Rusty Fifty One

Got a bunch of new toys in the mail over the past couple weeks.

Vintage porcelain bobble hula girl
NOS Airway illuminated compass
NOS bumpers + stainless domed bolt kit
Mint Guide 7″ yellow lens fog lamps + NOS “Fog Lite” switch
Repop Guide tail lamps
Repop Stop-Ray tail lamp brackets
’50s external sun visor
“Sleepy” Headlight visors
Speedo and Combination meter rebuild kit
Rebuilt 1bbl Rochester B carburetor
A pile of random gaskets, seals and stainless hardware

^ Notice the difference in the lenses. I went with the plastic lens on the new tail lights because they appear to let more light pass through where as the original glass lenses seem more opaque. The new lamps also take a 21cp Stop bulb instead of the original 6cp bulb.

Doin’ what she was built for even in retirement.

Finished painting and decaling an oil bath filter that I converted to take a dry element.

The oil leak turned out to be a bad oil filter housing gasket. Found one that matched the InnerLine block mounted filter at NAPA, changed the oil and drove her all weekend with out issue!!

For those looking…
NAPA part numbers for the InnerLine Filtor:
Gasket: 5062 (from #1080 NAPA Gold Filter)
Filter: 1010

Also replaced the rigged up 8v battery with a new 6v, which is what it should have had originally.

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Speaking of the InnerLine “Filtor”, its probably one of the more rare pieces I have on this truck. Remote by-pass oil filters were a dealer/aftermarket option so they were rare to begin with but they’re way more common than the block mounted filter I have. I haven’t mentioned it until now because it hasn’t needed any attention. Other than being full of sludge when I got the truck, it works perfectly.

I need to get some better pictures of it but you can see it to the left of where the steering box and exhaust pipe pass by each other in the following picture.

Also found decals for it on the Filling Station’s website.

Took her for a spin over the weekend!!! Oil is now getting to the top end and the filter! It was as I suspected, the distributor tail was not turning the oil pump gear.
Unfortunately, she’s now pissing oil from a brass fitting at the oil distributor. Luckily, I can get replacement parts for most of the oiling system parts with a quick trip to any common plumbing supply store/dept.

Pardon the craptastic cell phone pics it was dark.

Fresh paint!

GOOD NEWS! After a late night in the garage (8p-2a) with fellow Bolter, Michael S., she is alive and running! We cold set the valves, buttoned up all the panels, topped her off with oil and she fired right up with a single, brief stomp on the starter button! Zero hesitation even after four months of sitting with the engine half torn apart. A little trim of the choke and she purred like a kitten.

Bad news: She’s not getting oil in the filter or up top. Our best guess is that we didn’t put the distributer in deep enough. Idle is better than perfect but the tail of the body drives the oil pump so we’re guessing while the worm drive is overlapping, the flat edge at the base isn’t in the slot on the pump gear. Gonna try to fix it tonight or tomorrow.

After a four month hiatus to attend to family issues, my buddy Greg and I got the oil pan on and removed/replaced the copper oil line that goes thru the block and main water jacket. Unfortunately the push rod cover gasket set came with a couple crushed spark plug seals so we didn’t get to fire her up as planned. Called NAPA and they came thru for me with a couple new cork plug seals. Need to wait for them to get shipped out to the local store tho. Hopefully it’ll happen by next week.

Also been painting the panels as I’ve had em off. The color is actually New Ford Gray from AutoZone.

Not using the Thriftmaster decal, instead I’m going to cut a stencil and spray it on as it would have been in 1951.

Should be running by the weekend or next week.

Scratch that and add, weather permitting, one more week. Looks like I’m still leaking coolant at that fitting on the oil line that runs thru the block and main cooling jacket. Not a big deal, sept the fitting is in the pushrod case, which is also the oil return from the valvetrain that feeds the lifters, cam and partial to the crank.

Had to order a new copper line and brass fittings last night. Luckily they’re coming from a shop in state so I should get everything by Saturday sometime.

Pulled the pan last night and scraped out an inch thick layer of sludge. Clean up should be complete tonight and reassembly will begin. Should be running by the weekend or next week.

PAN SLUDGE!

Thought this was a cool shot of the crankshaft … you can see the oil dipper on the bottom of the conrod.

Looking up at the bottom of #4 (I think) and the camshaft.