timecapsule

Car watching was my favorite thing to do as a kid in the early to mid 60's. Every Sunday afternoon me and my friend would sit on a bench on the side of the main street of the town we lived in. It was a main thoroughfare to cottage country ( Yonge St. The longest street in Canada) We played a game to see who could recognize the make and model first as it was approaching from about a block away. We both got good at the subtle difference between the models and years.

Great stuff. Looks like a fascinating book. I'll keep my eyes open for it at the local used book stores and at up coming swap meets

Yes, this one has certainly had its fair share of wear and tear.

We're on the same page, I change the oil in my vintage cars every 1000 miles too. Every couple weeks it comes on sale at Canadian Tire at 45% off regular price. So why not.

Thanks for all that info. You might be right about fitting various cars. Like I said it sort of screws on to my '30 Hudson wheel. But if I jiggle it enough I can get it to come off without turning it. But it is a close fit.

You're quite right about them looking like a 20's Studebaker hub cap

"Tool of the trade in the 60's" I picked this up a couple weeks ago from a friend. ECO was a Canadian company that supplied service stations with the hand crank air pumps for customers to fill up their tires. They were outside the service station, usually white or red. The sales reps would frequently come by to service them and drop off these free glass oilers for the mechanics. I remember them as a 14 year old working at the service station. One of my jobs was cleaning up all the broken glass and oil off the floor. The mechanics were not all that careful with them to say the least.

I remember using one of these as a kid working at a service station around 1965

Now that is rare!!!

So you think that there were aftermarket companies making hub caps back then?

That was perhaps my first guess, but I don't know if Chrysler came out with the pattern that far back. I'm going to suggest it's for a wooden spoke wheel as opposed to wire wheel, because of it's small size. I find it curious that there is no branding on it. I doubt that there were generic aftermarket companies making hub caps back then.

I think it's very difficult to compare. I agree that in the early 60's it was not common to see a car in it's 40's. I think the economics of the cost of living had a lot to do with it. Consumables were affordable back then. Where I lived the rule of thumb was the first pay check of the month went to pay the rent or mortgage . The second pay check of the month went to pay the essential bills like heat, hydro, up keep on the home, etc. The third pay check of the week was usually spent on things like car insurance, gas, movies, vacation, furniture, etc. The last pay check was put in the bank and was kept there for savings. It was a time of keeping up with the Jones. It was considered normal to upgrade your car every 2 or 3 years. So the newer cars were here, there, and everywhere. The used cars were sold off quite reasonably. When I got my licence in '67 most guys were buying cars for $25, including myself. Those cars were in the same condition that you see the same cars out there now with asking prices of $12,000 to 18,000. The difference is a guy back then could check his paper route money jar and buy one of those $25 cars back then. How many guys at the age of 16 just getting their licence today can say the same and fork over $12,000 -$18,000. for their first car. In '68 I bought a 63 Merc. for $500. That car in todays world would be a real head turner. Flawless body, flawless interior. But back then I just though of it as a nice car at a fair price. Could a 17 year old afford a car that was only 5 years old today? As for the appeal of cars through the years. I'm curious if you had a parking lot full of cars and all the badging was removed from them. How many people could come close to telling what the make and model of the cars were. Since about the late 90's right up until today they all look like a brick of melted butter. I think the curb appeal whet out of the American car industry around the mid 60's. That's when the square look started with the interiors first and then the bodies. Plastic started to invade the interiors. I can appreciate the condition of a car past the 60's and credit the caretaker of such a car. But I'd never give them a second look.

When I bought my 1930 Hudson, it came with a number of boxes with unrelated stuff in them. One thing is this hub cap. It sort of threads on to my wheel, but it's slightly larger. The diameter of the outside of the threads on my Hudson wheel is 66.24 mm. So just over 2 1/2" and the tpi is 16 Does anyone recognize this hub cap?

Corn Head grease can be purchased from a John Deere parts supplier. It comes in grease gun tubes, at least that's the way I bought it. It's really not that expensive. I think I paid about $6 a tube CAN. The steering box takes about two tubes. It's the consistency of peanut butter. It's used on the John Deere Corn Head harvesting machine. I've tried you-tubing that to see exactly the reasoning behind it, but unsuccessfully. Apparently there is an inherent leaking problem in the gear box of that machine that can't be fixed, so they designed a grease that is super thick, until it is agitated. At least I think it's the gear box. That machine is pretty complex. The down side of it is that it's really time consuming to get it in the steering gear box. What I did was to remove the top and push in as much as possible with a narrow putty knife. Then after I put the top back on, I used a large horse syringe and pushed the rest in through the top filler hole. But that stuff defies gravity. So the trick is to get as much in as possible, then put the filler plug back in. Then crank the steering wheel back and forth about a dozen full turns, which the wheels off the floor/ground. Then top it off again, then crank the wheel again, and repeat the process over and over again. Best to do this during the winter, when you can leave the front wheels free to turn, and then do it in your spare time once in awhile. Because this process will take a month of Sundays. Not a job for a nice sunny day when you'd rather be out cruising. It does work though. The steering box on my '48 Chrysler was dripping out of the bottom at the pitman arm and I really didn't want to replace that leaking seal. I've had the Corn Head grease in there for over a year now and it hasn't leaked a drop.

Well so far I'm pleased with the 600-W. I'm not concerned with the Pinion seal, since it is the modern style. It did show signs of leakage when I bought the car, but no sign of leakage since I put in the 600-W. But in this old 1930 Hudson the axle seals are just thick felt washers. Apparently there is a place in Florida that sells new ones. However for now, I cleaned the felts with brake cleaner over and over again. That helped expand them a bit once they dried. I also installed speedie-sleeves on the axle to make an even tighter seal. I intend on pulling the rear wheels to have a look and see if the 600-W is starting to seep past the felts, as soon as the weather get a bit nicer. I've got maybe 1000 miles on it since I filled it with the 600-W. I would think that towards the outer end of the axle where those felt seals are, that there would be very little agitation so I would think the felt seal would not have a tendency to absorb the Corn Head Grease. As for adding it, I'd pull the inspection plate off the back anyways to help extract the 600-W, so I'd spoon in as much as possible from there. Then I would just use a large horse syringe through the add plug hole. Which is the way I filled the steering box on my '48 Chrysler with the Corn Head Grease. In case anyone is wondering, no I can't just upgrade to modern axle seals. The felt seal sits in a U channel, so there is no way to get a modern style seal in there.

That's interesting, thanks for that video. So with that in mind, I'm curious why it wouldn't be recommended (by some people)for early differentials?

Thank you, mystery solved.

Does anyone recognize this hub cap? I'm guessing it's 1930's for wire wheels. The outside diameter is about 7 1/4" and the inside diameter is about 6 5/8"

Good to know, thanks. I was scratching my head about "why" that heat diversion valve (so to say)was even there and why it was coordinated with the throttle plate. The manual say it's purpose is to optimize and better atomize the fuel/air mixture, but that's about all. I thought maybe it had something to do with the carb being an updraft style. I'll just forget about the linkage and set it as you mentioned and leave it at warm. Problem solved thanks, and as I mentioned in my last comment I found a pair of 3/4" frost plugs at napa that will do just fine. Cheers

No, but I have had moderators move a posting of mine to a different category because they thought it was more suited there. It can't hurt to post this in General Discussion and just see what happens. Btw, fortunately I did find frost plugs that were a good fit.

In Hindsight I think I should have entered this post in AACA General Discussions forum, since it is more of a Marvel Carburetor/ Marvel heat control system topic, then a Hudson topic. Hopefully someone who has that authority will do that for me. Cheers

It's my understanding that that open forum is being shut down or phased out in one way or another. Besides I've always had amazing success with the amazingly knowledgeable fellas here at AACA, in the various forums. But thanks for the suggestion.

I have a couple questions about the Marvel carburetor heat control system on my 1930 straight 8 flathead. I've just finished rebuilding the carburetor and as I was installing it, I noticed a hole on the side of the heat control sleeve between the carb and the manifold. Upon further investigation it turned out to be the same thing as a frost plug. I poked a screw driver in the rotted through opening and give it a bit of a twist and it popped out. (3/4" dia.) The one on the other side also had a small hole in it and it too popped out. So my question is why are they there? As you may know the cast iron section has an inner wall surrounded by a cavity. That cavity collects exhaust fumes and warms up that chamber for the gas to atomize efficiently. But what I don't understand is what the purpose of the frost plugs are. I'm guessing maybe it's for access to the inside area. After I pulled them out I saw a lot of flaked cast iron and I spent about an hour pulling out bits and pieces out of there. So maybe the flaking is normal due to the heat in there and as a service procedure you're supposed to pull the plugs out every so many hours/miles, clean it out, and then put in new plugs. ?? The blue arrow shows where the plug was removed. The other pictures are of a spare part that I have that shows how it looks inside. My second question is. Does anyone happen to know the exact length of the linkage between the flap valve in the manifold to the flap valve at the bottom of the heat sleeve? ( red arrow) I'm missing that linkage and I'll have to fabricate one. Push come to shove. I'll just try to make the length so the action of both flap valves open and close in sync. I suppose.

Yeah, I discovered that fact too as I was looking into this mystery. I too wondered what you just said. I don't know much about trademarks or whatever it was that Packard claimed. Perhaps if it was a Patent that they had on the name, I understand that it can expire after a period of time. So you might be right about that.

Yeah, I'd be concerned about that. Coker sent me the wrong ones when I ordered my tires and tubes. The stems on the tubes were offset and they should have been straight. I had the right part number on the order. They just picked the wrong tubes. They sent me the correct ones, no charge for shipping. Mine are very long stems ( close to 3") brass stems. I'd be even more concerned if they were rubber stems.