chistech

When I decided to start making my molds I did my typical extensive research and found Duffy made just about all those close out plates. My Olds, pontiac, dodge, Plymouth, and more were Duffy mfg. This is kind of a good thing as most GM parts for example, used the same, 6 fine line design so my custom tool is good for other plates. The panel you show is not impossible to make and would be at least a three part mold. The boot itself is not easy to make because both an outer and inner mold needs to be made with a .010 mill distance between the two pieces so your idea of using the Steele part is what I’d do. When reconstructing these parts, with mold making, one has to compromise somewhat as some things are just not feasible or affordable to try and duplicate. The thing to remember is no one out there is going to know if it’s only 90percent correct and anything you make that’s really close is 1000 times better than anything anyone else has.

Today I put on my plates and took her for a drive and put half a tank of gas in her. Got a really big, nice surprise, I can’t believe how nice this car drives. It has virtually no steering wheel play, no side to side drift, shifts super smooth, great brakes, no tipping of the body through tight curves at speed, adjustable shock work great (on or closer to firm setting), and the motor just moves the car from 0 right up to 40 with no effort at all. As nice as my 31’ Chevy sedan is, I find my Olds head and shoulders better. It’s just a super nice driving, comfortable car. When I pulled in my driveway, Gillie and his brother were here to get more buffing and detailing done. Got almost the whole car body detailed with just a little more to do. I have the drivers side hood panel to assemble with the doors and latch mechanism to do yet but put the two hood top panels and attached the passenger side hood panel. All the side mount hardware got mounted along with the headlights and horns after I polished them all up. Also installed a new windshield glass as I had three previous ones crack. Turns out I was having them cut a little two wide and when raising the windshield up into the vertical or up position, the bottom edge was hitting the bottom rubber and instead of the rubber compressing it was causing the bottom of the windshield glass to bow out slightly, putting pressure on what always was the drivers side lower corner causing the glass to crack only one side of the laminate. Today I had the new windshield glass in place when I went for my ride and nothing happened so I’m pretty sure I solved the issue. Tomorrow is my birthday and I turn 58. What we thought was pretty crazy is the plates the registry issued me. My real name is edward brito and the plates read 1EBS58. My wife’s friend who saw them the day I got them said, “EB is 58!” I think that’s pretty cool. Been working with the machine shop on the pedal pad mold and I have the pinstripe painter coming next weekend to give it the finishing touches. Coming right down to the wire.

Thanks

Is there a map available on line anywhere that shows the layout of the show fields and parking areas?

No, he has a 32' roadster he will start restoring soon once he's done with his 32' Olds.

I sold a nice 27’ Chevy capital landau sedan a few years back. I put on a lengthy description of the car and my phone stating for more info or any questions to call me. I stated the car ran good, had typical leaks of an all original car and all glass was included. Stated the areas where the wood needed replacement and even where to get the wood. I also mentioned a one year membership to the VCCA would be included to the new buyer. The bid goes to 2,800 and the car is sold. The buyer contacts me through eBay and asked if I would meet/help a carrier. I replied no problem and that is what I did. Realize that this car was a original,unrestored barn find that I checked the motor, electrical system, and drivetrain over so I could sell it but I stated it would need a total restoration. When the buyer gets the car, he sends me a nasty message and says how car I say the car runs when there’s no battery in it, the windshield was cracked, and he wanted me to send him a$1500 refund! I politely explain that I gave a full description and used my own 31’ chevy’s battery to get it started which I needed for my car. I also explained that the windshield was plate glass anyway and for safety, would need to be replaced but having the original windshield is a huge bonus to make a pattern. He then goes on to tell me he restored a 29’ dodge and knew how to restore a car but couldn’t understand how I could say the car was in original condition as someone had put an “auxiliary “ fuel tank on the firewall and the fuel tank was in the back seat (which it was and could be plainly seen in all the pictures). He also said the car wouldn’t run at all. So i message him back and say if you restored a 29’ dodge, you should know what a Stewart vacuum fuel pump is and that is what is on the cowl, the original fuel pump for this car. I got fed up with this guy and I filed a complaint with EBay stating he was a scamming buyer. As a piece offering I did offer to send him a $50 check to fix the oil pan because after I had run the ad on eBay, 8 realized the pan had a hole by the drain plug. I sent the check to the address he originally gave me and the check came back as undeliverable! Anyway, eBay ended up on my side and never tried to get me to compensate the buyer at all. It has been my only bad experience with a vehicle on eBay but it was a beauty!

Back when these cars were sold, spares were often an additional cost where you bought the rim and also had to buy the tire. The spares were a $20 option and when the car cost $500, that twenty was a substantial amount. I imagine stealing spare wheels and tires was pretty commonplace especially during the depression. My 32’ Olds came with locks as standard equipment if you bought the spare wheels.

Many years ago when I was a kid, one day I was with my dad and he stopped to look at a boat in a guys yard. I was standing there while they were haggling and my dad made an offer and he said “right here now, cash”. The owner said OK, and my dad took out a roll and gave him $6000 cash. This was back in the late 70’s. When we got in the truck, my dad said to me, “you see, when you want something, make sure you have the cash on you for the maximum amount you want to spend. You’ll usually get it!” Then he proceeded to tell me my grandfather always kept at least $5000 in his pocket and often $10,000 all the time. My grandfather bought and owned many things during the depression, buying most for pennies on the dollar, because he had wads of cash in his pocket. He bought a 5 carat diamond ring that way (which got handed down to my brother) and there are pictures of him with Auburn’s, cords, Caddy’s, pierce arrows, and other high dollar cars, all bought when the owners needed to deal. As the saying goes, “cash is king”!

Spoke with my friend and he only has one but he said it’s a fairly common cap and you shouldn’t have a hard time to find one.

I’m sweating every day trying to get my Olds finished. I believe I’m going to make it and I was fortunate my pinstripe guy is going to be available for its last minute striping!

Gillie and his brother came for a short time tonight and got more buffed including the passenger side rear fender and both front fenders finished up. Bolted on the passenger rear fender, tail light, Olds emblem, and the rumble seat step. All lights are operational and I adjusted the pedal brake light switch. What a great feeling it is when you go to your parts bin where you put all those pieces of the puzzle as you went restoring them over the years and realize your taking the last part out of that bin! Sometimes it feels like that day will never come. I took a lot of the bright work from the car over to my neighbors to have him polish them up. My fender lights were one of the items that the PO had chromed but they were dirty and needed a good polish. They look great now. The radiator mascot was chromed when I got it with the car and I had never realized it didn’t look that great. I was worried I was going to have to get it chromed and knew I’d never have it back in time for Hershey. Well my neighbor carried over my bin of tissue wrapped, freshly polished parts and I opened up my mascot. What a relief when I saw the result of a skilled polisher. Turns out the chrome was good but the piece was just super dirty and grimy. I’m getting closer!

Went to HD today and picked up a 8’x2” strip of 1/8” aluminum and a 3/4” aluminum angle. Installed the angle at the inside ramp edge and the 2” strip got screwed to th bottom outside skin. It is finally done and checked it all over, everything is working, brakes are good so I’m ready for October!

Well mike, can’t say I disagree with that statement as I was 37 when I got remarried and my life was great in my forties all around. What the statement doesn’t say is that life starts to end in your fifties! That when everything started hurting and I’d felt things I had never felt before, and most of them, not good things! I think at forty we all have a fair amount of life knowledge and still have the physical body to take advantage of that knowledge. Problem is you’ve got to cram about 30 years of fun into 5-6 as life starts ending it seems quickly in our late forties! LOL

Trust me, one hand washes the other. Every time he bends an aluminum strut on one of his big planes, he comes sees me to straighten and fabricate a new one. I’m also helping him to assemble a turbo charged and modified VW boxer engine for a full size sport aircraft called a Sonex plus helping him sort out some issues with a 67’ Ford Mustang. All in my spare time of course!

I’m sore as hell especially the sides of my hips from laying on the concrete working underneath. I’m getting too old for this stuff. I can remember when I’d do stuff like this, day after day, work my regular job, break/train working cow horses and team roping horses. I’d go non stop from 6am to 11pm. Now, the body starts hurting pretty quickly but I have to keep going. This trailer repair was a ton of work without using any torches, removing the rotted metal took much longer and was more bull work. You don’t miss much when it comes to my RC planes. There are a few in my trailer because my club is having a RC flea market and they are going to the sale. One you can see at the back end of the trailer, my buddy just gave to me, a 1/5 scale gas powered P51 mustang worth about 2grand! I had to accept it, I had no choice!😂 it is NOT going to the sale.

I have a friend who might have one, I’ll ask him and pm you if he does.

I feel your pain. I lost count at how many off and ons I’ve done on my Olds restoration. If I was building a new car I probably put things “on” enough times to build ten cars!

Great job!

It probably would have been fine with my antique cars till the end of the year but his big block cutlass just weighs a ton more and caused it to let go. The really good thing is our weather has been perfect and couldn’t be better for this kind of outside work. Well, it took three days with two of the long, but other than a finish strip or two of aluminum, it’s done. Found almost all the screws that hold the the two door latch handle plates were broken. With the back of the ramp stripped, it was easy to get to the backs of the remainder of the screws and removed them with vise grips. Put some silicone around the tops of the latch plates and screwed them back in tight with all SS screws. Replaced most all the other screws with SS so rust shouldn’t be an issue down the road. With the new steel and the rear door all screwed together tight, it closes and latches tighter than it ever has and appears to be a good tight seal all around.

Some more pics.

Spent all day on the trailer. Getting the rear cross member out and making up a new one along with a secondary cross member that’s right took a while to plan out. Made up a couple of “ears” by bending up some 4”x1/8” flat plate into an “L” shape and welding them to the end of the secondary cross member. These replaced the ends of the two rails that had rotted out and sealed the ends of the tubing. The two cross members got welded together out of the trailer where it was easy to do then the assembly was put in place, ears clamped to the side of the chassis rails, and the ends in place at the uprights of the trailer. Cut the hinges off the old cross member as an assembly and welded them to the new cross member. Once everything was checked with measurements, I welded the ends first to hold everything in place then I backed the trailer over the edge of my wall/loading dock and got underneath the back with room to spare, and welded up everything with good heavy welds. Using the grinder and a stiff wire wheel on another grinder motor I cleaned up all the welds and any rusty surfaces. I fitted a 4”x1/8 flat plate on top of the rear cross member and mounted it with 1/4x20 SS pan head screws threaded into the heavy wall tube. To this plate I welded the U channel that secures the rear edge of the plywood decking. The whole assembly had been welded in place with the previous repair which would have made changing out the deck a lot of work. Now the channel can be removed by simply removing the SS screws and sliding the plate with U channel back. Everything got etch primed the painted black. Tomorrow I’ll weld the door to the hinge angle iron then put all the pieces back on. It will be like new when it’s all done.

Well today I did no work on the Olds on any car in the garage. What I ended up doing was some major work on my enclosed trailer. I bought a few years ago in very good condition and for not a lot of money. It has previously had a couple leaks that the original owner took care of but the ceiling shows the old leaks. Other than this, the trailer was in very good shape. What I never noticed is the rear cross member had been covered with flat metal because it had started to rot. How I found this is my brother borrowed my trailer to haul his 67’ cutlass up to the drag races and the right side of the rear door broke down by the hinge line. I pulled the rear door inner aluminum covering and plywood off to expose the tubular frame work. Of course the bottom cross tubing was rotten out and that’s what caused the door to fail. When I got a closer look at the hinge line is when I discovered the rear cross member being bad so out came the 5” grinder and thin cutoff wheels. Got the bottom of the rear door cut off and the new heavy wall tubing welded in. The rear cross member is proving much harder to remove but it’s almost out. Once it’s out, I’ll cut the new 2x3” HW tubing to length, weld it in, then make up some gussets wherever there any deteriorated steel. My plan is to get the cross member in place and tacked on the outside back then back the trailer over the edge of a loading ramp/wall that’s up by my garage. This will allow me about four feet of head room to work under the rear of the trailer so I can weld it up solid.

Front fenders have been buffed along with the whole back of the car and the drivers side fender which I installed with fender welt this time. Installed the twilight and license plate bracket. Fuel tank apron is all buffed so the luggage rack went on and will stay on now! All the chrome pieces I’ve taken off are now at my neighbor’s getting buffed up nice and shiny. Ordered some Meguiars products to help clean and detail it up. Going to polish up the headlights off the car and the radiator shroud then put the headlight/support bars assembly back on the car when all is done.

Way to think out of the box mike! Sometimes the “light” just comes on. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself!😂

I have a 35 motor complete other than one pushrod, spring, and keeper. I’m going to take a compression test on it as I was told it runs good and the head looks like it was done somewhat recently going by the paint on it. What are you looking for?