PhilAndrews

Howdy, all. I'm beginning to get dug into my Chieftain, trying to undo years of people messing with it. The car's been "converted" to 12 volts, and a bunch of original bits are missing, presumed eBay-ed or binned. I bought a 12V repro horn relay to fit, where was it originally located? Under the dash or on the firewall by the horns? Thanks Phil

I don't really have any references to the original shade of red used on the car- this is a little more magenta than I imagine it should be, but it's not an unpleasant shade of red at all. I did the rear flank badges (because they had been painted badly), my rear brand badge in black enamel and the EIGHT by spraying a little bit of the red into one of those cups you get on the top of Nyquil bottles and applying with a fine brush. Phil

Plain and simple- what I had laying around! Electrical tape, carefully cut with a craft knife around the periphery to give a nice sharp line, then some cheap no-name brand duct tape that doesn't stay stuck to anything. I did gently key the surface with 2500 grit paper and soapy water, but take care because any scratches really show up through the lacquer. Phil

I'll keep an eye on it. I'll have to get some, though I do have some Renault engine thread sealant used for the same purpose on my other car. Phil

Welcome. I had figured quite a lot of vehicles make use of a red enamel, and this is something of a second best. For second best it's not half bad though. Phil

I was a little sceptical, but I bought myself a can of Tamiya PS-37 red lacquer and redid the wheel center emblems on my Chieftain. The original finish had gone to a very worn, patchy brown. I'm quite impressed with how it turned out. It's not cheap and it says "for polycarbonate", but it's a nice deep red (that's 3 coats). They have blue and green and yellow and orange also- I know a few people who have used the orange to stain glass for turn signals with good success. I bought that can on Amazon but it's available in most model shops if you have one nearby. I figured I would show what it looks like for reference (and because I'm really happy how it came out!). Phil

Cut out some cardboard teeth, painted them silver with added red for effect. Not going for anything too scary, most of the kids in this area who go trick or treating are under ten so, spooky garage with fog machine, lights, webs, the sidelights of the car on (battery charger ahoy!) and some sound effects on the stereo. All just a bit of fun. This is the precursor to tearing all the wiring out of the car and redoing it. Phil

It was most helpful yes! Thank you. Only little things but that's how they were designed to work; I can't see a way to improve upon it so that's where I'm an advocate of original design. Little things like redoing the dash illumination with LED's however I see as an improvement that doesn't impact negatively- they hardly run warm at all, significantly less load on switches, so on. Things like that I'll change but I'm going to be asking a bunch of questions because the original engineering is in most cases perfectly adequate. Phil

I've been receiving some very helpful advice in the Technical section for my car, and as I cannot drive it yet, I decided to start setting up the garage for the kids' trick or treat. It's not quite finished yet, the kids want to make cardboard teeth covered in Reynolds wrap aluminum foil for the grille, some faux spider webs and such. Gotta keep your sense of humor somehow! Phil

Shortened the thread. Found a spring that works. It's a little bit light but it does correctly return the pedal. Thank you everybody who has helped. Phil

I need to shorten the threaded section, but I made a start on a boss for the spring. Also looks like someone has shortened the spring, so I'm probably going to be in the lookout for a replacement. Phil

Therein lays the root of my confusion. I'll get a bolt with a shank, trim it down, lop the head off and drill a hole through for the spring. Thanks! Phil

Dave, What does it hook into at the back? A small threaded insert? I didn't get a chance to look last night, I'll have to look again if mine has that (or if it's gone missing). Thank you all for the help. Phil

Okay, that's what I was thinking- that's the attachment point on the linkage, but I don't see anything in the far side. I'll have to get a set of steps and haul myself over the fender a bit further I think. Thank you for that. Phil

Made a few adjustments. Need to clean it up properly but I think that's done. Quiet, too! Does anybody know the correct position for the return spring for the throttle mechanism? There's a point on the lever arm on the other side of the engine but I do not see anything to hook it to. And, on a wild side-note, does anybody know how to remove the horn slip-ring from the column? I want to replace the wire to it. Phil

Had a little time to do some CAD (cardboard aided design) and made a start on the bracket to hold the front end of the air cleaner up. Coming along, needs a bit of adjustment on the bench and the prongs extending a little so it can clamp down more evenly onto it. I picked up some aluminum mesh filter material, but I'm not sure if it'll be too coarse. Phil

Hopefully. The manual says to coat the threads in white lead and oil- I cleaned them, ran them in and out a couple times then torqued them down; I'm thinking possibly I should pull them and put some sealant on them being as at least the front one goes into a water gallery? Phil

It's not too bad. There's some horrors hiding it the bottoms of the doors and in front of the rear wheels, but overall it's not so bad. Certainly a good starting point. It's fairly "honest", if you will. I had an epiphany tonight after it was mentioned about the special bolt with the nut atop. There we go. Torqued back down and in the correct location. It had been put in the wrong place, used to attach an assister spring for the throttle return. I bought a length of steel bar, drilled a 3/8" hole in, I need to borrow a vise to bend it over to the correct shape. Phil

Interesting. Well, mine has the deluxe interior code and trim on the Fisher build plate, so quieter, huge muffler intake it is then! Only problem is it's the cleanest part in there, especially after the radiator has been leaking and staining everything brown... Phil

It is the incorrect filter for the year; the big muffler canister was ditched for 1951. I liked the idea of the intake being a little more quiet so instead of the on-top-of-the-carb type, I decided on the earlier variant. The car in question. I'm working through some of the fun problems, namely a badly done 12V conversion (retaining 12V but doing it right) and the gearbox needs to come out to have the valve block and servos seals replaced, then just regular service stuff like adjust the brakes, new steering ball joints, adjust the steering gears and fit an exhaust pipe that's not one big rusty hole. Phil

This being the air cleaner, as purchased from South Dakota. I'm working on improving it. Still need to clean up and paint the oil bowl and get some new woven mesh to put back into the filter element. Phil

Thank you, that's exactly the angle I had needed to see! Someone has replaced the bolt in that corner on my engine but with a washer underneath- trying to figure that one out right now. It doesn't have the thread on top to attach the bracket to (and then secured with the nut). Phil

I do believe I may have answered my own question. I continued cleaning 60-odd years of dirt from the exterior and discovered that the lower plate that the wing nut rod goes into isn't quite round, it has a fractured edge that looks about the size of the bracket on the picture. Further investigation needed, but it may be a case of getting a new piece of steel welded to it. Phil

Howdy, all. I have a '51 Chieftain that arrived new to me without its air cleaner, so I took a dig around on Google and saw that the Streamliner eight has a nice intake muffler. I liked the idea of the engine being quieter so found one on eBay that needs a bit of restoration. My question is thus; how is the filter end of the assembly supported? It's far too heavy to be only held up by the carburetor. Squinting at some pictures shows a bracket coming off one of the head bolts but I can't see under it to see how it's supported. Does anybody have a photo of the support bracket assembly? I'm either going to make one or try and source one depending on the design. Thank you Phil