zdillinger

Running without a piston/rod will cause the engine to be severely unbalanced and could easily lead to a broken crankshaft or destroyed main bearings. I wouldn't risk it myself.

Thanks Gary, I will send him a message!

Ken if you need pictures or measurements from my car, please just say the word.

Thanks for the link! Unfortunately the 1929 uses a bigger piston, 3 5/16 instead of 3 1/4.

Thanks, I just made a post over there. Hopefully something comes up.

I'm sorry to hear about yours as well. Hopefully the damage isn't too extensive (or expensive).

Well, it was all going swimmingly until it wasn't. Long story short: broken pistons are bad and Zach is highly discouraged and also semi-stupid. Ever since I got the car started, I've had a little smoke and some hesitation coupled with a minor vibration. I thought it was just from sitting, needing the carb fine-tuned, carboned-up rings, etc., and I figured I'd deal with it after getting the body wood sorted out. Now that that is done, I'm once again looking into the mechanicals. Turns out it wasn't anything simple, it turns out I have a busted piston in #4. I discovered it while checking the relative strength of the spark on each cylinder by grounding the plugs one by one. I noticed that grounding #4 made no difference in how it idled, indicating a dead cylinder. The old "thumb over the spark plug hole" confirmed no compression on #4. I pulled the valve covers to visually confirm if the valves moved properly, which they do. Next I pulled the head hoping for a bad gasket, only to find that the top of the piston has cracked completely off around the skirt and was just floating in the bore. I was able to fish it out with a strong magnet, believe it or not. Thankfully there seems to be no damage to the bore itself, though I'm really not sure how that is possible given the complete and utter destruction of the piston skirt. I dropped the pan to find the rest of the piston in pieces. I figure this may have been what sidelined the car to begin with back in the 50s. How it happened I'll never know. Perhaps it was over-revved or run hot by the "hot rod" dude who slapped a hopped-up carburetor on it 60-plus years ago. Maybe it was just metal fatigue and it finally let go, though I certainly didn't hear anything that would make me suspect this destruction happened on my watch. So... I'm pretty much at a standstill for the moment while I figure out what to do. A full rebuild on this engine will be a complete budget killer. I don't want to spend the money for new custom pistons if I can avoid it, and I really don't want to have to pull the engine to have it bored, etc. I suppose if I could find a standard bore piston and rings I'd try it and see what happens. Of course there's probably metal in the oil passages and maybe the pump too, so I'll have to deal with that no matter what. I should have known it wouldn't be this easy. Maybe I should have started with the mechanicals before doing the body wood. Or maybe I shouldn't have bought this d@m^ thing at all... did I mentioned I'm discouraged? Does anyone have any standard bore 1928 Pontiac pistons and rings? Or do I just say screw it and do the bore/pistons? It's only money, right? Who says throwing good money after bad is a bad idea?

In need of a factory piston and rings for my 1928 Pontiac sedan. Standard bore. Discovered one of mine is damaged. Will buy as many as you have. Thanks, Zach

Nothing remains of my original transmission lock. I am on the lookout for a modern ignition switch of a small enough diameter to fit in that hole, but for now the switch resides in a hole that a previous owner had cut in the dash for some long-gone accessory or purpose. I'm pretty sure the speedometer doesn't work and that is on the list to repair once the car performs reliably.

Decent paint, a six footer. Definitely doesn't contain any dead people.

I just finished my Pontiac and it was fun... but I probably won't take on a Fisher Body project again for a little while.

It sounds electrical to me and I would start troubleshooting there.

It would be a fun project but not for $5,500 and likely needing every stick of wood replaced. I'd take a chance for $2,000, though.

More progress made. No reproduction floormates are available for this car, so I made one from the ribbed floor mat roll that is commercially available. I've also got the dash painted but it may need a little more color sanding. I'm waiting for new pedal pads for the brake and clutch. In addition, I have a front seat cover made up for the front seat bottom, with the seat back to be made after I get back from vacation. Nothing here is perfect but it'll be a nice driver which all I'm really going for with this car. On the mechanical front, I have secured new front brake linings and will get those placed soon so I can get everything adjusted appropriately. Once the weather stays consistently above freezing, I'm going to do an Evaporust flush of the cooling system as the radiator looks pretty rusty inside. And, yes.... I did drop my freshly made windshield, cracking it badly. It's still in one piece so I used it to ensure I know how it is all supposed to go together. Thanks to the assistance of our own @chistech I got it figured out. Thanks again Ted! Now I get to take it back out and have it made again (for another $180...). As always, thanks for following along!

Darn that is cool. Hopefully it is saved before some cletus ruins it into a "rod".

I still go to them but it has been a long time since I saw the good stuff at a local swap. Mostly guys with hop up parts for 350 small blocks, 80s truck seats, Mustang 2 front ends, and other valueless dreck. I'm glad to hear that they worked out for you though!

Well done to the property owner for preserving history and, in the process, earning himself a little community goodwill.

Same here. If I didn't already have an extremely similar Pontiac, I'd be making a deal and bribing someone with a trailer to go get it for me. Since I'm not a buyer, I figured I'd pass the lead on to someone here in the hopes that someone will save it from an ignominious death as a "rod".

Spotted this for sale on Facebook Marketplace. Looks like a pretty good price. Would love to have this myself but I'm stocked up on projects right now. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/187956157310519/?ref=saved&referral_code=null

The Little was an amazing financial sleight of hand trick by Billy Durant. After he got fired from General Motors, he started Little Motor Car Company, Mason Motor Company, and Chevrolet Motor Car Company all within three months of each other in 1911. Basically he spun up a $1 million company with physical resources from the Durant-Dort wagon company, vastly overvalued stock, and less than $40,000 in actual cash, producing about 3,000 cars. For a while Little was the only company of this new Durant conglomerate that actually made money, and Little profits subsidized Chevrolet when the first Chevrolets flopped miserably. In 1913, Chevrolet was doing well enough with the 490 and Durant simply moved Chevrolet production to Flint into the Little building. Little as a marque ceased to exist. Basically the same thing happened with the Mason, by the way. Chevrolet Motor Car Company bought all the outstanding shares of the Mason Motor Company and it too ceased to exist.

I always sort of looked sideways at Optima batteries as a fad but I tried one last year in my '39 Packard after being unable to source a Group 1 locally. Their 6 volt batteries are compact, lighter than a normal Group 1, and more powerful, plus they won't off-gas and damage stuff around them. I'm going to transition all my cars to Optima from this point forward, and I plan to wire two together in parallel on my forthcoming '40 Packard with the big ol' 356 straight eight.

I just did a similar thing with my 1928 Pontiac. In the process of rewooding the car, several months ago, I repainted parts of the frame that wouldn't be seen again after the new wood was put in place, and I also rebuilt/painted the rusted out battery carrier and surrounding area. More recently I stuck the ground strap back into place to test fire the car and had absolutely nothing from the battery. Even tried the new-ish Optima from my '39 Packard... nada. A couple thin layers of paint and primer between the cable end and the frame was more than enough to stop the car from doing much of anything except sit there and look pretty.

For those concerned about the cost of Microsoft 365, I humbly offer Google Drive. It offers Google Sheets, an Excel-like option, that is easily accessible anywhere you have an Internet connection. You can get a link that can be shared with anyone, locked down with a password, etc., and offers 15gb of storage for free. Also, Google Meet is a handy alternative to Zoom for online meetings. I make extensive use of Google Drive in my personal and professional life. Highly recommended.

Interesting! I'll check it out! Thanks for the tip.

I'm finishing up the interior on my 1928 Pontiac and one item on the "punch list" is the three window shades. I have my original three but they are in tough shape, with weak springs, heavy rust, and one is missing a bracket so I'm looking for replacement shades. I know the Model T/Model A Ford suppliers offer them but the widths they stock are not correct for my car. My originals are 28" and 17" wide and I'm seeing nothing of that size (the A suppliers have 26" and 20") So, couple of questions: 1) Does anyone know of a source for these? I found a thread from 2007 on this forum that mentioned Hampton Coach, but it seems that their website is long gone. 2) Can the Model T/Model A ones be cut down? If I could turn the 20" into 17", it would be a start at least. I'm mostly interested in the shades for the quarter windows anyway 3) Has anyone tried to make their own shades? If so, any tips? 4) Any tips for restoring my originals as a last resort? As I said, I'm missing one bracket but I could probably make something that would work and look pretty close, but the condition of the rollers themselves makes me think new is the way to go if at all possible. Thanks in advance. Zach