Jump to content

The phone rang... and then the next car adventure starts

edinmass

By edinmass
in General Discussion

 Share

Recommended Posts

edinmass 25,000+ Points

edinmass

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Update:

 

Been working so much, I haven’t paid attention to almost anything else.......well, seems a tropical storm is now hitting us.......big rain event and 35 mph winds..........so I don’t think we will get the car out this weekend. We still have plenty to do. If the rain does stop, I WILL get the car out and down the road a mile or two. After all this time and work, I have a NEED to get a feel for the car. The only unknown is the cars driving sweet spot.......which is the entire reason I bought the car.......I’m expecting a machine that is comfortable doing 55 mph without pushing itself or having to wind itself up............so, we will get some video up for you later today of the start up. Also we will do a video of the car explaining what we did, it’s construction, and other interesting stuff.

 

 

 

  • Like 3
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
edinmass 25,000+ Points

edinmass

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

GOOD NEWS!

 

We pulled the car apart this morning and what appeared to be a large terrible crack in the pump casting was a round rot hole, in the thickest part of the impossible to repair “thin casting”. We were able to drill and tap the hole, and insert an aluminum bolt with some super duper 3M sealer........it’s drying now. A easy and permanent fix.  The only over road issue we now have is too much fuel pressure........as we are running an electric pump because of the fuel cell.........so now we will install the vacuum tank and run the cell with the Stewart Warner tank, an we should be good to go. Had a bunch of local visitors today.........all impressed that we have it semi sorted and cleaned up. While we still have 100 more hours to go with chasing down the little details, they are now few enough that we have a list............a great place to be. It’s running well, and oil pressure is good.....actually very good. I will get some videos up.........but not till tonight. We also have decided to order the Beverly Hillbillies Halloween costumes for this year...........since Halloween is certain to be canceled........we thought we would dress up and drive around town playing the Ballad of Jed Clampet blaring from the car.......we will certainly look the part. Just need to find a bloodhound to sit next to me. The new old headlights arrived, and they are perfect. They will quick attach to the front plate brackets with a fast plug hidden below the chassis.......I will have halogen headlights that pop on and off in under two minutes......he headlights match the patina of the car, and look ok while leaving the originals in place. Working on the rear tail lights and brake lights. 

Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
  • Like 2
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
edinmass 25,000+ Points

edinmass

Posted
  • Author
Posted
5 minutes ago, Terry Harper said:

Ed,

 

That is wonderful news in regards to the water pump! Fantastic! I wonder if it might have been an 

inclusion in the casting??? Either way that fantastic!

 

T


I think your correct.......more later.👍

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
edinmass 25,000+ Points

edinmass

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Were debating who is Jethro and who is Jed. Peg........my better half is going to be Granny, so Phil’s wife will be Ellie Mae.......what was the bloodhounds name?

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
edinmass 25,000+ Points

edinmass

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

More:

 

 

The reason the car stopped running after twenty minutes. It ran out of gas.........There is a reason it has a 22 gallon tank.........I have the engine running rich.......but just like a V-12 Pierce, this thing sucks the fuel like it’s going out of style.....I’m guessing 7-8 mpg tops. I can no longer run the car inside.....it’s just too much HC’s in the  shop even with the 14 foot door all the way up.....and the shop is 1200 square feet. Going to get more gas now........and will back it outside if it isn’t raining. Need to clean the shop up.....and it will be easier with it outside. Water pump is dry as a bone........even the cheater fix on the shaft for the packing is doing fine. No oil leaks, no radiator leaks, it’s basically ready for road testing and sorting. Now I need to insure it........as I still can’t register or put a plate on it. More later..........

Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
  • Like 3
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
padgett 25,000+ Points

padgett

Posted
Posted

If cannot get a title you might be able to get a temporary plate. Also just keep checking the DMV for an appointment, three times up here I have seen one open for a moment or two then goes back to October. Am lucky, can look at next appointment date at all 6 Orange county offices with one click

Link to comment
Share on other sites
edinmass 25,000+ Points

edinmass

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

We’re having video problems here so I’m gonna have to take a video of the video with my phone to post it. It’s going to be fragmented and the production is not gonna be done very well. I’d rather not post it but I feel I owe it to everyone. I usually never take video, i’m trying to do it with the car running while keeping an ion oil pressure and Fuel is a real problem in my assistant was not around. I’ll see what I can get. Ed

Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
edinmass 25,000+ Points

edinmass

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Update: Impressions.........

 

 

We finally got the car where it was safe to drive around the parking lot. I was all alone so I did not have the ability to shoot video very well. Sometimes I thought it was taking video and it wasn’t in other times it was on photography not on video. With the magneto the stray voltage is so bad that the microphone is automatically turning itself way down and you can’t hear much. The car is obviously very powerful, it’s steers like a baby carriage it is not an exaggeration to say it’s steers about the easiest of any old car I have ever driven. Everything mechanically seems to be working well and it shifts fine I was running on the hand throttle so if you don’t back off the fuel on the quadrant it will grind but if you back the throttle down it shifts like a brand new car. It turns out after running in for a while we have an exhaust manifold to exhaust pipe leak and it’s become a problem pretty quick. It’s loud, it rattles, it’s putting a bunch of smoke in my face. It’s gonna need to be addressed immediately and it doesn’t look like it’s gonna be easy to deal with. I was able to get the electric fuel pump under control. The cooling capacity of the radiator seems fine. It feels like a pre-world war one car. I was wondering if it was possible that it would feel more like a mid 20s car with its construction and over built chassis. Having driven a bunch of early Packerds and Pierre’s Arrows, I would say it steers better than either one of the two, shifts just as easily as both of them, and seems to stop in a similar fashion. It wants to go fast right from the gate. It’s easy to get in over your head on the car with speed. It’s turning radius is remarkably small, I was shocked, and I could easily steer the car with one hand while video shooting on my phone. Suspension seems OK but I need to lubricate the leaf springs. Speedometer works fine and in second gear just above and idle I was easily going 20 miles an hour.. ..... The speedometer reads up to 60 but I’m sure I could bury it in third gear without even trying. My overall evaluation is it’s a screaming fast horses carriage......

 

 

Photos taken one handed driving at 20 mph in lot.........

8AA4F42D-50A0-4B40-BC96-879BCFAEC589.jpeg

94BD0EEE-8C51-4F71-9591-B8C145DD1B3F.jpeg

Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
  • Like 3
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
SC38dls 25,000+ Points

SC38dls

Posted
Posted (edited)

Ed, the well being of the car and you guys is more important than a video. Get it when you can. We are all anxious to see it, but a lot of that is for us to enjoy all your hard work and success. We will wait on pins and needles and try to hold the wolf back !  You’re a mechanical genius not Cecil B deMill! 

Edited by SC38DLS (see edit history)
Link to comment
Share on other sites
edinmass 25,000+ Points

edinmass

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Test video...

 

 

Its not working.....AJ will have to post it, and he’s on a plane for most of the day tomorrow.....sorry for the delay. I don’t do YouTube and other junk like this......

 

I tried fifteen times.....and zero...

Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
Link to comment
Share on other sites
wayne sheldon 25,000+ Points

wayne sheldon

Posted
Posted

Now, THAT I feel for you about. I worked much of my career in cutting edge technologies. I worked with REAL engineers. I was trained by REAL engineers. And I did the work of an engineer like a REAL engineer. Twenty to thirty years ago, I watched helplessly as there was a paradigm shift in the world of engineers. We had what amounted to a code. To make it WORK. To make it SAFE. And to make it usable by "normal" people. In the mid 1990s, at a round table discussion about emerging battery technologies, their care and maintenance, I stood before a room full of engineers, held up my cell phone (the famous "brick cell phone" as it was the size and weight of a typical brick), and proclaimed that in a few years, cellular phones would fit in people's pockets and occasionally explode or start a fire! Most of the people in the room said in alarm that it couldn't happen. But about a half dozen of the eldest and wisest said aloud "it could happen, but I hope to God you are wrong!" I went on to explain the how and why it would happen. About ten years later, I was proven right. Not only did it happen, but my "how and why" was also correct.

Certainly, as with all things to do with human interactions, NOT all computer people and programmers are bad. However far and away MOST are. They are NOT engineers in the old sense. They are gamers. They spent most of their childhood sitting in front of a television set connected to a video-game system. They have no sense of a real world or real work. Everything to them is a game. And that is how they design and program everything. And they keep changing it whether it needs it or not. If a system or program works really well, like shooting asteroids, they change it so it no longer works well. About ten years ago, I had to get out of the business. I just couldn't deal with their mindset anymore.

To this day, and likely for the rest of my life, I have a very LOW tolerance level for bad programming and design.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Terry Harper 10,000+ Points

Terry Harper

Posted
Posted

Ed,

 

You have done an excellent job allowing us to live vicariously through you during this whole process and an excellent job describing the driving experience.

Again, well done and congratulations. There is a lot of satisfaction there and its been a good lesson on how to bring a long dormant mechanical wonder back to life if a safe 

and fun fashion - though I know at times it was not all that fun for you!

 

Thanks again!

 

Terry

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
nickelroadster 5,000+ Points

nickelroadster

Posted
Posted

Ed,

 

I have a big, brown Redbone coon hound that could pass for a bloodhound.  He also howls on hearing sirens and weighs 115lbs.  Let me know if you want me to bring him.  Our local tour group did a Beverly Hillbillies skit and we tried to use him for that but the banquet people did not want him in the building.  His feelings were hurt.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
edinmass 25,000+ Points

edinmass

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Things & Stuff:

 

Interesting thing about this thread......The PM’s and phone calls. I have received calls from perfect strangers who know someone who knows me or someone I am friends with. Four different countries and a dozen states over the past month. Fantastic experience..........the benefits of this thread are long reaching .......interestingly enough almost life changing. I bought another toy indirectly because of this White automobile.........that story in the future..........made a bunch of new car friends who were already friendly with other I have known and toured with. I received a call from Chicago from someone Intrested in their first pre war car........and I actually already knew his best friend from high school for over thirty years through the CCCA, and he has been a guest at our collection down here in the last year......it’s a small world. We must have done five hundred things on the White so far.......and we just took it for a ride in the parking lot. Remember, this was a fantastically original car, never messed with, always garaged, and we have about 300 hours in it already...(do the math at shop rate) ......that’s two experienced people, and we might be half done.......and we really are just recommissioning it........NOT restoring it.......which is ten times the work. I still have timing issues and carburetor issues.........and now that the car can drive and be worked on outside, we should be able to get through them without too much difficulty..........Carbking....aka Jon, has been Intrested in the factory White carb.......so far so good. I expect I will keep it on the car, and use the Zenith as a back up.......will have to find some time to try it out......but the linkage will take ten hours to work out. Normally I wouldn’t bother, but I owe a debt of honor to Jon for all the help over the years he has given me......so in the next few months, we will get to it. The question of what and “who” the car is has been answered.......it IS a horseless carriage............I thought there was a possibility that it may be a cross over from a horseless to an early big nickel car..........It’s not. It feels like a Dual Valve 1918 Piece 38. Steers better, shifts and stops the same. It’s certainly the same size as a 1918 Series 48. Having driven Mercer’s and Stutz Bearcat’s, it has a different feel. It’s a giant powerful large car........different sensation than the super speedsters of the era. Feels like your driving a building down the street.........the car is “loose” .........it reacts to a slight input, but you need to be paying attention.......or you WILL get into trouble faster than you can get out of it. It’s now a question of becoming accustomed to the car..........it’s not anything similar to anything I have driven........it’s sheer joy and terror at the same time. It’s tempting you to go fast, even though you know better. It will burry a early 30’s Caddy or LaSalle..........monster torque,  and a snappy throttle......with two wheel brakes and narrow low efficiency tires..........this thing is looking to give you a problem......it’s not a car for a novice........to much power and torque.........it’s chassis is two hundred percent improved over my 1914 Cadillac with the two speed rear and transverse spring. It’s raw, unrefined, and almost dangerous with its quick steering. It feels like it will come around on you like when you’re  driving a 30’s overpowered car at Lime Rock or Watkins Glen. Respect it or be injured. You need to be in your game every second your behind the wheel. Sort of like a 1980’s peaky two stroke dirt bike.......... Snooze and you lose.....control. It’s a car I refer to as “a hand-full”. Make a mistake and it WILL bite you.......and I haven’t even hit the over drive gear yet. Tomorrow I will............. and we shall apply the shop motto.......”Drive it like you stole it!”  It’s gonna make 60 easily.......the only thing that need to be determined is the pucker factor. Tomorrow we drive the car to the end of the world........Maximum RPM and top end........where will we find the end of the world. My best guess is further down the rabbit hole than I expected.

Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
  • Like 6
  • Thanks 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Terry Harper 10,000+ Points

Terry Harper

Posted
Posted

Oh to the days when one actually “drove” a car. Not simply going along for a brainless ride as we do today. As one sage person so aptly pointed out to me “you have more fun driving less than 10 miles per hour than I do at 100” Such are the joys we have lost to technology.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
edinmass 25,000+ Points

edinmass

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Terry..... There’s nothing like this sensation putting a vehicle into a turn, wondering if you’re gonna be able to get it out ............regardless of the speed. It’s a sensation too few people with gasoline in their blood have experienced. If you’re not driving over your head, then your not driving. Someday when I’m in the nursing home I will write about all the insanity that we have experienced on the road. Sliding a 2 1/2 ton car through the curves steering it with the throttle is an incredible experience. My suspicion is there are 10 people today drawing breath they have done it. Your not living if you’re not taking a chance dying. As Jimmy Doolittle said.........master the calculated risk.

Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ozstatman 10,000+ Points

Ozstatman

Posted
Posted

Ed,

 

I'm delightled that you're sharing all your trials and tribulations with your ownership of the White. Also a shout out to David(Trimacar) for refering Ed to the car and its previous owner. Without that initial contact piquing Ed's interest we all now wouldn't be following along as the White arises in its resurrection. No doubt, even without you Ed, we would have seen the White. But I suspect it would have been some years hence on the lawns of Peeble, or in a similar setting, after it had been beautifully restored to within an inch of its life.

 

Thank you Ed, for preserving this magnificent and rare(dare I say unique) vehicle by only cleaning it as needed, repairing it as needed, and refreshing it mechanically as needed so as to retain as much of its originality as possible. The saying of: "They are only original once" comes to mind and your White certainly epitomises that!

 

PS - A shout out too to Phil, your trusty sidekick, for his considerable input into the White alongside yourself.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...