project 1951 Pontiac Chieftain

[PhilA]

Sun went down so it was slightly cooler in the garage. Had a bit more of a go at the grille.

 

Looking better. Need more fine steel brushes.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Last night I didn't have the energy to do anything in the car in the heat after mowing the yard so I sat down and started looking at exhaust stuff.

 

Most of the pipe backwards of the muffler looks like this, including the muffler itself. 

The muffler is huge, 35" long, 5" round with a 2" inlet and a 1 3/4" outlet.

I'm thinking of replacing that with a glasspack and renewing the rest of the exhaust to the back in 2". 

Phil

[PhilA]

Old muffler out. Junk.

 

New muffler in. Better.

 

Phil

 

[Liggle]

That sounds great, so smoooooth

[PhilA]

It's like a six with more of a warble.

 

It was backing out of a few cylinders at the end, too much throttle on a cold engine. It picks up properly once it's warm.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

 

Drives okay.

 

Phil

[hairnet]

 

[PhilA]

Next fun will be making this in 2 1/4" pipe.

[somewhatfoolish]

Dry sand, two wooden bungs and a mahoosive blowtorch. Or a mandrel bender.

[PhilA]

Have none of the above, so I think it'll be pieced together like meccano from repair sections.

[PhilA]

Better yet, found a place that will bend a new section to size.

Doing it in 2", it'll be that size from the manifold to the back barring going through the muffler at 2¼".

They reckon about $50. Jumped at that. Got there at the end of the day so they're keeping the old pipe as template and will call me either tomorrow or Monday depending on how busy they are.

 

Phil

[paulplom]

10 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Dry sand, two wooden bungs and a mahoosive blowtorch. Or a mandrel bender.

I remember doing that 30 odd years ago on my YTS at college. That was with the thick wall mild steel pipe though.

[PhilA]

I just got a text from the guy at the shop.

 

It's made in a few sections so it can be adjusted. Going to pick that up tonight. He found some 2¼" tucked away, so that's excellent.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

I now have quite a lot of pipe in my garage. Hopefully it gonna fit- either tonight or tomorrow I'm going to have a go at waving it about underneath.

I'm doubly impressed because this isn't some thin junk. I've seen swing sets made from thinner steel than this.

Not bad, including 3 clamps $55.

 

Would buy again ++++

 

Phil

[PhilA]

I now have an exhaust system. Sounds pretty much how I wanted it to.

Going to finish it off with a chrome turn-down tip on the end.

 

Phil

[1duck]

I've often wondered, but with a cherry bomb aren't you meant to chuck a load of water in it? like you get it hot and then put a hosepipe in it, whilst leaving it running. I'm sure someone told me this once in a pub and i thought it was a load of tosh, but everyone else seemed to agree with him. Something about breaking it in, i've never fitted one so i never had call to look into it.

[PhilA]

Not a clue, but that sounds like a quick way to split all the welds... They change over time as the glass fiber gets sooty and "sets", but overall there's not much to it really. I'm not going to bother with anything other than driving it.

 

 

Edit: Just went read and apparently the water thing is a way to do it- basically you get the thing hot, cool the wadding rapidly which causes the fibers to weaken and blow out of the exhaust, which makes it louder. So, basically prematurely aging the thing. No thanks.

Phil

[PhilA]

That's the arse end finished up for now.

 

Went for a quick pootle around the block. Drives nicely, most importantly I can get up over the speed humps.

 

Phil

 

[DSdriver]

That exhaust reminded me of a stainless one I had made for one of my Citroen CX familiales back in the eighties. It was all fine except the part that connected to the manifold. It had been made at the wrong angle and would have required the tailpipe to exit through the top edge of the tailgate

[Rocket88]

3 minutes ago, DSdriver said:

That exhaust reminded me of a stainless one I had made for one of my Citroen CX familiales back in the eighties. It was all fine except the part that connected to the manifold. It had been made at the wrong angle and would have required the tailpipe to exit through the top edge of the tailgate

A tad inconvenient.......................

[PhilA]

Tonight, I pulled the passenger side rear window surround off and took a look down the window aperture.

Didn't want to see that. That there is the primary lift arm roller, the secondary is almost out of shot to the right. They should be nowhere near the glass, instead should be in the roller bar, which the sash channel attaches to, which holds the glass. 

I'm missing some critical window pieces.

 

If nothing else came from this, I did get the lock working in the door. 

 

Phil

[PhilA]

 

Can't do much else on the car tonight.

Tried to finish up getting the roof looking a bit better as something to do.

Too damn hot though.

[loserone]

Just spent half an hour watching your videos, Chas (3) says it's very great and goes super super fast.  I concur, more videos please! 

 

This is one of my favourite threads

[Jenson Velcro]

Not sure if I’ve missed it elsewhere on your thread, but I’m just wondering when Pontiac we’re selling these new what type of person was the main target? i.e. was it seen as a young cool trendy thing, a sales reps tool, an old giffers runabout etc?

[PhilA]

5 hours ago, Jenson Velcro said:

Not sure if I’ve missed it elsewhere on your thread, but I’m just wondering when Pontiac we’re selling these new what type of person was the main target? i.e. was it seen as a young cool trendy thing, a sales reps tool, an old giffers runabout etc?

This particular model was the well-to-do family man's car. The Vauxhall Omega of the day, I guess.

 

6 hours ago, loserone said:

Just spent half an hour watching your videos, Chas (3) says it's very great and goes super super fast.  I concur, more videos please! 

 

This is one of my favourite threads

Once I get it on the road properly, sure thing.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Fitted the license plate with nice stainless acorn nuts that I found, to replace the rusty pieces that were on it. Also buffed the back end up a bit until it got too hot to do more.

Tonight was a little cooler so I wheeled the car outside and set the headlight aim. That'll do okay for now, I think they're a little high still but the rear suspension hasn't got any air in right now so that'll bring them down a touch.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Weather turned pleasant after work so I decided to do something I'd been putting off for a while.

Ran it up to temperature and put it on stands.

 

All the tools needed to set the valve clearances.

 

Could be worse to get to, I guess. 

 

 

Happy with that. Could watch the valves dance all day long. Exhaust sounds better because the clearances were all wrong.

 

Burned hands now, but it was worth it.

 

Phil

 

 

[paulplom]

You looked very happy with yourself ?

[Sir Snipes]

So, now the Chieftain seems to be coming together when are you going back to the Renault? 

I fear the Ponti may have softened you. You may have gotten use to fixing a car and having it work without something else, completely unrelated, immediately breaking. 

[PhilA]

5 hours ago, Sir Snipes said:

So, now the Chieftain seems to be coming together when are you going back to the Renault? 

I fear the Ponti may have softened you. You may have gotten use to fixing a car and having it work without something else, completely unrelated, immediately breaking. 

Don't know yet, for the reason you say right there...

 

Now I'm having to think about boarding the garage back up, there's the possibility of two hurricanes early next week. Great fun.