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I must admit one of favorite parts of working on the car have been taking apart the components figuring out how they work, and then putting them back in working order. Always amazes me how things work once you get them apart.

Neat video, Kev. I need to try to get mine in a workable condition, but the nylon cord is broken. I haven't really thought seriously about fixing it, but maybe I can find a donor from a later antenna.

If you can't find the plastic piece that goes between the fender and the chrome cup, yesterdaysradio.com sells them for $15. Mine was smashed and I waited a year for one to show up on ebay. Had I known about this place at the time, I'd definitely have saved all that time.

Thanks for the tip on the where to locate the fender spacer. I will have to get one ordered!

Yeah I was glad to see that the Nylon shaft was it one piece. From the undercoating on the motor this was for sure on one of Dan's part cars at one time. So I was a bit worried what I would find when I took it apart. I was glad once a little cleaning, adjustment, and lube was required.

Spoke to Jerry at Yesteday's Radio and I have a check on the way to him for the Plastic Antenna to Fender mount. Thanks for the tip on that!

Figured it was a good time to work on a few small things this evening.

Last time I was up as Dan Yocum's place I bought a small box of fan pulleys. So I figured it was a good time to media blast one of them and get it painted. This one will stack on top of my existing fan pulley and line up with the second groove on the crank pulley. One step closer having everything ready for the A/C compressor.

Next I went through my original horns. Neither of them worked, so I took them apart to see what was going on. All the metal contact surfaces were corroded as well all the points. So I took it all apart and media blaster them. Then reassembled the electrical portion and retested. Success!

I adjusted the points to get the tones pleasant, as the 6v horn on 12v had a different sound. Then put the dome covers back on and painted it chassis paint.

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Kevin, keep noticing the old New Mexico Balloon license plates in your photos. An ex-Land of Enchantmenter?

John,

Actually I have never been to NM. Which is surprising with all my travels. I have about 10 different license plates from all over the US that I picked up cheap to use for wall art.

I hope to get to NM some day as I have some good friends in Santa Fe that I am well overdue in visiting.

Well a small update for today. I was able to located the Antenna hole drilling template amongst Dan Yocum's collection. So I photocopied here at the office and will use that to enlarge the manual antenna hole for the power antenna.

Also Ross Miller was extremely kind enough to locate and send me a power antenna switch for my '54 with the correct dash spacer and bezel. This is a one year only swtich so very hard to come by. He put a note in the box that the included knob is the correct "style" but not the antenna switch knob. But included it as a reference to try to match up the correct one.

So basically what I am trying to find a knob that visually looks like this one, but it uses a set screw instead of a clip to stay on the shaft. If anyone has one of these they would like to sell, please let me know. Once again this is specific to 1954 models. Here is a grainy picture from my phone camera for reference. The picture shows the correct switch and shaft, and the correct "style" of knob, but the it's not the correct knob for the shaft.

Thanks,

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Would that be the same as a radio knob or some other knob of 54 only????

I think it's specific to the antenna switch. Most of the other knobs have a clip that holds them on to a shaft the has a flat on one side. The antenna switch shaft is completely round with just a small flat spot for the set screw to seat.

The switch is spring loaded to a centered position. So you push in or pull out against the spring to raise or lower the antenna. So I assume that is why the shaft is more stout and requires the set screw vs the simple spring metal clip.

The switch shaft also appears to just turns, but has no stops or indents. So I assume that is just to prevent large hands from twisting off the knob.