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No work today. Just spent money. NO, I didn't buy the human hoist Joe mentioned earlier.

Broke down and bought the small HF blast cabinet. No extra bench space for it so will use a wide leg tool stand I had stashed away for it's bench. Of course, now I have to clean out somewhere for a spot to put the stand. That is tomorrows project.

Buying the blast stuff now means my 40+ year old Craftsman compressor is too small so there goes another bundle. That was expected though. I knew it was not going to make the grade. The compressor has served well but like me, it's tired and wheezing a bit. There is a Dewalt vertical unit that uses half the space and gives twice the pressure and flow of my old one I've been looking at.

Howard, I'm so glad to read that the threshold has been crossed and you're getting ready to start your project. I look forward very much to following your progress.

Dave

You will love having the bead blasting cabinet and wonder how and why you did without it before--such a time saver. Horrible Freight also has the beads.

The oven cleaner is a great help but runs to money if you buy much. At Sam's Club I get something called grill and fryer cleaner which is much cheaper and comes in a pump bottle instead of aerosol. I find that easier to use and its extremely effective, being caustic like the oven cleaner. Works wonders, but protect yourself when using it. Potent stuff.

Howard,

I think it's commendable that you are willing to undertake such a project. I'm beginning to understand the age issue as I will turn sixty this year. I prefer not to think about that, and don't consider myself much different from when I was forty. Denial is working for me so far.

Just for conversation, there is a process that I learned from another friend in my age group- that of torch cleaning. He is a welder, and is afflicted with the Volkswagen disease. He showed me on the rear axle/frame assembly of a '64 Kombi how easy it was to fire up his oxy-acetylene torch and lightly heat an area, hit the trigger, and blast the oil and grime away. After that, he lightly wirebrushed the area, and the dirt and grime fell off effortlessly.

Of course, you have to be careful not to heat fuel lines, brake lines, or wiring.

Just another idea to consider.

Thanks for all the encouragement and suggestions.

Yes, I probably do have a screw or maybe three loose for even thinking about that much work again at this age -- particularly since nice looking cars are selling for quite a bit less than what I expect to put in this one. I did a 54 and body off 56 about 20 years ago and swore never again -- but that's one thing about age -- you forget most of the reasons why you swore never again.

Since a little of the resto was started & done years ago and I had already bought or had lots of the pieces, seemed a shame to just let it and the good pieces sit and fall farther apart. As long as two or three brain cells are still working and I am mostly vertical, will give it half a go until something says no more.

Not a lot done this past week. Spent most of the little time I was actually doing physical labor on cleaning the space and relocating the junk around the car. At least I have more room to play and also a place to locate my new toys.

Did start blasting and cleaning some of the bolt on pieces. On the depressing side, opened up a large box that was stashed when the engine came back from the machine shop. In addition to pieces I already had in boxes, this box contained more. Added to the old engine parts which I thought was all that was inside, it was chock full of bolts and nuts and doodads which I can't possibly believe all came off that engine or car. I don't believe 47 Customs used a throttle guard but there was one in the box. Please enlighten me if it should go back on. There was also a curved oil filler tube instead of the straight one shown in pictures. Should the 47 356 be straight or curved?

Several brackets, pieces, clamps etc that look like they might have been used on older cars were also mixed in. I'm hoping the machine shop just chose to get rid of excess junk. Worse situation is I wound up with someone elses parts in addition to mine and that person was probably hurting. If mine and I have to figure out where all this goes on this car, forget it. On the upside, the box held a brand new set of repro spark plug wires and a distributor cap which I now won't have to order.

Howard, my 47 Custom has a straight oil filler tube. Don't recall seeing a Packard S-8 with a curved tube. The straight tube, large breather cap, and air duct tube all work together to provide needed crankcase ventilation.

What is a throttle guard?

Fit a Ford remotely mounted vacuum booster for power brakes on the Clipper?

(o{}o)

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Thanks for the confirmation. I found a straight tube with some of my original boxes so do believe I was shipped some extra pieces. The throttle guard was used on some prewars with OD as this illustration shows. The one I wound up with has a slightly different bracket. Don't remember ever seeing one postwar but maybe it was something that could be added by a dealer.

The Ford brake unit is an interesting idea. Already talking to a fellow who is going to repro prewar AC trunk boxes. Thinking of something like that instead of an under dash unit so if a wrong AC unit is added, why not brakes as well.

Started cleaning the chassis again this morning. Not fun having that dried grease and dirt fall in the face. Also didn't remember how hard the stuff got either. A hammer and chisel even had problems on spots. Just glad there wasn't more of it and now know why I had the other cars professionally cleaned.

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Howard, we used to call them dash pots. They allowed for a gradual slowing down of the accelerator linkage at the last part of the travel to eliminate the engine dying from too fast of a closing throttle. Usually found on air conditioned cars.

I am going to shop around for one of those Ford brake vacuum boosters with an eye to installing it on my 55 Clipper. It originally came with the BTV, but I had Ross remove it and replace with a conventional master cylinder, albeit a pre-55 unit. Do you think it would matter if the booster unit is higher than the master cylinder? The one I saw on the T-bird looked to be about the same height as the MC.

(o{}o)

The master should already have a residual valve so in all probability not an issue mounting the Ford item higher if the vent is OK. Stude Hydrovacs were up on the fender while the master was under the floor. The issue with it higher might be the MC vent. I don't know how Studes were vented. If it's at the MC, then a possibility the fluid could run out the vent.

Having said that, I wonder if the vacuum section or the rest of that unit is small enough that it would fit on the frame rail closer to the master and also under the car out of the way. That would eliminate any possibility of a vent problem.

There is an area between the fender and frame behind the tire well where the emergency brake rod drops down that looks promising on Ultramatics. Is that area open or filled with clutch linkage on yours.