Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

Fair enough! I worked as a millwright in a sawmill and replaced and wired many 480v motors and equipment. I've got a very healthy respect for the angry pixies trapped in those wires.

 

Lol I know enough about it for myself but not enough to advise others. Thank God the shop foreman saw me laying there with no heart beat and hit me in the chest hard enough to get me going again. I felt like I had went rounds with Mike Tyson for about two weeks.

 

Goodnight everyone sleep well

 

Got to check out some cool old iron today. Thought I would share some pictures for our resident expert @RustyGreen I have some more that I will upload later as well.

 

From the left:

Packard, 1953 "Clipper" model I believe, notice the chrome "whiskers" on the sides of the grill opening, they were larger on a 1954.



Another Packard, 1951, this is a top of the range most expensive "Patrician 400" model identified by the 3 chrome ports on the rear fender, a 1952 model would have 4.
The engine was a 327 cubic inch straight 8 offering 150 HP and equipped with nine main bearings for unparalleled smoothness.

Packard was headed for serious financial trouble by this time. Although the company ended WW2 in a healthy position the management was both old with an average age in the high 60's and also out of touch with modern consumers wants.

Although the in line 8 was a smooth and quiet engine most other luxury manufactures had V8 engines by the early 1950's. Buick went V8 in 1953, however even the Buick straight 8 was a more advanced overhead valve engine than the Packard flathead.

Note the Chev and Plymouth didn't offer any eight cylinder engines until 1955, and Pontiac stuck with the straight 8 until 1955 - this was not a detriment in their market fields. Chev, Plymouth & Pontiac were low cost brands, Packard on the other hand was supposed to be competing with Cadillac and the lack of a modern V8 was a serious detriment.



1955 DeSoto Firedome. Under the hood is the legendary DeSoto Firedome Hemi, this version was 291 cubic inches & 185 HP - this engine family was the parent of the Chrysler Hemi of the 1960's that had grown to 426 cubic inches & a conservatively rated 425 HP in street form.



Notice the aluminum looking half round thing on the firewall above the Packard engine?



That is the windshield wiper motor, it was driven by engine manifold vacuum, often aided by a double action fuel pump.



As some may know engine manifold vacuum is highest at an idle or cruising, when the throttle is opened to accelerate or climb a hill vacuum drops. Driving a car with vacuum wipers takes a bit of getting used to - they may barely move climbing a hill and then go like mad going down the other side.

Electric motors were very expensive back then and vehicles didn't have much electrical generating capacity, vacuum wipers were common until the early 60's. In the end they were on the budget models only.

My 66 Ford has (2 speed!) electric, I had a 1971 AMC Gremlin with vacuum - probably the last car built in the world with them...

 

Good morning everyone

 

Good morning all

 

Good morning everyone

Happy Labor Day

 

Good morning guys, Happy Labor Day!

 

I'm sure someone smarter than me can explain how this is an efficient delivery route but I won't believe them.

 

Quite Simple due to the quality of help it got in the wrong trailer.

Maybe all mail in that part of the country needs scanned through the Matteson Ill location gotta keep those numbers up.

I had a package shipped from near Cleveland Ohio to Grand Rapids Mi to be delivered in eastern pa.

 

I remember the joys of the vacuum wipers and the flat head ford panel truck !!

The 6Volt electrical system The Year( mid fifties) escapes me it belonged to a Hippy Chick.

I had not thought of that for a very long time.

 

I looked at the map just to verify what I already thought...



That makes as much sense as a broken vending machine...

 

Just think to mail a anything from Kingston Pa To Wilkes Barre just across the river it goes to the sort center in Bethlehem gets scanned and trucked back to Wilkes Barre 120 miles instead of 5

 

They know better, but if I did that in my business I’d go broke.

 

The last model year for the Flathead was 1953.

Ford Flatheads were engines that had a habit of running warm. This engine has 2 water pumps - the red pulleys to either side of the fan. They also had 4 hoses to the radiator and 2 thermostats.
Unlike most engines with the water pump central to the engine and the fan mounted to it, the fan here rides on an independent bearing block.



For those not students of our mechanical past, the photo below show the difference between the flathead (right) and overhead valve (left) designs.

What isn't shown is the exhaust passage (red) on the flathead, it is next to the intake on the same side.
The exhaust gasses have to flow through the block casting around the cylinder to exit putting a tremendous heat load on the cooling system.

One doesn't need to be an engineer to see how inefficient the air path is with the flathead design, it was however powerful for the times and therefore fun to drive. More importantly it was inexpensive to build and therefore sell - by the millions.



Introduced in 1932 the Flathead was a revolution for a low cost car, V8 power in the working class driveway for the first time.

In short order the Wrenchmen of the day started figuring out how to improve the output of the Ford V8 and the hot rod industry was born.

 

The sound of a flathead V8 is like no other though...

 

Bacon started with pork bunt ends for dinner in 5-6 hr

 

I couldn't agree more, a good running Flathead is one of the finest sounds known to man - Wrenchman that is - along with a 2 stroke Detroit Diesel.

 

Detroit Diesel, turning oil into smoke and noise all to go 15mph