120mm

So, I am bringing this 4 year old thread back from the dead. I've been overseas, working, and Ava has been sitting in my back garage. I've returned at last, and I need to get her gone. The local junkyard will give $200 for her. If someone here wants her whole, and can pick her up while either restoring her, or giving other cars life through her parts, that would be cool. If not, I will consider if other people need parts before she goes to the scrap yard

Are you replying to me, or the other two people who've hijacked my thread?

I've taken it down to a body shell on a chassis. Fenders and front end off, broken glass removed and 2 tons of rodent defecation blown out. I'll be honest; I am starting to regret having started. Plus the driving force behind doing this (my father) recently passed away. I am seriously considering letting someone else take this on; If someone wandered by with some money and promised to take it away, I might be tempted.

I shall!

I have reached the "perfect storm" of "not working on the car. My work has kind of overtaken my life, but that's good in that it increases money available. #2 cylinder still is stuck as all get out. Penetrating oil now goes through all the others freely. So there I am.

Wow. I love that pic!

Thanks! I can use any information I can get! Drew

There is hope. I've found a car guy who is willing to do the machine work on the engine. Also, the level of penetrating oil is going down in all cylinders (I think beyond evaporation rates.) I take that as a good sign.

I am stripping everything off the engine when I get to it, and trying that, before I pull it.

Had a completely awful weekend; lots of busy at work, plus financial news that made me realize just how limited my ambitions need to be on this project. So, I walked into the garage tonight, and noticed that damned trunk sitting open. Ever since I was a child, I remembered that the trunk had been held closed by wire, as the latch didn't work. When I got it to my place, I threw away the wire and just propped the trunk open. Tonight, in a fit of annoyance, I decided to try to fix it. I took the latch off the trunk lid, being extremely careful not to strip out the screws, and did so on two of them anyway. The screws are extremely soft, and are slotted, and were pretty rusted in there. I hosed them down a month ago with penetrating oil, and hosed them down some more tonight before working on them. Once I got the latch off, I noticed that the latch was rusted solid AND it was completely warped out of shape and jammed. It is a pressed together stamped construction, so I straightened out the slots and slipped them back through the tabs. Everything was warped differently, but I imagined what they must've looked like before whatever bent them up, and hammered them back into some sort of straightness, trying and fitting as I went. Cleaned up the internals with CLR, then hosed it down really good with ACR (An aircraft lubricant/protectant) and reassembled. Miracles of miracles it not only fit together, but now it works! Reassembled the whole mess and installed it back in the car, though am still missing the screws that stripped out. Overall, a decent night.

It looks like someone buggered up several of the piston tops prying on them, so some of the pistons need to be replaced anyway. BTW, I reread my entry, and what I meant to say is "around here" as in where I live, not on this forum. I've heard some things that make sense here. Either way, I need to watch my spending on this machine, so it's okay to take some time doing this part.

My older brother and sister used it as target practice for rock throwing back in the late 60s. :mad: My guess is that the bulbs just twist in the direction of the slots to remove? Or do you push them in and twist? I sadly like the look of the old coppered reflectors. Which means the headlights wouldn't be very effective, would they? 6 volt power means everything is much more sensitive to resistance, right? And it's a positive ground, if my research is correct. I have not really done much to unstick the motor. #3, 5 and 6 are letting WD40 past, though, and I believe #1 is starting to as well. One of the reasons I haven't done that much to unstick the motor, is that I just cannot figure a way to effectively put pressure on the motor to turn it without just shearing a bunch of bolts. Rocking the car by myself seems pathetically stupid, and there just isn't a way to get to the crank that I can figure out. I am just going to soak it, take the sheetmetal off the front and yank the engine, but after that I am have no idea what to do. I suppose I could try unsticking it on an engine stand? BTW, none of the auto shops, vintage or otherwise wants to touch the project. But then, my area is populated by former overpaid union factory worker types who Rod everything they can. I've been told in subtle ways my business is not welcome in the shops I've stopped in, and frankly I am stumped. The other thing is, everyone has advice, claims to be an expert in unsticking motors that I talk to, but I am starting to think they are all full of crap. This is frustrating to say the least.

Due to lack of time and funds, didn't really do much, but took some pictures of stuff we've talked about and/or I have been researching. That ignition coil is evidently big bucks to replace. The headlight bulbs are 2331s, fwiw. The license plate light is a must replace, as you can't shine white light to the rear in Iowa.

I notice that Andy Bernbaum's advertises having all the parts I need. How reliable is the online catalog as for parts accuracy and availability? The gentleman at Old Car Lenses warns me that one cannot count on sizes being correct just based on make, model and year. He recommends actual measurement of the lens "door" before ordering. His prices are a touch higher than Bernbaum's as well. Thoughts?

That is an excellent link, sir. I am enjoying looking through it, and have already learned a ton.

I wasn't very clear; my headlights are in perfect shape and complete, minus the lenses and the actual bulbs. So what I need are new lenses and bulbs. I imagine I can clean up the reflectors, install new wiring, lenses and bulbs and go with it. So, does anyone know of a source of lenses and bulbs?

Just looking at what remains of the headlamp wiring, I am guessing now is the time to replace everything. At least once I get it apart. Speaking of headlamps, does anyone sell replacement parts for the non-sealed units, or should I just convert to sealed reproduction units. I like the look of the non-sealed units, frankly, but would go repro if I had to.

I've seen an old timey one that might work, (basically has an open ended socket), but the pneumatic wrenches I have are all bulkier than my little pear head. Either way, I have the shields off and will build a tool to reinstall them when it comes to that.

I'm amazed at how open this engine space is, yet there is always, and I mean always something immobile in the way when you want to fit a wrench in and turn it.

Yes, I did. Both flat AND angled. Problem is, the supporting metal doesn't permit those to move even one click. What I did was use my best 1/4" pear head ratchet with a low profile socket, click it one gear tooth at a time. By that time, the head of the ratchet had backed into the radiator frame, and it took a hammer handle to flex the metal just enough to drive it out with another hammer. What I'm going to do is get an el cheapo chinese ratcheting box end and clip the 9/16" head off, leaving a stubby with just the 1/2" end with just enough clearance to make it past the bracing.

So, have been piddling around with the front tin, and finally got the three splash guards off. Talk about a complete PITA. Clearance between the radiator frame and the forward most bolts is tight, add to that the cross frames, and its' annoying as heck. I am going to build a tool to do this in the future, as conventional wrenches or sockets just do not work for a tinker's darn.

I hear you on the light coats thing. I hadn't considered the open valves issue, but it appears to make sense. A couple of my piston tops are goobered up pretty good. It looks as if someone took a screwdriver through the spark plug hole and tried to pry on the piston top. I've discovered a hole in the exhaust pipe just prior to the muffler, so need to remove it anyway.

Just an update; my professional life has just gotten really busy. I normally have one "customer" at a time and I find myself with three and another two possibly in the wings. Because of that, I've only done extremely limited things. As of right now, all but cylinders #1 and #2 are letting fluids by. I settled on WD40 because that is what I could find in bulk at the local farm store. I am starting to clean off the engine compartment, and preparing to remove the front tin, starting with the splash plates, but there is over an inch of old goo on the right side, and nearly that much on the left. The good news is that it looks brand new under the goo. I took off the glove box cover, and it was extremely easy to disassemble and reassemble. Minor bad news, though and a warning: Alcohol or anything with alcohol in it will just destroy that beautiful wood grain finish. Mine is rather faded in one spot due to my carelessness. I will not make that mistake again. It is reassembled and cleaned up, now, and will hit it with clear polyurethane once I get to the store. I've taken all the door panels off, preserved what I could of them, and removed the interior window frames. I will clean these up and reinstall for the glass makers. I will reassemble the left front door, which I took apart out of curiosity when I was 15. (33 years ago). Speaking of 15, when I was a young child, I used to enjoy reading the 1950s hot rod novel genre and then pretending to drive this car while it was parked in my father's barn. One of my favorite things was to raise and lower the cowl vent. When it arrived here this time, the cowl vent was frozen in the down position and I have coaxed it into functioning again with a judicious use of Mouse Milk. My next thing is to continue to mess with the engine short of taking it out (just don't have the time right now) and cleaning up the engine compartment/removing front end tin as I can afford it, time wise. Otherwise, I am talking to all the old car people I can find. Thank you for the advice so far and I look forward to more in the future.

I tried this first. The first thing I noticed, is that even a little torquing on the crank bolt made it feel like I was "stretching" it. This scared me, as this stretching tends to precede "shearing", so I decided to approach it in a different manner. BTW, the harmonic balancer bolts keep you from getting a socket on the crank nut, so the harmonic balancer needs to be removed to do this. I have a friend who has done this with success in the past. I'd think this technique would be better with a crankshaft turner. That way, if you shear something, it's just a crankshaft turner.

I am curious to do some measuring, but it appears that the "ridge" is actually carbon from incomplete combustion. Either that, or the bores were slightly undersized from the beginning. I am going to do thorough measurements, either way. I will talk to an engine rebuilder later today to ask his advice.