project 1951 Pontiac Chieftain

[PhilA]

I took the passenger side tail lens off and stuck it in the ultrasonic bath to clean off the dirt.

 

Buzzed it down as smooth as I could with a worn-out DA disc.

 

Washed it again. This time, wet, it looked better which is promising.

 

Dried it off and gave it a first coat of lacquer and left it to dry.

 

I also rubbed down the other lens and gave it a coat of red. Once that's hard it should rub down smooth and polish up nicely.

 

Phil

[xtriple]

I adore this car. There, I've said so there's no going back on it now. I want it or one just like it that some mad bugger has already spent as muchtime and showed as much devotion to it, as you have to this one. Good on ya'

[PhilA]

There are really nice ones out there. They cost a little more but you can get the ubiquitous old-lady's-car for about $15k which isn't bad if you compare the models from the later half of the decade.

 

Phil

[hairnet]

the first pic looks like its been cling filmed

 

[PhilA]

Clear coat on the passenger side lens.

 

Second coat on the driver's side, which needs to be rubbed down a bit to get the lacquer to bridge the cracks.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Found a video of one of these engines doing a dyno pull.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Cut, polish, wax. Acceptable result.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Fixed the lamp holder. Bueno.

 

Phil

[Zelandeth]

Looks good!

[PhilA]

18 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Looks good!

It even lights up evenly now because previous keeper had transposed L and R light buckets (they're slightly offset). 

 

Please note that the light, in reality, is deep red. Not mauve, as my camera decided.

 

Phil

[hairnet]

nice arse

[hairnet]

camera needs shouting at

or threatening with replacement

 

[LightBulbFun]

55 minutes ago, hairnet said:

camera needs shouting at

or threatening with replacement

sadly deep red is something a lot of cameras struggle with

as shown here on my Crompton military Ruby red 60W rough service lamp, (from what I understand used on submarines etc, at night so should the submarine have to surface, the crews eyes don't have to take so long to adjust to the darkness)

its a very beautiful deep red colour (as the glass is made from very dark natural red glass)

but the camera utterly fails to pick it up properly sadly

[PhilA]

Mysterious benefactor strikes again! 

A box from the Rock of Auto, containing a plethora of plugs.

Thank you! Being as the plugs are a 3000 mile consumable on this engine, they shall go to good use.

 

Phil

[hairnet]

rock of auto?

holy grail?

hail mary?

hail to god of pontiac?

[hairnet]

Just now, hairnet said:

rock of auto?

holy grail?

hail mary?

hail to god of pontiac?

edit 3000 miles?!!?!

i know it doesnt rev like a race car but.......

fek

[PhilA]

Yup, crappy flame front causes misfire-inducing sooting. Common to flathead engines.

 

Phil

[hairnet]

?

i had to google that

all kinds of scientific came up ?

[PhilA]

The flame goes up into the nose recess on ohv engines due to the squish being directly above the piston and the direction of the gas flow. Sidevalve the squish is flowing across the plug and the flame goes predominantly past the plug, meaning it runs cooler and more deposits form causing a high resistance path of carbon to form, causing weak spark and misfire. That is very hard to clean and keep from happening so the plugs are a 3k item. Every other oil change.

 

Phil

[hairnet]

whens it getting inspected

 

[Zelandeth]

Would a soda blaster be any use for cleaning that crud off the plugs? 

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, PhilA said:

That is very hard to clean

interesting I was wondering if its just carbon build up could the plugs be cleaned up and reused

I wonder if theres some sort of chemical solution you could dip the plugs in to remove/dissolve the carbon away but leave the metal electrodes intact?

[Andyrew]

Brilliant work as always, feel I don't comment on this thread enough but I'm always amazed by the attention to detail

 

[PhilA]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Would a soda blaster be any use for cleaning that crud off the plugs? 

Possibly, and it's a thought but the plugs it had were all varying degrees of bad and they're not done many miles at all. I think I'll just keep a spare set to hand. 

Looking at the previous things fitted to the engine, this looks to have been a particularly heavy breather and was probably really quite smoky. There was a lot of oily crap in the old filler vent. It should be a bit better on plugs now. 

 

Phil

[PhilA]

1 hour ago, hairnet said:

whens it getting inspected

 

Once I've done the brakes, wipers and heater valve.

[PhilA]

Final coat of red. Clear to follow, then flatting, cutting, polishing and wax.

 

Phil

[hairnet]

14 hours ago, PhilA said:

Once I've done the brakes, wipers and heater valve.

winner winner waffle dinner

[PhilA]

Clear coat #1.

 

Phil

[hairnet]

while its drying fek with renault

[PhilA]

4 hours ago, hairnet said:

while its drying fek with renault