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Does anyone remember the car at Hershey this past year that was along the outer perimeter of either the chocolate or red field, near where the Packard twin Six was, that had some huge engine? The owner didn’t say what type of car it was, only that the engine was over 800 cubic inches.

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Yes, the AM antenna wire would be a single unshielded wire.

Getting back to the issue of interference, That can come not only from the ignition, but also from the generator. Later cars had a condenser (capacitor) on the generator to help smooth out or eliminate harmonics (which shouldn’t exist in the direct current world). This would be caused by issues with the armature or brushes. You may also try a condenser on the battery terminal of the regulator. My ’62 TBird Roadster has one, as well as the early Mustangs with a generator, for radio suppression. I am not sure what size it is, but you could try a spare from the distributor (of any car!) and see if there is any improvement. These types of condensers are not polarized like electrolytics, so there should not be an issue with the positive ground.

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The chicken wire is not a good idea for the FM band. AM is a different animal, and the longer the antenna, the better the reception. My grandfather was an electrician starting in 1918. He used to use the 1500 watt light bulbs as an AM antenna. He lived in Cincinnati, and could receive stations from up to 1000 miles away!

FM is known as the 4 meter band due to its wavelength. The optimum antenna length for radio receivers is one quarter of the wavelength. In the FM case this is one meter, or 39 inches. If you can hide an antenna 39 inches long from a newer car above the chicken wire, then run a quad shielded coaxial cable down to the FM receiver, it should help your reception quite a bit. Again, either soldered or crimped connections would be best.

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Jim,

As an aside, if you are rewiring them anyway, you may want to run an extra wire as a ground. Connections corrode, and you won’t want to remove the headliner in the event the ground path or another wire fails.

We had a discussion a while back about adding a wire connection to the chicken wire in the roof for the antenna connection. Best to solder it if you can.

Bob

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4th time is a charm…

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The picture is 2.17 Mb, will not transfer… I will try to dumb it down and send it later.

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Try again with the picture this time…

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Location of the inlet and outlet for the water on the firewall. This was not connected when I got the car, and did not have a way to connect it to the engine. The engine had a cracked block, so I am also looking for suggestions as to how to connect the heater to the coolant system.

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Second Picture of factory style switch next to the spark advance.

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My ’29 Club Brougham appears to have a factory installed water source heater made by Tropic Aire. It has a Pierce style on-off switch with a Tropic Aire switch for the fan control. Pictures to follow, I hope…

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The copper nickel chrome three layer process is the correct one to use IF you want a final chrome finish. Each of the metals has a certain compatibility (it is actually an electrical property) with each other, starting with the base pot metal, cast or sheet steel. It is much like touching a fork to an amalgam filling. If you skip from steel to nickel, it won’t finish as well or last as long.

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That is amazing. Usually the lumen output of the LED’s are better and more efficient. I would be concerned with the watt bulbs. With losses in the connections and wire, you are pushing 10 amps per bulb, which, along with everything else at night, is a lot for the generator to handle.

Ken,

I will touch base with the folks down under and see what they may have available. My expertise is in broadband and the national power grid, we’ll see if I can remember some Ohm’s law to make these cars a bit safer at night.

Stay tuned.

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Peter,

I am with Dr. Brown that the LED is on the right (passenger) side. Nice car. The color is whiter as described below.

Scott,

LED’s draw in the vicinity of 10-20 percent of the current draw of the traditional incandescent bulbs, and generally run cooler. That is not the case for the CFL’s, I have been an expert witness on cases where CFL’s caused fires because folks don’t realize they heat at the base, not the glass. If you have CFL’s in a ceiling fan, please change them out with LED’s made for fans ASAP! As a caveat, some newer fans like Hunter and Casablanca have strict bulb requirements, as they have solid state circuitry to prevent overcurrent draw. Follow directions, but please don’t use the CFL’s, especially larger than the wattage equivalent specified by the fan manufacturer.

Getting back to the cars, the other advantage of LED’s is you can buy bulbs with a better color temperature, or the color of the light, than the original bulbs. The higher the temperature (measured in Degrees Kelvin), the closer it is to daylight. 2700K for instance, is a distinct yellow color. Anything over 4000K is much brighter and a bit bluer. Peter’s car shows the difference, assuming Robert and I are right. I use 5000K for outside floods on houses if they are available.

If someone is going to Scottsdale, the SEMA folks should be there. If you can get a name and contact info for an LED bulb manufacturer, I would like to talk with them and see if we can get a sample made up. Are these bulbs fairly universal among the various car manufacturers?

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With the exception of bright headlights, I agree with you, Scott.

Still trying to find time to play with LED 6 volt bulbs and/or a 6 to 12 volt dc converter and a 12 volt bulb. I have the converter in house, but haven’t tested it yet. Use of an LED set of headlights will fix the brightness issue and the loss of charge at night.

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Check with Karl Krouch. He is selling them, and would know what they fit.

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I mentioned in the first post that I was not looking for the crank seal. Now I am. Does anyone have any idea what this seal should be? It looks like either a 3/8 or 5/16 inch square rope seal. Any thoughts or info would be helpful.

Thanks,

Bob

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Thanks!

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Bill,

Sorry for not getting back to you, had to make a speech in Atlanta. It is the gasket between the block and the timing cover. I hadn’t checked to see if he had the crank seal.

Bob

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Ford, Edison, George Westinghouse, and Alex Graham Bell used to vacation together, as I remember reading in the Ford biography.

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What voltage are they? I have a way to convert 6 volt DC to 12 volt DC that can handle both headlights.

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