First Wash

Finally got the car out of the garage from its hibernation and gave it a good bath.  I had been planning to hit it with the pressure washer for some time now, and just had to make the time for it.  I was really being careful to get my other vehicles far away as to not be splattered with any grease or funk.  It was easy enough to roll out of the garage, but I had to wire up the front of the differential tube to keep it from dragging.  By the way, the differential / rear end unit in this vehicle is huge.  It has a torque tube setup which means that the differential assembly actually begins at the back of the transmission.  It looks like a big "T". Can't wait to get that out so I can put a picture of it here.  I washed inside and out and removed a large quantity of junk from the interior and the undercarriage mostly.  I wasn't quite as pleased with the results of the pressure washing on the front suspension.  The front independent suspension had (has) years worth of dried grease built up on the control arms and knee-action shocks...  pressure washer didn't stand a chance.  Its going to have to be a more manual process getting them cleaned up.  The brakes in one of the drums locked up on me when I tried to get it back into the garage and it took some serious pushing to get it back in.  Now to get the driveway cleaned up.

Motor

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted any new updates, but rest assured the work goes on.  It’s somewhat of a challenge to make time for working on the car AND posting about it.  To complicate things, I’ve taken on new responsibilities at work, and so for the time being I’m dong both my old job and my new one.  Excuses aside, I did manage to get the motor and transmission pulled from the car and have all of the body panels off to the point where it’s just really the chassis and the body left.  My plan is to pressure wash the car, then start fabrication work on the firewall.  I’ve got the engine block ready to dummy up, now just looking for the right transmission... seems everyone is looking for a T56 that bolts up to an LS1 block.  At any rate, work continues.

Quirks - Part 1

As I’ve indicated on earlier posts, I am very much amused by all of the little design quirks of this vehicle.  So, I thought that I would start a regular feature detailing the interesting, different, and odd things I find as I disassemble and build this vehicle.  I do realize that this might be entertaining for only me, so please bear with me.

As I was unloading the car from the trailer last summer, I noticed something that puzzled me for several months.  There were straps underneath the running boards... two on each side, four total.  On each end they are held by rubber mounts and they are about an inch wide thin sheet metal running down the underneath side of the car.  I though that I was looking at some storage straps or even the remnants of some compartment.

I wondered about these things for many months.  Particularly I wondered what kind of negative effect this would have if and when I do not put them back on the finished car.  As I was minding my own business, and just cruising the internet, I ran across the options manual for this vehicle (on the “old car manuals project”).  So on this page, I found the answer to this question.  They are not straps after all.  For $5, a new car buyer buyer in 1939 could add the option of under car radio antenna.  On the Master Deluxe model, it was standard.  “For car buyers that prefer an antenna that is not visible.”  Of course I had never heard of such a thing, but makes sense to me.  I wonder how it worked... The other odd thing is that there is actually an external antenna mounted in front of the driver side door.  Until now I had assumed it was stock, but now I guess it must have been added later.

I’ve got a link to the Old Car Manual project on my “links” page, and they have tons of great information including the original factory service manuals, marketing flyers and booklets, as well as some very early technical service bulletins.  I love that site just for the history, but has proven very useful so far on this project.