Los_Control

OH my Lord, cant believe you went there .... Colorado is many things, no way it was a truck. I live in Colorado City Texas, We have the Colorado river and the Colorado lake .... we sure do not want to hear about a chevy Colorado ... you take that back

Bet they originally fit chev's ... I do not blame you for giving numbers

I am curious to hear if you have had any estimates done to build the new tank, or just looking for suitable replacement. I remember at the time I thought my buddy got ripped off for $700. As years gone by, ... He was a electrical engineer at Government labs Sandia labs in NM. He was disabled because he smoked 6 packs of cigarettes a day. severe COPD and needed the large bottles of oxygen on a cart to get around .... Was his nature to give the machine shop the exact specifications of the new tank and how he wanted it built ... Possible he may have lied to me, the $700 was just the tank, another separate bill for the tow and rest of work. He had a good retirement and savings built up, he did what he wanted. So just asking, has @Plymouthy Adams checked on any prices to have a tank built?

Thats where my opinion comes from ... I just do not have the tools to fight Alien life forms at home in my garage. At a bare minimum, needs to go to a radiator shop and be hot tanked. Depending on the 17 year old kid doing the work, or the 5 month old liquid in the tank that needed replaced 4 months ago ... just a lot of variables as to if you are really going to start out with a clean surface to start with. Maybe with the new military group "space force" If enough of us get together, maybe they could open a side business of cleaning out the alien life forms ?

Ok you have my curiosity peaked .... do they have rear springs? .... Just asking for a buddy I took my tank out last year, tossed it in the scrap metal pile ... I know I still need to take the front bracket/springs off and pull the float just because ... I had no rear springs. Only front. I think I understand how the springs work, to adsorb shock and prevent metal fatigue. I just assumed only the front had springs? .... I will admit my tank had some damage and bubblegum repair on the bottom, possible someone removed it before me. All that said, I am not restoring. I planned on just cutting sections out of radiator hoses and making spacers for the tank to the metal mounting brackets. I am sure Haggerty would beat me up for that.

Will toss my 2 cents in, and sure others already agreed or disagreed with my opinion. I would not feel comfortable putting some X brand liner in my own tank at home .... I know many have done it with great success. While I have read one Hot Rodders nightmare tail of his experience. I trust his work, He has the same 32 ford since he was a teenager and is in his 70's today, and built many a car in-between. He followed the instructions perfectly, and had success with other tanks. When it was time for the first long out of state cruise, all the liner came apart and clogged the fuel filter, broke down on the side of the road ... figured it out and was able to limp into town to a parts store. Had to tear apart and clean his carb in the parking lot, the auto parts store had 7 fuel filters in stock that would fit his car, and he bought all of them. He was able to limp back home .... just saying his trip turned into a nightmare and the fuel tank was junk after this. To avoid a trip like that with your wife along .... what would you pay? .... Any idea how long a wife's memory is? I think I would be more comfortable sending the tank to a company who does this professionally, and maybe offered a warranty. I bought a new tank for my truck, seemed reasonable cost to me ... I would actually feel comfortable applying a name brand liner to it, new metal, never had gas, clean ... just not sure what benefit I would receive. I imagine the cost of sending one out, would be about the same as replacing with a new tank .... which way you want to go? Maybe you do not have a choice? Buddy of mine was retired and lived in a motorhome in a park on the lake 100 miles south of south of Albuquerque, he decided to move back to Albuquerque. 1/2 way there his tank was rusted out and broke down in some podunk town. Local machine shop towed him in, cleaned his fuel system, and fabricated a new fuel tank out of aluminum. Took a couple days, my retired buddy just lived in the motorhome behind the machine shop while they worked on it ... They charged him just under $700 for the job. I wonder what it would cost, if a guy dropped the tank and brought it to a fabricator and had something made that would work, not a duplicate, something that would bolt in and do the job?

Yeah not bad engines, my grandmother drove one after she cracked the windshield in her studebaker ... pouring hot water on it to defrost it in the mornings

You hit a sore spot with me. ... I had a 1961 sweptline 1/2 ton slant 6, 4 speed ... Brother inlaw pulled out the 4:10 gears and installed what I think was a 3:73 gear. 6 months down the road, BIL said he still had the original 4:10 posi rear end for it if you want it .... sure I said, be glad to put it back the way it came ... It drove a little funky with the 3:73 but not terrible. And since it was just a truck sitting in the back and filled with garbage and drove a few times a month ... not a big deal. Fast forward a few months later, A buddy I worked with had a 1969 roadrunner 4spd car that was really sharp, he wanted to buy the 4:10 posi rear end from me, He was running some junk yard 3:00 something rear end. From factory his car came with the 4:10 posi. I had no interest in selling it, I installed it in my $50 truck. If I could only go back in time, I would give him that rear end just to make his car right. It is a simple 30 minute swap.

good choice, you will need a good fence to keep it straight. I do not at this time have a decent router table with a decent fence, something am working on to correct for household problems. Like any project, use what you have.

Yes sir you are correct. I forgot about the shovel strips being embedded into the wood to just leave it proud of the surface. There is some router action going on. While it is just a straight cut bit to plow out material at selected depth, nothing fancy, but it is 6' long and needs to be accurate so it looks right. Here is a photo of my original bed trailer, I did look under it and there was a decent gap under the strips and no router joint. Just saying I was wrong, My post was correct except for needing a router to counter sink the strips.

I like this suggestion .... often on some projects I use a 1/2 lap joint, and make them on my table saw ... I might be tempted to use the router bit set I bought for Tongue & groove oak flooring, I had some repairs in the floor to make. Honestly I think 59bisquick nailed it, You want room for expansion and contraction, rip your boards to width leaving 3/16" - 1/4" and cover with the shovel strip. When I do mine, I am going to leave the wood floating, then on shovel strips apply fasteners in the groove I created so the wood can expand and contract. The strips will hold in place. Sadly there is 4 corner bolts that go through the wood and bolts bed to frame, These are wider boards, bolted down they still have room to expand & contract. Thats just what I am going to do, K.I.S.S ... now I ask, did original have any sort of over lap between the boards under the strips?

Interesting situation, anything is possible .... All I read was "shifting problems" I did not see where you described what the actual problem was. So really is anybodies guess now. Possible you just need a good linkage adjustment?

Lies ... you are way over 60, are you trying to tell us 60 years married?

I do not own a heat gun, I have never found a use for one. I imagine they are nice. .... I would not buy one for tires, though I think it may be a good example. My first post, I claimed I would try different things and then settle where I liked. Then when you replied you may try a heat gun, I assumed you already had one. Point is, you are running a custom tire that will require custom attention,. .... These old cars are not complicated, nobody had fancy tools to keep them on the road. They just did what they did to keep them running. They are very basic. You need to determine yourself best air pressure.

Sounds like you are on the right path. Above I mentioned, You are running the American Classics, to be honest I never heard of them, curious to hear how they work out .... I assume they are radials that "look" like a original bias ply tire. Again it is the shoulder area that is built different. Will be more of a straight up and down sidewall to "get the bias tire look" While a modern radial will have the curved shoulders. Right out of the box, you have a compromise to get the best of both worlds, looks vrs ride/performance. You wont achieve 100% looks and ride. Keep that in the back of your mind while experimenting. I would also assume but have no proof, it may take a bit more air pressure then normal ... 35 psi, for sidewall of this particular tire brand to hold shape ... I assume they did some testing themselves. It is the flexing of the sidewall that causes heat, heat causes tire failure. Pick a 3 or 5 mile route, cold start in the morning, start with 35 psi, get home and check temp with heat gun. That should be your base temp. Next morning cold, start all over again with a different pressure, maybe 30 psi. Exact same route and check temp again ... Rinse & repeat. I would not want to vary to much from your base temp, you may find that 35-32 psi is where these tires need to be. ... They simply are not built like the tires on my wife's mini van or my daily driver pickup. Man they sure look nice!

I agree 100%. Technically a tire with zero air pressure is not under inflated, if it is carrying only its own weight as you roll it across the floor. As you increase the weight you increase the air pressure ... it is the air that caries the load, the tire just contains the air. As we go from a 2 ply bicycle tire to a 16 ply semi truck tire, the casings are simply built better to contain more air pressure to carry more weight. With all that said, I had a small light Triumph spit fire, Think I ran about 24 psi in the rear and 26 psi in front, it had a larger heavy engine. Any American car I will generally start about 28 psi, look at the sidewalls to see they look correct, check it for ride and cornering. If it feels a little squishy maybe try 30 psi. Another big issue is rim width and tire width, A radial tire typically wants a wider 5.5-6" rim ... if you have a original 4.5,- 5" wide rim, The sidewalls are sucked in and you will never get "proper" foot print. The crown will just be rounded and not flat. and will affect tire wear. Years ago, we had some tires that max was 32 psi, then others were 35 psi ... are all 35 psi now? Simply the casings are built a little stronger and we now have 70k mile tires. I love the ride of Michelin tires, they give the best ride and best mileage, including semi trucks. They build the shoulders different, they have a wedge built in, gives a flatter foot print while a more rounded shoulder for ride and performance. So with all the variables, kinda obvious each situation is different, same exact car, try different wheels with different brand tires and will need different air pressure. You will need to experiment.

With the choices you offered, I guess I would choose Langdon for simple reason, you can keep your old one wrapped up under the seat and drop it back in if the hei fails on the side of the road. I have no personal experience with either brands, just what I read from others .... some have gone years with no issues while some go weeks or months and experience failures. My choice would be to go with the slant 6 conversion, then if something fails you can buy parts from just about any local auto parts. I kinda have this feeling that the distributor ignition is not your issue, since you changed things and problem did not change at all. I wonder if it may be some crud built up in the carburetor ... 2k miles in 40 years it is basically parked all the time?

Los holds up a mirror for Sam

No idea where that is, been a long time since I lived in Tacoma. ... my birth certificate shows I was born at Tacoma General. While my parents lived in McMillion, a tiny store, post office, church and farms east of Sumner. Lived there until 10 and moved to Puyallup. Bought a mobile home in a Lakewood trailer park. Used my Dodge 1 ton slant 6/4 spd to move it down HWY 512 from south hill and up Eli hill to property I bought in Bonney lake. It is a small world. I went back about 4 years ago, man was I amazed at how it had grown over the 20 years since last was there. I do not plan to change my flat head 6, if I ever did, it would have to be a slant 6 replacement. I have owned several over the years, they were awesome engines.

This is our weekend for the action in Colorado City TX. From 6:00 - 9:00 pm Friday night, we have the cruise ... Brings back memories from days gone by when I was 17 and cruising the loop in my 1969 mustang on Friday nights. This time the local police are sitting by and enjoying the show, Every business in town financially supports the event ... police only keeps the peace. is 3 stop signs and a light in the route of the loop, there will be some tire spinning taking off. All cars are pretty much limited to 1990 and earlier. There will be cars non street legal with open headers etc... Just got back from the grocery store, 5:00 pm and cars are getting ready .... https://streema.com/radios/KAUM Our local country western station will be playing rock & roll music from the 50's, 60's 70's for the cruise. Some may like to listen from the internet. Saturday we have the car show, 1:00 pm the burn out contest start ... goal is, car that blows a tire in quickest time wins the trophy. This is on city streets about 3 blocks from my house. .... Boring days in Small town Texas See what photos if any I have to offer Sunday

I remember that truck as it came to a annual party we threw for customers/employees bbq beer soda the whole works with the street closed off and truck doing burn outs off and on all day. In another town at another party, I heard the driver had a bit too much to drink and almost killed someone, they put a stop to it for good. The cold process is king of retreads. Is much more advanced. They make the tread separate where they can apply much higher heat and pressure to the tread, this allows them to get 100k miles from the retread on a truck tire. And the tread is uniform weight per foot and you get no balance problems from them, they are cured to the casing at 210 degrees, which is cool enough to not damage the casing. Also the curing chambers were pressurized and the tires were mounted on wheels with tubes aired up, so they got a lot of needed pressure, but only 15 pounds difference between inside and outside of tire so not to stressful on the casing. Hot caps was the original retread, There was a large complicated machine that you had to set the tire size, width, radius ... lots of knobs to fiddle with. Then you start the machine and feed raw rubber into it as tire spins around and machine heats the raw rubber and applies it to the tire in thin heated strips. Pretty automatic, but if you get one knob setting wrong, it will apply to much rubber in a wrong area and get heavy spots. Then the tire is set into a clam shell mold, raise the top of the mold, set the tire in the bottom and get it exactly centered, you get it off 1/4" and now you have another heavy spot as the rubber flows to the least resistance, And of course you have 10 other molds around you curing tires at 240 degrees and the mold you are changing is still 200 degrees ... dirty nasty job. I can only remember 1 hot capper over the years that did not have a pint of booze stashed in his work station, that one liked wine. Even when I was working in a union Bandag shop in the late 80's, there was a hot cap side of the shop, ol Joe he always had a smile on his red face and visited the bathroom a lot. Everybody including management knew he was hitting the bottle. But they could not replace him or get anyone to take his place if he called in sick or went on vacation. Today I would be surprised if any hot cap shops are still open.

I wonder if the debris is in the tank and blocking the fuel line to the carb? ... My tank was basically shot after sitting for many years, but I did run off of it for awhile and then it started doing what you describe.

I heard those words were invented by sailors

My Uncle told me a story about his buddy that bought a old ford back in the 50's. They put a flathead v8 in it and the car still had original mechanical brakes. He drove it 1 time, scared him so bad he never drove it again and sold it.