Windsor Update

I bought a Larin folding hoist from the local BJ's for about two bills and one of the welds cracked where the boom mounts to the frame. I rewelded the fracture and added a couple of passes to the rest of the weldment and it's been fine. Be careful of the cheap stuff.
 
Got the engine apart and into the truck for a trip to the machine shop tomorrow. I didn't take any pics, but the engine block looks good. Its still standard bore and all the bearing surfaces didn't get beat up from the oil pressure problem. One thing though... this is without a doubt the dirtiest engine I've ever taken apart. The pan has some sludge, but the inside of the rest has this black nasty burnt oil that gets everything dirty that comes near it.

Some cool things about the engine, it has full floating piston pins, mushroom lifters, hardened valve seats and removable valve guides. Unlike the earlier engines, this one has full flow oil filtering too. State of the art for flatheads!
 
I dropped the engine off at the machinist today. Got to catch up with him on old times too since I've known him for over 30 years now.

Anyway... I was talking to him about how nasty the engine was and he said it was because of the non-detergent oil they used! I never thought about that.
 
sounds like my 440 when we rebuilt it. if it saw an oil change every 50,000, it felt the privlage.
 
No pics of my car... or at least not anything worth posting, just an update.

The front floor had a couple small areas of rust that needed to be fixed and typically, the inner and outer rocker panels needs a little "love". I was going to do that myself, but decided that laying on my back, welding upside down under the car would probably not be a lot of fun, so I decided to farm it out to a Hot Rod fabricator I met. He's got a couple interesting projects going, including building a custom 53 Desoto for himself.

This car will get the 50's custom treatment. Packard tail lights, peaked fenders, lowered etc. Should be cool.

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He just sold this.

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He started with a junk Ford truck cab, chopped the top and built this frame. Its got a 454 Chevy with Caddy valve covers that gave it a 50's look. I'm not into "rat rods", but this thing looked like it was a blast to drive.

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Doing a little more wiring work. I pulled the dash harness before the car went to the shop. No fun laying on my back doing this, so I may pull the dash for the installation. I made up this board to keep the wiring straight while I replace the wires, one at a time. All the wires are held in form by fininshing nails driven into the plywood.

2012_1204Stuff0004.jpg

But... I got to talking with Mrs Big John about the interior of the car. She made the mistake of saying "If I had a heavy duty sewing machine....."

Bought this bad boy on Ebay an hour later....

401-34.jpg

1958 Singer mod#401a. To paraphrase Danny Vermin in the movie Johnny Dangerously. "This thing will sew through schools"
 
:lol: Way to go, put her to work. I don't feel as if I'm getting older until I crawl under a dash :toetap:
 
electrical is my least favorite chor, but maybe before bodywork. but at least the old cars are pretty simple. so...how did Mrs Big appreciate her gift?
 
that's still easier than crawling out from under the car. then I really feel it.
 
Basketcase said:
electrical is my least favorite chor, but maybe before bodywork. but at least the old cars are pretty simple. so...how did Mrs Big appreciate her gift?
Click to expand...

She's loving it. Come to find out she was looking at new sewing machines anyway. This one is all steel! They don't make 'em like this anymore. She's always done some sewing and was getting back into it, so this all works out.

I ordered a couple upholstery books on Amazon the other day. Its all good!
 
Big John said:
Doing a little more wiring work. I pulled the dash harness before the car went to the shop. No fun laying on my back doing this, so I may pull the dash for the installation. I made up this board to keep the wiring straight while I replace the wires, one at a time. All the wires are held in form by fininshing nails driven into the plywood.

2012_1204Stuff0004.jpg

But... I got to talking with Mrs Big John about the interior of the car. She made the mistake of saying "If I had a heavy duty sewing machine....."

Bought this bad boy on Ebay an hour later....

401-34.jpg

1958 Singer mod#401a. To paraphrase Danny Vermin in the movie Johnny Dangerously. "This thing will sew through schools"
Click to expand...
my father bought the same singer for my mother in 1958......we have it in my cellar.....came in a cherry cabinet and a tan flip up cushioned seat with storage....the cabinet has 3 drawers a had a leg pedal to operate the sewing machine.....
 
well now that i looked at it yours has more options[attachment=0:1nlumhfl]DSC01509.JPG[/attachment:1nlumhfl]

my moms was model #404
 
I've got my Grandmothers Singer. not sure of the year. It's pedal powered,(color]
 
Got the Windsor back this week. He ended up getting a little deeper (and more $$) then either he or I expected. Good news is that its a done except for painting the rockers. Should have some pics to follow from him showing what he did.

I went over to the machine shop and he's having problems getting pistons. When he bored it, he checked availability of the pistons... he could get .040 and .060 over, so he bored it and it cleaned up at .040 over.... he tried to order the pistons and they were sold out! So... he told me if he can't get them soon, he'll strap the boring bar back on and take it out to .060 over... Not a big deal and he said he knew that I would be OK with him taking his time and getting the .040 over. The cylinder walls are so thick that it won't know the difference of .060 oversize... but... that means that its the last rebuild for that block. Even that's not a huge deal. Blocks aren't all that hard to find... They made a lot of them.
 
Big John said:
Got the Windsor back this week. He ended up getting a little deeper (and more $$) then either he or I expected. Good news is that its a done except for painting the rockers. Should have some pics to follow from him showing what he did.

I went over to the machine shop and he's having problems getting pistons. When he bored it, he checked availability of the pistons... he could get .040 and .060 over, so he bored it and it cleaned up at .040 over.... he tried to order the pistons and they were sold out! So... he told me if he can't get them soon, he'll strap the boring bar back on and take it out to .060 over... Not a big deal and he said he knew that I would be OK with him taking his time and getting the .040 over. The cylinder walls are so thick that it won't know the difference of .060 oversize... but... that means that its the last rebuild for that block. Even that's not a huge deal. Blocks aren't all that hard to find... They made a lot of them.
Click to expand...

Hey John, have you checked Egge Machine here in California? They had the pistons for our '23 Seagrave fire engine motor. I have a buddy that has worked there for 20 years or so and I got a great tour of their shop and they had pistons for days and if they didn't have it the will cast them onsite. Let me know if you want me to ask for ya.
 
Big John said:
Got the Windsor back this week. He ended up getting a little deeper (and more $$) then either he or I expected. Good news is that its a done except for painting the rockers. Should have some pics to follow from him showing what he did.

I went over to the machine shop and he's having problems getting pistons. When he bored it, he checked availability of the pistons... he could get .040 and .060 over, so he bored it and it cleaned up at .040 over.... he tried to order the pistons and they were sold out! So... he told me if he can't get them soon, he'll strap the boring bar back on and take it out to .060 over... Not a big deal and he said he knew that I would be OK with him taking his time and getting the .040 over. The cylinder walls are so thick that it won't know the difference of .060 oversize... but... that means that its the last rebuild for that block. Even that's not a huge deal. Blocks aren't all that hard to find... They made a lot of them.
Click to expand...
:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:
 
moparchris said:
Hey John, have you checked Egge Machine here in California? They had the pistons for our '23 Seagrave fire engine motor. I have a buddy that has worked there for 20 years or so and I got a great tour of their shop and they had pistons for days and if they didn't have it the will cast them onsite. Let me know if you want me to ask for ya.
Click to expand...

Egge has them, but both the guys that I talked to about doing the machine work don't like to use them. Biggest thing is they are quite a bit heavier then any of the other replacements.

He'll have the pistons one way or another by next week. The crank is done, he shot-peened it and turned it .010 under. The head is also done, I had him take .050 off that to try to raise the compression up a bit. Everything else is on track to be finished soon.
 
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