Thread: My 16 year itch

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cool car !

Well today was a roller-coaster ride for sure. I was happy as hell to be driving a hot rod after all these years. While driving to my first cruise in with it being all excited till the transmission started to slip and I wasn't pleased at all as you can imagine. The cruise in was only about 5 miles away and I was almost there so I parked it there. Was so pissed I didn't even want to look at the car. All the while kicking myself for not driving out to Ohio to test drive it. Then came the second high of the day. It was a benefit cruise and the family picked my car for an award so that was pretty cool. So I pack it in and head home and the lights are not pointed on the road correctly (no big deal easy to adjust). I'm coming up my hill at about 50 MPH and the drivers door just decides to open! Good thing I'm so big or I would have fallen out. Damn lucky to be alive I parked it in the garage flipped it the bird and walked up stairs. Needless to say I was a bit shaken up.

Sympathies mate; but isn't that part of the 'experience' of driving a rod?
Cars that are temperamental, don't always function properly, have draughts, leaks, and rattles to fix?
If they drove like a modern car where would be the fun?

With your considerable skills I'm sure you'll get the bugs ironed out.

Originally Posted by johnboy

Sympathies mate; but isn't that part of the 'experience' of driving a rod?
Cars that are temperamental, don't always function properly, have draughts, leaks, and rattles to fix?
If they drove like a modern car where would be the fun?

With your considerable skills I'm sure you'll get the bugs ironed out.

I agree to a point. For me spending almost 30K on a car it shouldn't come with a bad trans. Little things I would (and did) expect. I'll get it ironed out for sure but just feel I was lied to by the previous owner. I suppose that's what I get for not going out there and looking at it first hand. It would have been a 22 hour round trip and the wife talked me out of it. That will never happen again.

Oh and just for fun at the show I changed the headlight trim rings. They were powdercoated chrome a long time ago and were more grey than chrome. Swapped them out for brand new ones from a Harley shop.

Originally Posted by BIG-JIM

I'm coming up my hill at about 50 MPH and the drivers door just decides to open!

Think about these:

Safety pins.jpg

Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

Think about these:

Attachment 66058

Yeah but they aren't suicide doors so the pin would be behind me. Kind of a PITA to get to while sitting in the car. But I am thinking of something.

Originally Posted by BIG-JIM

Yeah but they aren't suicide doors so the pin would be behind me. Kind of a PITA to get to while sitting in the car. But I am thinking of something.

Rocky Hinge makes a top quality power operated latch that's very reasonably priced - Power Safety Door Locks

I use the power ones Roger is talking about, mine are so low on my '37 they would be awkward to ever use manually (down by my ankles), Dakota digital makes a module to automatically lock and unlock them with the trans speed but I used a relay and a rocker switch, when unlocked I have a red LED that comes on.
You still have a nice car, sounds like just a few issues. To make yourself feel better I went to a Mecum auction where a early 50's Chevy was purchased, not drove like at most auctions. The new owner fired it up and all the 6 volt gauges went up in smoke since it had a new 12 volt alternator, I guess that tells you how many times it had run before the auction!

Originally Posted by rspears

Rocky Hinge makes a top quality power operated latch that's very reasonably priced - Power Safety Door Locks

Yeah I actually have a set of those in stock and was going to use them on the 34 sedan but I have decided to go in another direction with that so these may be up for grabs for use on the 34 coupe.

The transmission dipstick is buried deep behind the headers so getting to it while the car is running to check it is fun. I have high temp gloves and a sleeve so they came in handy. I had to get creative when it came time to fill it. I used a small PVC tube and a squeeze bottle to fill it. It took 10 ounces. I just got back from a 25 mile jaunt and shifting was perfect the whole time. Nice and crisp. And the door didn't pop open on me so it was a good ride. I'd be lying if I told you I didn't think about it from time to time.

Originally Posted by BIG-JIM

And the door didn't pop open on me so it was a good ride. I'd be lying if I told you I didn't think about it from time to time.

Any way your arm bumped the door latch when you hit the bump going in the driveway? Looks like bearclaw latches on the doors, and those don't often pop open on their own....

Originally Posted by rspears

Any way your arm bumped the door latch when you hit the bump going in the driveway? Looks like bearclaw latches on the doors, and those don't often pop open on their own....

No not a chance but a plausible theory is I kicked something up with my tire and it hit the hidden button to pop the doors open under the running board. It would be a shot in a million but it is possible. Or someone with the same frequency was opening their garage door? Or car alarm? My key fob was in the ignition and there is only that one key so it couldn't have gotten bumped.

Do you know if the builder replaced the original wooden body support structure with steel? If not, you might have hit just the right (wrong?) combination of bump/twist/shake/shimmy to flex enough to disengage the latch.

Originally Posted by BIG-JIM

The transmission dipstick is buried deep behind the headers so getting to it while the car is running to check it is fun. I have high temp gloves and a sleeve so they came in handy. I had to get creative when it came time to fill it. I used a small PVC tube and a squeeze bottle to fill it. It took 10 ounces. I just got back from a 25 mile jaunt and shifting was perfect the whole time. Nice and crisp. And the door didn't pop open on me so it was a good ride. I'd be lying if I told you I didn't think about it from time to time.

Was the trans just low on fluid Jim, or did you already swap out the trans? Sorry to hear of your issues. But, it definitely looks like you got your $30k worth by the looks of your car! I'm not far off from that price on my 40 and it is a quarter of the car you have! Congrats on the award. The RH door on my 40 would mysteriously pop open from time to time too. It's not a good deal when the person is leaning on it at all. Bear claws are in it's future too. Hopefully it's something simple in your case.