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1939 Chevy coupe

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  • 1946Austin
    replied
    One of my Christmas presents from my youngest daughter and granddaughter was a big surprise! Our granddaughter is a very talented artist, and at a car show this summer she was sketching cars, and quickly turning out rough drawings in pencil that were very well done. I asked her when she started drawing cars, and she told me she'd never drawn any cars before that day!
    So I asked her to draw my '39 and told her I'd pay her for a drawing. She was happy to do it, but it never happened....I thought. For Christmas she gave me this very detailed sketch she did of my '39 Chev. Will have to get a frame next week, and find a place to hang it in the house.

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  • SuperBuickGuy
    replied
    Originally posted by 1946Austin View Post

    Can't imagine a big Coke delivery truck on that stretch of 14 in the fog, and dark! Had to be a pretty scary experience!
    I drove, mostly, an Astro van.

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  • 1946Austin
    replied
    Originally posted by SuperBuickGuy View Post

    love Maryhill - but yeah, that fog can be frightening. I used to work for Coca Cola based in The Dalles, lived there when the big flood happened in 96.... drove that road hundreds of times as my territory extended from Bonneville to Goldendale (and from Cascade Locks to John Day)....
    Can't imagine a big Coke delivery truck on that stretch of 14 in the fog, and dark! Had to be a pretty scary experience!

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  • SuperBuickGuy
    replied
    Originally posted by 1946Austin View Post
    Show was fantastic, but trip to the show was a white knuckled experience!
    My wife and I left the house at 6:00 a.m. for the 100 mile drive, and it was 48 degrees out. Condensation on the whole car, and windows kept fogging up. No heat or defrost required a stop every few minutes to wipe the windshield off. We hit the freeway to cross into Washington, and figured freeway speeds would help keep things clearer, and they did. But once we began East along the Columbia River we started hitting fog, and about the time Hwy 14 went to two lanes it got windy, and fog got even worse! At one point I had to hit the brakes hard when visibility was maybe 20-30 ft.! Big concern was if somebody didn't slow, and might rear end us, but fortunately we were about the only nuts out at that time! It lasted the first 45 minutes, and then the sky began to lighten, and temps started to rise. Soon it was light out, and crystal clear, and we relaxed for the rest of the trip.
    My stupid gas gauge is still only reading just the top half of the tank, so when it reads empty I have 6 gallons left, but I stopped to fill anyway, just to be careful. The show was amazing, with not many "concours" type cars at all. It was almost all hotrods, and lots of nice ones! We met a bunch of really nice folks, and had a great time visiting, and looking at cars.
    The drive home was wonderful with mid 70's temps, and the winding 55 mph roads and scenery amazing. Well worth the drive to see, and take part in. I decided to not run the Maryhill road, as the 400 ft. drop off with no railings was less than appealing in a gasser. I might take the Austin next year, and run the road though. It corners and handles much better with it's smaller size, and quicker steering.
    love Maryhill - but yeah, that fog can be frightening. I used to work for Coca Cola based in The Dalles, lived there when the big flood happened in 96.... drove that road hundreds of times as my territory extended from Bonneville to Goldendale (and from Cascade Locks to John Day)....

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  • 1946Austin
    replied
    Show was fantastic, but trip to the show was a white knuckled experience!
    My wife and I left the house at 6:00 a.m. for the 100 mile drive, and it was 48 degrees out. Condensation on the whole car, and windows kept fogging up. No heat or defrost required a stop every few minutes to wipe the windshield off. We hit the freeway to cross into Washington, and figured freeway speeds would help keep things clearer, and they did. But once we began East along the Columbia River we started hitting fog, and about the time Hwy 14 went to two lanes it got windy, and fog got even worse! At one point I had to hit the brakes hard when visibility was maybe 20-30 ft.! Big concern was if somebody didn't slow, and might rear end us, but fortunately we were about the only nuts out at that time! It lasted the first 45 minutes, and then the sky began to lighten, and temps started to rise. Soon it was light out, and crystal clear, and we relaxed for the rest of the trip.
    My stupid gas gauge is still only reading just the top half of the tank, so when it reads empty I have 6 gallons left, but I stopped to fill anyway, just to be careful. The show was amazing, with not many "concours" type cars at all. It was almost all hotrods, and lots of nice ones! We met a bunch of really nice folks, and had a great time visiting, and looking at cars.
    The drive home was wonderful with mid 70's temps, and the winding 55 mph roads and scenery amazing. Well worth the drive to see, and take part in. I decided to not run the Maryhill road, as the 400 ft. drop off with no railings was less than appealing in a gasser. I might take the Austin next year, and run the road though. It corners and handles much better with it's smaller size, and quicker steering.

    Leave a comment:


  • 1946Austin
    replied
    Update on the carb. I swapped the jets, and put in a #4.5 hg power valve, and think it was a bad one. The car ran rich, and whenever I let it sit more than a few hours it blubbered and left a cloud of rich blue fuel on startup! Gas mileage went to heck too, so I ordered a new #3.5 power valve, and a #67 through #72 jet kit with two of each size.
    They came this morning, so I put the new power valve in, and then played with rejetting it, and driving it. Ended up with #67 jets, which seemed to work well with the proper power valve working. Hopefully it will also get my fuel mileage back where it was previously too!
    Going to drive up to Maryhill Museum this Sat. to look around the Concours de Maryhill. Should be fun to watch the vintage race cars run the Maryhill road course!

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  • 1946Austin
    replied
    The change to #64 and #70 jets didn't work well. Drove over to just walk through a local car show today, as I didn't want to sit there all day. On the way over the engine was noticeably unresponsive to the throttle! Even driving it easy I could feel it was lackluster, and when I stabbed the throttle it just didn't react.
    When I got home I got my jet kit out, and re-jetted the primaries from #64 up to #70, so #70 at all 4 corners now. Took it for a test drive and it was right back to being very snappy, and responsive. Doubt the mileage will change much just dropping 2 sizes from the original #72's it had. But at least it feels better when I blip the throttle a bit.

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  • Deaf Bob
    replied
    Originally posted by 1946Austin View Post

    I wanted to go to the cruise in Mac, but had an early a.m. show to go to the next day, so decided not to go to Mac. Always enjoy that venue, and cruising the downtown strip!
    Austin won "Best muscle car" at a show yesterday. Made me chuckle since the show was full of the usual muscle cars like Mustangs, Challengers, Camaros, etc. Too funny, a old gasser as a "muscle car".
    The Austin is a nice car..
    nice to get an award, well deserved.

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  • 1946Austin
    replied
    Originally posted by Deaf Bob View Post
    Saw a car like this at Mac cruise.. was a lighter color and different door art (kinda poorly made). Driving like a punk.. knew ut wasn’t you. (Young buck) Half the wide rear tires stuck out.
    I wanted to go to the cruise in Mac, but had an early a.m. show to go to the next day, so decided not to go to Mac. Always enjoy that venue, and cruising the downtown strip!
    Austin won "Best muscle car" at a show yesterday. Made me chuckle since the show was full of the usual muscle cars like Mustangs, Challengers, Camaros, etc. Too funny, a old gasser as a "muscle car".
    Last edited by 1946Austin; September 12, 2021, 08:43 AM.

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  • Deaf Bob
    replied
    Saw a car like this at Mac cruise.. was a lighter color and different door art (kinda poorly made). Driving like a punk.. knew ut wasn’t you. (Young buck) Half the wide rear tires stuck out.

    Leave a comment:


  • 1946Austin
    replied
    My '39 engine has always been a little rich smelling, and something I needed to address. Last night I moved it to get my old Austin out for our Thu. night get together at the pizza place, and it was worse than usual! I noticed it blubbering at idle, and had to occasionally rev it to clear it out. Then later when I got home and moved it back, it kept wanting to die. Last time my wife was with me on a drive she complained of the smell burning her eyes, which wasn't a surprise to me.
    So I got up this morning, and decided to do some deep delving into the Quick fuel 650 double pumper. It's a really nice carb, with 4 corner air mixture adjustment, and a lot of neat features. But I'd never looked at the jet sizes, or the power valve size, and I figured the power valve could easily be too big for my camshaft, and low engine idle vacuum reading.
    Once I got it off I discovered a big problem in the suspect power valve! My engine idles at 10" in neutral, and in gear it's more like 8". So the 6.5 power valve was almost twice as large as it should be. My stash of Holley power valves revealed a #4.5, which was a little larger than I wanted, but way better than the 6.5. So put that in the primary block.
    I checked the jets and saw they were #72 primary, and #74 secondary. Both larger than I felt my milder built 350 should have. Guessing it's around 350 hp, so I checked my jets and found #64's and #70's for primary and secondary. Hope it's not too lean, so have to watch the plugs to see the color after I have some miles.
    I also have to almost close off the corner air adjustments to get maximum vacuum at idle. So I drilled the butterflies with a #70 numbered drill on all 4 butterflies, to give it more air at idle without exposing the transfer slots in the venturis. Put it all back together, and set the idle up a little higher to keep it running until I could adjust everything once it warmed up.
    After adjusting the air mixture, and setting engine idle speed, I gave it the sniff test at the tailpipe, and it smells pretty darn clean now! No more extremely rich smell, so I'm happy. Maybe the mileage will also go up a little too, and go a little further on the 12 gal. fuel cell!

    By the way. Here's a guy who is a very knowledgeable Holley carb guru! He does a lot of videos on Youtube that are solid and full of great tech. A lot better than what you can get by talking to the techs at Holley when you need help!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTTW...e%2C40yrsofexp.

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  • 1946Austin
    replied
    Got the gasket replaced. But it took several hours to finish since my neighbor across the street saw me outside working and came over to ask for help. He said his Volvo wagon was giving him alternator codes and he bought a new regulator for it. So 3 hours later I'd removed the power steering pump, AC compressor, and finally the alternator, only to discover the alternator wouldn't come out of it's hole alongside the engine! So I turned it 90 degrees and removed the back cover and changed out his regulator.
    Put it all together, and back to finishing my little 10 minute job. Put some blue Loctite on the bolts in hopes they'll stay tight this time!

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  • Deaf Bob
    replied
    Originally posted by 1946Austin View Post
    My wife and I took the '39 45 miles north Sunday to the town of Kalama, Washington for a car show. A really neat venue where the town closes down main street and numerous side streets, and lets a local car club take over the town. It's a great show for us, and a great way for the town to make money also! The firemen do a charity breakfast and lunch, with all the firemen working, and the money made goes to help the fire dept. Other businesses also have special deals on food, and vendors set up to cater to the car people.
    They announced a record turnout of 450 cars, which didn't surprise me considering they didn't have it last year, and shows didn't start here until about 6 weeks ago. So people were anxious to attend!
    Our '39 Chev gasser won a sponsor's choice award, which surprised me considering all the cars there. The guy who picked it said he was building a '55 Chevy gasser, and really liked the 60's gasser look our '39 has.
    But the right side header flange developed a leak on the way up. Not huge, but will have to pull the gasket and replace it tomorrow.
    If it is anything like “Mousetrap”.
    I would not be too surprised..
    Congrats!

    Leave a comment:


  • 1946Austin
    replied
    My wife and I took the '39 45 miles north Sunday to the town of Kalama, Washington for a car show. A really neat venue where the town closes down main street and numerous side streets, and lets a local car club take over the town. It's a great show for us, and a great way for the town to make money also! The firemen do a charity breakfast and lunch, with all the firemen working, and the money made goes to help the fire dept. Other businesses also have special deals on food, and vendors set up to cater to the car people.
    They announced a record turnout of 450 cars, which didn't surprise me considering they didn't have it last year, and shows didn't start here until about 6 weeks ago. So people were anxious to attend!
    Our '39 Chev gasser won a sponsor's choice award, which surprised me considering all the cars there. The guy who picked it said he was building a '55 Chevy gasser, and really liked the 60's gasser look our '39 has.
    But the right side header flange developed a leak on the way up. Not huge, but will have to pull the gasket and replace it tomorrow.
    Last edited by 1946Austin; August 16, 2021, 03:46 PM.

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  • 1946Austin
    replied
    Originally posted by DanStokes View Post
    I can relate! We're lucky to have a Parker-Hannifin store here in town with a pretty good stock so usually I can drive a few miles and get what I need.

    Dan
    We have a couple good hardware stores here that usually have stuff the chain stores don't. But neither had the female to female 45 I needed.

    Leave a comment:

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