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I have a similiar problem but I am logged out in less than a day. I think the site is supposed to keep one logged in for two weeks? Before automatically signing someone out.
By coincidence a you tube popped up with some guy on a rant about US regulations allowing red turn signals and a single filament bulb for both turn signal and stop light. In other words the turn signal flashes the stop light bulb so if you have the brakes on it is flashing that side bulb off and on while the other side remains lit constantly. That is how I set up my Pierce so that I didn’t need to add extra non original lights low on the bumpers. I followed a nearly new pickup truck that uses that scheme today.
In Europe it apparently is required to use amber for turn signals and red for stop and seperate the functuons, supposedly because people are confused by colors and amber means turn and red means stop regardless of blinking. Like other prewar cars our Pierces used amber for the stoplights to distinguish them from the red tailights.
I used a red LED bulb for the stop/turn as it seemed more normal in today’s traffic, and the red LED overpowers the amber tint of the stop light lens and looks red.
I soaked one of the park lenses in uncut Clorox bleach for a week. It isn’t like new but it was making a difference. The lens on top is original glass, the middle is the plastic soaked in Clorox, the one on the bottom untouched. Maybe soaking for a month or a year.
It is a gem, a very original car! Thanks again for your help through the years, the pics I took have been very useful. I’ve had mine for only 31 years, but finally have it to the point I can move it under its own power.
He was apparently trying to clear a fuel line on a White steamer.
A friend has a Stanley and we were trying to get it going a few years ago. The pressurized fuel system atomizing the fuel and shooting into the combustion chamber is truly a very dangerous system. We had a fire going underneath the car and barely got it out. As often reported, Stanley’s never had a boiler explode but caused many accidents getting the fire going.
Jay is very lucky and we hope he fully recovers quickly. No doubt he is in a lot of pain.
Looking good, great work as usual! Plus building a boat at the same time!
I wish I had an answer, maybe someone out there does. I did mine a few months ago and have a definite ridge where the paint meets the chrome. I don’t know how that could be avoided, perhaps minimized by keeping the paint very thin near the edge.
Could possibly clear coat over the chrome but doesn’t seem like a good solution and of course wasn’t done that way originally.
Mine was stripped and chromed decades ago but it had enough surface rust that I only had it ground and polished where the chrome shows.
As you know, having the whole shell chromed was a factory option. I think the standard painted shell was done to accentuate the length of the hood and avoid breaking up the lines with vertical surfaces.
I was surprised to learn in the Pierce literature that painted shutters were actually the baseline standard and chromed shutters were a $25 option. Since very few ’35’s seem to have had painted shutters, I speculate that they were usually chromed and used as a sales sweetner, “I’ll throw in the optional chrome shutters for free!” Sort of like the heater “option” in later years.
I have done the buffing on post-modern cars but those are more of a UV sun exposure problem dulling the outer surface and I haven’t seen much yellowong,on them. These repro lenses have been wrapped in newspaper sitting in a closed box for 29 years and the surfaces are perfectly glossy. I did a half hearted scrub with plastic lens compound on a small area of one of the park lenses but saw no difference.
I assume that with it not being a sun exposure phenomena the inside is yellowed as well and a mechanical scrubbing of those complex prism shapes would be very difficult if that worked at all.
I think the question is whether this is just at the surface and something can react with it or whether it is something that goes through the entire thickness and probably irreversible.
The Oracle (internet) has a lot of answers saying to use bleach, rubbing alcohol, toothpaste, hydrogen peroxide, or even acetone (which I ma pretty sure will make a much bigger problem).
Fortunately I have a set of glass lenses but these plastic repros are my backup in case I break one. I may try bleach.
Maybe there is a setting problem on Peters device? As I start to type this response it is doing automatic spell check including caps at the start of sentences and when I type “I”. Just now because the term Startix has been used before it incorrectly corrected “start” to “Startix” and I had to go back and fix it. I think it illustrates how impossible it is to make these sites work to all the time to everyone’s personal druthers. If I knew how I would disable spell check entirely on my phone for all applications, as I spend more time forcing it to use the,words I intend rather than what it “thinks” I should use. It has a really hard time with “babbitt”, insisting it should be capitalized. But that is just me and my phone.
Another thought, if the ’32 had 15″ diameter drums instead of the 16″ on my ’35 you may be able to still get asbestos linings from Kanter.
Several years back Bill Lyons chased down a supplier of brake linings with a lot of good info on what type of lining is a reasonable match for friction characteristics and softness. You should be able to find the thread on this site with a key word search. It is important do get an appropriate lining material as the standatd modern linings are too hard and can be dangerous, they alternate between grabbing and fading. I had mine relined by a local ship (Reno Brake) who had an appropriate material in stock, they do a fair number of vintage car brake relining including Pierce. They are all the way across the country from you though, so maybe not helpful.
I assume the smaller one on the top of the picture is from the 836A which looks the same as my 845 and as Paul says mounts the smaller park light and horns. Unfortunately I have no knowledge of the larger one on the bottom. Perhaps from an earlier year?
One of the problems may be getting much feedback since traffic seems to have dropped off so low. Frankly I have been perplexed by the complaints. Before there were lots of complaints about the limitations of the old sight. I am as curmudgeonly as most aging old car F!#*s and don’t like updates, but like all web site changes it takes some effort to learn the new quirks. I think the issues with the old sight have been addressed and the new sight has worked quite well. As I have said before the ability to search and download the PASB bullitens is huge. If you have more features to deal with the website gets more complicated. Just look at the Packard PAC sight. I am hoping any changes are minor navigation tweaks and not another wholesale revamp. Given the reluctance of so many to learn the last revamp it seems it might result in another big drop in traffic. Being the first one to comment on this post after it has been sitting there for two days illustrates the point.
I will be interested to see, if any one responds, just what is so difficult about this site compared to any other site’s navigation? Certainly there is probably room for minor improvement, but everyone should keep in mind that differant isn’t the always the same as better.
Answered my own question, sort of. Looking for info on another subject in the PASB’s I ran across a 1934 memo from Pierce-Arrow stating that there had been some trouble with breaking the park light/horn castings due to excessive force on assembly. It recommended shims placed between the fender and frame pads, at the top two bolts to “drop” the fender if too tight or the bottom to raise the fender if there’s a gap in the casting attachment. It implies there wasnt intended to be any preload on those castings. Lucky I didn’t break them so far. I can probably relieve some of the force by the shimming, I doubt all as it will throw other alignments off such as the holes through the fender for the bumper attach and likely the hood.
If you replace the Optima with the NAPA conventional 6V battery that fills the battery box it will cost you may be 1/2 as much, you will have nearly the same cold cranking amps with about 2x more total watt-hour energy (how long it will keep cranking or last leaving the lights on).
They are nominally a 4 year battery I think, but mine have consistently lasted 6 years being neglected and needing nearly a full charge at times.
I agree the NOCO charger is great!
My current ones are 6+ years old now, they still will start the engines but I will be replacing them soon as I think they have lost a lot of capacity and would be dicey to take on tour.
It is McMaster Carr item number 112A811 push-on seals with bulb on side. They are 3/8″ high, 19/32″ overall width for gripping to a 1/6″ thick edge. I used them for the bulb seal that attach to the body to seal against the top flange of the doors
I bought mine at McMaster Carr, it fit well. I have to do sa little digging to find the part number.
Thanks George. It looks like I found the relay in my boxes of parts, I had mislabeled it in my spreadsheet not knowing what it was for. Some things become more clear as the boxes of parts slowly get emptied and mounted on the car.
I see where it was screwed to the front splash pan, it looks like it was facing up above the pan rather than below it. A bit worrisome getting to it to disconnect if it sticks on.
I just got the hoods installed. What a delicate operation that is to raise and lower without scratching things up.
Its great he is still at it!
When I was doing research on chrome rings I ran across some interesting information from Perfect Circle. A coolant temperarure of 160 or less tended to “chill” the oil on the cylinder walls and leads to excessive coking, deposits and wear. Also the ’37 senior Packards offered higher temp range thermosylphons. Since overheating is happening when the temp goes above 200 I figured it didn’t matter from an overheating standpoint, once the temp reaches 180 the shutters are fully open at that point, it just means it gets past 180 a little sooner.
The 180 sylphon has been in my Packard for 15+ years. A side benefit is I have a heater and the higher water temp makes a big difference, except when going downhill and idling!
I set up the Packard for a lot of driving when I was younger with a lot more miles in front of me. I haven’t haven’t had the Pierce sylphon modified, although if I get one rebuilt I probably would.
I had one rebuilt and modified to 180 degrees instead of 160 probably 15+ years ago by James Otto of Knoxville TN. I suspect he is no longer in the biz.
