Da baby’s in da crib!

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My new-to-me ’32 club sedan arrived safely on Friday morning, via Passport Transport. This was my first experience with them and everything was smooth and professional. Follow-up was timely all through the process, picked up and delivered within the committed timeframes, and all for a very fair fee.

 

I was hoping to take the car out today. These days, it’s necessary to make an appointment to do a vehicle registration. Here in New Hamposhire, registrations are done at the Town Clerk’s office. I want ‘Antique’ designation plates, so that means taking all of the paperwork that the Clerk completed, to the DMV. Of course, no one’s allowed in the building, so I had to deposit the entire packet into the outside drop box. Used to be, anyone in the waiting area would be served. Now, there’s a 72 hour turn-around. Sheesh! 🙄

My wife and I spent the last week reimagining the garage space to accommodate a car. Over three years ago, we closed our 3000 sq ft motorcycle shop, and I condensed that into a two car garage. Well, over the last week or so, we creatively jigsaw puzzled that into half of the garage, so that the Pierce would have a comfy home. Even though things are mostly organized, I find myself going to where that things +were+. Gotta retrain.

I spent several hours familiarizing myself with the car. Picked up GL-1 oil for the transmission and GL-4 for the differential; change that out tomorrow. A new canister oil filter element and a case of high-zinc PennGrade1 (the old Kendall) motor oil. I guess, to be thorough, I should remove the oil pan for a look see, eh?

Ordered up 6 gallons of Evaporust to run thru the cooling system for a while, after I have Mr. Cislak install a modern seal in the water pump. Lubriplate water pump grease in the cup and new hi-temp grease in the distributor cup. Will install new radiator hoses and proper wire-style hose clamps. Put my favorite penetrating oil,  KROIL, to work on the grille shutter pivots and linkages. They operate nice and easy, now. Also used Kroil to free-up the door, sidemount and trunk locks, which wouldn’t budge before. Installed a Genius battery charger lead near the starter, sheathed in asplalt/cloth wire loom to make it as unobtrusive as possible. Amazing discovery is that the most recent Optima battery date code punch-out sticker is from “99”. I’ve never seen a car battery last for over 20 years! I load tested it and it’s borderline fair/good, for cranking. For good measure, I ordered two more on the PAS batter deal; I’ll wire these in parallel.

Back to it tomorrow, and hopefully will have plates early next week.

=Adam=

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Beautiful car!

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Lovely car and very exciting for you!

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Beautiful car!

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Beautiful car, for some reason I love the color scheme, I’m trying to remember why. (my phaeton pictured, though my picture appears different, in reality it’s virtually the same color)

Kroil is fabulous stuff.

You’re doing the correct thing by researching and being methodical about taking care of any unseen issues.

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Hey, thanks, everyone. Thrilled to have this car. @David Coco – nice color combo.

First up, I removed the oil pan. This was such a fun task, atop the creeper, layin’ on my back. When the engine work was done, the pan gasket was gray RTV’d on – thank you 🙄. A lot of time with a putty knife and some words for whoever installed the pan, and it was off. Didn’t look bad – no real build-up sludge to speak of.

Wire-wheeled all of the pan bolts and used one of my favorite tools to reform threads on a few of the bolts. THIS is the best thread reforming tool ever. I bought one over 40 years ago from the company that made them in Pasadena,CA – and they haven’t been made for close to 30. They turn up on eBay from time to time. Trust me – you’ll thank me every time you use it. 😘

I scrubbed and flushed this in my solvent parts washer best as I could. Talking with @Ed-Minnie, he suggested removing the windage trays for a thorough cleaning. So, I gave it to a friend of mine that will broach out the spot welds, clean ‘er up, plug the holes, weld and repaint the pan. Not a big deal, as I ordered up a complete gasket set from Olson’s plus a second pan gasket, and that’ll take a week+ to arrive.

Now, I was surprised [not the delighted kind of surprise] to see these cotter pin remnants in the bottom of the pan 😖. I am not thrilled with the way the cotters are installed on the rod bearing caps, they’re not tight. So I am going to replace them all to ensure that they fit tightly. These bits look to me like the part of the pin that was clipped off. I don’t see how these could have sheared off.

I removed and cleaned the oil pickup screen. This is the +before+ photo.

The steering box has oil in it – that’s good. The fan hub was dry, so I added engine oil. I’ll get the improved version from Cislak. Cleaned and oiled the air filter screen. QUESTION: Is there a suitable paper filter replacement for this oil bath screen?

I’ll service the transmission and differential next. Gotta get a fuse for the clock and see what I need to do to get it running. I guess I could pull the distributor and carburetor and bring to Cislak while I am waiting for the pan gasket. Not like I can run it, for a couple of weeks, anyway. @Jim-Chase pointed me to his excellent three-part treatise on vapor lock and how to mitigate it most effectively. I have a new Carter electric pump, gauge and Holley pressure regulator to fit. @John-Cislak suggests installing larger diameter fuel line from the tank to the pump. I am not sure I’ll get to everything before Hershey, but will do as much as I can. I could work with greater efficiency if not laying on my back. [Say with Bahstan accent] “Dis is +fuh da burdz+.”

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Beautiful example; thanks for sharing! Will you have it at Hershey?

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I have a master mechanic who does engines, mainly race and Porsche engines.  If you’re a friend, he’ll work on your old stuff.  His advice on my 1938 Packard Super Eight engine he worked on, torque rod nuts to 40 ft-lb and do NOT put in cotter pins.  He states a properly torqued bolt will not unscrew itself, and having pieces of cotter pins in the oil is not good for engine….

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I think the Brits have a good cotter pin method: insert then give the ends a 90 degree twist before bending them around the nut.

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@Randy – I certainly hope to be at the meet. I should write an article about the adventure – finding the car was the easiest part. Been two months since the car arrived I’ve been on it nearly every night and all weekend for two months solid. So many thing to check, tend to adjust, service. I expected to be ‘done’ at least two weeks ago.

Pretty sure I am close enough to make it to Hershey. My pan was to have 100-150 miles on the car prior to the meet. We’ll see how it goes this week.

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@Dave,

Too late 😬. New, proper fit Cotter pins are installed and bent correctly. Previously they were all loose and whoever installed them bent both ends over the same way.

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Adam, your car is great! We enjoyed meeting you and Jeannette. I’m going to use your posts to go over my car now!

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Hey, thanks, @Don – great to meet you as well. There’s lots more for me to add in posts, although I may save it all for print in The Arrow. It’s been an adventure, for sure.

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