project 1951 Pontiac Chieftain

[PhilA]

Went for a test drive, picked up pizza. Car is running well and met with general approval.

 

Phil

[paulplom]

What camera are you using? The photos look artificial, like off a computer game or something.

Not a criticism btw.

[PhilA]

10 hours ago, paulplom said:

What camera are you using? The photos look artificial, like off a computer game or something.

Not a criticism btw.

Camera on my phone, Samsung Galaxy S10.

It has a little bit of post-processing it does but overall the colors were accurate. LED lighting in the lot, a pink/mauve/purple sunset (only tends to happen around here because lower latitude coupled with massively humid air) and old concrete.

It actually looks like that on a slightly lengthened exposure. That was just a snapshot.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Today, two things on the schedule:

1) add a ballast resistance to the water gauge to correct the reading

2) shoot a bit of movie in the car

I think I've got a couple tappets come loose because it's gotten a bit clicky. Great. I just loooove doing the tappets.

 

Phil

[hairnet]

18 hours ago, PhilA said:

Went for a test drive, picked up pizza. Car is running well and met with general approval.

 

Phil

Pizza would def come second

[PhilA]

Who wanted more videos?

 

Short Sunday drive to the milkshake stand and back.

 

Phil

 

[paulplom]

I've got  the s10 plus but the photos are nothing like that.

Saying that it's usually grey skies, grey weather, raining and taking a photo of a grey car.

There are no colour cars over here anymore.

[PhilA]

The whole "cars in monochrome" is a thing here, but there's an equal number of cars in color too.

People still buy cheerful color cars.

The sky here is definitely more colorful than the UK tends to be. Full rainbow sunsets are fairly common in spring.

 

Phil

[hairnet]

You know you did a walk around when you bought it

How about one now as a summary?

 

[eddyramrod]

How much is a modest house there, Phil?  Seriously!  2-3 bedrooms, single storey, bit of driveway.  I really miss rural America (as I do every time we have to leave it to come home).

 

Lovely vid, by the way.

[PhilA]

9 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

How much is a modest house there, Phil?  Seriously!  2-3 bedrooms, single storey, bit of driveway.  I really miss rural America (as I do every time we have to leave it to come home).

 

Lovely vid, by the way.

Really depends on the area. Around here, 170-200k.

 

Edit: This place set me back 188k 3 years ago at the height of the property boom. Single storey, 2400sqft, 3br 2.5ba on a 120'x80' lot with an 800sqft garage. Rural zone, so no city sewers, but we got water, gas, electric. Insurance here is killer though. I pay $4500/yr flood insurance (non optional, have to carry that for the mortgage), then regular buildings insurance on top of that at about $370/mo, water is about $20/mo, electric at this time of year about $450/mo then the mortgage on top of that, groceries which is usually in the $500/mo range for 2 adults and 2 children, car insurance for the 3 vehicles combined is $410/mo, additional services like phone, termite cover etc on top.

Living the dream

Phil

[PhilA]

4 hours ago, hairnet said:

You know you did a walk around when you bought it

How about one now as a summary?

 

Yeah, I could do that.

[hairnet]

hang on 

you got to gators and did a u?

and didn't buy a shake?

[PhilA]

1 hour ago, hairnet said:

hang on 

you got to gators and did a u?

and didn't buy a shake?

For the purposes of the video, I didn't stop no.

[PhilA]

Nifty little inline device created. 30 Ohms (33 and 330 in parallel equal 30) which goes in the loom between the car and the dash. That ballast corrected the slightly incorrect reading at 180F (was reading a bit high, about 215).

No more worrying about the needle nearly being off the scale when sitting in traffic for a few minutes.

Phil

[LightBulbFun]

20 minutes ago, PhilA said:

Nifty little inline device created. 30 Ohms (33 and 330 in series equal 30) which goes in the loom between the car and the dash. That ballast corrected the slightly incorrect reading at 180F (was reading a bit high, about 215).

No more worrying about the needle nearly being off the scale when sitting in traffic for a few minutes.

Phil

I assume you mean in parallel? a 33 and 330 ohm resistor in series would give 363 Ohms

 

I enjoyed the video BTW, very cool to see her out and about  

[PhilA]

59 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

I assume you mean in parallel? a 33 and 330 ohm resistor in series would give 363 Ohms

 

I enjoyed the video BTW, very cool to see her out and about  

Parallel yes. This is why you don't think about work and type on Autoshite at the same time.

[PhilA]

My new tubes are drying.

[adw1977]

On 28/09/2020 at 12:39, PhilA said:

regular buildings insurance on top of that at about $370/mo, water is about $20/mo

Wow, your buildings insurance is expensive, I pay less than $100/mo for buildings and contents on a 3 bedroom house in England.  Your water is about half the price that I pay, though.

Digressing from cars, but it's an interesting insight into the little differences between countries.

[PhilA]

Ended up having to reroute the wiper and oil pressure pipes to clear the new vent tube. Because their new path is closer to the block, I made a little bracket to support them.

Fitted the tube, made a bracket for the bottom end but it's a bit thick. Need to find some thinner metal to make another with.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Got me the lower flywheel cover.

 

Cleaned it and painted. Drying now.

Went for a drive tonight. One thing I will note about this car, that even when doing a (GPS accurate) speed limit, people really love to tailgate this car.

 

Phil

[Dan_ZTT]

On 9/29/2020 at 8:46 PM, adw1977 said:

Wow, your buildings insurance is expensive, I pay less than $100/mo for buildings and contents on a 3 bedroom house in England.  Your water is about half the price that I pay, though.

Digressing from cars, but it's an interesting insight into the little differences between countries.

My buildings and contents is £70 a year on a 4-bed detached in suburban Worcestershire...

I find these little differences fascinating as well. People often think the USA is cheap to live in when they see things like the petrol prices, but other stuff can be quite the opposite. @PhilA is that mega electric bill down to air conditioning or is it just expensive per kwh over there? 

[PhilA]

31 minutes ago, Dan_ZTT said:

 

@PhilA is that mega electric bill down to air conditioning or is it just expensive per kwh over there? 

It's a good chunk of it. Electricity per unit is a bit more than there, but we have only one provider here. Nuclear power.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Today, I removed the manifolds and split them. They weren't sealing well on the join between the two at the heat riser. The metal isn't flat any more.

The fix? Silicone, I'm told. $4.57 later and I am the proud owner of a tube of stinky silicone.

Bloop. Reassembled everything and let it cure.

Reprofiled the bracket for the crank vent downpipe.

Fitted the stone guard to the flywheel. Happier with that on.

 

Took it for a run and it's definitely quieter. This is good. 

Onward and upward.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Adjusted front brakes today, greased front suspension.

Couldn't do much else so decided to tidy up something that I saw again and annoyed me- the metallic pink paint (I think it was once red) as details on the front of the car.

Yes, it was utter shite. Applied with a broom from ten feet away.

His head-dress shouldn't be red (neither should the stripes either side of the Pontiac badge) but the little circle by his ear should.

Stripped it all off carefully.

Masked up with fineline tape as a guide.

Ear circle painted. Did the ribs because I like the subtle touch.

Ribs painted in. Both are now the same red lacquer the rear emblems and hub caps are done in. That's a little more tidy.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Chief was looking a little tired so I took him off and cleaned him up a little.

 

 

Imperfect but better than before.

 

Phil

[STUNO]

It must be rewarding to be fixing the little things which "just make me satisfied". Somewhere there is a dark shed with a box full if new chief's heads. 

All you need to do is find it !!

[hairnet]

nice one phil

i was looking at how easy trim is to get

omg - closed the page very quickly :)

 

[PhilA]

On 9/28/2020 at 2:18 AM, hairnet said:

You know you did a walk around when you bought it

How about one now as a summary?

 

 

There.

 

Phil

[hairnet]

'have a go in one if you get the chance.......'