Rusty_OToole

Some cars do and some don't. If your car doesn't have one it doesn't need one. Does it have a starter button on the floor that you stomp on? The solenoid takes its place on newer cars.

This is the second time I heard of this being done. First time was the starter on a 1955 Dodge Red Ram V8. I can see how the rebuilder could put together a starter with whatever parts he had on hand, forgetting to check for voltage. Worth keeping in mind if you ever have a similar problem. Unfortunately I don't know of an easy way to check this, without taking the starter apart.

The Dynaflow is not as hopeless as you have been told. It is true, it was made for smoothness and luxury ride not performance but you should find it good enough for all practical purposes. One unusual feature is that it does not shift gears, all normal driving is done in high gear which is one reason for sluggish performance. It is possible to manually shift to low but this is not recommended except for emergencies as it causes extra wear on the transmission.

There are lots of cars with peoples' last names like Ford, Olds, Buick but not many with first names. I can only think of 3, Henry J, Harold and Mercedes.

I suspect 114 years of metal fatigue. I know some alloys of zinc or aluminum lose strength over time . I leave it to the babbitt bearing experts if this sort of thing is common with babbitt oor not.

Joe it may not be a big deal on cheap cars like Fords and Chevs that used vacuum wipers, had no radio or other electrical accessories but as you point out, can get very complicated on well built cars like Chrysler products and luxury makes .

We get queries all the time from people wanting to change 6V cars to 12V, add power steering, replace the complete front suspension, replace the engine with an OHV V8 and other "upgrades". Invariably they are amateurs who have no idea what they are talking about, probably influenced by some equally ignorant friend. Also invariably, it would be better easier and cheaper to fix the car properly than gut it like a trout.

Babbitt metal was used because it was hard enough to wear well, but soft enough not to wear the crankshaft. It was also soft enough that small bits of grit or dirt would get embedded in the metal and not gouge the crankshaft. I don't know of any engine that had bronze bearings but some had bronze inserts with babbitt lining. This was an expensive feature usually found on luxury car engines. Cars STILL use babbitt bearings but the babbit is in a steel insert not cast by hand.

A motor of that age would have cast or poured babbitt bearings. Only way to fix it is to take out the rod, and have new babbitt poured into it. Then you need to fit the bearing to the crankshaft with the proper clearance. This is assuming the crankshaft is in good shape and does not need to be ground true. There are specialists who do this work but they are few and far between. No doubt others will chime in with a few names. If you tell us where you are, it will help in finding the nearest bearing specialist. Pouring new bearings in a Model T engine. There are several videos on Youtube about pouring babbitt bearings.

Special, Super, and Century used the B body shared with Olds. Roadmaster used the C body shared with Cadillac. In other words body parts from a Roadmaster will not fit the other models.

"Push the button Max!" POW!

What happens if you press it? My guess is someone retrofitted 4 way flashers but who knows?

See if there is an upholstery supply place in your area, one that sells to small upholstery shops. They usually have replacement coil springs of the type your seat had. You may have to make a new wooden frame and put the springs on it then the upholstery, or have an upholsterer finish it. By the way, doing upholstery is not hard especially a simple seat like a truck would have. The big problem is the heavy duty sewing machine needed to sew the covering. To make it even simpler you could make seats with a wooden frame, thick foam rubber covered in vinyl but it would not be authentic.

Once the fuel line is full it won't make any difference. There were gravity feed systems, notably Ford Model A with its cowl mounted tank and Model T with the tank under the front seat. But they were rare. Most cars, before fuel pumps, had vacuum tanks under the hood. They used engine vacuum to draw the fuel up from the rear mounted tank. One hell of a segue from the main topic.

Not a woody expert but from what I have heard it is recommended to sand or scrape the wood and revarnish once a year using spar varnish or some type of marine varnish recommended for wood. If you do this it will stay good forever, if you let it go for too many years the varnish will start to peel off then you have to strip everything off and start over. You might want to check this with a yacht expert or wood boat authority.

Harley-Davidson went the other way, starting with motorcycles, later adding bicycles to their line.

Don't go by the spec sheet that comes with the carb kit. They are incomplete and full of errors. Get the manufacturer's manual, either Oldsmobile's or Rochester's and go by that. There are 4 or 5 adjustments or settings, if the carb is clean and all the passages clean, and you get all the adjustments right it should work grand for you. Also, the automatic choke springs lose their tension over the years and are best replaced.

Just to confuse things further. In England in the mid 1930s some car dealers took good used Rolls Royce and other high grade chassis, that were 7 to 10 years old, and had them rebodied in the latest style. They were called "replicas" at the time. If you see an old newspaper or magazine advertisement for a "replica" car, that is what they mean.

There were a number of shops in England that could turn out complete custom bodies besides the well known ones that did work for Rolls Royce and Bentley. Take the Railton for example, an American Hudson chassis with English coachbuilt body. In the six years they were produced they had bodies made by seven different makers including Ranalah, R.E.A.L Coachwork and Coachcraft. Few of them survived WW2 but during the fifties, there were new body makers using fibreglass to make sports car bodies.

The Derham story mentions that it was not uncommon to transfer a custom body to a newer chassis when the old one wore out. They had one customer who had a body made in 1927 that was put on 5 different chassis before it wore out. Then the customer had a slightly modernized duplicate made and started over.

Chrysler had a deal with Derham, an old line custom coach builder, to finish their top of the line Imperial limousines. They would repaint them and install a complete custom interior, with a padded top. Of course the customer could specify any color, upholstery material, accessories etc they pleased. Derham also made full custom bodies to order. This went on until the mid fifties when Chrysler began getting their limousines built in Italy. http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/d/derham/derham.htm

You are right, stainless is harder than mild steel but also, the stainless stampings were made after regular production ended for the year and the dies were well worn.

If you want an authentic 1929 appearance get the cloth covered wires with open ends. If you want it to start and run in wet weather get the "Everdry" kit of spark plug galoshes from Bernbaum. A common problem was that water would leak in the hinge seam in the middle of the hood and drip down on the spark plugs. The everdry kit prevents the plugs shorting out. From previous posts it seems your truck is going to be a long way from stock. So don't worry about what kind of plug wires it has. Go with what works. (this does not mean sticking yellow or blue parts store wires on there. Try to be half way decent)

In the province of Ontario, the seller of a used car is required to provide a used vehicle information package which they buy from the government. It gives the details of registration, serial number etc. plus the ownership history of the vehicle plus any liens that may be registered against it. Complete details here https://www.ontario.ca/page/used-vehicle-information-package

I've seen that color before on a certain brand of tool cabinet, sorry I can't remember which one.