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wayne sheldon

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Posts posted by wayne sheldon

    One of my worst fears came true yesterday as I got a flat tire on the 1929 Hupmobile with lock rings.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    FIRST! Do not let it sit on the flat! Newer tires do not like to sit flat, the rubber in the casing tends to crack and separate.

    2. Be gentle removing the lock ring. THIS is where most of the damage is done to the lock rings. Try to push the tire bead in toward the center of the rim, away from the lock ring. Most lock rings have a small edge that the tire' bead sits onto. This makes the tires very safe to use once properly aired up. There is NO way the ring can get knocked loose short of a collision as long as there is adequate pressure in the tire. The downside of this is that the tire bead must be moved off of the ring's lip before the ring can be removed. Many bead breakers can perform this task, as long as they do not have to damage the ring in the process. I have two hand operated bead breakers that I can use either one.

    Once the ring is freed from the tire, the "split" rings are easy. Using a screwdriver under the end of the ring where there is a little notch for this purpose, carefully lift the end of the ring. Small tire irons work better, however large screwdrivers can do the job of prying the end of the ring up and over the edge. Once about five inches of the ring's end is up and over? It will stay up and over. 

    THIS CANNOT BE STRESSED ENOUGH!!!! Do NOT force it! Finesse it. Work it slowly. Carefully work it loose. Up and over an inch or two at a time IF (big IF) the rims and rings were properly restored, and kept dry, and not too many years have gone by since this was last done? It should go quickly and easily. However, if a lot of time has gone by? Or rust is still an issue? It can be difficult the entire way. Work it loose. Do NOT force it!

    Once the ring is removed, getting the tire off is the next step. Sometimes they will slip right off. Sometimes they will fight you all the way. Some rims have a slight drop center. The tire will push in, but does not want to come out!

    A trick. I have made several (I tend to lose them and need to make another?) small hooks out of roughly eighth inch steel rod. A hook on one end, and a finger loop on the other end. Use a tire iron or screwdriver to push under the bead, and lift it slightly, then slip the hook under the bead, and twist it to hook inside the tire casing (be a bit careful to not damage the inner tube.) Then working the tire's bead while pulling the hook will usually get the tire bead pulled out.

    The inner sidewall may or may not pull out easily. It is a matter of preference. But I usually do simple tube repair or replacement without loosening the inner bead. I pry the outer bead out enough (two inches will usually do it?) to work the tube out and back in. A simple nail flat, I sometimes pull only enough of the tube out to patch the tube, and then slide it back inside.

     

    After you get the ring out? Inspect it and the ring groove carefully. Clean any rust to prevent future problems. Paint hidden areas heavily and allow time to dry.

    Check the ring in all directions for round, twist, egg shaping, etc etc etc.

     

    Sage advice has always been to not repair or straighten damaged rings. However, realistically, that is not good advice today! Many different companies made many different wheels for many years! The fit is very important, and you could probably find twenty correct SIZE rings that won't fit properly for every one ring that you can find that will fit like it should. Getting proper replacement rings is simply NOT practical! So repairing them is what needs to be done.

    I have straightened and repaired at least a dozen of them over the years. Most of them are soft enough to bend back to proper shape easily, and cold. I often use a piece of cardboard large enough, then draw a near perfect circle to match the desired size of the ring (inner or outer or both?) to check roundness. And lay it on a very flat surface to check that. The two ends of a split ring like yours should lightly touch each other and be near perfectly in line and round!

    I often use my car trailer's tongue or ratchet tie-downs as a bending jig. Heavy pickup bumpers and trailer hitches also work well. Do bending carefully and slowly. Be very fussy about getting it near perfect!

    • Like 8

    Your car(s) name

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by wayne sheldon
    Additional thought. (see edit history)

    My first model T speedster (a 1920) fifty years ago I named "Jennifer", a reference to the Curtis Jenny aircraft of a couple years earlier (that car felt like it could FLY!). Several years later I had to sell the car to pay some of the kids' hospital bills. Never named another car.

    Your old car will look GREAT with a digital plate!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    It isn't the voltage that kills. It is the current. A six volt 90 amp car battery is more likely to kill than is a twelve volt 50 amp car battery.

    Secondary (high) voltage to your spark plugs is somewhere around four to ten thousand volts, however, the amperage is minimal and the duration (for each pulse!) is in the milliseconds.

    And Frank DV is right. One could sit on a major high voltage and high current power line, and not be harmed. As long as there is no pathway through your body to ground. If you can figure out a safe way to get there. Do NOT get  between that same power line and the steel tower it is hung from. A "capacitive" discharge by inserting your body in the field between the power line and the tower also can kill!

     

    Electricity is funny stuff.

    • Thanks 2

    For Sale: 1936 FORD 4dr Touring Sedan - $11,000 - Merrill, MI - Not Mine

    in "Not Mine" Automobiles For Sale

    Posted

    3 hours ago, Fossil said:

    What do you suppose did Henry have against hydraulic brakes? It seems like a nice looking car like this would have been much more appealing if it would have had them. 

     

     

     

    Properly adjusted, I would take era mechanical brakes over era hydraulics any day! The main reason is that the mechanical brakes can sit for ten years, and after a few squirts of oil, and a few miles of working the pedal while driving, the brakes will work as well and be as safe as they were when the car was parked (as long as it wasn't parked in a swamp?). Hydraulic brakes do not like to be left idle at all. I have seen modern era hydraulic brakes fail after sitting only a month or two. And I have seen them work fine after sitting ten years! It is the not knowing I don't like if  car has sat for awhile.

    Properly maintained and adjusted, good mechanical brakes should work as well as similar size hydraulic drum brakes. The big problem is that too few people know how to adjust them properly! (A hint, the angle of each and every lever is critical!)

    • Like 3

    1930 American Austin Coupe - $14,500 OBO

    in "Not Mine" Automobiles For Sale

    Posted · Edited by wayne sheldon
    I hate leaving typos! (see edit history)

    Despite the look and apparent size, these cars aren't all that small inside. Made to look like a two-door sedan, it is actually a coupe, with a single seat for two people! I have never sat inside one myself, but have known several people that have owned these, and I have been told they are not a bad fit for most average size people.

    There were a few oversize people back in the day that had photographs taken of them in the cars. One fellow (I don't recall his name and lost the link to an article about him), famous for his nearly seven foot height, had one of these back in the early 1930s. In his case, some modification was required to move the one seat back into the storage space normally behind the seat.

     

    A great aunt of mine had one of these when they were new. She spent about a year after finishing college driving all over the United States. She began in New York, spent a couple weeks around Chicago and went to the 1933 Chicago World's fair, before continuing around more states.

    She eventually found her way into Nevada and settled down. She became a "desert rat" and geologist. She was one of the most interesting people I have ever met!

    The car was long gone by the time I came around. But she talked about it and her many travels often.

     

    This one photo can be found all over the internet, and gives an idea that these cars could be used by almost anybody.

    Happy Moore was said to weigh 500 pounds, and took the whole front seat. But he drove that car.

     

     

    happy moore.jpg

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
    • Haha 1

    1932 Ford Coupe Title

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    This is a nasty subject loaded with pitfalls and landmines and serious potential legal ramifications. As TerryB says, having or "owning" the historic piece of paper is fine. But it is what one might or might not do with that piece of paper that matters.

    I generally avoid this subject for a variety of reasons. The really stupid thing about it is that a few states actually encouraged residents to get "lost" titles and "attach" them to a car missing its title. THIS, while MOST states consider the practice absolutely ILLEGAL!

    Point of fact and discloser, I do not know if any states still do that anymore or not. There was quite an uproar about this issue a few years ago, and talk then of doing away with the practice of using illegitimate titles in a couple of those states.

     

    Point of fact and opinion. Only a few states managed to maintain registration records all the way from the beginning of registrations. And NO states began registration with the first car. That coupled with owners losing registrations, moving, dying, and a hundred other reasons, leaves millions of legitimate automobiles with no official record of title. State governments have an obligation to their citizens to have a reasonable process for regenerating a title for cars that have had their titles lost along the way. Marrying a legitimate car with an illegitimate title was never right. The possibility always exists that the title's actual car may exist somewhere. In addition, nearly a dozen states did not require automobile registration for decades! That left a lot of cars as having never been registered! States need to acknowledge those facts and provide reasonable means for licensing cars whether their registrations were lost or never existed.

     

    Hot rods and other types of re-creations are a whole other can of worms.

    • Like 2

    Wooded spoke wheels

    in Parts For Sale

    Posted

    I don't know what those are off of. One Willys Knight hubcap, one Haynes hubcap. One wheel has some silly stuff on it, some sort of monkey business around the hub? 

    Drop center wooden spoke wheels are very unusual, and these would likely be for some car around 1930 to 1934 even. Possibly even a year or two later.

    Several high end cars continued to offer wooden spoke wheels that late. Many people were slow to accept the (then) modern pressed steel wheels, and preferred the more familiar wooden spoke wheels. They were more popular then than they are today as an option. Although a few crazy people today like me actually do like them!

    Good luck with the sale! I really do hope these find their way onto an appropriate car!

     

    I would suggest editing your thread title to mention that these are very late wooden spoke wheels. People reading the current title will expect typical 1920s era Ford or Buick wheels.

    For sale… Warehouse, Office Area, and (17) Cars from 1927 thru 1999. Quincy, IL

    in Automobiles and Parts - Buy/Sell

    Posted

    Talk about disappointment. I read through the list, and saw that. Franklin produced a line of cars in that era that their marketing department called "speedster". A Franklin car that is "the only one produced"? I was hoping for something wonderful!

    I am a "speedster" guy. Mostly model T Fords, but also other makes if they are properly done. Proper era "speedsters" can be factory built custom bodied cars, or home made creations from scratch. They can be original era kit cars, well done, or never quite finished. They were made to resemble real racing cars or expensive sport roadsters of their era. And many of them were actually raced on local fairground circuits.

    However, the "speedster" era was dying by the mid 1920s! People and automobiles had grown up. People wanted their comfortable seats and full bodies. Besides, "real" racing cars were no longer crude cutdown chassis with a secondhand seat bolted on!

    There were always a few people building racer-like speedsters out of cast-off chassis. Some people do that still today. But anyone building something like that Franklin is deluding themselves if they think it is anything proper era correct.

    Franklin enjoyed(?) a short time popularity for cutdown cross country racers! But that was before 1920! (The last one I know about was raced in 1918)

    Sorry for the rant. But I think antique automobiles should be about cars that really were done in appropriate eras. Even "speedsters" should be "era correct".

    Help to i.d. a convertible with rumble seat

    in What is it?

    Posted

    A little tough to be sure with so much of the car hidden by the fellow's wings. But I am fairly sure it is a 1930 or 1931 model A Ford roadster, slightly modified. The wheels are between about 1933 and 1937, and could have been after-market accessories or something adapted from some mid 1930s automobile.

     

    Keiser31 just chimed in and beat me!

     

    It looks like some sort of ceremonial dance costume he is showing off.

    • Like 2
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