keninman

I am certainly no help for parts and I hope that no one was hurt.

Mine begins GLW-3 with 4 more digits below it. I would be interested also if anything can be deciphered from this number.

My owner's manual says Vaseline.

My 29/30 GL Dictator is titled with the body number. The car had been titled with it in Illinois, Michigan accepted it and so has Indiana. If you have a good title using the body number I would go with it. What are the chances that you will find another car with this same exact number? This solution seemed much easier to me than convincing the Indiana DMV to change it to the serial.

This thread left me wondering what the correct running board material is for the 29/30 Dictator? Linoleum seems to me like it would be a very slick surface but I may be mistaken because I am only familiar with the vintage kitchen floor variety. Also would you need to use Glo-Coat on it.

The thermostat is the old spring butterfly type nothing like a modern one, it cannot get a good seal no matter what, it can only impede part of the water I would say under full pump pressure it will open slightly anyway. I also have it set to open really low until winter hits. I tested it on the stove using a temp probe and it works pretty well. The shaft looks rough at the edge of the nut. I might have to try and smooth that up. I will order some packing and grease and see if I cannot get the leak to stop, it does not leak that much so far.

I drained the antifreeze and there was no sign of oil in it. My oil level is still full and no sign of water in it. I tried tightening the packing nut and it overheated the nut and shaft quickly. I backed both nuts off and they were pretty dry of grease. Since the only lube I have not is wheel bearing grease I used it for now. I took her for a drive. She did run slightly cooler and no foaming but then again no antifreeze. I am still leaking at the nut though not quite as bad. There are bubbles at the top of the radiator but since the upper hose shoots the water out onto a metal plate you can't tell if the bubbles are from the engine or caused as it cascades off the plate. Apparently Castrol still makes a classic water pump grease. I wonder what the proper packing is for her? There is not much room for it so it must be small diameter stuff. Also, since the rubber in my radiator cap is shot I took some cotton tee shirt material rolled it up and stuffed it in the cap. The cap fits much tighter now without pressurizing the system. I looked up Indianapolis's weather and found the last time it got much below zero here was 2004 when it made it to -11. I looked at a mix chart and at 40% antifreeze will protect to -12 so I won't mix for colder than that.

Thanks for the idea folks, I did recently drain the system, I used a rust remover, Evapo-Rust Thermocure, and installed new hoses and thermostat. I ran it first with water only then I switched back to antifreeze water 50/50 mix. It was warmer than normal here and warmer than it has been. I did notice there is more leaked antifreeze between the water pump and generator than usual. I also wondered if having a working thermostat might have something to do with it. There isn't a bypass system unless it is internal.

We took the buggy to town this evening and the first sign of trouble was at a stop sign and the radiator over ran and covered the windshield with antifreeze (it was real windy). Every time we stopped or slowed the engine quickly it spit out antifreeze. The temp gauge showed the engine temperature was normal. Once home I looked in the radiator and it is really foamy. I checked the oil and it is clear. The engine is running fine. I did flush a week or so ago but ran with pure water for awhile after that. Any ideas?

Meanwhile back here in Indiana, Anderson to be exact, you know the US city where many of the Delco-Remy and Guide Lamp parts were made. Almost the entire Madison County government offices, courts etc. are going to have to relocate while the asbestos is removed from the government center building that was completed in 1973. They needed HVAC work in the building and the company that inspected complained their employees had been exposed to asbestos. No company will touch the system until all of the asbestos has been removed.

This post made me think of a phenomena that I had never experienced before. I bought new tires for my 29 GL Dictator and they kept getting this dirty rusty look that I learned is called, 'blooming'. I also learned that cleaning the tires with something like transmission fluid knocks it right off. I don't know if this qualifies as dressing but if it does then I am all for it.

That is what I am using but there I think and Autolite 3076 is the same thing and stocked at Oreilly's . I still have my original AC plugs but I am saving them and not running on them everyday.

Those look real good Mr. Clark. Mine uses mechanic's wire through the heads that go into the fan pully

I used hole saws and a drill press, they were easy peesy.

Wire wheel buffer works great for cleaning them up.

I reused the ones that were there. My guess is that to replace them you will have to drill your own holes for wire and pins.

Automachinewerks, that is almost identical to mine. I don' have any extra holes in my windshield and it looks like it in my owner's manual so I imagine the Trico is original for my GL. Do you happen to have the manual for yours?

The only cable driven wiper system I have ever seen is used by my son's 1971 MG Midget. Perhaps they were used back in the 30s but that is well beyond my experience. Here is a link to a diagram of he Midget's wiper system. This came from https://www.mgpartsuk.co.uk/store/index.php?route=product/category&path=330_266_427. Here is a thread on another forum that discusses it https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/question-about-new-cable-drive-wiper-systems.614311/

Do you have a good picture of when it was still mounted?

What my GL (29/30) Dictator shows in the Classic Car Database is 5.50x19. The 29 GE Dictator says 5.50x19 while the 28 GE Dictator says 5.50x20. I went with a cheaper tire because there was only a 1/4" tread width difference. Not worth paying out the extra cash, I think the smaller tire is cheaper because it is used on Model A's thus they will sell a lot more of these. Perhaps before he spends the extra dough on less than a 1/2" more tread width he should weigh the car and see if it is more than 3800 lbs. I kind of doubt that it is. http://classiccardatabase.com/prewar-models/car-models-S.php

I agree Spinneyhill, his should be a heavier built car. After all he has a differential brake that I do not have. The spare on mine when I got it was a 6.00-6.50 x 19 Heavy. It was probably for a heavier car or truck but it looks quite a bit bigger than the rest of my tires. This is what I went with and replaced the tubes and flaps. The next size up adds $65 a tire. Also if you are thinking about white wall tires remember that they weren't used on higher end cars before the 1930s. The early white walls were cheaper because the manufacturer didn't have to add carbon to the sidewall but they scuffed easier and were harder to keep clean. Looking back at the pictures of your tires are they weather cracked, or seem like hard rubber? Mine were shot, that is why I had to replace but if yours seem fine I would run on them. Yours are 8 ply mine were only 4 ply. Tires like you have now will set you back over $200 each.

I used 475/500-19 blackwall tires from Universal tire. According to the classic car database the 1929 had a 20" rim though this is probably means 28/29. The 29/30 says 5.5x19. I went with a smaller tire to shave some $ off of the total and it is really not much smaller.

I think he means someone has swapped the radiator shell out. The bottom of yours looks like my 29/30 Dictator but the top is quite different.

Mark Huston, thank you for some very useful information. My car still does not have an air filter. It does have a cartridge oil filter and I replaced it with a NOS Fram. Kclark sent me a pic of one on Ebay that included the mount. If I was worried about filtering my oil I would go this route, perhaps not perfectly in keeping with the time period it is close. The hidden spin on I have seen on one of the posts before but I don't know where to get one. It is a very elegant idea though and could probably be replicated in a home shop with a bit of care. The Wix filter is tops, Napa/Wix is the only filter I use on our modern vehicles. That aside do you have more pictures of the Dictator engine. I am especially interested in that fan belt. Again I appreciate your input.

I am with Stude Light and Nzcarnerd. From what I understand the big problem is gasoline contamination not carbon. I would not get rid of that pancake filter. If worse comes to worse poke a hole through it. Change the oil every 1k miles or y months which ever comes first?