[sbauman2]

Yesterday on the way to the car show I was cruising down the freeway about halfway to the show and all of a sudden there was a big dip in the freeway! I hit it hard as I didn't have time to hit the brakes when I saw it. I slowed down and everything seemed OK, but a short time after I began to smell raw gas! I pulled over to check my entire fuel line from tank to carb, but all of it was secure and dry. So drove on to the show, and did the hill climb, and 100 mile run home. But always smelling the raw unburnt gas smell.
So today I was washing all the bugs off the car, and cleaning underneath, and hoped I'd see something, but still all dry. Then I had the light go off in my brain, and I said to myself, better check the vent. I built a cover over the vent and fuel sender to protect them from damage from anything I put in the trunk. So unscrewed the cover and set it aside. Sure enough the 3/8 hard line into the vent was snapped off right at the fitting! Easy fix, as I just dressed the end, slid the fitting over it, and put a new flare on the end. I added a rubber pad under the horizontal part of the line between the tank and the exit through the floor, just incase it might have vibrated at all in the 10" section. Sure glad I found it and it was an easy fix so I don't have to smell gas and wonder when it might ignite! But can't figure out how a well secured line could fracture, and snap clean off, even with multiple big bumps?

My very first thought was that the lines are probably made in China from what is probably inferior material.

 

[1937Austin]

My very first thought was that the lines are probably made in China from what is probably inferior material.

I sure hope not! It's the same lines for the vent line, and my hard line from tank to carburetor! If they're an inferior product I've got a lot to replace!

 

[mmhotrod]

Drove the '39 over to help a younger friend figure out his gas leak on his Holley carb. Easy fix as it was the float adjustment nut loose on the front bowl. Then he mentioned it's running rich, and a quick search I discovered the electric choke wasn't opening. Bad connector for the 12v. signal, so a new connector fixed it.
We went for burgers and I noticed a horrible squeak in the front of my car. Did some investigation, with both of us hanging our heads out the windows as we drove back, and sounded like the right front. Got out at his house and began pushing and pulling on the right front fender and it was squeaking at a main support bracket.
When I got home I disassembled the headlight trim as the bracket bolts into the fender inside the bucket. Made a couple poly material spacers and drilled the bolt pattern into them. Sandwiched the poly between the bracket and the fender, and tightened it all down. End of the squeak, hopefully forever!
But during my climbing around under the car I also discovered the left front fender tab snapped off! Of course that's part of the fender, and no way to weld it without damaging paint. So I made up three triangular tabs and stacked them together to drill four 3/16" holes along the edge. Bolted a pair to the broken side, sandwiching the fender lip to them, and drilled through the holes and pop riveted it to the fender. Then used the third one on passenger side to reinforce the unbroken tab so it wont break later.
This old metal gets pretty brittle over 83 years, so hopefully this is the only issue, and not the beginning of issues!

Very well done. You are quite the trouble shooter. 😀 all the older cars used a fabric gasket in many bracket areas. I bought squares of rubber from the hardware store and used it to replace most of the metal on metal attachments. I’m not running the fenders now but when I did I remember seeing thick insulating fabric material. Body mount areas too. I insulated all the mounts. The radiator support also had one.
great trouble shooting on the carb.
you are da Mann.

 

[1937Austin]

Carb was pretty easy as it began to flow gas as soon as he started it. The choke was a bit more as it appeared to be plugged in, but felt too easy to pull off. I looked inside the plastic cover and saw the actual connector pushed back.

I looked at a few images online, and saw the web type insulators between brackets and body. I still have a ton of the thick 4 ft. roll of black poly here, and it's super tough. I have to cut it with tin snips, and it's as durable as anything I've ever used. It should last longer than I'm around for sure.
I still plan on putting the welting between fenders and body this winter, and hope I can do it by loosening the fenders, and not have to completely pull them.

 

[mmhotrod]

Carb was pretty easy as it began to flow gas as soon as he started it. The choke was a bit more as it appeared to be plugged in, but felt too easy to pull off. I looked inside the plastic cover and saw the actual connector pushed back.

I looked at a few images online, and saw the web type insulators between brackets and body. I still have a ton of the thick 4 ft. roll of black poly here, and it's super tough. I have to cut it with tin snips, and it's as durable as anything I've ever used. It should last longer than I'm around for sure.
I still plan on putting the welting between fenders and body this winter, and hope I can do it by loosening the fenders, and not have to completely pull them.

I don’t see why not. Just scissor cut them to make your curves. Make a v cut to allow room inside curve. It will bend and curve easily into the slot.

 

[1937Austin]

I don’t see why not. Just scissor cut them to make your curves. Make a v cut to allow room inside curve. It will bend and curve easily into the slot.

Yeah, I figured the long gradual bends likely wont need any pie cuts to make the shape. But the front and rear turns are tighter, and will need pie cuts to make it. Also figured I'll need to measure hole spacing and cut a U notch to allow the welting to slip over the bolt and slide in deep enough.

 

[1937Austin]

Today is the last day of what turned out to be a wonderful late summer in Sept. and Oct.! So cleaned up the shop out back, and put my '39 away for it's winter nap. I'll spend the next day or two getting things done that I usually do once the driving season is over.
I plan to add a canister filter to the rear of the fuel system this winter, so at that time I'll also install a manual shutoff to the fuel line, and that will allow me to run the car out of gas when I park it for the winter. Then I'll treat the fuel in the tank to keep it from going bad over the winter. Couple other changes to do over the winter, but I don't want to get to them too fast, or I'll be bored the rest of the winter!

 

[dsb]

do you use Stabil to treat the gas in the tank? I am very reluctant to put my car away as I love driving it so much, but this weekend in the 80's will probably be the last weekend.

 

[1937Austin]

do you use Stabil to treat the gas in the tank? I am very reluctant to put my car away as I love driving it so much, but this weekend in the 80's will probably be the last weekend.

Yes I do use Stabil, but I buy the one that's designed to use with ethanol gas that prevents corrosion. I dump a whole bottle in the tank, and then run it until I'm sure it's gotten into the carb. On my Austin I shut the fuel pump off after that, and let it continue to run until it runs out of gas. I'm adding a mechanical shutoff to the '39, so I'll wait until then to do the treatment on the '39.

 

[sbauman2]

So Vall I realize that there is a 2 year difference here but it's still a very cool video if you haven't seen it before, enjoy!!!

 

[1937Austin]

Yeah, 2 years, and a bunch of horsepower difference too! But what a neat car that '37 is!

 

[1937Austin]

Just ordered new front leaf springs for my '39, along with new poly bushings. The replacement spring packs are about 1.25" longer than what I have now, so not sure what that will mean as far as mounting points, axle location in the front fender wheelwells? But I wanted a bit higher stance in the front, and Speedway doesn't sell quite the same spring as I currently have. If it turns out to be a major rework, I'll simply take all the leafs from the new spring packs, and swap them on my main leaf and hope that gives me what I want. Otherwise I'll hopefully change the whole packs and the 5/8" difference on axle centerline wont even be noticed.
Should be here in a week, and I'll begin looking things over, and see how they line up. Only looking for about 2" more lift up front. If it gives me more I'll just take a leaf out.

 

[1937Austin]

My new spring packs from Speedway arrived, and after some measuring, and looking at what it takes to use these as-is, I'll do option 2 and use all but the main leaf with eyes. That will put the second leaf about 3/4" short of each end of my existing leaf, and wont require completely reworking my entire set.
I'll also need to swap on longer U bolts, as the spring pack is thicker with 6 leafs. But I bought both 1/2 ton, and 3/4 ton U bolt sets back when I built the '39 and still have the longer 3/4 ton U bolt set, so just need to figure how much to trim off the excess length so the U bolts don't hang down below the axle beam. The 3/4" ton U bolts are probably 2.5"-3" longer than the 1/2 ton U bolts.
Supposed to warm up into the 50's this weekend, so warm enough to spend time in the shop reworking the springs.

 

[1937Austin]

Jacked the '39 up today, and dropped the axle down. Removed all but one leaf, and then bolted up the new spring packs. My shock mount wont reach anymore, so I'll have to rework it to raise the lower shock mounting point 1.5"-2" higher. Lower shock mount sandwiches under the axle U bolts, so it's easiest to rebuild and raise than the uppers that are welded on.
Sat the car down on the tires and measured the difference from my first measurement, and it's sitting 2" higher than before the spring change. Weather was mid 50's today, but no idea when we'll get good enough weather to pull it outside to get a better view of how the stance is now. But measurements tell me it will be improved with just a slight uphill stance.

 

[1937Austin]

Took a look at my options, and figured out my new shock mounts yesterday. Then turned on my 75/25 tank on the Miller mig, and knew I might not finish before I ran out of gas. So decided not to start, and took the tank out to my supply place today to get another tank. Seems the ownership changed a year ago, so prices have increased also. It's owned by Airgas, which is part of the giant Air Liquide conglomerate, and my previous employee discount through my old company still works, but the 89scf tank was $24 for a fill a few years ago, and now it's $35. Still not bad, but a pretty big increase in a few years.
So used up enough time today that I'll wait until tomorrow to fabricate the new shock mount.

 

[sbauman2]

There's still one family owned welding supply place a reasonable distance from where I live that I continue to support. Interestingly they're literally right around the corner from an Airgas store. What I really like is that they'll fill your empty bottle while you wait. Last year when the certification on my Argon had expired they sent me to a local place that tested and certified bottles. I took it back, got it filled and the cert is good for ten years. I know a couple guys who took their bottles (expired and got charged for certification) to Airgas for an exchange and got bottles that were good for less than a year. It pays to know what to look for if you're exchanging because I'm not sure that Airgas will fill a customers bottle while they wait.

 

[1937Austin]

There's still one family owned welding supply place a reasonable distance from where I live that I continue to support. Interestingly they're literally right around the corner from an Airgas store. What I really like is that they'll fill your empty bottle while you wait. Last year when the certification on my Argon had expired they sent me to a local place that tested and certified bottles. I took it back, got it filled and the cert is good for ten years. I know a couple guys who took their bottles (expired and got charged for certification) to Airgas for an exchange and got bottles that were good for less than a year. It pays to know what to look for if you're exchanging because I'm not sure that Airgas will fill a customers bottle while they wait.

None of our local places ever fill bottles while you waited. And the first bottle I had was brand new with my welder 12 years ago. I was disappointed to get a crappy old bottle, but then the next was nice again. So I've learned to just not worry since the next bottle might be anything. Either way I never have to worry about expired bottles since I owned the first one, and they always give me a different one.
Maverick Welding was the last family owned, non chain store around, at least within driving distance. So they're all affiliated with some larger company now. I actually got a very new tank this time, and I'm not building a car, so it will likely last me forever.

 

[mmhotrod]

My local Welding supply swaps out my bottle too. I leave it on the lift gate and they leave a full one in place while I go inside and pay. I imagine the one I have now is over 10 years now. I wonder how they will handle that next time I go.

 

[noted1017]

do u guys own your tanks or r u renting the tanks ?????

 

[1937Austin]

My supply place doesn't even look at tanks I trade in. Unless they do so when I'm not looking. Even if they did, it shouldn't matter since they give me a different tank each time.

I own my tank Rik. That was why I was surprised the first time I went to have it filled and they took my brand new tank, and gave me an old tank. But as long as I get a tank, that's all I care about.
Some years back I traded a tank in, and didn't turn the new tank on for several days. When I did it was empty! I immediately took it to the place, and was told I should have checked it when I first got home, as they wouldn't trade me another tank for free after several days. I was pretty pissed, and told them in not so nice language that it wasn't acceptable. The guy backed off, and said he'd do it this time, but I better check my tank in the future.
After that I always check my fresh tank, and I even put a felt mark on the primary tank gauge so I know exactly where a tank should be when it's freshly filled. So if I turn the valve open and it's not at my felt pen mark, I'll take it back, whether it's empty or a partial.