Pete O
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Posts posted by Pete O
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You asked for our opinion so you'll get what you asked for. Probably not like the guy who posted the Cars For Sale post that you felt the need to comment on. He likely didn't care to know how you felt about '57 Chevys, nor did anyone else who was drawn to that post looking for a '57 Chevy. You are clearly entitled to your opinion, and many people may hold the same opinion as you. But was that really the appropriate place to air your unsolicited opinion?
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Another problem to look for is a sticking vacuum switch on the carb. When you depress the accelerator to start the car, the throttle linkage movement allows the mechanical part of the vacuum switch to close the solenoid circuit. I've had mine stick a couple of times and a tap with a screwdriver handle freed it up.
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Home Depot carries dum dum in their electrical department. It's used for sealing holes where wires/conduits pass through exterior walls.
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We had a presentation given by a Great Race participant at a New England Meet a couple years ago. If you find obsessing over times and speeds and acceleration/deceleration rates fun, then the Great Race is for you. If you like to enjoy the drive and the scenery, give it a pass.
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You mention fuel being puffed out the carb on intake. I wonder if your valves are timed correctly? How did you line up the timing marks on the crank and cam gears when assembling the engine?
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6 hours ago, 3makes said:
From personal experience, stay away from Fords. There are more experts than there are cars.
The popularity of Fords has led them to be probably the most documented antiques out there. I have the Model T and A judging standards. Year by year and sometimes month by month changes to the kind of bolt used to fasten the widget to the johnson rod are documented in detail. Blue ribbon judging at national meets really gets down into the weeds, unlike most other makes where if the color, interior, tires and engine are correct for the car you win a prize. Now, I admit that sometimes Ford guys can tend to be know-it-alls when it comes to their cars, but that's the environment we live in if you want to show your car competitively. But these judging standards can be a real blessing if you do care about the bolt for widget on the johnson rod, and once you go through the bother of looking it up you tend to remember that it's a raven finish, hex head, 1/4-20 5/8 with a 3/8 head.
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On 2/16/2022 at 8:21 PM, Pfeil said:
Datsun 280 "Z"
Reminds me of the Toyota Tacoma Turd (TRD)
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On 4/24/2022 at 12:28 AM, joelj said:
If you haven't tried this already, test the ignition switch on the carburetor. Turn the key to run and use a test light to see if you have power at the carburetor switch. If you do use a jumper wire between the two terminals on said switch to see if the starter cranks. If you don't check the key switch.
My bet is on this suggestion. There's a plunger in the switch that can stick. When you step on the accelerator, the plunger should extend closing the circuit to the solenoid. Operate the throttle by hand and look if the plunger extends. Sometimes a tap with the handle of a screwdriver will free it. Sometimes you need to take it apart and clean it because it can get gunked up because there's a vacuum port on the carb that this switch attaches to. When the engine starts and develops vacuum, the vacuum opens the circuit to the solenoid so the starter automatically cuts off when the engine starts.
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The cause of the oil level being higher than when you last checked it could be that as the car sat unused, the oil drained out of the converter back to the transmission case. It may take some time for the oil to work its way back into the converter. You said you let it run for 15 minutes at idle. Maybe rev the engine a little to increase the oil flow? Maybe shift it through the quadrants a few times?
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If you didn't have spark, you would not be seeing black soot on the plugs. Black soot comes from the combustion of an overly rich mixture. I have an old MoToR manual that describes the Stromberg EE-1 Carb that I think is on your car. It says that it's a two barrel carb, with one barrel for each bank of cylinders. I suspect that one barrel is running too rich.
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"Any ideas what could be wrong...?" Yeah, you're living in a state that requires a smog test on a 45 year old car! To fix the problem, move to a state where sanity still exists.😁
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Does the head of the bolt turn? If you can get it to turn, it's not completely stuck. Maybe get is spinning with an impact wrench, and tap the other end while it's spinning?
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There is nothing more satisfying than finding that needle in a haystack part at a swap meet. I was looking for a lock cylinder for the trunk on my Buick. All I had to go by was the spacing of the tabs for the screws that held it to the bezel. Found a vendor at Hershey that specialized in locks, but they were all mixed up in a big box. I just started picking through them and after about a half hour of digging I found one that looked like it might fit. I had brought the bezel and key with me, and sure enough the holes lined up and the key slipped in. So satisfying.
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Keeping cars out of the central district will just force the cars into the surrounding areas, increasing the congestion in those areas. Typical bureaucratic incompetence.
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Watch the episode of Jay Leno's garage on You Tube on the Lincoln Continental convertible from that vintage to get an idea of just how complex the workings of that top are, and all that can go wrong.
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I have a '51 convertible, and there are no snaps like as described on my top. Of course, the top has been replaced, but the frame is original, and there are no signs of there ever being snaps on the frame.
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Let's see if we can do the math. Atmospheric pressure at sea level in terms of PSI is around 14.7 psi. So 14.7 x the 7.5 compression ratio in the 320 gives you 110.25 psi. But since the compression gauge starts off at zero and not 14.7, I think we have to subtract 14.7 from the 110.25 to get what the compression gauge reading should be, or 95.55 psi. I think that's right.
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Going off topic- my father had a '57 Savoy when I was born. He kept it until '64. Red and white two tone. We have only one picture of that car. It would be great if you could share a picture of yours. What I remember of that car was that it was hard starting. A couple of times dad wore the battery down trying to start it with the whole family in tow.
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The dipstick in my '51 does not have a bend like that.
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On 1/9/2022 at 9:31 PM, Mr. Reed said:
Speaking of the fuel pump. Was it painted the engine color at the factory. Here's a close up of mine.i think I see the blue turquoise paint under the grime. Thanks Nick.
I don't think there was a reply to your question. Yes, the fuel pump was painted engine color at the factor.
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2 hours ago, Pfeil said:
Yes, I can see that the 49 Ford went too far with slab side styling and in 52 Ford brought back modified pontoon rear quarters and Ford lost its #1 lead for 49 to Chevrolet in 1950.
As far as 57 goes; Ford sold 1,522,406 cars in the 1957 model year, while Chevrolet sold 1,515,177. Yet even today there's argument as to what company really sold the most. Chevrolet actually sold more cars during the 1957 calendar year, but those sales included several thousand '56 models. I don't really care because I like both cars, and I also like all fords from 52-59 and that includes the 58. The 58 if optioned right with the right colors can be an attractive car.
If I owned G.M. and I had five divisions, I would choose the divisions that were not as high volume compared to Chevrolet do the experimentation. That is plain good business sense.
So???
Ford went too far with the slab side in '49? I don't agree. It took GM 5 years to catch up! 🙂 I don't see the '51 styling feature on the Ford as a reversion to a pontoon fender, it is more like a stylized air duct. And as for sales figures, like I said in my first post, GM had a majority of the market at the time so American cars for the most part looked like GM cars during the period, and vice versa. But we're looking back with a modern eye to the styling at that time, and sales figures don't impact that argument.
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On 1/13/2022 at 2:21 PM, Pfeil said:
Put a 1957 Ford or Chrysler product next to any 1957 GM product and the GM styling looks half a decade behind the times- with the benefit of hindsight.
OK, let's put a 1954 Chrysler and a 54 Mercury next to a 1954 Olds and see whose styling is old.
Slab sided, Sweep cut fender styling front and rear. An "A" pilar that is swept back past 90 degrees with a vista wrap around windshield. This car makes the other two look like they are from another era. FYI, Buick shares that windshield and roof, and Cadillac won't get an "A" pillar swept back like that until 1957, Pontiac and Chevrolet until 1958.
Compared to Olds and Buick for 1954 The 1954 Chevrolet and Pontiac are two styling sequences behind Olds and Buick.
Ok, I'll give you that the '54 Olds is fresher than the Merc and Chrysler, but the '54 Olds was a brand new design for '54, and the Merc and Chrysler were old designs nearing the end of their lives. Let's compare the bread and butter, high volume makes, Ford and Chevy. From the first postwar design in '49 to the '57, with each new body introduced over the period, the Ford is more "modern" (sleeker, more taut, more lithe) than the Chevy. The only time they were close was in '55, and the '55 Chevy was and is hailed as a breakthrough in styling. But in hindsight, all they did was to catch up to where Ford had already been in my opinion.
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I wouldn't characterize the GM styling idiom at the time as boxy. Rubenesque maybe. Bulky and thick for sure. This is what Harley Earl liked. And this didn't just start in 1958. To my eyes, from the first post-war models, all GM cars had this rounded bulkiness. Ford on the other hand had much tauter and more athletic surfaces that GM did. Chrysler was stolid and boxy in a rounded off corner kind of way. By the time 1957 came around, GM's styling was far behind Chrysler and Ford. Put a 1957 Ford or Chrysler product next to any 1957 GM product and the GM styling looks half a decade behind the times- with the benefit of hindsight. I don't think most people would have agreed with that statement at the time though. Because GM far outsold Ford and Chrysler, GM styling is what cars looked like in the minds of most consumers at the time. Even the crash GM redesign for 1959 (done in reaction to the Chrysler Forward Look) turned out overwrought and bloated in my opinion compared to Ford and Chrysler. It wasn't until 1961 that GM styling became modern and competitive (again, in hind sight) with Ford. But by then, Chrysler had hung onto the Forward Look too long, and their styling was a caricature of itself.
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Wasn't "My Mother the Car" a Porter?
1957 Chevrolet - HOT or HO-HUM
in General Discussion
Posted
Your original post began "I originally wrote this as a comment to a "cars for sale - not mine" post for a more or less original 1957 Chevy Bel Air Sedan..." A plain reading of that suggests that you posted a response to a cars for sale-not mine post. If you did not actually post what you wrote in that ad, you didn't make that clear in what you wrote above.