project 1951 Pontiac Chieftain

[hairnet]

Skiving bassa

I've got a week off from Friday 

completely car related

[PhilA]

Moved the battery to the boot.

That's tidied up the engine compartment nicely.

 

Under the back, hard lines complete, shoes adjusted and handbrake set.

Had noticed the brake flexi was a bit taut, find and fixed the reason. Left hand side of the axle wasn't properly mounted to the spring. 3 nuts, no lockwashers and it wasn't located on the centering dowel.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Some metalwork this morning. I pulled the passenger side spat bracket off, copied it for the driver's side, which was missing. Didn't fancy losing the spat on the highway.

 

Fitted up to the wheelarch.

 

The spat now locates correctly on both ends, folds up and locks securely in place. Added bonus, it doesn't rattle when I shut the door now either.

 

Found one bad fitting on the brakes, replaced that after remaking the flare twice. That'll be why the old one was leaking then.

Got the brakes bled up, just need to clip the new battery wire up properly, attach the front grille securely and do a final adjustment on the front brakes then it's set for MoT.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

MoT Achieve!

[Rocket88]

5 minutes ago, PhilA said:

MoT Achieve!

How does an merikun MOT test compare to a UK one?

[PhilA]

1 minute ago, colc said:

How does an merikun MOT test compare to a UK one?

About the same as the UK MoT, circa 1980.

[busmansholiday]

30 minutes ago, PhilA said:

About the same as the UK MoT, circa 1980.

Fiver in a brown envelope then.

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, PhilA said:

MoT Achieve!

wahay! after over 2 years of fettling must feel like quite the achievement, to finally be able to take her on the open road like that  

so when are you visiting the FoD with her?

[hairnet]

1 hour ago, busmansholiday said:

Fiver in a brown envelope then.

big white fiver (my grandad told me about those - buy cars with them )

nice one phil - enjoy the pottering about now

celebratory donut again?

 

[PhilA]

51 minutes ago, hairnet said:

big white fiver (my grandad told me about those - buy cars with them )

nice one phil - enjoy the pottering about now

celebratory donut again?

 

Maybe I'll get a celebratory donut, yes.

It's come a long way since that photo.

 

Only one incident in today's driving, going along and the oil pressure light came on. Gauge read above zero (about 20psi), looks like the sender quit. I'll check that tonight. For now the light is disconnected. That pressure switch has been unreliable since I got the car. 

Other than that it's good. Need to get a grommet for the gas pedal rod because I have a very hot foot from the air blowing through.

Front suspension needs a refresh for sure, brakes are bedding in okay too.

55 feels like 75 though!

 

Phil

[Amishtat]

Well done! 

[PhilA]

55 minutes ago, Amishtat said:

Well done! 

Thank you. Still a ways to go but so far so good.

 

Drove about 60 miles in it today, it's going pretty well.

[hairnet]

why cant i rent these from avis ?

they give me shit nissan :P

[PhilA]

5 minutes ago, hairnet said:

why cant i rent these from avis ?

they give me shit nissan

Go to L.A. or California in general, they're available to rent out thataway.

 

Phil

[2flags]

Fantastic work. It must be so pleasurable to be able to cruise the highway in this.

 

[PhilA]

12 minutes ago, 2flags said:

Fantastic work. It must be so pleasurable to be able to cruise the highway in this.

 

It's fun to kick back and stick your elbow out the window and just glide along.

 

People have told me they're slow cars, I find its able to hustle along with traffic just fine.

 

Phil

[Zelandeth]

...But I've absolutely zero interest in going to LA or California.  Everyone I know is clustered around Michigan, Iowa and one down in Texas.

Great to see it out and about.  Did you make some unprintable noise when you saw the oil light? 

I certainly did when the one in the Jag flickered at me the first time.  That was before I learned how low the hot idle oil pressure tends to be on these engines and that they usually had the warning light sender replaced with one set to something like 3psi.  The switch has since then died entirely so needs replacing anyhow...

[PhilA]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

...But I've absolutely zero interest in going to LA or California.  Everyone I know is clustered around Michigan, Iowa and one down in Texas.

Great to see it out and about.  Did you make some unprintable noise when you saw the oil light? 

I certainly did when the one in the Jag flickered at me the first time.  That was before I learned how low the hot idle oil pressure tends to be on these engines and that they usually had the warning light sender replaced with one set to something like 3psi.  The switch has since then died entirely so needs replacing anyhow...

I made an "ugh", and pulled over just to give it a once-over, then pulled the bulb out because the gauge made good pressure. It comes off the next gallery drilling along from the pressure switch.

Tonight we went to the drive-in and got milkshakes.

All in all a good day.

 

Phil

[hairnet]

10 hours ago, PhilA said:

 

Tonight we went to the drive-in and got milkshakes.

All in all a good day.

Phil

GIT.

I forgot when I was there

[Asimo]

 

[PhilA]

44 minutes ago, Asimo said:

 

I need to make a playlist of music like this in my phone to stream to the radio in the car.

 

Phil

[2flags]

Your kids must love this. It has to be the coolest car in the drive-in. 

[PhilA]

34 minutes ago, 2flags said:

Your kids must love this. It has to be the coolest car in the drive-in. 

Their only complaint is a lack of aircon! Other than that they enjoyed bumbling about in it. Gets a lot of waves and thumbs-up.

Phil

[PhilA]

Had 5 minutes at lunch so I went out and had a poke about.

One oil drip mark under the car, crank nose. Acceptably minor

Oil is naaaaasty and needs to be changed.

It's otherwise holding coolant, oil and ATF

No wiring fault in oil pressure light circuit, the switch is DOA.

Need to get a stone guard for the flywheel, it's missing.

Cranked the engine over with the ignition off, was willing and happy.

Started it up, no knocks, clicks, clunks or other nasty noises.

Brakes are bedding in nicely.

Exhaust needs to be adjusted slightly, it's hitting the frame at the front.

Fuel pump is weak. Possibly need to reroute the fuel line, or insulate it because the pipe runs under the sump at the front and with that heat likes to boil and vapor lock before the pump. Thankful for the electric pump a few times yesterday. Think I might add a switch for it so I can put it on easily in traffic.

Otherwise it's generally pretty good. Happy with that.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

One final observation from yesterday is "damn does it ever sound high RPM", up to 30 sounds normal but beyond that it sounds like it's trying to take off...

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Oil change this afternoon. Significant improvement, what came out had very little viscosity left.

Regular oil changes, I think- particularly as this stuff is flushing a lot of old crap out.

Did a calculation, half a jug of oil for an oil change, works out at about $9 for an oil change. I can afford to do that on a regular basis.

 

Phil

[eddyramrod]

19 hours ago, PhilA said:

I need to make a playlist of music like this in my phone to stream to the radio in the car.

 

Phil

You totally do!  I just played that, it's perfect.

[eddyramrod]

In fact I'll tell you how perfect: I just played it again over the pic outside the diner.  Welcome to 1955!

[hairnet]

I was gonna put this in my thread but I' need some nerd please

Edit pic when I find out how to save it into here

[PhilA]

Today, I almost completed the list.

Coolant changed, now 50/50 antifreeze and distilled water

Manifold and heat riser gaskets replaced

Fuel pump tightened

Hard fuel lines replaced. Steel line to carburetor was cracked

Rubber fuel lines replaced with marine grade fuel pipe

Air filter gauze oiled and dish filled

 

Throttle pump needs looking at

 

Phil