Pete O

Clunky is in the eye of the beholder. And clunky is subject to 65 years of changing tastes. When the second generation T-Bird first came out, it was an immediate sales success, selling at a pace 4x that of the 2 seater. It was very low and sleek compared to contemporary cars, and the doodads and sculpturing on the flanks was the style of the day.

If the 37 Pontiac is anything like my 51 Buick, the bushing on the control arm end is a metal on metal contraption, no rubber bushing there. Those coarse threads are used to screw in the outer part of the bushing.

Very cool battery, an absolute relic from the past. But as for it being original only once, what good is it if it doesn't function as intended? "Original" batteries held a charge and were usable in automobiles. What you have here is just a very large and heavy paperweight in its current condition. If it can be brought back to life and made to look exactly as it did when it functioned, that would be the best use of this battery IMHO.

Yes, but the ignition will not be activated without a key. It will crank over but will not start.

Or, they would all simultaneously hit the gas (there's an old saying that will go the way of the dodo) and have a 4-way T-Bone in the middle of the intersection.

Ditto. Take the air cleaner off an find the vacuum switch. It will have a couple wires attached to it. There is a spring loaded tab in the switch that rides against a cam on the throttle linkage. As the throttle opens and the cam rotates the tab should spring out which closes the circuit to the starter solenoid. If it stays retracted, there's either corrosion or gunk in the switch preventing free motion. Sometimes a little rap with a screwdriver handle will shock it free

You mention the starter was rebuilt. I had a situation with my starter after it was rebuilt that the armature shaft bushings were too tight, and when the starter got hot it bound up. I took it apart and honed the bushings a little until the shaft would spin freely, and that helped.

Another thing to look at is the primary wire leading to the points. Broken insulation can cause intermittent grounding which can cause loss of power and backfiring.

There was a thread recently about a service offered by a firm in Georgia where they temporarily buy the car from you, obtain a Georgia title or registration (apparently it's easy to obtain documentation in GA), and then they sell the car back to you and you now have a GA document that you can use to register/title the car in your state:

I have an arcing machine. Are you anywhere near the Pocono area of Pennsylvania? If not, you have to seek out an independent repair shop that's been in business for decades. None of the franchise repair shops are going to have one.

You said the brakes were rebuilt. Were the shoes relined? If so, were the shoes arced to match the drums before installation? If not, it could be that you're getting only part of the shoe surface interacting with the drum. This could result in what you're experiencing, too little braking action on light pedal until it just locks up at max pedal pressure.

When I was a kid in 1964, our neighbor had a 1952ish Chevy, while we had a '64 Rambler, and the other neighbor a '62 Ford, and the guy across the street had a Fiat (he was European). That Chevy stuck out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood, and it was only 12 years old! A 12 year old car today is just getting broken in.

The 1930/ 1931 Model A Ford has a brake light switch that has an internal spring that forces the plunger outward and this closes the circuit. The switch is normally on. It is only when the brake linkage pushes the plunger inward that the switch opens. The brake linkage does so when it is at rest. When you depress the pedal, the linkage moves away from the plunger, and the internal spring closes the switch. I wonder if there should be an internal spring in the Lincoln's switch that holds the plunger inward against the tug of the spring we can see in the pictures? Maybe this spring is weak or broken?

I still tune in out of habit, but when I see that customs are going for more money than correct restorations, I tune out.

Interesting. Do you know what makes it work?

Down by the frame in front of the driver in front of the master cylinder. It's a pressure switch tapped into the brake line. It can be seen with the hood up.

Before I bought my '57 T Bird from a private seller, I looked at another that was being sold by a dealer. That car had a fresh coat of undercoating on it. I asked the dealer why they did that, as the undercoating could be hiding a world of problems. The guy just stared back at me. I walked out of the building. Back to the topic at hand, I don't believe that any car came with undercoating from the factory back then. That was always a dealer add on so that they could pad their profit a little.

Yup. Same here. I tightened the cable and slid a length of rubber vacuum hose over the protruding threads of the adjusting bolt to act as a cushion. The sound can travel up or down the torque tube so it can sound like it's coming from way back in the rear when it's starting in the middle of the car.

Dissenting opinion here. It is not cool in any conceivable way for the police to pull you over with lights and sirens just so they can tell you they like your car and take a selfie with it! I don't know about you all, but if a cop were to put on lights an sirens behind me, I'd get so nervous and anxious I might have a heart attack. It is absolutely against police guidelines to use lights and sirens for something as frivolous as this.

Here's the power assist I recommend:

Well, all it takes is one friend who 'borrows' a tool from you and never returns it to make you into the kind of guy Flivverking is complaining about. Once bitten, twice shy.

Two comments: the mark on the flywheel is very faint and hard to see through that window on the bell housing. Get a really bright flashlight and some chalk. Also your reference to the #1 plug is to it's position on the distributor cap, right? The actual cylinders are numbered 1 to 8 front to back.

I have Model As and a Buick. Believe me, there is nothing from the Model A torque tube that will work in a Buick torque tube.

If you're looking for new drums because yours have been cut too thin, there are services out there that reline brake drums. I googled "brake drum relining services" and a couple came up. Here's one: https://www.jgrelining.com/

There should be basic mechanical aptitude requirements for the privilege of antique car ownership. 😁