Tag Archives: Auto Cross

Parking-Lot Spotlight 1955 Chevy Belair

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Note: Updated to correct mis-Identification of this parking-lot find.  It is in fact a 1955.  The main details that denote the difference is the placement of the Chevy and BelAir badging and grile.

So I’m lucky. I live in a place where there is not prone to any type of natural disasters, we don’t much rain and it only snow when it’s a cold day, you know where.

It’s also a place were you don’t have to put way your collectible set of wheels, you can drive the year would and a lot of folks do.

Here is my latest parking-lot find.

It is a 1955 Chevy, 2 door Belair.  Yeah, I know it’s a couple years before the super wonderful 1957’s came out, but I like these shoe box cars, with their very clean lines especially the 2 door version and I particularly like the lines of the BelAir convertible.  It reminds me of the clean lines for my 1966 Chevy Impala convertible.

Love the red and white.  Fantastic chrome.

Wheel aren’t ordinal but I think that are great for this car.

Look at the stance! It’s just great.

You gotta love that hood ornament!!

 

All Belair came standard with a 6 cylinder with about 353,00 produced, not counting convertibles.

The 6 was an overhead value, cast iron power plant with a displacement of 235.5.  With a 3 9/16 x 3 15/16 and a compression ratio of 7.5:1
these cars knocked out a whopping 115 hp.  The would breath through a Rochester one barrel Model 7007200 carb or a Carter one-barrel Model
2101S (for the Powerglide auto transmission) and a Rochester one-barrel Model 7007181 for the standard shift.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Vacuum – Tune it up!

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Checking the vacuum on your old car is an important part of a thorough, but most of the average guys don’t bother, or don’t have the gauge.  Most often if you do have the gauge, you might not be exactly sure what the reading might be.  For the recorded I’ve never had a car where the readings were stable.  Normally you’ll get a fluctuating reading that move around.  Below are a few ‘ranges’ and what they may indicate.

Standard Vacuum Gauge

These are for V8’s only:

–  A good reading will be between 15 and 22 in. hg (a steady needle).  Closing the throttle you should see a 5 notch drop and reopening it should settle back previous span (15-20).

– If you get a reading where the needle has a swing 4-5 in. hg ethier side of normal, you are looking at a possible simple carb adjustment.

–  If the reading is higher than normal you need look at replacing your air filter or check to ensure your choke is not stuck.

–  Low reading would be fairly steady reading around 5 hg will have you looking for a vacuum leak on the intake/carb area.  Look for poor connections at the carb or any “T” or “Y” or straight though connection.  Baring that look for cracked hose.  You know I hate vacuum leaks.  I recently restored a 1984 corvette with the Crossfire injection set up.  Rather than chase down a single spot, I just replaced them all.  That was a lot of vacuum hose and tucked in some stuff spots.  But you are working on something bit older, like my 1970 Mustang, replace it all, it’s going to go back sooner or later, especially with the kind of temps we have out here in the Southwest.

–  If you get a reading that between 8 and 14 you are looking at a timing issue at the least to leaking piston rings at the worse.  Do a compression check for the leak and use your timing light before you tear it apart.

–  If the needle is swinging (unsteady) between 14 and 19 hg that indicates valve guide problems.  That going to be a valve guide problem.

Thanks for reading

Tim

 

Car Production Numbers. They Made How Many? 1901

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This is it. The beginning of it all.     What were they making in 1901?

The top producer was the Locomobile car company with a total out put for the year 1,500 cars.

Winton was second with 700 cars.

Oldsmobile (ahh one we’ve heard of!!) was third with 425.

White came in fourth with 193.

Autocar was next with 140.

Knox was sixth with 100.

Rounding out the bottom was Packard and Stanley with 81 and 80 respectively.

 

This is a 1901 Winton Racer..what's the guy in the front doing?

 

 

1901 Autocar

 

The 1901 Autocar has a shaft-drive engine, powered with a water-cooled, two-cylinder, horizontal-opposed engine in the front of the car. The gasoline tank and battery box were under the front seat.

Thanks  reading,

Tim

Nothing Runs like a Velie!

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I was reading the other day and I came across a car manufacturer that I hadn’t heard of prior and yes it was an American car maker.  The maker was Velie.

1911 Velie passenger car

Like some car manufacturers Velie started out as a carriage maker (as in horse and carriage).  The owner was Willard Velie and we received his funding from this mother who was the wife of John Deer.  Yes that John Deer.  It’s not exactly clear if John Deer was is father, but we’ll assume it was so.

Willard created Velie Motor Vehicles Co. in 1908 and produced their first car in 1909.  It was a 4 cylinder and sold 1000 units and were sold though John Deer dealerships.  The 1909 and 1910 models primarily used existing engine but in 1911 build their own.  In that same year the Velie car participated in the Indianapolis 500 and finished 17th out of 46.

1911 Racer

That helped keep  car production was at 3,500 vehicles a year.  By 1914 Velie added a six-cylinder side-valve Continental engine to the mix of power plants. and by 1918 only offered six cylinders. The car became so popular and reliable that a few folks in Louisiana name a town after the car.

In 1918 Velie won the race at Pikes Peak which helped increase production to 9000 a year cars by 1920.

In 1928 they introduced the an 8 cylinder engine  a  Continental straight eight and were a roll so to speak. (Not to mention their little side business for producing air planes.)  However that was not to be, Willard died in late 1928 and Willard Jr. died a few months in 1929 later.  That ended the Velie Motor Vehicle Co.

John Deer company bought the plant and well they sold a few tractors now and then.

Thanks for reading

Tim

1967 Olds F-85 Club Coupe Restoration

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I bumped in to Bill Holtzclaw from Cartersville, Georgia, virtually (Facebook) and he shared a few pics and some detail on his restoration of a 1967 Olds F-85.

Bill's F85

“I am doing a full, frame-off restoration on this 1967 F-85 Club Coupe. It has a convertible frame, 442 suspension, steel crank 330, .030 over with W-31 cam and 2” intake valves, close ratio Muncie 4 speed and heavy duty 3.91 posi rear. It is a radio delete, heater delete, carpet delete car with the factory cloth and vinyl interior. The drive train is built and the chassis is being assembled. The interior is done, the chrome and bright work is done. Next, we’ll pull the body and put it on a rotisserie. It will be two-tone Crystal and Midnight Blue.”

“I’ve had a lot of interest in this project from some of the leading Oldsmobile collectors in the country. It is my version of what would have been a 1967 W-31, which was introduced in 1968. All of the parts to build this car back in the day were available as either RPO options or over-the-counter upgrades. The W-30 package was available as an over-the-counter package in 1967. The W-30 cam and the W-31 cam are one in the same, and the OIA kit will work for both small block and big block cars. So, it was a possibility! ”

The upholstery turned out awesome! He used NOS fabric for the seat inserts. The car was a factory carpet delete car with a near-perfect vinyl floor covering. “I cleaned it and had it dyed the color blue (same as dash pad) that I wanted. It looks absolutely brand new! I had seat belts custom made to stock appearance, and the standard steering wheel came out nice, too.”

Check out the vinyl floor covering

“I had the gauges restored by R&M restorations in Greenville, SC. The odometer was re-set to zero.”  The dash bezel was restored by Chrome Tech USA. They repaired the 44 year-old plastic, re-chromed it and then detail painted it. The radio and heater delete plates were purchased from Red Venom Enterprises. “They only make the radio plate, so I purchased two and trimmed one to fit the heater control panel and the PRNDL panel. ”

Bill did the polishing himself

He installed a Sunpro Mini Tach in place of the factory clock. Looks like it came from the factory that way!

Great Job - Bill!!

 

Final Product

 

 

Bill is also the owner of a 1967 Oldsmobile F-85 Town Sedan with “Police Apprehender” package.  It has the HiPo 330/320 hp, Heavy Duty Jetaway and 442 suspension upgrades.

Nice!!!

Might be why he’s known as OldsMoBill.  “I am also known as the “Oldsmobile Police”!” Bill states.

Bill, I hope you check back with your status from time to time and thank you for sharing.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Racing History – The Manufacturers – Mercury Part II

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There was another dry spell which lasted until 1963 when Mercury took one Grand National NASCAR race using the 427 c.i.d for the first time.  The followed that up with 5 wins the next year as well as a good showing at the drag strip with the Comet Boss 427 Dragster:

Comet at the Drags

1965 was a tragic year. Billy Wade (1963 Rookie of the Year) is killed during a tire test at Daytona, he was part of the Bud Moore Mercury team and had become the first driver to win four NASCAR Grand National events in a row.    Mercury ended the year with only 1 Grand National win, however, Fords and Mercurys took the top 13 positions, while Chrysler sat out that season over the new rules that were meant to eliminate the use of some of its engines.

The 1966 highlight was the selection of the Cyclone GT was the Official Pace Car for that years Indy 500.

Cyclone GT 1966 Indy 500 Pace Car

More coming up

Thanks for reading.

Tim

 

mercury comet

Large and small saloon cars will top show

Franco Scribante will be out in his Ford Mustang GT350, as will rally ace Leeroy Poulter in the Ford Thunderbolt, Hennie Groenewald (Plymouth Fury), Jonathan du Toit (Chev Nova) and Carel Pienaar (Mercury Comet). Also able to fight for podium places …

Lemons, Lemonade, Life and Project Cars

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No this isn’t a about purchasing a junker car.

This is just an update.

I’ve been preoccupied the last few days I haven’t kept up with my articles.  Since this is the Average Guy’s..etc., then you’ll get this next part.

Thing’s happen in life (a.k.a. – Lemons) and you just have to deal with them.  The goal is always make the best of the circumstances (a.k.a. – Lemonade).

Earlier this week I lost my job with the company I worked in for the past six years. This is not  uncommon in these economic times and there are many average car guys and car gals in the same boat.   Many of those people have project cars and these end up being put on the back burner or sadly end up being sold. As car people we all know this happens and hopefully the car goes to good home.  Hold on before anyone drags out their savings and offers to purchase my Mustang – I’m not there yet.  But it will put my major plans for it on hold for a bit, which is a darn shame, because now I seem to have extra time on my hands to accomplish all those mod, not true a week ago.

So for the better part of the past week I’ve been setting up my job hunting network and getting it in motion.  Now it time to wait it out and see what pops up.  In the meantime I’ll have more time for writing and doing the little left over projects on the Mustang.  I still have the passenger’s seat to re-upholster and the front air dam to put on (I’ve had that in the box for years).  I can install  the polished aluminum alternator bracket I worked so hard on and have yet to install.

And……. I am project managing the restoration of a 1975 Standard VW beetle – pro bono. Here she is:

1975 VW Standard Bug - New Project.

More to come on that.

So unless you are Jay Leno (I hate that guy!!! – not really,  I’m just jealous – I want him to hire me to keep his cars driven and shiny and search out more cars for him..hey..there’s an idea!!!! “Dear Mr. Leno, I’m a car guy and I currently find myself with some  free time so I’m applying for…..”)   you dealt with circumstances like job loss or lack of funds to finish or keep that project collector car.  But remember you can take it slow on projects – it’s OK to slow down and if you have to give up that beautiful machine, keep the memories and there is always tomorrow and another car in your future  –  you have to believe that and work toward it.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Car Production Numbers. They Made How Many? 1934

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Jump back to 1934 and lets see what the auto makers cold crank out.

Ford was the leader over Chevy but only by 12k cars, 563,921 and 551,191 respectively.

Plymouth was third with 321,171.

Dodge was a distant fourth with 95,011

Hudson/Terraplane produced 85,935

Oldsmobile only 79,814

Pontiac just slightly behind them with 78,859

Buick finished up last with 71,009

What else was going on in 1934:

–  Hudson dropped its six banger

– Lincoln put V12’s in all of their cars.  The 414 cid carried a 6.3:1 compression.

– Graham produced the supercharged Custom Eight.

Graham's 1934 Custom Eight

You know I love engines and this Custom Eight is great!!

Thanks for reading

Tim

 

Wrenchin’ Tip – Got 6 Volts?

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I was recently talking to a coworker of mine who own a 1949 Pontiac Silver Streak Delivery Van (link –     http://wp.me/pKHNM-Bx ) and we were discussing his 6 volt system and the troubles with low amperage.

Well I just ran across a couple of interesting articles dealing with that subject.  Now I will tell you I am not “the guy” for electrical work – nope not me (I had a bad experience – ok – a couple of bad ones).  But even this one I can understand.

Increasing the power supply often means that you need to convert to 12 volt and maybe 15 years ago yes, but now 6 volts are readily available.  So here is what you do (sorry no pics)

Take two 6 volt batters and link them in parallel by connecting the two negative terminals to each other and the two positive to each other. The main positive cable goes from the positive terminal of the first battery to ground and the main negative cable is connected to the negative terminal of the second battery.  Of course in some case you may have to modify the batter shelf, but it will sure help kick up the cold cranking amps.

Thanks for reading

Tim

Product Review – Griot’s Garage – Long Lasting Tire Dressing Closure

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So you’ve read my review and I promised to drop a note as to the “Long Lasting” part of Griot’s Garage’s – Long Lasting Tire Dressing.

Now is has rained nearly every day since I applied the dressing.

So take a look at the tires with 2 applications and 3 applications.

Tires with 2 applications of tire dressing

 

Here is the tire with 3 applications of tire dressing

 

Here is what I think as a wrap up.   Long lasting to me doesn’t necessarily mean just duration, but can it stand up to everyday driving – oh—yeah…just in case I failed to mention, the  Vette is my daily driver.  It lived up to the Griot promise.  I’ll continue using this product.

Thanks for reading

Tim