Topics

Enjenjo, anyone -- Do you have any experience with this product . . .

http://www.aluminumrepair.com/hts528.asp

. . . or any trusted information?

It sounds almost too easy and too good.

TIA

Mike Bishop

SPRING TUNE-UP

Coil springs are essentially unknown in Vern Tardel's Prune Orchard where I spend the bulk of my old-car time and where leaf springs rule. As a consequence, there's a lot of leaf-spring massaging carried out there to fine-tune spring packs, and to make them presentable in the process.

With a large cache of original Ford springs to work from, plus a steady supply of aftermarket pieces harvested from old street rods in for a makeover, we're never short of good "makings."

For good progressive spring action, leaves must move smoothly on top of one another, and that's just not going to happen with most old spring packs I see that are damaged because of a lack of periodic lubrication. The most common damage feature is the groove worn into the top of a leaf by the end of the leaf above it. Under hard jounce (compression) the groove restricts the movement of the leaf on top and can make spring action harsh.

First step, then, is to dress the top of worn springs to remove the notch and create a uniformly smooth sliding surface. I do this on a large belt sander fitted with a quality butt-joint 80-grit belt. I'm partial to Norton belts but there are other good ones available.

Next, I radius the ends of the springs, both to make them pretty and to make them a bit more "progressive" in their resistance. The bottom of the ends are than progressively chamfered so no sharp edge on the end of the leaf comes in contact with the leaf below it.

Finally, just for grins, I chamfer the top of the ends of the leaf 45 degrees for appearance sake. You can get really anal here and do a neat blend of the chamfer, just so long as the customer is willing to pay for your time – or it's your own spring.

This is a typical spring pack from some old hot rod. The main leaf was missing, and the task was to tune up these leaves to be used with a new main with reversed eyes. The lower two leaves are nearly equal in length and would act much like a single thick leaf. You can see where leaves have dug into one another and where they've been trimmed and "dressed" rather haphazardly. Tuning up a spring pack like this used to take a couple of hours. (Just click on the tags to see the images.)




I made a couple of simple fixtures that reduced the work to one-half and as little as one-quarter the time with uniform and repeatable results. The first fixture is a scribe template that permits me to really bear down with scribe and lay an easily seen mark on the hard spring. This fixture has two radiuses, one for the front leaf and another for the wider rear leaf. This is the underside . . .



. . . and this is the top with a leaf in position to be scribed. Each end of a leaf must be scribed top and bottom because the leaf has to be turned over half way through radiussing; this template ensures that the scribes are on the same location both top and bottom.




This fixture bolts to the table of a large belt sander and performs three functions. It sits close to the belt (about 1/32 inch) so the belt doesn't "suck" in a leaf that is having its top dressed to remove wear notches. A 90-degree material rest on the right permits quick uniform radiussing of the ends of the leaves. And the two opposing 45-degree rests permit quick uniform chamfering of the top of the leaf.




Wear notching can be seen on the top of this partially dressed leaf. It will be completely eliminated.




The scribed ends of the leaves are first radiused. This task takes less than a minute for both ends.




The tops are then chamfered, first on one half of the radius . . .






. . . and then the other.






Finally, the lower edge of each spring leaf is given a blended radius so it will slide easily on the leaf below it. No fixture is used for this step; it's largely a matter of feel and appearance.

That hashed up spring pack seen at the start of this thread was massaged into this nice-looking and serviceable collection of leaves with well under an hour of work using the two fixtures.






Like it or not, leaf springs require lubrication, or some synthetic slipperiness such as Teflon-like buttons or sheets, to operate satisfactorily. High-load greases work very well, although they get messy looking on open-wheel cars. It was common practice on leaf-spring dirt cars in the past to wrap well-lubricated springs with tape. This is not only practical, but it's also a neat old-timey touch. And it's a lot more durable and neater today with products like 2-inch-wide 3M moisture-barrier tape than it was in the past when frictions tape was about all there was.

Mike

I was given two Doug Nash OD units for a THM-400. I would like to install this on the trans in my '88 GMC 1-T dually. Any info, including parts sources and rebuilder contacts will be greatly appreciated.

Mike
Santa Rosa

Was the 700R4 installed in BBC 1T duallies at any point, and if so, starting when?

TIA

mike

If you truly love cars you're certain to enjoy Winding Road. It's an e-zine that sets the bar very high in all the essential aspects -- photography, technical content, subject depth, writing, and genuine mechanical excitement.

Veteran motor-journalist/opinion meister David E. Davis is the force behind the magazine and that's all to the good. Love him or hate him, he's always a great read.

Issue No. 11 has just been released, and you can read it on-line or download it as a pdf file. All the back issues are available.

It's a stunner, and it's free! Just log on and "subscribe."

http://www.windingroad.com

Mike

Aisle 7 was given this body a few days ago and would like to know who made it and its applications. TIA, he says.

Mike

As some of you here know, I've been involved with a couple of record-setting flathead-powered LSR racecars for the past 10 years plus. Our speeds haven't occasioned world-wide attention, nor have they earned anyone a red hat, but they've been very respectable in flathead circles.

My part in most of this has been in the shop, early in the motor programs, porting and modifying the blocks and shaping and lightening the crankshafts. It's all essential work for running record speeds, but it's not nearly as satisfying or glamorous as being hands-on with the project all the way to the record run, and certainly not even close to being as neat as being the person in the driver's seat.

I can't afford to build a racecar like either of the two with which I've been associated – the XF/BFCC "Salt 'N Peppers" Rambler or the XF/BFMR "Tardel-McKenzie" roadster. But I think I can afford to build a competitive racer for the XF/PP class – Ford-Mercury flathead/Production Pickup.

I'm starting with a decent frame and some very nice sheet metal from a '53 F-100. I'm going to run abbreviated 3-4 leaf spring packs under the axles, front and rear, which will drop the truck 7-8 inches and place the bottom edge of the front bumper about 3 inches from the racing surface. Other than getting the truck right down on the salt to keep air out from under it, there's not much that can be done in terms of aerodynamics.

The motor will be based on one of the 8Bas I bought from a fellow on the  HAMB several years ago. I'm going to bore it to 3-5/16 inches and fit it with a set of Ross forged pistons. I have a Mercury 4-inch crank that I've  carving and polishing, plus a set of resized/rebushed 8BA rods from my Canuk pal Digger Dave. I zeroed these beauties on the Shadow-Graph and have parked them inside my house ever since. A Dave Tatom center main cap will help stiffen the bottom end, and align boring will tidy up the disparate pieces..

Because this motor is mine, I get to try out some ideas I've developed in my head while doing porting and crankshaft work for other folks. Sensible 4-bbl carburetion is planned for the intake side, and we're going with something not quite so traditional for the exhaust which shows great promise -- anti-reversion cones. More on that at a future date.

Chassis work begins in early February in Kent Fuller's shop in Rancho Cordova, and the engine build will commence in March at Tardel's. I'd be carving on my own crank right now but I've got some paid work to do first so I can afford to go racing.

Enjenjo helped me through some gray areas in my planning yesterday, and I'm sure to have even more questions for which someone here will doubtless have an answer. It's going to be a busy year between now and August, but it should keep me out of mischief!

Mike

I am about to plug a T-5 transmission into my '48 F-1. It's a good 'un (I've opened and inspected it and it looks like it's low time and has had no  apparent abuse). I was told it was from a Mustang 5.0 (aren't they all?!), and I would like to confirm that.  

There is an eight-character alpha-numeric code stamped on the right forward flange  . . . EFI77218

The only numbers that correlate to any T-5 ID table are the last three, 218, which the table identifies as a 1993 Mustang Cobra, which has the highest maximum torque rating (310 lb/ft) of any of the factory transmissions.

Are these numbers simply a coincidence or have I lucked out and scored the very best possible T-5 for my F-1?

TIA for any and all enlightenment.

Mike

Without benefit of am ECU, how does one lock up the converter in a 200R4 when it's in fourth gear?

TIA

Mike

I bought it for what many folks pay for a good project F-1 and count it as one of my smartest buys ever -- plus it's my all-time favortite Ford truck model. He's a true daily driver,.

Mike

As found . . .





Now . . .

I'm doing some research for a possible project and would appreciate any recommendations for instructional videos or DVDs covering flathead motor rebuild, modification, etc.

TIA for your any and all help.

Mike Bishop

I'm doing research for a new book on low-buck hot-rod building (no, not rat rods) and am looking for recommendations on simple electrical systems. I'm an electrical coward and have done only one system, a Centech in my '46 Ford about 15 years ago. It worked fine but was a bit pricey I thought.

I'd appreciate some ideas, direction, reccos from some of you more-experienced hands.

TIA

Mike

I have a chirp from the belt connecting the crank pulley to the fan on my F-1, and it's not responding very well to the usual remedy, i. e. belt dressing. It's a new belt (less than 1K), correctly adjusted, pulleys correctly aligned, and it responds to a generous squirt of belt dressing for about 20-30 miles and then it's back to chirping. (Sounds like the noise the giant, mutated ants made in the '50s Sci-Fi movie "THEM!")

I'm thinking it's probably time to remove the belts, clean and maybe scuff 'em with 80-grit, and clean the pulleys. Not sure if that's the cure; I've always gotten rid of belt chirp by replacing the offending, usually well-worn belt, but that hardly seems smart with new bellts.

Ideas?

Very nice showing by Toyota in Malaysian F1 GP just ended.

Mike

[Crash.Net Radio:- F1 - Stoddart uses legal route to get on track (04/03/2005)]

F1 racing may not get to police its own game down under.  Substantial "cost-reducing" rule changes have been implemented for the '05 season, and all teams other than Minardi have complied. Except for Ferrari, the other teams have signed a petition of sorts to allow the Minardis to run. Ferrari has taken a lot of heat from the talking heads on SPEED CHANNEL, most ardently by Bob Barsha whose understanding of motor racing is rivaled only by that of Elizabeth Taylor, plus much hand-wringing from others in the motor-racing press. 'Let the Minardis race,' they say, adding that they haven't the chance of a snowball in hxll of doing anything of consequence. 'Rules is rules,' says Ferrari, broadly characterized as being mean spirited for their stand.

Anyway, Minardis owner Stoddart decided to use another route to get into the contest . . .

Crash.Net Radio:-     
F1 - Stoddart uses legal route to get on track (04/03/2005)

Paul Stoddart may yet get his wish to race in front of his home crowd at this weekend's Australian Grand Prix, after a local state judge in Melbourne granted a temporary injunction allowing the two Minardis to compete.

Stoddart claims that his legal action in the state of Victoria has succeeded, and that his cars will be able to take part in practice and qualifying on Saturday. The news came in a press release, apparently issued by the team without consultation with the FIA, which read as follows:

"Mr Justice Hapersberger of the Supreme Court of the State of Victoria this afternoon granted an interim injunction to allow the Minardi F1 team to take part in the 2005 Australian Grand Prix practice and qualifying sessions on Saturday, March 5, with the cars in 2004 chassis and engine specification. A further hearing is scheduled for 1415 hrs on March 5, at which time the FIA, if it wishes, can appear and respond to the application."

By coincidence or otherwise, the second hearing takes place just after the end of qualifying.

Sources suggest that the unprecedented action has opened a can of worms and taken the Minardi eligibility affair into a whole new area which has not previously been explored. In effect, the Australian legal system is interfering with the sporting and technical regulations of F1. It could have serious implications in the future, and could even impact upon this weekend's event.

It could also prove extremely harmful for Stoddart and his team, who might no longer be able to count on the support of his rivals.

Stoddart took the action against the FIA stewards after they denied his attempt to run his cars in last year's spec, even if he had obtained the crucial missing signature from Jean Todt.

Senior FIA officials meanwhile had an emergency meeting with race organisers in downtown Melbourne on Friday night to discuss the implications of the legal ruling.

At Tardel's suggestion, I had the cylinder head surfaced. (There has to be a reason why things happen, such as a head gasket developing a leak.) Sure enough, the machine shop had to remove 0.006 to clean it up -- not a whole bunch, but enough to permit the leak to develop.

In hindsight, I think the leak has been developing slowly for several hundred miles, maybe longer.  I had been having to frequently top up the cooling system. There was no external leakage anywhere, and I attributed the loss of water to a dead old radiator cap; flatheads like lots of ullage -- air space in the top radiator tank -- and get things their way with very active coolant flow from the two pumps pushing coolant out the overflow bib on the radiator filler neck. Anyway, I finally got around to replacing the radiator cap (special order even through NAPA and about $12-$15, so bought one from Sacto Vintage Ford for six bux) and had occassion to check only once before THE EVENT, and it looked as though it had lost some coolant (glycol in the mix at this point).

The combustion chambers in the head indicate some erosion in the affected cylinder (No. 1). Cylinders 2, 3, and 4 still have the tool marks from when the head was domed when new. The erosion in No. 1 isn't as extensive at it appears to be in the photo, and the marks can be seen here as well, indicating that it is simply not in an as-cast condition.

Just guessing at the origin of the problem, but I think the head was not quite true when it was installed during the upgrade to the 4-inch stroke (either a Mercury shortblock or a Mercury crank stabbed into the Ford 8BA).

Any other theories?

The steel fire-ring broke and the gasket eroded into a coolant passage.





The valves appear to be in excellent shape, as are the bores . . . just an ever-so-slight ridge. Surprisingly little carbon deposited on the pistons, valves, and combustion chambers.



I'm going to clean it up,  blow out the crumbs, install a fresh gasket, and he will be ready to go . . . right after an oil change and some fresh coolant.

. . . followed by a major miss and great clouds of smoke!

The heretofore trouble-free stock 8BA in my '48 F-1 seems to have a problem, and since I have no serious tools at home and won't be able to tow it to the shop until Wednesday I thought I'd toss out a request for ideas rather than just fret it about it for the next few days.

It's clearly got a dead hole, and a compression test will likely give me a clue about the seriousness of the situation. But I thought I'd get a jump on it today and ask if there might be some classic condition that the very-old hands here might recognize from their own experiences.

It's been running strong -- cool, excellent oil pressure, usually starts on the first cylinder. Drove it to breakfast this morning, thought I detected a bit of a miss on the way home. The miss persisted later when I drove to the gas station to fill up. I restarted the motor, got that big BANG as it started to crank, paused, hit it again at which point it started with a serious miss now and the smoke. Nursed it the few blocks home -- still running cool with good oil pressure, parked it, noticed nothing out of order in the engine compartment.  I should add that the exhaust note is considerably louder, as in a holed muffler.

I was hoping that this motor would take me well into Summer or longer, but I might be building that new stroker before I'd planned to.

TIA for any bits of wisdom or words of consolation.

Mike

The board no longer remembers me, gotta log in manually each time now. Maybe there's a message in that . . .

Tony -- How pricey and difficult is it to overhaul an automatic from a mid '80s BMW Type 3? I was given a well-maintained '85 318i sedan with a balky trans; it doesn't want to upshift automatically.

I'm going to harvest the engine (excellent condition) for a project, and other good pieces as backup for my '84 318i coupe (five-speed) which I plan to keep forever.

So, before I abandon the automatic for a five-speed for the project I thought I'd see if it's something that I could tackle with a reasonable expectation of success.

TIA for your thoughts and reccomendations.

Mike

Mike Higbee asked me what I'd learned about my roadster after living with it and what I'd do differently. I composed a detailed answer but when I attempted to send it it was kicked back because of a "general error," or some such business.

No worries, I saved the answer and am posting it here in case the reply really did not go through to Higbee.
___________________________________

First, a couple of obvious fluffs: The hole in the motor mount should be 1-1/4inches, not 1-1/2 inches; F-1 rear brakes will not fit on the early Ford rear axle . . . you should use Ford passenger car brakes instead, 1940-1948.

Some things I might do a little differently today:

1. I might box the rear frame step with a long fishmouth on the forward end of the boxing plate . . . and add some rear frame triangulators from the Model A center crossmember back to the boxing for the step.

2. I'd get rid of the big sheet-metal cross-rib inside the body -- the one on the floor at the rear of the cockpit -- and flatten the trunk floor behind it. Then I'd section the seat frame a couple of inches and move it back about 4-5 inches.  I'd eliminate a couple of inches of padding from the seat bottom and about 3 inches from the back. I'd cut * holes in the seat base and add Pirelli webbing (as I did on mine after a few months), and I'd tell the trimmer to NOT carry the seat-back upholstery up onto the wood top-snap strip at the rear of the cockpit; make the seat back removable and cover the snap strip separately . . . then I would threaten him bodily if he didn't pay attention this time. I'd also tell him to make the carpet thicker and removable . . . also with the same threat.

3. I'd locate the starter button, light switch, and choke knob in the instrument panel facia rather than under the dash. I'd add turn signals in the rear and control them with a three-position switch under the left edge of the dashboard, with and LED indicator lamp.

4. I'd narrow the crown and back bows for the top a couple of inches and lean the back bow forward another 5-7 degrees. I'd instruct the trimmer to increase the width of the side curtain flaps 1 inch and wrap their forward ends around the top header an additional inch, and add a flap to the header that would drop down over the front of the top of the windshield frame . . . with the requisite threat that must be used with some trimmers. I'd also insist that the rear-window panel be completely removable -- no excuses this time!

5. I'd make the side-curtain frames I designed and have them covered, with the forward edges long enough that they'd wrap all the way around the windshield posts far enough to cover the gap between the post and the windshield frame.

6. I'd put cycle fenders on the front wheels for the rainy weather, of which we have a lot. Maybe just leave 'em on year 'round.

7. I'd make the hood sides I designed to go with the hood top that I added after a few months on the road.

8. I'd swap the Offy triple manifold for a Navarro two-carb super and put the third 97 in the trunk as a spare.

That's about it, nothing drastic, just some refinements with most of them made in the interest of comfort and convenience. For the two-plus years I drove the roadster it was essentially a daily driver, year around, even during the rainy season; the side curtains would have allowed me to drive in the wet without a rainsuit.

I hope this helps.

Mike Bishop

This handsome "prop" greeted us at the end of the pavement.  We were quick and persistent in pointing out what a nice gesture it would be for the production company of "World's Fastest Indian" to donate this to BLM, SCTA-BNI, USFRA et al as a permanent display. The sign is a beauty, heavy-duty construction just like the real thing. Let's hope.

I'll work up a report tomorrow. Lots of nifty stuff going on in both worlds, make-believe and the World Finals.

I got put to work at Tardel's today doing something other than massaging flathead blocks and cranks. Vern has been building this customer car for about 5-6 months -- '30 Ford highboy roadster on a Deuce frame, starting with ASC rails and a Tardel K-member, Brookville body, and lots of good old Ford hardware, totally rebuilt to as-new specs.

There's a first-class flatmotor being assembled in the engine room -- new French block, 4-inch SCAT crank, Oliver rods, 3-5/16 Ross pistons, etc., etc., all very good stuff.

Because of lots of block and crank work facing me, this is one of the first ground-up cars to be built in the Prune Orchard in a long time that I haven't had more to do with. In fact, I thought I was going to miss out on participating on this one altogether . . . until Vern asked me if I would like to plumb the brake system. He knew I couldn't say no; I love doing brakes almost as much as I love porting flatheads! I get to be fussy and work at my own pace and nobody messes with me -- perfect work for an old guy!

Here are some pics that could have been taken in another era. Nothing out of time other than the aluminized insulation. There's not one Phillips-head screw on the entire car.

. . . and getting paid for it!

Vern Tardel has a contract to wrangle the vintage vehicles (20) for a motion picture location "shoot." The working title for the movie is "Burt Munro -- World's Fastest Indian."

Burt Munro was a kiwi -- a New Zealander from Invercargill on the south end of South Island, who bought a new Indian motorcycle in 1920 and spent the better part of his life modifying and racing it. Burt caught salt fever on his first trip to Bonneville in the '50s and raced there most years from then on until 1967 when he set a 1000cc record of 186 mph and change, with exit speeds exceeding 190 mph -- on a 1920 Indian!

Rather than take up a lot of space here, here's a good link to learn more about Burt . . .

http://www.indianmotorbikes.com/features/munro/munro.htm

I had the good fortune to meet and interview Burt in 1967 when I was at Cycle World magazine.  He was a very special and interesting man, one of the more memorable characters I've met in motorsports. So, this is a sort of special karmic opportunity for me, to be even a small part of the movie about Burt.

I'm one of the vehicle wranglers working on Tardel's crew and my F-1 will be on of the vehicles. Best part is that we -- the F-1 and I -- get paid for our time, which is a guaranteed 10 days, although the shoot probably won't take that long if the weather is decent.

The vehicles will be loaded on the transporters early next week and we'll head out at the end of the week in a short bus that's being provided for us. I'll take lots of pics and promise a full narrative when I get back.

Hey, Don. Mike Bishop here. Need to e-mail a message to you but lost your address during transfer to the new computer. If you have my address, please contact me or send me a PM here.

TIA

Mike

Does anyone have a good clear image of a Crower Cams logo you could send me as a jpeg file? I need a good clear image for my sign-painter pal who will be doing the "Bing's Speed Shop" graphics on my F-1. Bing was a major Crower and Offenhauser distributor in NorCal, and we want to reflect this on the paint scheme.

The only logo I have is this one from the last of my Bing's Speed Shop t-shirts.

TIA for any and all help.

Mike

Larry McKenzie backed up Saturday's qualifying run of 165.068 mph with a record run this morning of 167.873 mph for a new two-way-average record of 166.470 mph!

Mike

SCTA-BNI is keeping us stay-at-home types up to date at . . .

http://scta-bni.org/

Someone on the North of 49 team made a licensing pass, probably Mike Cword.

The TARMAC roadster laid down a qualifying pass of 165.068 mph, better than 3 mph faster than the existing record. I'm guessing that they accepted it and went into impound and will make a record run this morning.

Vern Tardel, Larry MacKenzie, and Ed Binggeli spent a day at Flowmaster with the TAR-MAC roadster on the dyno. It was time well spent with several correctable conditions highlighted and another that simply has to be lived with this years.

Several tweaks to the injection system, including a little bit of replumbing and reducing airflow by half, made some substantial gains in horsepower. The huffer is producing 15 psi boost, and the alcohol flow above 4000 rpm is too much for the old mag. A new MSD crank trigger system is recommended, but there is neither time nor dollars to get it done this year.

The solution is to run the motor at 4000 rpm, which was the test speed, to avoid putting out the fire. But it's not all bad . . .

The little 276 incher developed 421 horsepower and 411 lb-ft of torque. Rear-wheel output is 356 hp -- certainly enough to get the record back and then some. Keith built a very slippery little roadster, and with a first-rate ignition system next year it could very likely earn someone a red cap.

You'd never guess it just spent a day spinning a dyno again and again. No leaks, no damage, and compression right on spec . . .

. . . before I unbutton anything.

My normally cool-running '48 F-1 V8 was running on the hot side this morning. I didn't see the gage when it came up, so don't know of it was sudden or gradual. I pulled over, expecting to see a leaking or blown lowere hose (the uppers are new), but the engine compartement was nice and dry. I waited awhile before loosening and removing the radiator cap and discovered that the coolant level was about 1-1/2 inch down from the top of the tank, where it normally is. So far so good, and now I'm beginning to suspect a stuck thermostat might be the culprit.

I felt the upper radiator hoses and tubes (they're new OEM style) to see if one might be cooler than the other, indicating no flow, but both are uniformly warm/hot, as they are normally after the engine is up to normal operating temperature and the thermostats are open.

It seems the next step is to isolate the over-temp condition between banks to check the banks individually, but that won't necessarily tell me if it's a thermostate; it could be a bad sender.

Of course, it could be the gauge acting up but I'm skeptical about that. It's electric and it either works or it doesn't.

Later . . .

After sitting for 2-1/2 hours the engine has cooled down to about human body temperature. The hoses and tubes are cool, and the heads feel the same side for side.

I isolated the senders and the one in the right head drops the gauge all the way to the bottom (cold) peg. The sender in the left head puts the needle just above the the center of the gauge, which is higher than it indicates even on hot days. The ambient temperature during the "overheating" episode was about 70 F. (This eliminates the gauge from the puzzle.)

Any ideas, suggestions, or sure-fire fixes will be greatly appreciated.

:?: A pal found this odd Stromberg among the old Ford car and truck goodies he scored at an old Norht Coast ranch.

The carb has two floatbowls, one on each side, a serious-looking accelerator pump, a Ford three-bolt base, and "Aerotype" cast on the front.

Any ideas?

. . . one weekend each year when the circus comes to Infineon Raceway (real name Sears Point International Raceway).

I love this race, preferring to watch it from the comfort of my living room rather than drive the 20 miles to the track. I attended the race in 1991, when the attendance wasn't nearly what it is now, and even then it was a 1-1/2 hour trip home, 1 hour of which was spent getting out to the main gate. Most of the access roads to the raceway are two-lane county roads through largely agricultural Sonoma and Napa counties, and adjacent Solano County. One of the principal feeder roads is State Highway 37 that traverses the top of San Pablo bay on a *-like roadbed several feet above the water. It's one lane in each direction, only about 7-8 miles long, but a massive bottleneck with no option for turning back or even pulling off to wait out the traffic.

Road racing isn't considered part of true NASCAR racing by most fans, but we Prune Pickers have been loving it since the mid '50s when NASCAR raced at Paramount Ranch (near Malibu) and Riverside International Raceway.

It's time to watch the action!

Got a "friendly" quote from one of the local muffler shops for head and tail pipes and inexpensive glasspacks for my F-1 today. I'm installing Fenton headers on the flatty, so there's nothing tricky about the head pipes. Anyway, the quote was "about four hundred bucks," which more often than not translates as $500.

I know I'm out of touch with real-world prices, as my daughters are quick to point out, but four-hundred-plus smackers seems way stiff for 30 feet of muffler tubing and $50 worth of Smithy's.

Yeah, I know that the tubing has to be bent, swedged, and hung, and I also know that it's little more than an hour's work for a competent installer with an old Huth bender and the necessary card.

And that brings me to the core of my plea for help: Does anyone have a Huth bender and the cards, or maybe just the cards? The benders were sold with a substantial "library" of data cards covering popular cars and light trucks going well back into the '50s. There was also a box of blank cards provided so the installer could create a card for a car or truck when there was not an existing card -- just in case he had another one come in later on. While I'm reasonably sure that Huth provided cards for F-1 and early F-100 Ford pickups, I'm hoping that if they did not, someone on the board might know of one that was made up for a Huth bender of their acquaintence.

I have a friend with an old Huth bender (with no cards) tucked in a dark corner of his sheet-metal shop, and if I can find a card for a 1948 Ford F-1 I can do the work myself, save a ton of bucks, and revel in the satisfaction of achieving both goals.

All I need is a photocopy, or a file attached to an e-mail with the card data and I'm halfway home.

TIA for any and all help.

Taking a cue from NHRA amd NASCAR, F1 is making itself more accessible to American fans, as a way to build interest in F1 in the US.

There's been unprecedented "visits" in some of the garages this week. Just watched an interesting segment in the BAR-HONDA garage that featured their composite gearbox, the only successful one in F1 at this point. The entire transaxle/IRS was parked on a stand so it could be clearly seen, in great detail. The fellow who heads up the gearbox program was interviewed and explained the why as well as the how of this system. It's an absolute stunner of carbon fiber and titanium, beautifully crafted.

All the practice sessions have been shown live (there's one on right now, 7:45 AM PT)), and there have been a great number of excellent interviews with key people in F1.

Qualifying (live) is from 10-Noon (PT) today, and race coverage begins at 9:30 AM PT tomorrow, ending at Noon.  Good stuff and the very best presentation of F1 I've seen, and I'm a looooong time fan.

If you're interested, you'll find the full SPEED CHANNEL schedule here, including reruns. Just select the week and your time zone.

http://speedtv.com/schedule/index.php?m=&d=&week=15&ts=&wholeMonth=&subcat=&program=&usecal=yes&startMonday=1

It's always fun to receive the "tube" -- R&R Book and Speed Week badge, patch, decal, and gorgeous (and 'spensive!) poster . . . almost like Christmas.

I see a couple of classes that look pretty inviting, one with an existing recrord and a couple of bike classes with open records . . . .hmmmm

Does anyone know of a company or companies that make reproduction vintage license plates? I wan to register my F-1 with YOM plates but California Commercial plates are difficult to find, particularly so in pairs and in good condition.

I've found a couple excellent single plates . . . just need someone to re-pop one.

TIA

Mike

SCTA has Sunday's coverage up on their site . . . scta-bni.org

Good stuff, and makes me long for SoCal again . . . well maybe a little bit.

Check out Jim Lattin's vintage lakester (display only).

I posted this on another board a few minutes ago and it's already heading for the second page with no reponses. Hope I can generate some sincere interest here. It's rather important to one aspect of our hobby.
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Each year SCTA-BNI stages two outstanding LSR racing events on the salt at Bonneville, Speed Week and the World Finals. The unqualified success of these two annual events is due in great part to the dedication of the men and women who make up the SCTA-BNI cadre of unpaid officers and advisors who individually devote hundreds of hours of their time throughout each year because they love and care about the sport and want to perpetuate it and its legacy. These folks have paid their dues.

If LSR racing lights your fire and you enjoy the Bonneville experience enough to attend Speed Week or the World Finals, you can be an integral part of the Bonneville experience, part of the crew that makes it all happen -- and pay your dues. You can be a Course Steward -- and get paid for your time! No joke. How cool would that be?

If you are sincerely interested, call Larry Burford, Course Steward Coordinator, at 760-868-2075 (Pacific time zone).

The F-1 is a 12-volt modern wonder! Terry Griffith, who drives the shiny white '27 T RPU that tends the TarMac roadster at Bonneville, did the entire truck in under than 20 hours, including making all the looms that mimicked Ford's own -- except for the vinyl-coated wire. The one-wire GM alternator greatly simplifies the system overall and the wiring in particular. The old wiring is in the trash bin where it can't hurt any old Fords (although I had no problems -- yet).

In addition to an 80-amp alternator, I now have two tail/stoplamps with directionals front and rear (thanks for the neat little flasher unit, Jay), halogen headlamps, parking lamps, and a very non-traditional HEI.

The motor ran quite well before and is even better now. Previously there was a bit of detonation under low-speed load but that's gone, although this is likely to be the result of the timing of the HEI compared to the point ignition; Terry's old timing light didn't want to work so the distributor is ear-tuned for now.

All of the gauges work as intended, including the fuel gauge which previously pegged on FULL. Electrically challenged as I am, I was unable to find the problem. As it turned out, someone had put a new wire and terminal on the tank and routed it under the floormat -- where the wire remained in a neat little coil, not connected to the wire that ran from the gauge to the floor, also under the mat. Sounds like someone got called in for lunch.

I hope to finish my crank this weekend and start on the block next week. I'm budgeting about 30 hours for the mods and the port and relief work. When the block comes back from the machine shop (decking, align boring) I plan on spending another 3-4 hours painting the lifter valley, crank chamber, and timing case with Glyptol or a similar coating. Lots of overkill, but what the hell . . .

So, here it is at the end of two days of wire work (plus new hoses and belts that would not have made it all the way to the new motor install). The Optima gets a proper holddown tomorrow, so no smart remarks about the bungees. I'll also carve a larger opening in the firewall pass-through grommet tomorrow and install it to tidy up the loom installation. Gonna wait for the motor change to clean up the rest of the engine compartment.

:? "Pop the top off that T-5 and make sure water hasn't gotten into it." Thus began the adventure with the new-to-me transmission for my F-1.

The box is metric, and of course there are no metric wrenches in Vern Tardel's Prune Orchard so I had to wait until today when I drug along a small box of foreign nut twisters.  "Popping" the top off is preceded by some substantial disassembly, as I soon discovered. It's very much like disassembling one of those clever oriental wooden puzzles in which segments must be pushed first one way and then another to free a piece that has just freed a piece before it.

So, once the selector cover had been removed and the rollpin that indexes the detent block to the selector shaft punched down and out, all that was needed was to remove the tailshaft/5th gear housing and roll the top cover (whose bolts I removed early on as the first optimistic step) to the right to disengage the shift mechanism from the 5th-gear lever and the shift forks from the sliders. You got all that?

It's at this point that the rest of the transmission looks like it's about to disassemble itself without further assistance from me.  The tailend of the 5th-gear fork shaft sags, as does the thrust washer on the back of 5th gear. The rear main bearing, no longer held in position by the tailshaft housing, decides it wants to leave its comfortable location, about the time I discover that the odd assortment of blocks and shafts and sliders in the top cover have also moved about on their own as the forward end of the main fork shaft slips out of its bore in the front of the cover -- the same cover I was told to "pop off" so I could look for water and other mischief inside.

As it turned out, the partial disassembly of a T-5 is a day at the beach compared to putting it back together, the first time, without benefit of instruction, and with nary an exploded drawing in sight. Suffice to say the process was cut and try, and cut and try, and cut and try some more -- all down with fresh ATF-safe sealant on the three mating surfaces involved . . . cover, tailshaft housing, and selector cover. By the time the fourth C&T results in a successful assembly in which the gear selector actually selects five distinct forward engagements, plus one in reverse, and the all-important neutral, the outside of the transmission, the tools, the top of the workbench, my shop apron, and my hands and forearms share a uniform coat of sticky, black, ATF-proof sealant.

I've had a few hours to decompress and it doesn't seem so bad now. The T-5 is whole again, in perfect condition internally -- as it was all along, and there's not so much as a hint of moisture inside -- never was.

I gotta wonder if ol' Vern wasn't just yankin' my chain . . .

:?: Does anyone have performance (flow) figures on Rochester 2GV 2 bbl carburetors? Am I correct in assuming that because of the wide range of applicaitons 2GVs are available with different flowrates?

:oops: It's so easy to get caught up in doing work for others that one's own automotive ailments often tend to get back-burnered.

I've been putting up with increasingly poor fuel economy and exhaust smoke from the F-1, something that started not long after I bought the truck. I figured it was probably the power valve in the old Holley two-barrel, and kept promising myself I'd take care of it -- soon. Then, about a week ago it suddenly began running super-rich and flooding, so I figured it was time to take care of  it, but had to park it while I finished up some things for others.

I nursed it out to Tardel's yesterday to pick up my block and heads to cart them to the machine shop for bake-and-blast cleaning. I talked to Tardel about the F-1's trouble and he agreed that it was probably the power valve, so gave me a fresh one along with the essential center gasket.

I nursed the truck back home, removed the carburetor and replaced the powere valve, put it all back together and it was worse than before! Foolishly, I had done just the minimum work -- replaced the power valve, and by now I had figured it out.

I removed just the carburetor top this time to see what the float was doing. The float level was okay, but careful inspection of the needle valve (with my strongest reading glasses in place) turned up what looked like a very fine strand of brass "hair" that was preventing the needle valve from closing. That explained the super-rich condition and flooding that began last week.

This morning I took my block and heads to the machine shop and the truck ran better than it has since I've owned it -- no smoke, no hesitation or flat spots, crisp acceleration, just like it's supposed to run.

I'm pretty sure I know where the brass hair came from: I replumbed the engine compartment portion of the fuel system a couple of weeks ago to tidy up the electric pump installation done by the previous owner. I used new fittings and hose, and I'll bet good money that the brass hair came from one of the fittings.

Looking back on the marginal performance I put up with, and considering that the entire operation took me less than an hour,  I feel a bit foolish for not pouncing on it months ago. Now I think I'll go outside and clean and tighten the terminal on the battery sub-harness that feeds the engine-management computer in my Bimmer; it's had an intermittent stumble for a couple of weeks that usually shows up when the subharness connection begins to develop some corrosion!

I've overlooked the "You have messages" line until this afternoon. Opened it up and found and old message from Charlie where he offered to send me a magazine from his personal stash that had an interesting, and as it turns out for me, and important missing piece to a siginficant puzzle in my automotive experience.

I worked for a couple of hours on a reply to Charlie's PM to me and when I submitted I got one of those dreaded admonishements, in this case "Unauthorized session.!" Not wanting to further tempt the PM gods, I copied my reply and am posting it here.
_________________________________

Charlie -- Please excuse me for not replying sooner. I noticed the "You have xxx messages" for the first time just now!

I received the magazine. Thank you very much! The article helps explain some of the mystery surrounding the situation with the more-numerous BWs involved in drag racing, especially in SoCal. Except for some of the '57 BWs we drag raced being trimmed out as 210 post twodoors, they were essentiall the same as the cars supplied to SEDCO -- H-D suspension and radiator, quick steering, wide 14-inch wheels on 6-lug hubs and large brakes, 20-gallon fuel tank, H-D Positraction (3.90:1) rearend, close-ratio three-speed, and ultra-high compression (11.5:1) solid-lifter cam, and dual 4-bbl motors. There were a few "283-hp"  injected cars competing but they were generally not a match for the BWs.

In late Summer 1956 I was racing a '55 Chevy BelAir two-door post at San Fernando on a steady basis. I'd received the down-stroke on the car, when it was new, as a high-school graduation present for being a generally good kid who got good grades and didn't give my parents any grief. A new '56 210 four-door plain-jane grocery getter showed up one sunday, entered in A/S, where the kick-* Olds 88s, Cad CDVs, Chrysler 300s, and Buick Centurys hung out, and shamed the entire field with ETs a second-and-a-half quicker than the next best and speeds 8-10 mph faster. It got my attentio, and as well as that of many other races on hand that day. I got a pretty good look at the car with the hood up, and the first thing that grabbed my attention was the dual 4-bbl setup.

About a week later I was making my scheduled Saturday morning visit to Andrews & Evans hot rod and custom car lot on San Fernando Road in Burbank, next to Burbank Bob's Big Boy drive-in, to see what treasures had arrived for sale since the previous Saturday, and was attracted to pair of '56 Chevys, a 210 two-door hardtop and a BelAir convertible, both in Sierra Gold and Adobe two-tone, and both with dual 4-bbl motors!  Both were PG-equipped cars which would indicate that they were hydraulic-cam 225-hp motors. Not quite as nasty as the blue four-door but very tasty nonetheless. They were both sold before the week was out.

With what I'd seen so far, plus the usual race-track rumors, I figured something was up so visited my local Chevy dealer a couple of weeks later and talked to a salesman I was acquainted with. The dual 4-bbl 225 was a RPO, but there was no "back-of-the sheet" option for anything like the blue 210. Chevy was rapidly approaching model changeover and special orders were uncertain at best and actually discouraged so late in the model year. So, with promises of greater things to come I cooled my heels for the time being.

Soon after the '57s hit the showroom I checked back with my salesman pal but in spite of the increase in displacement and 20 additional ponies for the hydraulic dual 4-bbl there wasn't much to light my fire. Still, I persisted, and after several months learned that a back-of-the-sheet car was available but it was tough to get and priority was being given to established circle-track racers. Undaunted, I had him write an order for me and settled down for what would be the longest wait of my impatient young life.

I started bugging the saleman at the end of the second week and then called him a couple of times each week thereafter. About mid June he had good news; he had confirmation from Flint, the only plant where this RPO was built, that my order would soon be filled! In early July I arrived home from work one afternoon and before I could get out of the car, my dad, who was mowing the front lawn, hollered "Pollard-Carrel just called! Your car's here!" I was at the dealership in minutes.

The salesman ran out to intercept me before I could get to the area behind the building where they unloaded the haul-aways. "Where's my car?!" I asked, excited to lay eyes on this beauty I'd driven and polished and tuned so many times in my mind. "It's ... well, it's not quite the car you ordered," he stammered.

Indeed it wasn't. Instead of a sparkling Sierra Gold DelRay I was greeted by a transit-soiled 210 two-door sedan with an enormous gas stain on the deck lid—from a leaker on the upper deck of the haulaway—no radio, no heater, no rear seat, and no hubcaps (they were in the trunk), exposing those strange wheels, with six lugs like Chevy trucks. After all the months of waiting and dreaming, the disheveled plain-Jane sedan was a huge disappointment. (The salesman's story was that the car had been ordered by a local racer for running NASCAR events, but the guy became impatient waiting for delivery so drove back to Flint, got himself a motel room, and pestered the "factory guys" until he had a car. The story sounded plausible, particularly after waiting several months myself. The plain fact was that the Duntov Chevys were in big demand, and there were limited resources available to build them. All of them were built in Flint, with a great deal of special attention to ensure they received the right pieces, and this at a time when Chevrolet professed to have no interest or involvement in racing.)

"Go ahead, start it up," the salesman said. I slid onto the seat, without much enthusiasm, noting the homely rubber floor mats where there should have been carpet, checked to make sure it was out of gear, lightly touched the throttle and twisted the key, and ...suddenly everything was great! God was in His heaven and everything was right with the hot rodding world!

Never had I experienced an engine explode into life like this one did. It was the most wonderfully nasty motor I had ever had control of and I would have driven it off the lot straight away just as it was, but it would be another couple of days before I'd actually take possession of my "Black Widow", not until Friday and not before the dealership installed a radio and heater, added a back seat, resprayed the deck lid--and shot the wheels in white at my request--and detailed everything to perfection.

Taking delivery of that beautiful and wicked Chevy was one of the more  memorable experiences of my life up to that time. After giving my parents about a 30-second look at the new toy, I picked up my best pal, Bill Williams, and we visited four drive-ins that first night, three of them Bob's Big Boys -- Van Nuys, Toluca Lake, and Burbank -- plus Van de Kamps in Glendale. We were stylin', inheritors of  the reputation the Black Widows had engendered in California drag racing in just a few months.

We spent two years together, the '57 and I, cruising, street racing, drag racing, parking and sparking with girlfriends, with dozens of 600-mile ski trips to Mammoth Mountain added to literally hundreds of tire-lighting starts in the driving mix--44,000-plus miles and not so much as a cough or whimper from any of the Chevy's mechanicals in spite of the hard life it so willingly endured. It was tough on spark plugs (no coolant channel around the plug bores until the next year), rear tires, and brake shoes even with its large truck stoppers. But, it burned no oil between 2,000-mile changes, and it still had its original clutch, transmission, and differential, all in perfect working order when we parted company in 1959. I'll take some credit for its dependability and longevity because I always treated it with respect. For example, when racing, I never once side-stepped the clutch and always shifted at 6,800-7,000 rpm. The '57 never lost a street race and hardly ever missed being in a final round of legit drag racing.

There were several thousand '57 Chevy factory hot rods built and sold, and I've been told that the injected cars greatly outnumbered the carburetted cars. I always enjoyed the endless "discussions" about the superior 1/4-mile performance of the "270-hp" carburetted motors compared to the 283-hp injected version. I heard nothing convincing until the early '80s when I read an interview with a retired special-projects engineer who had been on A-D's staff at the time. As he explained it, fuel injection was Chevrolet's big-deal techno feature and the marketing and sales tub-thumpers built an entire program based on the magical "1-hp/cid"  produced by the injected motors. Fittingly, the less-exciting carburetted motors were said to produced 270-hp/cid, very respectable but certainly not as great as the injected wonders. The retired engineer's version of the situation was a little different and shed some light on the mystery: The 270s were downplayed significantly in favor of the more-glamorous fuelies, he said, and it was common to see dyno pulls of 300-plus hp from the ultra-high compression dual fours in Chevrolet's test program.

The proof of this pudding was evident at San Fernando Drag Strip when the cars were new and heavily campaigned. There were a couple dozen SF regulars, myself included, and almost all the Chevys were carburetted. Injected cars would show up from time to time, take a drubbing and go elsewhere. I'd always thought the "Black Widow" moniker grew out of the majority of the cars being black. There were a couple of DelRay two-door hardtops, but most were 210 and 150 two-door sedans and business coupes, with the 210s outnumbering the 150s in SoCal. Then, I read the neat historical piece in the copy of Muscle Cars magazine you sent me and I have a much better understanding of a piece of history of which, I'm proud to say, I was a participant.

Initially, the Black Widows ran in A/Stock where they absolutely dominated the class. San Fernando was an innovative track, so they put them in newly created Super Stock, even before the NHRA did. To give you an idea of how competitive this class was at San Fernando, most of the losing cars on any given Sunday were running quicker (low and mid 14s) and faster (96-102 mph) than Nationals-winning times and speeds elsewhere. For the doubters out there, let me add that San Fernando was not known for "squeezing" its lights.

Judged by the oh-so critical standards of many young rod builders today I was a bought-rodder, an early-day gold chainer. I didn't engineer the car, and I didn't build it. But I did pay for it by doing valued work in another field, I learned to drag race with it, I learned how to make it better, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. And on top of all that there was that involvement in a bit of automotive history. How 'bout that *?!

Thanks so much for the magazine, Charlie. I owe you big time.

Take care.

Mike Bishop

It's great that many of the original RRT crowd that were part of the 2000 Hot Rods & Haute Cruizine mega-event have become good pals and continue to hang out with one another. Big infusion of HAMBers in the NorCal group, and they'd fit right in with the old RRT crowd.

Wish the Franks could be here today, plus Don Sr. and Mickey, River1, C9, DrJ, etc. I would not be surprised to see Don Jr. who often makes the NorCal GG events to which the BBQ is anchored.

Pics and stories tomorrow, I promise!

This isn't really spam; think of it as a public service announcement.

A local Early Ford V8 Club member stopped by Tardel's yesterday in his 48 Mercury Fordor.  This is a recently refurbed no-rust, no-damage California car. His info card tells it all. What a sweet family car, for less than the price of a new Korean-made econo-box. Note that the $10,500 asking price is not firm!

I've used Webshots in the past, in addition to StarPhoto. I just created a new album on Webshots and want to see if I can upload a picture file here.

I've been using StarPhoto for several years and it's been great. Lately, during the last week or two, however, it is extremely slow and actually stalls at times. Just wondering if any other StarPhoto users are having similar problems, or if I should have my computer checked for a virus that is slowing down certain sites.

I'm ready to consider another hosting site if anyone has one they're particularly pleased with.

TIA

Mike

Today's big lunch-time discussion for the denizens of the Prune Orchard Garage centered around specs and hardware ID for the new motor I'll be building this Spring for my F-1.  Lunching outdoors at one of our favorite haunts, 82 F, light breeze, and in the company of three great pals, two of whom are my flathead-building mentors, one of them a legendary racemotor builder from back in The Day. Day-to-day life just doesn't get much better than this!

It's gonna be a sensible stroker motor, 3-5/16 x 4, with a torquey cam -- sort of early day RV -- because the truck will be a daily driver where fuel economy is important, as well as a racecar tender where it has to quickly shove a LSR roadster up to speed.

The sensible build calls for EGGE hyper-eutectic pistons, weight-matched 8BA rods, high-volume Melling oil pump, Red's adjustable lifters moving Chevy SS valves controlled with Lincoln Zephyr valve springs, iron Ford 8BA heads ( for a reasonable CR increase with the Merc crank) secured with ARP studs, Red's headers, Offenhauser 4-bbl manifold with a Holley 390-cfm 4-bbl carburetor, and adapted GM  HEI. Extra dollars will be lavished on an ultra-ultra balancing job.

I'm giving up my Ford H-D four-speed, not-a-syncrho-in-sight transmission in favor of a Mustang T5. The flywheel vote today was "leave it alone." Other than being part of the package to be balanced it needs no further machine work to make it lighter and consequently snatchier.

The truck's Dana-style rearend will be replaced with a Ford 9-inch pulled from an E-150. The new pumpkin is fitted with a Trac-Lok (hooray!) and a 3.0 gearset (boo!). I'm sure I can trade this out for a 3.50 pumpkin, and I dont think it will have to be a LSD.  I prefer an open differential in a tail-light vehicle such as a pickup, particularly when it has a strong, torquey motor in place.

So, the block, heads, and oil pan go to the machine shop next week for a bake-and-blast cleaning session, followed by sonic mapping so we can see what we're in for. Parts ordering will soon follow, just about the time where I begin work on the block.

After feeling like a surrogate parent again and again and again as I watched my block work put proud smiles on the faces of customers, I get to keep this one for myself! It's going to be mine, and I can hardly contain myself until I actually start carving that beautiful Canadian Mercury casting.

Hot-rod-building life is good!

He won the  AR color proofs and he's also a winner for helping to support the RRT.

Thanks for helping me to help out, Jim

Mike

I'm starting to collect pieces for next Winter's project (simple open-wheeler with inexpensive contemporary drivetrain hardware, etc.)

A friend has a couple of Lincoln Versaille rearends, to which I haven't paid any attentin in the past, other than hearing that they're desireable because of their disc brakes.

So far today I've heard only speculation about their architecture (8- or 9-inch,  width, readily availble gear ratios in OEM pumpkins . . .)

One friend is sure the pumpkin is unique and was made available only with 3.0 gears, and it's about the same width as an 8-inch Maverick. The other friend insists that it's much wider and was available with a wide range of gear ratios.

I'd appreciate some non-speculative answers.  

TIA