AL1630

Welcome to the forum, I'm close to your age and it's nice to see other people my age around! When you can get your first vintage car, it always helps if you can meet someone who knows their stuff when it comes to these old cars. A neighbor, friend of a friend, relative, whoever, is a great resource if you need help with something or need some obscure tool. I know several of my neighbors have been a great help with my Rambler, it probably wouldn't be on the road without them! This forum is a great resource, there's plenty of friendly and knowledgeable people around. As others have said, I don't have a ton of experience yet, but personally I wouldn't trust a car like that, plus the looks aren't appealing (Although that's just me of course.) I would say that good first car would be one set up as it came from the factory, at least that way you know it was designed by professional engineers, not some guy in the backyard!

Nice! Seems like I've seen a lot more vintage cars driving around recently with the combination of nice weather and shutdowns.

Reminds me of the stories where a new subdivision is built out in the country next to a drag strip that's been there for decades, then the new homeowners try to get the strip shut down because it's too noisy. If you have a problem with that noise, why consider buying that house in the first place? If you live in the middle of a city though, I think it's good to at least keep your neighbors in mind, especially if you have a loud car. Maybe at least put a muffler on it if it's a daily driver.

This might help you get a sale as well. Seems to me like people are more willing to pay $15 with free shipping than $10 with 5 shipping. Not sure why it's like that, probably a similar reason to why things are $99.99 instead of 100.

I just went to see that video, going that fast anywhere would be scary and dangerous enough, but on a two lane highway? No way!

The article says he's 33, and owns multiple supercars. Doesn't seem like a real nice guy though.

Survey car in the mountains, around 1920

I like this radio documentary from 1956, dealing with teenage hubcap theft. It's a good listen, especially since most people have lots of extra time right now. https://pastdaily.com/2016/03/12/golden-hubcaps-1956-pop-chronicles/

Very nice car, and driving location too!

Wow! That is amazing work! I've always thought it would be cool to do something like this, but I don't even know where to start!

I just picked up some model planes to give me something to do while locked down, maybe I should order some cars too! It's really amazing what some people can do with the kits. Now I just need to find a company that sells a Rambler kit...

Road dedication, Boise Idaho - 1954 Army Corps Of Engineers highway bypass - 1953 Possibly an early car show? Probably 1920s Muddy road, late 40s/early 50s

OK, thanks. I would prefer to keep the radio original, so reconing is probably my best option. Does anyone know of a service that they recommend?

I have a 1963 Rambler American with a Bendix 3TBAM radio, which I believe is all transistor. The manual for the radio and a sticker on the side warn to 'Use 20 Ohm Speaker Only!', and the original speaker is ruined, the cone is ripped out. Unfortunately, it seems like 20 Ohm resistance speakers were last made in the 60s and are near-impossible to find today. What's the best option for me here? I'd like the radio to work, and I've heard using the wrong resistance speaker can damage the amplifier.

I, for one, am definitely ready for the big reveal! Congratulations on your new car, I can't wait to see pictures of the whole thing!

If I shoot the thermostat housing with the temperature gun, should it read about the same temperature as the gauge if the gauge is accurate, or would it be different? The T-stat housing is where the temperature sending unit is located.

The car has only officially overheated and boiled over once, after pulling a hill in summer. When it did that, the needle was above the top mark on the gauge, which i believe is 260 degrees. Now with a 180 tstat and 50 degrees ambient, the gauge stays around the middle. This leads me to believe it works, but I've never really tested it.

I would hope it's not the water pump, I've already replaced that with a NOS one.

This weekend I put in a thermostat, 180 degrees. Driving this morning with the ambient temperature about 25 degrees, the engine didn't even get up to temperature on my 10 minute drive. This afternoon, it's been about 60 and the temp gauge would get well above the middle especially when idling. As I mentioned before, my gas pedal doesn't return all the way, and if I pulled it back to the right idle speed, the temperature would drop, but as soon as i started moving it would rise again. Turning on the heater also dropped the temperature.

Thank you, I'll look into getting the distributor rebuilt. I'll also try the vacuum timing.

I got a dwell meter and hooked it up, and when I gave the engine gas, the dwell dropped by 10-15 degrees. I think I may have finally found the culprit (Or a big one anyway). The tachometer on the dwell meter also said that the engine is idling way too fast-I think that my throttle isn't returning all the way to idle, even after I replaced the spring.

I'll try to track down a dwell meter to test. Should the dwell stay the same at any RPM or should it change as it increases? The engine also seems to shake a bit if revved up in neutral, and sometimes when it's cold and idling. Those symptoms seem to have developed fairly recently. Could those also be a timing issue?

I have coils in both upper and lower hoses. Water seems to flow pretty well with the garden hose. It's been a lot cooler outside recently and the engine is staying cooler now. I should probably go to a shop, it seems like I've crossed out pretty much everything.

I was able to borrow a blue liquid tester from the parts store, and it stayed blue, so hopefully there's no combustion leakage. I also did a compression test and got 130 PSI or above on all cylinders. I also got all new plugs to put in. I guess at this point the most likely cause is probably rust in the water jackets, unless someone thinks of something else.

Unfortunately, even after driving on the highway, mileage doesn't seem to change much. I pulled the plugs - they're in order from #6 on the left to #1 on the right. They are the same plugs that were in the engine before I changed the rings, which may explain some of the blackening.