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Posted By Discussion Topic: First Start in 5 Years - 1935 -- page: 1 2 3 4     rmetzg 06-29-2015 @ 10:57 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 23 Joined: Jun 2015 Hello to all. I'm a new member here but have enjoyed reading so many of the posts as I get ready to start up my 1935 Model 48 5-window coupe, with original Flathead V-8. I inherited this car from my father (all-original, third-owner, it has all of the options, great shape and only 14,000 miles on the odometer - it's been garaged it's whole life). The car has sat for five years with little attention and has not been started in that time. It used to run and start just fine. I changed the oil and put in 4 quarts of Castrol 20W50 and a little Marvel Mystery Oil (no oil filter option). Bought a new 6V battery, and cleaned and gapped the plugs to 0.025". Drained the coolant - it came out green with no rust in the mix, and I have replaced this temporarily with a weak vinegar and water mix, which I will replace with Prestone 50/50 after running it for 15 minutes or so. Finally, I siphoned the gas tank and got about a quart of nasty-colored varnish before it came up dry. No rust in the mix. When removing the air cleaner, I found that the bottom bowl was full of a light oily substance, which I think might be gas but had very little odor. Not sure what this could be other than old gasoline, but how did it get there and survive 5 years of evaporation? The carb below it is bone dry. I intend to tube up a small bucket of unleaded gasoline directly to the fuel pump and go for a start soon. I'm curious from those more experienced than I am -- am I missing anything? Thanks for your comments. Alan VT/JeffH 06-29-2015 @ 11:38 AM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 153 Joined: May 2010 Hi Alan, Welcome to the V8 Club Forums! I'm a rookie at old Flatheads, but that won't stop me from making a couple of comments... Your car is very nice looking from the one photo. A very desirable model! Your plan sounds good to me. Not sure what you're referring to on the air-cleaner, and bottom bowl. But those air filter screens are supposed to be soaked in engine oil to assist filtering. Could you be seeing engine oil that's been exposed to air for five+ years? That would have meant that someone serviced the air-filter correctly, maybe. Make sure you hook the battery up correctly. Originally the car would have had POSITIVE going to ground, opposite modern vehicles. If you have trouble cranking, go thru the grounding system and clean to bare metal all contacts. Grounding on 6v systems is pretty important. Since we're playing with gasoline, you might consider doing this outdoors, with a fire extinguisher a short distance away from where you're working. You may still have rusty sides to the tank, considering you only got a quart of gunk out. So, when you decide to get the fuel tank involved, you might unhook the line between pump and carb, and run fuel from the tank, thru the pump, into a catch can for maybe a gallon or so to check the quality of fuel coming out of the pump. You can crank the car with the switch off to run the pump, I believe. A temporary fuel filter installed between the tank and fuel pump may be a good idea. Oh, here's a good one that is an issue on my '36. When it all gets sorted out and running, be careful about having a full-ish fuel tank and taking right hand turns. Fuel is known to slosh out the filler and get all over the fender. Not good for paint. Unless necessary I usually keep my tank about 1/2 full for this reason. There's a downside to this too, because the sides of the tank are not submerged, and therefore more likely to rust. If it were me I wouldn't trust the tires a whole lot. They look like bias ply, which would be original style. My opinion on them is it's not the miles but the age. At about five or six years old, I'd feel like changing them would be a good safety idea. If you're going to be point judged, the club now wants to see double white walls, inside and out, and those babies are pricey. Black walls are acceptable too, and I think look better for some cars, maybe not a sexy beast like yours though. Last thought on this long post, consider finding your dad's copy of the 35-36 restoration book by the V8 Club. Below is a picture of what the cover looks like. -VT/JeffH len47merc 06-29-2015 @ 11:58 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1165 Joined: Oct 2013 A few considerations to get you started: Remove each plug and insert a couple of tablespoons of Marvel Mystery Oil in each cylinder and with the ignition off turn the motor over for ~30 seconds. Run an appropriate concentration of Sea Foam in your initial gas to break down any deposits in the fuel lines, fuel pump and carb. Personally I'd disassemble the carb and completely clean it, particularly given your description, but you may get lucky and the Sea Foam will do the trick for you with time. Were it me I'd pull the fuel cell and have it completely cleaned out. Personally would not trust simple siphoning to clear the muck that is likely in there. Flood the rear-to-front fuel line with pure Sea Foam and let it sit for ~1/2 a day (plug the rear end once it shows when using a pipette to fill it from the front), then blow it clear before reattaching to a cleaned fuel cell. Note it will take more than a few cranks to get the fuel from the tank to the carb and fill the bowl. Full choke for ~3-4 seconds will help create vacuum to aid it getting the fuel to the front of the car. Clean and insert spark plugs and test to ensure you have spark. Jack each wheel and check for hydraulic leaks on each wheel cylinder and at all fittings. Remove the drums and ensure your brakes are operating correctly. Suggest completely purging the aged brake fluid with fresh. Was the car parked as shown in the pic? If so you may find the bias plys to be permanently flat-spotted and ride like the proverbial Flintsone Bedrock. You may get lucky - give them a try once you get it running and drive slow to heat them up and they may loosen to a smooth ride. If the tires were out of the sun for the entire period and you see no dry-rotting/cracks, and the flat spotting, if any, disappears, you'll likely be ok for short runs at modest speeds to complete your 'bring it back to life' efforts. EDIT - NICE car btw!!! Steve This message was edited by len47merc on 6-29-15 @ 11:59 AM 40 Coupe 06-29-2015 @ 1:16 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1679 Joined: Oct 2009 You may have an oil bath air cleaner. The bottom is filled with engine oil up to a line stamped into the base. Look closely. 20W-50 engine oil is a bit heavy how about 10W-30 for a new engine low miles or 10w-40 for higher mileage, at the next oil change. You may want to change the other fluids after you get the car to run (transmission and differential). Don't forget about the steering box. rmetzg 06-29-2015 @ 1:19 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 23 Joined: Jun 2015 Thanks for the detailed response, Jeff. I was surprised to see the positive grounding, but was glad you mentioned it, as I was unaware of this. Though I thought the old battery was hooked up the other way when I removed it (negative to ground), I assumed that I didn't check all that closely when removing it. I hooked up the new battery, positive to the braided cable ground, got a nice spark off the battery post, and saw the light on the radio come on. I tried headlights and brake lights, but got nothing out of them. After a couple of minutes, I noted that the radio light had dimmed to almost nothing. Jiggled the cables and the light flashed on and off. After another minute, I had nothing from the radio light. When I jiggled everything again, I got nothing. Touching the cable to the battery post now produces barely a spark (probably because there is no load). I unhooked the battery, with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I am concerned if I did the right thing by assuming positive ground. I have heard that some people have converted to negative ground, but would be very surprised, as this car looks pretty much all-original and untouched. I may want to bypass the braided cable next time. Is attaching positive right to the frame the best way? Before I hook the battery up again, does anyone know if there is a way to absolutely identify if I have the original positive-ground system, or if it has been converted to a negative-ground? Need some troubleshooting advice before I try it again. I hope I haven't fried my vacuum tube radio! 40 Coupe 06-29-2015 @ 1:22 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1679 Joined: Oct 2009 https://www.earlyfordv8.org/forum/fileattachments/IMG_7548.JPG The link above will show you what a typical oil bath air filter looks like. 40 Coupe 06-29-2015 @ 1:29 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1679 Joined: Oct 2009 If your car has the cut out mounted on top of the generator use + ground as original. How about a photo of the engine? By the way battery cables have slightly different sizes + or - Look at your battery you can see the slightly different diameters of the terminals. rmetzg 06-29-2015 @ 1:37 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 23 Joined: Jun 2015 Steve, I think you are exactly right. See attached pic. I did some research and it does appear to the oil-bath cleaner. Who knew such a thing existed? rmetzg 06-29-2015 @ 1:51 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 23 Joined: Jun 2015 40coupe, here's a photo of the engine. The cutout is the silver module on top of the generator? I looked at the size of the battery clamps, but can hardly detect a hair's difference between them - the braided cable one might be just slightly larger, which would match up with the larger positive terminal on the battery. Thanks for any advice. Stroker 06-29-2015 @ 2:24 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 1460 Joined: Oct 2009 rmetzsg: You have inherited a real "jewel". Just don't get in a hurry to try stuff before you understand the unique idiosyncrasies of early Fords. As you have stated the Forum is your best source, and we love to help. Ask first, and we will do our best to help. Many of us (myself included) are older than dirt, and got our training making the same mistakes you will. The +/- batt terminals are different sizes, so the correct pos and neg cables should be sized to accommodate the different diameter positive and negative terminals As for oil bath air cleaners, these were the standard for all brands of automobiles until about 1957 when the modern paper filter was introduced. On early Fords, the standard air cleaner was an oil-mesh type, with the oil bath offered as an accessory for dusty environments. This message was edited by Stroker on 6-29-15 @ 2:27 PM

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