The Car Which Shall Not Be Named III (1935 Lincoln K)

[Matt Harwood]

Cleaned, painted, and installed with a new gasket. I've decided not to worry too much about painting the distributor itself, since it will be hidden under that cover and I don't want to get paint in any of the critical areas. Might be better to just leave well enough alone...

 

 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[AB-Buff]

48 minutes ago, Matt Harwood said:

Cleaned, painted, and installed with a new gasket. I've decided not to worry too much about painting the distributor itself, since it will be hidden under that cover and I don't want to get paint in any of the critical areas. Might be better to just leave well enough alone...

Hey you have come to far now to cut corners.  You will see that distributor and you will wish you had painted it.  So take a halve hour and paint it, easy to do now.  You can mask the Auto-lite tag off, you will thank me later 🙂

Lynn

Edited May 18, 2021 by AB-Buff (see edit history)

[jdome]

On 5/16/2021 at 9:03 PM, Matt Harwood said:

Unfortunately, the Clum switch isn't the problem--I think mine is mostly intact. It's everything else. My car doesn't have the knob or the parts inside the steering column to connect to the Clum switch. I don't know when or why the change was done, but they neatly eliminated all the parts on the hub so it's invisible. Check it out:

 

Original

 

My car

 

Sticking with the dash-mounted switch is probably simplest, even with the significant reverse-engineering needed for the wiring. I'm confident I can figure it out, it'll just take some time and maybe a little trial-and-error. I'm planning on installing a power "bus bar" like I did in the '41 Buick to supply power to things like the fog lights and fuel pump, and why not the headlights, too? Then I can pull power from the proper side of the ammeter as Bloo suggests. Just a little creativity required.

 

I'm actually much more worried about the stand for my distributor, which seems to have gone missing...

 

The HI/LO/PASSING Beam switch on the steering hub was common on lots of mid priced and Classic cars of 34/35. Cadillac had the same knob below the hub as you show in the orig photo with a matching knob above the hub for hand throttle. I believe "Duro Lite" or something like that made them. The switch box was either mounted on the bottom of the steering box or mounted to the chassis with a mechanism of leavers and rods between them. The switches are not too complicated to repair. Typical corrosion problems or the detents are worn and the switch wont stay in position.  

[Matt Harwood]

And the air cleaner is back from powdercoat. Looks great. Need to refill it with copper mesh and replace the jute "hat" inside the lid.

 

[Matt Harwood]

First, here you go boys--I had to buy a box of 50 of those stupid screws to get one:

 

 

Second, thanks for the advice @AB-Buff; painting the distributor was the right call. Not at all difficult and it looks much better.

 

 

And finally--FINALLY--I found a set of trim rings. Big thanks to my friend Gary (@dpcdfan) for finding a correct set of six 17-inch trim rings in his vast cache of parts. You might recall that Gary was also the guy who supplied the gorgeous chrome Imperial wire wheels that Melanie's wagon currently wears. So a big thank you there!

 

I've burned through quite a bit of time and money trying to track down trim rings for this car and currently have about 17 of them on the shelf, including the six I got from Gary. Only these fit correctly and I'm thrilled. That means it's time to figure out what kind of tires I'm going to put on this thing. It's currently wearing a set of Denmans that were probably installed in the 1970s, and while I like the look, they're hard as rocks and shaped like stop signs. Sadly, Denmans went out of production about five years ago and the last remaining stocks of them are exhausted (not that I'd be interested in installing 5-year-old tires anyway). So I need replacements.

 

  
New trim rings fit right and look great (note it isn't fully installed just because
I didn't want to risk damaging the paint until I know I'm going to use them)

 

First, blackwall or whitewall? I ostensibly bought the trim rings so I could install blackwalls and eliminate the issues with whitewalls turning brown and the constant maintenance they require. Blackwalls are also suddenly quite fashionable. On the other hand, I'm not sure that this relatively plain sedan benefits from blackwalls and as a fellow forum member put it when he saw the mock-up below, "It looks like a Nazi staff car." Hmmm...

 

    
Original photo, mock up (Nazi staff car), and mock up with simulated trim rings. Hard to decide.

 

  
Another mock-up with simulated trim rings on blackwalls.

 

This coupe looks pretty darned good on
Bedford blackwalls with trim rings.

 

And as long as I have the wheels and tires off, I could

always repaint the wheels bright red for some contrast.

 

Question two is what brand of tire to buy? Blackwalls are quite a bit less expensive with a set of four being $400-700 cheaper, depending on brand. Bedfords are available as whitewall and blackwall and have the dual advantage of being the least expensive and not made by [unnamed large antique tire company]. I really like the look of the Firestones, both in whitewall and blackwall, but the aggressive tread pattern might emphasize the Nazi staff car vibe in blackwall. And the BFG is what I have in the sidemounts, so having six matching tires wouldn't be a bad idea, right? 

 

  
Bedfords are least expensive and are a familiar Full Classic tire.

 

  
Firestones look friggin' awesome but blackwalls might be too aggressive?

 

BFGs are what is in the sidemounts. Also available in blackwall.
Either way, kind of plain.

 

I'd really like some feedback here because I'm just spinning my tires here (pun intended). What do you guys think?

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

I like the whitewall. I think it looks more like it did when new. Mike

[dalef62]

Whitewalls would be my choice.

[Grimy]

I love the Bedfords--700 x 18 blackwalls on my 1930 Pierce, and 700 x 17 whitewalls on my 1934 Pierce.  I run 42F and 40R on the 18s, and 40 all around on the 17s.  They've given excellent wear and longevity with NO cracking.

 

Some of my tires are white, some are black.  Generally I like black with chrome or SS trim rings on open cars and coupes, whitewalls on other closed models.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Grimy
added "NO" (see edit history)

[Laughing Coyote]

I would go black walls with the trim rings.  Not enough chrome for whites.  If the light buckets, grill housing and other chrome accents were on the car then I would go whites. Just my opinion.

[Grimy]

I just edited to say "NO cracking"--sort of changes the meaning!  I'll buy them again, and I'm not affiliated.  I do NOT recommend buying the 17" tubes offered by the Bedford dealer:  I had to replace with 16" radial truck tubes (at half the price) because two of the new tubes split along the bonded seams at speed within the first 1500 miles.  With the drop center 17" wheels, 16" LT tubes work beautifully.

[ericmac]

Matt, I for one am a huge fan of black wall tires but on your car the mockup photos cause the wheels and tires to sort of disappear under the dark car. You have a rare car where I vote white walls with the chrome beauty rings on bright red wheels. It's a luxury sedan. A little bling won't hurt it.

[Ken_P]

Matt - I’m in the same boat. I normally prefer black walls, but just put wide whites on my black sedan with black wheels.

 

My vote is the Firestone whitewalls. The tread pattern looks awesome, and the whitewall will offset any Nazi staff car concerns.

[Jeff Perkins / Mn]

I went black on my former Model A.......I vote black with rings.

[Cadillac Fan]

Firestone, either black wall or white wall.  
Regardless, I like the idea of contrasting wheels.  Did Lincoln have a color scheme that would look good? 

 

 

 

 

[38Buick 80C]

I think the car looks excellent with the fire stone blackwall and trim ring. I'm thinking about doing blackwalls on my model 87 when I do the restoration.

[neil morse]

I vote for blackwalls, as I think they will make your car stand out from the crowd and have a more "period" look.  But I don't think you can really go wrong either way.

[AB-Buff]

What would Edsel do?

[Roger Zimmermann]

My preference is white walls! Maybe not on a roadster, but a limousine, yes. Costs more, but anyway those cars are costing more than a simple transportation vehicle.

[TexRiv_63]

With the trim rings, Firestone blackwalls. The tread design is perfect.

[Grimy]

Afterthoughts on the Bedfords:

 

* They are larger in both diameter and width than others so that you'd probably have to drop a size to make them fit within your sidemounts' wells and covers.  Lesters are more dimensionally correct.

 

* They have diamond tread and pie-crust sidewall edging, so look very period-correct.

[Ken_P]

Ok - I changed my mind. If you paint the wheels to match the pin stripe, or some other correct, contrast color, Firestone blackwalls all the way!

[GARY F]

Dark color car and wheels need W/W  and trim rings to set it off.

Edited May 22, 2021 by GARY F (see edit history)

[edinmass]

Matt- the choice is EASY, just do what we do for many of the cars in the collection, Buy another’s set of wheels, and you can then use chrome wires and white walls, or for just an hours work, run painted spokes and black walls. Also, buy a set of wheel disks......then you have multiple permutations for wheel looks. It is after all, only time and money...........🤑

[alsancle]

I agree with George but they do run big.  Black Bedfords.

[Walt G]

The P-A coupe is a perfect example of what works . The darker colors ( even in two tome) and dark colors on the wheels would have been factory and period correct appearance wise. Look at the magazine advertisements of that era. The car companies were trying to sell cars, so the advertisements reflected a product that they felt would attract attention to a perspective /potential customer. Black walls will make some cars look to "heavy". On a club sedan especially with only 4 windows to be seen when in profile it is a sporty looking car compared to the larger 5, and 7 passenger body style. Consider too- will the car have tire covers that are painted fender or body color? will they be metal or cloth. Metal was more of what was seen by 1935 as the car manufacturers wanted the sphere of the spare time at the side in the front fender to not be a bulls eye and distract the harmony of the flow of the design of the car ( which was sitting between the two tires on the ground visually ). The size of the rim on the car is smaller then what was used for the previous 5 + years so the wheel/tire combination make the car look lower in appearance along with the fender style etc. I taught art and architecture  for 40+ years and have collected and studied pre war car styling and design for over 50 years, and was around to talk to some of the designers of that era when they were in their seventies about what,how,why they designed the way they did.

Styling lesson # 13 is finished . 😇  I hope my comments didn't put a lot of you to sleep.

Walt

[AB-Buff]

Matt if you decide to run black walls consider the Excelsior Stahl Sport Radial | 700/750R17. I have an extra set of rims for my 35, probably going to buy a set of these for touring. Nothing like a radial tire.

[39BuickEight]

For me, it’s the trim rings with black walls.  I like the Firestones.  

[Matt Harwood]

1 hour ago, AB-Buff said:

Matt if you decide to run black walls consider the Excelsior Stahl Sport Radial | 700/750R17. I have an extra set of rims for my 35, probably going to buy a set of these for touring. Nothing like a radial tire.

 

Dangit, Lynn, that's the right choice. 

[John S.]

Black Wall

[alsancle]

I was talking to a VERY knowledgeable restorer yesterday and he recommended the excelsior radial also.   Blackwall of course. 

[Ken_P]

Ugh. I know radials probably ride better. Hell, there is a reason that’s what everyone uses. That said...

 

I love the Firestones! 

[TexRiv_63]

23 hours ago, Grimy said:

Afterthoughts on the Bedfords:

 

* They are larger in both diameter and width than others so that you'd probably have to drop a size to make them fit within your sidemounts' wells and covers.  Lesters are more dimensionally correct.

 

The Firestones also run wide, Learned this on my 32 Cadillac and had to ditch the metal covers.

[Matt Harwood]

First, some results from the informal tire poll:

 

Whitewalls: 6

Blackwalls: 8

Either/Or: 4

Buy another set of wheels and do both: 1

 

Hmmm, not really an overwhelming consensus, is it? Personally, I'm leaning towards blackwalls, especially now that AB-Buff has reminded me that I can get radials in the right size for this car. And quite honestly, if I buy whitewalls after spending $650 on trim rings (the purpose of which was, of course, to allow me to run blackwalls) Melanie may get very angry. For the most part, this Lincoln rehab has been a blank check, no-questions-asked operation, but if I spend the long dollar on whitewalls after telling her I need these expensive trim rings so I could save money by using blackwall tires, well, there will be... trouble. And as I said, I like the low maintenance of blackwalls and the more rugged look. They're just tires--in a few years, I can switch to something else if I'm unhappy. So it looks like blackwall radials will be the choice. I have to admit I'm eager to see how it looks.

 

OK, on to other business. 

 

I disassembled the fan hub to clean it and grease the bearings. The felt grease seal, inner race, inner bearing, and retainer wouldn't come out and I wasn't going to use force to get it apart. So they will remain in place and hopefully the felt seal will still do its job well enough. 

 

  

Fan hub mostly disassembled.

 

I can't quite get the seal retainer or the inner bearing out.

 

I cleaned the stanchion and the pulley itself then blew out all the hardened old grease with brake cleaner and compressed air. Once they were clean, I sprayed the parts with a few coats of self-etching primer, then painted the stanchion gloss black and the pully the same cast aluminum as the crankcase. 

 

  

Freshly painted parts.

 

I also disassembled and masked the firewall and frame/suspension and gave it a shot of semi-gloss black. Yes, it's largely a spray and pray job but I masked off the important stuff and it should look great once it's all assembled. This isn't a show car and once it's assembled none of the little stuff will be visible anyway. It turned out pretty well, actually.

 

Frame, suspension, and firewall painted semi-gloss black.

 

Once these bits are assembled, there's not much left to do while I wait for the last few parts. Water pump still in process and exhaust manifold gaskets not yet ready. I have all the gear I need to get it on the test stand and run it, including gauges and a primitive exhaust system. I'll send the flywheel out to be turned this week and go see my friend Gary down at the Canton Classic Car Museum and get new flywheel mounting studs (mine were damaged during disassembly), and then it can be installed as well. I suppose I could clean and paint the carburetor, which is to be gloss black--perhaps I'll do that tomorrow (Sunday).

 

Three of those little mounting studs for the flywheel

were damaged during removal, so I'll need replacements.

Gary at CCCM has some for me.

 

Oh, and this morning, Riley, Melanie, and I took the 1932 Marmon Sixteen to the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum's annual cars and coffee open house. The big touring car was a hit and the museum always has some cool stuff laying around.

 

 

 

This one's for you, Ed.

 

Riley and I examining the airframe of a racing plane

and an electric delivery van from the '20s.

 

By the way, that giant kid is only 12 years old.

He's taller than I am.

 

 

Edited May 23, 2021 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

So it's down to just doing little projects while I wait for these last few parts. I painted the covers for the power distribution box and headlight relay, and they look pretty good. I also bought a set of those little power distribution box cover wingnuts from Snyder's (thanks, @HarryLime), but the Lincoln's threads are just slightly different from the Model A's, so I had to re-tap the wingnuts. Meh, no big deal. Looks good.

 

Covers painted and reinstalled.

 

I also reassembled the fan hub and packed it with grease. I gave the grease cup a few turns to make sure the tube was full, then bolted it onto the engine. 

 

  

Fan pulley is done.

 

One of the few remaining parts that needed some TLC was the carburetor. I rebuilt it when I first got the car three years ago but since I was impatient and just wanted to drive the thing, I didn't bother to do anything to it cosmetically. The engine bay was a mess anyway, I figured I'd just leave it alone and make the mechanically right and not worry about making it pretty. Well, now that I'm trying to make it pretty, the carb needed help. I did some partial disassembly, some masking, and sprayed it gloss black with engine enamel. I also cleaned up the hardware and used new screws and lock washers wherever I could. 

 

    
Carburetor before and after.

 

The only thing I noticed is that one of the return springs seems to be broken. it's wrapped around the throttle plate shaft and ostensibly helps close the throttle plates. There are multiple redundant springs in the throttle system, with this just being one of them, but I'm hoping I can find a replacement. Not quite sure how or where to look or how to replace it since the linkage is permanently attached to the throttle shaft, but I can probably figure it out. Or maybe just add another throttle return spring somewhere in the system to make sure it continues to close like it should. I'll figure it out.

 

This spring is broken and I'll have to find another
as well as figure out how to install it.

 

 

Edited May 23, 2021 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[John Bloom]

On 5/22/2021 at 4:18 PM, Matt Harwood said:

First, some results from the informal tire poll:

 

Whitewalls: 6

Blackwalls: 8

Either/Or: 4

Buy another set of wheels and do both: 1

 

Hmmm, not really an overwhelming consensus, is it? Personally, I'm leaning towards blackwalls, especially now that AB-Buff has reminded me that I can get radials in the right size for this car. And quite honestly, if I buy whitewalls after spending $650 on trim rings (the purpose of which was, of course, to allow me to run blackwalls) Melanie may get very angry. For the most part, this Lincoln rehab has been a blank check, no-questions-asked operation, but if I spend the long dollar on whitewalls after telling her I need these expensive trim rings so I could save money by using blackwall tires, well, there will be... trouble. And as I said, I like the low maintenance of blackwalls and the more rugged look. They're just tires--in a few years, I can switch to something else if I'm unhappy. So it looks like blackwall radials will be the choice. I have to admit I'm eager to see how it looks.

 

OK, on to other business. 

 

I

Blackwalls..............in my humble opinion, Excellent choice.  My logic is that "the car is going to look fantastic with either, and one of those choices makes your supportive wife happier".  

 

Looking forward to seeing some pictures when it happens, it seems like you are getting close.

 

John

 

 

[Matt Harwood]

OK. It's done. New tires are ordered. And the winner is...

 

The Bedford blackwalls!

 

My reasoning? Well, for one they're the least expensive by either a little or a lot, depending on which alternatives I was considering, so if I totally hate them at least I'm minimizing my exposure. Two, I think Ed finally got into my head about radials on early car wheels--I read about Ford welded wire wheels flexing enough to toss trim rings--so I decided against the Excelsior radials (which are also kind of homely). And that leads to reason number three: I don't want to buy tires from [unnamed large collector car tire manufacturer] if I can avoid them. I'll put my money where my mouth is. Or not put my money where my mouth said I wouldn't. Or whatever. Unfortunately, that ruled out the Firestones, much as I like them.

 

And when I finally dragged Melanie into the decision-making process like an 17-year-old girl obsessing over prom dresses, she said that the pie crust details on the Bedfords will probably stand out the most and add some interest to the otherwise dark area. Not bad, Mel. Not bad at all.

 

We'll see how they look. It'll be a week before they get here, so in the meantime I'll put the car in the air, pull the wheels, pull the brake drums, and have a look at the brakes and bearings. The brakes worked shockingly well, so I hope I don't find any nasty surprises.

[Ken_P]

Great choice! I think the Bedfords look much more period correct.

 

Bringing the wife into the process is key too. My wife Jessica is not as invested as Melanie seems to be (granted, it's also your business), but she does have opinions about whitewall vs. blackwall. 

Can't wait to see them mounted up!

[ericmac]

I agree, great choice and for good reasons. I am looking forward to seeing the car in one piece. 

[Matt Harwood]

I'm getting close to being ready to put the engine on the test stand. Took the flywheel to the machine shop a few days ago to be surfaced and should have it back tomorrow. So today I paid a visit to my friend Gary down at the Canton Classic Car Museum. When we disassembled my engine, we damaged a few of those little dowel pins that help locate the flywheel while removing them. Gary says they're probably not necessary but also said his policy is to always do the "invisible" stuff the way the factory intended. I tend to agree, so that meant I needed three new dowels. Of course, they had a drawer full of them, so Gary gave me enough for my crank plus a few spares.

 

Flywheel is secured by both bolts and dowels.

Note that the engine number is stamped on
the flywheel and matches my engine number.

 

  

Dowels locate the flywheel on the crankshaft.

 

Gary hooked me up with spare dowels, plus a retaining
plate and a main shaft seal.

 

While I was there they showed me their test chassis (not just a test stand) where they break in new engines by driving them. They were running a freshly rebuilt 1932 KB V12 that looked a lot like mine but different enough that you could tell it wasn't the same engine (447 CID vs. 414). In the back room was a freshly finished Cadillac V16 convertible sedan that made my knees weak. Gary was cagy about its future, but it was just spectacular.

 

I also need to decide whether I want to re-use my original flywheel bolts or the modern ARP bolts. The factory bolts are slightly longer so that's probably the deciding point. I do have a new pilot bearing as well as a new throw-out bearing, so that will make assembly easy. I'm going to mount the engine on the test stand without a clutch, since there's no need for it just to run it for testing. I ordered a pair of clutch alignment tools in hopes that one will fit and get the clutch installed properly. This weekend I'll install the flywheel and perhaps mount the engine on the test stand and start getting things set up to run. Remflex says my gaskets should be ready to ship tomorrow and I'll check with Jim on the water pump. 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[alsancle]

Well Matt, there is only one of those, so...