Roadster Stuff

Thanks C9X, I bought the pulls for the windshield but wondered the same thing, there are already plenty of air leaks. I did not know about Rain-X, I will look for it. I wonder if there are any alternative wipers to the Speedway topmounts? Maybe the longest bullet glass packs are the ticket for me. I was thinking about Thrush turbos but I would like to avoid the offset. It sounds like Mike/lt1s10 has a serious helath problem but I recall his comments that one could just get the cheapest $19 mufflers from Summit and try them for a while with the idea that that would let you run while you pondered over the options, but you can see Ken's setup is built for the long run with what look like stainless mufflers. The problem with stainless mufflers is that if you don't like their sound you have already paid a high price for the stainless. Then again I think there are stainless bullet types also. Yeah, I hear you about constant upgrade changes and Ireland's Child commented about left over stainless bolts; I already have quite a collection of left over bolts and extra parts. I guess that is sort of inevitable but my ultimate dream is to get the car running, thoroughly clean out the garage and set up shelves with spare parts!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don,
If you go to www.tperformance.com it is Total Performance inc. in Ct. They have a wiper set up for the Dearborn Deuce that may work for you it is cowl mounted and comes with everything.
Just for your information my exhaust isn't stainless It is just coated. I don't like any stainless for exhaust either. you can't control the color changes it has after it is run.
I hope I am not over stepping my bounds, but it sounds like you are getting in a hurry. If I can offer you any help at all it is to not rush building you car. There will be a time when you are done and you sit back and look at it and say to yourself,"Damn, I wish I would of ....."
Respectfully,
Ken Thurm

I like to use muffler shop glasspacks since they usually have several different lengths in stock.

You have to weld an end on them and many times they're not as large on the inside as they ought to be, but for street use they work fine.

Many times glasspacks with, say 2 1/2" inlet & outlet can be 2" or so inside.

My experience with stainless bolts - series 308 & 316 - shows them to be about equal to a Grade 4 bolt.
Granted, there is no Grade 4 per se, but the tensile strength factor drops them in right between Grade 5's and hardware store Grade 3's.

Regardless of what their ratings are, I don't use them in critical applications.

You can get stainless bolts from ARP that exceed the strength rating of Grade 8.

And like always, watch it at the big box stores like Home Despair.
Their Grade 8's are made offshore and they don't equal a USA made Grade 8 . . . by a long way in some cases.

Regular stainless bolts, nuts and washers like I use are excellent on exhaust system.
Used on collectors and the like, they don't rust together like a steel or plated steel bolt will.

You want to be careful with that spare parts thing.

I had quite a few things left over from changing my mind to later tinkering etc. on the 32.
Then a friend of mine gave me a Camaro disc brake kit for solid axles and the 31 on 32 rails project was born.

Well just to keep the chatter going, I appreciate the various comments from C9X. I went through some roller coaster emotions over night. Last night I decided to go for it and sawed the hole in the firewall for the column. I experimented with some holes on thin plywood using a 2 1/2" hole saw and found it would only allow a 40 degree tilt for a 2" diameter column and then I scratched the new paint on my tilt column and went to bed bummed out over the whole scene but today after some rest I made the hole more oval vertically and found I can get the column in at a good angle if I use a 3 " drop and I will order one custom made by J&B Microfinish in IL at slight extra cost. I want the slanted mount a la '32 dash edge, swing feature and a cutout for the wires from the horn and turn signals and they can make one up in polished aluminum. The fear was that maybe I cut the hole too high up and might have to patch it closed and resaw a new hole with the obvious outcome that the patch would look bad. So to my relief the hole need not be changed and I took a suggestion from Bob Parmenter and sawed out another large plate of 1/4" aluminum for the inside of the firewall so I can attach the gas pedal without adding any more holes to the firewall. The plate will bolt to the back of the same bolts for the stainless plate on the front and the aluminum plate will support the steering column as well as the gas pedal. The reason for all of this is that I need a FLAT surface for the lower column mount instead of the rounding edge of the indent and I might as well have invisible screw mounts for the gas pedal. Fortunately, the scratches on the column paint are where the mount will be and will be hidden and probably more scratches will occur as I tighten the lower mount. Now I need to check out the Ace Hardware grommets for something that can be cut down for an oval hole 2 1/2" wide by 3" high OR try the trick of slitting some rubber tubing lengthwise. The only source I have for rubber molding is a selection in the Whitney catalog, soooooo does anyone here know of a source for rubber edge moldings?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don,
It sounds like you had a mild cardiac event when you opened the hole for the steering column - I think we've all been there ourselves - at least mine is steel and a mistake would have only been a bit of weldup with a patch - and I do have a major firewall repair/mod - Brookville supplied a 3" rather than the 5" recess that I ordered. As far as scratches, there is a low tack masking tape that wont leave residue (or at least much) that you can pick up at one of the big box stores.

If you want to keep firewall holes and bolts to a minimum, Lokar has an interesting gas pedal:http://lokar.com/ see page 47 in their .pdf catalog. They didn't have this one when I bought mine a couple of years ago.

Rubber products are available at Steele Rubber Products - their website catalog : http://166.82.96.9/homeframes.html
I really do not like these guys - act like they can't be bothered, but they do have a pretty extensive product line

And another that I just came across at Goodguys - Rhinebeck is Metro Moulded Parts - http://www.metrommp.com/
These guys were very helpful when I asked some off-the-wall questions and do appear to have even more than Steele.

I haven't bought anything from JC Whiney in many years - shipping is out of sight plus too much says Made in PRC (China).

Keep smilin' - it's a hobby:3dSMILE:

Irelands Child (I'm assuming you are of Irish descent; I am only about 25% Irish, 50% German and 25% Swedish, but born in the U.S. of A.!), Thank you very much for the links. The guy at Metro Rubber was very helpful and I ordered a length of rubber from a Corvette fender welt which has a crosssection 9/16" thick x 7/8" wide with a 1/8" groove 3/8" deep out of sponge rubber. That width and the sponginess should entirely fill the hole around the column (hopefully) and give a factory appearance with the cut hidden at the bottom under the column. I was surprised I could order as little as a foot but I ordered 4' to try an addtional piece across the top of my homemade floorboard tunnel as a seal. I have tried to make my new floor pretty much like the stock Model A floor board. If that works I plan to order more for around my door jambs and the edge of the rumble seat area. The doors on the fiberglass body are reasonable replicas of stock doors but the door wells are quite different from stock with a thick lip around the edge and this rubber may work well there. I once had a "real" '29 roadster body so I am familiar with the stock shapes but it was rusted so badly that I gave up on it and sold the whole thing; basically it was more archaelology than auto repair! Another item of interest is a new column boot kit from Speedway which I ordered and should cover the paint scratches on the bottom of the column. The boot is made up of a universal tilt mount with a 4 1/2" diameter ring to clamp the faux leather boot, part Nos. 446-2401 and 446-2405 in the new No. 247 catalog as a new item.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Hi Don - yep Irish as well as Scottish, British and German which makes me a standard issue all-American. My wife hung me with that nom de guerre (plume?) after our 3rd or 4th trip to Ireland.

I'm glad that Metro worked out for you - they were more than obliging in looking up a shift boot part number for me and gave me a CD catalog for future reference. I will need some weather stripping soon.

I hadn't seen the column boot in my new catalog #247 just received yesterday - I'm going to order the boot alone as my column is too close to the firewall recess to use the floor mount. My floormount is a piece of 2" exhaust tubing with setscrews to retain the bottom of the column but the boot will finish off my carpeting and make the upholsterer happy that he only has to do an upper shifter boot as well as an e-brake boot (I have a console for the radio and A/C-heater) which needs a lower weather boot then the appearance boot above. It's not that I don't know better with a roadster, it's that I had the A/C as a leftover from the sedan debacle - and a lot of $$$ involved that wasn't mostly recoverable as parts:eek: .

Sounds like you started like I did - a resurrection project. I started with a '31slant windshield sedan that was like a tunnel with no light at the end. A guy made me an offer I couldn't refuse, and a week later a trailer pulled in front of my house and it went South. Dick Spadaro - Early Ford Reproductions, my local supplier, picked up my B'ville roadster for me at Carlisle, PA and it has been an open checkbook and a bent credit card ever since:D .

Revisiting some ancient stuff !!
I built my H pipe over the Christmas/New Year holiday time when my wife 'suggested' that I keep the noise and dirt pollution down a bit. Actually turned out fairly easy once I got the @#$% exhaust system apart (I tightened everything with an 18" bar)

What I have are a couple of 8" long spool pieces of 2.25 pipe with the exhaust pipe end belled and the muffler end to fit inside the muffler. I dug out a 180 degree mandral piece of 2", cut it to size with a 2 1/16 hole saw( couldn't find my 2.25) which with the normal hole saw wobble, was just right, and notched the end. I opened up a 2" hole in my 2.25 spool pieces and welded it up. For whatever reasons, the welds look like bird droppings - and the welder was spitting - so had a bit of clean up grinding to do. It will all be bolted back in place tomorrow (we both had the flu and stomach problems hung on for 3 weeks)

Dave very interesting, gives me some ideas. It looks like the crossover pipe has a slight U-shape. I have had some Christmas visitors and also some professional obligations relative to my previous academic career but the good weather rekindles stuff I was putting off until April or so.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Shillady

Dave very interesting, gives me some ideas. It looks like the crossover pipe has a slight U-shape. I have had some Christmas visitors and also some professional obligations relative to my previous academic career but the good weather rekindles stuff I was putting off until April or so.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

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Don,
The pipe was cut from a Summit mandrel 'U' to go beneath the driveshaft as I have my exhaust tucked up as high as possible. I'll post an "as installed" photo soon - I need to pick up a piece of .500 stock and make a muffler hanger today. This needs to be welded directly to the muffler as I can't move the rear hanger.

Our good weather came to an end yesterday with cooler weather and a <.25 dusting of snow(we've had < 1.00 total so far this year, about 18" less than normal). I've not been too diligent with the car, with the flu and the holidays slowing things a bit, but am back to work at it this week.

My professional obligations, with the exception of a few phone calls ended as I walked out of my office for the last time 18 months ago. And I don't miss it. But still not sure that if someone made me an offer that I wouldn't do something similar, at least parttime, but not for GE.

And installed:
What a project it turned out to be - :eek:
Also shows my new Denny's HD driveshaft :3dSMILE:

Hi Dave,

This looks good! Did I miss any discussion of choice of mufflers?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Shillady

Hi Dave,

This looks good! Did I miss any discussion of choice of mufflers?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

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Don
C9X (Jay) has some comments above - I'm using Flowmaster 50 series(p/n942452) for less interior resonance, hopefully, but would have probably chosen their smaller 409SS Hushpower's if I had waited a week or so a couple of years ago.