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Duncan's (sort of) project - 1940 Ford


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45 minutes ago, Duncan said:

Combing the carpet helped disribute the dye and alleviated some of the crunch.

 

It should stop it from making the fibers stick together (what causes the crunch), so I can see that.  👍

 

46 minutes ago, Duncan said:

There are some Youtubers using RIT dye, but some of the commenters say it doesn't hold up, and some even said their shoes were getting the dye on them. 

 

From personal experience, you do have to wash it in hot water after you dye it, or it will get the dye on anything that touches it for awhile. Don't know if they tried that...

 

48 minutes ago, Duncan said:

I just wish they sold a version of it that would go into a real spray gun..

 

Does SEM not?

 

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On 8/18/2021 at 10:25 AM, datsunfreak said:

 

Does SEM not?

 

 

I know SEM makes the stuff for plastic/vinyl but have never seen carpet stuff from them.  I'll look into it..

 

edit:  Yes, they do!

 

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/smm-15014

 

I like it.  I'll take a spray gun over a rattle can any day.  I have a small detail gun that works perfect for smaller jobs like this.  Thanks!

 

 

 

 

Edited by Duncan
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Actually, this IS Datsun related....

 

A friend of mine who is not really here on Ratsun, picked up a mostly original paint 510 wagon that's really pretty straight.  It had been sitting out for quite a while, and there was a LOT of surface rust on the roof.  We spent about four hours with a DA sander and a wire wheel getting it all off, and fortunately, it looked worse than it actually was.

 

I had a quart of hugger orange paint, so I sprayed the roof on it.  Obviously, it doesn't match the car, (it was red) but it should stop further metal rusting, and I did actually get a couple of small dents out of it. 

 

So, I saved a potentially nice restoration candidate, and I had the chance to dust off some of my skills a bit, AND a helped a good friend.

 

froof.jpg

 

A nice weekend if I say so myself 🙂

 

 

 

 

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Well, it's been a long time since I've done this type of thing, so I started in the trunk 🙂

 

t1.jpg

 

Like everything else, the trunk in the '40 has panels that don't match anything in the interior.. Here's the drivers side with a reddish maroon indoor/outdoor carpet with the bottom strip done with the carpet to match the carpet in the trunk..

 

t2.jpg

 

This is the right side panel and it was mostly coming undone. 

 

t3.jpg

 

The right side panel was stripped down, and it was not in the best of shape.  My intention was to strip it down to bare wood,  and use it to make a template for the replacement.  It was not in good shape.  On the Home Depot and Lowes websites, they only have 1/8" stuff in 4'x'8' sheets, and I can't fit that into my car, so I went ahead and recovered the old one. 

 

I glued up some 1/8" foam padding followed by the vinyl.  Despite the damage, it came out okay.  It took a bit before I got the knack (again) of trimming and gluing down the backside, but I think it came out fine, especially for a trunk 🙂 

 

That color maroon never comes across right in the photos I've taken of it...

 

sem.jpg

 

And this showed up for the carpet...

 

 

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On 8/28/2021 at 6:34 PM, Duncan said:

On the Home Depot and Lowes websites, they only have 1/8" stuff in 4'x'8' sheets, and I can't fit that into my car

 

Same issue many times, so here's what I do. Figure out the rough sizes of the pieces you need, take it over to the back of the lumber department and ask them to cut it down to those widths/lengths. Then it should fit in the car. 👍

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4 hours ago, datsunfreak said:

 

Same issue many times, so here's what I do. Figure out the rough sizes of the pieces you need, take it over to the back of the lumber department and ask them to cut it down to those widths/lengths. Then it should fit in the car. 👍

 

I've tried getting those stores to do that before, and have been largely unsuccessful.  The local Home Depot doesn't even have cashiers anymore, with the exception of the Garden Dept or the Pro desk.  With California mandating new minimum wages, these stores have cut back their help, and service has literally gone to shit.  Locally, Lowe's is a little better, but not by much.  It was less hassle to spend time with my palm sander cleaning up the old panels. 

 

 

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19 hours ago, Duncan said:

With California mandating new minimum wages, these stores have cut back their help, and service has literally gone to shit.  Locally, Lowe's is a little better, but not by much.

 

Lowe's already payed their people fairly well, so probably less of a hit for them. Home Depot has always payed a fair bit less than Lowe's. 

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I guess I spoke a bit early about running cool in the heat. I got caught in a pretty good traffic snafu a week ago, and the '40 got hotter than I like.  It didn't overheat or boil over, but it got up to 200-ish degrees, and you could tell it didn't like that too much.

 

I pulled off the top fan shroud (which I hadn't done) and I was expecting an a/c condenser, but I never even thought about the trans cooler.  There it was, and my radiator had two heat exchangers in front of it...

 

fan.jpg

 

The engine compartment has some large vents or louvers in the inner fenders, and the car does run mostly cool.  I assume it was okay in Arizona.  I doubt Kingman, Az gets traffic jams like we do here..

 

I bought a 10" fan from Summit that had the highest CFM they had. 10" is the largest fan I could stuff in there. 

 

fan2.jpg

 

The nose of this car has all kinds of custom brackets holding all this stuff, and due to that little area, I couldn't really get access to weld safely in there.  I fabbed a sturdy bracket and attached it with u-bolts.  Due to the cramped space, I had to bring the fan up into position from the bottom.  You can't see them, but all four corners of the fan are bolted solid.  I spent all day Friday just getting the fan mounted..

 

I bought a fan controller, but due to the limited space under the dash due to the a/c, I had to go in the trunk along with the battery.  It was the only place I had any room.  I spent most of this morning shopping for wire and connectors.  I then spent a great deal of my limited brain power trying to figure out connection points, and where/how to run all the wires.

 

The wires have all been run, and tomorrow I get to put all the connectors on and see if it all works... 

 

Next week, I have to modify the stainless bottom cover because the fan is now in the way for installing it.  I do have a fix that should work, but I've never had to work this hard to put a fan in a car before 🙂 

 

 

 

Edited by Duncan
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Finally got this install done.  I took this pic while all the wiring was still loose in case I had problems and had to trouble shoot.

 

trunk.jpg  

 

It all worked as planned, so all the wiring was bundled up, heat shrink was applied on all the connectors, and it was all squared away neatly.

 

trunk1.jpg   

 

I also got to install my trunk makeover.  It was done last week, but obviously I couldn't throw it all back in until the fan install was done.

 

It really is more of a dark maroon or burgundy color and it photographs terribly.  My phone camera hates it.  The over exposure shows the burgundy nap in the carpet, but it does not show in person.  When I see these bad photos, I get picky and have to remind myself that it's a fucking trunk.  Anyway, for $150 in materials and about 3-4 days of labor, it's a really big improvement...

 

 

 

 

Edited by Duncan
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7 minutes ago, mrbigtanker said:

Awesome. Mark you are the shit. 

 

Thanks Ray.  I still enjoy tinkering around and missed having a little something to "fluff and buff"..

 

The diff is getting rebuilt this month, then I'm going to get on the interior in the cabin.. Hopefully this hot-ass weather cools down a bit by then..

 

And you are The Man when it comes to red interior!!!

 

 

 

Edited by Duncan
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2 hours ago, Chopper Jim said:

I thought that 40 looked familiar. No we have traffic for about 1 hour out of the day. And anybody that lives here knows to go the other way around.

 

Small world.  I knew you lived in AZ, but I never looked at the location on your posts.  The guy bought it from someone local to me, then it went to Az.  The owner passed away, and it's back in So Cal again.  This is a tale similar to the Keeper and his "passed around" Bluebird Coupes...

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I noticed I was sitting too damn high in this car.  It does have a low windshield, and if I'm the first at a stop light, I have to lean over to see when the light changes.

 

I had my neighbor help me remove the bench seat and I disassembled it.  I then sectioned 1.5" out of the mounting frame.  I would have probably removed 2", but to clear the trans tunnel, I could only go 1.5"

 

sb1.jpg

 

The frame was relatively easy, but there is a curved, upholstered panel that covers the seat frame.  It also had to cut it down 1.5".  It is made with sheet metal and is upholstered, so I very carefully had to remove the upholstery.  Of course, it had to be re-upholstered after it was cut down..

 

sbkt2.jpg

 

I'm hoping it gives me enough "moar low" in the seating department.  If not, I could notch the seat frame over the tunnel like the hot rodders do to a frame rail.  I don't really want to do that if I don't have to.

 

My neighbor is home tomorrow to help me put it back in, so we'll see how it is...

 

 

 

 

 

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Mod is done.  I'm glad I couldn't go 2 inches.  The 1.5 inches worked out just fine.  The car is much easier to slide my ass cheek onto, I can see the traffic lights as good (if not better than) my daily driver, and I feel like I'm IN the car instead of ON the car .

 

The downside is the heat from welding tweaked some of the pieces just a bit, and the seat is a bit harder to adjust, but the good far outweighs the bad..

 

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I didn't notice it when I first bought it, but I have an occasional "clunk" when I put the car into gear.  Fortunately, I have an excellent guy who rebuilt the Sunny diff is right around the corner from me.  Turns out the rear axle in my car is a Dana rear from a 50's Lincoln and any parts (of course) are NLA. 

 

After looking for a few weeks, I located a Ford 8.8" from a Ranger pickup in a wrecking yard. The cars tend to rotate fast here in So Cal, and I missed one a few weeks ago, so I jumped in my car and went to get it by myself.  I did manage to get it pulled and wheel it through the cashier and out to the parking lot.  I really lucked out because some guys just getting off of work from the yard came by and helped throw into my car.  I would have never been able to get it into the car by myself.  My neighbor helped me get it out when I got home, and we wrestled it into my side yard and on jack stands.

 

ford88.jpg

 

A Ranger pickup with the optional 8.8 is fairly rare, but I also happen to get one with the exceptionally rare limited slip option, so it was a nice find. I'm ordering a new 3:73 ring and pinion, brakes, bearings, etc, etc and will get this all taken care of next month.

 

In the column under "I'm never doing that again, ever" is getting a full size rear size axle by myself again.

 

On the way home, I spotted this out in the wild.  It's been a really long time since I've seen another one on the road like this..

red40.jpg

 

It was funny seeing that out on a Tuesday afternoon.  I thought I was the only one that did stuff like that..

 

 

 

 

Edited by Duncan
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45 minutes ago, Duncan said:

A Ranger pickup with the optional 8.8 is fairly rare, but I also happen to get one with the exceptionally rare limited slip option, so it was a nice find. I'm ordering a new 3:73 ring and pinion, brakes, bearings, etc, etc and will get this all taken care of next month.

 

If I remember correctly, during my axle hunt I read there were two different 8.8s in the Rangers? I'm recalling something like there are two different spline sizes, one beefier than the other? 

 

I went Explorer because disc brakes and stock 3.73s. 👍

 

And for what it's worth, LKQ will sell you an Explorer diff already pulled for around $200. Not much help now, but if you decided you wanted discs instead...

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1 hour ago, datsunfreak said:

 

If I remember correctly, during my axle hunt I read there were two different 8.8s in the Rangers? I'm recalling something like there are two different spline sizes, one beefier than the other? 

 

I went Explorer because disc brakes and stock 3.73s. 👍

 

And for what it's worth, LKQ will sell you an Explorer diff already pulled for around $200. Not much help now, but if you decided you wanted discs instead...

 

They don't pull any parts around here that I've ever seen, and their prices vary depending on what county they're located in.  I paid about $250 for mine, and they have a weird deal about not including the brakes.  That's no big deal because I want new drums, shoes, wheel cylinders, etc, anyway.

 

The car currently stops very well, and I wanted a parking brake without having to reinvent the wheel.  That's why I went with the drums.  

 

It's a pleasure car, and with the way I drive it, I'm pretty sure the rear brakes will outlive me at this point 🙂

 

 

 

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20 hours ago, Duncan said:

The car currently stops very well, and I wanted a parking brake without having to reinvent the wheel.  That's why I went with the drums.  

 

For what it's worth, the Explorer uses a drum for the parking brake, so the connections are the same. Another reason I chose it for my swap, to simplify making the stock parking brake work.

 

20 hours ago, Duncan said:

It's a pleasure car, and with the way I drive it, I'm pretty sure the rear brakes will outlive me at this point 🙂

 

I have a long history of over-doing things, like the above example...  😋

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I've come to the conclusion that I have too many heat exchangers stuffed in the nose of my car.  I need to get my trans temp gauge working first, but I'm going to go to a remote trans cooler mounted somewhere under that car.  Hot Rod magazine just did a write up on these and similar remote trans coolers, and they are getting good user reviews.

 

I'm planning on this or something very similar..

 

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/der-13900

 

 

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