AntiqueCraftsman

The BAD NEWS! I was saving up money to buy a new welding machine. I had my eye on a really nice TIG welder with a built-in Plasma cutter. I really had my heart set on having this nice new TIG welder and plasma cutter. But last week I got distracted by a used car for sale, and having attention deficit disorder and no discipline, I went out and bought the used car with the money I was saving up to buy the welder. Darn it! I have no discipline. Um tell'in ya. So no new welder for me! The GOOD NEWS! I do have an old Dayton AC/DC welder. It's really old but it still works, .... barely. In fact, it wouldn't work this morning and I had to take it all apart and clean it. Fortunately when I put it all back together again it seems to be running pretty nice. I had to weld up a trailer hitch for my tractor this morning. I welded it up using a stick welds. I haven't welded in a while and it took me a bit to get the hang of it again, but I'm happy to say that I was able to do some pretty decent welds on the trailer hitch. However, you can't do decent body-work welding with a stick. The good news is that I do have an old TIG torch for it. I'll have to get some Argon gas. I've had this TIG torch for years but never used it. I wonder how well it will work with the Dayton welder. There's no frequency control or anything like that. It's just a DC welder. I wonder if there is anyone out there who has had any luck welding automotive sheet metal using just a TIG torch on an old DC welder with no frequency control? And should I use DC, or AC? I'm thinking of running out and getting a bottle of Argon. That's going to be about $250. They want you to buy the tank, then you can refill it just for the price of the gas. Or should I wait until I can save up enough money to buy a new welder that has the frequency adjustments? Plasma cutter would be nice too, huh? The GREAT NEWS! I just bought a 1947 Chevrolet Sportsmaster Sedan Fleetline with a built-in trunk! I'm drunk with happiness.

Hi Laughing Coyote, Beautiful car there you have to restore. Nice job on the trunk floor too. I haven't had time to read through your entire thread yet. But I wanted to ask you a question about the ash trays you mentioned in post #7. That looks like a brand spanking new ash tray! How in the world did you do that? If you've already answered this question in this thread my apologies for not reading the entire thread. Perhaps you could point to the post number where you describe what you've done with this ash tray? Did you chemically clean this? Or was this accomplished with some form of mechanical cleaning? That's just amazing how well you were able to clean that ash tray up. What are those ash trays made of? Is that solid aluminum? Or stainless steel? Something you were able to sand down and buff out? But even then, getting into the inside corners must have been quite a tedious job. Did you use something like a Dremel tool to polish the inside? Great job whatever you did.

New Engine number: HAM76023 According to the charts the engine is 1950 vintage. Not the original engine then? The car is a 1947 right? It says 1947 on the title.

Thanks Rusty, I'm new here and I'm already appreciating you. Lots of good advice and information already. By the way my real life name is Jim. I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to bring this car up to dependable shape. I want to drive this car for real. I'm sick of the new junk cars they've been making pretty much from the 1980 onward. I'll probably get a lot of slack for having said that. I'm sure there were some 80's that weren't too bad. I'm actually driving a 1992 Ford F-150 pick up. And I consider that to be an "antique". It's a nice simple truck. 300 6-cly, 5 speed stick, no air bag, no power windows. No extra garbage. Just a basic truck. My kind of deal. I also have a 1998 Ford escort and a 1995 Dodge Intrepid. I've been driving them both for years, but they are about shot. So I'm going to need a "new" car. And this 1947 Chevy is going to be it. So this will be the focus of all car resources now. Hopefully within a year or two this will be my main ride.

My nuts are loose! I went out this morning and loosened all the lug nuts on all four wheels. I was surprised that they came loose easily. I had nightmares last night about breaking studs trying to get the nuts loose. They are all in great shape except for one nut that is stripped. But it's only the nut that's stripped not the stud. So I'm in good shape so far. I haven't removed any wheels yet. Too many other things to do. I'll need to get the floor jack out and start popping wheels off to see what's behind them. Engine Number: In any case, I found the engine number. It's hard to read cause I can't get my head down in there to see it. I took a picture of it. I think it's 3936497 or maybe 3836497? Can't be sure of those first three numbers. Here's the picture of the number, it's hard to read. Now where do I find what this number means?

Hi Bleach, I agree that getting the motor running would be a real confidence booster and probably everyone's #1 agenda at this stage. But in addition to being AntiqueCraftsman I'm also known as A.K.A. My Mundane Practical. I realize that the motor is often seen as the central most important piece, but for me the suspension and frame integrity are actually even more important. So I'm actually more interested in doing a very thorough inspection of the chassis parts. Knowing that I have a rock solid chassis to build upon will actually make working on the motor more enjoyable. I'm also anticipating some possible problems with the motor. Hopefully nothing too serious. After all I took a real chance buying this car the way I did. The motor could be blown. A broken rod or something deadly serious. I hope that's not the case. I would actually be thrilled to see a broken valve spring instead. I am a bit anxious to remove the valve cover and take a peek at what the rockers look like. I'll no doubt be doing that pretty soon. It's been rainy here on and off and I'm working outdoors. So work will be weather-dependent. Not only that but I'm really quite busy with other things and shouldn't even be working on this toy right now at all. I was distracted by this deal and had to run out and grab it while the grabbing was good. I've already invested the better part of four days just arranging to pick it up and getting it into the backyard. But now that I got it home I really need to get back into the other projects I was original working on. I'm in the middle of building a deck on the front of my house, and building a larger garage, as well as quite a few other projects too numerous to mention. So my plan right now is to remove one wheel a day and check out the brakes, bearings, and chassis parts associated with each wheel. I'll probably try to pull the valve cover off at some point as well. I need to limit myself to doing just one wheel a day, simply because I need to be spending most of my time on my "everyday projects". I didn't buy this car because I have time to work on it. I bought it because the deal was hot-to-trot and couldn't wait for a procrastination period for a better time to do it. I imagine it will be quite some time before I found another old car in this great of shape at the price I paid for this one. And then when I do, someone else will probably buy that out from under me as has happened so many times before. So I'm just glad to have her. No rush. At least I got her in my back yard. That a HUGE achievement already. I should go buy a case of beer and just sit here drinking beer looking at her from a lawn chair for a while to soak in the find. I'm still in a state of disbelief that I actually got her. She is ROCK SOLID in terms of body, glass, and trim. So there's no rush at this point. I'll be starting an actual restoration thread at some point. But right now I feel like I'm still in the "Discovery Stage". I'm not done looking her over. But yeah, I know everyone wants to see her brought to life. Me too. That'll be surreal. We'll get there. Be patient.

I plan on keeping the car as stock as possible. This will all depend on how salvageable the current parts are. I just got the thing so I'm going to have a month of "discovery' for sure. Today all I did was get it off the trailer and maneuvered it over to the garage. The garage I have for it right now is only room for storage. No room to work in there. So I'll need to pull it in and out of the garage to work on it. I do have another much larger garage but it's currently under construction. I just bought a sawmill last year and I've been cutting down trees and making lumber. I part it in-part to build this larger garage. In any case, I just now sprayed all the lug nuts in preparation to remove the wheels and inspect the condition of the brakes and wheel bearings, etc. I'll also be looking at suspension parts while I have the wheels off. I'm certainly not going to take it anywhere until I'm confident that everything is in tip-top shape. I don't like breaking down. And I certainly don't want to take any unnecessary safety risks. So for me its "Safety First" for sure. I'm also anxious to see what's going on with the engine of course. But I can't do everything at once. It currently doesn't have any brakes so that's surely #1 priority. No point in getting it moving if I can't stop it. Surprising the emergency brake does work quite well. And that means that there must at least be some functioning brake shoes in the rear. The wheels look to be in super great shape. These must be newer wheels. They all look like pretty new wheels. I just too pictures of the front and rear on one side, but the other side look the same. Got all four hubcaps. That's a nice touch. And I just took a few shots of the engine. I can't read the number on the side. I'll try to get that number later.

Great story! And you are very fortunate to have kept it in the family and still able to drive it on occasion. That's fantastic. Back in the day, I had owned quite a few cars from the early 50's. And I even had a 1949 Ford that I used to drive to work everyday. I wish I still had that car today. I had a 1055 Chevy Nomad 2-door wagon. A 1956 Ford Crown Victoria. A 1050 Oldsmobile coupe. And far too many cars from the early 60's to mention. My favorite was my 1963 Chevy Impala SS. I loved that car and would love to own it today. I don't have any of them today. The main reason was that I had no place to store any of them so I was basically forced to get rid of them. What a shame! But thankfully I finally got a decent old car to rebuild. I might end up doing what you did with the drive train. That all depends on whether or not I can salvage the current drive train. At least I now have a good body to work with if nothing else.

I agree. It can always be repainted. That's no biggie. If a "fuddy duddy" wants to restore it to an original color scheme at some future date they can always get out a paint gun and have at it. But just for the record, it's probably not nice to refer to period authenticity enthusiast as "fuddy duddies'. I totally respect where they are coming from. I just don't happen to share that specific goal. I don't mind if mine looks like a souped-up 1050's hot rod. So it's not a problem for me if the manufacturers never made one painted exactly like mine. That was there loss, not mine. As to driving it around before doing body work. We'll have to see about that. I'm not even sure that I'll be able to get it to run dependably yet. Only time will tell on that one. I also want to install that new dual-master-cylinder brake conversion kit before I drive it. The brakes that are on it don't currently work. I have no clue why that is. I haven't even pulled a wheel on it yet to look at the shoes. I bought this thing basically blind just from the pictures in the ad. I just drove down and picked it up with only a superficial glance at the under carriage just to be sure it wasn't rotten beyond repair. With that much looking pretty solid I just loaded it up and brought it home. I got this baby at a price that I feel is very reasonable. As I say, even if I have to go with a whole new modern drive train, the body is worth what I paid for it. So exactly where I end up in terms of restoration is yet to be seen. That will all depend on just how salvageable this motor and chassis are.

By the way, while this paint scheme may not be authentic to the year the car was made, it would be authentic to how someone might have repainted one during the 50's. So while it's not a "Factory Authentic" paint scheme, one could argue that it's still a "historically authentic" paint scheme that someone in the 50's might have done to a 47 Chevy.

I can appreciate those who strive for period authenticity. That's a very honorable endeavor worthy of much respect. However, while we're on the topic of "history" perhaps a little history of my own experience with finding this car is in order. I started out looking for an old gutted rusty body of something from the 1930's or 40's. I was even considering mounting the body on a new chassis. I was actually thinking about using a small truck like a Chevy S-10 or Ford Ranger to use as the chassis, motor and drive train. I even obtained a fully functional Ford ranger for scrap price that I still have in the back yard waiting for a body of some sort. Unfortunately I couldn't fine a "cheap" body that I liked. And I wasn't about to pay an arm and a leg for one. The whole idea was to build this thing cheap DIY. So paying an arm and a leg for the starting materials was out of the question. I also ran into other problems. Like the body would need to be modified to such a degree to fit on the newer truck chassis that many people were suggesting that I'd be better off just building a body from scratch entirely. And I've actually been giving that some serious thought. And if I went that route I would end up with a car (actually I would make it back into a pick-up truck again) that pretty much looks homemade. And that would actually be ok with me. In fact, here's an idea of what I was shooting for. And I had my heart set on this two-tone color scheme. Actually I would love to have the truck in the photo above,. It would actually be more practical for me as I'm always hauling stuff. Well, building an entire body from scratch got placed on a back burner pretty quickly. That would end up taking more time than I wanted to devote to the project. So I set up Craigslist to notify me when any old cars are available in my area CHEAP. After all, that's the original plan. Gotta stick to the original plan right? Two things kept happening. Either I would find a totally junk car body that was completely gutted with no glass or anything and they would want like $5000 for the garbage. I'm not paying $5000 for an old rusty shell of a body that is missing 99% of the parts. I may as well go back to the idea of building from scratch at that point. In fact, I just recently saw this 1947 Chevy Fleetline for $5,595.00 for sale on eBay. As you can see this car is in really bad shape. All the glass is broken out. The interior is totally gutted. This would be a nightmare to try to rebuild. Just trying to replace and repair all the windows would cost $$$$$. There's no way I would even consider paying this much for a car in such horrible shape. Or I would find a really great deal that would already be sold by the time I could contacted the seller. I actually narrowly missed a complete 1930 Ford Sedan for only $900. I called about it as soon as I discovered the Craigslist notification and it was already sold. Good deals don't last long on Craigslist. And then I ran across the one I bought at a considerably lesser price, with all the glass, all the chrome, and everything in tact. This is like a dream come true. ~~~~~~~ And so now for the catch,.... I never really expected to end up with a car that is so complete. The car I just bought is indeed so totally complete that it truly does demand a restoration that adheres to "period authenticity". This is true. I can't deny that. I should probably call Jay Leno and ask him what he might trade me for it. In the meantime, if I get my hands on a paint spray gun, this car I have is going to end up with two-tone with dark fenders and top and a light body. Here's another paint scheme where the fenders aren't so dark: I like this color scheme even though it may not be period authentic. Your average Joe would never know.

I have a question about the oiling system. If this engine doesn't have an oil pump and only lubricates via dippers on the connecting rods, how does it get oil up to the overhead valve rockers? The fellow who sold me this car said that it has weak compression. And one of the cylinders actually measures 0 pressure while all the other measured 50 (in whatever units he was using). Maybe PSI? In any case I'm thinking that if one cylinder has no compression at all, that could be a broken valve spring, or a valve stuck open. Probably the first order of business will be to measure the compression myself, and if I get the same readings, then at least pop off the valve cover and take a look at the springs. Make sure all the values are going up and down properly. I'll willing to bet there's a problem with one or more of the valves.

I'm going to need to take the doors off to do the body work right. I hate to take these doors off because they open and close like brand new. They are perfectly aligned. I fear I might never get them back on as nice as they are now. But they absolutely have to come off. No question about it. I'll need to be welding up the rocker panels and floor pans. Trying to do that with the doors on would be a real pain. It would also be easier to restore the doors when they are off the car too. I just hope I can get them back on as nice as they are right now. They open and close like "PERFECT" right now. It's unbelievable that they are in such good shape.

Thanks for the advice Rusty. I definitely have the skills and the tools. Money, not so much. So I'll be repairing as much as possible DIY. There's a whole bunch of junk in the trunk of this car. Including a very large roll of some kind of rubber about 2 or 3 inches wide with a 1/4 bead on one side. I'm thinking this might go between the fenders and the car? It's a huge roll and brand new. Probably enough to do all four fenders (if that's what it actually is). I'm just guessing that this might be what it is. There's a whole other wiring harness in the trunk too. Complete with voltage regulator, and other electrical components hanging off it. On thing looks like a dimmer switch. This must have come out of another old car cause this car has a wiring harness in it already. There's also a spare steering column. A couple things that look like they might be old shock absorbors? Not sure what they are yet. There are several sheet metal parts that look like they must have come off of other old cars. I have three covers that go over the transmission and they all have a gas pedal attached. Plus there's on in the car but some of these look like they might be better. Someone must have been scavenging parts for this. There's also a BRAND NEW spare tire and wheel. At least it looks brand new. Way too nice to have been the original spare. So that's nice to have a nice new spare wheel. The four wheels that are on it don't look too bad either. It's pouring down rain right now. I was hoping to get it in the garage before it rained. It looks like it's going to be raining here for a few more days. So I'll get back to my normal life for a while. (ha ha) But yeah, I can do body work, mechanical work, electrical work. And I can make a lot of my own stuff. I have lots of metal working tools: Metal Lathe/Milling machine combo Welders Drill press 12 ton press Grinders Body tools English Wheel Stretcher and shrinker Bead Roller Metal brake and a bunch of other stuff. I can also do automotive painting. I'm planning on doing a two-tone brown and beige or cream like in the attached photo. It'll be a long time before I'll be painting though.

Oh yeah, he gave me the shop manual for it too.

I forgot to mention. All the handles on the doors are all original and all there. And the doors open and shut like NEW! Unbelievable! It seems to be rock solid for the most part. Clearly there are rusted through places. Especially on the floorboards on the drivers side. I forgot to mention also that it came with brand new floor panels for the drivers side. They just haven't yet been installed. But that'll change when I plug in my welder.

I got her home! This was a major trip for me. I also made a wrong turn and went an hour out of my way so added 2 hours to the trip! But she's home now. I can hardly believe it. I'm pinching myself. I think this is a great little car. She'll need a lot of work. But what I like about her is that she's pretty close to 100% complete in terms of parts. You can't see it in these photos but I actually have all four original hubcaps. And all the chrome trim. Even what appears to be missing. It's all in boxes. I also have the full front bumper. It's just not on the car. In addition to all this I got a special dual master cylinder brake kit complete with a heavy-duty bracket that will allow the use of the original pedal linkage. A professionally rebuilt carburetor. Brand new 6 volt battery, and brand new headlights. All the glass is in pretty decent shape. No cracks or stone chips. There is a slight scratch where the windshield wiper scraped the windshield. But I think that can be buffed out. I didn't take pictures of the engine yet. But it's all there and all original. So much to do now I'm not sure where to begin? When I find time to work on her I guess I'll look into the engine first and see if I can get her running. In any case, I'm happy with her. This car is in pretty great shape considering her age and what I got her for. No complaints here. If I can use this motor and tranny that's just a big plus as far as I'm concerned. So we'll have to wait and see how that goes.

@ Dave, Thanks for the link to the Vehicle Information Kits. I just downloaded the 101 page PDF for 1947 Chevys. And my 4-door coupe is the first one on the Passenger Car list. It's a SportsMaster Sedan 6-passenger, 4-door, 5-window sedan, "with built-in trunk". This is pretty cool. I've always wanted an antique car and now I have one that I can actually drive, hopefully.

I just realized when I went to Chevs of the 40's they have my car up as the Vehicle of the Month. On difference is mine's blue. And not quite as shiny. Oh, yeah, mine's also a 4-door.

Thanks for the quick replies. It's nice to see that parts are available at reasonable prices. I was afraid they would either be impossible to get or cost outrageous prices. But from the links given it doesn't appear that it will be too costly for general maintenance parts. That's good to hear. @ Ben Bruce, I was told that some of the older cars won't run on unleaded gas, or that it would damage the engine, especially in terms of burning up the valves for some reason. I'm not sure how important that is or whether it applies to all older cars or only some of them? In any case, if I can just drive this on unleaded gas I might just start driving it right away. I just do body work on it and paint it up as I drive it. I'm not looking to build an immaculate show car. I just want something pretty and antique to drive as my regular car. So, yeah, if you're right that I can just run this on unleaded gas, then I'll just drive it as is. It probably wouldn't hurt it if I burnt the valves up anyway in terms of a rebuild. I'd be putting in all new valves and seats by then anyway. Oh, by the way, just for the record. I'm retired. I don't drive much anyway. And when I do drive it's all rural back roads at slow speeds. So this old clunker should do me well. I'm excited. I didn't actually pick the car up yet. I'll be picking it up on Thursday. I'll post photos when I get the car home.

Hi everyone, I just bought a 1947 Chevy Fleetline. I really don't know anything about this specific year, make, or model. I bought the car because it's in such good shape. It's basically complete. It's so complete I'm not sure whether to disassemble it for a complete restoration, or just drive it as-is. Although I guess this won't run on regular gas without burning out the valves. I just wanted an old car to drive. In fact, I was originally going to buy a really junk one and put a new engine and drive train in it. But this car is so complete it almost seems a shame not to keep it original. I wonder also if this original 6 cyl engine can be rebuilt to use modern lead-free gas? I'd kind of like to keep the original engine in it if possible. Where do I get parts for it? Like brake shoes, ball-joints, etc. As far as I know it's all there. But it I imagine it's going to need some replacement parts. And can anyone point me to a forum that might be specifically aimed at 1940 era Chevrolet? I want to put this on the road and drive as my car.