Rusty_OToole

Why would the relay rapidly tick on and off? Still suggests faulty wiring or a short circuit to me, what do you think would cause this?

Early cars used plain plate glass. In most cases this was the windshield, most cars were open cars with no other windows. When closed cars became popular in the twenties, safety glass came in. First car with safety glass was the 1926 Safety Stutz. It had glass with fine wires embedded in it. Later they made laminated glass, 2 thin layers glued together with clear plastic in the middle. This was used by Ford in 1928. In a few years everyone was using it. I don't know when tempered glass was invented. It was used on side glass and back windows, never windshields (at least in the US). I know they had tempered glass in the 19th century or earlier but the first car maker to use it was Chrysler in 1936.

Ply 33 has a good point. Old cars with non synchro transmission need very little gear shifting. They are made to drive all day in high gear, idle down to a walking pace and pull away smoothly in high. Once you get into high gear you can stay there unless you make a complete stop and of course, then changing gear is easy.

Visualize 2 gears. Now imagine one of them sliding along its shaft, in and out of mesh with the other one. You can see how they will mesh smoothly while both gears are stopped. But if one is turning and the other is stopped, they will clash and grind together. Now visualize both gears turning at the same speed. They will slide in and out of mesh, the same as if they were stopped. This is what you are trying to accomplish. When you shift up, as you take your foot off the gas, the engine slows down to the same speed it will be going in the higher gear. At this speed, the gears will mesh easily. When shifting down, you must rev the engine up to the same speed it will be going in the lower gear. Tinindian and other skilled drivers can accomplish this without using the clutch. The rest of us use the clutch to disconnect the gears from the motor and allow them to turn freely, and hopefully if we have them close to the right speed they will mesh without too much agony. Once you get the idea, and practice a bit, you will get the knack of it. It helps to keep these facts in mind even if you have a synchromesh transmission as careful shifting will minimize wear on the transmission. If you ever drive an old car that pops out of gear you know the previous drivers were not skilled or careful.

Secret of the M6 transmission. It is a conventional gearbox that shifts itself. Instead of the driver shifting a lever from 3 to 4 gear, a hydraulic piston does the work. There is a little pump in the back of the transmission for pressure. There is a solenoid valve to release the pressure. There is a governor to make it shift at the right speed. There is an interrupter switch to control the shift. There is a gearshift lever. The driver can select HIGH RANGE. the transmission will shift from 3 to 4 and back. Or the driver can select LOW RANGE. The transmission will shift from 1 to 2 and back. Or the drive can select REVERSE gear. Normally all driving is done in HIGH RANGE. LOW RANGE only for driving in deep snow, mud or sand. Starting on a steep hill or driving slowly.

The Fluid Drive and M6 transmission is the simplest and most rugged of the early attempts at automatic transmission. It is usually trouble free. Most common faults can be repaired easily and cheaply. Bad wiring, low on oil, these are the most common faults. There has been a lot of discussion on driving and maintaining these transmissions. If you go to the Chrysler section and do a search for Fluid Drive you will find many threads. There were some long ones in 2008 that are very informative. *** When you say relay do you mean the small box under the hood? That is not a relay. It contains a resistor and a circuit breaker. If it is ticking it must be the circuit breaker cycling on and off - this indicates a short circuit in the wiring. Suggest you inspect for bare wires, broken wires, missing insulation, or wires rubbing against the body.

Never heard of any plans or blueprints. If someone did make up plans it would be for one specific car. Do you want to make a replica of an Auburn boat tail? There are kit cars for this. I saw one, unfinished, sell for $4500 on Ebay last year. This was a complete body kit that someone had given up on finishing. It struck me as a great buy, if that is the kind of thing you like. Complete replica cars commonly go for $20,000+. The kit cars are made to fit on a specially made or modified frame, usually Ford, with Ford engine, trans and suspension.

Have you checked the oil level in the gearbox? It should be filled with 10W motor oil. The fill plug is on the right side. A good substitute for 10W oil, is Tractor oil, TDH type (Transmission, Differential, Hydraulic) ISO22 or ISO32 grade. The gearbox should shift up, even with the wiring disconnected. Check that the wiring is installed correctly. No frayed wires, bare wires or broke wires, all wires must be connected to the right places. The shop manual should have instructions for testing the gearbox controls.

Suggest you get the wires from Andy Bernbaum and the Ever-dry kit of spark plug galoshes too, if you want your car to start and run in all weathers. Parts - Electrical | Andy Bernbaum Auto Parts for Chrysler's cars from 30's to 70's

If you are still concerned about the cloudy rear window here is the fix. Take it to an auto upholstery / top shop. They will zip out the rear window, sew in new clear plastic then cut out the old plastic. This can be done in about 1/2 hour and used to cost $35.

If you think old car and tractor snobs are bad you should see the Vincent motorcycle owners at an antique bike show. They speak only to each other, and then only in part numbers.

I don' t know what a 59 Cadillac had but what you describe is typical of newer American cars. They have a double ground cable. The larger wire goes to the engine, and provides the engine ground (it must be large because of the starter) the smaller wire grounds the body. Older cars had a single ground to the engine plus a separate body ground, often between the firewall and the back of the engine.

This conversation reminds me of an incident that happened a few years ago. There was a weekly get together in a supermarket parking lot on Tuesday evenings. Mostly attended by the same local people. One night a stranger showed up in a 59 Pontiac. It was terrible. The bodywork was lumpy and looked to have been painted with house paint and a brush. The chrome strip down the side of the car was held on by sheet metal screws driven through the chrome at 6 inch intervals. 3 or 4 old friends were standing in a circle chatting when the newcomer barged in and started bragging about his car. We didn't know what to say. While we were trying to think of something nice to say about his heap, he got all huffy and took off. I bet to this day he is resentful about what a bunch of snobs we were. The dumb ass.

I made my own out of black cardboard from an upholstery supply place. They have 2 grades, thin for the bottom of chairs and thick for door panels and the backs of sofas. I used the thick stuff. This was on a 1952 Chrysler New Yorker. It worked perfectly and was still in good shape when I sold the car, 6 or 7 years after I made it. Take your old duct or what is left of it, stuff it with styrofoam or wadded newspaper so it is as close as you can get to the right shape. Measure and make patterns of brown paper. Cut out the black cardboard, score the corners with a dull knife or pizza cutter and fold to shape. Glue and staple together. Reuse the steel flange that goes on the firewall. I prefer to use cardboard to be as authentic as possible. I believe Chrysler used the cardboard type material for sound deadening. You could make a metal one but it would transmit noise from the engine compartment into the passenger compartment. It also occurred to me, to make a fibreglass one. It would last forever. Someone else suggested that the closest thing to the original rough surface, paper mache looking cardboard, would be the brown packing pieces found in the box with new computers, printers and other electronics. They said if you took the pieces and soaked them in water in the bath tub they would flatten out, and can be molded to any shape. I never tried it myself.

Tatra 77 was rear engine, earlier models were front engine (I thought it might be a 57). It does look English but what English car had swing axle IRS and torsion bars in the 30s - 50s? There were the Burney Streamlines but they were rear engine, besides they didn't look anything like that.

I live in a town of 15000 population. There is a good auto electric shop in the next town to the west (pop 8000) and 2 more in another town 50 miles away (pop 60000). No doubt there are others, those are just the ones I have dealt with and know are good. There used to be a great shop right here in town, unfortunately it changed owners, they got rid of all the old testing and rebuilding equipment (it dated to the 30s - 50s) and now it is just another parts store. The point is, they are around if you know where to look. If you do not know, ask the best mechanic you know.

Car culture really flourished in the fifties and sixties. By the mid 70s it was dead. Now it belongs to a small clique of old timers and oddballs. It will keep going like Civil War re enactors but not as a popular phenomenon.

Forgot the Benz use coil springs. Back to the drawing board. Possibly a Tatra?

My guess is Mercedes 170, mid 30s to early 50s (most likely early 50s). Notice the rear bumper in this video Wikipedia Mercedes-Benz W136 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I don't think old car people are necessarily snobbish. People who love old cars, often are a little slow on the people skills. Give us a chance to warm up.

Have you tried your local auto electric shops? They can provide the starter you need or rebuild your old one. Much better quality than the typical parts store starter, and the price is usually lower.

Is that the same company that made the Lower Manhattan? Ha ha

A little of both probably. European cars were built lower than American cars, and artists exaggerated the length and lowness further.

Some people relate better to machinery than they do to people. Keep this in mind around the old car hobby. It helps to go easy and make allowances.

I thought Ford did a study on what it cost to live in Detroit and raise a family, and set the $5 a day wage accordingly. This was part of the work of the short lived Sociological Department that did research on all aspects of employee wellbeing. It had to be abandoned due to protests against "company snoops and spies" by the workers. There are plenty of biographies of Ford. He was a strange, quirky guy and a puzzle to me for many years. I finally figured out the key to his character. He was a 19th century upstate Michigan farm boy and remained one until the day he died. All his inexplicable ideas, his resistance to higher education, his membership in the Masons, his liking for square dances and country music, even his anti Semitism and progressive politics, none of these would have raised an eyebrow if he had been a small town feed and grain merchant anywhere in the midwest. One other quality he had to an uncanny degree, was the ability to stick with a good idea, and abandon a bad idea. I believe this was the secret to his success. If you think this is easy, try it. If you can keep doing things that work, over and over, and abandon things that don't work, you will be a success in all areas of life. Two examples. First, sticking with a good idea. Ford built the Model T for 19 years with minimal changes. Everyone in the industry knew this was the best and cheapest way to build cars but only Ford stuck with it for so long, and this at a time when cars were changing much faster than they do today. Second, abandoning a bad idea. Ford's Peace Ship. In the early days of WW1 Ford announced that he would give up all his money if he could end the war. I believe he was sincere in this statement. He actually chartered a ship and sailed to Norway with crew of ministers, socialists, and do gooders of every stripe, hoping to negotiate a cease fire, working through neutral countries. He sailed to Norway with the ship but after 2 weeks he decided the venture had no hope of success. At this point he abandoned the project and returned to Detroit. This was possibly the most important, certainly the biggest thing he ever tackled. He invested $400,000 out of his own pocket yet he dropped it without a second thought. I don't know anyone else who could have done either of these things. Incidentally Ford's anti Semitism is very overblown. He took up the idea in the wake of WW1, believing as many people did, that international bankers were behind the war. He got the idea from his Jewish socialist friends. In 1927 he realized that he was misinformed and repudiated these views, shut down the Dearborn Independent and even issued a public apology. He also burned a large and costly library of anti Semitic literature.