Toppers Tuesday

I was up early today and headed to the “Office” to follow Bob over to the transmission shop in his roadster.  Don is 80 years old and still drives a Deuce hiboy every day.  He installed a 200r in place of the 350 and has had a lot of trouble with the transmission not shifting through the gears.  The expert said he would take a look and advise him what is wrong with the transmission.  I am sticking with the 350 in my cars as they work just find around town which is the only place I go.  Now that gas is over $4.00 a gallon I still could not justify the $2500 it cost for the conversion.  Don and I had a great breakfast at the Cactus Patch and then I headed home to work on my sprinkler system.  It is always something at Pewsplace.

I was late to Toppers and very full from a late breakfast so I only stayed for the BS and to look at Dave’s roadster.  Dave doesn’t drive the roadster much but it is a real cool ride.  He has a super neat heater in his ride which was installed way before they became popular.  I also have some heater photo pictures from Gary to show you today.  I have not tried to upload pictures but I hope everything is working correctly today.  Vintage heaters are just plain cool looking in a hot rod.

I spent yesterday at Bob O’s helping him convert the coupe to a 12 volt system.  We spent about 2 hours and completed everything under the hood except adding the battery and polarizing the regulator.  He will start on the gauges today using the Vintique voltage resistors on the fuel, oil and temperature gauges.  Laying under a dash is not something I can do anymore but Bob O can still handle the twisting and laying on the hump in the floor.  The whole conversion runs about $500 in parts and a days labor.  I think the money and effort required is worth every penny to have a modern 12 volt system.

I will be working on the sprinkler timer rather than Lucy so…

Stay Tooned!

Lynn

Gary took some really great photos of how the heater mounting bracket and radiator come apart.  It is simple unless you have never done one.  You can shorten the tubes and reroute them so they do not go through the firewall behind the engine.

Here is what the squirrel cage assembly should look like.  Do not take the rivets out to paint as this is a balanced assembly and must be perfect to work properly.

Here is the completed assembly with cage shroud installed.  Pits are from back east.

Dave has this cool heater in his Deuce hiboy roadster and yes, it does work.  I have no idea what brand it is but I like the looks.

You know I like 40 Ford dashes and this is a full view of the heater with the dash.  I love the look.

Here is the car as originally built back east in the 80’s.  It sure has the look and is a magnet at car shows.

The first thing you need to do on the 6-12 volt conversion is add a new regulator.  Note the center (field) is not connected as the unit still needs to be polarized.  This is a NAPA unit that costs about $33.

Bob replaced the stock coil with a 12 volt model which is another parts store item and runs about $30.  This is the coil block off plate for the original distributor.

A new 12 volt solenoid was installed with the started button on the bottom.

The 12 volt generator is the most expensive item ($175 exchange) that is required.  The unit has three wires to connect as shown in the photo.  Note coil has been bolted to a home made bracket under the water hose.

Mike’s sedan is on the cover of SRM this month and is one of my favorites.  Home built with style.  Great job Mike.

Today’s Deuce sedan with fenders for Gary….dreaming.

BRG is one of my favorite colors on a Deuce sedan.  This one has been done a long time and it still is one of my favorites full fendered sedans.  I even like the Real Wheels.