unimogjohn

This might be an option. It is a wire, but you could soder or crimp the ends to make a bundle. The vendor says he has other sizes available. Worth an email. Heating Wire Nichrome 19 AWG Chromel A 80 20 Nickel Chromium Alloy 50 Ft | eBay

Unless there is a snap ring on the inside of the cap by the lip, then it is machine folded and pressed on. Trying to get it off manually will mangle it for sure. A lathe in a machine shop may be able to cut the inner stuff off. Then you will have a $100 cap at least.

It is Thursday, August 29th, AM and raining. Back from our little vacation to the Pacific NW. Had a good time, but good to be home. Arrived home to find no Avanti springs. Am communicating with the seller to see what is up. Bummer, this is really putting me behind. But Greg is still moving ahead on getting his IH ready for the show in Dearborn, MI. Here is his exciting report. "IHC R US. Still working on the old Termite Trap. My valve job didn't give the results I'd like. We needed to move the IHC out of the hangar and repeated tries resulted in a no start and several of us pushing it around. Out came the valve cages again for a closer look. Using the old trick of pouring some solvent into the assembled cages, three of the four leaked. After some head scratching and phone consultations, I tried mounting a bar in the lathe, turned it so that the cage would be a tight fit on it, and checked the runout of the angled valve seat. They were out from .003 to .007 thousandths indicated. I set the compound and then skimmed them with a lathe tool. Lapping them in, another leakdown test showed improvement on all but one. Repeated lappings led me to think that a coarser compound would help. Try to find coarse valve grinding compound. A search of all the parts stores, I couldn't even find it in a catalog. A trip to Lee's, he had some. So for two night's I worked on the cage seats and finally last night the solvent leakdown test showed them good enough to try in the engine. That will be tonight. The more I work on the cages, the more I cut the less there is of them. Meanwhile, Scott has been helping .. There is a panel beneath the seat cushion that I didn't get with the truck. He'd make it for me if I had a pattern. Making it proved to be the easy part. The pattern was the hard part. The IHC isn't a rarity in the antique car world, lots of survivors. Getting a good pattern not a problem I thought, so I approached some friends who had access to various examples, even had Coco make me up a list of owners so that I could make some calls. My pleas for help worked out. People went out of their ways to collect dimensions and photos. the result was that there are no two alike. Really. The panels were made from scrap lumber. Few similarities. Made from slats nailed to a couple stringers, hardly any two slats were the same width. Of all the panels, slats could measure from less than 2" to over 12" and on the same panel. I gave all the information to Scott and said for him to choose the example that he liked and that his stock of old poplar would provide. He had my seat bottom done in no time. Then not to be satisfied with that, he noticed that the panel on the side of the seat box was a different color. I explained that when I got it, there were only broken pieces and I'd made a replacement and left it unfinished but it had aged. Mixing up some stain, he worked it in with an artist's skill. And as a final touch, since there are traces of the pinstriping left elsewhere, he took a felt marker and a lead pencil and ghosted them in too. "Not to lie", he says, "Just to blend it in". He's a good man and he's certainly leaving his mark on the fleet." =

It is Monday, August 26th, and still on vacation in Seattle. But while I am playing, Greg is hard at work. Here is his report. "Weekend Report: Nice weekend for International Harvesting. Scott had jumped on the restoration of the underseat tool tray for me. Saturday was get it painted and installed day. Scott with his usual attention to detail had studied the remnants. Originally darkened with a black finish, it was evident that the divider did not come to the top, stopped short. This determined by the paint in the relief. He of course made it like the missing sample. Nail placement, etc. It wasn't until I went to install the thing that I understood why. The divider was abbreviated to allow the workman room for his screwdriver. I also have been working on bringing up the color of the varnish. We'll see what I can do. Today was a good opportunity to drive to Rob's to borrow my Prestolite tank. Might try lighting the headlamps, they're acetylene fired. We'll see. Otherwise, I'm accumulating information on the missing seat bottom. Glenn made time to document the one on the Henry Ford Museum exhibit 1912 model. He took time from the EMF car that he's also trying to have done for the Old Car Festival. Complicating the project is that there don't seem to be any two alike. A lot of random board widths and panel sizes. I'd like to make mine as authentic as possible. And so it goes. Tomorrow starts another week." =

Bill, Ernie is right. It does not sound carb related, but distributor. I had Dave Tbow do my carb and it came back perfect out of the box. But it still ran like crap. Then sent him my distributor for a rebuild. It also came back perfect. That fixed my running issues. it really sounds like you have distributor issues.

There are tons of those clips on Ebay, but I am sure that your local NAPA can easily get them for you. They just need to know the spring size, L/W, that you are looking to wrap.

Chris, remove everything. Only takes a couple of days. Then I will bring up the trailer and we will haul her down to the paint shop. John

Chris, I was quoted $2400 without any bodywork by MAACO. Ended up going with Sterling Hot Rod at $7,000 for the paint job, and $3500 in glass/repair work. Oh, and MAACO does have a warranty, I think two years. My paint job has been on a year now and no problems. Still looks great. It is all in what you want and your wallet can bare. It is a balance. I think that Greg spent about $10,000 on his two Avanti paint jobs by a custom painter, but that also was him doing all the repair work. You should go and talk to the MAACO folks and take a look at the cars they are doing. Their estimate is free. I went to the shop in Winchester.

It is Friday, August 23rd. We are still having a great time in the Seattle area. We visited Joe and Kathy (packick on the forums) and spent some time riding around in his great cars. My favorite is his 1951 Packard, but his 1955 Buick Century was nice too. And here is a report from Greg to keep you all interested. "Puttin' in time on the IHC. Don't remember if I checked in since my visit with Mitch. Derailed his Sunday to perform an emergency valvectomy. Nice looking job of refacing the valves, they didn't take much to clean up, and then the cage seats. They seemed to be out some, but he did the best he could with slightly worn guides. Lapped in by hand they looked very nice. He tried to talk me into the modern multi angled seats, but they've been the single 45 degree for ninety-nine years, not need to change now. Monday I got them installed and adjusted the valves. There was enough room between the valve stem and the rocker arm to throw a cat through. Checking the IHC owner's manual I found that they were pretty fussy about the proper clearance. "No more than 1/32 inch clearance". I found a yardstick with thirty-seconds and got them pretty close. Then I took another compression reading. I'd been disappointed with the 30 and 45 pounds that I had, so now after all this drama I'd gotten it up to 28 and 30. Trimacar referred to this as a deprovement. And as friend Lee said at lunch when I told him the progress...."Well, is there anything else you're going to fix?" With all this moral support, I then Tuesday evening held my breath (expect the worst and you'll never be disappointed), hooked up the battery, turned on the gas, set the spark and throttle, turned on the switch and pulled the crank twice. Despite our best efforts, it still ran. Yesterday evening I pulled it out of the hangar and drove it around to the garden hose. Then I didn something to it I hadn't done in the near thirty years I've had it. Gave it a bath. Pulled it back in, turned it off and pulled the plug on the oil pan. During lunch today, we did a minor glue repair to the seat frame. Whatever/whoever knocked the tool tray out of position had cracked the wood. Now for Scott to find time to repair the remnants of the tray. He's already brought some aged poplar from home. Tonight was make the oil gauge operative. Clogged and choked with gummy oil, I defied the odds and dismantled the gauge to gain access to the inside of the glass tube. New cork and paper gaskets and it's once again in place on the oil pan. In order to try to curtail some of the exhaust smoke, I'm going to a heavier motor oil. A search for 50 wt non detergent led me to the airport. They still make Aeroshell 100, a non detergent mineral oil in 50 SAE weight. Now that it's in I'll try running it again. Another consideration if I keep the Aero oil is whether to add some ZDDP or STP. Aeroshell 100 contains no zinc, but then again the IHC doesn't have flat tappets. We'll see. Avanti 5054? well, ordered parts (alternator pulley, rebuilt voltage regulator, stainless trunk release cable and a carb overhaul kit) came in and await. Haven't yet gotten any scrimback foam. And something off topic. Once upon a time when I worked for White Post Restorations, I saw an act of nature. A wasp was flying along and minding his own business when it was overtaken by another bug. This thing wrapped it's long legs around the wasp and flew away with it. Some time later I happened to see this critter and got a good look at it. Long legs, fly like head with large eyes, a snorkel like mouth, and smallish wings. At the time it was content to be held in my hand, then flew away. That was thirty years ago or more. Never knew what it was. I hadn't seen one since and have always wondered about it. Yesterday I saw another here at Hyde Manor. A search of a Virginia bugs site finally answered that question. It's a Robber Fly. Known for stalking and attacking other pests. Zooms in for the intercept, grabs them, then stops by a local branch to light with his catch and suck their insides out. Mother Nature, she's a ****." =

Welcome to the fourms! As you have probably noticed we have several Avanti's being blogged. Always glad to have another. If you have any questions pls. ask. A wealth of knowledge on the forum. Yes, and we do love to see pics of your progress, before and after. Tell us a bit of the history of the car to start it all off. We all love a good story, and every Avanti has a story to tell.

Still Monday, PM. Headed off to the hardware store and picked up the two grade 8 bolts and nuts for the two ends of the spring to secure it to the body. And in today's mail a little box came, which contained the poly pads for the springs to mount to the axle. They are from Prothane Motion Contol. They look great. I did a test fit on the old spring and they are an exact fit. Looks like they are double the thickness of my old worn out and smashed rubber pads. For future reference they are item 7-1708-BL, f-Body SPG PAD (multi) up/lr 68-69. And they are made in the USA. Still no sign of the FedEx truck with the leaf springs. We will be gone anyway so hopefully they will come during the week and will be waiting for me upon our return.

It is Monday, August 19th, AM. There will not be any Avanti or car projects for me for the next week. Heading off to Seattle to see family and friends. But before we leave I am going to head to the local old time hardware store and pick up a couple of grade 5 bolts for the new spring so I will have them when they arrive. But we have a weekend report from Greg. "A good and busy weekend. Avanti 5054: Good news and bad. I finished the interior quarter panels, began the installation. Careful alignment and piercing the mounting screw holes with an ice pick. I scored bullseyes with the existing holes in the body every time. Decided to proceed with the gluing of the vinyl to the window openings. That's when things went South. Stuffed with cotton like they did it, the result was nothing but wrinkles. The upper part of the panels follow the roof line and form a concave. The vinyl doesn't. It's nice to have a sample Avanti nearby. Those panels, done by Phantom, are beautifully wrinkle free. I remember at the time of installation that they were vinyl over foam. A call to Trimacar Coco, it is a product called scrim backed foam. With the foam glued to the cardboard backing and the vinyl glued to it must be the trick. So the panels came back out, and I ripped them apart to wait until I find a source for the foam. I hope somewhat locally, hate to think I need to mail order a bunch of it for two panels, The old Harvester also received some attention. I pulled apart the valves for inspection and touch-up. They didn't look bad, but that's why I need friends like Mitch. Today he interrupted his busy schedule to perform an emergency valve job. While not bad for ninety-nine year old equipment, they did show the seats to be out. I felt good trusting them to his capable hands. Reground and lapped in, they are now ready to put them back in the engine. I feel better about them now. It will be interesting to see if they improve the compression pressure readings. Nice job and thanks Mitch until you're better paid. I really wanted to visit the Kinzer, Pa engine show on Saturday, but you can't be everywhere. It would have been nice to see the running of their 1913 engine, a single cylinder of 52 thousand cubic inches putting out 14 thousand foot pounds of torque I'm told. Maybe next year. Finished with a nice meal by Barbara, a good weekend." = Here is the event that Greg missed, me too. I will have to put it on the calendar for a visit sometime soon. http://www.roughandtumble.org/ And here is the engine he wanted to see. Impressive to say the least.

You can get the red fluid to come back down by banging it on something with give to it. I used my spare tire and banged it several times. You will see the fluid start the to come down. You may have to do this maybe 15 to 25 times to get it all the way down where it should be. Once it is down never lay it flat or the fluid will migrate back to the top over time.

Ernie, where were you when I needed you? I forgot about the Saws-all. I have one too. Dummy me. I will remember that hint for the other side if I have to redo it. Bill, congratulations. We need pics of both cars.

Roger is right. I am going to put on copper anti-seize on the entire length of bolts when I install them. It might help the next guy. And Chris, I would bet you that you will end up cutting them off like I did. I did check the movement of the upper spring shackle bolt on the rear of the car, it moves freely so at least it is not frozen.

Still Friday, still PM, but I am done with car stuff for the day. While I was under the car I again see a big pool of blood from the power steering. So decided that I am going to renew the power steering system with a rebuilt pump and all new hoses. I called Lee Helm at Bob's Studebaker Parts to see if they had all the hoses. He said that he has them on the shelf. So sending a check tomorrow, $180 which includes shipping. I have heard that his quality and fit/finish is very good. I will have to talk to Greg as he just replaced all of his on the black Avanti. I think that I have to drop the steering if I am going to get everything tight.

Still Friday, but PM. The battle has been won, and I have the wounds to prove it. Picked up the commercial grade impact wrench from Wayne. Also took a tour of his 64 Corvette. It is coming along. He has the engine compartment all done and the engine wired up. He has the dash in with all the wiring completed. It really looks nice. His plan is to have it running by the end of the weekend so he can move it around under its own power. He is tired to pushing it. Got back to the farm, procrastinated on the Avanti, by changing the oil on the 02 Trailblazer. With that done and having no more excuses I put the impact gun on the bolt and with 155 psi backing me up, I hit the trigger. Nothing! The bolt just laughed. Now where is that cut off wheel. The grinding wheels are thin enough to go between the bracket and the shackle. However, the grinder cannot get all the way through the bolt as the case hits on the fender, bracket, etc. So you have to move it around to get it to cut through the bolt. After about fifteen minutes of sparks flying, and moving a myriad of positions, the front bolt finally gave up. Now on to the back, This is going to be easy as it looks to have more room. Not! The bolt is deeper in the bracket than the front and there is only one angle to get to it. And the shield on the grinder does not allow it to go deep enough into the bolt. So I got my little die grinder out, made a makeshift mount for the wheel and after much struggle the back bolt was cut through. The spring gave up and dropped to the floor. So the removal of the spring saga is finished. Now, onward to the new install when the springs arrive. I have no doubt that the installation will not be easy. Here are some pics. You can clearly see the broken main leaf. I inspected the break, and it is a very old one. It has been this way for a long, long time.

I certainly hope that Bill can find a fix to his brake issues. I want to see that Avanti back on the road. I am sure that with Ernie's help he will solve the riddle. Bill, keep us posted. It is Friday, AM, August 16th. Heading off to Wayne's place in a few minutes to pick up that impact wrench. One way or another the spring is going to drop today. But before I head out, here is Greg's report. "Another great day here at the Hyde Manor. The weather has that hint of Hershey in the chill air. Hard to believe it's just around the corner. Where has that year gone?! The day job is still the Wright V8 connecting rod death march. So far so good. Don't think I've cut anything too small yeat. Latest effort is to make some tooling to allow me to trim the side tapers with a milling cutter. Avanti 5054? I've gotten the rear quarter upholstery panels ready to install. The IHC? The whole time I've had it, it's had a soft cylinder. Noticeable when cranking, I was never sure which one of the two. Made a trip to Rob's last night to borrow his compression gauge. Today I made a fitting to adapt the gauge to my spark plug size. Tonight I tried it out. Compression readings: cylinder #1 shows 45 lbs. cylinder #2 is 30. The engine, having horizontal cylinders, is really prone to pumping oil into the cylinders, and I'm sure that typical to the period, has no oil control rings. All these years and without an overhaul hasn't been good to it. Now it tends to smoke out the exhaust until the accumulated oil in the cylinders burns out. With the compression pressure readings I can now begin the search for the cause for the loss and decide what I can do about it. I've removed the valve cage assemblies and they are soaking over night in solvent. I'll start by hand lapping the valves to their seats. Initial inspection shows them to be reasonably good as found. I'll also try lapping each cage to the block to make sure no pressure is leaking by their seats. Upon reinstallation I should perform another pressure check to see if there's any change. What I'd really like to know is what the compression pressure is supposed to be. It isn't in any literature I've ever seen and don't know anyone whose recorded it. Had a nice surprise after work today. A local aviator type dropped by to visit in his Piper Cub. Belting in to leave, he bid me come along for a tour of the neighborhood. A beautiful day and who was I to say no. About a half hour we cruised over Mosby's Confederacy, low humidity meant we could see forever. Temple, take in your trash can. And of course tonight it was time to feed the flying squirrels. They are pretty unpredictable. Sometimes only one or two, times like tonight they fly in two at a time. Like flying chipmunks, they light and scoot around the back of the tree. I understand it's an evasive manoever to escape their owl predators. Anyway, tonight they were landing and scampering all over that tree. One, now two have little problem with taking a peanut from my fingers during the feeding frenzy. Chirping, squeeking, chasing each other, it gets pretty frantic. Tonight I added a new wrinkle to their program. Peanut butter crackers. At first they were afraid of them. Finally one of them took a taste and decided to hold it down with it's paws and lick it. When the others, and there were at least five, started to crowd in on the action, it took it in it's mouth and scampered up the tree. The others were still leery of the things, but when another did the snatch and run with one, it didn't take the others long to cash in on them. Funny, seeing those little things dart up the tree with a mouth full. Wish there was some way to catch this on film. Well, enough shop for today. Time to head up the stairs and sit down. I'm reading a book that involves some ancestors. Members of the 18th Virginia Cavalry. They've just held off the Federals trying to capture General Lee's wagon train as they were retreating from Gettysburg. A train of wagons containing wounded and materials that stretched for eighteen miles, they were trying to recross the Potomac River to the safety of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia but a swollen river and the loss of their pontoon bridge to Federal raiders prevented that. Their backs to the wall and General Custer's troops bearing down on them .....it's time for another exciting chapter." =

This one should be pretty close. Fisher Body Service Manual 1931 | eBay And this one would be very helpful for the mechanicals. Chevrolet Car Truck 1930 Shop Manual Chevy | eBay

It is Thursday, August 15th. Today I thought that I would try "fire". Well, a lot of smoke and burning rubber but no movement with my impact gun. While it was still hot I sprayed in some Kroil and it was sucked into the shackle. I will let it sit and see if I can detect any movement. Will try again in about an hour. I am still faced with getting a wrench on the back bolt if I can get it to turn. The Italians to the rescue. In high school, some 50 years ago, I had a Fiat 600. Love the little car as it got almost 50 mpg on the freeway, about 35 in town. Gas was a whopping, 35 cents. I could go anywhere. I drove it for a couple of years and then traded up to a 1959 Austin Healy Sprite. To the present. In my tool chest I still have a Fiat branded wrench from that car. It is 17 mm, and it fits the 11/16 nut. It is also a very skinny wrench, and I can get in on that bolt if it turns just a smidgen. Tomorrow morning will pick up the commercial impact gun from Wayne. If that does not work, then it is cutting time. Here are pics of the leaf spring pads, the Fiat wrench, and a Fiat 600 like the one I had.

Mike, I buy mine, NOS, on Ebay. This is just a sample. Vintage Metalic Water Pump Packing Metalpac | eBay Usually, it is a soft metal covering a graphite rope. I have never had a problem with the old stuff.

Chris, pics are there now. Had trouble loading them. Our broadband has been up and down, and very sloooooooooow today. If mine are frozen, yours must be like rocks. I would be scared to even look at them. Oh, and I ordered a set of rear leaf pads that are poly, not rubber. So after I get the bad side done, I will replace the other side with the new pads just to keep everything balanced. I am sure I will have to order some more U bolts. But being an optimist I will start soaking the nuts with Kroil and use the little Dremel and wire brush to clean up the threads to see if I can save them.

It is Wednesday, August 14th. No springs yet, maybe tomorrow. I did get down to Carquest and picked up the U bolts. They were a perfect match, $18 for the two. I did talk to Wayne today. He has a commercial air impact gun that I can try. He recommended burning out the rubber or at least getting it really warm to break the bond of the rust. So will try that tomorrow. Will have the fire extinguisher at hand. I am also going to take a wrench and thin down the head so I can get it on the bolt. I did see that Chris said that the body was put over the complete frame with running gear so no wonder the Studebaker installers had no problem in putting on the springs. Still on the hunt for spring rubbers, but I know that Studebaker International has them. Not going to order until I get the spring to see if I also have to order bushings for them. Here are pics of the U bolts and the shackle nut, and how close it is to the frame rail.

The dash light is common to many manufactures in the late teens and early 20s. The pointed helmet one that you have was certainly used on my 23 McLaughlin Buick. The come in two styles, the point head that you have, and then in a round headed flat type.

David, I looked around Google also. Found out that this is probably from the Automobile Legal Association (ALA) Automobile. From what I can found they were a precursor to the AAA. They were centered around the NY area in the early 1930s. Thanks for the help.