'49 Coronet Basket Case Rebuild

[maddmaxx1949]

Passenger rocker finished excluding welding the seam together but my goodness that was a battle trying to muscle the bends by hand mostly. I am a fairly small individual at a buck twenty-five and I was simply not enough mass to bend some of the 90's even with all the extra sheet metal as leverage. Might as well have stood on it. Between Dad and I and a big hammer smacking it while it had some tension on it I managed to get it but definitely wore me out. First picture shows where I put a small curve in the sill where it kicks out to meet the rocker. This is right about where the top of the chrome sits. Next I went ahead and bent the first 90 angle the width of the sill excluding the ~1.5" where the two meet (second photo) and then finally the third bend which is the flat part where the sill and rocker come together with the floor ( last two photos). Bent these with two pieces of angle sandwhiched together and a body hammer which seems to work pretty well so far. Will need to go back and planish out some of the hammer marks but no worries there.

 

Question, how does one put the holes/ recessed area in on the sill that accepts those rubber grommets in which the weatherstrip (I think thats what it is) sits in? as seen in my post on the 30th. and are those necessary or can I use an alternative?

 

[maddmaxx1949]

Found a post on the HAMB where someone did a similar operation with putting the recesses in a sill. Cut a small piece of scrap with a 1.5" hole saw and am going to use the backing plate I created plus the button result from using a hole saw and press it. with a small taper on both I don't think it will cut it or anything. recess is fairly shallow anyways. Just wanted to show you all the solution I came up with. Also cut the old sill off and loosely test fit the new sill on the passenger side and to my surprise it actually fit quite nicely. I need to figure out where I need to keep the middle pillar after I get it on solidly as I have a pretty significant door gap on the front door (passenger). I actually think it might be out of square because the driver rear door as a similar gap. I'll take car of that after I get the body off. doesn't have to be good just good enough.

[maddmaxx1949]

I know you guys probably get tired of seeing me post here, but the learning experience for me is so exciting and frankly there are so few people of my generation that are interested in these things that this forum is one of the few places I can show and get genuinely interested and supportive replies. I digress. Took the Sill to the local shop for their hydraulic press to make the sill dimple things. Didn't have one myself plus they are good family friends, retired, and more than happy to help me with this. Always great to bounce ideas off of others. Super pleased with the results. Came out fantastic. The doodad I made was with the hole saw worked well. Welded a plate with a bolt on it to line it up center. Just pressed it until the depth looked right. Need to get a 13/16 bit to drill out the center holes to fit the rubber grommets.
Are they still making the rubber grommets for the sill?

[DadRchmnd]

14 minutes ago, maddmaxx1949 said:

I know you guys probably get tired of seeing me post here, but the learning experience for me is so exciting and frankly there are so few people of my generation that are interested in these things that this forum is one of the few places I can show and get genuinely interested and supportive replies. I digress. Took the Sill to the local shop for their hydraulic press to make the sill dimple things. Didn't have one myself plus they are good family friends, retired, and more than happy to help me with this. Always great to bounce ideas off of others. Super pleased with the results. Came out fantastic. The doodad I made was with the hole saw worked well. Welded a plate with a bolt on it to line it up center. Just pressed it until the depth looked right. Need to get a 13/16 bit to drill out the center holes to fit the rubber grommets.
Are they still making the rubber grommets for the sill?

Love seeing your progress. I'm going to start tackling my floors this summer so am learning from your posts. Looks great!

[maddmaxx1949]

Done a bit of a mish mash of things this last couple weeks. Lot of rain, little bit of cold (a bit tired of that) which delayed some progress. New water pump installed and reused the Brass WDT which was in great shape so back in it went. Replaced my thermostat with a working one I had lying around after the one I had didn't pass the pot test. So at this point, the engine can go into the car. I have the driveshaft and conversion spicer conversions already so it shouldn't be too long before I can at least move it in and out of the way. I need to address the linkage for sure but I can do that a little at a time. Pretty good at jury-rigging things for a temporary fix and I imagine that's what I'll do just to get it moving. Working on the driver side rocker as the passenger side is built and I just have to press the recesses in and weld then onto the body to get it stable.

[maddmaxx1949]

Bit of a side track today as dad brought home an old air compressor someone had around for scrap. Posted about it in Off Topic as I had never heard of a Davey. Looks old and don't really want to scrap it but the motor is seized I suspect and don't have time for it. Giving it a small chance before sending it off to rustier pastures. Good to get my attention off the car occasionally to prevent burnout

[Dartgame]

wonder what kind of motor is in it ? Mopar flat six ? 

 

Those gauges should be saved. Stewart Warner gauges like that sell for a nice profit on ebay, or use them yourself !

[maddmaxx1949]

1 hour ago, Dartgame said:

wonder what kind of motor is in it ? Mopar flat six ? 

 

Those gauges should be saved. Stewart Warner gauges like that sell for a nice profit on ebay, or use them yourself !

I think it's a Hercules 4cyl? And good call on the gauges I have a rat rod that could use them. I canned ebay since they changed their selling policy. You have to link your bank account to them now and they hold your money longer ? . I was thinking of moving to Bonanza or ebid but if you know of any good car/junk selling alternatives I'm open to suggestions. I'm always into something. Bought a 1930 Alemite grease bucket for a cool buck that I'm trying to sell or some Chevy (it's not mine I promise) drop springs etc.

 

Edit: If it was a flat six I'd be for sure keeping it.

 

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by maddmaxx1949

[Los_Control]

Just now, maddmaxx1949 said:

if you know of any good car/junk selling alternatives I'm open to suggestions.

I have no experience with instagram. I watch a youtube chan called irontrap garage. Matt does a lot of car part picking, from all over the country, then sells at swap meets, Hershey Carlisle etc & he sells on instagram? I dunno he has a large following so maybe that is required to sell on there to get the views? Like facebook only shared with your subscribers? I do not have a instagram account nor do I want one. Just throwing it out there.

 

Cool air compressor I sure would like to see it saved if it can be.

[maddmaxx1949]

Okay, so since I flushed out the engine and got it running I put it back in the car hoping to have it moving on it's own power. Most of the parts for the clutch linkage were in a bucket I got with the car except the one I circled. I surprisingly don't have another one lying around anywhere (or at least I can't find it). I was wondering If anyone had a picture of it. I can fab one up fairly easily but I'd like to see what an original looks like and maybe some rough measurements if at all possible.

 

Rockers are going slow, I just need to get off my butt and finish them, but the options for paint are overwhelming. I need to probably cut apart the one I already welded in  order to properly prep and paint the inside of it unless there is a way I can figure out how not to.

[ccudahy]

1 hour ago, maddmaxx1949 said:

I need to probably cut apart the one I already welded in  order to properly prep and paint the inside of it unless there is a way I can figure out how not to.

Eastwood makes an Internal Frame Coating Paint with a hose. You would only need to drill some holes instead of cutting it open. Here's the link.

 

https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-internal-frame-coating-14oz-aerosol.html

[maddmaxx1949]

Fabbed up a quick bracket out of some 1/8" sheet I had. Works, not sure how close it is to the original but It doesn't interfere with the transmission linkage. I threw on a spring I found just to get things setup. I will need to get an original one because the one I used bumps into the trans linkage some, not bad, but I wouldn't leave it that way permanently. Still if anyone has photos of an original bracket that would be appreciated for comparison. Will definitely need to do some clutch adjustment and make sure it's actually pushing the disc far enough out to disengage it. Tomorrow's project. then maybe I'll be able to drive it out on it's own power. baby steps.

[maddmaxx1949]

Question time:

 

My clutch pedal has about a foot of free play. It does disengage the clutch disc the last ~1" of travel. and the pedal stays down mostly due to the overcenter spring i think? Literally to where the floor would be before I get any response. I can't lengthen the rod that stabs into the fork anymore. I have about a half inch I could get by adjust the rear mounts but thats it. In need of some suggestions Because I also can't get reverse, I think once the free play situation is taken care of it will be easier to diagnose.

 

Also, radiator engine and driveshaft all on the car and the back wheels turn. so it's close.

 

P.s. make sure you have your heater hose hooked up before putting antifreeze in ?

Edited May 20, 2021 by maddmaxx1949

[DJ194950]

Adjust the over-center set up??  Mine was so screwed up the the setup was impossible!

 

DJ

[maddmaxx1949]

I'll look at it I saw some gauges on here being made to check length. I had hoped it would've been close enough even though it has sat a long time. I'm not sure the spring would change the distance the fork is being pushed though would it?

[maddmaxx1949]

Update, haven't been able to mess with the car too much in the past week, just got busy but, I did get an itch that needed to be scratched. It just so happened that this Fenton dual intake was on ebay at the same time. Coincidence, I think not. Plus ended up getting some headers ordered from Langdon Stovebolt for my '50 Chrysler. and when he gets some in for the 23" I'll pick them up as well.  My wallet says ouch but my heart says mwuahahahaaa make car go slightly less slow mwuaahahahaaa......

 

Now to hit the job search hard and get back into the swing of things in order to fund more cool stuff. Still procrastinating finishing the rockers mostly becasue paint is intimidating and getting the car moving on its own is priority right now

 

[maddmaxx1949]

Focusing mostly on not depleting my savings any more until I find work. but I have a question on how to measure the charging voltage from the generator as well as output from the regulator. I polarized the generator but as this is a mishmash of cobbled together mix an match parts, I never checked whether the output was correct or not. No sense hoping its correct out of the box(or off the barn floor in this case, honestly surprised the generator works at all). Not super great at using the tester So if anyone has a good "how to" I would appreciate it.

[maddmaxx1949]

On 5/20/2021 at 8:44 PM, DJ194950 said:

Adjust the over-center set up??  Mine was so screwed up the the setup was impossible!

 

DJ

Also DJ I haven't got around to checking it yet but you're probably on the right track. Sitting for years in a field probably did it no good.

[maddmaxx1949]

Well, going to have to shelve this project for a bit until I get more money. I'll probably still be doing body work here and there but the major stuff will be put on hold. No surprise there as I haven't been working for a year and a half almost. Did fix a starting problem I had when I added larger cables I had put them on completely wrong. Thats fixed and the car starts easy on 6v now.  But I went to fill the fluid drive unit and she is leaking steadily out of the clutch side. Not what I was hoping for but maybe was a bit too optimistic going in. I also didn't look at it while it was out of the car. Blaming my youth and inexperience on that one. Could try and cannibalize a chrysler or other dodge one that I have but they are complete cars and separate projects and I'm not sure I want to do that. Not even sure they have good units either. I could probably do the seal and unit rebuild myself with my neighbor at the machine shop but rebuild kits are still 500+ from bernbaums so I don't see that happening anytime soon. Frustrated, definitely disappointed but it will be good to step back from it for a while.

 

Edit: I'm going to pull the fluid drive unit out. to inspect it further. I read alot of times it's the carbon seal that cracks. Is this something that's easy to replace if I do determine that's what it is? and is that as simple as put in the new one, put it back together and problem solved? or is more intensive than that

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by maddmaxx1949

[MechanicalManical]

Awesome progress!

[maddmaxx1949]

Update: I have a '51 with a fluid drive and gyromatic. I'm trying to get rid of it but I did check the fluid coupling in that one and its good so I'm going to pull it off and swap it so maybe, just maybe I can have a driveable car.

[Booger]

Im totally blown away dude.  Great work and the journal to go with it  (Im sure youre keeping one, right?) You got some stones

[maddmaxx1949]

Thanks Booger, and as far as a journal goes, this is pretty much it. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea though.

 

Update is I ending up pulling most of the parts of my 51 so I can sell the body and frame to a guy and waiting to hear back on that. I installed the good fluid coupling and Needed to replace the clutch release bearing. I bought a bearing with a sleeve and the bearing that came on it is a national 1505 equivalent. This is considerably smaller than the bearing that is on it now. The question being, what is the approximate distance between fingers on the pressure plate for a 49? is anyone else running a similar sized bearing and how much contact is on the pressure plate fingers? i.e. lots of overlap, is barely touching all three, etc.

 

Thanks in advance

[maddmaxx1949]

Update: The 1505 bearings that alot of the auto parts stores call for do not fit the fluid drive option. I ended getting a National 1847 bearing which worked. Thanks Sniper for the cross reference help. I Reinstalled the release bearing and transmission/driveshaft. Now onto the next/recurring issue. Clutch disengagement. I am also not sure on the pedal feel. I tried my 1950 chrysler pedal and it is smooth from top to the bottom of travel. The clutch on this one, not so much. It makes me wonder if I am missing a return spring or something.

 

So, Question: What is the method for returning the clutch to the upright position? Here is a link to show my current clutch pedal behavior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yBUNS3SC-o

 

and attached are some photos of my setup. Linkage lengths all match what I have in my 51 and 50 so I don't think I have a major error in the linkage however If ya'll could check these photos and the video and offer input it would be much appreciated. This is the last step before it's driveable.

 

 

Edited July 22, 2021 by maddmaxx1949
added photos

[maddmaxx1949]

Well you can't see me in this video, but I was grinning from ear to ear! First movement under its own power since I got it and probably long since before I was alive. Strapped the battery down to the upper control arm and wired a stick to the accelerator linkage so I could hand operate it and away she went  I'll get a shot of the inside  here soon while I drive it. I don't have brakes yet and I could turn too fast or all the tools would've fallen out the rocker areas, but oh man it's a good day. Thank you all who have helped me get to this point so far, it means a ton.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY0ZLReR_P8