ramair

How do you value something made out of unobtanium , first I would not ship them in one box, I know some might say that it’s harder to get lost when it is large and heavy. i would insure each item for no less than $1,000 each. I have also heard that some carriers want you to buy insurance, but when there is a loss they put up a fight rather than pay, hopefully someone on here can give you some advice from past experience.

Most of my early cars and trucks used the system you described, some of my antique tractors also used the rubber disc between radiator and frame, but then they also used extra long bolts, which had short springs that allowed the radiator to compensate for vibration. If I recall correctly the bolts were cross drill for cotter key, that way you would put tension of spring but would not collapse it. you really don’t see a lot of fancy mounting systems on radiators on cars until the mid to late thirties. Possibly for a couple of reasons, aerodynamics came into play and most cars did away with a functional external radiator shell, in my opinion the other reason was the manufacturer’s went to the thin brass upper and lower radiator tanks which crack if flexed to much,

Do not glue, if so you are adding another variable for disaster. If you are just looking for a larger piece of inner tube , go to a tire shop in farm country, some of my tractor tubes are not only thicker than truck tubes, they are also huge, some of my tires are 25” wide and 6’ tall. it is true that some of the newer tractor tires are tubeless, but all of our tractors have tubes. I will add again my caution. I understand the truck only goes 18 mph and you aren’t going to insure it or perhaps even drive it on a public road. I would worry that if the brake system will stop the truck easily with vacuum pressure and you need to stop quickly for something like a grandchild and the vacuum failed, the extra force required may not stop the truck in time,

I would think twice before undertaking that project , but if you do, let us know which state you will be driving the car with your “rebuilt” booster as some of us might stay out of harms way. Joking aside, there are at least 3 companies that I know of that have decades of experience rebuilding the different types of boosters, some are really difficult to cut apart and even harder to put together so they don’t look like you used a sledge hammer and chisel . Most can also refinish to show standards, some are just black paint, others gold anodized type finish and others look like a cadmium or zinc?

I have owned every year of the generation 1 and 2 except 1969. This is a pretty nice car with a few flaws. The color looks like chestnut which is a color that has a lot of depth. The interior is a standard not a deluxe which means it does not have the strato- bench seats, no center armrests and this would have had all vinyl interior, the color is called parchment (white), all 1969 cars have single exhausts. All in all for a 55 year old car not bad. If any one is interested please do yourself a favor and ask if it has J-52 disc brakes in the front as the standard drum brakes with its front wheel drive weight balance would scare you especially in Calif . By the way this has a 130 mph speedometer and then it starts over, ask me how I know! below is my 1968 force air induction W-34

I have a friend that took a part off his car to help someone out to have it reproduced, my friend did not need the part until now, since the original part is gone, the fellow that asked for it disappeared and whom ever was going to make the part . So in my infinite wisdom, when I was asked about sending my near perfect rumble seat steps on my 1928 Buick master C-54 country club coupe to a well known restorer and parts source for this model year for reproduction , I said no. I did not want to be hard nosed about it so I relented a little and we agreed that I would take them off and send to a my foundry that I have had good experience . I sent them out and they came back in unfinished form, thank god I didn’t spend the money finishing them as 1 week after I mailed them, they came back with a note, not very pleasant I might add saying that they were poorly done and that I should go get my money back. Needless to say I did not get paid nor my money back from foundry as they did a respectable job. as I recall a uncle of mine had a saying, “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished “. Fast forward 8 years, I keep the casting of the step in my office as a reminder. Don’t get me wrong I have given away good unused parts to other collectors, just as others do when I am finished with my restoration. We have a great hobby with maybe a percent or two of bad actors, probably way better than most things in the world

Quick question about your radiant floor heat, I am working on plans to rebuild my shop that unfortunately burnt to the ground about 20 months ago and I was looking into floor heat. I am not in snow country and just want to take the edge off in the winter and part of the building will be vehicle storage, so want to keep humidity down. I just wanted to hear your thoughts on radiant floor heating ? I am leaning towards wire heat instead of hydronic hot water as I have a large solar system that will offset energy use,

The revival of this old thread allows me to thank Tom_in_nh for the wonderful job he did on the distributor on my 1936 GMC pickup. The distributor was a one year only part number for GMC as the Oldsmobile engine used for automobile use had a vacuum advance. When he was done rebuilding it, he put it on a sun machine. The truck starts, idles, accelerates and climbs hills flawlessly. I am hoping to send him a Packard twelve distributor that I have as a spare, it’s great to have this kind of talent on the forum,

A.J. Can’t you read it’s a 29 rumble Coupr. I looked it up in my automotive encyclopedia and have concluded that it must be rare and desirable since there is limited info on it. I feel that you have first dibs, please buy and if another becomes available in the future I will have the second one,

Mikesbrunn, might be helpful if you gave us a little more background on car, like I have had the car for many years and it just started to be difficult to shift or I have had it many years and it shifted fine but recently I had all oils changed. Each of those scenario have I different reason for giving you trouble. I have even had a early car that shifted great for years and all of a sudden it gave me trouble, I had not changed the oil recently but what I did have is thin oil transferring from the engine to the transmission which the transmission did not like. More details the better your response will be

The teves system that GM made avaliable to different luxury divisions was amazing, I ordered a 1988 Oldsmobile Toronado trofeo with that system, when new I was afraid my wife would kill herself as she was not afraid of hitting the brakes hard and that baby would stop from 60 mph to a dead stop in 135’. When the car got maybe 150,000 miles I worried that she would get killed because any gremlin that showed up in the brake system could mean no brakes. Not learning my lesson I bought a 1991 Allante which came standard with Teves brake system, I owned that car for 3 weeks, ask me why. A few years ago I bought a 93 Allante which came without the Teves system, I guess I should not have to explain my thinking on that! Now to try to be helpful, I would suggest contacting the president of the Allante club in San Diego, his name is Tom Rohnert I believe, he knows this system well and he rebuilds the components, I would think the accumulator and pump are the same the distribution and ABS system is probably calibrated differently as vehicle weight is different. I don’t want to be a “Debbie Downer ” but I don’t believe it is practical to change over to conventional system. The reason being the whole thing works on releasing hundreds of pounds of hydraulic pressure to each wheel and then using the abs system to release each wheel to keep them from locking up, once again amazing brakes when they work

Matt, that is why others shake their heads. I put more miles touring by myself, so without another 6 volt car to jump off of, the 5,500 pound weight of the car for push starting, then throw in the difficulty of accessing the the starter on the later twelves makes it tough to jump off of a 12 volt modern car without risk. So I view it as wait for AAA to load you and haul you home or “click” and done. With that said I will probably run it the way it is for the upcoming year, but the first time I have an issue, I have a plan. I threw this idea out here to see if anyone could see a detriment other than making Optima richer ?

I looked at those switches on the internet, only the Cole Hersee had a knob with a pointer that one can “ feel the position, but what was unusual was the fact it is kind of light on amp rating compared to a few other brands. Cole Hersee stuff is usually the heavy high quality type.

I have been thinking about a future modification, everyone I tell it to just shake their heads. I am referring to it as the belt and suspenders system. This is what I came up with after reading about the pluses and minus of having two batteries in parallel, I also took note of Ed’s system of having two batteries and only keeping one hooked up and then trading cables when needed. Since my car has a big enough tray to hold 2 Optima batteries, I propose that we hook the two batteries together on the negative posts to the starter solenoid, it is a positive ground system , then each positive post would have a cable coming out underneath the running board to two separate cutoff switch’s. The advantage would be each time I drive the car I could use the batteries alternatively, then if I had a hard start issue I could turn them both on . I toyed with the idea of buying a Cole Hersee switch used on emergency vehicles that gives you 4 positions, off - bat 1 -bat 2 - bat 1 & 2. The issue for me is the shape of the knob is not conducive for your hand to know which position it is in , or my memory without being able to see it. The idea of me crawling under the car each time didn’t excite me, that’s why the 2 switch next to each other makes more sense to me

Check out “Stovebolt” forum and vintage Chevrolet forum, I found lots of help and parts for my 36 GMC pickup there

I am with Dr B Matt, would love to see the list, I am sure I will cringe at some of them as over the last 40 years I probably said some stupid things while trying to buy a car. The beauty of reading it alone, no one will see me blush

I hope that this thread will help someone in the future, but I doubt it will help the OP, as he has not viewed any of this since last Saturday. I believe he joined, posted twice and now it’s just “crickets”

I bought a 2017 ATC Raven from a club member, it has welded hinges , so no loose bolt problems, but it had some hairline cracks that we had to touch up. During Covid I ordered a twin to this in a featherlight, the price kept growing along with the extra padding that we get here in California 💸💰💸💰. The worse part was that they were back ordered with an estimate of 12 to 18 months, so when this came along I just cancelled the feather light. I have a close friend with a feather light and they are great trailers, I think it has a bit better workmanship and I especially like the aluminum floors. What I will say is they both are easy to pull down the road compared to some non aluminum trailers and some tri axles that I have pulled.

Update on placement of switch, after reading Ed’s comments we realized that my other cars that have the vertical seat riser are safe from someone unintentionally shutting power. However coming out of the floor in a spot that allows the seat to adjust, the ability to reach it and have it so feet do not touch was somewhat possible until we tried to line the location up with the obstacles under the floor boards , like the massive Packard frame and its gusset’s, the battery box, clutch vacuum booster, brake vacuum booster and master cylinder and then throw in the transmission, mounts and side mount shift mechanism. So we went to plan B, it is now mounted under and behind the drivers side running board, it lines up with the B pillar where the front and rear doors meet for quick reference, when you walk up to the car. Even though it is mounted high up, maybe 9”, a heavy metal guard was fabricated to protect the switch from debris and the possibility of something shutting it off while driving. You can’t see it and it’s fairly easy to find, thanks Ed.

CarbKing, I looked over what is left of my BB1 collection, most burned up in our shop fire and unfortunately I do not have any of the above numbers that you desire. I did think of an idea you might try, perhaps you could ask if anyone has the carb you are looking for and if so maybe they could send it to you and you could take apart and study it, take pictures and such then return to them? Over the years you have contributed so much on this forum , I for one would trust you with my carb

In my business I have dozens of battery disconnects. Some of these are large displacement high compression diesels that have to start these tractors in cold weather, granted here in California we rarely see temps drop below 25 degrees, however I included a picture of our old cat D8 H it has a displacement of 1,246 ci. along with a picture of the Cat disconnect with removable key, I believe Cole Hersee makes these for Cat. Very pricey but they are reliable, I have never had one fail, the one on this unit is on the exterior of the tractor that has been outside since it was built in 1972. I do not use this model on my cars for the simple reason that the key requires all my strength in my now older fingers to rotate it, when you are able to walk up to it at ground level it’s not bad, when it’s under a running board or under a seat , not so much! I also included pictures of non Cat equipment that we have modified using their switch, you are looking at triple 000 cable, even though it looks like we installed the switch on the positive cable as it is on the starter it is not, most tractors bring the negative ground cable back to the starter and that’s where we tapped in. A interesting point on cable lugs, major tractor company’s crimp the ends of copper lugs on the cables without solder. I ask about this as I always used a little solder , the tech told me they got away from solder for two reasons, one is under high amp draw the electrons face some resistance going through the solder compared to copper on copper , the second reason is if they are not properly crimped and you fill void with solder under high amp draw the solder could melt and you could end up burning up components as they arc and pull apart, not trying to start a controversy, just repeating what a factory representative told me

Other issues you will run into is if you use the earlier transmission you will have to Mickey Mouse some way to mount hydraulic master cylinder, GM mounted clutch and brake pedals to the transmission. They did that because there is not much room. My truck which is a 36 GMC came from the factory with a Oldsmobile engine that was modified for truck use. The original motor was worn out and cracked, it took me 10 years to find another, did all the machining to find out it was also cracked, took me more years to find a good core. The good news for you is that they made a lot of chevys and guys are out there doing the hot rod engine transplant. Good chance you will find one. These trucks are light, only weighs about 3,000 pounds. So the 36 Chevy was around 74 hp, the GMC was around 80. With that hp they perform well up to 50 mph, they climb hills easy and if you do the brakes right it really stops. I think if you transplant that older small 50 hp engine you will be disappointed in the performance.

Also if the shaft is splined wrap them with electrical tape before you slide new type seal or else you might rip seal, not as important if it is felt

I will throw my 2 cents in, which will start everyone on a controversial rampage. I would say that this 80 series car could be brought back to life, but unless this specific car has some sentimental reason do so, better to buy a car in driver condition. On this forum we have a resident Pierce Arrow expert that follows pierces and might know of one that you can get in , drive and enjoy for a price not much more than just the cost of rebuilding the engine on the above car. The reason I give this advise is I have had some long term restorations and the level of frustration is so great that I literally stopped working on them for 2 decades. Some will tell you that this car deserves to be restored etc. and I say yes it can💸💸💸 and then throw in some more💰💰💰💰💰

I believe that the junior Packards came out in 1935 with steel bodies, the Senior cars transitioned later. I have a 38 super 8 which was the last year for composite (wood) body construction on that model, my 39 Packard twelve was the last year of the twelve and the last year of composite hand made bodies at Packard and depending on who you talk to , perhaps the last in America , as far as non custom bodies are concerned