What did you do to your classic today?

[avgwarhawk]

Adjusted my clutch. Cleaned and lubed the linkage. Got my vacuum actuated wipers working with some regularity and gusto. Installed the period correct 1954 license plate.

[John_Maine]

I didn't do anything to mine, but I did look at a couple of cars. An elderly customer of mine knew I liked old cars so she called me to ask for advice. She sold her garage and the land it was on - 4 car across the street from her house. Her husband had a lot of old cars through his life and when he died in 2009, he still had a '70 Malibu 4 door and a '73 Ford Country Sedan. She has until the end of the month to do something with the cars and wanted to know what I thought. The Malibu was purchased new by her sister-in-law. It needs a good waxing but the interior is perfect. I found one dent in the middle of the rear bumper, no rust that I could find. I don't recall seeing a "350" emblem on the fender so it's probably a 307? I didn't pop the hood to look. Shows 99919 miles. The Country Sedan is black with dog dish caps and white walls, blue vinyl interior. Shows 45000 and I think that's accurate although she wasn't sure. Under the hood, seats, etc., look like 45000, though. Rockers and behind the rear wheels still have black paint on them. She said she had documentation her husband kept but would have to look for it. No rust that I could see and I know these rusted badly in the rear quarters, tailgate and spare tire area. The car was registered and inspected in 2010, but not used since then, but like the Malibu, it has been started a couple of times a year. She said they purchased it from a local funeral home when it was 2 years old. Neither car has been used in winter. A good cleaning and they'd both be sharp cars. I'd buy them if I had room. She wants them to go to a good home, not to someone who's going to use them and ruin them.

[keiser31]

Went for a 3 hour tour today with my local car club of which I am the president. We all cheered that my car was back on the road and celebrated with some ice cream at the local DQ. I think the '31 needs a clutch adjustment, but other than that, it cruised with ease and comfort. It got to be 93 degrees outside and the car did not even sweat.

Edited April 24, 2012 by keiser31 (see edit history)

[jackofalltrades70]

Got my new wiring harness today. Been working on the grill and mustache bar. The mustache bar is ready to start polishing after 7 hours of straightening, and sanding from 100 grit out to 1200 grit (wet). Has a nice shine without polishing, but can still see scratches. Put the body harness from the cowl to the tail lights in tonight. Finally nice seeing things go back in the car, instead of out! Matt:D

[stock_steve]

Yesterday I sent in my registration forms for the AACA Mileage Award Program for my '70 Bug, ref:

http://forums.aaca.org/f213/tourists-mileage-award-program-320350.html

Tomorrow I am planning to drive it out to the Connecticut Volkswagen Association's annual Spring Dust-Off gathering in Mansfield, CT...

[Guest RainierHooker]

Just a smattering of new bits, some important, some not. Shift Knob, Plug and Coil Wires, a thermostat and a few items of houscleaning. I don't think the Buick has ever gotten much in the way of maintenance for a long long time, this is the thermostat that came out of it...

[Marty Roth]

Sunday there was a celebration of the 1935-built Huey P. Long Bridge crossing the Mississippi River just upstream from New Orleans, Louisiana. New Wider lanes are partially built, and were open to the public - The vintage cars were invited to be the last cars crossing the old narrow lanes before the construction crew started demolition of the old lanes to make froom for completion of the new wider lanes.

Last on the Lanes | Facebook

Our 1914 and 1937 Buicks were standouts among the "A"s, "T"s, and a beautiful early Ford V8

We also drove the 50th Anniversary Celebration of this bridge back in 1985 with our 1958 Bel-air.

Edited May 2, 2012 by Marty Roth (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

Busy day in the shop today. The manifolds were dry, although I haven't heat cycled them much beyond firing it up to make sure nothing leaked. Changed the oil, and installed all those lovely new polished stainless acorn nuts on the heads. No, they're not exact duplicates of the originals, but I couldn't find any that were even close. And by the way, stainless 7/16-20 acorn nuts are SCARY expensive (like $100 for the 42 I needed for this car, and that was after several hours of scouring the internet). :eek:

I also cleaned the front carpet and will try to get one more season out of it, then put the floors back in and painted the lower steering column.

Engine looks fantastic with clean manifolds, new plugs and cloth wires, and those shiny acorn nuts, and I wiped down the heads which still look decent. Photographing it was a challenge, but it looks AMAZING in person. I'm quite proud of the results and I finally have an engine compartment that I won't be ashamed to show off.

A new exhaust system is on order, hopefully it will arrive before the May 19 Huron, Ohio tour I'm booked to do, the first outing of the season! Then there's the rebuilt vacuum tank that's ready to go, but the whole fuel system needs to be re-done, and it runs so well I'm loathe to take it apart now that driving season is here. We'll see...

[Guest bofusmosby]

Wow Matt, that looks great!

[Guest straight shooter]

Matt, the engine looks great. What did you use to coat those manifolds?

[Matt Harwood]

It's just Eastwood's satin black high-temperature paint. It hasn't been heated to driving temperature yet, so I don't know whether it will hold up or not, but I prepped them pretty well and put on two coats. If it flakes, I can always re-coat it, but hopefully it'll keep its nice satin black look.

[Guest Kingoftheroad]

Got the back seats & armrests out, gonna free up my quarter windows on my 64 a bit.. Oil, clean, & adjust the moving parts best I can to free things up a bit..

[keiser31]

Drove mine....in the rain. Still fun.

[stock_steve]

...Tomorrow I am planning to drive it out to the Connecticut Volkswagen Association's annual Spring Dust-Off gathering in Mansfield, CT...

Heckuva nice day for a drive in an old VW--and a lot of other folks thought so too, evidently. Here's one sample image from the Connecticut Volkswagen Association's Spring Dust Off, Mansfield Hollow State Park, Mansfield, CT, Sunday, April 29th, 2012:

[Guest bionic1]

Drove mine....in the rain. Still fun.

Always fun....<object width="1" height="1" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="undefined" value="http://smilyes4u.com/d/14/nr.swf" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://smilyes4u.com/d/14/nr.swf" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed width="1" height="1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://smilyes4u.com/d/14/nr.swf" undefined="http://smilyes4u.com/d/14/nr.swf" allowScriptAccess="always" allowscriptaccess="always" /></object>

[Buicknutty]

Continuing to piece together the grille on my '41.

Keith

[Guest ERIS]

drive my beetle for 10 minutes to check if the engine still workin..

[oldcarfudd]

The Susquehanna Valley Regional Group, HCCA, had its Dust-Off Tour. 65 miles of beautiful rolling farmland including lunch, a pottery outlet, and a great collection of mostly Mopar, mostly 50s and 60s, mostly mint condition original cars. 16 cars started, 15 finished. About half were pre-'16, but cars up to 1931 were allowed. Weather couldn't have been nicer. I drove my 1907 single-cylinder Cadillac and the others all passed me, especially going uphill.

Gil Fitzhugh, Morristown, NJ

[Guest stephen48]

Today was a perfect autumn day here so went for a drive in the Olds then took a couple of different angle digital photos of it,seen here.

[keiser31]

Finally fixed the windshield frame mounting on my '31 coupe. The previous owner thought that smaller wood screws would do the trick better than the correct fine threaded, larger screws.....go figure. So, for all this time, the windshield sagged on the passenger side and scraped the paint from the windshield sill. I removed the windshield with the help of my wife and found 9 correct screws to re-mount it. Now the gap around the frame is perfect. Then I tackled another thing that has been bugging me. When I got the car, the passenger side headlamp reflector was bright, but had an extra hole for a parking lamp bulb and had no cork gasket. The reflector would spin around in the bucket once in a while and that extra hole would change positions. I looked under my dresser in my bedroom and found two matching, fairly bright reflectors, so I changed those out, too. Now they match, look great and there is no extra floating parking lamp socket hole.

Edited May 7, 2012 by keiser31 (see edit history)

[Guest Kingoftheroad]

Yesterday, I got my quarter windows working much better and they now move up & down freely without assistance. Another job scratched off my to do list !

[junkyardjeff]

Painted some metal 40s or 50s lawn chairs,I let them go too long before blasting so they are not perfect but will be much more comfortable then the modern versions.

[Guest bucket73]

took the front end apart

[checker]

I got my fuel gauge working for the first time in over 30 years. It was tough to find a 90 to 0 ohm fuel sending unit but perseverance pays off. I had it custom build.

[stock_steve]

Today was a perfect autumn day here so went for a drive in the Olds then took a couple of different angle digital photos of it,seen here.

Wow, that's a great looking car!

[Matt Harwood]

Looks like everyone's out enjoying their cars, but this thread shouldn't die. Last weekend we took the '29 Cadillac on a weekend tour about 60 miles west of Cleveland and it performed flawlessly all weekend. While touring, I noticed that my oil pressure was a little low. At idle, it was the 8 PSI that the manual says it should be, but underway, it was a little over 20 PSI, which is about 10 PSI lower than it was last year. Not concerned, but odd.

If you'll recall from a few pages back in this thread, I installed a new spin-on oil filter in a canister and ran all-new hard lines. Part of that upgrade involved new fittings, and I upgraded to 5/16" hard lines as well, figuring more flow would be better. Turns out that I removed all the restriction and as the system pumps to the point of lowest resistance, in doing so I killed oil pressure. So I took one of the fittings off and replaced it with one that I salvaged from the old setup, and noted that it has a MUCH smaller orifice. Reinstalled it and voila! 30 PSI hot oil pressure, as expected. I love it when it's easy, don't you?

Here are some photos of me, Riley the Red, and Cody at home before setting off and at the Sawmill Creek Resort last weekend before embarking on the tour Saturday morning.

Get out and drive!

PS: I should also note that the Eastwood high-temp satin black paint on the manifolds is holding up quite well. It has turned flat black, so it's not even semi-glossy like in the earlier photos, but it sure looks better than rust. For $15 and an hour of my time, I sure can't complain about the results. They've been heat cycled enough that I'm confident it won't burn off now.

Edited June 1, 2012 by Matt Harwood
Added PS (see edit history)

[Guest Kingoftheroad]

Took my 64 Buick out the other day for a drive. Turned a few heads, burned a little gas, and a little money...lol

[oldcarfudd]

In the HCCA Brass in Berks County tour from Reading, immediately following the AACA judging meet, I put 235 miles on the 1913 Model T in 3 days, including getting caught in a humongous thunderstorm. On the fourth day I put 42 miles on the 1907 single-cylinder Cadillac in beautiful weather, which sounds easy except that it was about the hilliest 42 miles I can remember driving. After I came home, I repacked the oil pump on the 1911 Stanley and got it back on the road. This coming Sunday I'll trailer the Cadillac to the 1-and-2-cylinder tour in western Pennsylvania. Since the host hotel is at a ski resort, I anticipate 5 days of seriously hilly touring, for which last week's 42-miler may prove to have been only a shake-down cruise.

Gil Fitzhugh, Morristown, NJ

[dibarlaw]

I would love to get out with my 25 Buick but still have to get the brakes finished. Just got the rivets today to install the scrubbed and countersunk external band lining. (Some one had driven in copper plated steel split rivets).

Originally just needed to replace the leaking rear seal!

Larry

1925 Buick-25

1937 Buick-41

1987 Chevy S-10

[keiser31]

Drove it to the doctor's office and got a bunch of ooohs and aaaaahs.

[jackofalltrades70]

Keiser31, hopefully because of the car and not what the doctor did to you!

Been working a little on interior. Rebuilt a seat frame and changed it from a standard seat to one with hydraulics and seat switch and courtesy lights. Working on cutting interior panels, busy, busy....Matt:)

[Guest frazer51]

Well I decided that the 1918 Buick needed an oil change before start up. So we have to young boys, 10 and 12, in the neighborhood that had just finished school and are always looking to make some money. I asked what they would charge me to change my oil. The younger one started out with a price so high that it would of been cheaper for me to go to Sears and they furnish the oil. Chubba the younger one kept bringing his price down and when he got to $5 bucks a piece I said you got the job. Paul the 12 year old took out the plug after I got under the car and loosed it for him. Now at my age I looked like a turtle on his back trying to get back up. Paul and I finished the oil change while Chubba checked out my "stuff" in the garage. These boys have been regular visitors at our home since they learned to ride their bikes so I like having them help me out.

[stock_steve]

Got our "beater" (it has "inner beauty") '69 VW Convertible's rebuilt front end professionally aligned at our favorite local auto repair shop, "Stony Creek Auto," in Branford, CT. Photos from the Thursday before Memorial Day Weekend, May 24th, 2012:

[bhclark]

Installed the brake stop light switch on the Model T and it works! (with no directions!)

Gave up on getting the turn signal switch to work.

Celebrated with a trip to the dippy whip!

[Buicknutty]

Still trying to get all the last bits together on my '41 Roadmaster. Got the repaired window regulator/riser almost installed, I couldn't get the upper channel in place, as it was all too tight. I think that I'm going to enlarge the mounting holes a bit. I think that the rollers must be a bit larger than the originals were.

Keith

[keiser31]

Drove it over to our local diner (Debby's) and met up with some old car guys.

Edited June 3, 2012 by keiser31 (see edit history)

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

Nice pictures, John, but your Plymouth is the only old car in the bunch.;)

Ben

[keiser31]

Nice pictures, John, but your Plymouth is the only old car in the bunch.;)

Ben

Yep...my Dodge was the only car there I would consider an antique car. Once, I bought a beautiful low mileage 1955 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer two door hardtop. I was telling my good friend Ash Bishop about my "new" old car. He was used to Model Ts and said, "I thought you said you got an OLD car." To him, it was just a used car.

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

OOPS.

Ben

[TexRiv_63]

It's not what I did for my cars but rather what I did for my garage and myself. I learned many years ago that I couldn't handle the Texas heat like I used to so I installed a window air conditioner in my garage. It kind of worked but it was far too small and I had to let it run a long time to get the temperature down. When I recently retired and started spending a lot more time on my cars I knew I had to improve the situation so I got a larger unit and had it installed yesterday. It's a 230V 18,500 BTU unit with larger outlets and it even has a remote control. We are already well into summer here with temps the last two weeks in the mid 90s. I put it to the test today, it brought temperature down 10 degrees in about 2 1/2 hours and held it all afternoon with outside temps in the 90s - Much better! I am also going to insulate my garage door as it allows a lot of heat infiltration in the morning. The real test will come later when we get into the triple digits but I think this will do the trick.