project 1951 Pontiac Chieftain

[PhilA]

22 hours ago, paulplom said:

Any chance of a celebratory doughnut video?

Absolutely.

Phil

[LightBulbFun]

amazing stuff! like seriously amazing stuff, I cant believe its been 2 years since you got this blue beast!

what I love most about this is all the small details you attended to and documented as well, and how they might seem small but all add up

keep up the awesome work, and I look forward to seeing some longer videos of it being taken for a drive somewhere  (imagine an epic road trip from the US to the FoD or other such autoshite venue...) 

(nicely wollarded btw  )

[paulplom]

Needs an LS3

Gas Monkey style.

[hairnet]

if it broke traction (unlikely) when it gripped it might break something anyway

does the boss know about the sneaky donut and did you get away with the video

 

[PhilA]

It was wet the other day when I took it out. I was on the concrete by the bank (where the driving videos both begin), I heaved on the steering and stamped on the throttle.

Result? Car lifted up and proceeded forward in a gentle arc.

The fluid coupling is designed to dissolve all jerky motion and the entire assemblage doesn't have enough torque before the coupling stalls to break the tires loose. Once it's picked up and the engine is on cam it has plenty of grunt. Just not from a standstill, and that's how it was designed.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

New wing mirrors. One item off the MoT list.

Why? This one was not a pass.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Tonight, coat hanger. Attacked with various tools.

Left: previous owner's idea of a good lock pin

Right: a better lock pin

Slotted into place in the right hand door. I'm still trying to figure why both lock pins were missing in the first place...

Phil

[PhilA]

Funny. I just got told I should join the POCI (Pontiac owner's club), but they are always helpful but definitely very much of the rivet-counter ilk. I guess they didn't look too closely at my car then...

 

Phil

[hairnet]

how thru the box of donuts did you get :D

riiiiiight you bought...................................... one...... :)

 

[PhilA]

Got the other six. Just ate one.

Got off the phone with California just now. Ordered brake shoes, wheel cylinders, flexi lines, a few gaskets and stuff.

That was expensive

[Rocket88]

On 8/31/2020 at 12:41 AM, PhilA said:

Mm. Curves. Finished polishing the paint.

Only took me 2 years but the whole car has a shine to it now.

I took a step back and needed to be a little bit retrospective. So, here's a drive up the street in the car just after I bought it.

Here it is today, on the same route.

Yeah, I am happier with how it is now, for sure.

Phil

From an ex owner of this, which is a closely related cousin......many congratulations on what you've achieved

[PhilA]

Ah, like a lot of things this year the car show I had wanted to go to is canceled.

Sucks,but that's life.

[hairnet]

Theres a show is that there garlic land it looks like it's on but due to the free state holiday you get when return I can't 

I'm not happy either

Were the donuts all the same ?

how not needing drums were ya or are they not oval (yay)

[PhilA]

Drums are good. Shoes are worn on one side and disintegrating on the other (fluid leak).

Rear brakes don't do squat right now

Phil

[hairnet]

'squat................................SQUAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!...................' [/harp]

(name film for hairnet pint exchange)

[PhilA]

Nope, not a clue

[hairnet]

[/nerd on]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh0KcpYeMVQ

[PhilA]

My traffic light lens arrived. Out the windshield, you can just about see the top of the window and door. In the lens you can see much higher up than that, the top of the door just in the bottom left of the lens there.

Optically, the old one was better quality (the new one appears to have been cast from an original and sags slightly in the center causing a bit of distortion but that's life. It's a lot clearer than the old one and doesn't glare as a result.

 

One down, a few more to go.

Phil

[PhilA]

Couldn't do much tonight, shoulder's giving me grief again.

I had an idea so I pulled the LED bulbs out of the box (I'd removed them because they were a strange hue and the dimmer circuit doesn't make them dim). They were attacked with a turquoise marker pen.

Let's try one out... Yup. 

So now, modeled after the Chrysler Newport, we have the Pontiac Swansea dashboard (it was either that or Port Talbot)

I'll get a better shot when it's properly dark.

Phil

[PhilA]

That'll work. Think it'll stay, at least for a while.

Phil

[PhilA]

Pressure washed most of the crap off the front suspension tonight.

 

Phil

[Noel Tidybeard]

turquoise FTW

[Zelandeth]

That's actually quite like the dash lighting I've seen on a few cars of that era.

Of course Chrysler then started playing around with electroluminescent lighting in the 60s for extra cool points...and probably a massive headache for owners!

[PhilA]

The Chrysler system was fairly straightforward- the same kind of pseudo-AC as implemented by the radio's HT circuit, a metal rod or surface coated with EL paint, and a fine mesh wire over the surface or a tiny litz wire wrapped around the rod as the anode.

That way they had glowing panels and needles that glowed of their own accord.

Must've been like having some sort of space-age fantasy sitting in front of you at night.

This merely adds the same EL color glow to the dash, but it's pretty effective, nonetheless.

Phil

[eddyramrod]

Swansea?  Port Talbot?  What exactly was wrong with Bridgend then???????

[Asimo]

Bridgend?

No car wants a bridge end.

[PhilA]

Just got email that my brake parts shipped out. Excellent. Going to be on the lookout for those now.

 

Phil

[LightBulbFun]

speaking of (slightly off topic) lighting

is this you Phil? https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/index.php?cat=12573

the heat lamp location and name all check out LOL

[PhilA]

Yup

[LightBulbFun]

10 minutes ago, PhilA said:

Yup

hah cool  

 

Lighting-Gallery the first lighting forum I signed up to way back in 2009, you may have unknowingly run into my pictures, I go by the name Bulb freak, on that forum this was before I standardised on LightBulbFun!

I dont really take part in the actual forum bit, but I do regularly check out and sometimes post in the gallery portion   

makes me wonder who else here is also on that forum or such (I know Zel is of course)