Fred Zwicker

I recently purchased a 1958 Continental 2-door hard top and cannot find the fuse panel. There is a reference to fuses, but I did not see anything showing the location. Nothing wrong, but want to be sure that I have it figured out for the future. Also I have two (power antennas (one and an extra) and both run up when radio is turned on and run down when radio is turned off, but the antenna motor keeps running on both. Is there some type of delay relay in the radio or in the antenna that shuts off the motor? Otherwise, feel that the motor will burn up. I ordered a wiring diagram on eBay and hope that it will give some information. Thanks, Fred

Looking for a Metric Speedometer (reads in Kilometers) for a 1947 Ford. Thanks, Fred Reply to fzoldcars@comcast.net

They usually show up at Hershey or other flea markets. Or try an eBay search. Some can be a little pricey if in perfect condition. Fred

I have a 1931 Chevrolet Independence 4 door and need an exterior sun visor. Prefer good condition, but fair is OK as long as it is repairable. I am in Ohio. Thanks. Fred fzoldcars@comcast.net

I recently purchased a 1958 Lincoln Continental with treadle-vac hydraulic brakes. Unlike my previous '58-'60 Lincolns, the brakes are very touchy - they work almost too good, but do not seem to release after I let my foot off the brakes. It feels as if the pedal is still being lightlly pushed, but it is not. Could it be that the internal brake return spring are not doing their job, or possibly some other issues? Thanks, Fred

Thanks 19Tom40, How do I locate Mike Dennis in Nebraska? I was unable to locate on Google. Thanks, Fred

Hello Jim, Glad that you were able to order the Optima batteries and have them shipped. In addition to the two batteries, don't forget to use heavy (thick) cables on your '41 Cadillac and check the diagram on the hookup carefully. I bought the short length cable and the connectors at NAPA. I know that some say this dual battery setup is "overkill" but when it comes to fast starting, I like overkill. TP Tools is in Canfield, Ohio (not Youngstown). Canfield is about 10 miles southwest of Youngstown in a rural area. TP Tools at one time sold batteries, but purchases were through a distributor, so not competitive. Fred Zwicker

Yes it does, but once I got it set to "M" (manual) and it worked manually, I am leaving it alone for now. (See my previous post). I may later set some stations in the future. Thanks, Fred

One of the guys on the Early Ford V8 informed me that the push bar below the dial works only when radio is warmed up and car running, as it is magnetic. I followed his instructions and everything with the radio is now working well. Fred

I have a 1939 LaSalle with flathead V8 engine (about the same as your engine). I completely solved the problem by installing two (2) dry cell Optima batteries. See a picture story at this site: www.fzoldcars.com There is a section in that site showing the complete setup and my car starts instantly hot or cold. The small black wires are leads to my Battery Tender, which is very important, as a fully-charged battery will last longer and provide better service. I keep Battery Tenders on all of my cars. Fred

I have recently purchased a 1947 Ford Convertible and the radio was working great with stations adjusted manually. A large "M" displayed in the center of the radio while radio was working. I later pushed the clear plastic horizontal bar and the "M" changed to a "1" and then when I pushed bar again to a "2" and radio quit working. I cannot figure out how to get it back to the "M" (Manual) setting. No matter what I do, the "2" stays in place and I cannot get a sound out of the radio. Any ideas? Thanks, Fred

The National Anthem played every morning around 8 AM, but played on Saturday at 10 AM for those who are not early risers. Most stopped walking and took off their hats while it was played, but others did not bother. Overall the Hershey show this year was as expected (great show). Traffic control in and out of the flea market area seemed to run smoothly, which was a relief. Fred

Thanks a lot David, I am glad that I posted the additional pictures, and am in hopes that your idea works, so after Hershey will get on this soon. If the car was originally supplied with heavier suspension for roads in China as claimed, it is possible that a heavier spring was installed from the factory, or that an extra leaf was added. I still want to raise the back of the car with a jack to see what happens first, but am thinking that your analysis is correct. Possibly others may have run into this in the past and will comment. That sure is a fine Mercury that you have. I haven't seen one of these in that condition for many years - it is absolutely beautiful! Fred

Thanks everyone - I think progress is being made, thanks to so much help. My last post (with pictures) said they were front photos, but they were mixed. Accordingly, for further clarification, I carefully checked the pictures that I took and have marked them "Front" and "Rear" for identification. Maybe this will help. The first step (after Hershey) will be to jack up the center of the rear spring to see if this brings down the front somewhat. Based on this discussion, feel that this will do the trick, and if so, I can then proceed to having the rear spring re-arched. In addition to the front & rear underside pictures, am again attaching the side view picture as the car now sits. It seems to look like a car that has a trunk full of heavy stuff, so am starting to agree that the problem could be the rear spring. While I do not know the history of the car, it is very possible that in the past the front spring was replaced and the rear spring not replaced. Anything is possible. In spite of this, the car rides quite nicely, especially considering it has buggy springs that Ford used for so many years. I wonder why the spring sagged? Shouldn't this be covered under extended warranty? It has only been 63 years. LOL Fred

Thanks everyone for the information. I copied all of my measurements and am taking these measurements to Hershey, along with a measuring tape and flashlight and if I see any 1946-48 Fords, will see how they compare. When I counted the leaves, there seemed to be 11, but hard to count the top one. I took these measurements while laying on the ground, so will put the car on a lift later and take a closer look. I also may stop at Carpenter's tent to see what they can offer. I received the title today and got temporary plates, so after Hershey will take it on the road for a test drive and see if the ride is as good as it was driving around the roads at the Glenmoor show. If so, I will be very reluctant to remove any spring leaves. This gets back to longer front shackles, which is an easy fix and quickly reversible at a later date. The front shocks seem to be original (long arm type), but I am not aware of any adjustments and do not see how these could possibly hold the weight of the car up so high. Here are some pictures taken yesterday of the front spring and shackle area. Fred

I printed this entire post in color. I will be going to Hershey next week, so will keep an eye open in my travels. If anything shows up, will get in touch from the show. This is the type of vehicle that could possibly show up at Hershey (or maybe other shows), so hope that others might also look around for this car this fall. I am really sorry that this happened, but posting the photos, serial number and contacts on this and other forums is a step in the right direction. Fred

Today I checked the springs and shackles on this 47 Ford Convertible. Front and rear springs each have (11) eleven leafs and the Shackles (front and rear) each measure 2-1/2" from center to center of bolts. Since the car is sitting about 2" high in front, am wondering if a few leaves of the front spring could be removed? However am concerned about the ride, as it presently rides better than other Fords of this vintage that I have driven. I am leaning towards adding to the length of the front shackles (might try 5" shackles). This would be a lot easier than messing with the spring. Front end will need aligned afterwards if this works. I also measured from the bottom edge of the shackle to ground: Front is 8" Rear is 9-3/8" Center of spring measurments from floor to underside of spring at center: Front from floor to bottom center of spring is 12-3/8" Rear from floor to bottom center of spring is 13-3/4" Front: I also measured from floor to underside of front fender at center: 30-5/8" Rear: Measured from floor to underside at center of skirt: 13-5/8" I am hoping to be able to lower the front of the car by about 2 to 2-1/2" to make it sit normal. Thanks for the input so far. Attached picture was taken today in our car museum at work. See www.tpcarcollection.com for other pictures. Fred

Thanks for the information - shouldn't be a problem to figure out. Fred

The rear springs are always a possibility, and I thank you for this idea. However, I do not feel that the rear sits too low, as have a side view picture of an almost identical 1947 Mercury convertible with skirts and the bottom of the skirts is just about the center (or slightly below center) of the rear hubcap and appears to be the identical rear height as my 1947 Ford. (The front of the Mercury sits lower however). I have not yet removed the skirts yet, but feel that fender skirts do make a car appear lower in the rear. I may want to count the leafs in the springs for comparison and will do so soon, as possibly someone at Hershey may know the correct spring size and count. I may also talk to the guys at Bob Carpenter and/or other Ford parts suppliers for their input. However, the history of the car being delivered to the American Embassy in China has been documented, and I have to go with the auctioneer's statement that the car was built with heavier suspension from the factory unless I can determine otherwise. Since the car rides so well, I am reluctant to remove leafs from the springs, but it wouldn't be hard to add longer shackles in the front to see what it does to the height. If I don't come up with anything else, may try this after Hershey as this could be done easily and quickly. Thanks, Fred

What about this? We all buy a "new" antique car occasionally. In many cases the previous owner of the car no longer remembers, is deceased, or for some other reason just does not know what type of brake fluid is in the car. Is there any way to tell which type of fluid is in the braking system? I have 3 cars at present in which the type of brake fluid in the car is unknown and eventually will have to add brake fluid, so am wondering what to do? Also lets assume that a car has Silicone brake fluid and (since we don't know), do a brake job and add Dot 3 brake fluid during the bleeding process. What happens then? (Or car has Dot 3 and we add Silicon brake fluid). Certainly this happens on occasion and when it does, what are the results? Thanks, Fred

I recently purchased a very nice 1947 Ford Convertible at the Glenmoor Auction a couple of weeks ago. The car was originally delivered to the American Embassy in China when new and had heavier suspension to handle the rough roads in China at the time. It seems to ride nice and smooth at present, but sits too high in front. I feel that the car needs to be lowered in front about 2" (rear seems OK). 1947 Fords had the "buggy springs", one in front and one in the rear (not coil springs or leaf springs). We were thinking of two ways to lower the car that come to mind: 1) Remove one or more leafs from the front spring. (If so, which ones?) 2) Add longer shackles in front - Present shackles are about 2" center to center on the shackle bolts. Attached are three pictures - the first picture shows the car as it is now. The second picture is the same exact picture, but I moved the front wheels up a bit in photo-shop to approximately where I think they should be (HAG method). The third picture shows a rear view. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated, as we want to get to this after Hershey. Thanks, Fred

A barber shop might also be a good place to leave some antique car literature. Most of us have some older issues that we could spare. Fred

Mark, We have a smaller 12-15 car collection at TP Tools (www.tpcarcollection.com) and have the same issues. Our cars range from 1917 to 1966. See my sig for a list of some of our cars, but not all are listed, as some have been added recently and my son's cars are also on display. Our two latest additions are attached to this reply, along with a picture of the car museum exterior and one of the interior. Removing the fuel from all cars is risky, as could be a fire hazard and what can we do with all of the fuel anyhow? I have been adding a small quantity of Bill Hirsch fuel stabilizer - others recommend Stabil Marine Grade. Both claim to be good for 2 years. Prior to parking our cars for the winter, we got them all running (with the exception of our 23,000 mile original 51 Ford Stake which wouldn't start - we will check into this after Hershey). This fall, all cars were driven a minimum of 20 miles prior to parking, to be sure of a full warmup to minimize any moisture. We try to drive every car at least 40-50 miles per year total (about 3 runs) if possible. Last year we did not do this and had 2 or 3 cars with clogged up fuel pumps, fuel lines or carburetors, which I attribute to the Ethanol in today's fuel. This problem is a "sleeping giant" and will be a big problem to all of us with antique cars - maybe not right away, but eventually will happen. We have an in-floor heated building, but definitely keep anti-freeze in all of the cars, preferring the green anti-freeze based on several recommendations. If the heat should ever fail, would hate to not have anti-freeze in the car and we feel that the rust inhibitor in the anti-freeze might be helpful. We change the oil and oil filters (if any)and lubricate the grease fittings on a regular basis. Most important, we keep detailed records on each car to be sure we don't miss anything. For our older cars, we add about 8 oz. of EOS (zinc additive) to each oil change and try to use oil that has some zinc contents. We check the air filters too (some are oil bath and some of the later cars have paper filters. We also note any odds & ends required for each car for when we find the time. Air pressure is checked too. (The beauty of an old car collection is that you never run out of things to do). We put pans under each car to monitor the leakage and to keep the floor clean. Cars with automatic transmissions seem to leak after they are not driven for some time. Some never leak, or leak very little (just a few drops), but after sitting for several weeks or months, the leakage increases substantially. We have battery cutoff switches for every car and attach Battery Tenders to each to keep the batteries fully charged. This adds to the battery life. We check the water level of each battery and add distilled water only (never tap water). We even like distilled water for our ratiators if necessary to add, although do not recommend filling the radiators to the top on the older cars without an overflow system. Our car museum is open to the public every Saturday and we have an employee check the pans under the cars for excess leakage (if any) and he checks the battery tenders to be sure all are functioning properly. Sometimes (if he is in the mood), he will do a little spray detailing of the cars and keep the place neat and clean. Our museum is located in Canfield, Ohio (NE Ohio 10+ miles SW of Youngstown and about 15 minutes from the turnpike. Fred

It was sold quickly on eBay. Sorry do not have any more, but do have a fender well housing with wheel attachment for a '34 Dodge that can be installed into the fender. I do not remember which side (if any), but it is in my warehouse. If any interest, let me know and I will take a picture next week and post it, along with a price after I see what is there and the condition. I do not have a cover for the wheel/tire - only the curved section that was installed inside the fender and the cast part that the tire bolts to. Fred

The car is all white, with black interior and top. I tried to locate pictures of others on the Internet and found a few (red, yellow, light blue), but not all looked to be original colors either. I did see one car that was a dark green with black fenders and radiator shell and black headlight buckets. While I do not want to get into a full restoration of a restored car, might consider painting the fenders, etc. black. So I am wondering about the choice of colors on this car to retain its original look? (Did Buick even offer a white body and if so, were the fenders, etc. black?). Thanks for the previous replies. I have already sent for information (books) and I plan to send for the Quarterly News Letter. Fred