Bloo

Congratulations! It sounds like it went well. Be sure to sink it in a glass of water and look for leaks (streams of extremely tiny bubbles) before you install it.

Stutz you say? https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/d/1972-stutz-blackhawk-humpback/6346981237.html

Thanks to everyone who responded!

The Skylark is one of 319. If it really is a 1939, as the listing says, then it is a Junior six, and is one of 30 (or possibly one of four hand-built prototypes).

http://vcca.org/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/181223/Re:_1929_pushrod_cover_gaskets

More tires (tyres?) http://www.minimania.com/part/FALKEN-10/Austin-Mini-Falken-145-80-10-Tire https://www.7ent.com/categories/wheels-tires/tires.html https://usa.minisport.com/mini-tuning-and-styling/mini-wheels-and-tyres/mini-10-tyres.html

As others have mentioned, titling to an engine number, or a frame number, or both, was common. With no "VIN" in those days, what was used varied by state . I had a Nash with a unibody that had something like a VIN. Since there was no frame, it had a number that referred to the whole body/frame unit, just like the VIN of today. States weren't accustomed to that yet since it was not yet the usual way of doing things. Nashes in Washington were titled to this VIN-like number, except mine, it was titled to the engine number. I spoke with the original owner, and he told me he bought the car in Oregon, and brought it to Washington 7 years later. Apparently the Washington authorities just copied the number from the Oregon paperwork. This was only a problem because the block was cracked. It shouldn't have been a big deal because the cracked block with the correct number was in the still drivable car. I let that one go to another enthusiast who was more interested in dealing with the upcoming title issues than I was. It probably is an engine number. If it matches, there is nothing to do unless you need to change the engine.

That is the most common 10 inch car tire size, sometimes called 145sr10, 145r10, etc. Also fits Honda 600 and a few other things. Someone will have them. Probably not much of a selection in the USA. Nice Mini!

Depending on what sort of Trico you are working on, the steel spines can be slightly different. If it is a Trico style refill, you can just slide the new rubber into your old spine if you want it to look the same.

Those tires are Excelsior Comp H, from the pictures I found posted on the web. Where did you find 8.60-18? That size is not currently available in Excelsior Comp H, and I can find no clue that it ever was. For 1940, I would normally expect an aspect ratio of about 90, ((8.60 x 2 x 0.9) + 18 = diameter) but the data for those tires works out to about 100%, and also they seem to have the section width a little skinnier than expected! 8.6 + 8.6 + 18 is probably right, and less than 8.6 wide. Data for the Excelsior Comp H is here. You can work out some of the other sizes to see the trend and make a good guess, multiply inches by 25.4 to get millimeters. http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/page/excelsior-comp-h

Packing nuts need to leak a little! It should be extremely minimal, maybe just a drop every couple of minutes or even less. No leakage at all will be harmful to both the packing and the shaft. Water pump grease is special stuff. Reading on the Internet, you will get many opinions about what it's properties should be. Traditional water pump grease is still made by Penrite, and is available in the US from Restoration Supply in California. Someone else also still makes water pump grease, probably Lubriplate. In any event it is not like chassis grease. Restoration supply have packing material, however you can probably get it locally at an industrial pump repair shop. If you don't know who that is in your area, ask at an electric motor shop. They will know.

There is another thread right now about where to get chrome done cheaply, but now I am wondering which shops offer the best quality. Frankly there aren't many plating shops of any type left. I will be needing some chrome done soon, just for a driver, but at this point am not wanting to skimp because I need it to last. I have not done this for a while, so I am a bit out of touch. Yes I know it is expensive. Who do the serious restorers use and why? Are you still getting hexavalent chrome? Does the shop you use also handle restoration of the metal parts before chroming? How long has it been taking to get stuff done? Do you get things back when the shop estimates you will, or does it often take longer? If there is anything you aren't comfortable posting in the forum, please PM me. Thanks.

You will get a million answers whether it is "compatible" or not, so this needs some clarification. DOT5 is a whole different chemical compound. It is advertised as "compatible", which it technically is, because if you use it in a system with conventional brake fluid, it will work. I do NOT suggest you do it however. DOT5 will not mix with the other fluid. They will separate.. WIll it work? Yes, but the conventional fluid in the system will continue to soak up water, turn acidic, and eat up your cylinders. Since the wet fluid is still in there, you don't get the high boiling point of the DOT5 fluid either. DOT5 is a pain to bleed too. You get all the disadvantages and none of the advantages. In my opinion only put DOT5 in if everything is clean and new.

If that sounded snarky, My apoligies. I didn't mean it that way. It is interesting how these things vary all over the country in ways you wouldn't necessarily expect. I was hoping for more on that subject. Yes, I have seen pictures of Minnesota cars that appeared to be breaking apart from the bottom. East coast cars get it bad too, so bad I hear some states inspect them yearly. We don't do that here. I had always assumed that the east coast cars were eaten by road salt just like in Minnesota, not salt air. If it is salt air, then it is interesting that it doesn't seem to happen much in California. As you know, people brag about cars being from California because it implies that they are rust-free, and California's 2 biggest population centers are costal. The Ohio barn rust thing (from a different thread) really surprised me. An uncle of mine drove a brand new Ford LTD out here from Ohio in 72. He came back here again 3 years later, and there were visible rust holes in it. He told me Chryslers (my favorite brand) rusted much faster. I assume this was all road salt. One thing that does happen on the wet side of the Washington state, cars can get covered by blackberries! That would make a mess like that Hudson in the pictures by keeping the car completely wet and shaded. Now I wonder if that is what happened to it. You can get bad rust here if you drive on the beach a lot. There aren't many places you can legally do that. Maybe you can in Florida?

In Seattle, we are right up against the salt water. Serious structural rust is possible in Washington state but rare. Are you suggesting costal areas are worse than Minnesota?!!! (serious question). That could happen in the wet (costal) half of the Washington state probably if it was in the shade, under trees, with debris from the trees driopping on it and staying wet, and it was sitting right on the ground....I guess. Generally speaking, cars that guys from the midwest say are "not that bad" would scare the crap out of anyone from Washington. We have a coast, and I think I would have seen a lot more really bad cars throughout my life if it were happening. 99.9% of the completely shot-from-rust cars I have seen in my life came from somewhere else, ususally the midwest. The eastern half of Washington is a completely different climate, technically a desert (though not like Nevada). It has hot summers and cold winters with snow. Salt and salt-like de-icers were not used here until relatively recently. A Washington car will typically have rusted out rear quarter panels where the dirt buildup sat and stayed wet, holes in the floor from the water leaking in and not draining out, much worse if the mats were rubber. The bottom tail of the front fender might be gone too if there was something to catch dirt. There will be some isolated rust in a few more places. The rockers could be bad if the dirt got in and stayed. The frame will be fine, unless it was literally on the ground, and even then it might be ok. If it is eastern WA, all the lenses, plastic, dash, etc will be completely sun baked and shot. It it is western WA (wet) there will be moss and mold trying to grow everywhere. It is still possible to find cars that are way beyond help of course. Even so, they are probably 30 years behind the midwest in terms of rust. A Florida transplant once told me to watch out for Florida cars, because the damage is all underneath where you cant see it. There was a thread the other day where it was brought up that barn storage in Ohio can destroy a car fairly quickly. Barns are fine here, or at least not a death sentence. Over the years it has been fairly common to drag something out of a barn and revive it

Maybe. If you spin it too fast though, the centripetal force makes the armature explode (windings come off). There is a reason they set generators up the way they do. Nevertheless, some calculation might be in order. You might not have the same pulley size as you did before. Something close to the old one is probably a good guess. If it were me, I would leave it alone, doubly so because you don't notice it dimming. This is always a game, trying to spin it enough without spinning it too fast. It is true with alternators, too. Alternators have more range due to the rotor construction (it's tougher), and also the fact that they can start charging earlier. It is still a game. The MoPar 340 engines had a great big pulley on the alternator. This was for 2 reasons, minimizing the horsepower load on the engine, and also not overspinning the alternator on a car that was going to be revved high a lot. Those cars dimmed at stoplights just like car with a generator. I once had a car (modern) that ran over a pretty wide RPM range, and had standard shielded metric bearings in the alternator. It hung down low where the alternator fan sucked in road dirt, water, snow, bugs, rocks, and anything else that happened to be flying low. The bearings were of course bad. I remember thinking how insane the maker had been to put shielded bearings in when sealed ones are readily available in the same standard metric sizes. I put in sealed bearings. The next time I had it apart, the seals looked kind of funny. They were melted. A little math revealed that at redline, I had exceeded the RPM rating of the seals by quite a bit. Even melted, the sealed bearings kept dirt out a lot better than the shielded bearings did, so I continued to use them. I guess it boils down to what you think you can get away with.

Yes, exactly. The generator current rating is how much it can stand without burning up. The actual limit is set inside the regulator. If it is a regulator that was for the original generator, the maximum current you will get is likely 35 amps. This is an adjustment. If the regulator is new, it probably is riveted shut. If you need more than 35 amps, consider going back to your old regulator,, and learning how to set it up from the manual. The generator will only generate enough current to maintain the system voltage. The system voltage is another setting inside the regulator. If the car only needs 5 amps to maintain the system voltage, then you only get 5 amps. This is just as true with a 200 amp alternator. Since the generator only charges as hard as it needs to, the big one will not put out any more than the smaller one, unless the smaller one was loaded to the limit. Even then, you would have to change the current limit in the regulator before you would get any more. Ammeters typically are wired so they only show the current charging (or discharging) the battery. You usually wont see any difference on the ammeter (from a bigger generator) unless you have exceeded the current output the system is set for. If you set current limit higher, a dead battery will swing the ammeter higher while it recharges. Generator cars don't keep up at idle, and dim at stoplights with the lights on. Alternator cars may have about 1/2 their output available at idle and usually do not. In normal use, this really doesn't make any difference. All the above applies to post-1939 generator systems with 3 relays inside the voltage regulator. Old prewar third brush systems are whole different can of worms.

You just found out more than I knew. In old NOS/NORS 2320 and 2330 bulbs I have seen v-shaped filaments on both filaments, one filament, and both straight. I have noticed in my 36 Pontiac (which also has Guide Multibeam), that the v-shaped filaments make the cutoffs sharper and the spot of light when aiming more defined. The service manual for the Pontiac specifies ONLY 2320L. BTW the 2320 (and 2320L) is just like a 2330 but with a lower candlepower low beam. The "L" is a long life bulb. They do not specify why only these bulbs. Maybe the long life bulbs have both filaments v-shaped? I have always assumed that the lights were designed for filaments either straight side-to-side or v-shaped, (but not straight front-to-back). Now, I am not sure. As far as I know, if you want v-shaped filaments you just have to look at the bulbs (they will be NOS/NORS bulbs). 12v bulbs did exist for some big trucks. There are no 2320 anywhere except NOS on Ebay onesy-twosy. 2330 is easier to find. I haven't looked for the 12v numbers. I bought some 2330 from a well known vendor. They were in a bag from another well known vendor. They were obviously new production, and the quality was bad. They had straight filaments and one of them didn't even have the filaments in the bulb right. The filaments were sloping at about 45 degrees when mounted in the reflector. The pattern was really wonky, so bad it prevented me from aiming the light. Another vendor online was reputedly the last source of 2320, so I ordered a pair. When I got them, they were new production 2330, not 2320. They were straight filament. They were obviously much higher quality than the 2330 from the other vendor. They worked fine. All of these bulbs look like APF motorcycle bulbs to me. I suspect they are either relabeled, or the vendors are having them made by whoever is tooled up for APF. The 13007-12 is, I think, a Ford part number, and probably why it is different style of number. I didn't know it specified a straight filament. I think you are going to get a straight filament no matter what you order. That is a very important measurement. It puts the high beam in focus. The low beam is offset a bit up. I have never seen the measurement for how far up. All of these bulbs seem to hold the same dimension though, except the sloppily manufactured ones. For what its worth, you can get the most improvement in light output by having your reflectors resilvered, either with real silver or UVIRA, and making sure the bulbs are getting full system voltage. These 2 things make more difference than anything else.

I don"t know how yours work. There were several possible kinds of headlights back in that period. I am fairly sure that 1929 is too old to have the "Guide Multibeam" setup.

Yes, 12v bulbs exist. They exist in both standard incandescent and halogen. I believe LED also exist. Offhand, Restoration Supply https://www.restorationstuff.com/ have the incandescent ones. #2326, #2336, and #13007-12. I cant seem to find my bookmarks for the others. The same suppliers who have 6v also have 12v IIRC. Edit: Here's the 12v halogens (6v too) http://www.lbcarco.com/cgi-bin/gen5?runprog=lbcnews&page=/halogen.html Well... no What "pre-focused" means is that the filaments are in a specific location with regard to the base. This means you can put a new bulb in without having to focus the light. Designs like this have a ring around the base to locate the bulb. Yes, perfectly parabolic reflectors are common (not on the 37 Buick, but I'll get back to that). Headlight designs generally have to have the reflectors and lenses designed around where the light is. "Where the light is" includes whether the filament is oriented side to side or front to back. The lit filament is sort of a cylinder shaped spot of light. To dip the beam in a parabolic reflector, you move the filament out of focus, or off of the center point. How this is done varies. Generally speaking there are 2 common types. One has the filaments running side to side, and has the low beam filament out of focus in the up/down direction. The other type has the filaments running front to back, and the low beam is out of focus in the front/back direction. The reflector and lens is then designed around where the light is. The 37 Buick, and the old American sealed beam, are both examples of the first type. The European H4 is an example of the second. I sort of cringe when I see H4 sockets behind stock lenses in old American cars. Some people have reported good results with this, but the low beam filament is nowhere near where it was when the designer designed the lens and reflector. I would expect the result to be fairly random. There were 2 types of these prefocused bulbs on American cars. There was the one that fits Buicks, Chevys, Fords, etc. (#2320, #2330, etc in 6v), and one for Mopars, Nashes, Hudsons, etc (#2321 in 6v). There isn't much difference, just enough that it wont work, maybe pin orientation or something. There is also a standard for motorcycles that was used well into the 70s and maybe even more recently. This one is called "American Pre-Focus" or "APF". I believe this to be directly interchangeable with the Buick-Chevy-Ford bulbs. The only obvious difference is that these motorcycle bulbs have both filaments the same size (prewar car bulbs had a dimmer low beam sometimes, but not always), and are rated in watts rather than the candlepower used on cars. This motorcycle stuff comes in both 6 volts and 12 volts in a wide range of wattages, the only restriction is that the low and high are always the same wattage. I believe many vendors are selling these for Buick-Chevy-Ford. All I have bought recently have been new production, and the quality varies wildly. (I have not bought any from the link above). Halogen retrofit bulbs exist with the filaments in the right place but you have to look harder. I believe the car ones are the same as motorcycle. The 37 Buick uses a system called "Guide Multibeam". The reflectors are not perfectly parabolic. If you take a close look, especially around the edge, you will see it is a contoured reflector. The bulb is also probably not quite centered. The lenses have a left and a right and are designed to work with these reflectors. On more modern cars, with sealed beam headlights, or H4, or basically anything else, on low beam the light shines up one side of the road further than the other to maximize visibility while not blinding the oncoming drivers. A single headlight does this as well as two. The Guide Multibeam is different. The lenses and reflectors are designed so that the one on the left side has a sharp cutoff up-down(!) on the left side, and the right headlight has a similar cutoff on the right side. The lights are aimed so they cross each other (yes, really). When you beam down for oncoming traffic, only the right headlight (which is shining into the left lane) beams down. The headlight switch on the dash has 4 positions. 1) off 2) parking lights 3) city beam or low 4) country beam or high. The dimmer switch engages "passing beam". This is not for passing as a modern driver might suspect, it is for meeting oncoming cars, and is high beam on the left lamp and low beam on the right.

Looking for 1936 Pontiac wheels. These are 6-lug, Chevrolet bolt pattern, 16 inch, Artillery style, for 600:16 tires. Like this one.

I dropped a '37 320 disc off at Brake and Clutch Supply (on 6th Ave. in Seattle). I got a call later that same day that it was done. Still untested, but the workmanship sure looked good. I don't remember what it cost. Not super-expensive. I don't know about the pressure plate, but they would be my first call. http://www.brakeandclutchsupply.com/index.shtml

I would add the following: I agree with these guys that it isnt a proportioning valve, but I would suspect there is a residual pressure valve in that stack of brass somewhere. Yes, replace (or anneal) the washers. Tighten everything. On the double flares (tuning nuts), always hold both hexes when you loosen or tighten. Invest in a good quality tubing wrench in the size your tubing nuts are if you don't already have one. Replace that stoplight switch. I once saw one of those short out and start to melt the wiring. They can also leak. It is a super common part used on a bunch of cars and even motorcycles. New ones are available that trigger on less pressure, too.

Doesn't this have a collar or clamp on the distributor that can be loosened so you can rotate the distributor any way you want? If I remember correctly, the manual, at least for my 1936 Pontiac 6, is not super-clear about where number one is supposed to be. I think I have figured it out. I think they are all the same until the end of production. Newer flathead 6 owners can correct me if I am wrong. Number one should be next to the terminal for the points wire. The vacuum advance port should point about straight to the front of the car. The wires connect to the cap in the firing order (1-5-3-6-2-4), going around the cap counterclockwise. Here is a picture I found online of a 1946 Torpedo that seems to support my theory. If this is all true, then number 1 is at one or 2 o clock. This suggests that your old motor had the oil pump gear in correctly, but the distributor in 180 degrees out, and the spark plug wires rotated around the cap 180 degrees. This puts number 1 at 5 o clock. [EDIT: OOPS I MEANT 7 o'clock] The car will not know the difference. Also, then it follows that the new engine has the oil pump gear in wrong. If you want to make it "right" you will have to pull the oil pump off. If you just want to make it run, maybe not. If it is on #1 TDC on the compression stroke right now, rotate it ALMOST 2 full turns, to get to where #1 fires. This is probably 4 degrees btdc or something on the compression stroke of #1. Don't rotate it backwards, because you don't want to take the slack out of the timing chain. Loosen the "normal" timing adjustment bolt, the one that runs in a slot, and threads to the block. Put it in the middle of its travel, tighten it down. Loosen the pinch bolt that holds the distributor bracket to the distributor. Rotate it until some plug wire lines up to the rotor. It doesn't matter which one. Pick whichever one makes the vacuum advance line the most comfortable. Rotate the distributor just a tiny bit further to the left, and then to the right until the points JUST OPEN. Tighten the clamp. Look at which distributor tower the rotor points at. This is is your new #1. Put #1 wire here, and wire the rest COUNTERCLOCKWISE around the cap, 1-5-3-6-2-4. This is close enough to run. When it runs, recheck the timing.

Glad you got it sorted out!