1958 Country Sedan project

Ah, the fun of being a wagon Daddy!

 

The jalopy journal information and what you get here will help a lot. Seems like the old rebuilt brakes are working well. The dual master will just be extra insurance if something goes wrong at one end or the other. No matter who is watching you from up above, there are still a lot of idiots right down here.
Hopefully you have the engine sliding thing figured out. Keep at least 1/2" between the fan and radiator.

 

hey J...is there a spacer between the fan and water pump?
if so ..could you just put a thinner spacer in?

 

Nope, no spacer. Pulley is bolded directly onto the water pump flange.
Problem is solved tho... transmission is now solidly bolted to the mount!

 

Every Wednesday I have the opportunity to drive down to Albany for slot racing. For 6 years I have been campaigning on any commercial track learning how to build, set up and race slot cars and been getting better! Actually won a couple.

But... it's the drive down that's killing me. On one trip I blew a tire. On another trip the radiator (new radiator) sprung a leak. On one other trip down the speedo cable broke. On another just last week... the engine slid forward and smacked the radiator before it bounced back. And Wednesday last week.....

I like to drive down the back roads. Basically farm roads. The ol'two-lane ribbon that goes past vinyards, hop farms and other properties of husbandry. The views are beautiful and I almost never see another soul even passing through the little town of Buena Vista.

Welll... the curse reared it's ugly head again. The Alt. light started flashing so I pulled over. (Car has been hard to start lately.) I didn't shut it off, not that stupid. But the battery cable clamp was broken clean through, so I cleaned the post and contact... and clamped the thing solid with a vice grip.
Once I had cleaned the charging wire the light went off.


I love this car because it is so easy to fix. Even the new transmission mounting bolts were a no brainer and now the cars power curve is smoother with no vibration.
Wish I had done that a long time ago.

As for the race... my car came in 5th out of a field of 20. (Team Lo Bucks)

Suppose I had better explain. Anyone not interested, hit the back button NOW!

This particular race is a proxy race. The cars are hand built and none of the builders get to race the cars. Volunteers drive and all the volunteers who are currently driving this round were guys/friends I race against each week. I was the designated track director moving the cars from the pits to the track.

Each car goes two minutes on one lane. In on red and out after running black. The drivers drive one lane while the cars rotate. Laps are counted and the winner is the car that ran the highest number of laps. Usually that doesn't mean the car was the fastest, only the easiest to drive... and never got hung up in wrecks. Which happen alllll tooo frequently. In fact, I don't think we went more than 56 seconds with-out one of the 8 cars in each of the 20 heats coming out of the slot.


My car is the only one in the red lane... at the rear of the pack by the way. I painted it to represent "Maximo" a video game character that my partner wrote and scripted. His name is David Siller and he and I teamed up for the series called the "Lucky 13 International Proxy Race".

The race started about a year ago when we began building the cars. First race was in March and this race is the 11th of 13 or 14 races total. The cars started in England, went to Switzerland, then to the east coast of the US and are now on their way to Australia. New Zealand is next. After that.... I have no idea.
Motors are sealed from the factory so the times and numbers of laps very close.
The variables were the chassis design and construction. Weight is also a huge factor. Sometimes a heavy car can be a benefit as long as the little motor can push it around.

And that in a nut shell is our proxy race.

Back to the car:
Last night (Wednesday night) I stayed home!
But the radiator is back from the shop!
They soldered the few seams that sprung leaks and pressure tested it. So today I am installing that and the new 18" battery cable. Just waiting for the temp outside to warm up a bit...

 

Battery cable is installed.
Repaired radiator is installed with new coolant.
System burped out and runs great!
Raked leaves in this un-seasonably warm weather (70 degrees) and took a shower.
I guess a nap and then racing will be next.

 

thats apretty cool track J
got any video of some races to watch?

 

Matthew took a bit of video of the proxy he said he would put on his blog. Hasn't come up yet. But experience has shown that the cars go faster than the refresh rate on most computers so you never see the cars.

 

Just for that go rake some more leaves.

 

Nothing new to report, but thought I'd say something!
Still on the street now 2.5 years later.
Drive the car daily because I have no other options. Barely made insurance payment last month soooo... good for another half year till the 3rd year anniversary!

Just fuel, oil and one pair of tires needed these last few months so nothing worthwhile to report. Trying to save up the bucks to build up the front seat cushions, back to stock support, as the foam rubber the builders used is/are starting to wear down and the Indian blankets there need replacing very soon. I have a friend who's an upholster who said he'd do it on the cheap. But... I have to put together the coin for that to happen.

Still have no working speedo... too old to crawl under the damn car yet again and I've gotten this far using RPM's and local traffic to determine my speed so... no tickets in this machine so far.

Comfortable, warm, dry and very effective as transportation. Still get thumbs up from at least one person each day it's driven. But... even strangers are now saying: "You're the one with that blue wagon?"!!!!
(No way I can ever go buy drugs in THAT car! EVER!!!)

 

... Comfortable, warm, dry and..... Classy! You be riding in style.. remember that!

 

Jairus - been following your thread off and on for some time, I was seriously considering putting in an offer on your car before you bought it. Ultimately, I found a car a lot closer to me.

Glad to see you are working through the pains of driving an old car all the time, it makes me feel not as crazy for doing the same.

Here is a link to the progress on my car (also a '58 Ranch Wagon)
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=608230

 

TKE,

Read a few pages in and find your story on HAMB to be similar to mine in many ways. Very fun reading and glad to hear you like my story.

Have not read that you fixed your wiper motor yet but a rebuild is possible by following the link:http://www.wiperman.com/

If you've already done so... then never mind.

 

Thank you for the tip on the wipers. My vacuum motor needs some help. I need to replace the seals in the rear quarter windows as well as the tailgate. I have some big leaks there that collect in the spare tire tub.

 

I like first names TKE so my name is Jairus.

Finished your thread on H.A.M.B. and almost joined the forum... but glad to have you aboard here since I don't really have time for ANOTHER forum.

Happy to see you got the clutch thing fixed.
But, you probably should have dropped the pan and changed out that rear main seal while you were down there...
but that would have been my plan and not everyones.

Saw you changed out your rear axle input seal too because those go bad over time.
Another thing to look for is the brake line hard line just where the frame kicks up and over the axle. The emergency/parking brake tends to wear holes in it as the axle bounces up and down. Check for it!!!



Okay, to the 6 (now 7 with TKE) fans who read updates on this thread regarding my Surf Rat. I have some much needed updates to report.

Spent the entire last weekend working at the biggest swapmeet on the West Coast in Portland Oregon.
I worked as Rat Hole Customs selling T-shirts during the busy times.... and spent all my proceeds when things were slow buying up parts for the wagon!

First up was a new working radio to replace the broken one.

Now I have AM to go along with the FM/8-track stereo so I am very happy!
The only things not working on the car as I write this are the emergency brake and the speedo.

The second purchase was for only $4.00 and that was a set of vintage grill bullets which make the car MUCH cooler I think! Right?
Of course right!

I also removed the crazed plastic blank plate in the hood scoop so now a I got fresh ram air intake for no $.
How can that go wrong?
(We shall see...)

The third purchase was another less distorted rear bumper!

Be a while before I put that baby on the car because after being hit a few times... the splash pan is pretty shy and will need a dent puller and some bondo to make it presentable once the original bumper is off.
That's a project for much later this summer.

While I was at the show I took a few pictures of other wagons.
First up was this neat '46 Dodge that looked like a pickup modified with real wood into a woody panel.... ah, thing.
Not for me but I took pictures.



Then there was this pretty little Nova....


Give them a call if you are interested.

The other two looked great. But the seller was a dealer and I suspect the price would be no less than twentyfive grand....



The Chev was pretty neat looking till one examined the "wood" a bit.
This is an all metal woody that Chevrolet introduced in 1949 alongside a real wood woody. But the metal woody out-sold the wood bodied model so Chev cut it and painted wood trim on the metal body.
This model had vinyl wood grain applied that was probably NOT exterior grade because it was bubbling and peeling away from the structure.
Why the builder didn't go the extra step and paint the grain is beyond me.... but it might have been a good point for the buyer to bring the price down some.

The best car of the show was this '55 Buick. Man I loved this car!!!!

Thought I had snapped other pictures of it, but this is the only one I could find which is sad. The car looked like it had been pulled from the pages of a 1956 issue of Field and Stream it was so perfect with the fishing poles, tent and other vintage camping stuff!

Okay, that is all I got to report.
Tomorrow is a car show at Cascade High School.
Got a full tank of gas and washed the dust off the rust before dinner so I'll take the camera and report on what wagons show up.
Most of them will be from the Long Roofers group I'll wager.... but the sun will be out and I'll be listening to the tunes during the drive so...