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"......Lets see a 9K holeshot out of the garage video!...."
Back in the old days I probably would have already done that..... sitting on a milk crate. :LOL:
“…..Trying to come up with a design where I can see fluid level and there is a overflow option from the tank should it get too hot……”
Mr Gasket makes one , not sure if it has the overflow but it should be simple to drill and tap (or weld a bung) for a hose fitting if needed.
Mr. Gasket 9135 Coolant Overflow Tank 3x9" Incl. Mounting Hardware | eBay
and there are a few places that sell just the sight glasses.
https://www.google.com/search?q=expa...glass&tbm=shop
On the 37 with the old Hemi in there there’s just not a lot of room to mount one in a traditional location. It turns out however that with the Mustang radiator there is a pretty fair amount of space that needed to be filled between the radiator and top of the grill shell.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...psboq4iqrc.jpg
I thought about fabricating something from scratch but really was looking for something I could just build some brackets for. I thought that one of the old round Briggs and Stratton gas tanks (50/60s era) might look kind of neat there. When I started looking for one I found out that the people who had decent ones for sale were generally pretty proud of them. In the process of looking (under Go Cart tanks) I came across some new metal Go Cart gas tanks that are flat with a nice curve in the front that looks like matches the curve in the front of the grill and holds ½ gallon. Of course all I have to go on is the picture of the tank, we’ll see what it looks like when it gets here. I’m also looking at adding an overflow tube to it.
The down side with the mounting location is I’ll have to remember to clamp off the hose going to the tank before taking the radiator cap off or the fluid in the can will run out. I’ll bet I only forget once :D
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The go cart gas tank came in Friday so I got that converted to a radiator overflow tank today.
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...pslbqzcv0p.jpg
As usual what looked like it would be just right in the picture turned out to be just a little bit off when I tried to fit it. To make a long story short the fill cap ended where it was impossible to access. I ended up sealing the fill hole, then adding a 90 degree barbed fitting at the top of the tank that will vent it and act as an overflow if the tank overfills (which shouldn't happen unless the truck overheats).
http://i450.photobucket.com/albums/q...pswyvtpfu3.jpg
Basically it should work fine by just filling the radiator to the top and letting the tank hold the expansion (and suck it back in when the truck cools). If it turns out that I want/need to add a fill port to the tank I'll probably pick up a flush mount motorcycle gas tank bung and cap.
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Awesome, now I'm getting ideas!
Been a while since I posted so figured I'd do a quick update.
I got the front end aligned on the 37 shortly after the last post in May. That left getting the exhaust cut out cables in putting the front sheetmetal on and start driving it. Within a couple of hours of getting the truck home a dust devil came thru the arena and tore up the roofs on a couple of the tack buildings. I'm not boarding horses here anymore so I decided to just go ahead and pull the sheds, shade and fences down and haul it off. Over the next couple of weeks me and a hired man pulled down and hauled off a bit over 6 tons of stuff. In the process I also had to cap off some water lines and replace the main water shut off valve for the property.....always a fun job especially on a live water line.
In the middle of all this mom back in Illinois ended up having to be moved to an extended care facility (nursing home). Moms doing well, it was just time. As we'll be putting her house on the market in a month or 2 I had to make a flying trip back here to help sort thru 90 years worth of stuff and get paperwork straightened out.
I brought the Cadillac powered El Camino back this time. It's doing good and is always fun/comfortable to drive so that's a plus I guess. It's probably a good thing as I'll be hauling a trailer back to Illinois with some furniture in it.
I see photo bucket is holding my pictures for ransom.....haven't decided what I'll be doing about that yet......project for another day.
Anyway I'm still alive......just tired and sore. As for the poor old 37 Dodge, as has been its story since I brought it home 15 years ago the project is once again temporarily on hold.
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Thanks for the update, Life always has priorities and it seems like you know what they are. I hope you have a smooth patch soon and get to do the fun stuff again.
Was this the cadillac version of a El Camino?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike P
http://cdn.barrett-jackson.com/stagi...ar_3-4_Web.JPG
Another non-update update. I got back from Illinois Monday morning. I ended up spending a week long than planned to get stuff sorted out and moved in preparation for selling moms' house. Mom's doing well in the extended care facility and I'm happy with the care she's receiving and my sister and brother get in to see her once or twice a day.
Just like before I left it's been non-stop around here since I got back. Unfortunately not a minute of it on the 37. After getting the trailer unloaded into the shop, I spent about 6 hours cutting the yard and arena. Then it was straight into stripping the master bedroom out and painting and laying new carpet before the dresser and chest of drawers go in (they had been my Great Grandfathers). I'm currently redoing the bed and converting it from a queen to a double. When that's done then it will be on to the other bedroom to do the same thing.
On the bright side the El Camino ran like a champ the whole trip......the old Caddy 500 didn't seem to notice it had a trailer behind on the trip back.
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Torque are our friend..............
Nice to hear it went well and you made another round with no issues. Good to hear your mother is doing good in there as well.
That's quite a drive from SW AZ to Illinois and glad you mom is doing well. I know at first it didn't go well for my grandma when she went into a nursing home,but then she loved it because of all the fellowship there.
The day I took the 37 in for an alignment 3 months ago the starter started acting up, so changing that out was added to the top of the to do list.
Nothing screams MOPAR like the sound of the old gear reducted starters Chrysler used in the 60-70s. I didn't have one of those on the shelf but I did have one of the newer "mini" starters MOPAR started using in the 80s. I had bought it to use when I built the clutch linkage on the 57 Plymouth and ended up actually having enough room to use the old style instead so I was only on the 57 for a month or so.
After sitting on the shelf for 10 years I decided that what the heck and put it on.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4406/...27b2558d_z.jpghemi starter by M Patterson, on Flickr
I miss the sound of the old starter, but don't mind the smaller size, lighter weight and the way it turns the engine over. I may do a postmortem on the starter I took off and if it's repairable reinstall it. The new starter is a little dusty and has some shelf wear but for now I'm calling it good.
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Never been into a Mopar starter. Are the brushes as easy to change as a GM? Is the solenoid on the starter or remote?
Good luck Mike, like you I hate to throw away a good part or one that is rebuildable.
".....Are the brushes as easy to change as a GM? Is the solenoid on the starter or remote?......."
Ken, they are kind of the starter equivalent to the Rochester Quadrajet....a bit on the overly complicated/engineered side......when they work they work well. Once you have gone thru one or two and know the appropriate words to use they aren't too bad though.
Repairing vintage Chrysler - Plymouth - Dodge starters
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Do you have a list of those appropriate words?:LOL: Those starters do have a unique sound to them but they kept me from buying a Dodge :LOL:
Back years ago there was adapter kits so you could modify a Mopar starter for other engines to take advantage of gear reduction-I'm going to look thru things, think I may even still have one------
But, of course----my favorite starter is the radial aircraft one and the adapter to the upper blower pulley------------that is because they did away with the push starts
I think that list was started by George Carlin? Wasn't it?? :LOL::LOL::LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5
It’s been kind of slow progress on the 37 the last couple of weeks. Other little projects and a twisted up back have eaten up most of my time. I’m still shooting for having it ready to take to our “big” car show in town the middle of October, and sent in my pre-registration last week.
Now that it’s registered and insured I have taken a couple of short test drives, mostly to set up the kick down cable. The truck feels really light and the 4.56 gears are going to be a lot of fun.
Somewhere along the line a previous owner decided it would be a good idea to remove the glove box liner and hack up the door to install a radio in the truck…..at least he didn’t butcher the dash.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4348/...e259c0cd_z.jpgglove box 1 by M Patterson, on Flickr
I’ve been keeping an eye out for a replacement door, but so far have come up empty. For the mean time I decided to go ahead and just have a plaque made to cover the hole.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4343/...63610f25_z.jpgglove box 2 by M Patterson, on Flickr
and put a data on to cover the inside hole.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4415/...4bdd3426_z.jpgdata tag by M Patterson, on Flickr
It will do for now.
Cade stayed over again last night so today will pretty much be taken up working on the Mustang II. With any luck I’ll be able to get the cut out cables on tomorrow and then move on to hanging the front fenders back on it.
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Progress is progress! My daily drivers are all giving me grief between registrations, and smog certificates, and most recently two new O2 sensors and new catalytic converter. They don't leave enough meat on the budget bone for anything else!:eek:
Nicely done Mike! I'm sure the 4.56's will be fun for sure!
No Cade this weekend but his brother and sister stayed over Friday night and most of yesterday. When Austin woke up yesterday he decided we should get the tot rod out so he could run it around the yard for a while. Of course that entailed getting the battery out of the 37 to power it. I let him get on the bed of the truck and take the battery hold down off . He’s still working on the whole left right thing so we’ll wait a bit for the lefty loosey righty tighty thing. :LOL: I didn’t get a picture of him with a wrench in his hand, but here he is running down the 37s battery.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4501/...e8a3f916_z.jpgAustin TR by M Patterson, on Flickr
Anyway I started getting the exhaust cut out cables in Friday and with no Cade I decided to go ahead and try to finish them up. I'm using Dorman PTO cables as they are really heavy duty with a stainless steel core. Because they are so stout the bends have to be reasonably gradual so the core doesn’t bind. Getting them in the cab wasn't too bad, but the knobs are kind of big. This will do for now but and at some point I’ll probably replace them with smaller red metal flake knobs (fortunately the knobs are threaded so that won’t be a big deal).
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4384/...a81b9b52_z.jpgCables Cab by M Patterson, on Flickr
Because the cut outs are almost directly below the firewall I had to make a large loop in the cables to get them down to the cutouts. I ran the cable thru the firewall, under the intake and looped them around the front of the engine. The passengers’ side was pretty straight forward but I was afraid I might have some issues clearing the PS pump on the drivers' side . After a couple of attempts this is where the cable ended up at. As the fender covers the pump and cable I’m calling it good.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4342/...44e063d7_z.jpgCable L by M Patterson, on Flickr
The cutouts actually seal pretty well. I may still install the caps just to keep the local constabulary happy. Now that the cutouts are done I can move on getting the front fenders on (hopefully for the final time) and finally start getting some miles on it.
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Very nice Mike! The tot rod is still serving well I see!
LOVE the Tot Rod!! The pickup is ok too!:eek::LOL::LOL::LOL:
I had a VA appointment Monday and other stuff to do yesterday so it was today before I got back on the 37. I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon getting the fenders and hood back on it. I think this is the first time I actually put all the bolts in and brackets on in the 15 years I've been working on it. :LOL:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4406/...861c58cd_z.jpg37 A by M Patterson, on Flickr
I spent the rest of the afternoon getting the throttle position sensor for the trans controller hooked up. Tomorrow I'll get some gas in it and hopefully get the speedometer calibrated and transmission dialed in.
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Dang I love that pickup, it would look nice next to my new Dodge :cool: just an idea for you.
Don't listen to him Mike............:eek:
“….Don't listen to him Mike....”
No worries Bob :D
Sorry Seth, but it already has another Dodge truck (kind of) to sit next to.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4473/...bb6c2b9e_z.jpg87 Ram 50 by M Patterson, on Flickr
When they’ve both been in the shop at the same time it’s hard not to mentally compare the 37 to the 87 and how much the American auto industry and customer expectations changed in 50 years.
Right now I’m just keeping my fingers crossed there are no issues that turn up that would keep the truck from making the car show on the 14th. Very few people have ever seen the truck although most of my friends know I’ve got it. A few years ago one said something to the effect of …..
your 37 is kind of like Big Foot or the Loch Ness monster....you hear about it occasionally and once in a while see a picture that claims to show it but you don't know if it's real or just a story :rolleyes:
Anyway here in a little bit I’ll get some gas in it and see how far from the house I make it :LOL::LOL::LOL:
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That 1937 truck is iconic between the fender designs and curves to the classic truck look, One of the best periods of design in my opinion
Well the first real road test was a fizzle. :mad:
I did the primary setup on the transmission controller and took it out on the road to drive the 2 miles I needed to calibrate the speedometer. I made it a little less than a mile and all at once I had a severe vibration. I ended up managing to limp it back home and got it back up in the air.
I’d spit out one of the bearing caps on the front U Joint. So I pull the drive shaft out to inspect the damage and see if I could figure out what happened to cause the new U joint to come apart. Of course to add insult to injury when I went to take out the bolts that hold the straps on the rear yolk one of them seized and snapped off.
I inspected the drive shaft and front yolk closely and fortunately they’ll live. So I decided to go into town and pick up a new U Joint and strap kits with new bolts. I told the counter guy what I needed and he knew the part number (or thought he did) off the top of his head and brought out a new U joint. I’d taken what was left of the joint that had blown up in and we matched them up, and at a glance they looked good. I told him what had happened to the old joint and just to be on the safe side he asked me for an application for the joint and looked it up in the catalog. The catalog showed a different part number than the joint he had brought out. When we compared the two new joints the cross and bearing caps on both U joints measured the same…..the difference was the spacing on the groove for the internal snap rings. What I’m thinking now is that I had put the wrong joint in and one of the snap rings didn’t fully seat and I didn’t catch it.
When I got back to the shop I crawled back under the truck again to take a look at the broken bolt in the differential yolk. Back in my younger (dumber) days I probably would have crawled under there with a drill and easy out :whacked: but being a little wiser now I pulled the yolk off and just took it over to Dave at the machine shop. I was kind of hoping Dave maybe had a spare yolk laying around but no such luck. Anyway Dave drilled it out for me (it’s a hardened bolt) and after getting the new front U joint in, it was time for another road test.
The second road test went much better, I drove out to Dave’s (69Bee) machine shop. On the way I managed to get the speedometer calibrated (which was a good thing as the state police had set up a speed trap on the road between Dave’s and my place sometime while I was over there).
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4398/...59d465af_z.jpg37 Road Test 2 by M Patterson, on Flickr
I stopped by the gas station on the way back and topped the tank off to verify the sending unit was set up correctly and by the time I got back to the house I’d put about 15 miles on it.
The truck is a ball to drive, it goes down the road straight and is not as uncomfortable as I thought it would be. The 4.56s are a ton of fun and the overdrive transmission was a good choice. At 65 it drops the RPM down from 3300 RPM to around 2200. I’ve got to do some more dialing in with the controller for the OD and lockup which I’ll probably play with tomorrow.
All and all it was a pretty good afternoon. I got a bunch of thumbs up (except for the cop with the radar gun who seemed to be scowling :D )
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Sorry to hear about the u joint situation, but at least it didn't come clear out and cause damage. Plus it sounds like it was a pretty easy fix. That's awesome your trans controller is working well. I still haven't gotten mine to work. Someday I'll send it in to be reflashed like they asked. Oh well. :LOL:
Congrats on the drive Mike! Glad it was a success after all.
WhooooooHooo the first ride is always fun! Especially when things seem to work out in the end!
Some of us been waitin' a loooooonnnnggg time to see that post. Congrats man.........how cool is that!?
Thanks Bob, yup way to long. I ended up doing 9 other project cars/trucks (plus customer cars) from the time I brought it home until now. I do believe you just shook your head every time I started a new build thread.
I've put a few more miles on it over the weekend and today and been taking care of a few of the little issues you normally find on a fresh build. I think the little ride I took Cade on yesterday and the look on his face has been the biggest pay off on the project so far.
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Been driving the truck a bit, mostly short trips in the morning before it gets too hot out. Actually for not having any insulation in it the cab doesn't really seem to pick up a lot of engine/transmission heat.
The transmission controller seems to work well, but it's critical to get the kickdown cable properly adjusted before you start playing with the controller. I'm still playing with the lockup setting to see where I want it. It seems like when ever I seem to have it, I end up on a street that happens to have a speed limit right where I set the converter to lock up and it locks and unlocks until I speed up or slow down.
The only issue so far happened this morning. I drove the truck to town and when I got back to the shop it had a lifter that was clattering pretty bad. I ran thru the possibilities that it could be and most of them involved a lot of work at at least some expense.
The first step regardless of what it turned out to be was to get the valve cover off.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4488/...96b988e8_z.jpgrockers by M Patterson, on Flickr
I've got to admit it's a lot easier on this HEMI than it is on the one in the 57 (on that one just to get the covers off involves removing the heater box, master cylinder, and draining the coolant)
Anyway, the problem turned out to be minor. One of the lock nuts on the adjustable push rods had backed off and loosened the push rod. I got that taken care off and pulled the other valve cover and checked the rest of them just to be safe. It was a good excuse for another road test and all seems good again.
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Lifter ticking has never been that easy a fix for me. Your old hemi sure is cool.
:……Lifter ticking has never been that easy a fix for me……”
Usually not for me either. Until I got the valve cover off, I was envisioning a wiped lobe or bad lifter (neither of which would be a fun job).
“….Your old hemi sure is cool…..”
Yeah, I’m pretty happy with it. I had originally intended putting it into another truck I had. I’d originally picked up a 1954 Studebaker 3R pickup for it to call home. I even had a Volare front suspension I was going to graft to the original frame. It was pretty rust free, but there wasn’t a straight panel on it. When I came across the 37 Dodge that plan pretty much changed and the Stude ended up going on E Bay to help offset the cost of the Dodge. I did keep the ash tray from the Studebaker and It's living in the 37 :LOL:
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Very nice Mike! I'm glad it was something really simple.
Me too Ryan.
I did want to let you know that that Federal PS pump I used seems like a good match for the rack. The pressure is lower than the Saginaw pumps but still a little more than the Ford Pumps. The steering has a real nice road feel.
The pictures from when I built the brackets for the HEMI were posted from photo bucket so they are gone now. If you want me to repost them on your 40 Ford build thread I'd be happy to.
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Mike, that would be great! I had thoughts of purchasing all hot heads brackets and pullies a few months ago. Then I came back down to reality and decided I did want to drive it next year, and not have it be in a huge pile of parts still...... :LOL: