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My new to me 1933 HC


rageracing

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Thought I would start a thread on the 33.  Problems so far that I see are the hood fitment, broken drivers side front main leaf, half welded, half bolted trans crossmembers because it has 35 drivetrain parts, fuel and brake lines need redone/re-routed, leaking radiator, exhaust.  I bought a 33 engine and trans out of a 33 humpback so that part can eventually be addressed.  Bought new leaf spring packs from Eaton spring, should have them in 2 weeks or so.  Do people usually pull new packs apart to paint the individual springs or just paint it assembled?  They springs will most likely be raw steel when they arrive.

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On the new springs I would just paint them as a unit without taking them apart. Depending on what kind of leaf straps they're using it might be hard to get them apart. That truck does have it's share of woes, mainly due to some previous owner that made that engine change. I guess you got all the brackets and pedal setup with that engine. Shouldn't be too hard to change that out. Looks as though the hood needs to be pulled back and realigned and I see there is a homemade spacer between the hood and grille shell. I would check out the steering box too, last time I saw that truck the steering shaft had quite a bit of sideways movement in it. I was always curious as to what might have happened to the side of the cab where it's all crunched! I was going to help Vic change that engine and tranny before he decided to sell it, never did get my ride. Nice that it has the chrome lamps and grille shell, a little unusual for a truck during the depression!  I think it's a really nice truck for the shape it's in and you should have a lot of fun with it! Just curious, what's up on the lift, looks like a '35-'36 sedan?

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They had cut out the spare tire support bracket that extends between the bell housing and oil pan. I would think a new wiring harness might be a good idea! Trucks in good shape overall though! Maybe that's not a spacer but the front hood hing itself. I didn't pay too much attention to the gap when I saw it.I know that the radiator support rods were replaced so maybe it just needs pulled back. We were planning to pull the front end off to change out the brackets and engine anyway. Nice sedan! Is it all original too? I could have bought an original '34 Dodge 4 door sedan at the Macungie, PA show about 15 years ago but thought the $13,000 price tag was a bit much at the time, so I end up with a '36 which I have invested twice that amount in and am still not done! What's Forest say, " stupid is as stupid does"!

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I really don't know if they even listed a dimension for clearance. I would say that 1/4 in. would probably be good. Don't want it too tight or there might be rubbing due to body flex. It might be that the radiator hose is a little too long, not allowing the radiator to tilt back any farther. I don't know if there is any length difference between the '33 engine and the one that's in there now that's restricting the radiator clearance. There might be oblong holes in the frame mount that will allow for a little more front-back movement of the radiator, at least in my '36 there is. You inquired on the other post about the originality of the grille shell. The chrome parts were available as an option at the time and I have seen several other trucks, even heavy trucks, with the option so I do think that it's original to the truck. I don't know if Vic ever sent for the build card but that would tell you for sure. It is a nice option, really dresses up the truck.

Edited by jpage (see edit history)
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What kind of insurance do you use?  I use Hagerty now but they pretty much don’t allow you to drive the cars.  I was told if I can substitute my daily then it’s not covered.  I don’t do car shows and cruises so that eliminates that.  I called safeco and they seemed to fit the bill but only valued the truck at $5,000 replacement cost.  I told them I’ll buy everyone they can find like that for that price.  So I guess the search continues.

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I currently don't have my car insured as most companies will not insure an unlicensed vehicle. I used J.C. Taylor when I had my Model A but they required a professional appraisal   for anything over $10,000 at the time. I think that all of the antique insurance carriers limit mileage but I never found that a problem. If you insure under regular insurance, then you'll have to have it updated to meet current regulations and have it inspected every year, also, I'm not sure what they would base the value of your vehicles on. I think there are companies that may insure it for declared appraised value, but I'm sure that would be price prohibitive and would probably cover the vehicle itself and have no liability clauses. I've found that with a few exceptions ,  the PA driving regs. for antique vehicles are far more restrictive  and ambiguous than the insurance company's but having said that, I never had any problems with the traffic laws and drove my A quite a lot without issue. Good hunting!

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I believe that my insurance covered the car much like regular car insurance but it did limit the mileage per year and you could not haul for contract, people or anything else, and you could not use the car for regular conveyance. I think that there may have been some others but I can't remember. The state, at the time, allowed only daylight driving, unless the car was equipped with sealed beam lamps, 2 tailamps and turn signals and limited the usage to 1 day per week but it was never specific as how that was to be determined. I never had any issue. i always tried to avoid driving at night, although I did do some, more so for the safety aspect of not being seen by other drivers. Maybe some of the restrictions have changed as my insured period was from 1984-2000. Most of the antique carriers offer addition coverage for hard to locate parts and special services. i would check out each company first just to make sure that you get the best deal. I think at the time, I paid a yearly premium of around  200-250 for $12,000 coverage. I'm sure it's quite a bit higher now!

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16 hours ago, rageracing said:

The problem I have with Hagerty is its only covered during car shows and parades.  Hoping a different insurance would be more driver friendly.  Safeco seems to be good that way but I think their valuation is way to low.

I was told occasional use was OK.  They just don't want to be insuring your daily driver.  I use one of my 6 cars about 2 or 3 times a week to drive about 7 miles round trip to go to the hardware store or Post Office and then a short joy ride to exercise it.  I never go to car shows and doubt I put a collective 1000 miles on my collection a year.  You probably have a better chance of getting in an accident going to some far off car show or worse yet a parade where no one is paying attention. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 years later...

Finally trying to get some time with the truck.  Had the steering box rebuilt.  I was really sloppy and was missing internal parts.  The tie rods, drag links and king pins are bad.  Especially the drag link, I don’t know how it actually stayed together to be honest.  Is the parts interchangeable with the 33 dodge cars.  Rare parts doesn’t list the parts for the 33 HC?

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  • 11 months later...

 

I'm going to do the same with my steering box. Have adjusted as far as I can go and it still has slack. 

The spring bushings and king pins helped the driving and steering a lot. 

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I located a set of tie rods from Andy Bernbaum and they are the same as the ones I removed from the truck.  So the HC pickups are different then the cars.  The boots are dry rotted, anyone know of someone that can redo the boots?

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  • 4 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 4 months later...

The trans is in pretty bad shape.  Doing a rebuild.  It’s not proper trans for the year but I wanna get it together to keep using till I can build proper rolling chassis for it.  I picked up a 34 KC frame that is in nice shape.  Are the 33 and 34 frames the same minis front axle?

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Anyone know what this trans is out of?  I check end play in countershaft and it’s at .038” which is way too much.  I already had the input shaft out.  I believe this is correct so I need to reshim to get it back down to .002-.008” end play.  Anyone know of a source for shims?  Throw out bearing is wasted too.  It messed the clutch up as well.  Doesn’t spin too good lol

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Everything is apart and cleaned and I’ll be bead blasting the case hopefully Monday or Tuesday.  Tracked down a small parts package so that is on its way.  Have some Ammco bronze stock coming in to make new bushings.  

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