Bloo

Don't use gravel! I made that mistake with my first car. It may be years before you get all the dirt out that went in with that gravel (yes, I used clean gravel). Dandy Dave has the right idea if you are going to try and save it. Nuts and bolts should work fine, are sharper than chain, will roll around baffles, and you would be able to tell when you got them all out. Getting them all out might be a little fiddly, but possible. Wash the old varnish out too with something that will cut it, like lacquer thinner. If you have the option of a new tank, great. Not all old cars have that option, and years ago almost none of them did. I still revived a lot of old cars. Clean it out the best you can and put a sock on the fuel pickup if there is none. It is really amazing how screwed up a tank can be and work just fine if there is a sock on the fuel pickup. The entire tank acts like a sediment bowl. Heavy stuff like rust just falls off of the pickup when you stop driving. Does it make it back up there? Maybe. Maybe not. Crud that weighs less would have an easier time plugging your sock. How much is in there? I don't know. Just drive it. If there is still a problem after cleaning the tank, then you have to do something radical like having the tank cut open and boiled, or replacing it. I don't believe in tank sealers. If it were possible to just slosh something around on a surface that has been rusty, and have the rust not grow and push the coating off, then why aren't we doing that to the OUTSIDE of our cars? That idea doesn't work outside where you can see it, but it is supposed to work inside a tank where you cant even see if the surface is completely clean? IMHO sealed tanks are a ticking time bomb. Try taking the tank off of a car that is working just fine sometime and look inside. They are all full of crap. Condensation forms in the top and causes rust. The rust rains down, as does the water, and since the gas sits on top of the water, there will be a rust spot in the bottom too. You will also find a bunch of beige crud left over from the leaded gas days, and dirt. Before fuel injection was common, gas from the pump may not have been completely clean either. The inside of a typical old car gas tank probably looks even worse today, because Ethanol causes rust, not that there was any shortage of rust before... Where you get into trouble is trying to catch all that crud in an inline filter, or that little filter in your sediment bowl. It will seem to plug every 10 feet, while a sock would have kept it in the tank, and more than likely kept supplying fuel.

Mechanical is more reliable once you get it sorted out. Electric brings more things to worry about, but might be unavoidable in some situations. The idea many others have posted here about setting up a switched electric just for priming and vaporlock is the best electric pump idea I have seen.

What held the pin in before?

Is that a 66 Studebaker up on the hoist?

Well, I'm surprised nobody has answered, but I'll have a go. I am the wrong guy to ask because I am a radial fanatic. 35 pounds in radials. My Pontiac has 600--16 Bias on it right now, and I run them about 30 pounds. I don't like soft tires. Back in the bias days, something in the high 20s was typical for bias. Check the shop manual. The owners manual should have it too. If you don't have one, get one. I don't mean to sound glib about the shop manual, but I have questions about little things this all the time, and thats where I get the answers. Factory spec for my car (as an example) is 25 pounds in the front and 30 pounds in the rear. It does matter because bias ply tires are very sensitive to pressure. Too low and it wears on the outsides of the tread too fast, too high and it wears off the middle. Sorry about the lousy answer, but at least this will bump your thread to the top and maybe someone else with a 53 will see it.

There are a couple of guys on the VCCA forum who rebuild them. People have also done it on their own. There are two basic classes of them, the early kind goes to the distributor and shorts the points out (early 30s) and the later one goes to the coil and switches power to it. I would look around for old electrolock threads on http://vccachat.org .

The point was to better the coast-to-coast speed record set by Cannonball Baker driving a supercharged Graham in the early 1930s. Despite huge improvements in roads and construction of interstate highways, the record stood until Brock Yates broke it in 1971. Attempts to better the record have been happening ever since. It was and is an all out attempt for the fastest time. I can assure you nobody was doing 55 MPH. For what it's worth, the 55 MPH speed limit did not yet exist in 1971.

It is nearly impossible to get all the oil out of old aluminum. Are you going to paint it or Glyptal the inside or something? The "Giant Dishwasher" thing 1912Staver mentioned has become common. Those are in many better auto shops since the mid 90s. Typically smaller than the picture, but big enough for a V8 engine block. Transmission shops have them too, but probably wouldn't put your parts in unless they were pretty clean to start with. The heat helps boil the oil out. I used to do that as a first step when painting an aluminum engine casting (like an Alfa Romeo valve cover for instance). Then I would wash it down with brake clean, MEK, or Acetone, or some similar solvent that is aggressive to oil. MEK seems particularly aggressive to oil. I have also used simple green as JustDave suggested. All these things help, none are really quite good enough. As a final step, after all the solvent was gone for sure, just before painting I would play a propane torch across the surface. Eventually you will see the water boiling off and rolling away from the flame. Some of the water is from the torch no doubt, but some is also water that was on the surface that you couldn't see. As you move the torch, the water will "roll" away as it boils off. The interesting thing is, if you have not got all the oil out of the aluminum (and on the first try you probably haven't), it will boil to the surface, making little volcanoes. It is really obvious, you cant miss it, and then you have to clean it more and try again....

What a confusing thread. I gather it is a straight eight Pontiac. What year? I gather there is no solenoid on top of the starter? Do you have a pedal on the floor to engage the starter? 1) Charge the battery and check and recheck the connections. "Clean" on a battery connection means the inside of the hole and the outside of the post have been cleaned and then put back together. 2) I gather you can rotate the engine and know it is not stuck. The fan can fool you. Be sure the crank pulley turns. If you are unsure, take the spark plugs out and see if you can rotate the engine by hand or with a wrench, Make sure it is not stuck. Put plugs back. 3) There needs to be a current path to the starter (positive) and also back (ground). The positive cable probably goes right to the starter (post back here if it does not). The ground cable from the battery may go to the frame, or maybe the engine/transmission. If it goes to the frame, there needs to be a THIRD large cable or strap from the frame to the engine/transmission. Think of current running in a circle from the battery to the starter post, through the starter, and from the starter case back to the battery. There has to be a path through large cables/straps and clean connections the whole way. Make sure cables are clean and tight at all ends. 4) Using a friend for help, check the battery voltage at the center of the battery posts, note the voltage. Then, have your friend step on the pedal, press the button, or do whatever you do to start this car normally. Note what the voltage is with the starter button/pedal/switch/whatever pressed. 5) Now go to the starter itself and check the voltage between the cable connection (positive) and the starter (negative). Have your friend hit the button/pedal/switch again, and note the voltage at the starter. To recap, the three voltage readings are a.) battery voltage b.) battery voltage with starter engaged c.) starter voltage when engaged. With these three things we can make much better guesses what might be wrong. Terry Bond mentioned a remote starter switch. For a remote starter switch to work, the starter must have some way of engaging itself. They typically work with starters with a solenoid on top, or some other method of engaging the gear, like a real mechanical Bendix, or the flapper used on some Fords. They typically do not work on GM cars that engage the starter with a floor pedal. A picture of your starter would make it easier to guess if a remote switch would work.

On an old Buick like that, there will be a frame number on the frame (functions as a VIN), and an engine number on the block (some states used it for a VIN instead, leading to the sort of problem Morgan Wright mentioned). These two numbers will be sort of close, but not match. It is completely normal for them not to match. The tag on the firewall is Fisher Body, and although it might have a body serial number, it wont match anything, and AFAIK is never used as a VIN. It is not near unique enough. The firewall tag will give you various body information like original paint color, type of upholstery, and maybe some other interesting details. VINs as we know them, a number that refers to the whole car, didn't really come along until unibody cars started to become common in the early 50s. "Frame Number" kind of loses it's meaning when there is no frame. By this time, GM cars, generally still with frames, had a tag in the drivers doorjamb with a serial number on it that referred to the whole car. They did not stamp this number all over the various parts like you might see in a newer model. They still didn't call it a VIN either until many years later.

I wouldn't use non-detergent in anything today. The 10w30 will be fine. If it has trouble holding decent oil pressure at cruising speed when it is really hot out, then use something thicker. If you are concerned about Pontiac's "100,000 mile" internal oil filter, You could drop the oil pan and clean it out. Nice car!

Now how about some leads? But how long? I think I was originally planning about 6 feet. I hung the meter under the hood, and then on the sunvisor and tried to imagine where it might need to reach if used for general testing, rather than just setting up regulators. Imagining different locations for the battery, generator on opposite side, etc. In the end I came up with 9 feet. You can only have it so long before it becomes unmanageable for tangling and going everywhere you don't want it. This is pushing the envelope. On the other hand it can probably go all the way to the generator from inside the car, if necessary.

I found that a while back over on the VCCA forums, but thank you for responding!

Mineral oil or even motor oil or tractor oil would be better idea than EP (hypoid) oil in a synchronized transmission. A synchronizer is brake. GL4 and GL5 do not mean what some folks in this forum and other forums think they do. Those ratings are about suitability for hypoid rear axle gears and tell you less than nothing about suitability for a synchronized manual transmission. At one time the "GL4 for transmissions GL5 for axles" rule worked, but that was just a happy accident. I used to believe it. I first got bit by it in 1995. Any (or almost any) GL5 oil is also a GL4 oil. If the bottle says GL4 on it, that does NOT mean it isn't GL5 oil. It could be GL5, and likely is. It might not work well with synchronizers. It might also eat brass. On the other hand, in this age of synthetic oils some GL5 synthetic oils exist that can work properly with synchronizers and also not eat brass. Gear oil improved over time, and got better and better at protecting hypoid rear axle gears. By the 1990s most new manual transmissions in the USA market specified either motor oil or ATF (depending on design factors). That is not an accident. Gear oil was way too much of a crapshoot because it was only rated for hypoid gears. Oil for synchronized transmissions is labeled as "synchromesh" or something similar. Today it is available in every parts store. It is usually rated GL4 by default, but that isn't relevant to transmission use in most cases. Pick something and read the datasheet. If the oil is intended for synchronizers, and will work well with synchronizers, it will probably say so in the text (because apparently in the USA we don't have a rating for that). Whether the oil is harmful to brass is a separate but still important issue. There will also be a rating from a "copper strip test" that you can compare to other oils to determine how harmful the oil will be to brass parts over the long term.

Probably so. 1936 Pontiac uses a part that looks like that on the pressure plate. The round area is a machined surface on which the carbon throwout "bearing" runs. It is very much like 1912Staver"s pictures. It looks pretty rusty. You could drop it in evaporust and see how good or bad the surface is after it cleans up.

Made another visit to the Bridgeport mill today (thanks 37_Roadmaster_C ! ) and finished cutting the holes, and threading most of them. Still to thread are the holes for the rubber feet, but I had to order a tap. Hook and handle mounting worked out OK. Now I need to make a handle.

You still can, but they look at you funny.

Well.... At least one size exists exists in that bolt pattern, and maybe there are others. I found these 20x8: https://www.bbwheelsonline.com/american-racing-torq-thrust-ii-wheels-rims-20x8-5x5-5-5x139-7-polished-0mm-offset-VN5152876/ But that doesn't necessarily mean they will fit. You would need to do more measurements, starting with the hub size, in other words is the hole big enough to go over the hub. You might have to contact AR to sort that out. Then there is the offset. Measure the backspacing, from the inside of the wheel flange on the wheel to the inside rim. Then compare to the new one. Since the new one will probably be wider, figure out how much of the new width is on the inside and how much is on the outside. Preferably you want to add about as much to the inside as the outside. But, if the rim is going to hit a tierod or something, then you might have to put more on the outside. Compare to available wheels. You might have to contact AR to get the backspacing of theirs. Then, if the wheels will go on, start picking tires and use their measurements to see if it looks like they are going to rub on anything when you steer or go over bumps. Who said it wouldn't fit? Honestly it's kind of a crapshoot. Your bolt pattern was used on Ford 1/2 ton trucks for literally decades, and I think Jeeps too. Unless the IH has huge hubs or something that wont go in the holes, I would think aftermarket wheels should be pretty easy. Good luck.

My experiences with Bob's have been all positive so far. I do wish they would update the illustrations on their website. The pictures are tiny, pixelated, and not much use for identifying parts.

I made those hooks today. I had some brass rod as well as some steel rod that looked about the right size. The steel was a little stiffer, so it won out. I bent it cold using some cheap tools for mandrels. It was a little fiddly to get them exactly the same shape, but not too bad... Done! Well... Almost done. Here they are taking a quick dunk in the zinc tank for a little corrosion protection. After all, they are steel. And now some heatshrink tubing.. The rest of the parts are supposed to arrive tomorrow afternoon. Also, I still have to figure out how to make the handle. I may have a plan for that. More to come.....

This is a 1913 Studebaker "25". There is a wire inside with a little ball at the end. I assume the viewing window should be glass. It is currently a piece of vinyl tubing, a relic of the pre-internet days when I would have had no idea where to get a piece of glass tubing.

Be careful about rust. They are unibody cars (no frame). Water getting in either through the windshield or front door seals can sit and rust through a sheetmetal box just below the floor that is acting as a frame rail. This is in the front footwell area. If the top and bottom are damaged but the sides are still ok, it probably wont break, but it is still pretty serious. Sort of related: Don't jack it up by somewhere in the middle like a modern car. It is easy to screw up a Nash body by jacking in the wrong place, and even easier if it is rusty. Jack under the suspension or axles. If you must let an axle hang to get the tires off, consider using the bumper or bumper mounts. They aren't fast cars. Hope it has overdrive. I was just raving about these cars in another thread. https://forums.aaca.org/topic/342247-for-sale-nash-love-story/

I agree. It screams Chrysler to me. It isn't Pontiac, as it has the wrong number of ports in the block. The fuel pump flange also points to Chrysler.

It's all petroleum now, as far as I know. I would have no problem using gear oil from 2010.

I don't know. Mine was last filled in the 80s or 90s and I was concerned they weren't going to fill it, but they did. I took the car to small gaslight parade, and I was the only one there using an original tank. Everyone else there were using tiny modern tanks and welding regulators. The new ones have to be kept upright, so no laying it down on the running board for those guys with their modern tanks. I saw at least a couple of them right by the driver's leg. That puts the regulator in reach of the driver, and they could "dim" their headlights by varying the pressure. "Lay flat" type tanks without the gauge exist, and you might have better luck getting one filled. All are old, but could still turn up at a welding supply. Look a B tank with the valve off center like yours. You need a regulator. It is probably a flat diaphragm thing that is not adjustable by the driver. There are several different ones depending on the size of burner (I think). I never had to deal with that issue as my original is still there. A welding regulator could work in a pinch, and being adjustable, should work with any lights.