a peak inside the engine

Thank you for the write-up. Your "Bulbs" bucket is mislabeled, though ?

I assumed you've performed some troubleshooting before fixing the generator, etc.? What seems to be the problem, now? Is the battery continuously discharging while idling in the garage? Does the generator voltage rise when revving the engine? What kind of voltage are you getting (at the battery) at idle versus revving? Can you please provide a bit more information about the observed symptoms, besides the fact that the battery goes dead while driving? I do not believe that the old wires, per se, would cause the battery to discharge... ?

If you look at the same pipe for the in-line 6 engine, you will notice exactly the same configuration of the openings. I suspect that the openings are not aimed directly onto the exhaust valves, but are rather evenly spaced-out throughout the block to provide more even coolant circulation to the working engine in general. Later: actually, the above assumption might be incorrect, since the engine diagrams seem to show the openings directly where the valves are ?

Were these "carefully colorized" by a neural network? There are obvious mistakes\blemishes on most of these photos... ? These cars, in their day, were brand new, so there is no surprise that they were taken everywhere across the country and abroad under all sorts of driving conditions.

He would, except that it ain't starting... ?

That's the reason I mentioned this. My phone is showing something like ~5 miles off, from the modern car speedometer (stock wheels/tires an everything).

Just a thought: I am not sure how accurate the average GPS speed reading is. I suspect that one of those "Your Speed is" road signs is a better tester Or, if you see the highway patrol, just ask them to clock you going buy. These guys keep their radars well calibrated, for legal reasons.

I don't know. There is only one bulb. Take a couple buttons out, in the middle. See the light? Can you replace it? If not, here is your answer I have just the old DIAL tag from my radio. But there are some pictures of the buttons, on eBay, etc., appearing to be original. I would keep the older typewriter tags, though, they look appropriate. Matching the font for the new ones, and printing it so the paper looks old sounds like too much work. By the way, in case you've never done this before, you do need to remove the knobs to take the radio down.

I admire your dedication but, at the same time, am also very sorry to hear that you've kept yourself from enjoying a classic car ride for such a long time ? These cars are rather old, by now. So you either need to spend a lot of money to get a decently restored car (no guarantees here, btw., because people have a widely variable opinion about what "decently restored" car means; UTG has a couple of useful tube videos about hack restoration jobs as a good example), or you need to be a good universal mechanic to fix one up yourself. From what I am reading, none of these applies, unfortunately. It sounds more like a garage full of parts in need of assembly, to be honest I would not be so sure. It looks like the interior was re-done (good). A repaint as well. But, by the look of that rear bumper, the car might've been sitting in the filed, somewhere. So you need to carefully inspect the under-body and the quality of all the bodywork done to it. It might look alright, from afar, but still be a pile of rusted metal with some body filler. Quality body work is extremely expensive, so most of these cars that were re-done, I've seen, were re-done poorly. You don't want to buy that. If you are looking at a repaired car, ask the seller for the "before" pictures to assess what you are dealing with. Well, I've given enough of unsolicited feedback here. It is up to you. You know, there are dreamers and doers. Don't be on the wrong side. Reaching for the stars, and everything, is good motivation, but it is useful to be reasonable about your expectations, and plan accordingly ?

And I was after a 1956 Cadillac or Packard, but got a 1940 Plymouth instead. Why? Because all of the Cadillacs/Packards I looked at were in a very poor condition (including the expensive ones, out of my budget). And when I looked underneath this Plymouth, I thought: "no way, there is no rust holes and it looks like it is actually operational..." And it was. It is up to you, eventually, but I am sure many of us have been there. You get "the car", because you want it, and then it sits because you cannot fix it, for whatever reason. And you cannot sell it either, because you already spent extra money on it and it's not going to sell for what it's worth to you, now. So it sits, and sits, and you spend more money and time into it, and keep wishing you will drive it around some day. And some people do finish their long-term projects but, statistically, most of these probably sit forever. Is it worth it? I don't know... There is another way. You can get a car you can actually afford (and purchase price is only part of it, you must be able to maintain it, etc.) and enjoy it. Right now. What if you don't like it? No problem, you can sell it for the same price you got it for, or maybe even a bit more if you've done some reasonable improvements. Even dry-cleaning the interior goes a long way. Not many people will buy a garage project, but a working classic car is a completely different matter. How much money did you spend on your project, to date? Look up some ads for similarly-priced working classic cars. Would you rather have one of these, and forget about this whole mess? Not sure what kind of cars you are into, but I saw plenty of relatively inexpensive Thunderbirds from the 60s. These seem to look nice, for a $7-10k you can probably get one that needs nothing, except some regular maintenance, and you can drive it around, take it to car shows, and just get on with your life ?

No. If you want to drive an older car, look for the newest and the most expensive one (based upon its objective physical condition) that will feel old-enough for you, and enjoy.

I would also recommend using a stone filter instead. These Carter (and others) filters were sold aftermarket so it might not even be original to your car. I would research to see if your specific filter model can be fitted with a stone filter. If not, it would probably make sense to buy a closely related model that can. Unless, of course, you can find a steady supply of these old paper filters that no one uses anymore. The stone filter is reusable Do you also have a filter on your fuel pump?

1. Yes, there is a scale light inside. You should be able to see it if you take out a couple of buttons in the middle. Not sure if you'll be able to get it out this way, though, especially if it has not been serviced in a while. Mine was stuck in the socket, and very hard to remove (it still works) when I repaired the radio. 2. Is this the C-1808 model? The speaker wire + power comes out from the top, so this little plug must be something else. Although, 3 prongs do look like the speaker plug. Maybe this is for a secondary speaker or diagnostics, or something like that? You might want to read through the schematics: http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByModel/954/M0013954.pdf Added later: upon further inspection, this is not a speaker plug; it is a 5-prong connector, two of which are jumped. So this must be some technical switch for who knows what. I would not touch it. Also, it looks like your button tags were re-done, at some point. This looks like the typewriter font

I've read about (and seen pictures) of those older type gears with the metal balls fallen out and getting stuck between the gears (not good). So, it might be safer to go with the shifting plate type, if you have to choose between the two.

Was that a serious question? ?

This comment is a bit outdated, but to anyone doing the carpet in the future: you should remove the pedals and push them through the small holes in the carpet instead of cutting the carpet all the way to the top.

Do you have more pictures? This car looks like it has been considerably customized.

That's a great job, then. Does not count, we are still talking about gauges. An you never know, inspired by all this talk of great marksmanship, the next thing you know, the topic starter will be re-doing dials mixing radium into his own custom paint ?

These looks like custom relays... Interesting, did not know about these. However, it might be difficult to implement on an older car where there are no turn-signals to begin with (you need to hook a couple of these, at specific places under the dash). Besides, generic relays + wire are probably cheaper

That's neat, except that the edges appear to be a bit blurry (or is the picture off focus)? I don't think they sprayed the original dials at the factory, did they? Probably a rolled-on or hand-painted? There are several techniques to restore these, people use. I've seen some good results with decals, too.

I like that heavy-duty turn-signal lever ?

This sounds like a bit of an overkill. A razor knife should be all you need for a DIY project like this. A little off-topic: I, once, refreshed a 60s motorcycle speedometer. That one was a bit complicated because the frame/bezel holding the glass was sealed to the metal can with the mechanism, like those old-school kitchen cans with metal caps. So I had to carefully cut the bezel lip all the way around with a dremel, leaving some "tabs", so that I can assemble the whole thing back together later on.