Rusty Fifty One

With the ol’ girl up and running sooner than I thought and the rest of the day now free, I finally got around to painting and installing a visor I picked up about a year ago. Not sure what brand it is but it’s a clamp-on type and adjustable in width. …I like it better than the typical Fulton visors you see everywhere.

As purchased.

After paint.
Top side is shot in Satin White then weathered to match the top with fine grit paper, gravel, and dirt, and the under side is Moss Green. All hardware is replaced with stainless.

Installed the new stainless emblem too!

Got it on just in time to hit the Saturday night Chuck-A-Burger cruise! Pulled in with the paint on the underside still tacky.

My weekend!

Thursday.

Friday.

Installed the new stainless fuel sending unit and changed the oil the weekend before and added a bottle of lead additive and 4oz Marvel Mystery Oil to a +/- half full tank with the intention of heading over to the gas station to fill up. Life happened and I never made it.

Fast forward to Thursday… I took the truck to meet a friend for lunch headed back home after to get the gas card and died once on the way home and again on the way to the station. Couldn’t get it to fire up after the second time so the girlfriend and I made use of the new tailgate chains while waiting in the heat for a tow.

Friday… Got it idling well, so I decide to head over to the station and fill up. Dead again in the same spot about a mile from my house.

Saturday morning… Got a 5gal can and drove to the gas station in my other car. While we were at it, we also replaced a hacked off carburetor stud and installed the proper carburetor insulator/spacer and re-tuned the carb. Runs great now and the fuel gauge works!

New shift knob and stainless tailgate chains installed!

(Trick to installing the shift knob is to nuke it for 30sec. then smack it on w/a rubber mallet.)

Changed the oil, installed a new accelerator return spring and smacked the side mirror off backing into my garage. Wah wahhhh. Hopefully this isn’t the beginning of 7yrs bad luck.
A fellow stovebolter told me that “he don’t think so, since it’s a rear view mirror.” It just means I might of had some bad luck in the past that’s coming to an end. …Let’s hope so.

On the upside, I’m taking this opportunity to add the passenger side mirror and arm while I’m doing the driver side.

WOW! The new harness makes such a difference! No reason to switch to 12v for me. The 6v system works just as well when the contacts are all clean and tight. Lights all shine super bright, everything starts and runs fine, and best of all, NO MORE FIRE HAZARD!!!

It took us a little longer than expected, about two whole days hour-wise spread over three. A few broken bolts on the first day and some issues to troubleshoot by the third. All things considered, once we unhooked the turn signals due to a compatibility issue (5 wire vs 7), it went pretty smooth. The signals will eventually get set up separately.

OLD vs NEW

The new harness was a bit colorful for my taste so I finished it off by pairing and wrapping the lines as far down as I could with electrical tape. Time consuming but it makes it look a little less modern.

Other parts to be installed (didn’t get to everything)

New buckets

Bulbs installed

Bryan hooking up the starter

Hooking up the gauges and main lamp switch

My view sitting behind the dash

Staying hydrated behind the dash

I ended up completely replacing the tail lamp assemblies and adding correct lamp brackets due to rust. As they came, the tail lights were dangerously dim and I noticed the glass lenses seemed much darker than the aftermarket plastic ones while shopping around. So, for safety reasons, I decided to go with new plastic lenses over reusing the original glass lenses. With the lenses, new harness and swap from two 6cp bulbs to a 6 and a 21cp bulb in each, they light up plenty clear even in bright daylight.

Old shot comparing the lenses.

Finally got the harness! Ordered it on Monday got here on Wednesday. Realized it was the wrong one, called Wednesday evening and a new one was at my door by this (Friday) afternoon.
Classic Parts in KCMO is tops in my book! “Happy Truckin’!”

Got the buckets off ebay.

Also got these little guys from the ebay too. No more forgetting!

FINALLY GOT THE F’ING SWITCH!!!
Been waiting almost six weeks! Ended up cancelling the back order with Vendor #1 after they told me it’d be another week before they could tell me if it would be yet another week until it’d arrive at their warehouse. Finally found one available from another vendor (the last one in their stock) only to have the order held up by a back ordered ground strap I added on a whim to the final order with Vendor #2.

Now to order the harness. …wish me luck.

(Repop 6 volt headlamp switch, made like original)

Made like the original… that metal tab with the printing on it in the photo above, that’s the circuit breaker. It’s a different type of metal that, when heated past a given point, bends, separating the copper contacts which opens the circuit and stops the flow of electricity. They make a repop with a fuse but I liked the original better since I will be running all additional accessories other than turn signals, thru an independent, non-original but period correct, fuse box rather than off the aux post on the switch.

While moving stuff around to refinish the floors in a few rooms I unintentionally dug up some old Sakhnoffsky prints (c.1957) I picked up a while back.

Still need to have them framed but I figured I’d snap some photos and do some research on them.

These are three separate “dye-transfer color reproductions” created for the Pedwin shoe company that were available by writing to various magazines that ran their ads.

(Better photos to come)

Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky was born in 1901 and passed away in 1964.  He was a Russian-American industrial designer and was known principally for his streamline style automotive designs.

About the prints I own…

The Pedwin Sports Car Design Promotion: “Mr. Dream Car”

The man who invented dream cars is back with a complete new line of sleek imaginary sports cars. This month, American magazine readers will see once more a style of drawing that to many of them – especially those who were reading men’s magazines before World War II – is as familiar as the pin-up girls of Petty or Vargas. The sleek, imaginative dream cars of Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky, which graced the pages of Esquire for years, are to appear in a series of monthly magazine ads.”

“The series will include 12 Sakhnoffsky designed sports cars and will run one each month in the pages of several national magazines as part of an advertising campaign for Pedwin Shoes. Reason for the sports car theme, says the shoe concern, is the “increasing interest nationally in sports cars by the young men of America.” Admirers of the Sakhnoffsky drawings will be able to obtain dye-transfer color reproductions by writing for them.

More info here – http://www.forgottenfiberglass.com/?p=8863

Also, inspired by my research, I picked up an Oct. 1957 copy of Speed Age magazine featuring the same artwork.

I’m a sucker for old hand painted illustration/advertising work. As such, I tend to collect the stuff. So, I picked up some maps and other literature from around ’51.

One day I’ll get a Rt.66 road trip in.

Original 1951 Chevrolet Advanced Design Truck brochure.

Finally received the parts to complete the combination meter along with some other odds and ends.
Still waiting on the backordered headlamp switch though … if it takes long enough, I’ll go ahead and order a new harness and period correct fuse block to run accessories through and just get it all done at once.

For a long while now the fuel gauge has intermittently worked. …more often not, but when it was working it was never all that accurate. At some point after disassembling the combination meter I noticed one of the posts on the back of the gauge was loose. Turns out its simply a knurled section of the post that presses through the fiber board on the back side of the gauge and the board had deteriorated around it. Unfortunately this fitting also holds the completed connection between the post and the gauge innards together. Although I was able to repair it by making a permanent connection with a dab of solder I chose to order a replacement gauge. When I received the replacement fuel gauge I immediately noticed that it didn’t match the decals I used to reface the rest of the gauges. So, I ended up having to order another decal sheet.

There are a lot of differences between the original and new gauges. The most annoying is that the new one is a smidge taller causing the trim plate to press against the needle. This was remedied by gently grinding out the edge making contact with the needle and slightly bending the center portion of the trim plate outward to clear the needle base.

After refacing. Insulators, warning tag and gauge comparison. (Old on the left, new on the right.)

Back of combination meter.

Detail of new warning tag.

Reassembled combination meter.

Side note: My kitchen counter tops make an awesome neutral gray background. 8)